Willow's eyes widen. Even though her face says guilty, the way she's shaking her head claims otherwise. "No," she whispers. "You think you have everything figured out, but you're wrong. I don't know anything."

I hate fighting with Willow, but I can't to let this go. Everything is riding on it. "Please, Willow. Just tell us the truth. You've kept a lot of things from us. About Sam, about the Blanks—so much that could have helped us. Don't let this be another secret. I know you've been visiting the Takers every night since we got here. You have to tell us how."

Excited voices pick up around us. I see more than a few angry faces. I don't want them angry at her, but maybe a rude awakening is what she needs. She has to understand we're on our own here. Sam won't save her any more than he'll save me.

Alec steps closer to her. "Tell her, Willow. Dammit, just—"

He's interrupted by a furious cry from the circle of kids observing us. "You bitch!" a guy screams, breaking through the audience.

He swings the bloody metal pipe in his hands. I hear the horrifying thump when it strikes the back of her head. She crumples to the floor, unmoving.

My chest is ice-cold. I barely notice Marcus when he steps forward to contain the rest of the agitated masses, or when Alec growls low in his throat and charges the attacker. I race over to Willow and turn her over on her back. Her eyes are closed. She looks dead.

Fingers trembling, I search for her pulse and sag with relief when my fingers locate it. My stupidity didn't get her killed.

A few people are restraining Alec. He's struggling against their hold and yelling at them to let him have another shot at the attacker. "She's alive, Alec," I shout.

"Willow?" he says in a soft voice. He shrugs off the grip the guys have on him and falls to his knees next to her, shaking her shoulders.

She groans and moves her head slightly, her eyes squeezed shut. "It hurts."

He cups her cheek, and the pain gradually fades from her face. Marcus grabs her attacker by the front of his shirt. "You're lucky I'm not throwing you in with the Blanks. Touch her again, and it'll be the last thing you do. You got that?"

The guy's head bobs. Marcus shoves him away and turns to us.

"Willow," he says. "Is there a way out of here?"

Alec glares up at him. "Can't you see she's hurt? Give her time, asshole."

"We don't have time," Marcus snaps.

Willow puts a hand on Alec's shoulder. "It's okay. I'm fine. Let's just get this over with."

He helps her to her feet, the muscles in his jaw tight in a way that makes him look dangerous. "If you're going to interrogate her like she's a criminal, the least you can do is get her out of here so there's no chance anyone will try to bash her skull in."

I trail after them as they head out of the cafeteria, my heart heavy with guilt. Janie and Adam are with us, but Eli isn't. He stays put where he is, smiling with amusement as he watches us leave. I'm not surprised Willow's wellbeing isn't on his list of pressing concerns.

Alec helps Willow over to the bleachers when we get to the gymnasium. She collapses on the bench, protesting when he tries to take away her pain again. "You know it makes my head feel fuzzy when you do that. I need to think."

"I'm not going to sit here and do nothing while you're in pain, so don't bother asking."

She looks at him, her lips parted in surprise. Something passes between them, so tangible I don't know how I ever missed the history between them. She looks away first, frowning, and nods in resignation. Alec wraps his hand around hers and holds it tightly.

"Willow." I sit next to her and grip the edge of the bench. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were going to get hurt. I would never—"

"It's okay," she says softly, not looking in my direction.

I can tell by her tone that nothing is okay. I'm used to feeling clumsy and inept around other girls, those leagues better than me, but Willow was different. She seemed to accept me for who I am. Was it all an act? Was she secretly hating me all this time?

"Why don't you tell us what you know?" Marcus asks, looming over her. "It's the least you can do after all this betrayal."

"I didn't betray you. Sam didn't either. He saved you by blocking your memories. You were headed down a very dark road. You were lost."

He laughs. "So you decided to help me find my way by leading me wherever you want, right? You created a whole identity just for me."

"You were angry, Marcus. Frankie was supposed to be your anchor—someone you hurt because of your anger issues. And it worked. Your regret has made you more human. You've been so different—"

"None of it was real!" he explodes.

"No. But it was better than the real you."

Marcus is stunned for a moment. He looks away, his jaw clenched. "I'm betting Director Blaine doesn't know what happened, but how did he get everyone else to go along with it?"

"Sam called me into his office a couple of weeks ago," Janie pipes in, her tone flippant, bordering on boredom. "He said a new identity would help you learn to use your ability better. You have been struggling with it."

Willow pulls away from Alec and massages her head. She sighs. "Sam didn't lie about that. That was his other reason for blocking your memories, but mainly it's because he wanted to separate you from Director Blaine."

