Cursed (24 page)

“Get… out.” I struggled for air. My head felt like it would explode. His lips twitched, and the pressure eased off. “I can’t let him succeed. Not when he failed my sister. That’s the why of it, Ember.”

“Cromwell? But he didn’t have anything to do with the project!”

Theo barked a short laugh. “Cromwell lets you know what he wants you to know. It’s always a half-truth. That’s all he deals in. Cromwell was assigned to my sister at the Facility. He was responsible for her treatment—her Assimilation. He allowed my sister to die. Do you even know the kind of horrors they subjected her to?”

I tried to think quickly. I had a feeling I was running out of time, which wasn’t helping.

“They would make her touch things—living things, Ember. Animals. People. Do you know what that did to her?” he asked. “It slowly killed her. Day by day,
they
killed her. And Cromwell stood by. He allowed it to happen. So think of this as me doing you a favor.”

“You’re going to kill me so I don’t kill myself?” I pulled against the pipe again. “Do you know how insane that sounds?”

He stood slowly. “I gave you the coin so I could keep an eye on you. See what Cromwell was doing with you.”

I dragged in deep, musty air. “Why are you going to do this?”

“I’m going to kill you because Cromwell has always wanted a gifted who could bring death—one who could control it. Do you know what kind of power someone could wield with that? But he failed my sister. He’s not going to have you.”

Wincing, I continued to pull away from the pipe. “Cromwell will know this was you. He’ll figure it out.”

He cocked his head to the side. “Really? You think so? Cromwell was so wrapped up in my sister when we were at the Facility, he never looked twice at me. He didn’t even know about my gifts. Only the higher-ups knew what I could do, and it was kept secret. And we’ve passed each other several times. He’s never recognized me. Not once.”

I dragged in deep, heavy breaths. “You’re crazy.”

“Crazy?” he repeated. My eyes followed his movements. He was digging around for something. “Maybe I am. My sister was everything to me. Cromwell took everything. Now I’m going to take from him.”

I laughed, and it did sound a bit insane. “I don’t mean anything to him. He doesn’t even like me.”

“No. You mean a lot to Cromwell. You’d thank me if you knew what the future held for you.”

Something metal glinted in the light. Terror rolled through my stomach. “Then tell me! Tell me!”

Theo straightened and sent an amused glance over his shoulder. “Can I ask you a question?”

Panic clawed its way through me. “Sure. Ask away.”

“How does it feel to die?”

“Let me go and I can show you.”

He laughed at that, genuinely amused. “You’ve got spirit. I like that.” He came back to me, his hands behind his back.

“Wait. Wait!” I stalled. “If the accident was just an accident, what happened to my mom? She—she was wiped. Who did that to her?”

“Your mom? I don’t know. Does it matter? She already thinks you’re dead,” he said. “So are you going to answer my question?”

“Go to hell.”

Theo crouched beside me. “Are you afraid to die—to really die— this time? Because there’ll be no Olivia to bring you back.”

Nothing short of fear gripped me, because yes, I
was
afraid to die.

“Wait. I still—”

“Ah, I can tell you are. I’ve been debating how to do this. I could let you stay down here. Eventually you would slip away, either from hunger or the cold, but that seems unnecessary and cruel.” He shifted and moved his arms.

I saw it at once. It was the only thing I could see.

Theo held a gun in his right hand.

Instinct took over. I kicked out wildly. Instead of hitting his hand, my leg smashed into the side of his face. Startled, he recovered all too quickly. Rearing off the damp cement floor, he swung the gun around, pointed right in my face.

I didn’t want to die in this cold, hellish place. Not before I got to tell my mom and Olivia goodbye. Not before I told Hayden that I loved him—

His finger moved to the trigger, and I knew I was going to die, for real this time. “Nothing personal.”

“Please! Wait—” My voice cracked with panic. “Don’t do—”

A bright reddish, yellow spark blinded me, and I waited—waited for the inevitable feeling of metal tearing through flesh and bone.

Chapter 28

E
xcept the pain never came, and the screams tearing through the cellar weren’t mine.

Mr. Theo spun away from me, falling to the floor as flames engulfed the lower half of his body. Transfixed by the disturbing dance, I watched until he dove into a puddle large enough to extinguish the flames. He didn’t move after that.

