Page 63 of Strange Lights

“Well, I won’t do this.” I toss the collar at her feet. “Whatever you want to drag out of the void can stay there for all I care.”

There’s a resounding crack and I stumble, falling to my knees, against the front of the cage. Luca is growling, huge in his wolf form, towering above me through the barrier of the cell wall. Adele hit me; it finally occurs to me. She backhanded me so hard across the face that I’ve fallen. Though my mask has blocked most of the blow, I am taken by surprise. Adele has never hit me before, despite everything. She stares down at me, chest heaving.

Luca snarls, clawing great gouges into the glass in his fury.

I hear more of Adele’s sharp laughter as she eyes Luca. “That is interesting,” she says, and bends to pick up the collar from where it’s fallen. She holds it up, inspects it, gently turning it in her hands.

“Twenty-four hours,” she says coldly, placing the collar on the table and turning her back to walk away. “Get that collar on him and working, Regina, or I’ll finish it myself, put it on you instead, and be done with this whole mess. I’ve tried to be patient with you, but maybe it’s time. Maybe I should have done it the original way years ago. Perhaps I made a mistake allowing myself to get attached to you at all. I should know better by now.”

I huddle on the floor, afraid to budge until she’s left. I have no idea what she’s talking about. It isn’t worth puzzling. She turns back to us before she goes. “Oh, and, Regina, if you make me put that collar on you, your first job will be to dispose of the failed test subject. Then maybe you might understand me.”

A high-pitched ringing fills my ears. As soon as she’s gone, Luca is his human self again. He sits with me, inches away but unable to touch me as I hyperventilate on the floor. He talks me through each breath, calming me the only way he can.

If she gets the collar on me, figures out how to get it to work, she’ll never let me leave. She hit me, humiliated me, and called me by my given name in front of Luca. I told her what he’s worth to me, handed her the means to break my will. He’s as good as dead unless I get him out of here tonight. I reach for my pocket, the key. I still have the key. When she calms down, when she realizes she left this with me, we won’t get another chance.

There isn’t any more time left to panic. So I force myself to stop. I have things to do.

“I’ll be back. We’re leaving tonight,” I tell Luca. “I’ll get you out.”

“One way or another?” Luca asks, his eyes red rimmed, and I realize he’s been crying and I hadn’t noticed. “You promised.”

“I won’t let her turn you into a weapon, I promise.” One way, I silently assure myself, imagining my hand in his, somewhere far from here. But not the other. My cold fingers wrapped around his neck until his life slips away. The promise I don’t trust myself to keep.

I throw the collar into the laboratory incinerator. The old magic book too.

I return to our quarters as the lightning starts up and night falls, and all I can feel is grateful that Adele has chosen to vent her anger into the skies. I rush to Zara’s room. She’s cowering in her closet in my absence.

“Come on,” I say, pulling her to her feet, tugging her after me toward Meredith’s room. “We’re leaving. Forever, tonight.”

“But Reggie⁠—”

I cut her off. There isn’t time to waste. “I know you’re scared, but I need you to be brave. You need to listen and do exactly as I say.” I speak rapidly as I turn the corner into Meredith’s room, Zara trailing me.

Meredith isn’t in her bed. I turn to examine the closet, duck to check under the bed, fighting my rising panic as Zara cries silently in the doorway.

“Mom has her. She took Meredith with her.”

I frantically pull the sheets from the bed, upend the toy chest in the closet. As if I might find Meredith at any moment, misplaced like a stray sock. Though I know Zara wouldn’t lie to me. My heart sinks, and the dim hope that’s been valiantly struggling to stay alight in my chest for weeks blinks out in an instant. There’s no reason for Adele to take a three-year-old with her for an all-night experiment. She’s a pawn. Checkmate.

I tuck Zara into my bed with deliberate calm. “I have to go take care of something. Stay here; I’ll be back,” I say. She nods, but I feel her eyes on me as I turn to leave.

Luca is still awake and pacing when I arrive. “Hurry,” the only greeting I offer as I unlock the door and slip inside the cell. Luca doesn’t hesitate, stepping out and taking the gray guard’s uniform that I hold out. This time I made sure I brought boots too. I turn my back and speak quickly as he changes, all the while uncomfortably and wonderfully aware of his body heat, of how close we finally are.

“Walk behind me. Don’t stop or speak to anyone. I have a bag for you in my room, and there’s an emergency passage out of my mother’s quarters. We only have a few hours. As long as the lightning flashes, she’ll be busy.”

Luca places a hand on my shoulder. “Let’s go,” he says, tense excitement lacing his tone. The half mask I’ve given him is already on his face.

We don’t speak until we reach my room. He immediately pulls off the mask with a shudder. Zara sits up in bed, tears still coursing down her cheeks. She glances from Luca to me in confusion.

“He’s okay. It’s a disguise,” I say to Zara as I pull out the bag I’ve prepared for Luca. “Extra clothes, water, energy bars. I packed light, but it should get you to a town.”

“More than enough.” Luca shrugs off my explanation. “Where’s yours?”

I shake my head.

“Reggie, come on,” Luca hisses, “this isn’t the time for cold feet.”

“Meredith. Adele took Meredith with her tonight,” I say, my voice cracking over the words.