I’ve had no training with this new ability of mine; I have no idea how it actually works, no idea what the limitations are. If it truly only requires me to visualize things in order for them to happen, if I only need to focus on the intent of my thoughts, then all I need to do is concentrate to make it work. But I can’t concentrate on anything right now, let alone imagine a safe ending to this. Not with so much happening. Not with—

“ENOUGH!”

The light that comes with Jeremiah’s Spoken command is so blinding that I have to close my eyes against the glare. When I open them again, the entire room is frozen, every single person silent and still.

Ward, Cami, Smith, Arryn, and Riley. All of the camouflaged Speakers. Everyone is paused mid-action.

Everyone but Jeremiah and Kael.

And with a single thought, everyone but me.

That’s all it took. The briefest moment of quiet, of focus, to free myself.

I remain immobile, not wanting to give myself away just yet, instead considering my next move. My immediate thought is to free everyone else, but I keep from doing so because I know that we’ll just descend into the same chaos again, ending in the same result. Jeremiah is too formidable, especially with Kael by his side. I have no way to know if I’m as strong now as I was when I was a Speaker, no idea if I can override his commands with my own. And without knowing that—

“That was a valiant effort, but none of you can win against a Creator,” Jeremiah says, panting lightly. He strides across the room, walking straight to the camouflaged Speaker who was the first to enter the laboratory, and yanks the ski mask from her head.

I have to hold my breath to keep from making a sound when my mother’s face is revealed.

She’s not looking at Jeremiah, even though he’s directly in front of her.

She’s looking at me.

Staring at me.

There are tears flooding her eyes, as if she can’t believe what she’s seeing. Tears that only grow as her gaze moves to Riley’s unconscious form, before she looks beyond us both, to the bed where our father lies. The sorrow that lines her face threatens to send me collapsing to the ground.

“Now it really is a family reunion,” Jeremiah crows.

Kael’s face is like stone as he shoves the immobile Ward off him and rises to his feet, glass shards cascading from his clothes. There’s blood on his face and swelling already starting to show from the hits Ward landed. I don’t have a flicker of sympathy in me as I take in the damage, especially when I watch him walk over to the fallen syringe and grab it before moving to his dad’s side.