LOGINChapter 259BIANCAThe dark held for three seconds, maybe four, before the lights came back.When they did, they were dimmer than before, the kind of dim that meant something in the building's wiring had taken damage and was running on whatever backup existed for a place like this. Theo hadn't moved. His question was still sitting in the room between us, unanswered, and I understood that I couldn't let the explosion be the thing that let me off the hook for it."That's a fair question," I said. "I'm not going to dodge it because the lights did something dramatic."He watched me. Waiting.I had thought, in the months since I left, about how I would answer this if I ever got the chance. I had built versions of the answer in my head the way you build versions of a speech you hope you never have to give. Most of those versions were better than the truth. Most of them gave me more credit than I deserved.I wasn't going to use any of them."I let you believe I was dead," I said. "That part
Chapter 258BIANCA"And she said that's what I am," I said. "Something built to look like her.""She didn't have to say it," Theo said. "I saw it."I let that sit a second."I'm not going to tell you what you saw wasn't real," I said. "I believe you saw exactly what you're describing. I think Voss wanted you to see it. I think she wanted you to see it right before she put me in front of you, so that whatever I said next, you'd already have decided it didn't matter."Theo's jaw moved, the specific small motion of a child working very hard not to show he was listening."That doesn't mean you are real either," he said. "It just means she's smart.""That's true," I said. "It doesn't prove anything. I know that."I didn't move closer. I kept my hands where he could see them, resting on my own knees, and I let the quiet come back in instead of chasing him with more words. He needed room more than he needed convincing. I had learned that from him months ago, through a glass door he didn't
Chapter 257BIANCATheo was on the floor.He was sitting against the wall, knees up, arms around them, and next to him, on his back, unmoving, was a man I didn't know. Dark hair. Breathing slow and even in the specific rhythm of deep sedation, the same rhythm I had just come up out of myself. This had to be Callahan. I had heard the name through walls. I had not pictured a face.Theo's eyes came up when I came through the door.I stopped where I was. I did not go to him fast. I had learned that much about him even from a distance, through months of watching pieces of his life I was not supposed to see — that fast was the wrong speed for almost everything with him."Theo," I said.He looked at me.Then he looked away. Down at the man beside him, at Callahan's chest moving, and he put his hand near the man's hand the way you'd guard something. He did not look back at me."It's me," I said. Quiet. "I'm here."Nothing."Theo."He still did not look at me, and the not-looking had a weight
Chapter 256MATTHEWThe house was dark when I pulled into the drive.Not late-dark, not the ordinary dark of a house where everyone's gone up to bed. Wrong-dark. No kitchen light. No hallway light. Cal kept lights on. He'd told me once, early on, that a lit house was a house where you could see who was in it, and he never let it go fully dark before Theo was down for the night.I sat in the car for one second too long, telling myself I was being careful rather than scared.Then I went in."Cal?"Nothing."Theo?"The silence had a texture to it. The specific silence of a house that nobody is currently in, which is different from the silence of a house where people are simply quiet.I went through it fast. Kitchen — empty, the apple core on the table, Cal's mug by the sink, untouched coffee gone cold. Living room — empty, the dinosaurs out on the floor in mid-formation, abandoned rather than finished. Upstairs — Theo's room empty, the bed made from this morning, the night-light off beca
Chapter 255THEOVoss worked quickly. I watched her do it with the watching that was not the same as looking, the kind where your eyes were on something but the significant part of your attention was elsewhere. I was thinking about Dad. About whether the message had reached him. About the sequence of events that would have to happen for anyone to know where we were.The thing she did did not hurt very much. Less than the blood draws at the hospital, which I had extensive experience with and which I had a complicated relationship with but had developed a practical acceptance of. This was faster than those and the equipment was smaller and she sealed it quickly when she was done."Good," she said.She closed the kit.She stood and went to the door without saying anything else, which was something I had come to understand about Voss, that she did not add words to situations when the words would not do any work. She had said what was necessary and had done
Chapter 254THEOThe woman was already in the room when they brought me back.She was standing near the wall, not near Cal, which I noticed immediately and noted. She had dark hair pulled back and blue scrubs and the specific way of standing that I had memorized over months of watching it.Bianca's way of standing.I looked at her for one moment.One moment was enough. I had seen the room. I had seen the table at the far end. I knew exactly what this was and I knew exactly what it was for, and the one moment told me everything I needed to know about whether looking longer would change any of those things.It would not.I walked past her to Cal.He was on the floor where they had put him, on his back, his arms at his sides. Someone had placed him carefully enough that his head was not at a wrong angle. His breathing was the slow even rhythm it had been in the van. Still deep under. Still the dartssleep rather than something worse.I s
Chapter 82BIANCAEach case was different, challenging, requiring the full range of skills I'd spent years developing. And each successful treatment felt like proof that I belonged here, that I was genuinely good at this work. And this was something that I was starting to believe in.By noon, I was
Chapter 81BIANCA The scan completed, showing me exactly where the fragments were lodged. Three in his left hand, two in his right, one large piece near his heart that made my stomach clench with worry."Sarah, I need to extract these," I said. "Standard curse removal protocol, but that piece near
Chapter 83BIANCARivera driving. Louis in the backseat. Me in the passenger seat, finally relaxing after a long shift.This was what I'd never had with Matthew. This easy companionship, this genuine interest in each other's lives, this sense of being a unit rather than separate people occupying the
Chapter 80BIANCAMy hands trembled slightly as I pushed through the main entrance of BloodMoon General Hospital at 6:45 AM, fifteen minutes early for my first official shift.The building was massive and looked nothing like the aging brick structure I'd worked at in Silver Moon territory. Everyth







