“Okay,” Veronica said. “You’re telling me the truth, or you’re turning back into your old self. Either is good. I hated seeing what those pills did to you.”
I held out my hand—perfectly steady, like the Jessica of old. But I loved Sebastian. I cared for Aaliyah, Frankie, Nura, Bellamy. Even poor Faraday, now missing that dreadful sliver of herself on my coffee table.
That didn’t make me weak.
“Since you’re doing so well,” Veronica said, “I can let you in on a little secret. Two of your senior friends have disappeared.”
I shot—badly. Barely in the seven-ring.
“Taken by their families?”
“It happened too quickly—the same morning you arrived here. They must’ve woken up to rumors of a fight in the library, then saw that you and Sebastian were gone. They packed their bags and vanished.”
“Two of them,” I said. That left only one caretaker in our class.
“Any guesses?”
Leopold Wolvaardt, of course—always nervous about being seen in public with the rest of us. And maybe Kumar Seth, who seemed more intent on escaping his family than fighting it.
I couldn’t see Regina Lindqvist panicking.
“No idea,” I said.
“Just one name,” Veronica said. “So I can inform Elizabeth how quickly you’re improving.”
I turned to her, looking for tells. This could be a trick, to get me to expose one of my fellow scarecrows. But me and Sebastian disappearing on the same night, blood on the library floor, Faraday missing a finger…
Someone must have panicked.
“What’s in it for me?”
“Recovery,” Veronica said. “Giving us a name, even one we already have, is a way of showing yourself that you can heal.”
“I’m not sick.”
“Wemadeyou sick—weak and uncertain, cut off from who you really are.” A gentle hand on my shoulder, another offer of the flask. “Give yourself back to us.”
“So I can murder more of the people I love?”
“Just so you know, Jessica, I voted against this whole operation. Starting with Peter.”
I looked away. “You didn’t want to ruin your little pet.”
“I didn’t want to lose another of your generation.”
“What about Sebastian?”
“There hasn’t been a vote yet. But, no, I don’t want him dead either. I think we can bring him back in.Youcould, anyway.”
“Elizabeth and Cyrus think he’s lost.”
“Cyrus is still in the hospital. Elizabeth can be less than rational on the subject of betrayal. But if you make a deal, we can save Sebastian.”
I brushed her hand from my shoulder, turned to look at her. Her eyes held a spark of light—they always had.
“There were moments I wondered if you were on our side.”
Shock passed over Veronica’s face, replaced at once by a look of quiet pride. “I’m a Morton.”
