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“Hazel.”

Listen.

“I’m here.”

Wait. That had been me. Had I said that?

Declan froze. His hand cupped my cheek.

“What?”

My mouth wouldn’t work again.

No. Please.

I had done it once. I could do it again.

“Hazel,” Dad said somewhere above us.

“Give him a second,” Riot told him quietly.

“Her face,” Mom said.

“I know,” Dad answered.

Someone touched my ankle.

I jerked.

Declan whipped his head around.

“Don’t,” he said.

“It’s me,” Clayton told him.

“Not yet.”

Clayton’s hand disappeared.

I stared through the grate. Nothing was there.

Nothing.

No reason for a voice.

Closer.

My shoulders strained forward.

Declan held me.

“No.” The word came out of me.

Everyone stopped. Even me.

Declan bent close. “What did you say?”

I swallowed. Acrid. Bitter. Familiar.