“You lied.”
“Annie? Bella, how are you?”
“You didn’t keep Sadie out of it.”
“Ah.” He sighs. “Has something ever been so important to you that you’d do anything? Anything at all?”
“Yes,” I hiss. “My sister. My sister is that important to me.”
“I’m sorry, Annie. I really am. But we all have the same goal, and now I have a way to make it happen. I finally have a meeting with Phillip Keane, and he won’t survive. You remember Casey?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“She’s dead. Keane had her pumped full of heroin until her heart stopped and then dumped her body in an alley in Harlem.”
“You’re a liar,” I whisper.
“I am not lying about this. I wouldn’t do that to Casey’s memory. I’m sorry for using you, but I can help look out for Fia. Tell me what happens in your vision now.”
“You die.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“You die.” I drop the phone.
“What did he say?” Eden asks.
I shudder, thinking of Casey. I don’t have Fia’s talent for spotting lies, but what Rafael said felt true. Too much. This is all too much. I think I’m going to be sick. “I need to go to New York myself.”
“You can’t go,” Cole says. “If they knew you were alive . . .”
“I don’t care. We get Fia out. Whether she wants to leave or not. And we save Sadie. Tell Adam to pack up his research and leave. We can’t let Rafael have it.”
“He’s not answering his phone,” Eden says. “I’ll leave a message and a text to call us ASAP. There’s a flight leaving in two hours. We can make it, but there’s a layover in Minneapolis. We’ll hit New York in the morning.”
“Let’s go,” Cole says.
We’ve been in the Minneapolis airport for an hour when my phone rings. Breathless, I answer.
“Heya, Annahell.”
Her voice is like a physical blow, punching through all the hollow spaces inside me where she used to live.
“Fia. Oh, Fia. I have to tell you—”
“Are you safe?”
“I am.”
“Stay safe, okay?”
“Fia, listen to me. Don’t do it. Please don’t do it.”
I hear a ghost of a tap-tap-tap-tap on the other end of the line and it buries me in a wave of grief. I’m mourning her like she’s already dead, but she’s not, she won’t be.
“There’s no right choice,” she says.
“There is a right choice. Walk away. Right now. Just walk away.”