The Key to Fear - Kristin Cast Page 0,94

did this to us all. And I trust you will help me right all her wrongs.”

Rhett stood. “I would like nothing more.”

Blair forced a smile as Maxine escorted Major Owens out.

The moment the door hissed shut Blair slid down the back of the velvet chair, dropping to the floor like a stone. Her body heaved and tightened, heaved and tightened. But no sick came up. The revelations about what the girl had done to her brother had already cleaned her out, leaving room for nothing except rage.

“Elodie!” Blair screeched. “I’m going to murder that bitch with my own hands! I’ll kill them all for what they’ve done to him!”

Maxine was back in an instant, shutting the door behind her, mirroring Blair’s posture, her fingers digging into the plush rug with the same white-knuckle ferocity as Blair. “You will deal with them. We will deal with them. But not like this.”

Blair lifted her head and blinked through the swirl of tears.

Maxine’s teeth clenched and her eyes narrowed savagely. “You are better than this,” she growled. “Stronger than this. Stronger than them.”

Maxine was right. Blair was no petulant child or stay-at-home wife. She was the definition of resourcefulness and determination. Despite this oversight regarding her brother, this one oversight. Her knuckles popped as she released her grip and settled against her heels. Blair had nearly forgotten who she was.

Her gaze swung around the room, taking in the tangible evidence of everything she’d achieved, before finally settling on the wall of windows. The rain had started up again and it slid down the glass like tears.

The first tears of many, she thought, her lips twisting into a sneer.

Blair fluffed the curls framing her face and dabbed at the moisture on her cheeks. “Maxine,” she said with a final sniffle, “be a dear and fetch me a gun.”

Aiden struggled to pin Elodie’s arms to the armrests as she thrashed and clawed the air.

“Get up!” Elodie screamed and kicked out.

Sparkman’s reddish blond braid whipped the air as her attention bounced between the numerous monitors that served as their unit’s main control center.

The saccharine scent of honeysuckles drifting in from the warehouse soured Aiden’s stomach. There shouldn’t be anything sweet about what was playing out in front of Elodie and on the screen just behind Aiden’s head.

“Astrid! Get up!” she yelled. Tears spilled from Elodie’s eyes and dotted her shirt with some of the only real-life evidence of the horror that had occurred.

Besides Astrid’s lifeless body at home in her own VR setup, there was nothing except Elodie’s tears to show that the murder ever occurred. And when questions were asked … Well, the Key had a way of turning fact into fiction.

Anguish twisted Elodie’s features and Aiden blinked back the mist forming in his eyes. He turned his attention to Sparkman. “We have to get her out!”

Sparkman’s fingertips hammered against the control panel. “Tech deleted her profile from the main servers. She’ll be back in the real any minute.”

Aiden swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Sparkman, I’m lucky you were here.”

For a moment, Elodie stilled beneath Aiden’s hands. Then, like she’d been struck by lightning, she jerked and exploded up from the chair. She ripped her VR headset off and threw it to the ground.

Aiden’s heart squeezed. He knew better than anyone that there was no way to bring back the dead.

Elodie swiped her hand against her cheek. “She’s gone!” It trembled as she studied her palm. “Astrid’s dead.” She offered her shaking hand as evidence. “There’s no blood. No nothing. It’s like it never happened.” Elodie doubled over. Her sobs shook her so hard Aiden worried she’d splinter into pieces.

He crouched and cupped her face in his hands. “It doesn’t feel like it now,” he breathed, “but you will get through this.” He’d said the same words to himself thousands of times over, but it wasn’t until Elodie that he’d known that through was an actual destination, a reward after suffering, as opposed to a constant state of being.

Sparkman cleared her throat. A gentle signal that the world kept spinning even in the midst of tragedy. “You’ll need to get through sooner than later. Tech informed me that those soldiers scanned her. They know our location. This place will be crawling with Key Corp troops in no time.”

Aiden helped Elodie to her feet. “They can’t scan people in VR.”

Elodie let out a final trembling sob before speaking. “The Key can’t kill someone in VR either.”

Sparkman’s strawberry blond brows arched. “The Corporation seems to