I nodded. “Idon’t, but if you see a chance to run during your court case, you do it. You’ll be far away from the Institute and the Warden during that trial. Me and the others will be fine. We’ll take the potion and get out of here, but I don’t want you to take that risk if you don’t have to. You’re getting outside these walls and back into Kinpago to testify. You have the best chance of escaping.”
“I don’t want to leave you behind,” she insisted.
I took her hands in mine and squeezed. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Ava choked up. “If you meant that, you wouldn’t be asking me to do this.”
“I need you to think about yourself first, for once,” I begged. “Please, pidge. One of us has to survive this.”
“No!” she argued, squeezing my hands back. “Webothwill. If I can run, I’ll do it. But otherwise, we’re getting out of here together.”
“If that becomes an opportunity. But you’ll be outside the Institute next week for that trial, and we can’t count on this death potion to work. One of ushasto get out of here. It’s not an option for all four of us to fail. So if you see a chance to break out while you’re testifying, take it.Promise me, Ava.”
Her tone wavered, but she replied, “I promise.”
Ava wasn’t the best at keeping promises, but I hoped she wouldn’t break this one… for me.
Even if I had to be without her, I’d rather she be far away from me and safe then here by my side and at risk. Every day, my friends and I were doing something that put us in even more jeopardy than we already were, and Ava couldn’t keep being involved. We wouldn’t keep getting away with this. One day, there’d be a cost.
Ava needed to be nowhere near me when it was finally time to pay the price.
CHAPTERTWENTY
AVA-MARIE
There were screams… dozens of screams.
I found myself standing in a darkened room, a room that was without end, a room without light or color. All around me were thousands of people, pressing in on each other and crying out. I attempted to move, but no matter which way I went, another person pressed into me. I began to feel suffocated as all those bodies squeezed in around me, and claustrophobia overtook my senses. I couldn’t see where I was, or what was going on. All I felt was this terrible fear, and the inability to escape it.
A sliver of light shone through a crack, like there was a door up ahead. People stampeded over each other to get to it, and the cries of agony grew louder.
I felt someone shove me forward. I hit the ground hard, and felt footprints embed into my back as the crowd crawled over me to get to the opening.
I gasped, struggling to make air fill my lungs. I couldn’t breathe, and my spirit started to slip away as the door ahead of me closed, sealing off the light.
* * *
“Pidge? You okay?”
Charlie was trying to get me to eat breakfast. I’d gotten some food down, but it was difficult taking another bite. The cafeteria around me was full of conversation, but inwardly, I felt nothing but detached… cold.
“I had another bad dream last night,” I said, turning toward him.
“Esther manipulating your dreams again?” He scowled.
“No. I didn’t see the cardinal. I think this was more like… a vision.”
Charlie’s eyebrows knitted together, but he said, “It must be the stress of the trial. It’ll be over soon.”
I shivered, but I wasn’t sure that’s what it was. Though I had to admit Iwasunder a lot of stress.
I was being summoned today to testify. This afternoon, I’d go into the Kinpago courthouse and tell my story for the whole tribe to hear.
Telling Charlie what little he knew had been gut-wrenching, and that had been him, alone, in a private place where I knew I wasn’t going to get hurt. My testimony was going to be ripped apart and examined piece by piece by strangers, and I knew details would come up that I didn’t want to recount.
I told myself it would be worth it if we could get John behind bars, but still, I wasn’t sure.
All you have to do is get through the day, as you’ve gotten through every day before this, Oberi said, putting a paw on my knee.Then you will be home with us once more.
