Whisper (Whisper #1)(92)
“Everything I did was to protect you,” he whispers.
I suck in a startled breath, unable to deny the truth I see in his eyes.
“No matter what Falon said, no matter how I acted after you started Speaking, every second, every moment I spent with you before that was real. Don’t ever doubt that, Chip.”
Before my shocked but still-too-sluggish mind can think of a reply, and before Keeda or I can come up with any kind of further argument, he pulls away from me and pushes us both into the elevator beside Cami, then slams his hand on the outside panel. The doors slide shut between us just as I see the group of zombified Speakers round the bend, with Vanik and Manning leading them. The moment Vanik’s eyes lock onto mine through the closing doors, I know exactly what his infuriated gaze is telling me.
This isn’t over, Six-Eight-Four. We’ve only just begun.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Exhausted, terrified and drained beyond what should be humanly possible, my body must have shut down sometime between Ward shoving us into the elevator and Keeda awakening the panic-stricken Cami, since I have no memories from there on out. Instead, when I regain consciousness again, I’m in a stone-walled, dimly lit room, and I’m not alone.
“Kael?” I whisper, seeing him seated beside my bed. My voice is so raspy that it sounds like a colony of fire ants have nested in my throat. It feels like that, too.
“Here.” He holds up a glass of water and presses the straw to my lips. “Drink.”
I suck in the cool, fresh liquid as if it’s air, only stopping when he moves the glass from my reach.
“I wasn’t done,” I complain, pleased when my voice comes out stronger.
“You’re badly dehydrated, but you still need to take it easy,” he says, placing the glass on the bedside table. “If you can keep that down, I’ll give you more soon.”
“I had the strangest dream about you,” I tell him, still feeling half-asleep. “We were on a rainbow cloud.”
Kael chuckles, and it’s a deep, comforting sound. “That wasn’t a dream, princess.”
Memories crash into place, and I bolt upright, my head spinning as pain flares, but I push through it in my desperation to see where I am. There’s another bed a few feet from me, with Cami buried deep under a pile of blankets, fast asleep. For reasons unknown, Schr?dinger is also with us, curled up and dozing at my feet.
My gaze travels around the rest of the space, similar enough to Liana’s room in the catacombs that I know we must be underground. As to how we arrived? I have no idea.
“How did I get here, Kael? And Dinger? I can’t remember anything after Ward helped us escape.” I flick through my memories, finding myself at a loss. I can’t even begin to process Ward’s final words to me and what they might mean. “I don’t — I don’t understand why he helped us.”
“First answer,” Kael says, leaning forward to steeple his fingers underneath his chin, “is that you passed out in the elevator, and after Keeda convinced Cami to leave Ward and escape while you all still could, the two of them carried you out of Lengard. We brought you back here, where you’ve been in and out of consciousness for the past three days. During one of the ‘out’ moments, you made Dinger appear, and he hasn’t left your side.”
As if knowing Kael is talking about him, my kitten opens his eyes and gives a soft meow, crawling up my body to nudge his head against my chest.
I pet him absentmindedly, caught up in Kael’s words and thinking that’s an absurd amount of time to have been sleeping, especially considering how wretched I feel. I’m struggling to keep my eyes from shutting even as we speak.
“You lost a lot of blood, Lyss, and not just from where Vanik drained you.” Kael motions to the clean white bandage wrapped firmly around my arm. “Cami couldn’t heal you without you being conscious for more than a few seconds at a time, so like Dinger, she hasn’t left your side and has been waiting for you to awaken.” Kael nods to my sleeping friend. “I can wake her now if you —”
“No, let her sleep,” I tell him, knowing that it can’t have been easy for her to leave her brother behind. She needs her rest; my wounds can wait.
“Because of the time that’s passed …” Kael offers me an apologetic look. “She’ll be able to heal you, but you’re going to have one hell of a scar, princess.”
Of all the things he could have said, that is the least of my worries. I send him a look that says as much, and his eyes lighten in response. But then he sobers.
“To answer about Ward, he’s one of ours.”
Kael’s declaration doesn’t shock me as much as it would have had I not witnessed Ward helping us escape. I still don’t understand, though.
“He and I grew up together at Lengard. We were close — at least, before I left with my family ten years ago,” Kael goes on. “As far as I knew, he believed in what they’re doing there, through and through. Or that’s what I thought, until a few weeks ago when he reached out to us. There was a girl, you see. One he’d been told to get close to. A girl he’d been ordered to make trust him, by any means necessary. Turns out, he had no idea the kind of effect such a girl would have on him.”
Kael eyes me shrewdly, and I hold his gaze, not giving myself over to the confusing array of emotions that surge within me.