by Tracey Ward
“No. Your mass destruction technique didn’t help me last time, it won’t help me this time. I worry you could get her killed. I need more… finesse.”
“You want me to do what your dad wanted me to do,” I guess.
“In a way. I want you to Slip into her cell, take hold of her, and Slip her back out.”
“You’re using my word.”
“I want to make sure you understand,” he replies heavily.
“Why don’t you just do it?”
Again, silence.
“You can’t take people with you?” I ask, knowing it has to be wrong. He moved James a couple times.
“I can. However, as you already know, I can’t go anywhere I haven’t been before.”
“You’ve never been to her cell?”
“I’ve never been allowed inside, no.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“When it wasn’t through a pane of glass? I honestly can’t remember.” He coughs, clearing his throat. “Which is why I need you, unfortunately. You and your ability to go where you’ve never been.”
I want to gloat. I want to rub it in his face that I can do so much more with our ability than he can, especially now that I’m learning to control it, but I hold back. I remind myself what it feels like to be helpless. Powerless.
“It’s still a little rough,” I warn him. “I’m not very precise yet.”
“You were fairly precise only yesterday evening.”
“I had immediate incentive and I only Slipped places I’d already been before. I don’t know that I can make it to a room in a place I’ve never seen.”
“I’ll bring you to the clinic. I’ll take you to the cell where Naomi is being held. You’ll stand in a room adjacent to hers. You’ll see her through the window. Such a short leap would be manageable even for you, I’d think.”
“Be more condescending. It turns me on.”
“You’ll Slip her out of the cell back to me,” he continues, ignoring me and my tone. “Then I’ll give you Nick and everyone goes their separate ways.”
“Nope,” I say firmly, not willing to fall for his tricks. “Nick will be there when I get her out. The exchange will happen on the spot. I won’t pull her out of that cell unless Nick is standing right there.”
“I can agree to that.”
“Good, ‘cause that’s the only way it’s happening.”
“So long as it finally is happening. You succeed or you get nothing.”
“How did you expect me to do this in the clinic on the island?” I ask curiously. I had no control over my abilities, and Nick wasn’t there with us yet so Liam had nothing to hang over my head. Maybe he thought I’d do it out of the goodness of my heart—and who knows? If he’d asked me before I found out the truth, maybe I would have.
“I had hoped you had more control than we thought,” he explains. “I was stunned to find you didn’t. Your connection to Nick, however, gave me hope and a new idea.”
“He was pulling me to him. How would that help you?”
“I’m referring to when you brought him to you.”
“That wasn’t until the day we escaped.”
“Not that time. The first time.”
My gut clenches. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t be coy. I like to think we’re past that.”
“How do you know about that? Your dad didn’t even know about it.”
“I hid it.”
“What? How?”
“All reports on the tracking of mobile phones were immediately routed to me. My father is a brilliant man, but technology has never been his friend. He didn’t bother himself with information gathered from text messages or GPS tracking. He left that all to me to sort out—to discover importance and disregard the meaningless. When you suddenly went from your home in Nebraska to the AFB in Arizona where Nick was stationed, I was the only one to see it and the only one to understand it.”
“That’s why your dad believed me when I said I’d never moved someone so seamlessly before.”
“Oh, he didn’t believe it. But he also couldn’t disprove it—not that he knew of.”
“Why did you hide it from him?”
“Because it seemed as though it could be useful someday. When I realized in the clinic that you were genuinely unable to control your ability, I devised a new plan.”
“What was the new plan?”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“I don’t like half of what comes out of your mouth, so it doesn’t really matter.”
“I encouraged Naomi to enter your dreams.”
“Say what?” I ask, shocked.
“I told her to reach out to you. To try to encounter you in the dreamscape and ask you for help.”
“Can she do that?”
“It appears not. At least not the way you and Nick are able. She tried and failed.”
“Why did you think she could do it?”
“Her ability combined with yours would suggest it was possible. Much like you and Nick.”
“She’s fearless like Nick?”
“Not quite. They’re similar, but no…no they’re not the same.”
“Kind of like us?”
He chuckles bitterly. “Very much like us. And just like us, one is fully functional and living a carefree life while the other is trapped in a perpetual hell.”
“I don’t know which of us is in hell in this scenario.”
“If you can’t tell, rest assured it’s not you. Were you in hell, love, you’d know it. Trust me.”
“Wait, her trying to get into my brain—is that why I had nightmares so much there?”
“It was a byproduct of her attempts to contact you in a dream, yes.”
“You rotten son of a—”
“They were only dreams.”
“They were horrifying!”
“As is her specialty.”
“Whoa. What does that mean?”
“Hopefully you’ll never have cause to find out,” he answers cryptically. “Do you have a pen at the ready? I’m going to give you the address to where we’ll meet, and I’d just as soon not have to repeat myself.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nick
Liam shows up six hours later to move me to a different room.
He awkwardly ushers me down the hall with a gun.
