Chapter 33

IT TAKES EVERYTHING to pull my mind out of the darkness. It keeps slipping back, but I hold tight. Fingers digging into it. Dragging it forward. Dragging it up, out of the mud.

Breaking the surface feels slow. Not a gasp of air, but treading water, still sinking, still fighting.

A shard of a thought carves through the sludge. “Where’s…” My lips press together, starting to form the wrong name, and it jolts me out of the mud a little more. “Where’s…where’s…”

I try to sit up, but a hand presses over my shoulder.

“Hey, it’s okay,” says a voice I don’t recognize.

I force my eyes to open.

Sirens.

Ambulance.

EMT.

I blink at the rest of the car, my eyelids too heavy to stay open. One other EMT. Nobody else.

Where’s…where’s…

Zahira.

I lurch up, and something pinches across my chest. A strap. There’s one over my thighs, too, and my hoodie is unzipped and my shirt is lifted to make room for a bulk of fresh bandages. My mind screams from the pain of moving, and suddenly I’m wide awake.

“Where is she?” I demand. “Where is she?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” EMT #1 says, putting a hand out to calm me down. “She’s not here anymore. You’re safe.”

I struggle against the straps. I call for my sparks, but I feel weak. Empty. I sink back down, closing my eyes like that might stop the pain or make me feel better or do anything.

“I know you’re scared,” EMT #1 is saying, through the buzzing in my ears, “but you’re safe now. We’re on the way to the hospital. You’re going to be okay.”

My eyes are suddenly hot with tears. I try to blink them back, but it’s impossible. I was almost there. I almost made it. And now everything’s all wrong, and I don’t know how far I am from Suddence, and I don’t know where they took Zahira and Aaron. I can still hear Zahira’s scream in my ears. Dany, wait!

But I left them. I betrayed them. And now they’re paying for it.

“Kid,” EMT #1 says carefully. “I’m going to ask you some questions, okay? This will help when we get to the hospital. The doctors there will know how to take care of you. Is that alright?”

I release a shaky breath and stare straight at the double doors.

“Here’s an easy one,” he says. “Can you tell me your name?”

I glance at EMT #2. She’s busy checking the machines, but she flashes me a reassuring smile when she sees me looking.

I take a deep breath to calm my tears and say, “Dany.”

EMT #1 seems surprised, and I don’t understand why. “Okay,” he says. “Dany. Can you tell me how much pain you’re in, on a scale of one to ten?”

“Two,” I lie.

“And can you tell me how you got hurt?”

I stare stubbornly ahead. I don’t know what it was. A shard of wood. Or glass. Or light. It came and went, and the pain was sharp, and that’s all I know.

EMT #1 presses his lips together. “Okay. Um. How long ago was it when you got hurt?”

There’s a deep heaviness behind my eyes, and my lungs are aching to cry, but I clench my fists and bite it all back. “A few days.” I feel tears coming again and manage to blink hard against them. “Where are they? The woman and the man who were with me?”

“You don’t have to worry about them anymore,” EMT #1 soothes. “They’re gone now. You’re safe.”

“No. I need to know.” I hold his eyes. He has to see that I mean it. “Please. I just…I need to know.”

He sighs and leans back, sadness or pity or something just as useless in his eyes. “I’m sorry, kid. I don’t know.”

I lie back, squeezing my eyes shut. I want to scream my frustration. I want to smash out the double doors and track Zahira and Aaron down myself. But I know I’m not strong enough for that. Not yet.

I remember the surprise on EMT #1’s face when I told him my name. Only now am I piecing together why.

He knows who I am. He knows I’m the kid everyone is looking for. He knows my name, my old name from the posters. The name he expected me to say.

And he must have called it in. He must have reported it to the hospital, or worse, the cops.

And that means They know where I am now.

My mind is racing, but there’s nothing I can do. Nothing except lie here and grit my teeth and wait for my sparks to come back.

I don’t know how I’m going to find Aaron and Zahira.

But I know I have to find them before They do.