“Answer the question!” Bri commanded, gripping Subject 6’s shoulders and giving him a shake.
“Yes,” he confirmed.
“Are they still alive? Those children…are any of them still alive?”
A combination of sympathy and righteous anger quickened my pulse. We knew at least some of them were dead, because they’d visited Grandma Tashi. I didn’t need to remind Bri of that, though. The look of part-hope and part-despair on her face broke my heart.
“Don’t know,” Subject 6 said. “It’s why I’ve been…searching for them.”
Subject 6 looked from me to Gray expectantly. It took me a second to remember we were illusioned to look like his parents.
“Oh,” Graysen said, coming to the same conclusion as me. “Ah, good work…son.”
Gray gave me a wide-eyed stare and a little shrug. I just shook my head. This was getting weirder by the second.
“Tell us about the children,” I said, because I could see Bri was about to lose it.
Not that I blamed her.
“I knew the members on the Alliance’s Board of Peaceful Resolutions were keeping the secret of their existence,” Subject 6 replied.
“Ha! I knew it,” Smith exclaimed. “Didn’t I tell you people? How many goddamn times do I need to be right before you start believing me?”
Bri punched him and hissed, “Shut up.”
Subject 6 wiped at the sweat and dried blood on his face. His gaze seemed clearer than it had a few seconds ago, and his breathing was coming more easily. Talking didn’t seem to be taking as much out of him.
My magic was still within my reach, but it wouldn’t be for long if Subject 6 recovered any more.
“So, if you were such a do-gooder,” Yutika said, crossing her arms and giving Subject 6 a suspicious look. “Then why did you keep coming after us?”
“Not you,” Subject 6 said, displaying a hint of irritation. “The dog.”
“What do you want with Sir Zachary?” A.J. demanded.
“The Natural on the Board, who I found in New Hampshire, told me the dog was the only way to access the site where Agent S is produced…and to find the slaves who are being forced to make it.”
My head spun. Bri made a small sound.
“Slaves?” A.J. squeaked.
Subject 6 nodded. “The dog is the only way to get to them.”
A.J. slapped a palm to his forehead. “Ohmygosh, I knew Sir Zachary was the key to everything! I’ll be accepting apologies later from everyone who gave me grief for rescuing Sir Zachary.”
“We only gave you grief because you almost got all of us killed going back for him,” Michael pointed out.
“If I hadn’t, then we would have lost the only way to get the slaves,” A.J. retorted. “So, I reiterate. I’ll be accepting groveling and expensive gifts later.”
“Is the dog so important because Remwald implanted some of his DNA into him?” Gray asked Subject 6.
I remembered the Memory Reader telling us that.
“I don’t know,” Subject 6 said. “All I know is that the dog is the only way to access the slaves.”
A little whimper caught my attention. Cora, who was standing between Ma and Grandma Tashi, had her hand pressed to her mouth. My entire family looked completely shellshocked.
I turned to A.J. In a quiet voice, I asked, “Can you get my family out of here?”
I wasn’t sure what would happen when Subject 6 got his magic back, and I wouldn’t risk my family getting caught up in whatever was coming. They had all been through enough already.
A.J. gave me a solemn nod and went over to where Oliver and the Hansley clan were gathered. Ma shook her head at whatever A.J. was saying.
After a few more seconds, A.J. gave me a defeated shrug.
“Michael?” I asked, turning to the Whisper.
Michael’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure you won’t need me?”
“We’ve got this,” I said, motioning to Gray’s and my illusion.
Besides, Bri was watching Subject 6 like a hawk. If he so much as looked at us funny, she would put him down.
Michael nodded at me. “We’ll get them out of here and then come right back,” he said.
A few seconds later, Cora took Michael’s hand. Ma looped her arm through A.J.’s. Grandma Tashi and Oliver followed. As the group of them made their way out of the room, A.J. gave me a subtle thumbs-up.
Thank you, I mouthed. A weight lifted off my shoulders.
