The question is stupid, given all that has happened, but he nods. “Why’s your mouth bleeding?”
Even though I usually don’t give Deo the partial-truth treatment, I can’t bring myself to add that it’s because I thought he was dead. He’s had to deal with enough without feeling guilty about that, too. “Bit my tongue.”
He raises one skeptical now-barely-blue eyebrow. “Really?”
Maybe it’s shock, but that strikes both of us as funny, and for a moment we half laugh, half cry as I hold him close.
Cregg is apparently done reprimanding Lucas. I feel his eyes on my back. Apparently Deo notices too, because he whispers, “I heard him say Lucas. Is the other guy Cregg?”
I nod.
“What do you think he wants with you?”
“He said it’s a test.”
I glance at the bodies, which I now realize are covered from the waist up with trash bags. Duct tape around their calves secures them to the chair legs. Blood drips onto the floor, flowing in rivulets that converge about a foot behind them, pooling up in a small, recessed drain in the floor like one we have in the kitchen area at the deli.
The apple juice I drank earlier rises into my throat, and I have to pull my eyes away before I lose it.
Cregg claps his hands once to get my attention. “Anna, you’ll have more time to speak with Deo later, assuming all goes well. We need to get started.”
“Deo, I promise. I will get you out of here.” I give him one last hug before I go.
“You should have a fairly good idea what the test will entail,” Cregg says as I approach, “given the setting. But—”
“I wish you would have talked to me before. Because it doesn’t work that way. I can’t just decide to pick up someone’s . . . psychic remains. I don’t have control over when it happens. Not everyone sticks around. And I don’t pick them up where they died.”
“Are you finished?” Cregg asks. His voice remains level, but his eyebrows move downward.
When I don’t respond, he continues. “Clearly you do know why you’re here. You aren’t the first person I’ve encountered with this ability, Anna, so I probably have a better understanding of how it works than you do, since you have only your own limited experience as a guide. These three individuals experienced a traumatic death. Which is unfortunate but necessary, since in my experience, that means they have not yet entirely—in the words of the great bard—shuffled off this mortal coil. In order to pass this test, you will need to convince us that you have, as you put it, picked up at least two of them.”
“You should have done one at a time. I don’t . . . I don’t think I can pick up more than one, especially when I’m still processing Molly.”
It’s only partly a lie. I’ve never had more than two hanging out at once, and since I’ve gotten better at keeping my shields up most of the time, I’ve been able to hold it to just one. There were even a few glorious months at a time where my head was all my own.
The problem is more that I can feel them hovering in the room. I can almost taste the panic, the confusion. I’m not sure I can handle even one in that state, and I’m not sure how I’ll hold the others off.
“I hope you’re wrong about that,” Cregg says. “Because if you can’t pick up at least two, then you will have failed an important facet of this test.”
“And we’ll know if you lie,” Lucas says. “We know everything about those three.” He looks like he’s about to say more, but stops when he sees Cregg’s expression. I don’t think Lucas likes having to curb his tongue. His jaw is twitching like it did in my room when Ashley walked in.
I ignore Lucas’s comment and focus on Cregg. “And if I pass you’ll let us go?”
His mouth turns down in a look of exaggerated sympathy. “You know that can’t happen.” Cregg’s voice stays smooth. It reminds me of the snake in that Jungle Book movie. It could almost lull you to sleep. “If you fail the test, Anna, you’ll be in the same sad situation Molly found herself. You know too much about me and this facility for me to simply let you go, yet you won’t be of any value to me. On the other hand, if you pass the test, you become a valuable commodity I can’t afford to lose. Given the trouble we’ve gone through to get you here, I don’t think any incentive would convince you to work with me if I allowed you to come and go at will. The reward for passing is that Deo will be allowed to come with us.”
“No deal. If I pass your test, I’ll stay, but you have to let him go.” Deo is protesting, but I keep my eyes on Cregg. “As long as I can check in with him regularly and be certain he’s okay, I’ll do whatever you want. And he’ll keep quiet about everything he’s seen for the very same reason—you’ll have me as a hostage.”
Deo’s shaking his head vehemently. “No way, Anna.”