"So he could manipulate me."

"No, so he could protect you! You were turning into Director Blaine, Marcus. I couldn't let that happen without trying to do something. I agreed because I wanted to give you back some of that compassion you had as a kid. Without it . . . you were just cruel."

The whole gymnasium falls quiet. One look at Marcus's tense expression and I know she's telling the truth. It scares me to think nothing about the last two weeks has changed him, but how could it? It's nothing more than a blip in the course of his whole life. An anomaly. The fact that he won't even look at me doesn't give me hope.

"How do we get out of here?" I ask Willow.

She closes her eyes and lets out another long sigh. "Sam's going to kill me."

"He's the last person you should worry about right now," Marcus scoffs.

"There are passageways within the walls. I don't know if any of them lead outside—they didn't exactly give me a tour when they brought me here. But that's how they get around the facility. I only know the secret passage in my bathroom."

I groan under my breath. We can't get inside her block without activating our bracelets. And we can't wait until nightfall when we'll be allowed back inside.

"It's the only door I'm sure of," Willow says, "but I think there's one hidden at the back of the kitchen behind all those boxes. I heard Sam say something to his staff once about how they should be careful not to disturb the stacks when they're doing their business."

My heart rate picks up. I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but I can't rein in my excitement. I give up trying. "We should check it out."

Willow climbs to her feet, pausing when the movement makes her dizzy. Alec tries to slip an arm around her waist but she pushes him away, mumbling something about how she doesn't need to be coddled. I start to follow everyone out when I hear a sob from the white room. The door is jammed. I go up to it and place my hand on the surface, listening.

The girl lets out another sob, and my heart aches for her. I know I should walk away, but I can't. I can't leave her in here thinking we've abandoned her.

"I'll bring back help," I say to her through the door. "I'll find someone who can—"

"Let me out!"

Slam!

Someone rams the door so hard it shudders. My adrenaline kicks into overdrive. I leap back to get away, picturing the door swinging wide open and a Blank descending upon me with inhuman strength. My right leg gives out. I stagger backward, my arms pin wheeling to break my fall. Someone catches me from behind. Marcus curses when the kid slams into the door again and lets out a scream of anguish that bristles the hair on my body.

"You're not getting away, you hear me?" the boy says, his voice thin and urgent. "It's better for you if you give up now. The end comes quickly for those who don't fight. I promise you. You will suffer if you don't listen to me."

In the background, the girl is still sobbing. Marcus clasps my arm and pulls me away. "Don't answer him. He'll calm down on his own."

We watch the door for a minute, listening to the boy's ramblings and witnessing the deterioration of his sanity. He eventually stops. I close my eyes, consumed by relief and guilt. Standing here and listening to these kids turn into Blanks is no better than what Eli did. Unless I bring back help like I promised. Someone out there has to know a way to fix us.

"God," Marcus exhales, his hands reaching out to frame my face. He studies me for a moment before he pulls me in for a bone-crushing hug. "You gave me a heart attack. I thought for sure he was going to break down the door."

His heat envelops me, sparking fire in my veins. The case in my pocket digs painfully into my hip, but I don't want to break the hug for anything. If anything, I want to get closer. So when Marcus pulls back, I kiss him. I expect him to push me away, but he buries his hand in my hair and pulls me closer. I feel the kiss on a molecular level, its sensual rhythm as intrinsic as breathing. No mistakes or awkward fumbling. We are in perfect accord.

It's a long drop back down to reality when he breaks the kiss. He rests his forehead against mine and inhales deeply through his mouth. His body stiffens. Still without a word, he releases me and stalks out of the empty gym.

I follow behind. I'm not sure if that kiss was progress or a relapse, but I have to snap him out of his gloom. Otherwise it'll snuff out the light still shining inside him and leave behind only the darkness that's been fostered by Jonathan Blaine.



Dozens of kids crowd the well-lit kitchen as we move the boxes to one side. Adam picks up a few and sets them down gingerly before Marcus says, "Come on, man, you're not handling a toddler. Put your backbone into it."

To make a point, he grabs one and chucks it across the room. Janie smiles deviously at Adam. "Poor Buzzcut. What's the point of having those big muscles if you aren't willing to play rough every once in a while? You're not going to find a girlfriend at this rate."

Adam blushes beet red while their friends roar with laughter, but he tosses the next box haphazardly into the pile. The other boys start to do the same, like they're in a pissing contest all of a sudden. I step out of the way when the boxes start flying and take a corner next to Willow. Her ashen face is pinched with worry and dissatisfaction.