I consider taking it from him, forcing my answer out of him, and leaving this place.
Instead I let him lead me to a cell with a cot and a urinal.
I let him lock the door.
As I lay down on the cot, I roll the stone over my knuckles one at a time.
I wait.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Alex
I don’t like malls. They’re loud, they’re crowded, they’re too bright, but most of all they remind me of Christmas. Of shopping. Of Santa. They remind me of trees and presents. Of Cara.
“You came alone?”
I don’t look at Liam as he sits down on the bench beside me. “What makes you say that?”
“Because you’re alone.”
“I’m sure I’m as alone as you are.”
“Hmm.”
“Why the Mall of America? What made you pick this place?”
“I considered the top of the Empire State Building, but I thought you’d worry I’d throw you off.”
“Would you have?”
“I’m not nearly as diabolical as you make me out to be.”
I close my eyes for a second, reminding myself to play at least halfway nice. He has Nick, after all. He has everything. “Have you been there before?”
“New York, yes. The building, no.”
“How would you manage to meet me there then?”
He eyes me, gaging me. “They have these curious new inventions that scale the interior of a building to land you easily at the top. Sound as pounds.”
“I’ll look into it. Sounds insane.”
“They may have them here. I c
ould enlighten you.”
“Did you hurt him?” I ask on impulse, feeling my stomach flip.
Liam looks away. “No.”
“Are you going to?”
“Are you going to do your part?”
“Yes.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about.”
I laugh dryly. “That has never been true for me.”
“Are you ready?”
“When you are.”
He stands, turning to face me. I’m surprised by how pale he looks, how tired and drawn. He’s still a drop-dead handsome guy, but there’s something missing from him. I have to stop myself from asking him if he’s okay. From caring what the answer is.
I walk with him through the mall, past the brightly lit stores, and I think how odd it is that no one gives us a second glance. Two people who can bend the light of the world. Who can pull back the veil of reality, step through the chasm, and come out the other side. To them we’re nothing more than a girl with messy hair and a guy with tired eyes.
He takes me to the hallway leading to an emergency exit and the bathrooms. I stare at him blankly when he opens the door to the single unisex family stall.
“Seriously?” I ask.
He sighs. “I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
It’s not what I’m worried about. I don’t like the idea of going in here and having whatever security that’s watching on camera think I’m going inside a bathroom to have a quickie in a mall with a guy I just met. It’s going to look like I’m a whore—and I know it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but deep down it matters to me. It matters to all women who value themselves beyond a couple drinks and some generic compliments.
It also matters because I don’t want him thinking I’m afraid. I don’t want him thinking he has the upper hand here.
I push past him, whispering into his face, “I’d love to see you try.”
“You’ve grown quite confident, haven’t you?” he asks as he closes the door behind him.
I flinch when he throws the lock.
“I have reason to be.”
“I certainly hope so.” He holds out his hands to me. “I assume you’ll protest to us touching but I’m afraid there’s no other way, so maybe we could bypass the dance and get down to business.”
“I bet you say that to girls a lot,” I mumble, reluctantly taking his hands.
They’re large and shockingly soft.
“Which part?”
“The aversion to touching you.”
He smirks, his eyes taking on a spark of the man I remember from the clinic. The one with the aloof, charming smile. The one I accused of being a very shady Kennedy. The one that made me laugh.
“You’ll never believe it,” he tells me, his voice low and resonant, “but you’re the first.”
“I’m guessing Naomi never said it,” I reply, going out on a limb.
The spark fades. His face and voice turn tired. “Naomi doesn’t say much of anything at all.”
The Slip with Liam is… weird. It’s like piggybacking on someone else’s dream, and I know that doesn’t make much sense but I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s surreal. It’s disorienting. It feels the same with the champagne bubbles and the burst of energy inside my blood, but it’s more subdued than my Slips. Much more smooth, much more precise, but it’s also lacking something.
It’s vanilla is what it is. Maybe French vanilla, because it’s still Slipping and it’s still amazing, but it’s also still vanilla.
When he releases me and I open my eyes, I want to scream.
“Oh man,” I breathe. “This is familiar.”
The blank walls, the white floors, the lines and lines of doors with no markers and no meaning but more secrets hidden behind them than at Fort friggin’ Knox. It’s everything the clinic in the Behring Sea was, right down to the smell. I can’t describe it because it’s nothing, and maybe that’s why it sticks with you: it smells like nothing. No cologne or perfume, no one’s deodorant or fabric softener. No dust, no cleaners, no chemicals. Nothing. Eerie, awful nothing.
I shiver violently.
“Are you going to be sick?” Liam asks.
I shake my head, hugging myself. “No. I’m fine. You’re very… it was a smooth ride.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice.” He gestures for me to follow him. “Come this way.”
“We’re going to get Nick, right?”
“No.”
I immediately stop walking. “That was the deal.”
He stops as well, but he doesn’t turn. “I will honor the agreement. You’ll leave with Nick Carver.”
