Chapter 10 - Voices Under Her Skin

Clara's legs moved before she decided to walk.

One step toward the estate. Then another.

Marcus caught her arm. “Clara?”

“I'm trying to stop.” She dug her heels into the gravel. Blue lines climbed across her wrists. “I can't stop.”

June seized her other hand. “Look at me.”

“I can't!”

“Then listen. Your name is Clara Vale. You hate black coffee. You cry at that stupid dog movie even though you always say you won't. You gave me your jacket.”

Clara's foot slid backward. The pull in her muscles loosened.

“How do you know the movie?” she whispered.

“Evelyn played it in our ward. I watched you laugh at it on the security feed.” June swallowed. “I wanted to have a day like yours. Just one.”

Clara pulled June close. “You should've had a thousand.”

Elena explained from her wheelchair that the estate could send commands through the compound in Clara's bloodstream. The signal was crude, more pressure than thought. It couldn't choose who she loved, but it could try to choose where she went.

Ortiz's radio hissed with an announcement from Asterion. At four a.m., the company would release a proprietary emergency treatment through Blackthorn's automated municipal system. Residents had been told it was necessary because of an unspecified environmental threat.

“It's the threat,” Elena said. “They'll make people sick and sell the answer.”

“Can't you shut the plant down?” Ortiz asked.

“The system has independent reserves. Voss designed it to survive a power failure.”

Clara stared at the blue map on the gate. Somewhere inside that machine were girls who had never seen the sun.

“Then we go back,” she said.

Before anyone answered, a second camera feed opened. June appeared on the screen, walking through the woods toward a waiting security vehicle.

May you like

THEY FORBID ME FROM OPENING MY SISTER’S COFFIN—BUT I HEARD HER CRYING IN...

I SMASHED OPEN MY SISTER’S COFFIN AT HER FUNERAL… AND WHAT I FOUND INSIDE MADE EVERYONE SCREAM. 😱💔My sister was only 27 when my...

THE MAFIA BOSS CAUGHT HIS FIANCÉE FORCING A PREGNANT MAID DOWN THE MARBL...

The suitcase ripped my hand from the railing, and the first thing Vanessa Sterling screamed was, "Don't break the lock!"Not, Are y...

**Just 2 Hours After Their Wedding, a Billionaire Saw His Bride Push His...

Just 2 Hours After Their Wedding, a Billionaire Saw His Bride Push His 70-Year-Old Mother Off a 70-Story Rooftop—Then a Young Wait...

Clara turned. The girl was gone from her side.

Voss smiled again. “I knew she'd be the easiest one to persuade.”