eyes, I’m outside the Arclight, floating in water that has nothing to do with the sprinklers.
Whispers speak with voices I don’t recognize. Flashes of shrouded trees, covered in black vines and moss. I’m in the Dark .
Figures appear from nowhere, ghostly white against the ground and nonexistent sky. Blank faces blur together, and all the voices become one.
“Do you know me?” I ask.
Then I’m running. I’m still holding the Fade to the Arclight’s floor, but I can feel my legs pumping. Trees and bushes fly by, trampled in my frantic need to get somewhere.
A pinpoint of light appears beyond the darkness. Light means escape. It means safety. It means the monsters can’t follow. My leg aches, but I keep running, and the light gets brighter. I’m almost there, and then . . .
Nothing .
White light explodes as though my eyes have burst, and the images retreat to make room for the pain. I can’t use my inhaler and hold the Fade at the same time, so I make it suffer for my misery. Legs clenched tighter into its sides, fingers digging as deep as I dare on its throat. Let it feel the torture it’s caused for once.
Remorse .
The word echoes softly, like the first moment after waking. It chases the ache with a cooling breeze, and phantom fingers brush the pain away.
Do not injure .
“Wh-what was that?”
The Fade shuts down, and the static dies to silence.
“What did you do?” A minute ago I was sure this creature wanted to kill me, and could without much effort. Now I’m screaming in its face.
“Don’t make it mad,” Silver begs.
“It recognized me,” I say. “It knows me from before.”
“Answer her!” Tobin torques its arm higher over its head. “What happened to the people you took in the Grey?”
Do not injure . I hear again. No pain .
The Fade’s eyes close. Its fists uncurl, and even the rise and fall of its chest goes to nothing as the sound of running boots flies around the corner and we’re left at the center of a fast-forming circle of our elders.
The world’s gone upside down.
This Fade knows me. It remembers me from when I was lost in the Dark, and because it remembers, it’s surrendered and asked me not to hurt it.
It’s afraid of me.
CHAPTER 11
“O H my God.” Lt. Sykes stops cold at the sight of us on the floor. For once, his high whine of a voice is welcome.
“Get them out of there,” Honoria shouts.
Silver lets go as soon as Mr. Pace touches her shoulder. Dante and Anne-Marie hold on until they’re sure there’s another pair of hands ready to replace their own, but it takes two men to pull Tobin off.
That just leaves me, shivering on the Fade’s chest and unable to let go of its robes.
“It wouldn’t tell me anything. I tried to make it tell me, but it wouldn’t.”
“She’s in shock.” Honoria starts prying my fingers open one at a time. “Take her.”
Mr. Pace grasps me about the waist, lifting me backward.
“No. It knows me!” I refuse to unlock my knees.
“Ease up,” he says. “This is one of those things you need to let us handle.”
“But—”
Honoria takes my face in one hand. “Marina, I promise you that if there’s a way to make it communicate, we will. You’ve done more than enough.”
I nod, letting Mr. Pace pull me away.
He deposits me with the others at the far end of the hall, a mix of anger and panic clouding his face. I’m sure the last thing any of them expected to find when Anne-Marie tripped the alarm was a bunch of kids soaked through and sitting on a Fade in the middle of the Arclight.
I chance looking at the others, expecting the usual disdain and suspicion to have amplified in the wake of this disaster, but there’s a spark there instead.
Hope .
Silver rests a hand against my shoulder, squeezes it quickly, then pulls back. Anne-Marie hauls me closer, and this time, no one flinches away. They move me to the middle, so I’ve got a guard on all sides. I’m not the enemy anymore.
“Is it . . . is it
Whispers speak with voices I don’t recognize. Flashes of shrouded trees, covered in black vines and moss. I’m in the Dark .
Figures appear from nowhere, ghostly white against the ground and nonexistent sky. Blank faces blur together, and all the voices become one.
“Do you know me?” I ask.
Then I’m running. I’m still holding the Fade to the Arclight’s floor, but I can feel my legs pumping. Trees and bushes fly by, trampled in my frantic need to get somewhere.
A pinpoint of light appears beyond the darkness. Light means escape. It means safety. It means the monsters can’t follow. My leg aches, but I keep running, and the light gets brighter. I’m almost there, and then . . .
Nothing .
White light explodes as though my eyes have burst, and the images retreat to make room for the pain. I can’t use my inhaler and hold the Fade at the same time, so I make it suffer for my misery. Legs clenched tighter into its sides, fingers digging as deep as I dare on its throat. Let it feel the torture it’s caused for once.
Remorse .
The word echoes softly, like the first moment after waking. It chases the ache with a cooling breeze, and phantom fingers brush the pain away.
Do not injure .
“Wh-what was that?”
The Fade shuts down, and the static dies to silence.
“What did you do?” A minute ago I was sure this creature wanted to kill me, and could without much effort. Now I’m screaming in its face.
“Don’t make it mad,” Silver begs.
“It recognized me,” I say. “It knows me from before.”
“Answer her!” Tobin torques its arm higher over its head. “What happened to the people you took in the Grey?”
Do not injure . I hear again. No pain .
The Fade’s eyes close. Its fists uncurl, and even the rise and fall of its chest goes to nothing as the sound of running boots flies around the corner and we’re left at the center of a fast-forming circle of our elders.
The world’s gone upside down.
This Fade knows me. It remembers me from when I was lost in the Dark, and because it remembers, it’s surrendered and asked me not to hurt it.
It’s afraid of me.
CHAPTER 11
“O H my God.” Lt. Sykes stops cold at the sight of us on the floor. For once, his high whine of a voice is welcome.
“Get them out of there,” Honoria shouts.
Silver lets go as soon as Mr. Pace touches her shoulder. Dante and Anne-Marie hold on until they’re sure there’s another pair of hands ready to replace their own, but it takes two men to pull Tobin off.
That just leaves me, shivering on the Fade’s chest and unable to let go of its robes.
“It wouldn’t tell me anything. I tried to make it tell me, but it wouldn’t.”
“She’s in shock.” Honoria starts prying my fingers open one at a time. “Take her.”
Mr. Pace grasps me about the waist, lifting me backward.
“No. It knows me!” I refuse to unlock my knees.
“Ease up,” he says. “This is one of those things you need to let us handle.”
“But—”
Honoria takes my face in one hand. “Marina, I promise you that if there’s a way to make it communicate, we will. You’ve done more than enough.”
I nod, letting Mr. Pace pull me away.
He deposits me with the others at the far end of the hall, a mix of anger and panic clouding his face. I’m sure the last thing any of them expected to find when Anne-Marie tripped the alarm was a bunch of kids soaked through and sitting on a Fade in the middle of the Arclight.
I chance looking at the others, expecting the usual disdain and suspicion to have amplified in the wake of this disaster, but there’s a spark there instead.
Hope .
Silver rests a hand against my shoulder, squeezes it quickly, then pulls back. Anne-Marie hauls me closer, and this time, no one flinches away. They move me to the middle, so I’ve got a guard on all sides. I’m not the enemy anymore.
“Is it . . . is it
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