“You kissed my chest,” he says finally.
“Your heart,” I whisper.
This answer seems to surprise him. “My heart?”
“Yes.”
“Wow,” he breathes. I watch his throat work. “Okay.”
I take an unconscious step toward him and he shakes his head.
“Probably not a good idea,” he says. “Come any closer to me right now and I might do something stupid. I might finally give Warner a reason to kill me.”
My heart briefly stops.
James tears his eyes away from me. “So this is what you were talking about, isn’t it?” he says. “Earlier tonight, when you said there were agents all over the continent. You saidthey were planning synchronized acts of terror against civilians over the next several weeks.”
“Yes.”
“So there are more vials,” he says. “More agents.”
“Yes.”
“And when you said we had less than seven weeks—”
“I meant seven weeks before it was all over,” I explain. “Not seven weeks before it started.”
He takes a deep, unsteady breath, then mutters an epithet on the exhale.
“Do you understand now why I need to go back to the Ark as soon as possible?” I ask him.
“I understand why you need to go back,” he says. “What I don’t understand is why you think I’m so incompetent that you wouldn’t even tell me your plan.”
“I don’t think you’re incompetent—”
“I wasthere, Rosabelle. I’m the only other person on the planet who’s been in and out of the Ark—”
“Yes, and that’s part of the problem,” I explain, cutting him off. “You think you made it out alive on your own merits, but you don’t understand the scope of Ark surveillance. You only made it out alive because you were part of the plan—because Klaus read your mind and manipulated you, anticipated your moves, and built a script for our escape based on a series of emotional extrapolations derived from a thorough analysis of your character—”
“Wait, what?” he says. “What do you mean,read my mind? Who the fuck is Klaus?”
“James.” I squeeze my eyes shut, then turn my face up to the glitching moon. “Please,” I say, summoning patience before I meet his eyes. “We’re officially out of time. I promise I’ll tell you everything if we live to have the chance, but if there are agents trying to get back the vial right now it’s because they know I’ve failed my mission—and if I don’t get ahead of this the consequences are going to be so much worse than any of us can possibly anticipate.”
“Fine,” he says darkly. “I’ll make you a deal, Rosabelle.”
“No.”
“You can’t just say no.”
“No.” I try to cross my arms, but the sleeves on this jacket are too long, making me look like a child. I drop my arms. “No deals. I already know I’m not going to like this—”
“You haven’t even heard the terms yet—”
“No,” I say again, anger coiling in my chest. “You’re not coming with me to the island.”
“Then you’re not coming with me tonight.”
“James—”
