Vesper pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes again and trying to will the pain away. “Know what? Are you hurt? Did they…” She trailed off, there was no need to finish the thought.
“No,” Cypress cleared her throat, squinting, thinking, assessing. She’d stopped rocking. “I’m, um, I’m fine.” Her voice was strained. The kid had never been a good liar.
When Cypress didn’t answer the rest of her questions, Vesper sighed and took the time to look around properly. Cypress’s parents were passed out. They were closer than Vesper remembered them being. Must have taken a few steps before whatever happened…
Cedar was groaning. Her head rolled from side to side. She’d wake up any second. Bellamy… Vesper sucked in a sharp breath, cold fear washing over her.
Bellamy was off the chair. She’d managed to pinpoint her Energy into a molten ball, melting the chain off. Her positioning looked like she’d been trying to crawl to them—to Vesper. One arm was still reaching out. She was breathing, alive.
How was Vesper awake before everyone else? How was Cypress awake?
“How long have you been awake?” Vesper asked, pushing thewords out painfully and turning back to look at Cypress. She wished Cypress would go back to her normal excitable self, chattering endlessly so Vesper could stop fucking talking. She’d kill for some water right now.
Cypress shrugged noncommittally, resuming her rocking. Vesper narrowed her eyes. She’d never been particularly good at reading people, but Cypress had always been an open book. The kid couldn’t keep a secret for shit. She was hiding something now, Vesper was certain of it.
“Cypress,” Vesper tried to sound stern but her voice was still raspy. “What happened?”
“I—” Cypress cut herself off, swallowing as her eyes filled with tears again. She looked up and sniffed. “I didn’t mean to,” she whispered, a pleading look in her watery eyes. “I-I promise. I didn’t mean to, I can’t—I can’t,” she sniffed again, shaking her head. The tears flowed freely now. “Everyone was fighting, yelling. It was too much, too loud. I just couldn’t. You were going to fight, I-I didn’t mean it.”
Vesper reached out, trying to comfort her, but the kid flinched away, wiping her eyes and shaking her head, mumbling “I can’t” over and over.
“Shh. Cypress. Hey,” Vesper hesitated before reaching for her again. She had a chilling suspicion of what this meant. Cypress was a bomb waiting to go off. Vesper had to tread very carefully now. “It’s okay, kid,” she said soothingly, trying to keep her voice steady, to tamp down the automatic fear that filled her as her addled brain came around to the inevitable conclusion.
She caused this. Cypress did this.
“It’ll be okay. We’ll… We’ll figure it out,” she tried again. It only made Cypress cry harder, and Vesper knew what she was thinking. No matter how much she’d grown over the years, Cypress was always going to be that same—scared little kid Vesper had saved all that time ago.
She knew her. There wasn’t a malicious bone in her body. If Cypress said it was an accident, well, Vesper believed her. They’dget out of here. To safety. Then they’d… figure out how to contain her power.
“Cypress,” she paused, waiting for the crying to subside. “I need you to focus. Tell me the truth, please. What happened?”
She needed to know how dangerous Cypress was, if she even knew what she’d done. Then she’d figure out how to help her.
Taking a shaky breath, Cypress swallowed before admitting, “I can’t control it. I don’t know how. I just… It feels hot, burning inside of me, and then it’s gone, the magic, it’s… I’ve stolen it. All of it.”
Vesper frowned. Stealing magic wasn’t possible. Dampeners didn’t steal magic, they extinguished it, killed it, sucked the life force out of it and everyone possessing it.
“You say you stole it…” Vesper frowned, trying to phrase her next words delicately so as not to scare the poor kid into more tears—or worse. “Do you understand what you are?” she asked slowly, watching Cypress.
Cypress’s silence was all Vesper needed. Pink came to her cheeks as she fixed her gaze on her knees and swallowed again. The guilt. She’d known this whole time. Known how dangerous she was if she’d lost control around Vesper. Vesper tried not to be angry with Cypress for not telling her sooner.
But she should have fucking told her. Vesper was risking her life to hide her, she deserved to know why, to know the risk of being around her as often as she was. Then, she saw the look on Cypress’s face, the frown, the crease in her brows, the tear stains on her cheek.
“Okay,” Vesper said, swallowing and keeping her voice low. “You say you stole it, does that mean you can return it?”
Cypress raised her head, eyes wide in disbelief, and nodded just slightly. “I think so…” she said slowly. “I… I woke you up.”
“All right,” Vesper gave her a half smile, trying to be reassuring even though she almost couldn’t get her next words out, fear keeping them choked inside. “I need you to wake Bel up.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
Bellamy
Bellamy’s eyes flew open. She gasped for air like she’d been deprived. Her lungs burned, her throat ached, her head pounded. Vesper’s worried face swam into view above her. Faint sparks of Energy flickered on the ceiling, and Bellamy squinted while she tried to remember what happened.
Then she saw Cypress—the fuckingDampener—standing behind Vesper, hugging herself and staring timidly at the ground, her short black hair falling carelessly over her face, hiding her. Bellamy narrowed her eyes, glaring at the girl. Cedar was still out, still chained up. The other two were on the floor collapsed. It was just the three of them awake now.
“Get away from her,” Bellamy growled at Cypress, ignoring the gravelly tone her voice took from being fucking drained.
