I took a chair and threw it at the window, and glass shattered outward. We were on the second floor, but we could climb down the fire escape.
The room cooked and simmered, full of energy about to erupt. The Seeker's white robe had turned gray with ash, and his pristine skin looked sallow. The walls crackled as the heat blistered paint.
"Come on, we need to climb through the window." I reached for the Seeker just as the ceiling above me crashed down.
The weight of his body, slight though it was, propelled me out of harm's way. I stood and brushed myself off. "Wow, that was close. Thanks for—"
Only a fraction of life remained in his eyes. A beam from the ceiling pinned him to the ground, and a metal disk impaled his abdomen.
I reached for his hand. Tears streamed down my face.
"Sam, you must get out. I was dead before we met. Do not mourn me. Save your friends. Save your baby." He coughed and blood wet his lips. "I... I am sorry for what I have done to you, for what our father has done to you. He has plans, Sam, big plans, and dangerous weapons. You must stop him before it is too late."
His hand went limp in mine. His eyelids flickered closed.
"No. Please, I can't lose anyone else. Stay alive and help us. We'll find a cure for you. Just don't die. What are his plans? What is our father going to do? I need your help."
"Too late. One last gift for you. Come... closer."
I leaned into him. He pressed his lips against my brow and a powerful jolt electrified my mind and body. Blackness swirled around me and the world faded out for a moment.
His voice brought me back. "Sam, you now have what you need, and my powers have not all been lost. It is time... for me... to go. Did I make it right? My whole life I tried to do what was right, but right became so wrong. Was this the right thing, Sam?"
Sobs shook my chest. How could life flip on its axis so dramatically that I would mourn the man I considered my most deadly enemy just a day ago?
I knew so little of life and love and truth.
"Yes, you did it right."
His lips turned upward. "Good... bye... Sister. I am glad... I did not die... alone."
Chapter 58 – Lucy
Mr. Black squinted at her. Lucy could tell he expected her to run through the gates and never look back. Instead, she lowered her weapon and dragged him toward the hospital.
Fire had spread throughout campus, carried on the winds and trees. Every few minutes, an explosion ripped through the air.
Three guards approached. "Sir, step aside, and we'll eliminate the girl."
"That won't be necessary, men. I have control, and she's my prisoner now." Lucy felt his finger poke into her back as a mock gun. "You go on ahead and I'll catch up to you later."
Another explosion shook the ground, and the guards ran toward it.
The clinic had also caught fire. Patients were evacuated through the front, some in wheelchairs and others on beds. Medical personnel bustled about, trying to keep the patients calm.
Mr. Black approached the nurse Lucy had seen him speaking to when they'd admitted his daughter. "Where is she? Where is Sarah?"
The nurse clutched at her clipboard. She didn't seem to notice her soot-covered clothes and disheveled hair, only the needs of the patients. "Please, calm down. We're trying to get all the patients out."
Mr. Black brushed her aside and lunged for the front door. Lucy followed him in.
"Sir, you're not allowed in— That's off limits. Sir!" They both ignored the shrill voice of the nurse.
Patients clogged the passageways as they made their way through the halls.
They found her in a bed outside her room, where she'd been abandoned in the hallway. Poor girl. Lucy couldn't imagine how anyone could leave a terrified child alone like that in the middle of a fire.
Mr. Black lifted his daughter out of bed. Her eyes fluttered open, and her face lit up in the biggest smile Lucy had ever seen.
Sarah threw her arms around Mr. Black's neck. "Daddy, you came for me! I told them you would, and you did."
"I will always come for you, Sweetheart, but right now we have to get out of here."
Lucy grabbed a blanket and covered the slender child.
Mr. Black nodded in thanks.
They turned to leave the way they had come, but found the hallway blocked by a hungry inferno of flames.
Lucy thought back to her sneaking around when Sam had been kept here against her will.
"Follow me, I think I know another way out." She led them down one hallway and found a door to the outside.
The three of them crashed through it just as the building collapsed around them. They ran for the campus gate Mr. Black had opened earlier.
Lucy tried to ignore the bodies littering the walkways. She couldn't help them all—not now, not this way. But one body stopped her abruptly and she let out a choked cry.