Of Snow and Roses Read online

  He thought he was in control, but Doctor Alberich better think again.

  The doctor may have been able to resist Neve’s influence, but he couldn’t read her mind. Neve pretended to be unconscious, persuading Angelica or Calum or whoever was on duty to drain her I.V. bag in the sink periodically, so it looked like she was getting the medication. They brought her food, removed her restraints so she could relieve herself, and told the doctor the catheter was operating well.

  All the while, Neve grew stronger.

  It had been almost twenty-four hours, judging by the changing light through the windows, when the three of them came into her room, talking quietly.

  “－should wear off soon. The last dose was four hours ago, correct?” Doctor Alberich asked.

  “Yes, Doctor,” Angelica replied.

  “All right, it should be the same as last time,” he said. “So look a little less threatening, Calum, if you please.”

  He huffed in exasperation. “I’m so tired of this.”

  “We all are,” Doctor Alberich replied, “but we need her. She’s the key to everything.”

  Neve fought hard not to react to that.

  “But aren’t we close enough?” Calum asked. “The last one－”

  “No,” the doctor snapped. “It’s not ready. Not yet. We need to test it a few more times with the others first.”

  Test it? What in the world were they talking about?

  Doctor Alberich let out a heavy breath. “Look, you both have been working very hard. Don’t think I don’t appreciate it. It’s going to be soon. I promise. I’m very close to a breakthrough and then we’ll all have everything we want. All right?”

  There was no response, but Neve could only assume they agreed. She figured now was as good a time as any for the drugs she hadn’t taken to wear off, so she shifted a little in the bed.

  “Here she comes,” Alberich said.

  Neve opened her eyes, blinking a few times as if blinded by the overhead lights.

  “It’s all right, take your time,” the doctor said. “We’re all here to help you.”

  The words sparked a memory, and Neve realized he’d said the same thing the last time she woke up in Blackbriar with amnesia.

  Doctor Alberich moved to the head of the bed and bent slightly over her, a gentle smile on his face.

  “Do you know where you are?” he asked.

  And she realized what the drugs were . . . what they were supposed to do.

  “Do you know who you are?” Doctor Alberich asked.

  Neve knew then what she had to say.

  “Uh, Neve.” She licked her lips, her brow wrinkled in confusion. “My name is Neve. But . . . where am I?”

  Talk about déjà vu all over again.

  Neve wasn’t sure she could pull it off, but Doctor Alberich seemed to believe that she’d lost her memory again. He played the patient healer, explaining her condition to her with a pitying smile . . . showing her the pictures of the girl in the medical file. He answered the same questions Neve had asked the first time she awoke, ordered Calum to remove the restraints with the same compassionate air.

  Had he been so obviously lying the first time? Neve could now see the slight tightness at the corner of his mouth, the distaste in his fathomless eyes.

  It was his overconfidence, she decided, that worked in her favor. He was so sure that his plan had worked that it never even occurred to him that it might not have. Neve wondered what was in the syringes that she’d convinced Angelica to empty into the toilet. Was there a drug that could cause amnesia?

  Evidently so, and it looked like they were using it at Blackbriar on a regular basis.

  Neve did the best she could to look lost and confused . . . to pretend not to recognize the common room or the yard, or the patients and staff walking the halls. Nobody spoke to her, she noticed, wondering if they’d all forgotten her as well, or if the doctor had some other technique for keeping Neve isolated.

  She wondered where Torbin was. She hadn’t seen him during the impromptu tour of Blackbriar and tried to be subtle while the doctor showed her the courtyard. She longed to search the shadows of the forest, though . . . to find him leaning against a tree, his arms crossed and the ever-present frown on his face.

  He wasn’t at group－nor was Tala－and Neve played innocent again as young Alice shyly introduced herself, followed by Nancy, Peter, and Melissa. Adam was gone, as well, though of course Neve couldn’t ask about him. She sat silently listening as the others shared their thoughts and challenges and tried to hide the way her mind whirled with thoughts.

