Chapter 39

I SHOVE OPEN the door to Meeting Room A.

Empty.

I stagger to Meeting Room C and twist the handle.

Locked.

In the emergency room, I can hear Front Desk Lady calling for security. I shouldn’t have told her there’s danger. I’m running out of time.

I step back and thrust out my hand. Sparks blast the knob into smithereens, and I slam the door open.

Zahira is sitting on one side of the meeting table. She flinches back and stares at me, her eyes overflowing with tears and surprise.

I turn to the other side of the table.

Lilian.

She stands up so quickly her chair clatters back. “Dany—”

I send sparks exploding before her, and she crashes back. Zahira cries out, scrambling to her feet, and when she looks at me, her eyes are filled with horror. Just like that night, when I saved her in the alley.

“Dany,” she begins, in a wavering voice.

I say, “We have to go.”

I turn and march back down the hall. Behind me, I hear Zahira hurrying to follow.

“Wait,” she says. “Wait, Dany, you’re hurt.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I grit out. “You’re driving.”

“But…” she stammers. “Aaron—he was hurt, and they took him—”

“We don’t need him.”

“Dany—”

I march out the emergency entrance and search the parking lot for JJ’s blue car, but of course it isn’t here. It’s still in Suddence, at the edge of the endless pit, broken and dead. I remember Zahira’s promise to bring it back before JJ’s date, and despite the pain in my leg and my side, the broken promise is the one that hurts the most. I did this. It’s my fault.

But this will all be over soon. Just a few more hours, and I’ll be out of their lives forever.

We’re halfway across the parking lot when I hear a van door sliding open. Two of Them melt out from between the cars and block our way. I pull back to release a volley of sparks, but behind me, Lilian shouts, “Dany!”

Zahira whirls around to face her, but I keep my glare pinned on the goons in front of us.

“Get out of my way,” I warn.

I hear Lilian stepping closer, limping slightly. “Dany,” she says. Pleads. “We can talk about this, alright? You’re hurt. You’ve been through a lot. I know you’re scared, but I won’t hurt you.”

“Dany,” Zahira whispers.

I ball my fists. “Tell them to get out of my way,” I call back.

Lilian lets out an exasperated breath. “Dany…”

“Tell them to get out of my way,” I say again, harder, sharper. I raise my hands, and the goons falter back. “You know what I can do.”

The parking lot goes silent, but everything is pulled taut. The roar of blood in my ears. The prickling numbness clawing up my arms. The goons’ eyes flickering between me and my hands. My seething breaths, my heart thundering in my chest. All of it, pulled tight, ready to snap. Someone has to let go, and it isn’t going to be me.

And Lilian says, “Let them go.”

The goons look at her with surprise. She takes a wavering breath and says, “It’s okay. Let them go.”

The goons back off. I watch them, making sure they aren’t planning to try anything, before I step forward, heading for their van. Zahira lingers behind, still looking at Lilian, and I grab her sleeve and drag her along. She doesn’t fight, not really, but her boots catch on the pavement like she doesn’t want to come.

I peer through the van’s window. The key is still in the ignition.

We get in the car, and I keep my eyes on Lilian through the windshield. She’s still standing at the emergency entrance, looking at me with pleading in her eyes. Behind her, the security guards are finally arriving, staring confused at the scene.

“Go,” I tell Zahira, and she starts the engine.

We peel out of the lot. My eyes stay on Lilian, watching her resigned figure get smaller and smaller.

And then we turn a corner, and she’s gone.