He opened his mouth to say more, but closed it. Then he said, “Let’s try to force a vision. See what happens.”

Now he wanted to try? “No,” I said and turned away. I didn’t want to see our future. Not anymore.

He left the room without another word—and he was the one to break my heart.

Compartmentalize.

No. Just...no. I wouldn’t start that again. At best, it was a temporary fix. I’d pour my anger and hurt into destroying Anima.

I finished arming myself and marched to the foyer. River, Camilla and Chance were already waiting. As were Cole, Frosty, Bronx, Veronica, Gavin and Mackenzie. How had Cole gathered the troops so quickly?

I can do this. I kept my attention trained on River. “Bring everything we’ll need?”

“More than.”

Good.

We headed outside.

Frosty threw his arms around my shoulders and whispered, “This is hard for Cole. The situation scares him, that’s all.”

“He’s not the only one,” I muttered.

“Yeah, but you’re a girl. The braver species.”

“This is true.”

The lab was just outside of Birmingham. We parked down the street, watching the front doors, taking pictures of the employees who entered and left the building. River told Cole our strategy, and though the muscle below his eye started ticking again, he agreed it was sound.

Finally, darkness fell. Time to get to work. My adrenaline jacked up as we took our places around the building. Only two guards manned the reception desk.

“In five...four...three...” River’s voice whispered through the tiny bud in my ear. “Two. One.”

Camilla approached the glass doors in front and knocked frantically. Her shirt was soaked with fake blood, and she clutched the “wound” as if she was in terrible pain and even wavered on her feet as if she was about to faint.

Guard Number One popped to his feet. Guard Number Two grabbed his arm to hold him in place. From the shadows outside, I watched as One and Two engaged in a fiery conversation. Ultimately, Two picked up the phone to call...911? His boss?

Taking it up a notch, Camilla fell to her knees, then tumbled the rest of the way to the ground, where she sprawled, still as death. One ignored his buddy and rushed to the door. The moment it was open, and he was leaning down to help her, Camilla shot him point-blank with a tranquilizer gun.

Cole did a mad dash from the shadows to the doorway, leaping over Camilla and the guard to shoot Two with a tranq. He collapsed, and Cole swiped up the phone to listen.

“Hadn’t finished dialing,” he said.

Frosty and Bronx dragged One inside. The rest of us came in behind them. I made sure to lock the doors. As we tiptoed through the narrow corridor, part of me expected a million guards to rush out of hiding and Frosty to go bat-crap crazy and kill them. When would the visions come true?

We reached a thick, red door without incident. The ID pad on the left was like a neon sign flashing the words You’ll. Never. Get. Past. This. Point.

Could I? Even though Helen had said my prints would not be wiped from Anima’s system, eleven years was a long time. Anything could have happened.

Chance withdrew a bunch of equipment I didn’t recognize, hooked this to that, and that to this, pushed buttons, rewired and boom, it was Open Sesame. No fingerprint ID necessary.

Which was probably for the best. Cole would freak, and everyone else would claim Helen had done it to trap me in some way. To trap us.

We found offices and, under Camilla’s direction, copied the hard drives. We found rooms with medical equipment and a vast array of medications and, again, under Camilla’s direction, took samples. “We need that. And that. And that,” she said, expecting us to grab the items.

As River’s sister, she was used to taking charge. I got that. But I wasn’t her lackey, and she wasn’t my boss. Her commands scraped my nerves raw.

In the back was an unlocked door. I checked behind me. No one paid me any attention. I breezed through and found myself in a hallway. Alone. At the end was another door, but it was locked. Licking my lips, I performed another quick check before resting my palm on the ID screen. Lights glowed between my spread fingers. I waited with bated breath—

And the lock disengaged.

I couldn’t... It was... Wow. Just wow. It had worked.

“Ali,” Cole barked.

I jolted, guilty.

I raced around the corner, chasing the sound of his voice. Everyone had gathered in the back of the building, where at least fifty cages with grunting, collared zombies lined the wall. We ashed the creatures and stole their collars.

We checked the rest of the building, found nothing, no one, and dragged the unconscious guards outside. Then we did what we’d all been waiting for. Destroyed. Everything.

River claimed to be something of an explosives expert and set a charge. The entire structure imploded, tumbling down, dust pluming in the air without any debris flying out to harm a civilian. A sense of triumph.

At Mr. Ankh’s, we poured into the entertainment room to celebrate.

I lost interest, my mood dark.

Cole stood off to the side, chatting with Camilla.

Jealousy prickled at me as I strolled over. I placed my hand on his shoulder. Rising on my tiptoes, I whispered, “Guess Helen wasn’t lying after all” straight into his ear.

He stiffened, giving his back to Camilla to glare at me. “Not this time.”

“Not ever.”

“Why can’t you see the truth? She is the spider, and you are the fly. She’s just lured you into her web.”