Chapter 32
Thirty-Two
The responses from the rest of the crew came flooding in immediately.
What’s up? Katya said.
You okay, babe? thought McKenna.
What problem? Wyatt asked.
It’s about Silva, Dani thought back, still deliberately isolating the professor—who apparently wasn’t actually a professor, according to Dr. Rodriguez—from their mental conversation. So when you reply, don’t include her, okay?
Why? Oliver said. What did she do?
She’s not who she says she is, Dani said. She used to work for OneiroLabs, but now she works for one of their rivals.
What? Katya asked in disbelief. Who?
Somnium? Dani thought back. No, Somnio.
Oh, for gods’ sake, said Katya. Are you fucking serious? Somnio?
I knew it, Wyatt said, a hint of triumph in his words. I knew there was a reason she always used us as shields.
“Dani?”
It took Dani a second to realize that her name had been said out loud, and that it had been said by Kass, who was standing in front of her now.
She’d been so distracted by the bomb Dr. Rodriguez had just dropped that she hadn’t even noticed him close the gap between them.
His face had softened in the aftermath of the argument with his father, but she couldn’t quite read the dominant emotion in his expression.
As she studied him, trying to puzzle it out, the emcee’s voice boomed out across the crowd.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “it’s time for the main event—the presentation you’ve all been waiting for.”
They’re announcing OneiroLabs, Silva said. Ready check?
There was a pause, and for a moment, Dani thought Katya wouldn’t respond—but then her voice came through, a little unsteady. Ready.
Ready, Wyatt and Oliver said at the same time.
We still doing this? McKenna thought.
Can’t back out now, Katya said. We’ll deal with her after.
“We are proud to introduce our esteemed special guests for the evening,” the emcee continued, “from right here in our very own city, please welcome to the stage—Lukas Gianakos and Dr. Phoebe Rodriguez of OneiroLabs Incorporated!”
The exhibition hall obliged him with thunderous applause, the most exuberant they’d been all evening.
It’s time, Silva said. GO.
“Dani?” Kass said. The sound of his voice reeled her back into her body. “Are you okay?”
“No,” she said. “I mean, no, it’s okay, I’m fine. I’m—Kass. Kass.”
It was like it all came rushing over her at once, the reality of facing him right here, right now, after two weeks of silence and pain and wondering.
Katya was talking in her shell, reporting that the power at OneiroLabs was down, that Wyatt and Oliver were porting in, but Dani couldn’t process any of it.
She swayed on her feet, and she and Kass reached for each other at the same time, hands gripping the other’s forearms, locking their connection into place.
“Kass, I’m so sorry, oh my gods, I’m so sorry.
I never meant, I hope you know I didn’t want—”
“I know, Dani. I know.” He pulled her in closer, one hand going to her cheek, where his thumb gently brushed away a tear. “I mean, I didn’t at first. I can’t lie to you, I was really hurt. Fuck, I felt awful. It took me days to even open your message.”
“Why did you?” she said. The tears were coming in earnest now, spilling down her face faster than he could get to them. “You should’ve ignored it. You should’ve hated me.”
“Should I have?” He smiled sadly. “Maybe. But gods damn it, Dani, even when I thought you were just trying to get close to me for my dad, I couldn’t bring myself to feel that way about you. I wanted a reason to forgive you, even when I thought I couldn’t.”
She let out a sob, and he wrapped his arm around her waist, their bodies pressed together now.
“Then I read your letter, and—well, let’s just say it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already suspect.
I told you myself, my dad’s willing to trample over almost anyone if it means success for his business.
I just didn’t realize how bad it had gotten. ”
I’ve jammed the door, Katya was saying in Dani’s ear. But security is on their way up. We’ve got literal minutes to get this done.
We’re looking, Wyatt said.
There are hundreds of plants here, Oliver said, sounding excited in spite of the circumstances. And dozens of hybrids—
I’m trying to get into Dr. Rodriguez’s computer, Wyatt interrupted, but it’s password protected. Katya?
We’ll need you at any moment, Miss Amari, Silva said.
