“Not like this,” I insisted. “The world isn’t your responsibility, okay? This isn’t your burden.”

“No, Remy, this isn’t your burden.” His eyes looked darker set against his ashen skin, and I hated how reasonable he sounded.

Wise beyond his years, but he’d always been that way. A weird combination of little kid and old man that I had never understood. I was proud of him for wanting to sacrifice himself to do the right thing, but I was mad at him too. He didn’t need to do this.

He didn’t need to die, and I wouldn’t let him.

The door behind me opened, and a guard came in. He grabbed me by my arms and pulled me to my feet, but I didn’t put up a fight. I knew it would be futile in the long run, and I didn’t want Max to see me like that.

He just stared up at me, already resigned to living like this. As the guard pulled me out, Max’s sad face was the last thing that I saw.

I realized exactly what I had to do.

– 21 –

“You are so, so lucky you know me,” Tatum repeated for the twentieth time as he paced in front of me. I leaned back against the trailer, where we had been standing for the past fifteen minutes as he lectured me.

Tatum actually did have some clout around here, and using all of his considerable charm, he’d talked the officials into letting me go with a warning. They called it extenuating circumstances, but next time, I’d get the stockades.

For a while, people loitered around us. We had been a spectacle of sorts, but everyone had gone away now. It was just the two of us, hidden in the shadows of the trailer, so he could calm down the show he’d been putting on. He’d been playing it up like he had nothing to do with it.

“I shouldn’t have let you talk me into that.” Tatum rubbed his jaw and stared off at nothing.

“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely.

He had put himself on the line for me, and it wasn’t until his sergeant was berating us both that I realized what that meant. At least nobody had figured out his involvement, or Blue’s, and I was very grateful for that.

“It’s alright,” he shrugged and looked back at me. “But the least you could’ve done was wore that skirt out here.”

“I didn’t exactly have a chance to change.” I had abandoned the clothes Harlow had given me and worn the blue scrubs.

“Just lay low for a while,” Tatum said, wrapping up his speech. “I don’t know what happened up there, and you look upset about it. But just forget about it, okay? You got to see your brother.”

“Mmm,” I muttered noncommittally.

I needed to ask him another favor, but now didn’t seem the time to do it. Maybe tomorrow. He was right. I should wait until this all blew over, but I couldn’t wait that long. Not after I had seen how they kept Max.

They were killing him, with all their tests and research. I knew they were trying to save the world and all that, but it didn’t give them the right to treat a little boy like a lab rat.

Tatum walked me back to my trailer, grumbling things about all the ass he was gonna have to kiss to get out of this. I apologized again, but every time I did, he brushed it off, as if it wasn’t actually that big of a deal.

I didn’t realize we were at my trailer until he stopped walking, and I glanced up at the door and saw my house number.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Well, you’re just lucky I like you.” He smiled at me, playing it at as a joke, but it faltered, and the sincerity of his statement slipped through. Realizing this, he looked uncomfortable, and awkwardly  patted me on the shoulder before excusing himself. “Stay out of trouble.”

After he walked away, I went into the trailer. All the lights were off, except for a small one above the kitchen sink, and Lazlo sat in the dark at the dining room table. I didn’t think it was all that late, but Harlow had gone to bed, and he waited up for me like some kind of over-protective parent.

“How did it go?” Lazlo asked, his voice devoid of any emotion. I expected him to be mad or jealous or happy that I was alive, but he didn’t give anything away.

“It went,” I shrugged.

“So you saw your brother?”

“Yeah, I saw him.”

In a sudden embarrassing display of emotion, I burst into tears. All of the fear and guilt came pouring out of me, and I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Lazlo got up and rushed over to me. He put his arms around me, holding me close, and I let him. I sobbed into his shoulder, and he kept telling me that it would be all right.

Once I had calmed down enough to speak, he led me over to the couch. He held my hand when I sat next to him, and I told him all about how they treated Max, about the vials of blood and how skeletal he’d become. I told him how vibrant and smart and quirky Max had been before, and how I’d always done everything I could to take care of him.

And then I told him how badly it hurt to know that I had failed so completely, despite all my best efforts.

Lazlo put his arm around me and insisted that everything would be all right, and I knew it would be. I would make it all right, even if it killed me. I would not let Max live and die like that, like a scared animal in a cage.

In the morning, I showered and got ready quickly. I had to find both Blue and Tatum if I had any chance of making this work. I wasn’t even sure if it was possible, but I had to try. I found Blue first, since I needed him more.

As I went over my plan, he kept his face even, and I wasn’t sure what he thought. When he finished, he nodded once, almost to my surprise.