“There’s nothing more we can do.”
Zane jolted upright so fast that fire shot through his neck. Rows of bare metal beds spanned the cavernous room, lit by the dancing glows of flickering bulbs.
In the bed across from him, blankets covered a womanwith blonde hair.
He dared himself to stand on trembling legs, dared himself to wobble closer. His pulse thundered a disorienting beat in his ears. Maybe, if he blinked enough, the nightmare would end. It would be different. He wouldn’t have failed again. Any second, she would open her eyes…
But her eyes were closed. Her body was still.
Darkness crowded into the edges of his vision. Shallow breaths rattled in his chest.
With a cry, Zane kicked a towering IV pole. A bag of saline burst against the metal floor, seeping across the steel panels. Pain spiraled through the bones of his bare foot, and fiery agony swirled above his knee.
“Dammit!” The pain was what he deserved, so he slammed his foot into the pole. A wheel burst from its socket. “Fuckingdammit!”
As Zane hurled a supply cart to the ground, the crash of metal and clattering instruments added to the rage burning in his heart. He lunged forward, striking the cart again. Agony pulsed through his tender bones. A shard of glass pierced his foot, and he roared, slamming a fist into the wall.
“Zane!” Thudding boots followed Mira’s high, frantic voice. “Zane, calm down!”
“Give me a pulser,” he snarled, yanking the glass out of his foot. She frowned. Breathing heavily, he stormed through the broken supplies. “Dammit, give me a pulser!”
He would avenge her. If it was the last thing he did, he would kill them all. It had happenedagain, and he’d been powerless to stop it?—
“No.”
He lunged to grip Mira’s shoulders, to shake her until she caved and gave him a weapon, but she shoved him off and he slammed into the wall. Pain pulsed up his spine. A dangerous warning flashed in her tight features, but he didn’t care.
“I’m going to kill them. You wanted me to go to war? You got your wish, now give me a?—”
“Zane?”
The hoarse whisper was so faint he had to be imagining it. He would’ve dismissed it as a cruel trick, but Mira grinned, saunteringpast him. Acutely aware of the cut in his foot and the blood pooling on the metal floor, Zane turned.
His heart stopped.
It was a dream. A cruel, warped dream, or some twisted ruse of Mira’s. It had to be.
Kalie coughed, struggling to raise her head.
“Honestly, some people,” Mira clucked. She braced her arm under Kalie’s shoulders and raised a cup of water to her lips. “Shouting and cursing when others are trying to sleep. Even I know how rude that is.”
Zane gaped. His mind had to be playing tricks on him.
Tossing her burgundy braids over her shoulder, Mira quirked an eyebrow at him. “Thatis why I told you to calm down.”
Kalie’s coarse gray sheets shifted as she raised her hand, guiding the paper cup away from her lips. Mira retreated. Water splashed into a sink, but Zane didn’t turn away from Kalie. Her chest rose and fell, and a crease appeared between her brows as she plucked at an electrode taped below her collar.
“This is a dream,” Zane whispered.
She smiled. “If this was a dream, I think I would’ve picked somewhere nicer.”
A choked laugh broke from Zane’s lips, and he bolted across the room, crashing to his knees beside her. A thin pink line streaked across her cheek, and a few nasty bruises blossomed on her forehead, but the blood was gone. Her wounds were gone.
“How?” he whispered, glancing at Mira.
“Had to fake her death, throw the Feds off your trail. Gar was worried about spies.” Mira squeezed his shoulder. “It was a close call, but you got her to Gar’s people just in time.”
His throat sealed shut. There was something in Mira’s eyes he couldn’t put a name on, but he saw what she was thinking, what she wanted him to hear:You didn’t fail. Not this time.
