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With a start, Everly realized it was the man she had met in the lobby the week before. Luca.

Luca put a finger to his lips and led Everly to a far back corner of the room, away from Jamie and the other two men. Everly looked at him, bewildered.

“What are you—” she started to ask, but then Luca cut her off with a hush. He looked over Everly’s shoulder at the others, then back at her.

“You’re not supposed to be down here,” he said, eyes jumping around.

Everly shook her head. “It’s okay,” she said. “I came down with Jamie.”

Luca’s eyes widened slightly, and he let go of Everly’s arm. “You came with him?” He sounded incredulous, and Everly nodded slowly.

“He was showing me some of his work when he got the call to come down here.” She turned to look at Jamie, who was studying something on the screens with rapt attention. “What’s going on, anyway?”

Luca ran a hand absently through his hair, hesitating. “There’s a kid,” he said after a second. “It looks like he tried to . . .” Luca trailed off. Everly stared at him intently, waiting for him to go on, but he pressed his lips together, shaking his head. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “They’re taking care of it now.”

Everly looked more closely at Luca, then at the room around them, filled to the brim with computers and screens. “What are you doing in here, then?” she asked. “Do you work here or something?”

He choked out a laugh. “Yeah, or something,” he said. Then Everly saw him tense up suddenly, standing straight. She was about to ask what was wrong when she heard a voice behind her.

“You shouldn’t have followed me here.”

Jamie’s voice, colder and harder than she was used to from him, froze her blood. Luca met her gaze briefly, and she thought his eyes looked apologetic, but then she turned away, instead looking up at Jamie.

“I’m sorry,” she said, voice quiet. “I was interested, is all. I wanted to know what was happening and see more of your work in action.”

Slowly, Jamie softened slightly, sighing. “It’s fine,” he said. “Let’s go. My work here is done, anyway.” Then he looked behind Everly, to Luca. “You,” Jamie said, voice rising again. “Why are you just standing there? Don’t you have work to do?”

Luca gave a single terse nod, not a hint of amusement on his face. “Yes, sir,” he said, then walked away, meeting Everly’s eyes once more briefly before going over to where the other two men sat in front of the monitors. Everly stared after him, but Jamie had started walking toward the door, making it clear that she should follow behind. Reluctantly, she did.

Right before she left the room, a figure on a monitor caught Everly’s eye. It was a boy, no more than ten, alone in an empty room. It was small, practically a cell, with no furniture and no other people. He stood in the middle, looking down, and she didn’t know what it was, but something about him struck her. He felt familiar to her, and as she was led out of the room by Jamie, she could still feel herself being drawn to the screen, and the small boy trapped within.

Blink blink blink.

Chapter Twenty-Three

There was fire.

There was always fire.

Sometimes it was real fire, sometimes metaphorical, but it was always there.

This time, it was all too real, and it scorched anything in its path to dust and ash.

The fire rose like a steady giant in the distance, getting ever closer, closer, closer.

It was here. And standing in its midst—summoning or enduring the flames, it was not clear—was her.

Fiery hair to join the fiery backdrop.

She smiled. Kindly? Wickedly? Cunningly? Innocently? It was hard to tell. But she did smile, and reached out a hand, and though she did not step any closer, the hand seemed to transcend all by itself across the space where the fire ended and the emptiness began.

Her smiling mouth moved—with words? It was impossible to discern, as the rage of the flames behind her drowned out all other sounds, but she seemed to be speaking in earnest. Come, the rounded sides of her mouth seemed to be saying. Or maybe run—really, there was no telling.

It didn’t matter, anyway. The flames were getting closer, and with them so was she. Now, her eyes were more visible, and so it was easier to see what rested behind their blue depths.

Fear.

“Run,” she said again, a whisper drizzled into his ear, and Luca awoke.

“Careful,” Caleb said, placing a steadying hand on Luca’s back as he jerked upright, out of the dream.

The dream. Luca looked around. He was still in the surveillance room. He cursed beneath his breath and pushed his chair away from the desk.

He had fallen asleep.

Luca blinked rapidly, trying to banish the memory of the flames, the woman. Everly. It seemed that knowing she was real did nothing to halt her appearances in his dreams. If anything, this one had felt worse than the others. More visceral. Foreboding. Luca’s head spun and he gripped it with one hand, looking at Caleb, who was standing next to the desk. “How long was I out?”

“No idea,” Caleb said. “I came in just a minute ago. Found you passed out like that.” He gestured to the desk where Luca had previously been slumped over. Caleb’s eyebrows furrowed and he studied Luca’s face—seeing the shadows beneath his eyes and the lines traced into the skin of his forehead, Luca was sure, so he turned his head down, away from the inquisitive eyes of his friend.

“Have you been sleeping?”

“I’m fine,” Luca said, perhaps too quickly. He took a steadying breath, then tried to school his features into something like reassurance. “Really. I’m okay.” He wasn’t okay—he was exhausted. What had happened earlier with Michael had drained the last reserves of his energy. Luca felt lucky to be able to string two thoughts together.

“Luca, if a runner had found you instead of me—”

“But they didn’t,” Luca snapped. He sighed, ran a hand anxiously through his hair, tried not to grimace. Tried not to let on how shaken he was himself, thinking of how bad that could have been. “It’s okay, Caleb.”

Are sens

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