Reversed

xii. twelve

Sophie's stomach dropped. "No. No no no. No." She yanked at her bonds, cursing them for being so tight. "Get that away from me."

"Ah. Miss Foster," Mr. Forkle said. "I was wondering if you were awake."

Fitz clenched his jaw and spun on his heel to walk out the door.

Sophie glared at Mr. Forkle. "Why? You could've just read my mind without my permission again if you really wanted to know."

"Oh, Sophie." Livvy stepped forward, reaching out, but the look Sophie sent her way made her freeze.

Granite cleared his throat and held up the vial. "Sophie. The Neverseen did something to your mind. You should know—" he looked directly into her eyes—"that we would never, ever do anything to intentionally hurt you. The Neverseen planted false memories that never happened and messed with your emotions."

Sophie was getting pretty good at disgusted looks. "Save it," she growled, and scooted to the far back edge of the hard cot she was on. She took as much distance as her stupid bonds would allow between her and the Black Swan.

"It's to help you," Livvy said. "If you were yourself, you would want to come back. You would want us to give you the vial."

Sophie snorted. "Are you trying to brainwash me? I'm not stupid, and I'm kind of starting to get offended, because it seems like you think I am."

Granite held up his hands. "Look, all you have to do is take it, and if it works, then we'll have proved that there are false memories in your head."

She quirked an eyebrow. "Except for the fact that the stuff you're giving me could very well kill me, right?"

"If it doesn't work, we'll let you go."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I believe that about as much as I believed Ruy when he told me that the Neverseen use throwing stars to brush their teeth."

"So you believe us?" Livvy smirked.

Sophie gave her another look and rolled her eyes, which said perfectly, I'm surrounded by idiots, and you're one of them.

"Even if I did believe you, I'd already be dead." Sophie itched to rip the vial out of Granite's hands and smash it into a million tiny, tiny pieces. "You're trying to poison me. I know that it has limbium in it."

"It's only a small dose . . ." Livvy trailed off when she glanced at Granite and he wouldn't meet her eyes.

"It might have needed . . . ah, a little more than a small dose," he hesitantly said.

Sophie's throat burned as phantom memories of limbium crawled down it.

"I still have the formula for the human medicine antidote," Mr. Forkle assured him.

Livvy shifted uncomfortably. "Uh, Granite?" she asked. "Just how much limbium are we talking about?"

Granite wrung his hands. "Well. An ounce was needed when we fixed the holes in Sophie's mental defenses, and now we're trying to completely take away false memories, so..."

Livvy rubbed her temples. "More than an ounce."

Granite nodded. "Only two."

Sophie blanched. "Only two? Are you guys psychotic? One ounce nearly killed me last time, and now you're saying only two?"

"We understand the stakes, Miss Foster, but you have to see—"

But Sophie wasn't listening. She was clawing at her bonds, but she knew that she couldn't escape. Not right now. "No," she kept repeating. "No, no, no, no, no."

"We have the antidote!" Granite tried to calm her down.

"Yeah . . ." Livvy started. "You almost lost her when you used it last time. Twice. And now you're trying to double the dosage . . . I just don't see how it's safe." She wrapped her arms around herself, like she was ashamed to admit it. But she was a physician—she had sworn to help people, not harm them. And Sophie was thankful that that, at least, put Livvy on her side for the time being.

White spots of panic began to dance across Sophie's vision. "Don't come near me with that," she warned Granite. The sound that came out of her was too high to be her own voice. "You give me that and I'll kill you."

"We have no intention of hurting you." Granite took a step forward, as if to comfort her. but it did the exact opposite. She started thrashing on her cot. She hated that she was helpless against whatever he was going to do to her; she couldn't stop him from injecting the serum that would surely make Sophie die.

She had to get out.

Come on, she screamed at herself. You're the Moonlark. Shatter the cuffs. Move. Do something.

Now Granite was pushing the vial closer, closer. It was almost touching her. Sophie flinched away. "Take it," he urged.

"Would you rather us give it to you?" Livvy asked.

"No!" Sophie screamed. She writhed again.

"Sophie, you need to take it. We can save you. We can pull you back from the allergic reaction. Just let us prove that you have planted memories."

"For the last time, nobody planted memories in my stupid head!" Sophie could feel emotional energy building up inside her. It was about to spill over.

If they wanted to give her the medicine, they would have to force feed it to her dead body.

Suddenly, she was ready. Sophie harnessed every last scrap of the tattered energy inside of her and pushed outward, directing the force at the cuffs around her limbs. And they... 

Shattered.

Sophie bolted up, and before the Black Swan knew what was happening, she gathered all the scared emotions she felt and thrust them outward. The Black Swan members doubled over, and Sophie ran for the door. A quick brush of her fingertips under her cloak assured her that she still had her hidden daggers. She slipped them up her sleeves.

One of the first things Sophie had learned when she joined the Neverseen was how to move silently, like a ghost or a phantom. For all the sound she was making as she ran through the dark passageways of the cave hideout they were in, she could have ran through hell unnoticed.

She head shouts and footsteps behind her, but it didn't matter. She was already too far ahead.

She was free.