  “Neve, would you like to share?” Doctor Alberich asked, and she pasted on a shy smile.

  “Uh, I’m Neve,” she said, then shook her head. “You probably know that. Do they know that?” she asked the doctor before waving a hand in dismissal. “Never mind. Anyway. I have amnesia and I guess delusions? So I, uh . . . “ She shrugged. “I only want to get better.”

  The group clapped halfheartedly, and Doctor Alberich said, “That’s very good, Neve. Thank you.”

  It was all she could do to keep from rolling her eyes.

  But he moved on to someone else, and Neve entertained herself by seeing how far she could push Angelica. She couldn’t practice her newfound abilities on the patients－that felt wrong－and Doctor Alberich was immune. Worse yet, he seemed to have been aware of what she was trying to do, like he could feel her poking around in his mind.

  Calum and Angelica, however, were fair game. And pretty easy, to be perfectly honest.

  Angelica sat on a folding chair near the door, behind Doctor Alberich, so he couldn’t see what she was doing. Neve made it simple at first.

  Scratch your nose.

  Of course, it was tough to tell if she scratched it because Neve told her to, or because it itched. So Neve opted for something a little more unusual, sending a mental message for Angelica to cross and uncross her legs.

  Several times.

  If anyone had been paying attention, they might have found it odd that Angelica kept crossing and uncrossing her legs, but Neve smiled to herself, pleased with her progress.

  But these were all parlor tricks, nothing that could help them in their endeavor to get the patients out and bring Blackbriar down. Could she get someone to buzz them through a locked security door? Turn off the cameras? Drive them out the gate?

  Take one of those syringes and plunge it right into Doctor Alberich’s neck?

  She shuddered at the thought. Even though the man was definitely up to no good, Neve didn’t know if she had it in her to go eye-for-an-eye at him. Then, she thought of Tala in that hospital bed . . . of Lily, shadow-eyed and haunted, and thought maybe, just maybe, she could.

  Torbin was worried, and it was not an emotion he was accustomed to.

  Anger? Yes.

  Bitterness? Frustration? Absolutely.

  He operated lately on a mix of resentment and pure, black fury. But worry? No, that was something new. Because worry came from helplessness, and Torbin wasn’t used to being helpless.

  It was not part of his nature. Until recently.

  He hadn’t seen Neve since she’d told him she planned to bring everyone with them when they left Blackbriar. He thought it was ridiculous, of course. The smart plan was to simply leave and send help when they could.

  Well, maybe kill Alberich on the way out. That would make it both smart and satisfying.

  Still, it shouldn’t have surprised him that Neve would want to save the others. It was a part of her nature, after all. But none of that mattered now because Neve was locked away in her room. Alberich had got wind of Neve’s escape talk, and she’d been taken.

  Every fiber of Torbin’s being screamed to get to her—to rip the place apart until he did. But he couldn’t, of course.

  He was helpless. Powerless.

  And thus, worried.

  He stood in the shadow of a pine tree on the edge of the forest, the scent of the woods the only thing that kept him ground
ed. Around him, the others played games and exercised, but they gave him a wide berth. His black mood emanated off him like a shield, and they knew better than to get too close.

  Torbin’s teeth ground together when Alberich came out of the french doors. He walked casually, smiling as if he hadn’t a care in the world, chatting and laughing and patting people on the back. It was all a show, of course.

  Torbin wanted to rip his head off.

  Alberich finally met his gaze, his lips twisting in a self-satisfied smirk as he drew nearer. He had to tip his head up to look at Torbin, but it didn’t seem to bother him much that he was so much shorter. He simply propped his hands on his hips and shook his head slightly.

  “Your little friend has been causing trouble,” he said. “But I’m sure you’ll be happy to know I put a stop to that.”

  Torbin tensed the muscles in his arms until they were tight and throbbing.

  Alberich huffed out a humorless laugh. “She actually thought she could organize a little uprising, you know? A coup d’état? Did you have anything to do with that?”

