Chapter 16 · Others Like Me

"Get your hands off him right now or I drop you where you stand!"

Mira's pistol was already on Reid's temple before his fingers left Leo's chest. Cold metal. Hard press. Her other hand locked around his wrist like a cuff.

"I'm stabilizing him," Reid said. "You shoot me, he dies in the next ten seconds. Your call."

"You call that stabilizing?" she snapped. "His heart monitor just flatlined, Reid!"

The ward stank of antiseptic and burnt plastic. Three rows of cots. Kids. Too many kids. All hooked up, all too still. Leo was seizing under Reid's palms, back arching off the thin mattress, teeth clenched so hard Reid could hear them grind.

And the Current was pouring out of Reid wrong.

It wasn't supposed to do that. Back on the warfields it was clean. Pull, hold, release. Here it was like grabbing a live wire with wet hands.

"Leo, hey, kid, look at me," Reid said, low and fast. "Breathe with me. Come on. In. Out. You got this."

Leo couldn't hear him. His eyes rolled back. The blue-white light crawling up Reid's forearms pulsed faster, brighter, hungry.

Mira shoved her gun harder against his head. "Let go.