The way he kept smiling.He didn’t glare, didn’t sneer.Instead, he still had an entirely unhinged smile on his face, as though he had no connection to rational thought anymore.
The sight, along with news of The Pitt and Rosalind’s attack, proved too much for my mind.After the lack of sleep, the lack of so many things, I found myself swallowed up by the blackness.
I had no idea how long I remained unconscious.I didn’t dream, didn’t fight against the wonderful void of nothing that occurred when under.Instead, I let myself rest in it, unbothered by anything.
The world came back slowly, hazy, a moment of bliss before reality struck again—as it always did.I found myself on a comfortable bed, a familiar one, instead of the tile I vaguely recalled smacking my face against as I’d passed out.
I opened my eyes, blinking away the remnants of sleep.It wasn’t good sleep, not the type where you woke refreshed, where you stretched your arms and inhaled deep breaths to energize.
Nope, this was the sort that happened when you fall back asleep, but not for long enough.It was like waking up after an impromptu, accidental nap, when drool coats your cheek and your mouth feels full of grit.
I expected to find myself alone, but instead, a broad back met me.
I gulped hard, but at least they sat on the side of the bed, faced mostly away, without any contact at all.
Carter.
I recalled how he’d looked in that bathroom, holding an A-Rank like she were nothing more than a pile of yarn and with about that much fight to her.Sure, he was a higher rank, but that didn’t explain how he could do that so easily.
And his eyes…
I jerked backward at the memory, having seen similar eyes in the past.My back struck the headboard as I tried to get distance between us, everything inside me screaming to get away, to do whatever it took to escape.
He turned, and I expected to see purple, to see that vicious shade of violet that haunted me.
Except…he looked normal.
His smile had the softened edges again, none of the signs of corruption that I’d seen in the bathroom.
Had I imagined those?Were they just sparks of my brain where the past mingled with the present, where my trauma forced me to relive things that I’d rather have forgotten all about?
“You with us again?”
“What—” My voice cut out halfway through the question, but I couldn’t say I minded that.I had no idea exactly where the question was headed anyway.
He gestured toward the nightstand.“There’s water beside you—should help with the throat issue.Rosalind controls air—hot, dry air, to be specific.So when she uses it like that, it can not only push people, but she can suffocate them.Plus, it’s hell on the skin, so make sure to moisturize.”
I found myself reaching for the glass he’d indicated, caught off guard by his words as usual.If he ever made sense, it might make me more suspicious.Somehow, his nonsense made it impossible to think straight, to recognize that he was a complete lunatic.
But I didn’t see what I thought I did, right?
There was no way.Eyes like that would mean standing on the brink of corruption, dancing just breaths away from absolute ruin.No esper could survive in that condition for more than a few minutes—maybe.
And looking at him now, I couldn’t imagine that.An esper that far gone couldn’t ever pretend to be normal.
Impossible.
The water helped my parched throat, and three gulps of it made me feel ready to ask again.“What happened to her?”
Carter tilted his head.“She attacked a guide.That’s a death sentence.”
I sat up straighter, clutching the glass tightly in my hands.Even if she was a bitch—which clearly she was—I didn’t want her to die.I didn’t wantanyoneto die, and certainly didn’t want that on my hands.“She didn’t mean to.”
“Of course she did.Come on, Yun, you should know better than most that we need to set an example, make it clear that people can’t do that.Otherwise, it could happen again.”
“I don’t care.I don’t want her dead.”
The worddeadstuck in my throat as though I hadn’t drank any water at all.It terrified me.
