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then.” He walked over to the cabinet and opened a door. Rina pulled her blanket over her head. Dedrick took out a glass vial and a syringe then filled it with a pale yellow liquid.
    “What is that?” River asked.
    Dedrick rolled his eyes. “Do you want to be alone with Maryah or not?”
    River stuck his hands in his pockets and lowered his head. Dedrick crouched beside Rina’s bed. She leaned away, but Dedrick grabbed her arm and stuck her with the needle.
    “There,” Dedrick said to River. “She’ll be out cold. Won’t hear a thing. Give it about two minutes to kick in, and then it will be just you and Maryah.”
    River eyed the blanket covering Rina. “Did you hurt her?”
    “Hurt her?” Dedrick cooed as if it was impossible for him to hurt anyone. “I simply put her down for a nap.”
    “Okay,” the gullible idiot muttered. “Thank you again.”
    I wanted my solid hands so I could grab a syringe and stab both of them.
    “Ten minutes,” Dedrick warned. “Use it wisely.”
    River nodded as Dedrick did his “Lights Out” ritual of blowing out the candle. I was hoping when the darkness lifted, River wouldn’t be there, but no such luck. I took some comfort in the fact that my body wasn’t in the room with him. He couldn’t hurt me again.
    “I’m so sorry.” River rushed over to me. “You have no idea how sorry I am for all of this.”
    “Ha! You tried to kill me!” It was pointless to respond since he couldn’t hear me, but I couldn’t help it.
    “I have no idea how he did this to you, but—” He glanced sideways at the heap of blanket where Rina was passed out then lowered his voice. “I’d set you free if I knew how.”
    That piqued my interest. Would River really help me get out of here if he could? I hated thinking River, of all people, might be my only way out of this mess, but it wasn’t like I had a lot of other options.
    “I’m sure you don’t believe me, or trust me, and I don’t blame you, but I swear to you, Maryah, I regret whatever happened at Montezuma Well. I didn’t even know what I was doing.” He shook his head. His thoughts seemed far away. “I can’t remember anything about that night, and when I snapped out of it at the police station and they kept asking me why I tried to kill you, I lost it. I couldn’t believe what I’d done. You’d already been through so much, losing your parents and brother, and then I tried to kill you? I’ve been so messed up over it. I feel like I don’t even know myself anymore.”
    Partly flabbergasted, I wanted to scream at him and call him a liar, but I couldn’t do anything except watch him. I analyzed his body language. His hands kept rising limply at his sides. His bloodshot eyes made him look so stressed and upset. It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment, but had Dedrick mind-controlled River the same way he did with Gregory and the other Nefariouns?
    “No,” I muttered, replaying the details of the night River tried to kill me. “You didn’t have snake eyes. You knew what you were doing.”
    “I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore. The cops made me take a bunch of psychological tests. They diagnosed me with some mental illness.” He glanced away, but not before I saw the shame in his eyes. “I don’t understand any of it. I didn’t know my uncle was like this.”
    If only he could have heard me. I would have asked him where he was before they came into this room. Were we in a basement of some kind? A castle? But Dedrick would have never left us alone if River and I were able to effectively communicate.
    “I’m locked up too,” River said. “If it makes you feel any better.”
    “What?” Dedrick was keeping his own nephew locked up too?
    River reached out to me, but I didn’t move this time.
    “Can you feel that?” His fingers swiped through my glowing arm. He stared at me, probably waiting for me to nod or shake my head, but I only scowled at him. I couldn’t feel him, but I still