This is the first time I’ve seen him hold her gaze for any length of time, and I realize—

“You never felt guilty about her parents dying, did you?” I breathe. “That’s not why you can barely stand to be near her.”

… every time I look at her, I remember that day … and everything that came afterward.

“One word,” Kael repeats, his voice full of pain. “That’s all it would have taken to save my mum. But we had no access to Lengard. No access to the only person who could have healed her.”

Jeremiah’s voice is hard as he says, “My wife died, when she could have lived. Christopher made that happen, but he wasn’t solely to blame.”

“You blame all Speakers,” I say, my mind whirling. “Because when you needed them most, they failed you.”

“Exactly,” Jeremiah confirms. “And thanks to you, they’re going to suffer the same fate as I did.”

He moves away from my dad and walks toward a large refrigerator at the side of the room, the glass door revealing dozens, perhaps hundreds of vials filled with clear liquid. Reaching in, he pulls one out as he finishes, “Just as your dad took away my Speaking ability, I’m going to take away everyone else’s. One at a time, until there’s no one left.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

In the long pause after Jeremiah’s declaration, my breathing grows heavy. He’s staring at the vial in his hand as if lost in thought, so I sneak a glance at Riley, Arryn, and Cami. Their faces look shell-shocked. What Jeremiah just revealed … I already knew about his plans, but they didn’t. Even now, Vanik’s voice echoes in my mind:

… I was forced to spend the last five days mass-producing a serum using Christopher’s cells. A serum that our captor plans to use on Speakers—all Speakers. A serum that, when injected, will take away their abilities. Forever.

I push through my rising dread to say, “I still don’t understand what I had to do with any of this. Why you changed my memories, why you planted me at Lengard.”

“You’re still asking the wrong questions, Alyssa,” Jeremiah chides. “You should be asking how I did it, especially since you’ve just learned that I didn’t have my Creator ability the day I confronted your dad, the day I took you from your family.”

If Ward’s arms weren’t still tight around me, I would be sliding onto the ground right now. Arryn praised my ability to join the dots, but this—this is something I never could have deduced on my own, not without Jeremiah’s taunting words, not without the pointed look he sends toward Kael.