“Fuck,” Noam gasped, stumbling to avoid tripping over the leg of one of those black-clothed soldiers. The man’s face was slack and openmouthed. No blood. “Dara, what did you do?”
All of them, Dara had killedall of them. Sacha’s body lay twisted near the door, the circlet still lodged atop his head.
Noam’s heart convulsed.
God. God, Dara was... he was crazy. That was the only explanation. Never mind utilitarianism. Never mind assassinating General Ames for a cause.
Killing six people wascrazy.
“I did what I had to. Do you really think Sacha would let you walk out alive? Nowcome on.”
Dara’s grip tightened on Noam’s hand, and Noam looked at him, Dara’s wide eyes and tousled hair, his fear so out of place he was almost unrecognizable.
Noam sucked in a sharp breath. Sacha’s body was visible out of the corner of his eye, limp as a discarded rag. He nodded.
Dara shouldered open the other door, Noam a half step behind as they tumbled into the hall. It was empty, and Noam figured out why a second later. Gunshots, from the east wing.
“I can get us out of here,” Dara promised, tugging Noam toward the left.
Noam wasn’t sure he ought to trust him. But he didn’t have a choice.
He dashed at Dara’s side down the hall toward a staircase. His mind was stuck on the same searing note.
Sacha was dead.
They clattered down the stairs, footfalls obscenely loud to Noam’s ears. Dara hesitated for a second at the landing, then said, “There are people heading this way. We have to go right. Wait—fuck. In here!”
Dara pulled Noam to one side, his power throwing open a random door. They darted inside, and Dara stood there with his forehead pressed against the frame, hand still grasping the knob.
“Dara,” Noam whispered. It came out hoarse and odd. “How—”
Glancing at Noam, Dara’s eyes gleamed in the light from the cracks between the window blinds. “Lehrer had me locked up in his apartment. He said I was fevermad—can you believe it? After the riots started and Lehrer found out you’d been arrested, he told me where to find you and let me go.”
Youarefevermad, Noam wanted to say.
He didn’t have to, of course. Dara heard it anyway, judging by that grimace. In this light, his skin was a delicate, sickly hue. It was like someone had drained the color out of him, leaving a sepia imprint behind.
“Don’t believe everything Lehrer tells you,” Dara said. “He’s the one who got you arrested in the first place. He sent in that tip. You were just a loose end Lehrer had to tie up.”
Noam swallowed. If he was honest, he’d known that on some level already.
He reached for Dara’s arm, regretting it only a split second after he’d already done it. But for once, Dara didn’t flinch. “Sacha... Sacha was trying to convince me Lehrer could control people’s minds.” He made a face, like,Isn’t that ridiculous?and battered down the lump in his throat.
Dara nodded. “It’s true.”
Sacha was right. Sacha was right. Sacha wasright.
“Fuck.”Noam let go of Dara’s arm to grab at the back of his own neck instead, a compulsion that did little to quell his writhing insides.
Dara rubbed his sweat-glazed brow. “That’s one of the things I didn’t want to tell you.” He almost sounded apologetic. “He doesn’t use it all the time, but often enough. For obvious reasons, Lehrer doesn’t want that knowledge getting around. If he thought you knew, he’d...” Dara bit his lip, letting his words hang in the air.
Noam got the sense he knew exactly what Dara was suggesting Lehrer’d do.
“So why did you just murder Sacha? You’re supposed to be on his side!”
“I think it’s fair to say I just defected,” Dara said dryly, and Noam thought about those bodies again. Sacha’s blank eyes.
It was hard to breathe.
