In a move that shocks me into stillness, Vanik steps in front of me, as if shielding me with his body. It’s impossible for me to reconcile his behavior with the man I know, with the man who tortured me for years. Impossible for me to comprehend that he’s now trying to protect me.

The security guard cocks his head to the side. “Oh, Kendall. What makes you think this bullet is for her?”

I let out a scream when a blast echoes around the laboratory, followed by a second, and then Vanik crumples at my feet.

“You’ve done everything I could have hoped for and more,” the security guard says to him, his words casual, as if he didn’t just pull the trigger to end a man’s life. “But since you’ve now given me everything I need, you’ve outlived your purpose. I can’t risk you finding a way to follow through on your own plans, foolish as they were. This is the only way, my old friend. The formula to the serum has to die with you.”

I drop to my knees beside Vanik, pressing my hands against his torso. There’s so much blood—too much blood. I don’t need to be a doctor to know he has seconds left, at best.

He uses those seconds to lock his pain-filled eyes with mine.

“It was n-never your words, Alyssa Scott,” Vanik rasps, his voice barely a whisper. “It was your th-thoughts. They gave p-power to your words.” He coughs and blood speckles his lips. “What you imagined, you S-Spoke into being. Your t-tongue was only a tool. But your thoughts, your m-mind—” He coughs again, his lungs making a hideous rattling sound as he tries desperately to draw in air. To inhale one final breath—a breath he uses to say, “Your mind is the most powerful weapon of all.”

And with that, his eyes roll into the back of his head and his chest stops moving.

“Such a shame.”

My hands are trembling. My whole body is trembling as I raise my head and see the security guard standing there and staring down at us. There’s a hint of amused curiosity on his face, as if he allowed Vanik to waste his final breaths talking just to hear what he might say.

“Why?” I demand as I slowly move to my feet.

Vanik’s blood is covering me—it’s all over my hands, all over my clothes. His final act before dying was to try to keep me safe. Whatever else was between us, even with all the unspeakable, unforgivable things he did to me, that is something I will never forget.

“Why?” I repeat, my voice shaking with fury as I point down at the dead scientist, then move my finger to my dad, to Ward, to my friends and brother who are staring at us with wide, horrified eyes. “WHY?”