Elena awoke to blindingly bright light. She was in a bed, surrounded by a plastic curtain. There was a mix of muted voices interrupted by the clattering of wheels. The chilled air settled in her lungs and made her cough.
Where am I?
“Elena?”
A blurred face appeared. She tried to respond, but her body wouldn’t obey. Tendrils coiled around her consciousness and drowned her in smothering darkness. Meanwhile, her hand touched Sebastian’s cheek.
He kissed her fingers. “I’m so glad you’re awake.”
No, that’s not me!
She pushed against her restraints, but they held firm. It was exactly as she’d feared. In her weakened state, a shade had slipped past her barriers and taken possession of her body.
What did that mean? Was she changing somehow, becoming more susceptible to the shade’s influence? Was she on the brink of succumbing, like her mother before her?
Sebastian, run! Get away from me!
She had a flashback of her mother leaning over Edward’s prone body, a bloody knife held above her head.
No!
If the shade hurt Sebastian, then the moment she got free, she would track it down by whatever means necessary. She’d never destroyed a shade before, but she’d find a way.
But the shade didn’t rise or lash out. Instead, it squeezed Sebastian’s fingers. The action was accompanied by a gentle brush of concern against her mind. It was so unlike what she’d expected that she recoiled.
“I’ve missed you, Bast,” the shade said. “You have no idea how much. But you have to stop him.”
Stop who? The killer?
She reached for the presence sharing her body and was swept into a memory.
She was on a moving swing, pumping her legs back and forth. Adrenaline rushed to her stomach and made her giggle. Then she leaped from the swing in an arc and landed with her feet together and her arms raised in a Y position.
“Ta-da!” she cried. Then she looked at Sebastian, leaning against a large elm tree. “What do you think? Roth says I should try out for the cheerleading team.”
“I don’t know what you see in him,” Sebastian said. His arms were folded over his chest, and the muscles in his neck stood out as if he was physically holding himself back from throttling her.
“He’s nice, okay?” Chloe said, even though she didn’t expect Sebastian to understand. Roth made her feel things she’d never felt before, and in a small town where she’d known everyone since she could toddle, the newness of it was exciting.
“He’s a bastard,” Sebastian snarled. “I saw the bruises on your arms last night. I know what he did to you.”
She plucked at the cuffs of her sweater with her fingers. “That was an accident.”
They’d been at Roth’s apartment, and she’d accidentally broken a dish he’d inherited from his mother. Of course, he got mad. But he cried and held her after, insisting it was a mistake. Roth would never hurt her.
Would he?
As the memory faded, Elena realized two things.
First, the shade that had been possessing her was indeed Chloe. Second, Detective Roth was a viable suspect. Even though Chloe’s memory of that incident was filled with happiness, there was a tinge of doubt in her heart. Combined with the earlier memory she’d gleaned from Roth, she was more suspicious than ever.
She shook off the memory and concentrated on what the shade was doing with her body. It might have been Chloe once, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous. She tensed and waited for the right moment to strike.
Sebastian frowned. “Are you okay? You’re not making sense again.” He placed his palm on her forehead, then shook his head and pulled his arm back. “Your fever seems to have passed, at least.”
The shade sighed, and its sorrow wreathed around Elena, squeezing her tight. “I have to go now,” it said. “I’ll talk to you later, I hope.”
The pressure in Elena’s head vanished, and she popped back into her own body.
“Where are you going?” Sebastian smiled. It was clear from his expression that he thought she was still loopy from the drugs or whatever else she’d been subjected to.
“N-nowhere,” Elena started. Then her stomach squeezed, and there was a sour tang in the back of her throat. She retched, and Sebastian shoved a plastic tub into her arms. She gripped the bowl, panting as bile churned in her stomach. When the nausea finally passed, she downed the water Sebastian handed her and scraped the metallic taste off her tongue with her teeth. A thick substance filled her mouth. She spat a mass of green phlegm into the tub.
“Here,” Sebastian said, holding out a box of tissues. She accepted it with a croaked thanks, then blew her nose until her ears popped.
“All good?” Sebastian took the tissue box. The concern written in the wrinkles around his eyes sent butterflies flying in her stomach.
“I think so,” she said. Her voice was still rough, but the rattling in her chest had stopped. “Where am I? What happened?”
“St. Augustine’s. The doctors said if I hadn’t—” His already pale face blanched. “It doesn’t matter.” Then he raised her hand to his lips and kissed the center of her palm. “You’re safe now.”
