“I can’t.”
“You can. You just won’t. Because you think you’re saving us.” She laughs under her breath and there’s something in it that makes my chest hurt. “You’re not saving anyone, Skye. You’re standing here wrapped in power you stole from me, telling us we chose to suffer.”
“I’m telling you there’s something on the other side of this. And you are too angry to look.”
The air darkens around her. Black smoke coils from her shoulders.
“I looked,” she says. “There’s nothing there.”
“Rhea. Please.”
“I gave you a chance,” she says. “I gave you time. And you used it to protect the people who destroyed us.”
“I used it to make sure you didn’t become them.”
The smoke stops. For one second her face is completely exposed and I see it all. The grief. The exhaustion. The absolute terror of letting go of the only thing still holding her together.
Then her expression hardens.
“You think you’re better than us,” she says quietly. “Fine. Keep thinking that. I wonder if you’ll keep at it when I ruin your perfect little peace.”
My stomach drops.
“Rhea, please.” But before I can say anything else, the air swallows her. Black smoke coils tight and dissolves and she’s gone.
For a moment I just stand there, staring at the place she left.
Is that it?
I feel my throat tighten.
I failed.
And the worst part is I don’t know what I should have done differently. Every point I made was true. I know it was. But truth isn’t the same thing as timing, and I dragged her toward an understanding she wasn’t ready for. She rejected it.
I exhale shakily and rub a hand over my face.
“Okay,” I whisper. “Fine.”
All I can hope for is that she’ll see through it at some point. In the meantime I have no intention of killing her murderers. Maybe we should contact Cassian’s cousin or something. I’m sure Grayson could put them in prison if we gave him the evidence.
I turn back toward the hospital, ready to go inside and—
I stop.
A cold prickles down my spine.
The wards are still up. I can feel them. But there’s a pressure inside the perimeter that doesn’t belong, and the second I reach for it I know exactly what it is.
Rhea.
Inside.
I wonder if you’ll keep at it when I ruin your perfect little peace.
I don’t know how she got inside, but I’m already running before I manage to think it through.
I burst into Talon’s bedroom and rip the duvet off their bodies. “Up. Now. We’ve got a problem.”