"Sam always said we're not meant to be out there," Willow muses. "Any one of us could blank. We'd be releasing killing machines into the world."

"That's why it's important we find the authorities," I say. "Turn ourselves in, tell them to lock us up if any of us show symptoms. With all the technology and the doctors in the world, someone has to know how to reverse our condition."

"What about the bracelets? What if they stop us from leaving?"

I've thought about that, too. "They work inside the facility. Something in the walls triggers or turns them off. They might not work at all once we leave this place."

Willow ties her hair back into a messy ponytail. "We're taking a lot of gambles."

I don't how to respond to that. She's got a point. Nothing about this is a guarantee. I've been wrong about many things so far, but what if this is the one mistake that gets us all killed? There's no coming back from that. Even if I survive, I'm not sure I can live with myself.

She sighs, drawing my attention back to her. I work up the courage to confront her. "What's going on, Willow? You've been acting weird ever since I told you I remember. What did I ever do to you?"

She crosses her arms, staring intently at Marcus and Buzzcut, and I almost think she's not going to tell me. But she finally says, "Sam showed me a video of you and Alec that night you were kissing in the lounge room."

My stomach drops. Is that what this is about?

"I'm sorry," I rush out. "It didn't mean anything."

Willow doesn't react to my lame defense. "How old were you when Sam came into your life?"

"Eight." Discounting the fact that he knew me since I was practically a toddler.

"I was four." She gives me a wide, almost manic, smile. "All my life, I've done everything he's asked me to. I've spied for him and manipulated others into doing whatever he wanted. He's the reason I became involved with Alec. He needed me to lure him away from his father. Get him to like me even though I didn't care for him or his friends. I didn't want to do it, but I've never disobeyed Sam."

I look at Alec, sympathy welling up inside me. "You never wanted to be with him?"

"I loved him," she snaps, her face showing anger for the first time. "I still do. But my feelings have never mattered."

I nod. "Because of Sam."

"He protected you, you know," she says.

A laugh breaks free before I realize it. "I wouldn't call what he did to me being protective. He kept me a prisoner in my own life."

"He protected you," she repeats more firmly. "We were lab rats in the research facility. They bent us into whatever shape they needed and sometimes they broke us. Sam included. You're lucky. No one has ever tortured you in the name of research or kept you in a dark and quiet isolation chamber for weeks just to see how you'd react."

"They really did that?" I ask, stunned.

"What do you think?" She scoffs. "We all went through our own brand of hell to get our powers. Take Janie, for example. She has the powers of a siren. She draws people to her and makes them forget everything but her. Gardiner engineered that ability in her. For most of her life, they treated her like a leper. They kept her isolated from the rest of us. When we got presents, they always 'forgot about her.' The sickest part is when they bribed us to cut her out. We weren't allowed to hurt her or bully her. All we had to do was tell her to go away when she asked to play with us. They made her crave attention so much that she found a way to get it."

I study Janie as she stands close to a good-looking boy, her smile brilliant and flirtatious. The boy can't take his eyes from her, but I know it's not because of any power she's using. It's all her. She radiates such confidence I can't imagine her brutal childhood has had a lasting impact on her. Unless, like the rest of us, she has learned to hide her scars well.

"That was our reality," Willow continues, softer now. "As far as the world is concerned, we didn't exist. Therefore we had no rights. Sam took you out of that place a long time ago. He saved you. Yes, he probably hurt you to make your powers emerge, too. But he also trained you so you wouldn't be weak like the rest of these outsiders."

Her words do nothing to reassure me. Good intentions don't excuse a lifetime of abuse. Every time I hesitate before opening up to someone, every time I jump when a door slams shut, it's because of him. The best thing about these last few weeks is that they've given me a chance to be free of him.

"Sounds to me like you had it good if he made you his personal assistant," I say to get under her skin like she has mine.

Her eyes widen for a few seconds. And then redness creeps into her fair skin, the color of fury. I almost back up a step to escape the hatred twisted across her face, but it's gone as quickly as it came. She turns on her heel and stalks out of the kitchen.

"What's wrong?" Alec asks, coming over to where I am.

"She hates me," I say. "You'd think Sam dictating both our lives would give us something to bond over, but it's like . . . she blames me for what happened to her or something."

"Nah. She's just confused." Alec grabs a cup of vanilla pudding from a cabinet and rips it open. He offers it to me. "Marcus's secret stash. I doubt he'll need it where we're going."

I shake my head.

