Free Tempest’s Legacy by Nicole Peeler Page B

been hired to clean it, so they’ll be there all night. It’s up to you what we do, Jane.”
    Part of me wanted to crawl into the hotel bed and actlike none of this had ever happened. But I knew that wouldn’t work.
    “Let’s get this over with,” I said finally. “Just let me drop off my stuff and brush my teeth.”
    Anyan nodded and headed into his room, while Julian headed into ours. But Ryu lingered.
    “Jane,” he said. “Please.”
    I stopped and turned.
    “I’m sorry,” he said, although the begrudging way he said it made it sound less than apologetic.
    I sighed. “I’m sorry, too, Ryu.” I meant I was sorry it was over, sorry it had to end this way, sorry he didn’t get any of that…
    “Can’t we talk this through?” I knew what he really meant was could we share a room.
    “No, Ryu. And we need to go.” I met his eyes, letting the force of my resolve show through in my own black gaze.
    He didn’t look happy, but he acquiesced. We walked away from each other to our separate habitations.
    Julian was already using the bathroom, so I set my bag down on one of the beds, immediately stooping to dig out my toiletry bag without pausing to rest. If I rested, I’d think, and if I thought, I’d lose my nerve.
    I really didn’t want to see the place where my mother had died.

CHAPTER SEVEN

    I t was after two in the morning when we arrived outside the same sort of nondescript strip-mall clinic that Conleth had been kept in for so many years. This one, however, wasn’t burned. As Anyan had explained again in the car, by the time the halflings of Borealis had raided the lab, the staff had cleared out. They’d murdered all their test subjects, but hadn’t bothered to hide any of the evidence except for paperwork. Everything else was left intact. Whoever was in charge was taunting us.
    There was a battered old Ford Explorer in the parking lot, covered in bumper stickers and with a vanity plate that read “TRPTICH.” Anyan smiled when he saw the car, and I figured it had to be his friend Capitola’s. I had to blink a few times at the bumper stickers on her car, because they kept… shifting. Then I realized they were glamoured. At first, they’d said things like “Keep Illinois Clean,” but when I exerted a wee bit of force I could see messages like “Halflings Do It Wholeheartedly.” I couldn’t help butlaugh, despite the circumstances. It wasn’t that the stickers were very witty, but more that I was shocked to see anybody proud to be a halfling. My time at the Compound had made it very clear halflings weren’t making the Alfar A-list anytime soon.
    Anyan parked our rental car next to the Explorer before turning to me. “You ready, Jane? We don’t have to do this now,” he added when I paused. Ryu kept silent, as he had been since we left the hotel. Julian was always quiet, and tonight was no exception. I sometimes forgot he was there, to be honest.
    “No,” I answered Anyan, trying to add some steel to my voice. “Let’s get it over with.”
    We got out of the car and headed toward the door.
    Again, just as we’d found at Conleth’s lab, there was a small entryway that looked like any other clinic’s reception area. But through the doors, all pretense of a proper clinic had been dropped entirely. There were Perspex-looking cells with gurneys inside them. Horrifying-looking surgical tools were lying around willy-nilly alongside more serious medical equipment.
    And there was a lot of blood.
    Blood was everywhere: on the walls, on the ceilings. Newer-looking blood, older blood, and lots of… other substances. The place stank to high heaven, a horrifying combination of fear, sweat, blood, excrement, and death.
    Ryu put a protective hand on the small of my back, and I didn’t resent his touch. I took a series of short, shallow breaths through my mouth, concentrating on not getting sick.
    Suddenly, a tremendous groaning sound echoed through the space. Anyan, Ryu, and I backed up