“Sounds good.” His fingers brushed her shoulder again, a caress that felt almost yearning. Then, with a tight little smile, he was gone.
They’d been pushing so hard that they hadn’t had much of a chance to breathe all day, let alone chat, and Nina couldn’t figure out what was going on with Knox. Sure, he’d crept out of her bed before first light, but it seemed like he’d done it more out of necessity than payback or any need for distance. He was almost electrically charged with nervous anticipation, and she couldn’t tell if it was because they were so close to the bunker coordinates …
Or if something was wrong, perhaps with his implant.
Promising herself that she’d watch him carefully, Nina quickly directed Dani and Maya on where to search and set off on her own.
The hospital’s corridors were endlessly long and somehow managed to feel cavernous and claustrophobic, all at the same time. Worse, the darkness made it difficult for Nina to discern any rhyme or reason to the layout—some hallways circled around on themselves, while some branching paths did the same. Without the numbered rooms and suites set along the halls, it would have been impossible to keep her bearings.
And it was creepy. Her footsteps echoed off the tile in ways that made her think she was hearing another person. Her skin crawled with the sensation of being watched. And the rooms—
Most were empty save for a few chairs or shelves, basic office furniture. But others held pieces of old, unidentifiable medical equipment. In the darkness, cut through only by the brash glare of her flashlight beam, they looked … sinister.
Like they were waiting.
But she made it down the first hall without incident. She’d just reached a small room at the end of the second hallway when her beam passed over an object that glinted in the light. It was hanging from an old IV stand, something shiny and gently swaying, and Nina stepped forward.
It was her pendant, her chain. Her necklace.
Instinctively, she lifted her hand to her throat, expecting to encounter bare skin. It was the only explanation that made sense—somehow, she’d gotten turned around, had come this way already and lost her necklace.
But her pendant was right where it belonged, nestled into the hollow of her throat, warm against her flesh.
Panic bloomed, the kind of sheer, animal distress that came from encountering something that wasn’t happening, that simply couldn’t be. She reached out, expecting to close her fist around nothing, an illusion, but metal bit into her skin. She jerked the chain off the stand, which tipped to the cracked tile floor with a crash, and stared down at the three interlocking rings in the palm of her shaking hand.
A chill shivered up her spine, and she spun around, shining her light down the dark hallway. At the very end of it, nearly swallowed by the gloom, stood a woman.
“Zoey?” The word tore free of Nina, and she broke into a run, stumbling over the debris littering the floor. “Ava?”
The beam from her flashlight bounced wildly as she hurried down the hall. In the dizzying flashes of light, she watched the figure turn and disappear around the corner. “No, wait—”
Nina rounded the corner, and no one was there. For a moment, she stood there, panting, questioning her sanity more than anything else. Then she noticed the door at the end of the corridor swinging slightly. She rushed through it—her heart pounding, blood heavy in her ears—
And came face-to-face with a ghost. With the past that had haunted her for more than a decade of loneliness and regret and self-doubt and pain.
Her own face stared back at her, a shadow clad all in black with her hair hanging loose and curly around her shoulders. The vision watched her, her brown eyes coolly assessing. “Hello, Nina.”
Of course—a ghost would always know your name. So would a solid hallucination. But Nina’s other senses had started to catch up. She could smell soap and coffee, hear the gentle intake and exhale of breath.
Whatever—whoever—she was facing, it was a real live person.
Nina dropped her hand to the butt of her pistol. “Who are you?” She was ashamed to hear the pain wobbling in her voice. She sounded like she’d been kicked, punched, stabbed. Shot.
The other woman tilted her head in a certain way, a gesture so reminiscent of Ava that Nina’s eyes burned. “I can’t tell if you’re earnestly confused or simply temporizing.