Chapter 25

“TURN IT OFF.” Zahira says it so quietly it makes me scared. I’m not sure what of. Just scared.

I guess it scares Aaron too because he does as he’s told. His big owl eyes are on me. So are Zahira’s, even as she goes to turn on the lights. My stare is glued to the screen. The TV is off now, but the headline is seared into my brain.

One body identified.

Marisa Lane.

The news anchor was saying no other bodies have been identified yet. But after a thorough search of the wreckage, there are no signs of the child Lane had abducted.

And there is no doubt Zahira and Aaron saw much, much more than that.

For a long time, Zahira just looks at me. Just looks. It’s a look that says Why the hell didn’t you tell me?

I say, “I thought you knew.”

Oh. That’s not convincing at all.

“You lied to me,” she says, her anger steeping. “You said nobody was after you.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You said you were safe. You said I didn’t need to worry. Dany, this whole time, you didn’t tell me every cop in the country is looking for you.”

“I didn’t think it mattered.” And it shouldn’t have mattered. Because if everything went according to plan, if the car hadn’t broken down, we wouldn’t be here. Zahira would never see this news, and by the time she realized who I am, she would have already dropped me off, and I would already be in Suddence and long, long gone.

“Doesn’t matter?” Her voice hooks up violently, and she has to wrestle it down before JJ comes barging in asking what’s wrong. “You think the fact that the cops are actively looking for you doesn’t matter?”

“Okay, well, you know now, so what are you going to do about it?” I snap. “Nothing! You can’t do anything! There was no point telling you! You would have just gotten scared and run away!”

She growls and clutches the sides of her face, like there’s too much she wants to scream at me and she wishes she could just claw the words out and hurl them.

I don’t have time for this.

I stomp over to my backpack and snatch it up. I was stupid enough to unpack this time, and I have to go over to the bathroom to grab my toothbrush.

When I turn to leave, Zahira is blocking my way out.

“Dany,” she says. “What are you doing?”

“You’re not going to help me anymore, right?” I say. “I’m leaving.”

“I never said that.”

“You were all freaked out!”

“Because you didn’t tell me the truth!”

“So you would have helped me?” I say. “If you knew the cops were after me, you still would have helped me?”

She stutters over her answer, which means it’s a big, fat, NO.

I could have ducked under her arm, but I choose to shove past her.

“Dany.” She snatches my backpack, and I try to yank it back, but it pulls something in my side and my hands loosen in the sudden jolt of pain. Zahira holds my backpack far behind her and says, “I’m not letting you go out there by yourself.”

“I don’t need you to let me do anything.” I grab for my backpack, but she holds me away by my shoulder, gripping my hoodie so hard I’m sure it’ll be misshapen for life. “Give it back!”

“Dany!” She drops my backpack, and she’s lucky there isn’t anything fragile inside because otherwise I would have lost it. She grabs both my shoulders, sinking down to her knees so I can see in her eyes that she’s all business. “Dany. Stop it!”

I tear myself out of her grip and stagger back, and I must have finally gotten Marisa’s glare down because Zahira shrinks away.

“Give it back,” I say again.

“Is it true?”

“What?”

“That you were kidnapped?”

“No!”

“Then why did they say that? Why did they say that on the news?”

I don’t want to answer. My side is burning and I feel the numb tingling of sparks crawling up my arms and I’m dizzy with anger, but I keep my glare as steady as I can.

“What happened at the high school?” she asks. “Were you there when it happened? Is that how you got hurt?”

“Just give me my backpack,” I snap.

She clenches up her hands like she wants to hammer them down, but in the end she just releases a groan of a sigh and drops them at her sides.

“I want to help you,” she says. Slowly, like it’s taking everything to keep her anger at bay. “I want to get you to Ornament City. I want to make sure you’re safe. But I need the truth. You don’t have to tell me your entire life story. I just want to know the truth.”

My arms are burning up to my shoulders. Up to my collarbones. All the way down my spine. But it’s hard to do my breathing exercises when Zahira is staring at me like she wants to peel me apart and search my pulp for answers.

“Dany.” Her voice is a lot softer now, though still simmering. “What happened at the high school?”

 I can’t look at her. I just stare at my backpack, trying hard to ignore the blackness creeping in the corners of my eyes.

“Did she do that?”

“No,” I say sharply.

“Then who did?”

She waits. And somehow that’s worse than the question.

I spit out, “There were people after me, okay?”

“The cops?”

“No.” I hate that she doesn’t get it. I hate that I have to explain it. I wish she could just magically know and I wouldn’t have to say any of it. “People. Doctors. They pretended I got kidnapped so the cops would look for me, and they got us in the high school and—and—” And my voice crumbles.

After a while, Zahira says, quietly, “What happened to Marisa?”

Oh, no. Oh, no no no. I can feel my insides crumpling, a sharp pain growing in my chest until I double over, gasping. No, Dany. Don’t cry. Keep yourself together. Don’t do it. Don’t cry.

“Dany. Dany.” Zahira grips my shoulders, holding me steady. “Dany. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Hey. Look.”

I don’t want to look. My tears are hot on my cheeks, and I don’t want her to see me like this. But when I lift my head, I see the sympathy in her eyes is real, and it makes me want to crumple again.

“Dany,” she says. “Are they still after you?”

I swallow a sob and nod.

“What would they do if they found us?”

Us. There isn’t supposed to be an us. I shouldn’t have asked Zahira for help. I should just go right now and leave her out of it. Her and JJ and Aaron. But I need to get to Suddence, and I can’t do it on my own, and I don’t know what I would do if I can’t get there, and—

“Dany,” Zahira says firmly. “I’m not going to run away. I’m not going to leave you. But I need to know. What are they going to do?”

“They’ll take me.” I say, the words like acid in my chest. “And they’ll kill you.”