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She had no right to be upset. That had been the deal from the start. Her soul for Nana’s life.
As Leah delved deeper into the store, which looked more like a labyrinth with no end, the holo-device strapped to her wrist began to buzz. Incessantly.
That wasn’t Nana’s ringtone.
Leah’s heart shriveled.
Only one other person would bother to call her–and not for any pure reason.
No, no, no. Not now. Not here. No after what had happened last night
Adrenaline pumping through her, Leah shakily found a darkened corner, behind some of the heaviest drapes. As secluded as she could be, she took a deep, trembling breath, and finally answered the holo-call.
Flint’s scrawny, vicious face popped out before her. Even on an alien planet, his hologram body was shrouded in the shadows.
Leah locked her knees to keep them from shaking, and stared him down.
“Miss Mallory,” Flint’s cold, emotionless voice filled the space. “You’re hard to get a hold of. Alone.”
Icy fear spiked up Leah’s spine. Flint calling her the only moment she wasn’t by Taryn’s side was no coincidence.
“Have you been following me?” she asked in a deadly whisper.
“Irrelevant.” Flint waved her off with his gaunt, grayish hand. “We have to make sure you’re keeping your end of the bargain. I’m sure you’ve heard the medication has reached your grandmother. The first doses, at least. More will keep coming–if you keep cooperating, of course.”
Leah’s insides fractured.
“And you haven’t been cooperating.” Flint’s voice turned sickeningly low. “Have you, Miss Mallory?”
Her skin crawled. Her heart dropped. Her mind went haywire.
But on the outside, Leah remained perfectly still. “I haven’t found out anything about him.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“I can’t change that.”
“But you can change an entire planet’s future.” Flint’s voice took on a rougher edge, as if the carefully constrained facade of calm was cracking. He reigned it in a breath later. “You are so very far away from your grandmother, perhaps you don’t remember what, exactly, is at stake. Tell me everything you’ve seen and heard.”
Leah’s knees began to shake. “I need more time. I haven’t–”
“Now.”
The world spun around Leah. The Quillon shop blurred, in a sea of decadent fabrics, as her mind reeled desperately. Only Flint’s gaunt, icy face remained stubbornly still, like a menacing flare in the darkness, waiting to turn her to ash.
She couldn’t open her mouth.
She couldn’t betray Taryn.
She couldn’t let Nana die.
Her soul was fracturing, straight down the middle. It hurt so much, she couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t.
She had to. She had–gods, what was she going to do?
“She doesn’t need more time,” a deep, raspy voice said from the maelstrom.
