Page 146 of Tracking Snow

He always comes forward when the rest of them are too overwhelmed to think.

His gaze travels over me from head to toe before returning to my face. His fingers twitch at his sides as if he wants to touch me and find where the magic used to be.

"Your reflexes," Six says, "The way you learn physical skills after seeing them once. Your fixation on other people’s abilities." His eyes sharpen as another piece falls into place. "Your magic is gone, but you still mirror all the time."

He’s right. Reaching inside myself, I can still feel that ability now that there is a name, a history to it. The way I could watch someone create an elaborate braid once and do it just like that. How I could replicate certain fight moves from my favorite movies, how fast I was able to pick up darts after I watched the local champ play a few rounds.

That fire in my belly...the hot, hungry, covetous feeling was never about wanting my friend’s powers. I was missing what used to be a part of me. I yearned to have what was taken from me.

Six stares at me. There's a high, thin ringing in my ears, and my heartbeat has relocated to my throat. His green eyes lock on mine, wide and stricken. For once, his face gives everything away.

"Where your friend was merely a level two, you manifested at a level three and it had only just begun to express," Queenie explains, "so we had to act fast. We gave you both the treatment, and she wasn’t strong enough. And while you flew the coop, no one even thought to look for you since we hadn’t had any successful test subjects. The other kids assured us you talked about leaving and the only reason you stayed was for your friend."

She wasn't strong enough. Four words, and Rosie is dying in them all over again, and this woman says them like a lab note. "You used us."

Queenie’s forehead creases. "We were helping them and you."

One shifts behind me. His attention moves from Queenie to the people restrained along the wall. His gaze catches on the needle taped inside Red’s elbow, then the tubing disappearing beneath Ariel’s sleeve.

"You experimented on me," Six says, "You experimented on Rosie and Snow. And Carolee..." His expression shutters as if internally warring. "For so many years, so many people. I didn’t realize..."

Queenie’s lips thin. "The procedural details are none of your concern, but I can safely say with the mermaid, the mage who can strip powers, and most importantly, Snow here, our success is inevitable." She closes a fist and her voice drops into a cadence like one of her political speeches.

"It’s too much..." Six says so softly I almost miss it.

But I can’t think of the future she has envisioned when I’m still stuck in the past. Processing too much, too fast. "What did you give us?" My voice is low, a warning.

"The same treatment that cured you." Queenie clasps her hands in front of her. "Her body reacted poorly."

The room pitches sideways as I remember the fever. Rosie shivering beneath a pile of blankets. Her fingers gray where they clutched mine. The adults telling me to let her sleep while her breaths grew farther and farther apart. How I found her in the morning.

My stomach twists. "She wasn’t sick."

"You were both afflicted," Queenie explains calmly as if I’m slow.

"You poisoned her."

"Snow." Six’s arms tighten around me, but his voice cracks around my name.

"Let me go!"

The security guards finally move in. Six resists when the first man reaches for me, dragging me tighter into his chest.

"Release her," Queenie orders.

His arms go rigid around me.

"Six," she says.

His hold loosens.

The guards wrench me away from him and drag me toward an empty spot on the wall where restraints hang open beside a waiting IV. I kick one in the shin and catch another across the jaw with my elbow before they force my arms to the padding.

Six takes a step toward us.

Two guards block his path.

Buckles lock over my wrists, waist, and ankles. I slam my body forward, and the edges cut into my skin.