The Wicked We Have Done by Sarah Harian Read Free Book Online Page B

reaches out and runs a finger over the metal. “Why?”
    I shrug, a handful of possible answers racing through my head, though only one seems likely. “This place kills those deserving death. Maybe it isn’t sure about Jace yet.”
    “So if they knew Jace was morally tarnished, then the blade wouldn’t have dissolved?”
    I brush more sticky strands of hair from Jace’s forehead. Her eyes have fluttered shut. “I’m not sure.”
    “You think they’re literally watching our every move, the Compass Room engineers—gods—whatever they are?”
    “I think they have to be.”
    “So did
they
make Salem’s victim magically appear? Or Erity’s motherfucking deity?”
    “Is that what it was? A deity?”
    Casey pushes his fingers through his hair. “We were sentenced to the Compass Room on the same day. That’s the only reason why I even know. Thankfully, she outshined me on all of the news programs. An archaic coven had been reborn. They believed they could waken a deity with a ritual involving a brimstone fire that created black smoke.”
    “Then they’d have to sacrifice someone to the deity to gain power,” I conclude. “Right?”
    Casey nods.
    “So all we know so far are that there are two deaths, and both were somehow caused by a part of the criminal’s crime coming back to life.” But that’s all I can piece together. There are too many open ends in the Compass Room’s logic to try and mentally close any loopholes right now.
    I use one of my pairs of underwear to clean Jace’s shoulder after I’ve taken off her shirt. She whimpers and tries to jerk away, and Casey holds her down. “It’s okay,” he whispers to her, fondly—
fatherly
—and waits with his hands on either side of her neck for her to calm down. “What do you remember?”
    She takes a moment to gather herself. “Running through the woods.” Her face scrunches up as she gets ready to cry. I refocus on cleaning her up. “I was with both Erity and Valerie until we lost Valerie. Erity . . . She found that knife sticking out of a stump. She said it belonged to her, and that it must be a sign. I didn’t think to question her. I was still freaked out by the fire. She stabbed me when I wasn’t paying attention.”
    “Let me get this straight.” Casey massages his temples. “Erity found a knife out in the woods that was hers, and then stabbed you with it?”
    “She was sacrificing Jace’s soul to the deity we saw. She was trying to gain power, maybe to escape the Compass Room,” I say.
    “Great explanation, except for the fact that Erity’s deity doesn’t exist.”
    “Do you have a better explanation for what we saw?” I snap.
    Of course he doesn’t.
    “How did she die?” Jace asks.
    “Erity?”
    She nods.
    Casey and I exchange glances, and I return to my work.
    “Don’t worry about it right now. Relax and let Evalyn clean you up,” Casey says.
    I head to the lake and soak the underwear, wiping her clean for a final time. I rip off the least dingy part of her old T-shirt and use it to make a bandage. When I’m finished, I say, “All done. Try not to move your arm.”
    “I don’t know if I can move anything,” she croaks.
    “Jace, do you know if you saw anyone else make it out of the house?” I think of Tanner and wonder if I should even care about him.
    “I was with Valerie and Erity,” Jace says. “That’s all I know.”
    “Damn.” Casey gets up and walks toward the lake.
    Jace breaks. A sob racks her body and I hold her down to keep her from moving too much, shushing her. She bites her lip.
    “I wanted to die.” She sputters a cough. “For so long. I don’t want to anymore. I finally don’t want to and now it’s inevitable.”
    I squeeze her arms. “Don’t say that. You know not everyone is going to die in here.”
    She gives me a look that tells me she knows I’m only trying to make her feel better. The CR statistics are dooming for all of us. Some of the beta tests didn’t even harbor