The Gender Lie(33)

I fell quiet, swallowing hard. “It’s my fault,” I said after a beat. Owen moved forward, his face reflecting his refusal of my statement. I held up a hand. “It’s Desmond’s fault too, for handing them out, but I’m not devoid of blame. I… I was certain you had left the laser behind.”

“Of course it wasn’t your fault, Violet. We lost communication, and… well… you were doing what you thought you had to. I know that if I, or Solomon, or anyone else were in your shoes, we would have done the same. How could we give up on a cure for the person we love? The answer is: We can’t. Neither could you.”

I moved back to the stairs and sat down. “What are we going to tell Meera?” I asked quietly, thinking of Solomon’s mother.

Owen came to sit next to me. “She knew the risks of the mission. And with a little luck… who knows? Maybe the effects are just temporary. Hopefully, he won’t have to be like this for long.”

I heaved a sigh, my eyes finally drying up. “We can’t take him out of the city, can we?”

Owen shook his head, his expression regretful. “No. We can’t. But Thomas has promised that he will look after him while we’re gone. And we’ll hopefully be able to spare one of the scientists to come and examine him. Solomon will be all right until then, okay? You just have to give it some time and patience.”

I laughed bitterly. “Time and patience? I’m not exactly the patient type.”

Owen’s hand settled on my knee and I looked up at him. The two of us were sitting with our faces inches apart. It should have made the situation feel more intimate in some way. And yet it didn’t, and Owen didn’t make any inappropriate move one way or the other.

“You were patient for two weeks,” he said, “waiting for this mission.”

I laughed again, the sound brittle in my ears. “You have no idea,” I replied, rubbing my temples. “You have no idea—I would’ve done anything, been nice to anyone, to get what I needed for Viggo. And while I don’t think I would have abandoned you to die… I never trusted you enough to get the job done. I’m the reason Solomon felt he needed to take the steps he did. If I had just trusted you...”

My words hung in the air for several moments before Owen replied with a sigh, “I-I can understand, although I can’t say I like it. But… you’re doing the best you can, considering the circumstances. And, despite what happened to Solomon and Amber, we got what we came here to get. You have hope now, a very real hope, that you can touch. And maybe with what happened here… well, as dark as this is to say, maybe now you can learn to trust us.”

He leaned forward and pressed his lips to my forehead, and I found myself leaning a shoulder against his. Owen wrapped his arms around me and hugged me. It felt weird, but kind of nice.

I wasn’t sure how Owen had weighed into Desmond’s decision to keep researching the pills, but I was still furious with her, and I planned to explain to her exactly how she messed up. Maybe it was my fault for making Solomon feel like he had to take that pill, but Desmond was the one who’d handed it to him.

Owen pulled back and smiled at me. “Don’t tell your boyfriend about this when he wakes up,” he said, and I managed a chuckle.

“Oh, I’m telling him,” I said with a smile of my own. “He’s going to eat you alive.”

Owen rolled his eyes and stood up. “For the record, Violet, I am totally not into you.”

I accepted the hand he offered, pulling myself to my feet. “Owen, you aren’t even a blip on my radar,” I replied, and he laughed, his laughter rich and genuine, dispelling the tension that had built, if only for a moment.

He looked at his watch and his shoulders dipped. Our moment of calm was shattered once again by the press of time. Wordlessly, we headed back to Thomas’ lair, leaving Solomon alone in his prison.





15





Violet





Amber groaned as we lifted her makeshift gurney up higher, jostling her.

“Sorry,” I said for the umpteenth time, my arms straining to help lift her high above the putrid water flowing past us.

We had been moving her through the tunnels for ages, and the smell had gotten worse. With each minute we kept her down here, the chances of her developing a serious infection grew. We had done everything we could to stem the bleeding in her side, but she had gone incoherent with blood loss, and so pale that the normal rose tint of her lips had faded completely.

Owen and I pushed forward together, carefully placing our feet so that we didn’t slip. Quinn grunted as he slid back a few feet on the platform, balancing the other end alone. Once she was up, I shifted over and grabbed Owen’s side. He relinquished it as I did, and my arms strained, shaking under Amber’s full weight.