I turned my attention back to Subject 6.
“Tell us about the Board members,” I said, trying to keep my voice gentle and maternal.
“All of the Mags and one Nat on the Board knew about the Agent S slaves,” Subject 6 said. “Remwald gave each member on the Board one piece of the puzzle. Then, Jenny Yang wiped their memories of the rest of the facts.”
Bri made a growling sound. This time, Smith punched her.
“That way,” Subject 6 continued, “only someone who knew about the Board’s involvement would be able to put the pieces together.” He paused to catch his breath. “After his arrest, Director Remwald had his own mind wiped of everything connected to the slaves, except that Jenny Yang could help him rebuild the information he needed. That way, he could return to work if he wasn’t executed.”
My mind was reeling as I tried to make sense of everything I was hearing. Remwald had intentionally created a puzzle that even he would need to jump through hoops to solve. That meant this secret was more valuable to him than anything else about MagLab.
“Jenny Yang told me the Board members each held one piece of information that would lead me to the slaves,” Subject 6 said.
There was that word again…slaves.
I forced myself to stay silent and let Subject 6 tell us everything we needed to know. There would be time for emotions later.
“William Mallorie gave me the information about Agent S,” Subject 6 said. “Cooper Zillin’s list provided a list of slaves who had been used in the production of Agent S.”
Bri’s niece was on that list.
I looked at my friend. Her gaze was pinned to Subject 6. She didn’t even look like she was breathing.
“Eleanor Ridley made the connection between Agent S and the Magical Reduction Potion,” Subject 6 continued. “Morgan Ellington had a sample of the Agent S and knew the alchemy behind its processing.”
Subject 6 pointed a garish finger at Pruwist, who was lying unconscious on the floor. “He knows the final piece: the location where the slaves are kept to produce the Agent S. But I will need to destroy his mind to find what I need.”
We had most of the same information, but Subject 6 put together the clues in a more linear way. My brain churned through the facts as I sought to fill in the remaining blanks.
“How did you know about any of this to begin with?” Graysen asked.
“At first, I didn’t know about Agent S or the slaves,” Subject 6 replied. “My intention was just to destroy the Magical Reduction Potion.” He licked his chapped lips. “When I broke Remwald’s mind, I learned about the slaves. I wanted to help them.”
A vision filled my mind of Subject 6…alone in a sterile MagLab cell for decades. When he’d finally escaped, he hadn’t gone after justice for himself. He’d tried to help children who were enslaved by his tormentor.
My head swam with the realization of how close we’d come to killing this man before we knew that, in a way, he was working toward the same goals as us.
“I wanted to save the children so you would be proud of me,” Subject 6 said. He spoke so softly I almost missed his words. He was looking between Gray and me.
“Wait a second,” Smith said, clearly unaffected by the feelings I was having a difficult time controlling. “Those kids’ death certificates all say DAMND was the cause of death. How is it possible they were stolen away without the hospital staff getting wise?”
“Powerful Magics and Naturals have been bribing and threatening hospitals to keep the secret for centur
ies,” Subject 6 replied. “After Mags came out into the open, many stillborn deaths were blamed on DAMND to keep up pretenses. Director Remwald took advantage of this system and used it to extract his slaves without anyone asking questions.”
Bri made a choked sound. Yutika put an arm around her. I wanted to be there for her, too, but I didn’t want to risk reminding Subject 6 that I wasn’t who I appeared to be. Right now, the best thing I could do for Bri was get her the answers she was desperate for.
“And the conspiracy continues,” Smith said, a knowing half-smile spreading across his face.
I knew Smith’s enthusiasm was for the idea of a conspiracy rather than a slave ring, but it was disturbing nonetheless.
“This Nat,” Subject 6 pointed at Pruwist, “is the only one who knows the slaves’ location.”
We all turned to look at the interim Director.
My pulse stuttered. Pruwist wasn’t lying in a crumpled heap on the ground where we’d left him. He was leaning against the wall.
