The Dream Thief by Kari Kilgore (books for 10th graders txt) 📕

her trail had said one too many things to Karl, if it hadn't been those same detectives.

This man knew more about her than almost anyone alive. She had to figure out how bad the damage was.

"Things will go a lot easier for both of us," he said, "if you tell me what you've done. I don't think you can, though. Do you know what killed the baby? My nephew?"

"No," she whispered.

"I spoke to the doctor yesterday," Karl said. "Turns out his brain stopped developing several weeks ago. Remarkably close to the night we met, don't you think?"

"If that was me, sorry doesn't even come close." Loretta struggled to keep the idea from taking root in her mind. "Sometimes those things just happen with babies."

"Sorry isn't going to make a damned bit of difference," Karl said. "Even if you did actually mean it. I'm afraid I've lost my ability to believe in coincidence since I got to know you. There was another baby, a baby monster, born the same night you were outside my sister's house. That baby burned itself, over and over again. Any time it opened its eyes. The second my nephew died, that baby burned itself to death. It died screaming, Loretta."

"If I..." Loretta swallowed, fighting her rising gorge. "I'd never do anything like that on purpose. You have to know that."

"I don't believe you," he said. "I told you your Building was driving people insane, remember? Sending them out here for a permanent stay. Turns out one of the newest residents of this asylum lived only a few blocks away from my parents. That's how I knew where to find you the other night. Still going to tell me you haven't been Building again? That you'd never hurt anyone on purpose?"

"No, Karl, I'm not. I have been Building." Loretta finally knew the truth, and the fear of telling it, might be a smaller risk than losing him. Or the risk of him turning on her, turning her in. "Gemma's been making something to keep me from having to do that so much, something we can use here. I won't have to go out there anymore."

Karl shook his head slowly. "Forget it. I haven't been completely honest with you, either. Sorry about that. The people we work with, one at a time? Those people do stay calmer, sure. But the monsters and the other patients, not so much. What you do to them bleeds through, just like out in Waldron's Gate. You sweep everyone up in your path, and you don't give a damn who you hurt. I wasn't going to let it go on much longer."

The anger she'd been waiting for finally pushed the fear and sadness to the side.

"What, once I'd finished training you?" she nearly shouted. "Is that it?"

"Sure, if that's what it takes to bring all of this to an end. Let's go with that. Yes, Loretta. I was using you."

Cold deeper than the tunnel flooded up from her belly, taking over her whole body in an instant.

At least it soothed her shattered heart.

"Bring it to an end?" she said. "You should have said so first thing. I wouldn't have wasted so much of your time." She walked forward, meaning to push past him into the house. "I'll get my things, collect Gemma, and we'll leave you in peace."

Karl held one arm across the door.

"No. You're not taking her anywhere. She probably needs a doctor, and she needs rest more than anything. You can go." He took a deep breath. "You should go, but she's staying."

"Get out of my way, Karl. I can't go anywhere until I get back to the tunnel. And I will be taking my grandmother." Loretta couldn't find her anger in the cold. She'd have to do the best she could from memory. "Move, or I'll move you myself."

"Be my guest. You'll have to kill me."

Loretta drew her knife, horrified at how badly her hand was shaking. Her voice was worse.

"At least tell me who did this, Karl. Who turned you against me?"

He laughed. The hollow, desolate sound nearly stopped Loretta's heart.

"That's easy," Karl said. "On top of everything else, on the same day my nephew died, my youngest sister found that thing you sold to my mother behind my back. My twelve-year-old sister. You turned me against you, Loretta. Take your Dragon, your weapons, whatever you need. Just go."

He stepped back into the house, leaving her way clear. Loretta managed to get her knife back into the sheath.

She hoped he would look away or maybe stare at the floor. Karl's icy gaze never wavered as he watched her walk past.

She glanced into the workroom again, but the larger Dragon was still in several pieces. No one besides Gemma would be able to finish it. It would have to wait for another day.

She picked up her pack and tripod, then turned back. Karl was still watching her.

"Karl, I... I thought we... Leaving wasn't what I expected between us."

He shrugged.

"Yeah, me neither. And yet here we are."

She nodded and closed her eyes for a few beats of her heart.

"Goodbye, Karl."

Chapter 58

Loretta made it as far as back into the tunnel. When her boots caught on the uneven bricks, she stopped with one hand on the rough wall. Her chest felt full of water, heavy and hot, and the burning pressure rose into her throat.

She swallowed a few times, trying to stop everything from bursting out of her too fast to survive, or stop. She held her breath, but that only let her gasp turn into a moan.

"No, I will not give in to this," she whispered, walking a few steps. "Not over anyone. Not over any man. Not over Karl..."

His name was too much, and Loretta leaned against the wall with her face in her hands. She hadn't cried like this for years, not since she'd finally gotten away from the evil people who raised her.

She'd never thought anything would push the fear of seeing them again aside, make