“It’ll become more unreliable as the time passes,” Ward says, freely offering more information. If not for the blank look on his face, I’d think he was being helpful. Instead, I know he’s just continuing to pass on a message, following whatever script he was commanded to share.

“So Vanik truly did figure out how to isolate my Creator gene,” I whisper, needing to hear confirmation.

Ward pushes off the wall and moves closer until he’s looking down through the glass at me, no sign of compassion on his features. He’s barely a foot away, but he might as well be on a different planet. “He did. And from there, he was able to replicate it. As well as see where he went wrong with all his previous attempts.”

“So now he can make Creators. And other Speakers.”

“We both know he can do more than that, Six-Eight-Four.”

Ward is staring at my arm again, as if he can see straight through my hoodie to the healed puncture site.

I resist the urge to cover it and instead breathe a single word. “How?”

“It was simple, really,” Ward says, dropping down to sit against the wall beside me, his legs stretched out comfortably before him. He’s perfectly at ease while my world is crumbling. “Once he figured out how to make the serum work, all he needed was to add in the relevant stem cells to generate the desired effect. To make himself a Creator, he used the cells that were harvested from you last week. To make other Speakers, he did the same with cells harvested from other subjects.”

Harvested.

Bile rises in my throat. I swallow it back down.

“But while his serum was a success, he realized he had a problem—you. He needed you out of the picture, needed you to be unable to stand against him,” Ward goes on. “So, he made a second serum, one using the cells of another Speaker— someone with an ability to take away the Speaking powers of others.”

More bile rises. This time it’s harder to keep down.

“But you already know that, since you came in here asking how long you have left,” Ward observes. “I was right when you were here earlier, wasn’t I? You’ve already begun to experience the effects.”

There is no point in denying it. He already knows. Just as I do.

The reason my power hasn’t worked reliably ever since our confrontation in the lab isn’t because I’m exhausted. It’s because of Vanik’s serum.

A serum designed to take away my Speaking ability.

Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Oh, come on, Alyssa Scott,” Ward says, reading my face. “It’s not so bad. Five weeks ago, you hated your ability so much that you refused to open your mouth. You would have considered this a gift back then.”