The python wrapped around his neck uncoiled and disappeared beneath his collar. A second later, it traveled along his arm and through their connected hands to her forearm, then vanished beneath her hospital gown.
Hello, there.
She reached for the shade’s presence in her mind, instinctually knowing it had no intention of possessing her.
Who are you, anyway?
There was a fizzing that sounded almost like laughter, but it was over so quickly she dismissed it as background hospital noise.
That’s when a fact, overlooked, sprang to the surface of her mind. Sebastian’s face was dark with growth as if he hadn’t shaved in days. The window behind him was bright, and the clock on the wall revealed it was early morning.
Although she dreaded the answer, she asked, “How long have I been out?”
He stared at her.
Her chest rattled again and sent her into a coughing fit. Sebastian pounded on her back to dispel the mucous. The python coiled around Sebastian’s neck.
“Two days,” Sebastian said.
Her mind reeled. How was that possible? If she’d been out for so long, surely a shade would have taken over her body and caused chaos?
Unless whatever drugs the hospital had given her had interfered with the process. That would explain why she’d only been possessed once she awoke.
She filed away that information for later analysis. She’d never considered the possibility of using drugs to keep the shades at bay.
Sebastian crowded her as she propped herself up. She shoved his hands away. “Stop fussing! I’m fine.” She wound back her memory, but it was fuzzy and hard to grasp. “I remember Sandra picked the lock at Chloe’s house. Then what happened?”
He studied her face. “I went into the basement to answer a call and left you upstairs. The call took longer than I thought. Then I heard sounds and came upstairs to find you being attacked by a masked man.”
She touched her lips, remembering how the man had jerked her head upright. “He shoved something in my mouth. Pills, I think.”
Was that why they’d kept her in the hospital for so long? Had it been the pills that had knocked her out, not anything the doctors had given her?
There was also the terrible pounding in her head.
Sebastian’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I left you there. I failed you.”
Elena shot her arm out from under the protective covering of the blanket to punch his shoulder. “Stop that. It’s fine. I’m fine. I don’t enjoy knowing my attacker is walking the streets, but…”
A damp rag pressed over her mouth. Arms closed around her, pulling her from the closet. She struggled, kicking and trying to bite the hand behind the rag.
Darkness crept in from the edges of her vision.
Beep, beep, beep.
A nurse in turquoise scrubs shoved aside the curtain with a crinkling sound. Her shock-white hair was tied in a high ponytail, and her eyes were pools of black. She smiled, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth.
Elena was about to scream, but when the nurse stepped inside, her white hair warmed to a golden brown, and the teeth that had been razor sharp were lined with metal brackets.
“Visiting hours are over,” the nurse said, the braces giving her a slight lisp. “Family only.”
“No!” Elena cried.
The sterile environment was little more than another kind of cage, one she couldn’t escape on her own. If Sebastian left, she’d be at their mercy. Visions of needles, whirring machines, and flashing lights filled her mind.
“I’m family,” he said to the nurse. “Her husband.”
My what?
“Sorry about that,” he whispered after the nurse had left. “They just assumed.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “Can you get me more water?”
Her throat was parched.
After Sebastian exited the room, she moved her arms and legs. Nothing hurt, aside from the needle in her wrist. She raised her other arm and probed her scalp, touching something tender. Her head throbbed. The room spun. “Crap. Crap.” She took steady, deep breaths until her nausea passed.
Sebastian returned, and when he looked at her, he frowned and stepped closer. “You don’t look so great.”
“Speak for yourself. You look like shit.”
Sebastian unwound enough to laugh. Then his face became serious. “As much as I don’t want to talk to Roth, we should report this.”
Elena scoffed. “Why? He didn’t believe us the last time.”
They looked at each other for a long moment, smiles fading. There were bags under his eyes, and his hair stuck up at odd angles.
“You’ve been here the whole time,” she said.
Sebastian winced but didn’t correct her.
“Damn. We’re back to square one. Well, what happened while I was out?”
Sebastian shifted in his chair. “The coroner released his report. The official cause of death is accidental drowning.”
Elena slammed her head back on the pillow. Each new snippet of information she gathered was a piece of the larger puzzle, one she could not yet recognize. But when she looked around her small room, she shuddered. One thing was certain.
“I can’t stay here.”
“They’ll discharge you now that you’re awake.”
