“That depends,” my mum answers, drawing a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbing at her face. She looks at the refrigerator of vials and then to my dad and Vanik before turning back to me and saying, “I’m guessing that serum you injected them with wasn’t to turn them both into Creators?”

I shake my head. “No. As far as I know, there was only one Creator serum—the original prototype—and Jeremiah used it on himself. The rest were made from—” I break off, looking over at my dad. Hesitantly, I say, “They’ll, uh, take away a Speaker’s abilities. For good.”

My mum carefully avoids looking back at my dad, instead waving to the four other camouflaged Speakers who came with her, motioning them forward. Two of them grab Kael, and two grab Jeremiah, before they drag their bodies from the lab and outside. I hear the distant sound of a van door sliding open before it closes again, and I realize I won’t ever be seeing Jeremiah again. Or Kael.

For their sakes, they’d better hope that’s true.

“In that case,” my mum says, “we’ll take them back to our facility and keep them unconscious until the serum has finished taking effect. Twenty-four hours, did you say?”

“Give or take,” I repeat.

“We’ll err on the side of caution, but even if they wake up and are still able to Speak, we’ll make sure they’re in holding cells not even a Creator can break out of.” She looks in the direction they’ve disappeared and continues, “What comes next is up to them. We’ll interrogate them—”

My body tenses, and it’s Arryn who notices; Arryn who reaches for my hand and interrupts my mother to say, “Question them, Lyss. She means question them. That’s all.” Quietly, as if only to me, she says, “It’s not like at Lengard. There’s no Vanik, no Manning. Everyone at SCARS is aboveboard. I promise.”

I give a stilted nod. It’s going to take me some time to get my head around the idea of a non-corrupt government agency. One that actually wants good things for Speakers.

Again, I remember that SCARS epitomizes the dream I have for the future, the vision that I shared with Cami. SCARS is already working toward what we want for Lengard and the Remnants—a better world for Speakers. All of them.

I will have to think over the full scope of what that means later. For now, I refocus on my mother as she clears her throat and continues.