A couple of white-coated attendants started pushing my table and the worst thing I could do to them was look up their noses as they wheeled me wherever Darren wanted. The clinical, white lights overhead made it hard not to shudder. Maybe it was because I couldn’t see what was coming, but the parts of my past I tried so hard to ignore were clamoring at the edge of my awareness

Cold lights and cold metal tools against my skin; tests and more tests; the scientists’ cold eyes pressing down—

And the pain.

I scrunched my eyes closed. I’d survived it once. I could survive it again…

No. I couldn’t even tell that lie in my head.

There was no way I could survive it again. The cracks that ran through me wouldn’t hold forever. I’d shatter for real this time.

My heart sank as we rolled through the halls.

Eventually, Darren opened a door and the attendants parked me in front of a wall of frosted glass. Darren pressed a button and the table hummed, lifting me to sit.

Being upright made my head spin even worse. How could I page through time when just peeking ahead made my brain feel like a grape under a giant’s heel?

“You’ll want a good view for this,” Darren said.

I really doubted that. Really, really, really doubted that.

Darren pulled a clear screen from the ceiling and tilted it so I couldn’t see what he was tapping in. “How long since the serum was administered?”

“Twenty minutes,” one of the attendants answered.

“Perfect.” Darren’s grin made my insides all wobbly in the worst way. “Let’s begin.” He tapped his screen and the surface in front of me flashed, suddenly clear as glass.

Tair sat on the other side of the wall.

His eyes widened when he saw me. Mine probably widened too.

He sat strapped to a chair and hooked up to tubes. His brown eyes were glassy with whatever they were pumping into him. I wiggled against my bindings. The table jangled, but that was all I could do. “He doesn’t deserve this.”

Darren pressed another patch to my neck, but this time, he didn’t pull back. Instead, he leaned in, curling his fingers around my throat. I pressed my back into the table, but there was nowhere to go.

No way to block him out. No way to block any of it.

“He deserves whatever I choose to give him.” Darren’s fingers clasped harder and he came even closer to my face with his eyes wild and his breath hot. “The only thing he doesn’t deserve is you.”

I bit my cheek to keep my mouth shut, but I couldn’t imagine any darker path than the one we were hurtling down, so why bother anymore? What did I get by keeping quiet? Nothing.