I’m ready to deploy, McKenna said. Just tell me when.
Dani couldn’t deal with all this right now. She reached up and ripped the shell from her ear, slipping it into the hidden pocket of her dress. Kass was so involved in their conversation, he didn’t even seem to register it.
“I spent the last week investigating the clinical trials for myself,” he said.
He had to raise his voice to be heard over the sound of his sister’s, which was filling the hall with some bland talking points about innovation and progress and pioneering the dreamscape.
“And I found out you were right. A huge percentage of the people they test the product on have some kind of adverse reaction, so they kick them out of the study and don’t even follow up to see if their side effects go away. ”
Dani nodded. She was so grateful to hear him saying all this, for him to have trusted her enough to look into it himself.
“I couldn’t believe that when I read it,” Kass said. “I realized I couldn’t just stand by and let my dad get away with something so—so fucking careless.”
“So you confronted him?”
“I went to my sister first, but she’ll do whatever our dad tells her, even when she doesn’t want to. After that, yeah, I tried talking to him. As you could probably gather, he didn’t want to hear it. He told me not to come tonight if I was going to act ungrateful.”
“I can’t believe you showed up anyway,” Dani said. “I can’t believe you ultimatumed him like that. What if he pulls you out of the Leap?”
Kass scoffed. “Oh, all that stuff was bullshit; he’s too proud to really do it.
Having a son who’s a legacy at the Leap is too important to him.
And even if he had the nerve to follow through, then fine.
If they go ahead with the product as planned, and it ends up hurting thousands of people—we’ll lose everything anyway. So what does it matter?”
“I hadn’t thought of it like that,” she said softly.
Her ungloved hand had found its way from his arm to his chest, where her palm rested against his sternum.
None of this felt real to her, but the sting of the cut underneath its Band-Aid was real enough, grounding her in the too-good-to-be-trueness of the moment.
“I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t talk to me about this,” Kass said. “And I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance to explain yourself. I just—in the moment, I couldn’t handle it.”
She shook her head fervently. “Don’t apologize. I shouldn’t have kept it from you, even for as long as I did. I just knew it would change things, and I’m…”
“Falling in love with me?”
There was no hiding from him, not when they were close enough for him to feel her heart, and when it skipped a beat. Her lips parted, her face heated, and her mind went blank as it searched for the right response.
“That’s what you said,” Kass murmured. “In your letter.”
“I did?” She knew she did. But hearing her words recited back to her was a vulnerable thing. Butterflies stirred in her rib cage, not knowing whether to take flight just yet.
“Wasn’t it true?”
“No,” she said, then, at his crestfallen look, “no, I mean it is, of course it’s true—I am falling in love with you, Kass. I don’t want to lose you.”
“I’m falling in love with you, too, Dani.”
She was crying happy tears now, everything fading into the background—the gala, the heist, the revelation about Silva—as Kass leaned in to kiss her.
Golden warmth swept throughout her entire body, knitting together the parts of her that had frayed over the past two weeks.
Her arms wound around Kass’s neck so she could draw him even closer, deepening their kiss, an aurora borealis of vibrant colors soaring across her mind, pink and violet and fluorite green.
And then, slicing into their northern lights like a knife of darkness—
“Miss Lionet. What. Are. You. Doing?”
Silva’s voice jerked them apart. Dani gawked at her like a deer in headlights, her thoughts scrambled. “Professor,” she started to say.
“Wait,” Kass said. “This isn’t the professor who—”
“I’m not interested in hearing from you,” Silva said harshly, a slash of scarlet in Dani’s inner eye.
Dani glanced at the stage and saw Dr. Rodriguez holding a potion bottle, telling the audience something about the plant-based origins of the formula.
“I was talking to Miss Lionet. And it is from her that I still require an answer: What on earth do you think you’re doing? ”
Kass opened his mouth to respond, indignation drawing his brows together, but Dani put a hand on his arm before he could talk.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’ve got this.”
“Do you?” Silva said, turning her icy gaze on Dani. “Because from where I’m sitting, it looks a lot like you’re jeopardizing everything we’ve worked toward over a boy.”
