The Key to Fear - Kristin Cast Page 0,92

to know why his feet were wet. Why he slipped on the tile. Why they left behind red footprints.

Tears pricked her eyes. She shook her head slightly, willing them away. “I love you, Aiden.”

He tore his gaze away from the sky to smile up at her. “Love you too, B.”

*

Sunlight glinted off Blair’s black desk, burning through her memories and leaving behind nothing but spots.

Something had happened to her brother. Something she’d missed. She’d given Aiden too much space to grow, trusted too many other people to keep him safe, and now her perfect boy was tainted. But Blair would fix it. She was the only one who could.

Blair pushed away from her desk, wincing as her fingertips made contact with the glinting onyx. She held her hands up in the thick bands of sunlight from the window. Each fingertip was raw pink, her nails chewed to stumps so short she’d made her nailbeds bleed.

How dare Darby pass sentence on a Scott. This was almost too much for her. But Blair was a fortress, an Aspen grove. Too bad Aiden couldn’t be as strong.

What had happened to her brother? That innocent boy who ran to her when things were tough and times were bad? Now Blair had learned that he’d found a new girl to go to when he had nowhere else to turn.

Elodie.

Blair’s teeth creaked with the tight clench of her jaw.

Compared to Blair, that girl had nothing. Was nothing. And the Council would make sure that her future was as empty as her past. The Key, the only thing Blair could trust besides herself, would save her brother from that scheming brat. Then Blair would deal with Darby’s sentence.

None of it had been Aiden’s fault. Blair was certain of that. He didn’t know any better. How could he? They hadn’t been raised in a traditional home with traditional rules. Sure, Cath was successful and kind, but she wasn’t their mother. Not really. The misfortune that had made Blair stronger hadn’t done the same for poor Denny. It had untethered him from what was important and made him an easy target for manipulation. This girl had seen that in him and used it to her advantage.

The office door hissed open and Maxine’s determined footsteps clicked against the stained concrete floor. “I thought you might like these.”

Blair lifted a pale blue rectangular box from Maxine’s upturned palm and opened the lid.

“They’re a prototype,” Maxine explained while Blair removed the clear, paper-thin gloves from the box. “From the same lab that designs the skins for the caretaker bots.”

The inside of the gloves was cold jelly that seemed to melt the second each finger slid into place. A sound like the release of steam and then a sharp prick on the back of each hand. Before Blair could protest, the gloves lifted like the scales of a pinecone before settling back against her skin. She could no longer differentiate the thin silicone from her own flesh. Or was it really hers anymore? Blair again brought her hands to the light. No crescents of red rimmed the tips of too short nails. Her nails were back, unpainted, unbuffed, but back. She turned her hands over and traced the thin creases in her palms. Her sense of touch was muted, but the image was perfection.

Maxine’s shadow broke through Blair’s awe. “Good as new.”

Holly materialized in front of Blair’s onyx desk. “Hello, Ms. Scott. Maxine requested I notify you when your visitor arrived.” The similarities between Blair’s own voice and Holly’s was a constant reminder of her growing hold on Westfall.

With a huff, Maxine shook out her short hair and pressed her lips into a thin line.

“Maxine, before we welcome our guest, is there any more information about this elusive Echo person I knew nothing about?” Blair ground her teeth together. “A fact, I’m sure, Major Owens found quite pleasing.”

Maxine sucked in her cheeks. “If I found something out, I would have told you.”

Blair turned back to the window. “Then, show him in,” she said, staring through her reflection at the city beneath.

Rhett’s footsteps were louder than most employees’. Louder than they needed to be. As if his sharp cologne and the way the air went stiff and tense around him weren’t enough to signal his arrival. How could this soldier ever sneak up on anyone? Then again, the stealthy ones weren’t splashed across ads and featured in news stories. And that, she knew, was what Major Rhett Owens wanted more than anything. To be