Page 73 of Fragile Facade

Glitch laughs in our ears, but Krypt shakes his head. “You get captured and manage to poison their water? How?”

“Not all the water, but they hosed me down and cavity-searched me in the basement decontamination room. Right next to this building’s water filtration system. Half went there, and half went before I even got caught.”

“Kinda like the lisp,” Ghost says, ignoring my heroics. “Gums might be beneficial, too.”

“Fuck you.”

“What the fuck?” Ransom asks us, stabbing the elevator door and shoving the key card in the slot. “You two finally crack?”

I grin at Ransom and Ghost glares at me. Krypt curses us all.

“Helicopter is seven minutes out, heading to the roof. They aren’t going to let it in easy, so you’re gonna have to be fast.”

“Did you get what you needed?” I ask Glitch, hoping Soren was at least smart enough to get the devices out.

“We got it all and then some. Now we just need you, so don’t fucking die, yeah?”

Pretty sure I’m already three-quarters dead, but I laugh. “Workin’ on it.”

As we ride to the top floor, I lose a bit of the adrenaline I had. My arms are in excruciating pain, my legs can’t hold me up, my head is swimming in space, and my second eye is starting to swell shut with the extra movement. I’m weak and starved, coming down from an LSD high where I saw a goth girl in unicorn ears, and I refused every bit of water they offered me, but…

“Look, there might be a bit of a problem,” I force the words out as my lungs rattle. “I might have been waterboarded.”

All three of them snap their eyes to me. Yeah, I’m totally dying of the poison I administered, so this rescue mission is pointless anyway.

Ghost grabs my chin, forcing my one eye open. “Glitch, get Menace to The Harpy for an antidote. Fucking now!”

“Better be ready when we get back,” Krypt growls. “Hurry up!”

But it’s Ransom’s eyes I latch on to. “Trust me,” is all he says, and for whatever reason, I do.

When we get to the top floor, Ghost gets right in my battered face. “I’m the one who chases death,sweetheart.Don’t change our dynamic now. You made me a deal.”

My smile is weak and pathetic because it feels so soft. Soren still wants me to hold his hand. Let’s hope this lungful of poison lets me live long enough to grant his mushy wish.

The outside air hits me with jarring authority. It wakes me up, making me more alert, but with that alertness comes more pain. Devastating pain that crumples my body and blacks out my fevered mind. I hear the helicopter, the boys shouting all around me, Glitch and Facts in my ear, but I’m floating through it without experiencing any of it. Listening to bullets whiz by and stationary guns fire at the helicopter, I’m thrown into it, and that’s when I pass out, the voice of Facts shouting hello echoing as I slumber.

Guess it’s up to fate now.

I smile when I glimpse Soren’s muse. Death herself, smiling back at me.

Hey, Bitch.

28

SOLITUDE SAFETY

GHOST

Reaper City isin utter chaos, but I can’t focus on it. Mass hysteria breaks out on the street, sirens and announcements about the drinking water not being safe ringing through the downtown core as I shove Riot into the helicopter and cover his body with mine. Bullets hit the exterior and fly through the open doors, and Krypt is barely inside when the pilot lifts off the roof. He rolls into me, helping me cover his brother, and our eyes meet, a silent exchange of truths being admitted. Never out loud.

Yeah, I care about his brother, but I still don’t know what it means. I’m smart enough to know it means something, but I don’t have the energy for introspection right now.

As the adrenaline from the situation fades the further we get from Reaper City, the shakes take over and my fingers tremble, digging into Riot’s hair just for something to hold onto. Ransom throws a blanket over him and grabs my chin.

“Breathe.”

I can’t.