“Maybe you should be.”
He leaned back in his seat. “I’m surprised he’s won you over so fast, Persephone.”
“Who says he has?”
“You’re here, aren’t you?’’
“Don’t presume to know my motives. Consider the alternative future you had planned for me.”
“Marr would have helped control your power, Persephone. I did the right thing.” Gideon lay his hands flat on the table.
“You think I’m a monster, but the truth is, I have only ever tried to help you – “
“Help me? How did you ever help me father? By locking me up? By making me feel wrong and dirty and evil my whole life?”
Gideon looked at me. “You were born different. We knew it straight away. The tests we ran were necessary.”
“I was fine until you started experimenting on me!” I yelled.
Dev stepped forward, his eyes darker than I had ever seen them. I could practically feel him vibrate with rage. I had to raise my arm to stop him.
Gideon rubbed his chin and shook his head. “You’re wrong. Your mother and I – we knew. We could tell there was something different about you. Powers didn’t work on you, even as a baby.”
He tilted his head slightly, studying me.
“When you were hurt, we couldn’t heal you. When you screamed, we couldn’t calm you. We couldn’t even charm you.”
“It’s like you were… nothing.”
The words landed like blades.
It’s like you were nothing.
A hand rested at the small of my back, anchoring me.
Dev.
I straightened my back. “I need to ask you something. About Echo.”
Dev stiffened by the door, surprise on his face.
Gideon shifted, his eyes shrewd. “What about her?”
“So, you knew about her.”
“I was told,” he said. “Yes.”
“Marr made her, didn’t he?” I leaned forward. “He made her… out of me.”
“Echo was one of Marr’s projects. She’s not human in any meaningful sense.”
“That’s not true either. She has thoughts. Feelings.”
“She’s a mutation. She would never survive outside a tank,” Gideon said. “Marr is a genius, Persephone. He understands what he is doing.”
“Did you know what he planned?” I asked, leaning over. “Do you know what he wanted to do with us?”
“I didn’t need to know the details.”