Elena couldn’t tell if he misunderstood or if the thought of her leaving town was too painful for him to grasp. She remembered a time years ago when they’d had a similar argument. She had begged her parents for months for permission to attend a summer camp. Perhaps because she hadn’t yet developed her talents, her mother relented and signed the form allowing her to go. When she showed the paper to Sebastian, his face developed the same stony expression. For a kid, three months was forever. Elena longed for freedom to stretch her wings, but Sebastian refused to accept her logic, closing her out of his life and giving her the silent treatment. It was too much for her, as young and vulnerable as she was, and with few friends outside of the Castillo family. She begged forgiveness and promised she would never leave again.
She lifted herself into a sitting position. “I want to find out what happened to Chloe as much as you do, but it’s getting too dangerous.”
Sebastian crossed his arms. “You can’t leave. Someone tried to kill you. How do we know they won’t just follow you?”
He didn’t understand, couldn’t understand.
All it would take is one moment of weakness. One moment, and the right shade, and he’s dead.
A shade didn’t need a knife to kill him. She might be physically weaker than Sebastian, but there were far too many ways to kill, and she couldn’t count on him to fight back.
“You can’t keep running forever,” Sebastian said. “Why not let me help you?”
Elena sighed. “What if the killer comes after me again and you get hurt? I can’t take that risk. It’s better if I run.”
It wouldn’t be anything new. She’d run for so long that staying in one place felt wrong. The longest she’d slept in the same bed since leaving her aunt’s had been measured in weeks, not months.
Sebastian ran a hand through his hair, further messing it up. “Why are you keeping me out? We were like siblings, once.”
Elena snorted. “Really? What kind of siblings sneak out of their houses at midnight to make out in the forest?” Hardening her heart, she reminded herself of the stakes. Her life was her own to bet, but she wouldn’t risk his.
Sebastian buried his face in his hands, his elbows on his knees. “You don’t understand how difficult this is for me.”
Guilt hit her like a punch in the gut. She wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him close. “You were there, weren’t you, when Edward died in the hospital?”
Sebastian sniffed. “I was in detention, so I didn’t know until they called. The school told me that much, but I told myself it was a minor injury, that he’d be out of the hospital in a few days.” Sebastian took a long breath. “I got there too late. Edward was already dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
“When I saw you on the floor at Chloe’s, all I could think was, please don’t let it happen again. I couldn’t bear to see anything happen to you.”
She pulled his head into her chest and nuzzled his hair. He smelled terrible, like sweat and stale beer, but at that moment, she would’ve given anything to keep holding him forever.
Then the curtain around the bed slid to the side, and they sprang apart. A tall Black man with close-cropped hair and the white robe of a doctor walked in. He checked the machines around the bed and then looked at them. “Hello, Elena. How are you feeling?”
“My head hurts.”
The doctor picked up the clipboard at the bottom of the bed, studied it, then laughed. “Yes, I expect it would!”
She clenched her hands. “Why? What happened to me?”
The doctor flipped through the paperwork on the sheet. “You scared the nurses half to death.”
Elena squeezed her fingers around Sebastian’s. “Why? What did you find?”
The doctor took a plastic bag out of his pocket and handed it to Sebastian, who opened it and withdrew a small green square.
“It feels hard, like metal,” Sebastian said. He held out his hand for Elena to see. She craned her neck. It was green and black with small lumps of silver. “What the hell is that?”
“I’m not sure. It was embedded in your scalp. When we took you in for an MRI, it ripped right out.”
Elena stared at the chip, then touched the back of her head. “You’re serious? That thing was inside me?”
Had someone injected it into her? When could that have happened? Delicate shivers raced down her limbs. Someone had violated her, implanted a device inside her. It was not a pleasant feeling.
“Where did it come from?” Sebastian held the piece with his thumb and index finger.
The doctor flipped another few pages on her chart. “We assumed you knew. There were old surgery scars on Elena’s head. Someone put it in there.”
Elena looked at Sebastian and knew he was thinking the same thing. They had a tech genius to visit.
****
Getting out of the hospital was easier said than done.
The doctors insisted she submit to further tests, saying that leaving without knowing why she’d lapsed into a coma for so long was dangerous. She set her jaw and repeated the word “no” until someone gave her a form to sign.
Still, she didn’t grasp the truth of how close she’d come to death until she saw the interior of Sebastian’s car. It was splattered with blood, and the seats and carpet gave off a metallic, bitter smell that assaulted her senses.
