My feet float off the ground.
I feel the wind tugging at my shirt and hair, fighting to drag me down.
An excruciating pain splits my body apart, and I groan, clutching my chest.
“Oh? It hurts, doesn’t it? Don’t worry.” She pushes me even farther so I’m almost lying flat on the railing. “It’ll all be over soon.”
“No…” I choke.
“I’ll be at your funeral telling everyone what a good friend you are. Goodbye, J.”
I scramble to catch a hold of Kelly, but my nails dig into her skin and then slide off. The scream gets trapped in my throat as I fall off the roof.
Gravity sucks me down like a tornado.
My heart lodges in my throat.
It takes everything inside me to tap my watch, initializing the sequence I worked on with Henry while I drove to the hospital. My heart pounds at an insane clip as if I might die before I even hit the ground.
But I’m not supposed to hit the ground.
At any moment, a fleet of window-cleaning drones are supposed to whirr in my direction.
None show.
I tap my watch again.
What?
I’ve been hacking the smart systems of the hospital foryears. There’s no automatic feature out of my grasp. Why is it failing me now?
“Sparky?” I panic.
Nothing whirs into sight.
The cleaning drones aren’t coming.
Pride cometh before a fall.
Gran used to say that all the time.
I squeeze my eyes shut, bracing myself for the smack of my skull on concrete.
I’ll see you soon, Gran.
In seconds, it’ll all be over.
I brace myself for the end as I slam into the ground.
But then, without explanation, I bounce right back up.
Chapter Sixty-One
FINN
I’m going to end her.
I’m going to save her first.
