Filled with babies.
I’m standing right next to one. I look down. A baby with black eyes grins as drool makes its way down its chin.
I blink. Its grin turns evil.
The world starts going dark at the edges again.
“Silas?” A familiar voice in my ear.
“Silas, it’s me. Oakley.”
I gasp, still searching for oxygen. “Oakley.”
“Silas, are you going to do as I say?” he asks in that comfortingly dark tone.
Thank God.
“Yes. I’ll do anything you tell me to.”
“Good. I want you tobreathe.”
I inhale.
I exhale.
“Again.”
I obey.
“One more.”
I take another deep breath and release a long exhale. “I’m breathing now,” I say, too afraid to look at the crib next to me. “The babies, Oak. They’re like me.”
Edison, still uncomfortably close, touches his fingers to his ear. He looks down at the crib.
“Scratch that.” Edison’s voice echoes in two places. Here and crackling over the comms. “There are zero babies in thesecribs. Silas might be…” He lets out a controlled breath. “Hallucinating.”
I shake my head, gesturing to the crib. “How can I be hal?—”
Oh.
It’s empty.
They’re all empty.
“Get him the fuck out of there,” Oakley says. His voice is calm. Steady. But he’s put that authority in his voice, and the others snap to attention.
Honoré shifts on his feet.
“Can you come with us? We want to get you out of this room,” he says, his Afro-French accent familiar. He’s a Wildling. I can trust him.
I nod. He and Holmes flank me, each winding an arm around my elbow. It feels supportive, but if I struggled, they’d be able to control me.
Not really, but I won’t harm them.
“Can you double-check?” I ask, not trusting myself. “No babies, right?”
“I looked,” Holmes says. “No babies. Your mind took you back to that place you were rescued from. But you are here. With us.”
