Page 93 of Last of Her Name

As my blood turns to ice.

As everything I thought was real turns to ashes on my tongue.

C-L

I-O

The code has a name.

That name isClio.

I start to hyperventilate.

Dr. Luka runs to my side, helping me sit up, telling me to breathe.

“No,” I gasp. “I don’t understand. It has to be a coincidence.”

“What is?”

I let out a sob. “She’s real she’s real she’sreal.”

“Whois real?”

“Clio!”

Panic rakes through me.

I roll off the chair and push past him, looking for the door. I have to get out of here. I have to escape this nightmare.

I push aside a cart that’s in my way; instruments spill off and clatter on the floor. Dr. Luka tries to catch me, but I grab a metal tray and swing it, bashing his head. He curses and stumbles, reaching for me again, but I scramble over a table and finally spot the door. I run for it—only to have my feet pulled out from under me.

I yelp as I flip upside down, hanging in midair, my hair swinging under me. The room tilts and sways, and I struggle in vain to free myself.

Natalya is by the door, her hands splayed and her eyes intent on me as she tessellates. The air cracks with that awful grating sound, and a black mask spreads around her eyes. My feet are trapped in her stress field.

Volkov appears in front of me, studying my face with disappointment. “Enough, Princess. Calm down, or we’ll sedate you.”

Natalya lowers me. I land on the floor in a heap, and two of Dr. Luka’s assistants drag me back to the chair.

This time, they secure my wrists and ankles with straps. I lie limp, heart racing, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“I want Clio,” I whisper. “Tell me where she is. Please.Please.”

Dr. Luka glances at the holo letters, then back at me. “Anya, who is Clio?”

“My best friend.” I break into sobs, pulling weakly against my restraints. “She’sreal! I saw her, I saw her on the prisoner transport. She was there the day the Red Knights came to Afka. She’salwaysbeen there, and you can’t have her.”

The truth is there welling up in me, but I can’t face it.

It’s too terrible.

Tooimpossible.

“I think I’m beginning to understand,” Dr. Luka murmurs. “She’s a Leonov, after all. I’ve dealt with this sort of thing before.”

“So have I,” says Volkov, with a look of disgust. “It’s the madness. It’s taken her already. I should have seen it sooner.”

Dr. Luka kneels in front of me, peering at me with concern. “I saw many of your family deal with this, Anya—seeing people who weren’t there, hearing false voices. But they knew not to trust their eyes. They knew how to edit their realities, culling the false from the true. This Clio is not real. She’s aside effect. You must let her go.”