Alec gulps down his snack in record time. He throws the empty container at the large garbage can and misses. So he steps on it, squishing out the last bit of vanilla pudding.

Marcus and his friends finish with the boxes. There's a brick wall where they were stacked, painted to match the white interior of the kitchen. He kneels in front of it and runs his fingers over the bricks. Sweat coats his forehead and slides down his face.

"Come on, come on," he mutters under his breath.

I nudge a box out of my way. The brickwork chafes my fingertips. I slip my fingers between the gaps, pushing and pulling at the individual blocks. I'm straining toward the bricks above me when Marcus gives a satisfied grunt.

"Found something," he says, his hand on one of the bricks.

He pushes it. There's a click and a section of the wall slides back, the bricks disconnecting from one another to form the teeth of jigsaw puzzle pieces. He shoves at the door and reveals a passage big enough for an adult to slip through.

"Sweet!" someone behind me exclaims.

Marcus looks around and smiles. "Who's ready to break out of detention?"

Murmurs sweep through the ranks as news of the passage makes it to the kids outside the kitchen. I squeeze out into the hallway to face them. They look back at me like they're waiting for something, so I give it to them. "I don't know what we'll be facing when we walk through that door. I can't make any promises. So if you're not sure about this, you're free to stay. No hard feelings."

A couple of kids glance at each other, then at me. "Yeah, we're going to take our chances in here," one of the guys says.

I nod tersely. I didn't expect anyone to choose to stay behind. "Anyone else?"

"I'm good here, too," a familiar voice says. Eli is lounging against a wall, a lazy smile on his face. "I'm going to see this through to the end."

My body pricks with cold when I meet his eyes. They're black pits of something dark and intangible. Good. Let him stay. I'm glad I never have to look into them again.

"Marcus?" he says. "You with me?"

Marcus gives him a hard stare. "No."

"I guess we're parting ways then." He looks at the gathering and a quick smile slashes across his face. "You folks be safe out there. You don't know what predators are lurking."

"Don't hurt those kids in the white room, Eli," I warn.

Eli holds up three fingers. "I promise I won't touch a single Blank. Scout's honor."

"April." Carson's head peeks out from the crowd. "I'm staying, too."

"What?" I ask.

"I don't have a choice." He removes his hand from his pocket and holds it out. It's trembling uncontrollably. He swallows a couple of times. "It comes and goes, but it's getting worse. I don't want to die. But if I go out there with y'all, who knows when I'll blank? I don't want anybody to get hurt because of me."

"So the little shit is blanking," Eli drawls from his spot as two dozen kids back away from Carson, their faces horrified. "And none of you thought it'd be a good idea to share this?"

I can't leave him in here with this monster. "You have to come with us, Carson."

A round of protests starts up. I raise my voice to be heard. "You've been fine all week—you're not going to blank all of a sudden. There's still time to get help."

He shakes his head the whole time I'm speaking, and it feels like cracks are forming along my chest. "If you find help, then come back for me," he whispers hoarsely. "But until then, I'm not going anywhere. I can't, April. I can't."

He takes a step back. I grab the front of his t-shirt, afraid this is the last time I'll ever see him. "Carson—please don't do this. You know he'll kill you."

He glances at Eli. His expression makes it clear he doesn't buy into that scout's-honor crap either. "It's a risk I have to live with."

Marcus grips my elbow, pulling me away. "We're wasting time."

"Fine. I'll stay behind." I turn to Marcus. "You guys go ahead—"

"No, dammit!" Carson shouts, stunning me. "You're not going to sacrifice yourself for me. This is my fight."

I look into his wild, resolute eyes, and mine tear up. I think of his mom and dad and brothers, the love he has for them. His parents begged him to come home. I want him to go back to them. I want at least one of us to have a happy ending, and that can't happen if he stays behind. But if he goes with us, he might kill us all.

I throw my arms around him and bury my face in his shoulder. "I'll come back for you. I promise."

I don't know anymore which one of us is trembling anymore. I'm scared for him but I'm also scared for all of us and the two emotions are tearing me right down the middle. Carson pats my back one last time and pushes me away. His face has hardened. "Go. Get out of here."

His face is hazy through my tears. I'm saved from forcing myself to speak when Willow embraces him and presses a kiss to his cheek.

"Be safe," she says. "We'll see you soon."

"You bet you will," he answers with a stiff smile.

I turn away from him before my resolve breaks, focusing on Marcus so I don't have to think about what I'm leaving behind. Wiping at my tears, I say, "Lead the way."