第7章

Evelyn's POV

The underground PA system crackled to life.

"Level Four candidate's vitals declining. Advancing core-biopsy preparation."

On the other side of the wall, Finn's tapping stopped.

I looked up. The countdown had just jumped to 23:59:59.

Ward reclassified the six children.

Asher was labeled Group Control. Blake, Aggression. Caleb, Psychic Manipulation. Dylan and Eli were filed under Concealment and Environmental Disruption. Finn's file read: "Highest core value. Lowest stability."

"After observation ends, they'll be sent to six states." Ward fanned the files out in front of me. "Siblings will be permanently banned from contact to prevent group resonance."

"They were just protecting each other."

"Dangerous organisms also protect their group."

She forced me to stand behind one-way glass and watch their so-called tests.

Blake was strapped to a chair while staff banged a baton against the table, over and over, until he bared his fangs. Caleb was sealed in a room of blinding light and piercing noise. Dylan and Eli were shoved into pitch-black, narrow boxes. Finn lay under a breathing mask, a red circle drawn on his chest.

Every time a child reacted, the observer added a point to the risk score. They never documented what the staff had done, only what the children did. When Blake held back a snarl, Ward ordered the baton strikes louder. The moment the twins stopped crying, cold air was blasted into the black boxes. The final report listed only "bared fangs" and "produced cold fog."

Asher suddenly looked into the camera. "I made them do it."

He squared his shoulders and stepped in front of all five brothers.

"I told them to save that boy, and I told them to fight back. Punish me. Let them go."

Ward had him placed in a colder, transparent observation box.

I threw myself at the door. A guard pinned me from behind. The instant his knee drove into my ribs, I heard something crack inside me. The old injury had torn wide open.

On the other side of the glass, Asher pounded the door in a frenzy. I couldn't hear what he was shouting, and he couldn't hear me.

Ward played a recording for the children.

My voice came through the speakers: "I agree... to separate them..."

It had been spliced. What I'd actually said was "I did not agree to separate them."

The six children stared at the recording device. None of them said a word.

Ward leaned over me. "They already know you don't want them."

"They won't believe you."

"Children believe what they see with their own eyes. You're here. They're in there. After dawn, you'll never see them again."

Sarah came to treat my ribs. Her hands were trembling.

She angled her body to block the camera and wrote a number on the back of the gauze.

Twenty percent.

"If Finn gets the core biopsy now, his survival rate is under twenty percent." She pressed close to my ear. "The original servers will be wiped at midnight. I can only save one backup."

Footsteps sounded outside. She immediately returned to a normal volume. "Please don't touch the wound."

Ward pushed the permanent guardianship transfer form in front of me.

"Sign, and Finn will receive stabilizing treatment. Refuse, and the biopsy happens at midnight. By dawn, the other five will be loaded onto separate vans."

I looked at every camera in every corner of the room.

I stopped begging Ward to let them go. I looked directly into the nearest camera and spoke every word clearly. If even one recording survived, people on the outside would know I'd refused.

"I refuse."

Ward's smile faded.

I repeated myself, word by word. "I have not consented to any experiment, and I have not given up my children. I will not sign this document."

She shut off the room's audio feed. What she didn't know was that the hallway, the visitation room, and the body cameras had already captured my voice.

To terminate my visitation rights, Ward fabricated a toxicology report claiming I'd been dosing the children with veterinary drugs over a long period. Deputy Garrett noticed that the report was dated before the samples were taken. He finally grew suspicious, but he still did not intervene. He only copied the original body-camera cache to a private hard drive.

Meanwhile, Cassian found ten months of heartbeat charts in my pregnancy journal at the cabin.

Every child's temperature, food intake, and ability response was logged clearly by date. Tucked into the last page was a receipt for seven dinner bowls.

The data team reported at the same time. "Of the twelve facilities, three show anomalous cooling power in the same time window. The load at the Blackpine location matches exactly six suppression chambers."

Seraphina remotely cut Cassian's access to the Serpent Council's search system.

Cassian didn't request it back.

He took a federal inspector and an independent medical team and boarded the plane.

Alarms suddenly erupted throughout the underground level at St. Grace. When Ward learned an outside investigation was closing in, the warmth finally dropped from her face.

"Move up the biopsy."

The countdown plunged from eight hours, twelve minutes, and forty-three seconds to one hour and thirty minutes.

Six transport pods were rolled into the corridor.

Ward leaned down and told me, "In ninety minutes, you'll lose the youngest first. Then the other five, forever."