Dani’s fingers were trembling. She curled them into fists. “That’s interesting,” she said, forcing herself to speak calmly. “Because from where I’m sitting, it looks a lot like you lied to us about who you really are.”
Silva clearly hadn’t been expecting that.
The stony expression on her face wavered, and she blinked several times like she was trying to readjust herself.
She started to speak, then stopped, her gaze going fuzzy.
The woman touched one finger lightly to her ear, and Dani realized she was listening to the shell.
She dug hers out of her pocket and fitted it back into her ear.
… taking the whole thing, Wyatt was saying. Gonna get us out of here, stat.
Fine, Silva said. It was weird to hear the woman in her head when she was standing in front of Dani, blank-faced and motionless. Grab the laptop and get out. The presentation is about to wind down.
I’m grabbing a few plant clippings, too, Oliver said. Gods, I wish I had more time, there’s so much here.
I can’t keep the door jammed much longer, Katya said. Hurry, you two.
What was going on? Dani must have missed something significant when she’d been melting into Kass.
Porting now, Wyatt said, and Dani felt a muscle she hadn’t known was knotted unclench in her neck.
“What’s going on?” Kass asked. “Why are you guys just standing there?”
Shit. She still had a lot of explaining to do.
It would have to wait. Mr. Gianakos was making a bellowing pronouncement to the gala, and the three of them turned magnetically toward the dais in the center of the room.
Projected in the air behind him was a video from a first-person perspective looking up past a Roman-style temple at an unimaginably starry sky.
Dani could only assume this was a recording of someone’s dreams while taking the product, as Dr. Rodriguez had mentioned on the tour—carefully clipped, of course.
“And we’re proud to announce that this special product will be coming to market soon,” he said, nodding with pleasure as a responding wave of excitement rippled through the crowd.
“While our launch date remains tentative, we plan to manufacture it at scale starting in the spring—so you can expect this product on shelves within the year!”
Chills passed down Dani’s spine as she looked around at the beaming faces of the gala attendees, took in their uproarious cheers. They had no idea what they were clapping for.
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” Kass muttered. “I really can’t get through to him.”
“We’re not done speaking about this,” Silva said to Dani.
“No, we’re not,” she agreed. For now, though—they needed to see this to the end.
Miss Amari, Silva said over the shell. Be ready—any second now.
Dr. Rodriguez and Mr. Gianakos were still on stage, waving to the audience, thanking them for their attention and enthusiasm. The string quartet had started playing, a cue for them to wrap up their speech, but the crowd couldn’t seem to get enough of them.
Shit, Katya said. Shit!
What is it? Silva asked. Are they stuck inside?
No, we’re out, Oliver said. We got some clippings and Dr. Rodriguez’s laptop, but—
I think Dr. Rodriguez might have rigged it with some kind of summoning charm, Katya finished.
What does that mean? Dani asked.
Dr. Rodriguez and her dad were finally heading for the edge of the stage, but they were taking their time about it, luxuriating in the admiration of the audience.
It’s a security measure, Katya said. A charm that triggers when the object leaves a certain radius and calls it to the owner. I think we just made a really big mistake.
Can you disarm it? Silva asked.
Trying, Wyatt said. But it activated when we ported out, and I don’t think—
The connection over the shell crinkled with sudden static, and Silva and Dani looked at each other, united in their fear.
A collective gasp from the crowd turned their gazes back to the center of the room, where Dr. Rodriguez was stepping down from the dais—and just above her head, the air seemed to shimmer and then tear apart, a transdimensional hole slicing open in the middle of the gala, in front of everyone.
As the hole widened, Dani caught a glimpse of what looked like a voidy blackness pinpricked with stars and oscillating wavelengths of neon light.
Then, from the heart of the rift dropped three people, one after the other, landing in a rough-and-tumble pile of dark clothing on the floor at Dr. Rodriguez’s feet: Wyatt, Oliver, and Katya.
“Oh, fuck,” Dani said, and she knew now beyond a doubt that they were well and truly, royally screwed.