“Hannah? Are you ready?” Eli stood on the edge of the porch next to Oskar, wings unfurled.
“I…think so, Eli. Do you really think this will work?” Hannah tightened her arms around Eli’s neck and wrapped her legs around her waist.
“Of course it will! You’ll see. Oskar? Are you ready?”
“Ready.”
“Sava?”
Sava smiled at her and leaned back in his chair.
“Jack?”
“Ready, Eli! Good luck, Hannah!” He hoped Hannah hadn’t noticed how nervous he was.
Sava leaped to his feet. “I told you they would stop at nothing!” His rage was palpable, hitting Oskar and Hannah like a sledge hammer. And by proxy, everyone in the room felt his wrath. “I knew I should have killed Adrian when I had the chance!”
“Adrian is expendable, Sava; a small cog in the machinery. I’m sure there are plenty more where he came from.” Jack knew there was no point in regretting what they could do nothing about now. It would only distract them, and possibly divide them.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Eli?” They sat together on her window seat, Eli in Oskar’s lap, holding tightly to his arms, making sure they were still holding her close.
“Because I didn’t remember – until yesterday.”
“Was it real? Or just a nightmare?”
“Real. It was real – I…I think.” She shuddered.
“But…how did you get away from him? It would have been impossible.”
“Yes.”
“Then how…”
“I could show you, Oskar, but…”
“No!” He kissed her on the cheek.
“Then I should tell you. You should know, so you’ll understand.”
“I don’t need to understand, Eli.”
Oskar and Eli dozed off quickly, but Hannah just couldn’t go to sleep. She could feel the subtle tingling of the Ejuice coursing through her veins, even though most of it had long ago been used by her weak neural network to direct the repair of any remnants of damage she had overlooked herself, just as Jack had predicted it would. But … what was it doing now? She knew she was as strong as she would ever be; consequently, it should be dormant now, waiting patiently for her to need it, but it wasn’t. It was being used to do…something. She could sense the activity. What could it be?