  Torbin couldn’t respond, of course, other than to clench his jaw even tighter, hate burning in his eyes.

  “No, of course not,” Alberich said thoughtfully. “Not that it matters. She doesn’t remember any of it now anyway. And she won’t cause any more trouble. You won’t either, will you.” He deepened his voice on the last words, the sound vibrating through Torbin’s body.

  He shuddered, and his head dropped forward in defeat.

  “Good.”

  At that moment, Torbin caught a flash of movement by the french doors and he drew a relieved breath when Neve walked out.

  Alberich glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “Ah, yes, there’s my prize patient,” he said. “I should go make sure she has everything she needs.” He shot a conniving grin at Torbin. “Wouldn’t want her to get lonely.”

  Torbin seethed.

  “You’d like to wrap those big hands around my neck, wouldn’t you?” he murmured. “Squeeze until I’m gasping, begging you for mercy?”

  He would. He really would.

  “Not going to happen,” Alberich said, then laughed right in his face. “Sometimes it’s brain over brawn, isn’t it?” He turned and walked away, leaving Torbin vibrating with anger.

  Someday, he would kill him. Torbin didn’t know how or when, but it was going to happen.

  The bear came to Neve that night, and this time, she didn’t hesitate to sneak out of her room and make her way outside. The emergency exit door was cracked this time, and she wondered if it had been her own desire that opened it, or if one of the staff had been simply lazy.

  She didn’t really care, though. It had been an exhausting day pretending to not remember anything, and there was something magical . . . mystical about seeing the bear in the moonlight that fed something deep inside her. Neve wanted to be outside, away from the linoleum and scratchy hospital sheets, the scent of disinfectant and the ever-present worry about what she was going to do.

  She needed a break.

  It waited for her again, patiently sitting outside her window as she approached. Then, to her surprise, it got up and walked toward the forest. She frowned, disappointed, but then it looked back at her as if to ask what was taking her so long.

  “You want me to follow you?” she whispered.

  Right. She was talking to a wild animal. Perfectly normal.

  The bear stared at her until she took a few steps after him, then continued forward. It waited at the edge of the trees until she caught up, then led her into the darkness.

  The narrow path wound through the trees; pebbles scattered along the edges of the pine needle-carpeted walkway. Moonlight trickled through the canopy overhead, milky streams winding between the interconnected boughs and splashing weakly on the damp ground. Sweet scents of dirt and rotting leaves, freshly rain-spattered and deep with secrets wafted through the air, mingling with the cool evening breeze. In the distance, the quiet trickle of a stream broke the silence, a musical tinkle harmonizing with the chirp of crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl.

  A sharp incline led to a break in the trees, and before Neve lay a small clearing－maybe fifteen feet across－thick with wildflowers now curled in sleep and bordered on all sides by heavy brush. The moon shone more brightly here, casting the area in a soft glow, and the dissipating clouds allowed clusters of stars to appear in the indigo sky like a glittering blanket draped overhead.

  “Wow,” she murmured as the bear lumbered to the center of the meadow and lay down, watching her.

  She walked slowly toward him, then caught a glimpse of something through the brush on the opposite side of the meadow. Curious, she crossed to it and peered through the bracken. A brick wall stood, almost obscured by the vegetation, so tall she couldn’t make out the top in the darkness. It extended as far as she could see in both directions.

  “I guess Torbin was right,” she murmured, then turned back to the bear.

  “You realize this is weird, don’t you?” she asked it. “You and me? We’re different species. Not that I’m a bigot or anything, but . . . it’s weird.”

  The bear huffed and scrubbed a paw over its nose.

  “Okay, then,” she said, walking toward him. “As long as we’re clear on that.”

  It didn’t move as she approached, watched as she knelt about a foot away. “It is pretty cool, though,” she admitted, before reaching out a hand tentatively. “I’m going to touch you now,” she murmured. “So, if you’d rather I didn’t, just pull away. Don’t eat my hand, okay?”