“Ember?”

Hayden stood at the bottom of the stairs. He looked rough—torn sweater, dark splotches staining the front. I think there was a hospital bracelet on his wrist. What looked like dried blood covered half of his face and his hair was matted to his forehead.

But he was, in that moment, the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

He was at my side before I could even respond. His expression held a striking mix of terror, pain, and relief. Hayden grasped my face. I didn’t even care that it hurt. “Ember, oh God, Ember, please say something.”

I started to cry and blabber at once, telling him things I was sure he already figured it out while he shrugged out of his sweater and tried to tuck it around my shoulders. Beyond him, I saw Kurt in his cowboy duster poking at Theo with his booted foot.

“Holy shit,” Kurt muttered, shaking his head. “Isn’t he an English teacher at the high school?”

Hayden peered behind me and swore violently. “Kurt, get over here. Em, just hold on a little while longer and we’ll get you out of here.”

“How… how did you find me?” I asked, shivering uncontrollably.

“Parker traced you, with Phoebe’s help.” His breath felt exquisitely warm against my chilled skin—something I thought I’d never feel again. “When I woke in the hospital and found out you weren’t there—that you weren’t even at the accident—I knew something was wrong. I got ahold of the twins, who called Kurt. They picked me up and we started driving around until they could feel you.”

“Jesus,” Kurt muttered again. “These are metal. There is no way we’re going to get them off.” He slid out of the duster and dropped it over me. “Jesus. Ember, stop shaking. You’re ripping the skin off your wrists.”

“I… I c-can’t help it.”

“It’s okay.” Hayden tucked the edges of Kurt’s coat around me. He stroked my face and my forehead with quick brushes of his fingers. A strong shudder ran through me as he brushed back my hair. “Em, I need you to open your eyes and look at me.”

I didn’t realize I’d closed them.

“I need to melt the metal to get you free.” He paused, his eyes sharpened by a protective shine. “I need you to be perfectly still.”

“O-Okay.”

Hayden glanced over at Kurt and nodded. “Make sure she doesn’t move.”

“You got it.” Kurt shifted closer and groaned. “Dammit—rats. I hate rats.”

“M-Me too, b-but I think they h-hate me more,” I said.

Kurt laughed, a real honest-to-God laugh. “Trust me, that’s a good thing.”

I rested my head against Hayden’s chest as he felt around behind me. His body heat felt marvelous, so much so that I ignored the first flare of intense heat, but then I felt pain. Real pain.

I stiffened.

“Don’t move,” he whispered. “You helped us find you, did you know that?”

I flinched and squeezed my eyes shut. I should’ve thought about it more when he said he needed to melt the metal. The kind of heat needed to do that had to be ridiculous. My wrists felt like they had been shoved in an oven. Pressing my face into his chest, I whimpered.

“Em? Did you know?” he asked again, coaxing a response from me. “

N-No.”

“Yeah, you kept thinking about Mr. Theo and being in a basement. We wouldn’t have known to check down here if it hadn’t been for you. You did really good, Em.”

Searing, red-hot pain shot through my arms, but I managed not to move. Melting metal stung like holy hell. But it was working. The cuffs were already loosening.

“It’ll be just a little bit more, and we’ll be done.”

“She’s pretty messed up, Hayden,” Kurt said like I wasn’t right there. “You need to hurry up. Her leg is bleeding real bad.”

Probably due to my heart rate skyrocketing. Between the burning around my hands and everything that’d happened, I was pushed to my limits, but I needed to make sure that, if they failed, they wouldn’t take me to my sister. “P-Promise me, you won’t take me to Olivia. If t-this doesn’t work—”

“This will work,” Hayden said. “And if it doesn’t, I’m not losing you.”

“Y-You can’t use Olivia again. I-I won’t allow it.”

“Dammit, don’t argue with me about this!”

In that instant, I realized Hayden would risk anything—anyone—to make sure I lived. But I couldn’t expose her to this. Not again. The handcuffs melted enough that, with Hayden and Kurt’s combined efforts, they broke apart. My muscles screamed in protest, but I ignored them.

