Page 222 of Damsel in Disguise

I think about answering.

About telling him, it began the day I found Ariella wheeled in a gurney, fresh after the bike accident.

Or perhaps the day he first showed me what became of failed Synthètes.

Or perhaps it began much earlier.

Perhaps it began the day he taught a child that love is merely a defect in biology.

“Maybe the day I realized you taught me how to destroy anything,” I admit. The honesty surprises me.

His gaze returns to Ariella.

My hand instinctively tightens against her. She suppresses another gasp.

“You did all this,” he gestures toward the chaos enveloping us, “for her.”

“No,” partially a lie.

“For revenge?”

“No,” partially true.

His head tilts. “Then why?”

“I did this because I grew tired of becoming you,”

The Crown studies me for a beat. Then he laughs, not a loud, maniac sound but a sad and disappointed laughter.

“I believed my greatest failure was your mother.”

I clench my jaw again.

“It appears my greatest failure was allowing you to meet one.”

His gaze settles completely upon Ariella.

My calculations begin immediately.

Distance—six meters. Two guards. Three if the one near the eastern wall recovers first.

One laboratory exit. One hidden passage.

Asher and Adrian are approaching from the lower corridor.

Time required to breach reinforced steel—forty seconds, perhaps less if I’m lucky.

We can survive forty seconds.

The Crown takes his time removing a handgun from beneath his coat and examines it with profound curiosity.

The guards look at him uncertainly. “Sir… the Keinstons have entered the laboratory wing.”

“I know.”

“We need evacuation orders.”

The lockdown was never meant to keep anyone out. It was meant to keep everyone in.