Blood dripped from his temple, but his hand was steady as it pointed the muzzle of a gun.
A gun.
The thought barely made it to my brain before a loud crack split the air.
CHAPTER 54
Subject 6 sagged to the ground.
“No!” Bri screamed.
I dropped down beside Subject 6 and pressed my hands to the blood seeping out of his chest. I knew it was useless, but I couldn’t make myself stop.
Blood soaked into the hem of my dress. It splattered up and onto my lace bodice. It pooled on the floor around us.
Don’t die, I silently ordered the man, even though I knew it was a command he couldn’t obey. I watched helplessly as the life drained out of him.
“Get up,” Bri ordered. She shook Subject 6, trying to rouse him. “My niece might still be alive. You have to help me find her. Get up!”
“Bri,” Graysen said.
Come on! I silently screamed at Subject 6. His skin had turned a blue-gray color.
I felt his breath ease out of his body underneath my blood-soaked hands. He shifted almost imperceptibly. His eyelids fluttered.
Subject 6’s glazed eyes opened and fixed on me.
“Forgive…me,” he said. “Wanted to save…them…’cause I couldn’t…you.”
“It’s okay,” I told him, cupping his stubbled cheek. “You’re okay.”
I couldn’t swallow around the lump in my throat.
“It needed to be done,” Pruwist said from the other side of the room. “This monster is no longer a threat to anyone.”
We all ignored him. All of our attention was fixated on the dying man on the floor.
“Please,” Bri begged, her skin shifting to titanium and back again. “We have to save him. We need—”
Subject 6 let out a whispering sigh. Then, his head thumped onto the floor.
He was dead.
“Shit,” Smith said.
I reached forward with a trembling hand and closed Subject 6’s eyes. My fingertips left streaks of blood across his ashen skin.
If I’d been a religious person, I would have said a prayer. Since I wasn’t, I thought about what Grandma Tashi always said about the dead. She said they had found their place in the universe, and it was selfish to try and pull them back into the land of the living.
I imagined Subject 6 reuniting with his parents and getting the love he’d been deprived of throughout his life.
It helped a little.
Beside me, Gray sucked in a breath.
That was when my gaze slid from Subject 6’s still form to Pruwist…and the gun he was pointing at me. Bri’s skin flashed titanium as she started forward.
“If any of you so much as moves an inch, I’ll kill her,” Pruwist said. His voice was so calm I almost couldn’t believe he was aiming a gun at my head.
My mouth went dry.
I couldn’t die…I had things to do.
Subject 6 had left us with more questions than answers, and I’d promised to help Bri find out what had happened to her niece. And I had just gotten married to the love of my life.
There was no way I was letting Pruwist deprive me of my wedding night.
“Pruwist, don’t,” Gray said, his voice laced with panic. “She didn’t do anything. Kill me—”
“Shut up!” Pruwist bellowed.
I shifted my body so I was a little in front of Gray. I didn’t trust him not to throw himself at Pruwist to give the rest of us time to get away.
“Where the hell’s Michael?” Yutika said in a frantic whisper. Her eyes kept darting to the hallway where he and A.J. had disappeared with my family minutes ago.
I let out a silent burst of internal screams and curses. Michael or A.J. could have stopped this. But they weren’t here.
Pruwist leveled his gun. And froze.
My heart hammered as I braced for the sound of it going off. I remembered the stickiness of blood covering my stomach and the agony that had consumed me the last time I was shot.
Would I feel that same pain again, or would death be instantaneous?
I turned to Gray, wanting to tell him I loved him…just in case. But I never got the chance.
Pruwist let out a strangled gasp.
Instead of the shot and endless darkness I’d been expecting, Pruwist’s hands trembled. The gun hit the ground with a dull thud.
Pruwist’s lips parted. Instead of words, blood bubbled out.
Pruwist looked down at his chest, where a thick shard of glass was protruding from his midsection. He let out another gurgling cry and fell to the ground.
My jaw dropped when I saw who was standing behind him.
