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ASHFORD: It’s interesting to me, Ms. Novak, that you are so concerned about what I did and did not tell Abby. Given how much you concealed from her and Mr. Kapoor yourself.

SOPHIA: What do you mean?

ASHFORD: You doled out information so carefully. You knew that Abby was investigating your mother’s disappearance, yet you did not tell her about your reflection until she noticed it herself. Nor did you tell her about the girl that you and Mr. Kapoor saw on the beach the night she arrived—not until Mr. Kapoor mentioned it himself.

SOPHIA: I wasn’t trying to deceive her.

Ashford leans back in his chair, considering her.

ASHFORD: Is that so? But you didn’t tell them about this emotional backlash you experienced either. Why?

SOPHIA: Isn’t that obvious?

ASHFORD: Please. Assume I’m ignorant.

Sophia looks down at her hands, fingers laced, palms spread.

SOPHIA: It took me years to learn how to tell when the backlash was coming. And even then, sometimes there was no warning at all. It came sometimes without me pushing away emotion to trigger it. Over time, I learned how to ride it out without hurting myself—or anyone else. But by then, I’d been to too many psychiatrists to count. Been fed drugs that made me sleep and shake and even have a seizure once but never helped. Lost every friend I managed to make. Do you know what it’s like to have people look at you like you aren’t even human?

Her eyes burn with intensity.

SOPHIA: Do you know what it’s like to wonder if they’re right?

13

TWILIGHT CAST EVERYTHINGin an eerie gray when we met Liam by the LARC, but if anything, Abby seemed more at ease than in the daylight. “Got us a key?” she demanded.

Liam produced a key ring. “I have to get these back into Dr. Kapoor’s coat pocket before morning or we’ll all be strung up for the birds,” he warned. “And be careful. Mikhail’s around here somewhere.”

“Is he dangerous?” Abby asked.

Liam looked troubled. “He was weird with Sophia,” he said. “And I’ve heard Dr. Kapoor tell Hardcastle something about not wanting to run into the warden while she was alone.”

“If she’s afraid of him, why employ him?” Abby wondered aloud, but Liam didn’t have an answer. She glanced over at me. “You going to be all right?”

I’d told them my sudden exit was indigestion. I didn’t thinkeither of them believed me—but I’d heard Liam mutter something about a panic attack to Abby, and even that was better than the truth. Normal people had panic attacks. They didn’t have whatever it was that I did.

“Ready to go find some answers?”

“I’d settle for knowing what questions I should be asking,” I said.

She grimaced. “Sounds like something my boss would say.”

Inside, our shoes squeaked on the tiles. Good thing there was no one here to notice. “This way,” Liam said, stepping into the lead after shutting the door behind us. He brushed past Abby, and she stepped back with an annoyed look. Some people were like oil and water, and I was starting to suspect these were two of them. But I didn’t need them to be friends.

The light through the windows made it unnecessary to even turn on the lights. “I’m not used to this sneaking-around-before-dark thing,” Abby murmured as she walked beside me.

“Maybe we should have waited for the mist,” Liam said.

“You mean do the one thing that you’re warned not to from the moment you step on Bitter Rock?” I asked.

“Yeah, that,” Liam said with a little laugh.

“In my experience, there are three reasons for a rule like that,” Abby said. “One, everyone’s hiding something. Two, something supernatural is going to eat you if you disobey.”

“And three?” Liam asked.

“They don’t want you falling and breaking your neck with zero visibility, a bunch of sharp rocks, and no hospital in reach except by airlift,” Abby said.