“Reece?” Grayson wasn’t paying any attention to the gun at his temple, his gaze locked on Reece.
Reece spoke again, this time to himself. “What I did to Cedrick Stone is permanent.”Lie.“I can never undo it.”Lie.
How? How could those be lies? Reece couldn’t reverse what he’d done to Cedrick: He believed that, believed empaths could never un-thrall their victims—
Part of you believes that, said a little voice in his head, the one he’d thought he had lost forever after the Olympia facility.The other part of you has always believed you can help.
Reece stared at Cedrick’s catatonic form on the gurney, his breaths starting to come faster. A lifetime ago, in a marina dry dock, he’d told a corrupted Cora he could help her, and it hadn’t been a lie. He’d believed he could help.
But he’d still been a pacifist then. Now, the black lightning was leaping along his skin, almost painfully sharp. It didn’t want to let go. It wanted revenge, wanted to make Charles and Cedrick Stone pay for everything they’d done. If Reece got his hands on Cedrick right now, he’d kill him, and then Charles would kill Evan.
The corruption in you would kill Cedrick.
But what if there’s another path?
Reece’s gaze went to Grayson, and the gun still against his temple. Grayson’s hazy eyes met his. “Don’t listen to them, Reece—”
“Evan, be quiet,” Charles snapped. “Stone Solutions is notprotecting you anymore. You are nothing but collateral now, and you’ll live longer if you behave accordingly. Do you understand?”
But Grayson was trying to shake his head. “Reece, justwait. Don’t do anything Stone wants—”
“Shut him up,” Charles said to a soldier.
The man smashed a hand over Grayson’s mouth, hard enough Reece heard the blow. Fresh anger jolted through him. “You get your fucking hands off Evan—”
“Watch your mouth, you little shit—” Charles cut himself off. He closed his eyes and took a breath through his nose. “No. I won’t be influenced.” He opened his eyes and gestured at Cedrick. “I’m waiting,” he said, calm on the surface but with an undercurrent of anger. “And I won’t wait much longer. Undo what you did or Evan pays the price. I know you can hear the truth in my words.”
Reece clenched his teeth. Corrupted or pacifist, it didn’t matter; there was no part of Reece that wanted to live in a world without Evan.
Your compassion is a strength, Jamey had told him time and time again. Was it true? Was it strong enough to reverse what he’d done to Cedrick—if it was strong enough to return to him in the first place?
“If I can bring Cedrick back,” he heard himself say, “I want your word that you won’t hurt Evan.”
“Reece,” he heard Grayson try to say.
Reece turned to Charles. “I want to know that no one here will hurt him. I want to hear you say it.”
“Give me Cedrick and I will return Evan to you unharmed,” Charles said.
Not a lie. “And you’ll give us one of your cars and let us leave,” Reece said tightly.
“You can have that SUV right there, and we’ll let you drive off,” Charles said. “Do we have a deal?”
Also not a lie. Reece nodded once.
Charles took one step backwards, gun still aimed at Grayson’s head. “Take the empath to Cedrick.”
The men holding him began steering him over to the van-turned-ambulance. Reece let them move him without fighting, his gaze trained on the figure of Cedrick Stone on the gurney.
The black lightning was crackling angrily along his skin and the base of his skull, so his whole body was hot and prickling with anger and power.
But corruption had never been alone in him. And from somewhere deep in his chest, something even stronger was rising back up.
And then everything was black.
Grayson tried to force his eyes to stay open, no matter how much the drugs in his system were trying to pull his lids down. There was blood on his lip from the blow, and he swiped his tongue over it, willing the sting and unpleasant taste to wake him up.
“Watch them both,” Charles snarled at the uniformed men. “Don’t trust either of them or avert your eyes for a moment.”