“Alive? Both of us?”
“Yes.”
“Why can’t we go get him now?”
He turns to me, his face pinched with annoyance. “Because I’m as distrusting of you as you are of me. I have no guarantees that you’ll stay to follow through on our bargain once you’re able to leave with him, and I can’t inject you to hinder your Slips because I need your ability to free Naomi. I have waited years for this moment. I’ve planned and plotted, I’ve played my part, and now I need you to play yours. We have a finite window of time, and if you want to leave this place as quickly as you possibly can, I suggest we get moving. Now.”
There’s a desperate urgency to his words that moves me down the hall behind him. I’m not sure he’ll take me to Nick, but I am sure I won’t leave without him. I’ll do what Liam asks, I’ll keep my promise, and if I don’t get what was promised to me at the end, I’ll destroy this entire building. I’ll find a way to go into a dream and bring out every monster my mind can make up. I’ll tear every door from its hinges until I find him.
Until he’s free.
“She’s in here,” Liam whispers.
He uses a keycard to open a nondescript door in the middle of the hallway. It clicks loudly and swings open to reveal a small gray room with a single chair in the middle. On the wall in front of the chair is a window. It spans the entire wall, from floor to ceiling, and on the other side is another room. It’s small and plain, even though it’s blue instead of drab gray or blinding white. There’s a basic bed, a more comfortable-looking chair, and a plush cream rug.
In the center of the rug is a girl.
She’s fragile-looking, with thin white wrists and long, delicate fingers. Her shoulders are hunched, her entire body curling inward on itself like she’s collapsing under the weight of the air around her. She has the prettiest flaxen hair I’ve ever seen. It’s shiny to the point of looking fake. It’s too perfect to be real, and when she looks up, when it parts across her face to reveal tired blue eyes and a familiar nose, I gasp.
“She’s your sister,” I whisper breathlessly.
Liam comes to stand beside me. “Yes. Naomi is my baby sister.”
It hits me so hard it almost takes me to the floor. This is what he’s been doing this entire time. This is what he was working for, lying for, scheming for. He was trying to save his sister. His baby sister.
It’s so close to home, to Cara and I on the couch, that I can hardly breathe.
“How much younger?” I choke.
“Almost seven years.”
“She’s my age.”
“Yes.”
I take a slow step toward the window. “Can she see me?”
“Yes. It’s not a one way mirror. This is how I visit her.”
I glance back at him, my throat clenching. “And you said you can’t remember the last time this glass wasn’t between you?”
He shakes his head tightly. “No. I think she was eight, but I can’t be sure. It’s been too long.”
I turn back to the window, my eyes finding Naomi’s. She stares back blankly. “Can she hear me?”
“Yes.”
I smile faintly as I lift my hand to wave at her. “Hi.”
Nothing.
“She’s not very responsive,” Liam explains, sounding oddly defensive. “She’s been alone a lot.”
“That�
�s understandable.”
“Will you help me free her now?”
“Why is she in there?”
He doesn’t answer me.
I stare into Naomi’s expectant eyes, and suddenly it seems like such a big red flag. For some reason I wonder whether or not I want to go into that room. I wonder if I’ll ever get out if I do.
“I need to know, Liam.” I turn to face him. “I need to—”
Nick is standing in the doorway.
My heart flies out of my chest and expands through the room until it’s too small for any of us. Until the air is gone and I’m dizzy and breathless. When I see him I smile so hard it hurts. When I see he’s not hurt I choke back a sob that begs to burst out.
When I see Dr. Evans and three guards appear in the hallway behind him, I nearly collapse with fear.
Instead I lash out.
“You son of a bitch!” I scream, lunging at Liam.
It’s too many emotions all at once. I’ve gone off the deep end. I know this is a fight I can’t win. I can’t handle Liam with his abilities, three guards with guns, and Dr. Evans with his walkie talkie running a direct line to every ounce of security in this place.
But just because I’m facing overwhelming odds and have zero chance of succeeding, that doesn’t mean I can’t try. It doesn’t mean I can’t scratch the face off the guy who betrayed me for the second time.
Liam grabs my wrists as my hands come at his face. He stops one but not the other. I claw an angry line of red down his cheek and onto his chest before he can push me away. The sight of his blood rising to the surface sends a satisfied chill down my spine.
“Are you crazy?!” Liam shouts at me. He presses his palm to his face, scowling when it comes back with traces of blood on it.
“You screwed me again, you psycho!” I shout back. I point inside the cell. “That girl is a trap, isn’t she? You brought me here, played the sisterly love card, and tried to trick me into Slipping into a cell. How would it stop me from getting out, huh? Were you going to make me watch you torture Nick in here until I broke? Until I agreed to anything you wanted?” I lunge at him again, this time being stopped by one of the guards, who grabs me around the waist and holds me back. “I’ll kill you! You better never come near me again, because if you do I swear on everything sacred that I will kill you!”