The Key to Fear - Kristin Cast Page 0,102

mother!

Cath isn’t my mother!

Red.

Rhett cleared his throat. “Yes, I am terribly sorry about what transpired. If I—”

“You’re sorry?” Blair lifted onto the toes of her pointed stilettos. “I’ll—I’ll …”

I’ll kill you!

Despite the fury burning hot within her veins, Blair couldn’t say what she felt or follow it up with any action. She still needed Major Rhett Owens, the blockheaded lump of a man. Blair’s teeth sounded like sandpaper as she gnashed them together. “Major Owens, where is Aiden?” Her voice shook, her hands shook, her legs shook.

Where is my brother?!

She dug her nails into her palms. It was fitting that the gloves protected her from the pain of her jagged nails and raw cuticles. Blair had always been protecting herself.

Rhett’s good eye twitched. “I’ll find him.” Another twitch. “I’ll find Elodie.”

Tears bit at Blair’s eyes. “People think living without them is hard.” She tilted her chin toward the ceiling and blinked the tears back. “Living without them is the easy part. It’s living for them that will rip you to shreds.” Blair took a deep breath. In control of herself once again, she settled her gaze on Rhett. “You will find them, Major, and I’ll be right there when you do.” Blair sniffled and forced her grief and anger and panic into the luggage in which she stored the lies she told herself and the lies she told others. She’d unpack them later.

With studied ease and grace, Blair clasped her hands in front of her. “Thank you, Major Owens.” She nodded, turned, and headed toward the restroom. The hairs on her arms rose and a sharp chill brushed her neck. The same kind of cold that welcomed blizzards and froze lakes.

As Blair took another step, she was sure she heard the distinct crack of fragile ice.

Elodie had never run as fast as she’d run from the MediCenter. Somewhere along the way, as Westfall’s downtown buildings blurred past, Aiden had yelled and told her to head toward the Warehouse District. Elodie hadn’t needed the instruction. Even through the metallic tang of blood crusted against her lips and the burnt-earth scent of gunpowder seared into her nostrils, she still had her wits about her. She could still remember what Sparkman had told them.

I’ll send them out to make one pass through this district at exactly twenty-three thirty.

Elodie and Aiden would be picked up soon. It was almost over. Her legs shook as she reached the Warehouse District and slowed down. They wanted to keep moving, keep the world at a blur so she didn’t have time to think about Astrid and Cath, the guns and their lives being over. They’d died so easily, so quickly.

When they reached the Eos warehouse, Elodie slipped into the shadows next to Aiden and flattened herself against the concrete exterior. She tried her best to calm her ragged breathing and fill her burning lungs by inhaling smoothly, deeply.

“I used to think my life was boring,” she said, her breath finally calming. “If only I could have seen into the future.” Elodie couldn’t help but smile. A cheerless, sardonic smile, but a smile nonetheless.

Aiden’s boot scraped against the pavement. “Bet you wish you could have that life back.”

Elodie chewed the inside of her cheek. “Not completely,” she said and smoothed her collar between her fingers. “But somewhere in the middle, without the death.”

Aiden continued to grind the sole of his boot against the ground. “Yeah, well, we can’t go back now.”

“What about your sister?” Elodie bit her lip. “Blair said that as long as Cath confessed, we could go free, and that she would sort everything out with the Council. We could pretend none of this ever happened.”

“She only said those things to get what she wanted. She’s always been that way.” Aiden kicked a broken piece of concrete. It tumbled off the sidewalk and disappeared down the sewer grate.

“You’re her brother. She loves you. And now you’re the only family she has left.”

Aiden wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Blair doesn’t love me. She doesn’t know how.”

A nearby streetlight flickered before resuming its steady waterfall of light.

Elodie stood silently as Aiden continued to kick at the concrete beneath his boots. Clouds had hidden the stars, and all at once Elodie felt caged. “No one is supposed to die in VR.” She felt the words leave her lips but wasn’t sure why she’d said them.

Aiden stopped scuffing his boot against the sidewalk but remained quiet.

She brushed away the tears rolling down her cheeks. “Sparkman’s team will pick us