“I’ll listen, Justin,” I say. “I see you. I see how much you’re hurting. You deserve recognition for everything you’ve lost. And if you want…I’ll write a song about you. I’ll tell the truth about everything you’ve fought through. Just please, let Andrea go. I’ll sing for you until everyone hears it.”
For several long seconds, he stares.
Justin’s grimace widens, his jaw shaking—and he flings me back against the ice slab, letting go of my hair.
“Bullshit. You sing only lies,” he whispers in a slow and eerie tone. “But I’ll tell my own truth. I just want you to give me a nice little soundtrack for dramatic effect. Something to get their attention.” He cranes his head like a doll, watching me with those unblinking, empty eyes. “And you’ll do it, or I’ll leave my Jenna right where she is, and they’ll have to cut her in half to peel her frozen body off the ice.”
“Don’t!” I plead, while Andrea’s whimpers peak even higher, wordless and terrified. “I’ll do it. I’ll sing for you. Are you going to do a presentation?”
“Oh, no, little peacemaker.”
I recoil as he reaches for me, curls his knuckles, strokes his fingers down my temple, my cheek—and reignites the hot pain where he touches my frost burned skin.
“I’m going to burn everybody in Heart’s Edge alive. Right down to ashes,” he purrs with a deep, hideous pleasure darkening his voice. “And then they’ll know exactly how it felt when my mother died, charred and choking on her own charcoal-blackened lungs. And he’ll be right in the middle of it. My father and all his little friends…and so will you.”
It takes everything I have not to shake. I don’t understand his logic, his reasoning.
Much later, I realize there isn’t any.
He taps his fingertips almost playfully to my nose. “Sorry for this. You’re not from this fucked up little town. But you chose your side, Peace, and you looked at me just like them. Like I was nothing. Like I was just this hollowed out puppy. It’s time for me and Jenna to leave this place behind. In our dust, where you all belong.”
Crap.
Crap, crap, crap, and also crap.
“What are you going to do? I don’t understand,” I whisper.
I’m not expecting him to tell me. Not really.
I’m just trying to stall him for a little while longer.
Especially when I see movement.
We’re in some kind of tent, I realize, and there’s a frosted plastic window stitched into the fabric. Over Justin’s shoulder, I catch a glimpse of someone.
Clark.
He’s looking inside, his face white with fear.
Oh, thank God.
Someone who knows we’re here.
Someone who can help.
But I’m dragged back to Justin as he lets out a short, barking laugh. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” he mocks, folding his arms over his chest, looking down at me with contempt. “You just do your job. Give Chief a little more incentive to come running for you. The fool loves you more than he loves his own son and daughter. That’s why I have to take her away. That’s why I have to take you away from them, too.”
“That’s not true,” I whisper. “You have no clue how much Blake loves Andrea. He’d die for her.”
“Maybe he will,” Justin snarls, giving me the most dead-eyed look yet.
I shake my head sharply, but past Justin, I’m watching Clark, hoping not to give him away. But he’s got to do something besides stand there.
“You’re wrong. You’ll never get Blake,” I spit back at Justin. “You hear me? You’ll never GET BLAKE.”
Please, I plead silently.
Please let Clark understand. Let him find Blake before it’s too late.
Justin has no intention of letting anyone get out of here alive.
He swings around, hefting a thick tank with a strap on it and a nozzle, and it takes me a second to figure it out.
It’s a flamethrower.
“Don’t worry,” he says, his nasty, cunning smile returning, making him look like a nightmare scarecrow come to life. “One way or another, I’m going to get everyone. Then Heart’s Edge will know how it feels to really burn.”
20
Percussion Shock (Blake)
Too many damn people.
That’s all I can think right now as I bolt out of my Jeep and through the gate, back on the carnival grounds.
There are too many people, hundreds, and fuck if calling ahead didn’t do a single thing to help.
I’d warned them.
Leo, Warren, Doc, even Langley.
I told them, while I barreled my way down the road toward the grounds at top speed, breaking every fucking speed limit in the county while I barked into my phone.
Justin’s crazy.
He’s obsessed.
He’s the arsonist.
And he’s out for revenge against the people he thinks failed to save his ma, Constance, and failed to save the girl he was obsessed with…
…and now that dumb kid is about to ruin his life.
It doesn’t matter who’s to blame right now.
We can talk guilt, unfortunate circumstances, and how somebody always gets hurt when evil companies like Galentron cause tragic hotel fires.