Chapter 63

SEVEN.

Nancy just gives me a blank look. My temper immediately shoots up, but I just force myself to keep calm and lead her to the side of the street. I can still see June in my car from this angle, but I'm very well sure that she's going to be out of earshot.

I turn to Nancy. I'm towering over her but she doesn't seem to care. She just looks up at me with the most casual expression ever, as though I'm not here basically emitting smoke out of my nose in rage.

"What do we talk about?" she even asks in a wispy tone. "Is there something wrong?"

I don't know if I should walk out or not. She's driving me up the wall.

Nancy... she didn't use to be this strange. I would even say that she was quite normal. I didn't know her very well and that's a given, but I remember the first time we met her.

That was when June was poisoned, and we had to rush to the clinic to save her life. Amelie was there, and so was Nancy. She was also the one who treated Vlad when I accidentally hurt him. She used to be composed and cool and collected. And now she's been all over the place.

I understand that it was because of what happened to Patricia. She did say they were quite close. I felt the same way about Charles. We even did some investigating of our own. But I have to say that we never got quite as close as she did, and she was damn spot on when she found the morgue.

For the past few weeks, I've been ready to call it luck. Perhaps she was just at the right time and the right place when she discovered that weird meat market. I was ready to hold off all the suspicious thoughts and just dismiss everything falling into the right place when she started her own line of investigating.

But now, I'm not so sure. Something was off with the way she was just calmly watching everything go down.

Now, June is not right. Her anxiety seemed to have shot up, even though she might not need any kind of big help right now. And Nancy is still moving about nonchalantly. Even though us showing up to get absolutely busted and called out at the courthouse was surely not part of the plan....

Or is it?

"We have to stop dancing around it, Nancy," I tell her sternly, rubbing my hand over my face. "I was watching you when the trial started. Specifically when the doctor started to look at us and say those things. June got scared. So did I. He was targeting me for no reason. You just sat there like you were watching TV. What was wrong with you?"

"I was just watching, waiting for what's going to happen," she answers easily. "What would you have me do? Get mad too? Attack Doctor Romanov? Come up to court and tell everyone he's lying?"

There's a certain sass in her tone now. I don't know if I like that. I should probably cut the conversation here because it seems that nothing good would come out of it, but I just grit my teeth and stay.

"What did you want me to do, Seven?" she asks, walking closer to me and drawing herself to her full height to look into my eyes. "Did you want me to tell the doctor to shut up because all he said were lies? Because they weren't really lies, were there?"

I don't know what she's talking about. I freeze in my spot. Now she's slowly smiling like she just one-upped me, and I don't know what to do.

"Look," I say through gritted teeth. "We have asked you nonstop about how you managed to know about the morgue. We helped you get out of there alive. You put June in danger. We did our best to be patient, but that patience is running thin. I need to know why you brought us here, and how you found out about that place."

"I told you, I observe," she whispers. "It's not my fault you're not observant enough. Did you want to discover that place before I did?"

I scratch the side of my face. "It's not about that. It's about the truth—"

She laughs. Right in my face. Her face soon contorts into an expression I can't name, but now I'm completely unnerved.

"It's real rich, you talking about the truth when you're hiding the biggest one of all this whole time," Nancy says, stepping back and watching my expression. "I found the morgue because since you brought June into the clinic that day, I became curious. That's when it all started. I began to look a little closer at things. At people. You forget who I have to live with. What I have to live with."

My hands start to get slick with sweat. I have a strong feeling about what she's going to say next, but I'm afraid of hearing all about it. I don’t think I can do it.

"Right," I just mutter. "It's time to leave now—"

"No." Her voice cuts through mine like a hot knife through butter. "You can't open that can of worms and just back away. I know what you are, Seven. You're a Dragon."

My world crashes on my shoulders. Suddenly the road seems to be closing in on me, the sky falling down and cutting all air. I can't breathe. I can't move. All I can do is stare at Nancy, hoping that what she said isn't real. Hoping that I just made it all up in my head.

"You and Amelie and Vlad, maybe even Miss Hera," Nancy starts to whisper, her words rushing out of her. "I knew there was something weird when I came to live with Amelie and her family. I knew there was something strange going on when I couldn't even see her on Fridays because she had something to do. Then it happened. You brought Vlad into the clinic and he had golden blood. I saw that, right before it turned red. Then you had to rush June in, but you refused to let me touch her even though Amelie doesn't know shit about treating someone. I knew you were hiding something."

I swallow hard, raising my hands to touch her shoulders. But she brushes me away and stands back.

"There was something off and I could feel it," she hisses. "Charles could feel it. He was talking about it in his records. He said he felt like he didn't belong. In her last days, Patricia was saying the same thing. She said she felt like everyone was fake, like they were not what they seemed. Miss Hera didn't really pay attention to any of those concerns now, did she? I told her the same. I told her that I knew that there was foul play behind their deaths and she refused to see me again. It's so tight-knit, your group. You protect one another. That's why I wanted to see your reaction when the doctor gets prosecuted. I needed to see if you were on his side."

"And what did you see?" My voice is small. "Do think I side with him? Do you think I am like him?"

Nancy's face contorts into a smile. It doesn't reach her eyes. Her hands are shaking and I want to steady them but she refuses to get anywhere near me.

I can't believe she knows.

When she doesn't answer, I come close to her until she's cornered. She looks so afraid that I can't help but feel bad, so I step away just enough to give her space.

"Nancy, you can't tell anyone," I tell her calmly. "They would kill you for that. Humans aren't supposed to know."

"I'm not telling anyone," she says after a pause. "I knew it was going to cost my life. I knew I couldn't say anything about it. But you can."

My heart locks itself in my throat. "Nancy, I can't. If you know enough, then you certainly know that."

She shakes her head. "It won't be a matter of death for you. The consequences you will suffer will be next to nothing. But I will die for them, and I'll be willing to. As long as the most deserving person gets to know what you've been hiding all along."

Nancy looks at my car, her eyes bright with meaning.

"If I tell her, then we would die together...."

My pulse races. Suddenly Astro is waking inside my head, looking at Nancy and offering me a quick solution for her. Death.

But I reel him back in. I stare at Nancy, hoping she would see reason.

"Nancy, I'm serious." I touch her shoulders and she stiffens but I hold on. "You can't tell anyone—"

"But you can." Nancy's face is hard with resolve. "If you don't tell June, I will. Then our blood will be on your hands."