The floor might as well have dropped out from under me. I’m dizzy, reeling, stunned and shocked and electrically overwhelmed to see him here—to seeallof them here, I realize: Kai and Lanz and Callahan
Moroslav doesn’t get up. Doesn’t even turn to face them, really, just angles his head backwards, smirks.
“Well.” His glance flashes back to me. “What a party you have going here.”
Knock knock.“Gwenna?” Grace’s voice comes. “We’re—oh, my God.”
I swivel around to see Grace frozen in place, a look of panic on her face as one hand flies to cover her open mouth.
“Wait,” I say, somehow jumping to my feet. “Grace. It’s…they’re…”
I don’t even know how to explain, knowwhat I’m trying to explainbeyond the immediately visible: four furious young men in long dark coats standing shoulder-to-shoulder like a black wall, staring down a fifth who’s all but snarling at them.
“Get away from her,” Kingston repeats, his voice tighter this time. Now, Moroslav gets to his feet, slowly, eyes locked on Kingston’s.
“As you are so proud of,” he says slowly, “it is a free country.” He darts a look back at me. “Me, I am just visiting anacquaintance. To apologize for how I treated her. To do the…what do you call it?” His eyes flash. “Thechivalrousthing.”
Kingston flies.
He tackles Moroslav so fast I hear thethudbefore I process what I’m seeing, Kingston landing hard on top, his broad left hand spanning Moroslav’s throat as his right wheels back.
Crack.
The punch lands, and someone screams.
Me.I’m screaming.
And now Kai and Callahan are ripping Kingston back, yanking him to standing, throwing their arms across his chest as he fruitlessly tries to shrug them off, his golden eyes fixed on Moroslav.
“Leave,” he says. “Now.”
“Gladly.” Another grin crawls over Moroslav’s face, too wide, as he stands. “I have seen who I came to see.”
With that, he shoulders his way between Kingston and Cal, and shoves the door open, just as?—
“Security!” someone yells. Grace. Behind me. “Security!”
I whirl around again just in time to see her slam her hand on the red panic button that stands beside all the doors at Renfrew.
“No!” My voice is ragged, my eyes wet—I’m crying, I’m crying because I’m so overwhelmed and because I don’t want the four of them to be here, to behereand to see me like this, and a security alarm on top of all that is just going to draw every girl out of the dayroom and dorms and group and?—
Sure enough, voices and footsteps ring out behind Grace, the dayroom flooding with girls and orderlies and therapists?—
“No,” I moan. “No, no…”
“Code Gray,” yells a voice. “She’s hysterical.”
Someone strong grabs my shoulders from behind as I choke on a sob. “No! Let me?—”
I don’t even see the needle. Only feel the world slip away.
FOUR
KAI
I could kill him.
“Realbrilliantmove there, dickhead,” I roar after Kingston as he slams his way out of the place and into the cold.
