meant they were probably tuned to the guards’ frequency, and they would have to be changed before being used. How would she know what frequency to use?
Mel pulled back to look at Lily. “One a penny, two a penny. Hot cross buns.”
The nursery rhyme made Lily’s head spin. How? How was she supposed to figure out what that meant? “Jesus, Mel,” she muttered.
But before she could complain about the rhyming, Mel blurted out, “Three blind mice. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. See how they run?”
Another, deeper shudder went through Lily’s body.
Did she see how they ran? No, she didn’t. Not at all.
And she didn’t even understand why Mel was talking in rhymes. Sebastian had said she wouldn’t be autistic anymore. Had he been wrong? Or was this a trick? Was Mel trying to tell them something? Why not just say it out loud?
Lily looked over at Carter. She couldn’t tell if he was just as confused as she was. “I don’t understand. Mel, I’m sorry. I just don’t get it.”
“The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout. Down came the rain”—Mel seemed to pause on the word
“You’re the rain?” Lily asked.
“Three blind mice,” she said slowly. “Three blind mice. See how they run?”
Instead of answering, Lily just pulled her knees closer to her and rested her swirling head.
When they’d been on the Farm, it had taken her months to figure out what Mel had meant when she’d said “Red rover, red rover,” over and over again. How on earth was she supposed to figure out “three blind mice” in a matter of hours? There were three of them. Maybe they were the three blind mice. Or maybe three was one of the numbers in the radio frequency. “One a penny, two a penny” had numbers in it, too.
Suddenly, it all seemed like too much to bear. She’d fought so hard. Done so much. Maybe it wouldn’t be awful to go like this. Just so long as she didn’t take anyone with her. That was all she wanted now.
That and to know that Mel had forgiven her. She’d made so many mistakes when it came to Mel. Maybe the biggest one was asking Sebastian to turn her into a vampire. Had she made the right decision? She couldn’t tell. She had no way of reading Mel now. No way of knowing if Mel was okay or would have been better off dead. She could only hope that someday Mel would understand what she’d done. Maybe that was the most anyone could hope for: understanding from the people they loved. Or maybe even that was asking for too much. Maybe she should just be thankful that she’d had the chance to see Mel one last time. No matter what else happened, she was luckier than so many other kids. She’d had a chance to live outside the Farm. She’d made a difference. And she’d had Carter.
Then the door emitted another series of beeps and started to swing open. Somehow, Lily knew. This would be it. This would be the guard who would take her away and execute her. The door opened and a guard walked in. But instead of crossing to her, he stepped aside and left the door open for another man to enter.
For a moment, Lily just blinked at him in confusion.
Carter took a step toward the door. “Who the hell are you?”
Mel turned around, but—despite her newfound verbosity—couldn’t find the words.
So it was Lily who answered. “He’s our father.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Carter
“What?” I demanded, studying the stranger in front of me.
It’s the other guy I was worried about.
He was a tall, fit man, with dark hair, graying at the temples. He was dressed like the classic rich good ol’ boy—boots, dark wranglers, and shirt so well pressed it was stiff. Just the sight of him gave me culture shock. I hadn’t seen anyone in clothes this clean in months.
“I am Jonathan Price,” he said, sliding a security pass card into his back pocket. He flashed a smile taken straight from one of those cheesy motivational speakers schools used to hire in the Before. “And I am, indeed, their father.”
Every bit of his appearance and his attitude irritated me. Even his voice grated on my nerves. So the sum total should be instant dislike, right? But here’s the thing: that’s not what I felt. My gut said that this was a great guy. This was someone to trust. I simultaneously wanted to stand up straighter and trot out my best “Yes, sir!” Hell, I was kind of hoping he’d take me out into the yard and toss a football around with me. Surely someone here had a football handy, right?
“What?” I asked again, because that disconnect—that difference between what my mind told me to feel and what I was actually feeling was so profound, I reeled from it.
I didn’t know if Mel and Lily felt it, too, or if they were just shocked because—holy crap—the father they’d thought was dead just popped up in the compound of humanity’s greatest enemy.
Whichever it is, neither of them said anything. “I thought you said your father left when you were little.”
“He did,” Lily muttered, her words slurring. She sounded confused, like it wasn’t just her tongue that was muddled, but her thoughts as well.
Jonathan stood there awkwardly, as if he couldn’t decide what to do with his hands. He held them out as though ready to embrace either Lily or Mel. Or maybe both. “My girls. My beautiful girls.”
Mel surprised me by walking over to him and slipping into his arms. She hugged him tightly, burrowing against him like a toddler might. He patted her back awkwardly. “You can’t possibly know how hard it has been the past few years. Not being with you. Not knowing where you were. If you were okay. You can’t imagine how we’ve searched.”
Confused, Lily watched Mel. I could tell she was just as baffled as I was. But then Mel stepped away and ducked her head. I saw her hand slip into her pocket. She looked at her father with a kind of shy adoration that I didn’t entirely buy. So why did she hug him?
When she hugged Lily and me, she’d slipped us the radios. Which she must have, in turn, stolen from the guards. So had she stolen something from her father? His passkey, maybe?
Who knew Mel was such a kleptomaniac? And she was thinking much more clearly than I was.
It took a lot of effort to shove down the eager-puppy-dog feeling I had, but I struggled to move past confusion into damage control. Maybe Mel had figured it out already or maybe she was still unnerved just by being around humans again. As for Lily, she was out of it and was only going to get worse until she got that cure.
Me, I didn’t have time for emotional reunions. I needed that medic back here with the meds, asap.
I wasn’t about to stand by and wait to see how this shook out. I put myself between Lily and Mel and their father. I approached him with my hands raised, looking as non-threatening as I could manage. I could imagine a lot of different ways this might go down. One of them involved about twenty armed guards deciding I was a threat, rushing in, and gunning me down. I wasn’t too excited about that outcome.
So as I walked toward him I tried to look peaceful, friendly even. “Sir, could I please have a word?”
The look he gave me said he hadn’t noticed me until that moment and he couldn’t quite figure out who I was or why I was there.
“I’m Carter Olson. I’m with Lily. I . . .” I trailed off, not sure how to describe myself.
Behind me I heard Lily murmur a protest. “Carter, I can . . .”
I ignored her. There was too much at stake to let my feelings for her sway me. This sucked for her, no
