“W-wait! Em-Bee!” he shouts and my arm freezes with the familiar nickname. Only my father called me that. It was our code word for passing information to one another. Very few people know that.
My eyes narrow at Bryce. “Where did you hear that name?” I’m still holding the knife above my head, ready to plunge it into his heart and end him, no matter how much I don’t want to.
Bryce’s eyes dart to either side of us as if he’s looking for any surveillance cameras. “Gregory Mavestelli, who else?” he says in a hushed tone.
It’s like getting hit in the chest with a baseball bat. “What?” I search his eyes for deceit but find none. I thought Greg abandoned me. He turned me in himself, didn’t he? “How are you here? You were in the Under before I even arrived.”
“I’m his informant agent. He sent me into the Under months ago. My objective was to return with intelligence on the test drugs the Dark Forces are using. When he got word that you were taken from prison and brought here, my mission changed to keeping you safe. Mr. Mavestelli didn’t know you were sabotaged from the beginning. He was furious when I informed him you were pre-teamed up with Mori. We don’t have much time. I disabled the cameras through this area last night, but they’ll get suspicious if nothing happens in the next few minutes.” I sit back and lower the knife, staring at Bryce in disbelief.
I search his features in a new light, trying to remember if I recall seeing him among my father’s men, but pull up blank.
“My dad knows about the Dark Forces?” My mind feels torn in half.
He nods. “Who do you think helps inform them on the underground? Mr. Mavestelli has all but waged war with General Nolan since you’ve been brought here. The working relationship was already strained, but now they’re going to—” Bryce gets cut off with a knife to his throat.
I choke on a gasp and jolt my head to the right. Cameron is charging straight for us, his white hair dancing with the snow and contrasting against the dark green of the pines. But his expression is utterly empty.
He’s come to kill us.
To killme.
Hysteria wells inside my chest. I don’t have much time.
“Who’s going to what?” I urgently press my palm to Bryce’s cheek. He searches my eyes frantically, opening and closing his mouth a few times as blood bubbles up through his teeth and makes my veins run cold.
“T-they’re…g-going to…” He tries using his hands. “Fury…” Bryce chokes on his words and shudders beneath me before going still. All his muscles relax and his eyes stare aimlessly into the treetops. All the knowledge he held is gone like a breath as it coils in the frigid air.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper, tears falling as I force myself to my feet and charge forward. Bree, now Bryce… What’s happening to Cameron? My chest aches.
Everything is blurry and white as I run from Cam. Every stride he takes eats up two of mine. The roar of blood in my ears is so loud that I can’t hear my own footsteps crunching in the snow.
“Cam!” I shout, glancing back to see if he’s coming back into himself like he usually does.
He’s ten feet away, gaining quickly. The eyes of a starved beast burn into me.
“Cameron!” I scream. It’s desperate and pleading, but I don’t care. I need him to hear me. I need him to see me. He will, right? He always has before. “Cameron,” I whisper as he gets close enough that I can see the dullness in his gaze. The disconnection of who I am to him.
He lunges for me, wrapping his arms around my waist and taking me to the ground with a force that knocks the wind from my lungs. I don’t feel any pain; I only feel the pressure of his weight on me. And yet I find myself wishing for it, because perhaps agony would take the sting away from my heart. The betrayal that drowns me and makes me long for any reality but this one.
He gazes down at me like he doesn’t know me. Those sage eyes have never been as terrifying as they are right now. Will he know what became of me at his own hand? Will he say my name or will he forget it?
“Cam,” I plead, and try to reach my hand up to his face. He smacks it away and lifts his spare knife. The glint of it sends me back to every moment I’ve cherished in my life. Most of those moments were with him. He took away my darkness. Every tender brush of our lips, every whisper shared and glance stolen.
Cameron brings down his blade and aims for my heart. I block his arm with mine, the force of it making my limbs tremble. The tip of the blade breaks past my jacket and pierces my flesh.
Your knife yearned for my heart, just as you promised it would.
“Cameron, talk to me.Hey. Cam,” I whisper through gritted teeth. He’s looking at my face, tracing the lines of it with his gaze like he always does.
I swallow hard before pushing up with all my strength and knocking the knife from his hand. It flies to our left. I take the brief moment where his eyes follow the knife and elbow his face.
He falls to the side, and I scramble on my hands and knees to get away from him. Blood spills from my chest and coats the snow. Cameron grabs my ankle before I can stand and crawls on top of me.
I fight like a feral animal. Thrashing and kicking, screaming and clawing my way to evade him. But Cameron is exactly who they said he was.
Mori.
I cry out as he flips me over ruthlessly and pins me by my throat. He lifts his hand, a palm-size rock in his grip.
