Chapter 12 - THE PERSON I DIDN’T MEAN TO HURT
Katie Monroe’s eyes met mine for less than a second.
That was enough.
“No,” I said.
Gray spread across her lips.
She grabbed at her throat.
“Mara—”
Her voice cut off.
Stone raced over her cheeks.
I lunged toward her and shoved my glasses back on, but the change had already started.
Katie’s hand closed around my wrist.
For three terrible seconds, I felt her fingers tighten.
Then stop.
She became still on the concrete.
Her expression wasn’t heroic.
It wasn’t peaceful.
She looked annoyed.
Almost offended.
That somehow made it worse.
I dropped beside her.
“I’m sorry.”
Nothing.
“I’m sorry.”
My voice cracked.
One of Adrian’s men ran.
I barely noticed.
A door crashed open across the factory.
Noah stumbled out with blood on his wrists.
“Mara!”
I looked toward him.
He saw Katie.
Saw the petrified man near the wall.
Saw me kneeling between them.
He stopped.
The relief on his face disappeared.
“What happened?”
“I…”
My throat closed.
Katie’s stone fingers were still wrapped around my wrist.
Noah came closer, careful not to meet my face directly.
“Oh, God.”
“She looked at me.”
“Mara.”
“I forgot she was there.”
He crouched.
“She can be reversed, right?”
I thought of my mother’s tape.
“Yes.”
“Then do it.”
“I don’t know how.”
Noah stared at me.
“What do you mean?”
“My mother said it was possible. She didn’t say how.”
A shot cracked above us.
Glass shattered.
Noah pulled me down.
Adrian’s voice came through the speaker.
“Touching reunion.”
Noah grabbed Katie’s gun from the floor.
“Can you move?”
“Yes.”
“Then move.”
We ran.
Behind us, Adrian’s men closed in.
Noah fired once into a light. Darkness swallowed half the factory.
Smart.
We cut through an old furnace room and found Dr. Celia Wren waiting beside an emergency exit.
She held a keycard.
“Go,” she said.
I looked at her.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who stayed too long.”
Noah grabbed my hand.
“We don’t have time.”
I pulled back.
“Katie.”
Celia’s face changed when she saw the statue through the doorway.
“You did that?”
“By accident.”
Celia swallowed.
“Then Adrian will want her.”
“Why?”
“To force you to reverse it.”
A shout echoed behind us.
Celia shoved the keycard into my hand.
“There’s a lab under the west wing. Your mother left a protocol there. Adrian never understood the final step.”
Hope hit me.
Then Celia said, “But if you reverse Katie, you may lose something you can’t get back.”
Footsteps thundered closer.
Noah pushed open the exit.
We ran into daylight.
And left Katie behind.
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