I grabbed Kurt’s hand, the raw flesh around my wrists bubbling. His mouth dropped open, a mixture of fear and disbelief crawling across his face. “Don’t let Olivia see me like this. D-Don’t let her touch me. Please.”

Kurt’s gaze bounced to Hayden, then back to me. “Okay. Okay.”

“Dammit, Kurt,” Hayden roared. “I won’t let her die!”

But Kurt was on his feet the moment I let go of him, digging in his pocket. “Jonathan has connections at the hospital, Hayden. He’s already on his way. I’ll call him.”

The heat of his anger poured off him. “If anything happens to her…”

“I know. You’ll kill me.” Kurt pulled out his cell and cursed. “I have to go upstairs. I’m not getting a signal.”

“I’ll get her. Just go.” Hayden turned back to me, already dismissing Kurt. His gaze traced every inch of me, enduring every cut, scrap, and bruise. His voice turned husky. “Em, I thought—I thought I’d lost you.”

“N-No, I’m here.”

Hayden leaned in and brought his mouth down on mine. I sank into him—his warmth and his love. When he pulled back, his eyes shone in the dim light.

“I want to go h-home.”

“Hospital first,” he said. “Then we go home. Together.”

My eyes fell around the dark recesses of the cellar—the area I’d thought would be my final resting place. They roamed over the damp walls covered in mold and over Hayden’s shoulder where I saw Mr. Theo—on his feet, gun in hand.

“Hayden—watch—”

But it was too late. Hayden gasped and shifted as if he planned on shielding me with his body. I broke into a wild struggle, so powerful that Hayden jolted to his left just as the gun fired.

Mr. Theo missed, but he was aiming again.

Using the last of my strength, I pushed hard. I heard Hayden yell my name, but I focused on Mr. Theo. He fumbled with the gun. With all the burns, he moved in halting jerks. Anger and desperation propelled me across the slick floor. The pain didn’t matter—nothing did but stopping Mr. Theo.

He leveled the gun, not at me, but at Hayden. I stretched out, running my hand under the hem of his charred pants and circling the sticky flesh of his ankle. He jerked once, twice. His entire body went rigid, even his fingers. The gun slipped from his hand, hitting the floor with a sharp rattle of finality. I held on.

Mr. Theo dropped to his knees, arms splayed out like some kind of fallen angel. A grayish color raced over his skin, veins bulging and darkening as if someone had taken a charcoal pencil and traced the fine lines. He turned his head and stared down at me, mouth gaped in a silent scream. In that heartbeat, our eyes met.

I felt my lips spread into a smile.

A great and terrible spasm rolled through his body, then his eyes rolled back and he fell face-first into a cold puddle. Mr. Theo didn’t move again.

* * *

Over the next couple of hours I slipped in and out of reality. When I woke in a warm place, I reached for Hayden. My fingers curled into the empty air until someone gently guided my arm back.

Cromwell moved into my line of vision. “Hayden’s all right. Just getting checked over again.”

I blinked and my head rolled in the other direction. A white curtain fluttered and a machine beeped. There were voices far away. Or were they close? Things were kind of foggy from there on out. Someone in medical scrubs shot a syringe into the IV tube snaking from my arm, which didn’t help with my observation skills at all—not to mention I felt like I was floating halfway off the bed.

“Don’t touch her skin, whatever you do.” Cromwell—I was pretty sure that was Cromwell. Talking to the doctor, I guessed.

I couldn’t open my eyes again. I felt pleasantly numb. Detached. A door opened and closed. I hoped it was Hayden. I held my breath, waiting, hoping, waiting, floating some more.

“So this is Project E?” said a female voice I didn’t recognize.

“Yes, this would be her.”

“Do you want us to take her? We have a place for her immediately.” The woman’s voice was soft and melodious. She sounded like Mom. I liked that.

“No,” Cromwell answered after a stretch of silence. “She’s one of mine now. And she’s very important.”

“You should take better care of her, then. It would be a shame to lose this one, too.”

Then I floated up and up, past the ceiling and into a bright, warm nothing.

* * *

“It hurts. I can fix it.”

“No. Olivia, don’t touch it.” I pushed at the arm hovering way too close to the side of my face. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

She sat back on her heels, dipping the bed. “Emmie, why are you hurt?”

