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Without warning, Mrs. Graves faints dead away.
CHAPTER 16
Lyssa
I rush to Mrs. Graves. Hadria is right beside me as we both kneel down next to her, and Aurora hovers nearby, her eyes wide with concern.
“Let’s get her to her room,” I say, my voice rough. Hadria’s worry is evident in the tightness around her eyes. Together, we carefully lift Mrs. Graves.
Hadria glances at the figure in the backseat of the car and does a double take that would be funny if it wasn’t for everything else going on. “But that’s?—”
“Yeah,” I say shortly. “I was about to explain when you pulled a gun.” I look over Mrs. G’s head to Scarlett, who’s standing still and wary, eyes moving around for threats. “Bring her, Scar.”
Hadria looks Scarlett’s way, too. “Yes,” she says icily. “Bring her. I don’t want either of you out of my sight.”
With that, Hadria and I carry Mrs. G between us into the house and down the hall to her private quarters, followed by Scarlett, who is pulling a still-woozy Ariadne.
Sarah.
Today is not turning out the way I thought it would.
Aurora hurries ahead to open doors for us. When we get to the bedroom, I direct Scarlett to put Sarah in the armchair by the window while Hadria and I lay Mrs. Graves on the bed. The older woman looks so frail, so vulnerable, that it makes my chest ache. I brush a strand of her hair from her forehead, silently willing her to be okay.
After a tense moment, Mrs. Graves’s eyelids flutter and she opens her eyes, disoriented. She looks at me, and then Hadria.
And then her gaze falls on Sarah and she gasps, pushing herself upright. “Sarah?”
I’ve never heard so much anguish and so much hope compressed into one word.
Tears spill down Mrs. Graves’s cheeks as she pushes herself off the bed and reaches for her daughter. But Sarah jerks away in the armchair, fixing Mrs. G with a look of pure…
Hate.
“What’s going on?” Mrs. Graves asks in anguish. “Sarah—I thought you were dead! Please, talk to me.”
But Sarah just glares, her jaw clenched shut. She’s not going to give us anything willingly, that much is clear. The monster inside her, the one crafted by Grandmother’s twisted arts, won’t be tamed so easily.
Hadria turns to me, her usual composure a little shaken by, I assume, the shock of having a dead woman wander up to the door. “What the hell is going on?”
“This is one of Grandmother’s other assassins,” I say slowly. “She’s known as Ariadne.”
“Her name is Sarah!” Mrs. Graves bursts out.
I nod, but I hold out a hand. “Yes. It’s Sarah. I only realized tonight when…when Scarlett and I went to infiltrate Grandmother’s current hideout. Ariadne attacked us, but when her mask came off…” I look at the woman. Her eyes are empty of everything except loathing as she stares back. “I recognized her from all the photos Mrs. G has.”
“Sarah.” Mrs. Graves tries again, reaching out a slow hand.
But Sarah turns her face aside and closes her eyes.
I chew the inside of my cheek, thinking hard. Then I remember that horrifically pink bedroom in the high-rise, the shredded remnants of a stolen childhood, and an idea starts to form.
I take Hadria aside and make her look into my face.
“If I leave the room for a few minutes, swear on your honor that you won’t lay a finger on Scarlett while I’m gone.”
Hadria looks thoroughly unimpressed by this request. But in the end, our bond wins out. “You have my word. For now. But make it quick.”
I run through the hallways to my own quarters, ignoring the shouted questions from other Syndicate members I pass along the way. Rumors are already building, judging from some of the questions. But I don’t have time to waste. And if my crazy idea works out, it could be the key to unlocking Sarah’s buried humanity.