Joseph Galder wiped his bloody hand on his slacks.
Yutika and Bri ran to Pruwist. Yutika grabbed the fallen gun, while Bri tried to stem the blood gushing from Pruwist.
Gray’s body shook as he crushed me against him. Joseph came to stand awkwardly beside us.
“You saved me,” I managed. My voice was hoarse, partly because adrenaline was surging through me from my recent close call, and partly because Gray was squeezing all the air out of me. “Thank you.”
The words seemed inadequate for what he’d just done. Joseph had the strictest morals of anyone I’d ever met, and he’d just murdered the interim Director to save me.
I didn’t have to ask why he’d done it, though. He wasn’t even looking at me. All of his attention was on Gray.
“No need to thank me.” Joseph stared at the blood on his hands. “I—It was the least I could do after…everything.”
Even though Joseph seemed to be speaking to me, I knew his apology was really meant for Graysen.
“I’ll understand if you can’t forgive me,” Joseph told his son.
Gray let out a shuddering breath. He kept one arm locked around my waist as he met his dad’s gaze.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to,” Graysen said.
Joseph nodded, his shoulders drooping a little.
Disappointment clamped onto me like a vise. No matter what Gray said, I knew how much he cared about his dad. I didn’t want to be the reason why they couldn’t reconcile.
I bit my lip and forced myself to stay silent. This was Gray’s choice. I wouldn’t interfere.
“But.” Graysen tightened his hold on me. “You saved Kai’s life today. I’ll never forget what you did for us.”
Hope transformed Joseph’s dull expression.
“I know I have great deal to make amends for. I would like to try—”
I was distracted by Bri’s raised voice.
“Tell me what you know!” Bri shouted at Pruwist. “Where’s my niece?!”
Pruwist looked past Bri. His unfocused gaze fixed on Gray and me. His lip curled.
Even though he was dying, his hatred for us was very much alive.
“You’re barely even adults,” he sneered. “You have no business being in charge of an entire city. Boston should have been mine!”
His bitterness gave
him strength. He struggled into a sitting position, one hand clamped over his wound.
“I should have been the Director. Me!” He spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor.
For some reason, that did nothing to improve my lack of sympathy. I watched, almost impassively, as Pruwist pointed an accusatory finger at Gray and me.
“I planned everything perfectly. I let the UnAllied run amok in the city so the people of Boston would turn to me to save them. It should have been me!”
His words slurred a little, but they were still clear.
Pruwist continued his rant. “When you started your pathetic little campaign against me, I thought the UnAllied would kill you. And you had to go and fuck even that up!”
I bit down on the inside of my cheek to hold back my own furious response. A muscle flexed in Gray’s jaw, and I knew it was taking every ounce of self-control he had to do the same.
Pruwist had put lives…our whole city…at risk for the sake of his campaign.
Once again, someone in a position of authority had abused his power. Shocker.
Under different circumstances, I would have given Gray an I told you so.
“You ruined everything!” Flecks of blood and spittle flew from Pruwist’s lips. “I even helped the Enforcers track you down, but they were too damn incompetent to get the job done.”
A small, furious sound came from deep inside me.
“I deserve to be Director,” he gasped.
My mouth twisted in disgust. This man represented everything I hated about the Alliance. He would have let our city be destroyed, just so he could sit behind an oak desk in the Director’s mansion.
I was watching the life seep out of him, and I didn’t feel a shred of pity. The only emotion I could summon was loathing.
At that moment, Michael and A.J. came running into the room.
They both froze when they caught sight of Pruwist dying and Subject 6’s corpse. Michael’s eyes bugged out, while A.J.’s mouth formed into the shape of an O.
There was no time to explain what had happened.
Bri sank down on one titanium knee and grasped Pruwist’s collar. She hauled him off the floor until he was face-to-face with her.
“Where are the Mag slaves?” she asked in a deceptively calm voice.
Mag Subject 6 (Mags & Nats Book 2) Page 37