Page 9 of I Will Mend You

When he grabs her throat and pins her to the wall, it takes every ounce of self-control not to throw aside the laptop and fight my way to his hospital bed. When she injures his eye and clubs him over the head with one of his cameras, my heart soars.

Camila grabs my hand. “You taught her well. Wherever she’s gone, she’ll survive.”

My chest squeezes. “But what about her mental state?”

“I can set up a camera in Dr. Saint’s cell. You can interrogate the psychiatrist over video chat.”

“Do it,” I rasp.

She kisses me on the cheek and leaves the room.

“Xero,” Jynxson says.

“What?”

“Did Amethyst start that fire?”

I lock gazes with my oldest friend. Most men find me intimidating, but not Jynxson. We’ve known each other since we were both ten at the underground facility, then we were roommates at the Moirai Academy.

Jynxson had been on my team during the graduation run, and joined the Moirai with one of my tokens, yet he was one of the first to defect once I started my small resistance group.Despite the length of our friendship, he wouldn’t understand what I have with my little ghost.

“Did she or didn’t she start that fire?” he asks again, his voice hardening.

“No,” I say. “Not on purpose.”

His eyes narrow. “Then by accident?”

Common sense plus eight years of training as an assassin says I shouldn’t protect a woman who tried to kill me in a house fire, but Amethyst has gotten under my skin. I know her wellenough to understand there’s more to her actions than petty revenge or even a psychotic episode.

“Xero?” Jynxson asks.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

Our standoff continues for several tense seconds, with his features hardening with disbelief. Of all people, Jynxson knows I would never be bested by an untrained civilian.

“If you’re protecting her?—”

“Amethyst might be the key to finding not just my father but all the children he’s grooming to become assassins,” I say. “And she’s out there somewhere, frightened, alone, or maybe in the clutches of X-Cite Media. The last thing she needs is to be hunted by assassins.”

Jynxson stares into his phone and frowns. “All evidence points to Amethyst killing Nocturne because he was connected to X-Cite Media and her mother because she’s Dolly.”

“It’s looking that way,” I mutter.

“Why would she take out our best lead to find Delta?”

I shift on the cot, my lips tightening. “You haven’t met Melonie Greaves. She’s aggravating. Amethyst might have finally snapped.”

“And the EMP blast?” He shakes his head. “It doesn’t add up.”

He’s right, but I refuse to believe Amethyst disabled all the electric systems just to murder her mother.

Jynxson scowls and is about to say something else when Tyler interrupts. “This is a long shot, but the same truck with a different registration entered Mannez Airport.”

My head snaps up. “Is it still there?”

“It was towed three hours ago,” he mutters. “It might be a coincidence or another criminal group, but I’m checking the airport’s security feed.”

With a nod, I turn my attention back to the video of Amethyst fighting off Reverend Thomas.

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