Page 80 of Lessons in Power

“So nice of you to join us, Tess.”

I turned slowly. Mrs. Perkins stood behind me. She wasn’t visibly armed, but the guards on either side of her were.

Henry stood just behind them.

I could feel my body getting ready to give out beneath me. Henry was alive, I had failed, and the adrenaline that had kept me going for the past hour drained out of me, leaving my body feeling like little more than a shell.

I stumbled. Henry moved past the guards to catch me. The terrorists didn’t turn their guns on him. They didn’t so much as bat an eye as he steadied my body with his.

Henry held on to me a second longer than he had to. He whispered two words directly into my ear, and then he let me go.

“Take her to the third floor. Put her with Raleigh.” Mrs. Perkins offered me a smile, too sharp-edged for her soccer-mom face. “I’ve heard you fancy yourself an expert problem solver, Tess. I’m interested to see what you make of my current problem.”

I barely heard her. I was fixated on two things—the words Henry had whispered in my ear and the fact that the order to take me to the third floor hadn’t been issued to the guards.

Mrs. Perkins had issued that order to Henry.

And the words he’d whispered to me as he’d caught me, his body keeping mine vertical?

I’m sorry.

CHAPTER 53

Kendrick, what you don’t know could fill an ocean.

Mrs. Perkins reached out and laid a hand on Henry’s shoulder. Henry didn’t stiffen at the terrorist’s touch. He didn’t bat an eye.

We’re all liars sometimes, he’d told me.

We infiltrate.Dr. Clark’s words to Emilia in the library washed back over me.We observe, we influence, werecruit.

“Don’t fight this,” Henry told me. His voice was quiet. I wished he didn’t sound like the boy I’d known. I wish I couldn’t seemyHenry in his eyes as he continued. “Don’t fight me.”

Armed men bound my hands behind my back. They bound me to a chair, and Henry watched.

He knew that when I’d been kidnapped, I’d been bound. He knew that I couldn’t even see a roll of duct tape without flashing back,and he watched.

“Leave us,” Henry told the guards.

I thought of the armed man in the hallway, the way he’d looked at Henry as he said:You.

Notyouas innowyouget on the ground. Youas inI knowyou.Youas inwhat areyoudoing with this girl?

At Henry’s request, the guards left us. I stared at the boy I’d kissed less than an hour earlier. I forced myself to look at him, to take in every line of his face, features I’d memorized, features Iknew—

“Kendrick.”

Full lips, wide jaw, piercingly clear eyes.

“Don’t call me that,” I told Henry. “Don’t call me anything.”

He lowered his voice. “I tried to get you out.”

Anger bubbled up inside me and came out as a strange, dry laugh. “You tried to getmeout,” I repeated. “What about Vivvie? And Emilia?” I didn’t give him time to reply. “What about all those freshmen who think you hung the moon?”

Henry’s jaw clenched. “I never meant for any of this to happen. If you understood—”

Understood?