Someone tried to kill me. And they almost succeeded.
“I’ll pay for you to have this taken care of,” she said, voice tight. She didn’t have the money, but she’d find a way.
Sebastian shrugged. “It’s fine. I have a friend who owns a detailing shop who owes me a favor.”
“Thank you.”
He glanced at her. “For what?”
“Getting me to the hospital. Saving my life.”
Sebastian smiled. The same smile that had entranced her as a teenager. She turned away. It would be so much easier to pretend everything was normal. If only that was possible.
You’re going to get him killed next.
She considered the facts. Someone wanted her out of town. That was clear from the goggles and the phone call. In any other situation, she would’ve chalked it up to the Harvester, but subtle games didn’t match his pattern. He was a more “in-your-face” kind of monster. Even the attack at Chloe’s house felt off, like it was a crime of opportunity.
Then there were Chloe’s messages. First, she’d drawn the word help on the mirror. That one was easy to understand. She wanted them to find her murderer. Then the words find research stop him. The last two words were obvious, and the “him” had to be the killer, confirming it was a male. Not that it was surprising. She’d already gleaned as much from Chloe’s last memory.
But what did “find research” mean? What research?
An idea wormed its way through her mind.
“Do you remember the scavenger hunts?”
He gave her an appraising glance. “Why?”
“She was always very good at hiding things. But not very good at giving clues.”
The car fell silent again.
Before Elena knew it, they were pulling into Sandra’s building.
When they were in the elevator, he crossed his arms. “So, you think she hid something for us to find?”
“Exactly. We just have to find whatever it is. I’m sure that’s what Chloe wants. I mean, what she would have wanted.”
Sebastian’s lips thinned, but he nodded.
They knocked on Sandra’s door, and when she opened it, Elena pulled the bag with the microchip from in her pocket and held it up.
Sandra reached out, and when their hands touched, an arc of electricity sparked. Elena dropped the bag.
“Sorry about that,” Sandra said, catching the bag mid-air. “Occupational hazard.” She lifted the bag and frowned. “Where did you get this?”
Elena exchanged glances with Sebastian, who gave a slight nod.
“It was in my head,” she said.
Sandra’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”
Elena pointed to the chip. “It’s some kind of computer chip, right?”
Sandra snorted. “A little more sophisticated, but you’re on the right track. I’ve seen this before. Farmers implant similar devices into their cattle to stop them from wandering away. Someone’s been monitoring you.”
Elena’s world slanted on its axis. Someone had been tracking her, following her. The violation made the acid roil in her stomach and left her with a clammy feeling like she’d just crawled out of an ice-cold bath. An image of herself as a cow flashed into her mind. In that scenario, the killer was a wolf lurking around the edges of her pasture.
“What kind of range does that thing have?” Sebastian asked.
Sandra set the chip down. “Depends on the reader and the chip. Anywhere from a few inches to 25 feet. I’ll know more when I take this one apart.”
That made her feel better but was still unsettling.
“The doctors said there was an old surgical scar,” Elena said. “Which means someone put that thing in my head. Do you have any clue how long it might have been there?”
Sandra examined the chip. “We-ell, this isn’t new. They can make them the size of a grain of rice now. I’d say it’s almost twenty years old.”
Elena’s knees wobbled. “Oh, no.”
The other occupants of the room stared at her. When she didn’t speak up, Sebastian nudged her with his knee. “Care to share with the class?”
She rested her elbows on her knees. “After I left Stillwood, I stayed with my aunt. There was an incident. I broke my arm, and they took me to the hospital. I thought I would just get a cast and then come right home, but they knocked me out, saying it would be too painful. When I woke up, my head was sore.”
She remembered that day vividly because Aunt Martha had been acting strangely, and she had caught on to it. At the time, she’d thought her aunt was worried for her sake and had reassured her it was a simple break. Nothing to worry about.
Sandra dropped the chip onto a glass plate with a chink. “Parents. These days they track their kids’ phones with apps.”
Elena looked at the chip and tried not to let the throbbing in her head translate to tears. The image of her mother in her mind was shattered.
“Don’t let this get to you,” Sandra said. She pulled Elena into a tight embrace. “It’s not your fault. Parents aren’t perfect. They make mistakes, too.”
Elena tolerated the physical contact for a minute before pulling away. The Persian had returned to Sandra’s cheek and was grooming its fur.
“Leave the chip with me,” Sandra said. “If there’s anything more to find, I’ll find it.”