I turned my head slowly and stared up at the ceiling. How could I tell a five-year-old that my crazy English teacher had wanted to kill me? I couldn’t. So I settled on the same thing I’d told her ever since I’d woken up with her next to me. “I was in an accident.”

“With Hayden?”

My heart squeezed. I’d only been awake for a little while, and Olivia was the only person I’d seen. “Yes, with Hayden.” Her lower lip trembled. “I don’t like accidents.”

“I know, honey, but everything is okay now.”

“You promise? No more accidents?”

I smiled, but it was more of a wince. When I’d first woken up, I’d hobbled into the bathroom and gotten a good look at myself. Half my face looked like someone had pummeled it. I had a knot the size of a golf ball on the side of my head. Even now, every inch of skin hurt, every muscle felt torn, and every bone ached, but my leg and wrists had suffered far worse. Olivia said I had over a hundred stitches, so I deducted eighty from that. I couldn’t see most of my hands; they were wrapped in heavy gauze.

“Emmie?”

“No more accidents. I promise.” I started to sit up, but a wave of dizziness forced me back down. I hit the pillow, grimacing. I felt out of it, tired and so damn thirsty. “Olivia, want to do me a favor?”

Her head bobbed eagerly.

“Can you get me something to drink?”

“I can get you juice. I can help.”

“Juice would be great. Olivia—” She was already off the bed and at the door. “Olivia, I love you.”

“I love you, Emmie!” Then she took off flying from my room. I could hear her little footsteps all the way down the stairs.

Slowly, I tried to push myself back up again. It didn’t work. I stared at the ceiling until my eyes started to drift shut. The next thing I knew, Cromwell was pulling my desk chair across the room and sitting by the bed.

“Where’s Olivia?”

“You were asleep when she brought the juice up.” He motioned at the bed stand. There my juice sat. My mouth watered. “She’s with Liz. Do you think you can sit up?”

With his careful help, I was able to sit up long enough. My throat burned, but I downed the entire glass before lying back down. “I feel… weird.”

“You were given some pain medication at the hospital, and again this morning. You don’t remember that?”

I frowned. “No.” All I remembered from the hospital was floating through the rafters. I must’ve been really high.

“I need to talk to you. Do you feel up to it?”

“Okay,” I said, but there was something about the hospital I thought I should remember. It was there, on the very edge of my memories, hazy and out of reach.

“Parker and Hayden filled me in on most of what happened. I can understand your distrust of me and my intentions, but I hope you have learned that’s not the case.”

I thought that was a very smooth way of asking if I’d learned my lesson. “Parker was in my head again?”

“We thought it would be easier than making you relive everything.”

I guess that made it okay—sort of. “So, you worked with his sister.”

Cromwell let out a soft breath and nodded. “It was a very long time ago, before Hayden and the others. Theo was a child, and I had no idea his gift was like Olivia’s. His sister had a remarkable gift.”

“Remarkable?”

“She was the first, Ember. No one before her had ever showed that type of gift, and no one after her—until you. With what happened to her, I didn’t want to attempt the same thing.” He paused, a small smile appeared. “I never intended to send you to the Facility. I didn’t want you to have the same fate she did. I don’t expect you to believe me, but you have no idea how her death ate away at me. She was why I started searching for others, hoping to get to them before the gifts became too much to control.”

“But… you worked with her? In the program?”

“I did,” he admitted. “It was a long time ago, Ember.” And that was all he would say about that. His next words distracted me, anyway. “From what I could gather, it appears that Theo did tell you the truth about your father. He was going to transfer guardianship of Olivia to one of the doctors at the Facility. I’m sorry. I know that isn’t what you wanted to hear.”

No. It wasn’t. I didn’t even know how to deal with that—what to think or where to begin. All I could acknowledge right now was the sick twisting of my heart.

“I’m really sorry.”

It could’ve been the drugs, but he actually looked sympathetic. “Isn’t someone going to do something to stop them? They can’t do this to people, let parents sell their children.”

“The Facility never used to be like this, and trust me, something is being done about them,” Cromwell said, anger sparking deep in his eyes. “But it’s not something you need to worry about right now. I know it’s hard for you not to focus on it, but you need to get better.”

What I needed… I didn’t even know what I needed.