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It’s this or we end up killing all those kids, all the criminals who maybe could find a better path. I’m stealing the details of their life before, but I’m also giving them a second chance they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
I focus on the sluggish stirring of the girl’s mind andpush. Almost like when I extend my talent for invisibility over someone else, but more concentrated. As if I’ve condensed the power into a psychic acid that’s eating away every piece of her past that was stored inside her brain.
In a few minutes, her mind will be as blank as my body becomes when I remove it from sight.
The room is cool, but sweat forms on my forehead. An ache creeps up the back of my own skull.
If I’m going to do this with a bunch of the other shadowbloods, we’ll probably have to space out my efforts. I’m not sure how many I could do one after the other without totally wearing myself out.
The memories dissolve beneath the sweeping wave of energy I’m propelling into Bethany’s mind. Then I sense nothing within her head at all.
I drop my hand, balling it when it starts to shake, and pull myself back from the bed. No one wants to wake up not just disoriented but with a stranger right in their face.
Griffin’s expression tenses slightly. He’s already projecting soothing emotions into her, even as she sleeps.
I guess there’s something to be said for getting a head start.
By the time Bethany shifts her limbs against the chains, my mouth has gone dry. She lets out a soft, startled sound that jabs at my heart.
Her eyes pop open. She stares at the bindings wrapped around her and then at the three of us standing around her bed.
Griffin frowns. “It’s okay,” he says in a voice soft as silk. He isn’t aiming his power at me, but the conjured calm tingles at the edges of my awareness. “We’re here to help you.”
“You had an accident,” I add. “You were badly hurt—you may not be able to remember anything.”
Bethany jerks against the chains. “Why am I all tied up? What the hell is going on?”
An edge of anger has already crept into her voice. I hold up my hands in a gesture of apology. “When the accident happened, you weren’t totally in control of yourself. You hurt some people. We just want to make sure that—”
“Let me go!” Bethany interrupts, outright thrashing now. “You can’t do this to me. You’re all going to regret it when I get out of this shit.”
Griffin eases closer to me. “It isn’t working,” he murmurs. “The rage flared up right away, as soon as she saw her situation—so intense I can’t get through it.”
Just like before when she still had her memories.
“You’re all assholes!” the girl keeps shouting, the viciousness of her voice even more horrifying coming from a skinny fourteen-year-old kid. “I’ll hurtyouif you don’t stop this shit. I’ll—”
A quaver enters her voice, and her expression shifts. She must sense a hint of her power.
The next sound that bursts from her lips is an emphatic, wordless crooning.
Fear rattles through my nerves, propelling a yelp up my throat and my feet toward the door. In just the second or two before Lull passes her hand over Bethany’s face, my heart nearly bursts from my chest.
Then the girl slumps back into a doze, and the adrenaline rush fades, leaving my body wobbly but a hell of a lot steadier.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
Griffin swipes his hand over his face, his mouth slanted at a pained angle. “I’m sorry. I tried every angle I could think of—she got worked up so quickly.”
I clear my throat, but a rasp still colors my voice. “It’s not your fault. It’s that prick Balthazar.”
Why was Bethany still so aggressive when Keith came to in a much more cautious state? I stare at her prone form as if it’ll give me any answers and then extend my thoughts toward the one person who might have a clue.
Ajax? You knew both Keith and Bethany from training on the island. Can you think of any reason they’d react differently to this ‘treatment’?
There’s a momentary silence, and then Ajax’s inner voice trickles into my head.Keith was pretty quiet, kind of hesitant to try anything unless the guardians pushed him. Bethany always seemed a little angry even back then, like she figured she was going to get good at things to spite them or something. So that eventually she could turn the skills against them.
That makes a kind of sense. Their original personalities came into play, interacting with the crap Balthazar inflicted on them.
