Nate whirled to look for Pixel, expecting to see her swooning with fear, but she stood shivering and stubborn-jawed next to Brick. He followed Brick’s gaze to a stack of shallow bunks tucked behind the machine. The dim light cast heavy shadows, and he squinted to make out a lumpy form on the lowest bunk.
It was a young woman. She slept on her back, one arm hanging limp over the side of the bunk.
“Ah, that’s Juniper. She’s resting,” Agatha said. “I was about to get her started on intravenous fluids when you all came by to visit.”
“She’s a GEM too,” Pixel said.
The gentle scent of honey and warmth clung to the bunk where the woman slept. But she didn’t smell strong and healthy like Pixel and Agatha did, and the sweetness had an aftertaste to it—sour and sad. Juniper breathed very slowly, her mouth slack and pale.
A dizzying mix of shame and dread churned through Nate. He must have looked like this every time he’d fed Alden.
“Yes, little one. She is a GEM. She arrived a year ago from Gathos City.” Agatha drew the bunk’s curtain closed. The girl’s pale fingers peeked out, twitching. “We invested in her escape. She was a being kept by a family who not only fed upon her but used her in ways. . .well, in ways I wouldn’t discuss with a girl your age.”
Nate wondered how many GEMs were still there—locked high in Gathos City’s towers. Alone. Beyond the reach of anyone willing to free them.
Reed examined a shelf full of stacks of white plastic boxes. He stumbled back as if bitten and turned to Agatha, gaze hot. “This is chem. All of this is chem! I’ve seen it on the street.”
“The very finest,” Agatha said. Her pale eyes gleamed. “Did you know that the majority of street-chem is laced with gasolex and cooked-down sludge? It’s utterly toxic. It’s killing people. This? This is safe.”
Nate’s ears rang. He stared down at the floor where his boot rested against a drain shaped like a flower and flecked with dark-red stains. He’d seen those little boxes before too—tucked away in Alden’s private stash. And never sold to any of Alden’s customers.
Every time Alden had shaken tiny pills out of the white boxes, he’d gone boneless and uncaring, too blissed-out to bother with the shop or Nate. The only other thing Alden had gone quite as empty-eyed for was Nate.
Nate’s breath tripped, punched out of him by the realization. “You’re making chem with our blood,” he said, hoarse.
“Chem. Medicine. It’s all in the eyes of the beholder. The people of the Withers are sick, Nathan. You know that better than most, don’t you?”
“The last thing the Withers needs is more chem.” Reed was trembling, rage hot in his eyes. “This is the worst kind I ever saw—people did all sorts of shit for it,onit.”
“But they felt so much better when they got it, didn’t they?” Agatha asked.
A ropey cable hung from the machine at Nate’s eye level. At the end, a delicate silver prong swayed—identical to the tip of Alden’s Diffuser.
He glanced at Brick. She stared at the curtain hiding Juniper and shuffled from one foot to the next, restless and caged.
Pixel whimpered. “I want to go. This is a bad place. They’re going to hurt us.”
“You’re perfectly safe here.” Agatha’s teeth were very straight. “The Breakers will protect you at any cost.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“The Breakers?” Nate recoiled, stumbling back into the sharp edge of one the bunks. There were so many along the wall. They were all empty. “You’re with them?”
“Why do you sound so distressed, Nathan? Are you afraid of them?”
Reed grabbed Nate by the sleeve and put his body between them. “Don’t play games! Are you?”
Agatha gave him a long look. “This is a serious matter. I would never make a game of it.”
“I’m not afraid of the Breakers,” Nate said, stepping out from behind Reed. It was a simple lie. He was used to lying.
“Of course not.” Agatha’s mouth quirked. “I’m not threatening you, am I?”
“Then you admit you’re with them.” Reed spat the words out.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Nate willed down a sour wave of nausea. The chance to stay safe had been too easy, too good to be true. The Breakers weren’t just well-organized chem dealers. They were dealing chem made with GEM blood. Now Reed and Brick and Pixel were stuck in a basement with them, and it was his fault.
I made Reed promise to take me here.
