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My heart expanded to fill my chest and tears stung my eyes, but this time they were perfectly happy tears. No fear, no anger, no nostalgia. Just happiness.
“And I’d be saying yes,” I said.
Josh grinned. He pulled me to him and kissed me and kissed me and kissed me, until I seriously considered breaking Noelle’s no-naked-birthday-fun rule. The room gradually seemed to grow warmer and warmer, until tiny beads of sweat broke out along
the back of my neck, but we just kept kissing. His arms around mine, his chest to my chest, our knees knocking together. We kissed like it was the last time we’d ever have the chance.
“I love you so much, Reed,” Josh said, finally breaking away. Our foreheads touched, and his hands were tangled up in my hair.
“I love you too,” I said breathlessly.
It was a totally, utterly perfect moment. Then I heard a thud, and Josh’s eyes went wide, and he crumpled to the floor. After that, all that there was in the world was my scream.
“You are the strongest of us all, Reed. You’re the only one who can save them. The only one who can save yourself.”
Eliza Williams spoke directly in my ear. But I couldn’t see her. Everything was dark. All I saw was blackness stretching out for all eternity. My head lolled to the side and I started awake, but even with my eyes open, all was black. My head radiated with pain.
“Use your power, Reed. Use it to warn them.”
Frustration bubbled in my veins. I wanted to reach out and grab her. Shake her. Slap her as hard as I could. But I couldn’t move my arms. How was I supposed to use my power to save myself? My power, if I even had one, was prescient dreams. And since I hadn’t dreamed that someone was going to knock Josh out cold and grab me, the ship had basically sailed on using my powers for anything.
“Warn them, Reed. You can warn them.”
I had no idea what she meant, and a whimper escaped my throat, waking me for another split second before I floated off into a new state of semisleep. I just wanted to know if Josh was okay. I just wanted him to be here, wherever here was. I scrunched my eyes closed as hard as I possibly could and thought of him. His eyes, his hands, his mouth, his touch. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted him to tell me everything was going to be okay. Forget saving myself right now. All I could think was, I’m here, Josh. Please find me. Please help me.
I saw him looking up into my eyes. Saw myself falling into him. His arms wrapping around me. Safe, safe, safe in his arms.
Suddenly the blindfold was ripped off my face, and a fingernail scratched my cheekbone. My head snapped back and slammed against something hard. I saw stars—brightly colored, flashing, popping stars—floating before my vision. I shook my head from side to side to clear it, and saw that I was in some kind of basement room. The ceilings were low, the floor was made of stained cement, and the only light came from several tall candelabras set up around the periphery. Tied to identical wooden posts, directly across from me, were Astrid, Lorna, Missy, and Constance.
Now I was fully awake.
“Astrid! Lorna! Missy! You’re okay?” I blurted.
Tears streamed down Lorna’s face, and Astrid was covered in what looked like dried mud. Neither of them looked anywhere close to okay. But they were alive. At least they were alive. But where was Josh? What had they done with Josh?
“Reed? What’s going on?” Constance asked, her voice quaking.
She was still wearing her pink party dress, and a trickle of blood ran from her temple to her jaw. When had they taken her? How long had I been out? My fingers clenched into fists behind me, the simple movement straining my biceps. I looked down at myself for the first time. My ankles and my hands were lashed to a wooden pole. My shoes were gone and the skirt on my dress hung lower on one side, torn at the seam. Aside from the throbbing pain at the back of my skull, however, I appeared to be in one piece.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Just stay calm.”
“Stay calm?” Missy shrieked. “What do you think those are for?”
She nodded toward the center of the circle and I forced myself to look. Laid out on a small round table were six pristine silver daggers, their points touching at the center of the circle, their black handles evenly spaced. Each handle pointed directly at one of us. It looked as if they had been set up to be grabbed easily.
Except there were only five of us. The sixth dagger pointed toward an empty wooden pole.
I felt a whoosh of movement behind me and turned my head, wincing at the pain. All I saw was a flap of black fabric, like a robe, and then it disappeared. My heart started to pound in earnest, thrumming white-hot terror through my veins.
Black robes. Just like in my dreams.
“Who’s there? Who’s doing this? Nice work nabbing five defenseless girls, you cowards. The least you could do is show yourselves!” I snarled.
There was a slam somewhere in the darkness, and Constance made a low, pathetic sound in the back of her throat.
“Good job. Now you’ve pissed them off,” Missy snapped.
“Make that six girls,” a disembodied voice growled.
