“Yes, 107, listen to the boy,” Laughlin commanded.
“Shut up,” I snapped at him. Jacobs, at least, was wise enough to keep quiet, but he was watching everything with wide-eyed fear.
“Ariane, take the others,” Ford instructed. “Now.” I could only see her in profile, but she didn’t look good. Too pale, but more than that. A chalky white that spoke of blood loss.
The police, and whoever else had joined them in the hall, chose that moment to begin hammering at the door in earnest. “We’re coming in! Stand away from the doors.”
Ariane flinched at the sound of a motor starting up. Was that a saw? So much noise and chaos. It only added to the feeling of events spiraling out of control, like we might reach a point of absolute anarchy where she just gave in to make it all stop.
“Ariane, please. You’ll hate yourself for this. Self-defense is one thing, but murder…” My voice broke. I was desperate to find the right words, and those were the only ones I had, which felt so deeply inadequate for the moment.
She blinked and looked away from me. “I want Zane, Rachel, and Emerson St. John left unharmed,” she said to Ford.
“Yes!” Rachel shouted.
“No!” I said at the same time, even as I wanted to cry. Ariane was always looking out for everyone else. Even now.
Ford considered a moment. “Your human and the girl can be spared. But not the other.”
“But St. John took only volunteers,” Ariane argued, showing more spark than I’d seen from her since we walked in this god-awful place. “He didn’t experiment on anyone who—”
“One of those volunteers killed Carter,” Ford said in a tone that brooked no argument.
“Zane needs him alive,” Ariane said, sounding weary. “He’s infected with a virus that’s making changes to his DNA.”
Ford raised an eyebrow, looking almost interested for a moment, then it disappeared. “Carter is dead. That’s a debt that must be paid.”
Ariane let out a slow breath, then she turned to me, and oh God, I knew what was coming before she opened her mouth.
“If I don’t do this,” she said, “I’ll never be free of it, of him. And he deserves punishment for what he’s done and to make sure he never does it again.”
“107,” Jacobs said in protest.
“She’s right,” Rachel said. “She should kill him.”
God damn it, Rachel. “He does deserve it,” I said loudly and without hesitation, as if I could drown out Rachel’s words in Ariane’s head. “But this isn’t about him. It’s about you. If you do this, Ariane, you’ll never be free of it. You’ll know what you did, always. It’ll be in the back of your mind forever.” I paused, just for a second to force the next words out, cruel as they were. “If you do this, he gets off easy, being dead. But it’ll haunt you, knowing he was right about you. That you weren’t meant for a real life, that you’ve become exactly what they said, a weapon.”
Ariane sucked in a sharp breath, and the pain on her face made my eyes burn with tears for her. But I would not take it back. It was a low blow and deliberately so. She needed to hear it.
“Ariane,” Ford warned. “Don’t be weak.”
I glared at Ford. “You are not like him, and he does not control you,” I said to Ariane fiercely. “Make a different choice, and prove it.”
“If he lives, he could start again,” Ariane said, shaking her head, but I could feel her wavering.
“No,” I said firmly. “He won’t. He’ll be stuck in lawsuits, investigations, and public humiliation for the rest of his life. We’ll make sure of it.”
Ford gave a creaky laugh. “What does any of that matter? He should pay in blood. One life for all those he has taken is nothing.”
It was hard to argue with that. “The future or the past, Ariane,” I said finally.
She looked to me, her eyes dull.
“You have to choose. In the park, you said you missed what might have been. But you can still have that, a chance to live, to be free, to have friends and a normal life. That’s the future.” I swallowed hard, praying not just for words, but the right ones. “Killing Jacobs, any of them, that’s choosing the past and letting it—”
“There is no normal life for us, Ariane,” Ford cut in. “Not now, not ever. You know that.”
“For you, maybe,” I snapped. “But she has a chance, if she just takes it. You wanted her to put family first? Then what the hell are you doing?”
Ford cocked her head, as if I’d spoken a new language, one in which she was not fluent. And then her gaze flicked to Ariane, and I felt a shift as if something had changed in the gaps between our words.
“Is that true?” Ford asked. “Do you want this life?” She sounded tired.
“Ariane, you know I’m right,” I said desperately.