as'
ha
before I had any
e far corner of my mind. Cla
le hard, palms slapping down beside th
nd pressed against my own chest. Something hollow s
Sienna, stretched
her, one steady line. Each drop str
nt fail? Answer m
and betrayed her. She slid a second vial under the velvet lining of her tray. Go
nch the fabric in my fist. Her mouth worked open and sh
e stammered, should
gasping, one hand catching a cart hard enough toy body screamed the
and of hair off her damp forehead. Pressed my ear flat agai
g came
life was fading into something closer to a memory in the ster
d felt insufficient. Too small fo
hen the bo
sudden and total, like watchi
ibs, carrying my own regret back to me like an infection. It pulled a
I stared at Ivy's mo
llowed twisted some
Not because I wanted her there. Because
h tasted
myself for needing to feel anything at all. My
t it did. "Wipe everything in this facility. If one
's composure. "Her pulse is thready. She will survive, i
around Ivy's wrist. Her bon
d?. She is a corpse in
's eyes without ever spilling ov
chest that wasn't rising or falling anymore. "She was supposed to survive. The he
d on the body while her mouth stayed shut. "If she is not dead, it i
later. Calm, in a way that made it obvious she
t me, something close to con
bring her inside and handle the Council." A pause. Then her voice shifted toward I
ached from how hard I'd be
ery step I took. She weighed almost nothing, less than nothing, while
ut, her voice barely reaching me. "Let us see ho
e days
na's
as ready for it. Harsh. Unfiltered. Nothing
y and hated just as fast. Antiseptic. Plastic. The particula
an even pace. Someone pacing with the patience of a
e. Walls with no windows. Machines blinking somewhere off
n't left their territory. I was still trapped
n the extraction, then Lucas's face gone empty of everythi
deways beneath me. My hand shot out and caught the bedfranothing like strength. More like ice, creepi
ugh the fog. I was still breath
or swu
ake. Thank
his voice, and somehow th
her's exile as a kind of punishment. Gray had crept further into his hair since
ble without touching me. "Your body is still recov
ce before he caught it. His eyes
eyes,
own clinging uncomfortably to my skin. "Here to finish his wo
reached for the gauze, then se
up, his fingers trembled slightly as he wrapped my wrist. "I could not stop the
re cheap
somewhere past my shoulder. "They ha
h scraped its way out of my throat, dry an
me across the blanket, fabric soft, unremarkable. "Go to the mir
egs and locked the door behind me. The clic
flaking at the edges, dissolving into nothing. Somewhere underneath my skin, the bond still pulsed faintly along a thin, bur
ed up into
blue. An actual metallic silver, catchin
eyes that had changed. My hair had shifted too, pale strands falling over my shoulders in a shade I'd
came out barely aud
t my mother's face. The one from the hidden photographs my father kept from me, images I w
cross the ceiling's corner, holding perfectly stil
Goddess fin
nly where she
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