I focus on Cami, Arryn, and Riley, thinking about their invisible restraints, their invisible gags. Like I did with Ward, I visualize those restraints as ribbons that need to be severed. But it’s hard to keep the image in my mind as Kael moves toward Cami with his syringe raised; it’s hard to keep my thoughts from panicking as Ward’s arms become unbearably tight and then slacken enough that I know he’s going to move, going to reveal himself, to save his sister. I can’t let him do that. I can’t—

“You’re a bit of a bastard, did you know that?”

My head whips to the side, my mouth gaping open at the sight of Smith standing in the doorway, fully conscious again and drawing everyone’s attention.

“What did you think?” he goes on, stepping forward, heedless of the danger he’s walking into. “That you’d just get away with this? That you’d take away Speakers’ abilities and there’d be no consequences? That you’d murder people”—he points to Vanik and my dad—“and not be imprisoned for it?” He snorts. “You’re dreaming. Both of you.”

I’m staring incredulously at him along with everyone else, so I don’t see Jeremiah use his free hand to unholster his gun, I don’t see the moment he takes aim and pulls the trigger.

But I do hear the boom that echoes around us; I do scream when I see the bullet fly into Smith’s stomach.

And I stop screaming when the bullet goes straight through him, when Smith disappears only to reappear directly between Kael and Jeremiah, causing them both to jump.

No—it’s not Smith. Just a projection of him.

“Nice try, assholes,” he says smugly. “But it’ll take more than that to take me down.”

With him as the perfect distraction, I summon the image of the ribbons slicing in half.

And then all hell breaks loose.

Chapter Thirty-One

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Within moments, the laboratory is in chaos.

Cami, Arryn, and Riley realize the instant they’re free, and they leap forward to collide with Jeremiah, taking him by surprise enough that he raises his hands in front of him, the vial of serum falling from his fingers to smash on the tiles.

Kael lunges to help his dad, but Ward ducks out from behind me, with Arryn tagging his hand so she can take on his power just before he tackles Kael across a bench covered in medical equipment. Glass and liquids rain down with them as they fall to the ground, Kael’s dosed syringe bouncing across the tiles and rolling out of reach. Their fists are flying at each other like blurred missiles, the speed and violence of their punches fuelled by fury on both sides.