  The bear didn’t pull away or bite her hand, and Neve smiled when her fingers sank into the thick fur. It was coarse, but softer than she’d anticipated, and when she scratched the bear behind the ears, its tongue lolled out and it almost looked like it was smiling.

  “You like that, do you?” she asked, reaching up with the other hand to double-scratch. “Feels good?”

  The bear rolled over onto its back, and Neve laughed, surprised. “Really? Belly rubs?”

  She rubbed his soft chest, scratching lightly, and the bear let out an appreciative grunt. At least Neve thought it was appreciative. He swiveled his head over to give her a toothy, upside down, bear-grin, so she figured he must have enjoyed it.

  It was bizarre, but what in her life wasn’t lately? She’d found out she had magical powers, that her doctor was doing weird experiments and giving people amnesia somehow . . . what was a belly-rub-loving bear added to the mix?

  Somehow, over the course of the next hour, she ended up cuddling with the huge beast, resting her head on his massive shoulder as she looked up at the stars. He was incredibly warm, and actually, a good listener.

  “－so I’ve had to pretend I have amnesia,” she told him, summing up the events of the past few days. “And he seems to believe it, but now I’m kind of back to square one, you know? I still have no idea how to convince the others we have to escape, and Torbin . . .” She frowned to herself.

  The bear huffed as if to asking her to continue.

  “Oh, sorry,” she said, reaching over her shoulder to scratch his neck. “I just－I saw him talking to Doctor Alberich today, and it was weird. It was like there was definitely some history there or something. I don’t know. I wanted to talk to him, but he practically ran away from me.”

  The bear was still, and Neve wondered if he had fallen asleep.

  “I’m probably being paranoid,” she admitted quietly, then decided to change the subject. “Did I tell you I can actually make people do things now? Not only conceal myself from them, but make them do stuff. I don’t know. It’s pretty cool, I guess. Could be useful if I can get a handle on it. And check this out.” She held out her hands and concentrated, the sparks coming almost instantaneously now. The bear seemed unimpressed, but Neve didn’t take it personally.

  “I can do lightning, too. At least, I think I can,” she said. “I did once. Kind of.” She shrugged and sat up, patting the bear’s
side. “I have a feeling there’s more to it, but I can’t quite figure it out yet. I’ve tried to move things, but not much luck with that. Other than opening doors in the middle of the night, that is. If that’s even me.” She shot the bear a sideways look. “Is it you?” When there was no response, she shrugged.

  “Oh well, I’ll keep trying, I guess.”

  The bear rolled over, and she smiled. “More belly rubs? You’re insatiable.” She absently scratched at the bear’s chest.

  “It’s probably nothing, right? Torbin and Doctor Alberich?” She smoothed his thick fur, then started to scratch again. “I just worry that the doctor has done something to him. Maybe he’s forgotten everything. Maybe he’s . . . what’s this?”

  Her fingers brushed against a rough patch of skin in the center of the bear’s chest and she leaned closer, pressing the hair flat so she could see it better in the moonlight. “Is that a brand?” she asked.

  The bear didn’t move a muscle.

  She studied the brand a little closer. It wasn’t big－maybe a couple inches long, oval in shape, with a pattern of alternating up and down triangles creating a border around the edge.

  “That’s odd,” she murmured. “Who would brand a bear?” She shot him a look. “And who would you allow to brand you?”

  He simply stared at her, silent.

  She pressed a palm over the brand, then turned to lie back down against him. “I’m sorry that happened to you,” she said. “I’m sure it had to hurt.”

  After a few moments, she yawned, then held up her hand again, studying the sparks along her fingertips. “I know I have to be careful,” she told him. “I can’t let them know what I’m up to. But I think this is the key. Once I’m strong enough, it won’t be about escape. It’ll be about taking this place down.

  “We need to get out and tell people－the police, the FBI, I don’t know. Someone. They need to know what’s happening here.” She clenched her hand into a fist, extinguishing the sparks. “We need to find proof and take it to the authorities. That’s the only way we can really save everyone.”