Sawyer shakes his head at Gabe and takes a step towards him in an angry sort of motion, like he’s about to get in his face to argue with him a whole lot more. It's not a threat, exactly, but my bond feels as though it is, and I find Brutus coming down from behind my ear in response to my own reaction to it.
He isn’t the docile puppy that everybody is used to seeing though.
His head reaches my chest as he takes full form, and his ears prick all the way up as his jaws open and his teeth are revealed in a snarl. He looks like the terrifying hellhound that they’re all so sure my sweet boy is, but all I can see is a protective pup who would do anything for me.
I’ve never loved him more than I do at this moment.
“Oh my God, he's sitting here listening to us all figure it out!” Sawyer snaps as he turns on his heel and stalks back around the table to his laptop.
“Sawyer, you need to listen to Oli.”
Everybody freezes and turns towards the cell to where Sage has finally gotten out of her bed, standing at the glass with her hands pressed against it and her eyes on her brother. She still looks as though she has spent the last week sobbing herself to insanity, but there's a determined look on her face.
“She's not just saying this because he's her Bond. She's always been the first person to call him out on his bullshit, and you know it. We've spoken about it before! You said that you couldn't believe that she didn't just fall into the Bond haze like everybody else does. If she says that there's no way that he would have done it, then there's no way he would have done it. And to be perfectly honest, I don't think it's him either.”
Felix calls out from his own cell, “It would have to be a Neuro. The sort of power to get into someone's mind, wipe any recollection of what they're doing, and force them to take someone's life… that’s a Neuro Gift, and it is an incredibly powerful one, at that.”
I turn and look at Atlas, who is frowning now. “Do you know of any Neuros in the Resistance whose eyes turn black?”
He lets out a deep sigh and shakes his head. “The strongest Neuro that I know of in the Resistance is Silas Davies, and his eyes turn white, just like everyone else. I don’t know anyone else with the voids. I’d heard rumors that the Dravens had void eyes, everyone has, but I didn't really believe it until I saw it myself. I thought it was a bogeyman story told to keep Resistance kids from going to Draven. Even after I saw the footage of you in the camps, I thought you were the only one and that it had something to do with being a Render.”
I let out a slow breath of my own and nod. “Is there anything else that anyone needs to say that probably shouldn't be heard by North or Gryphon before I call them in? Because as far as I'm concerned, this is the proof we need to get Sage out of here.”
Kieran presses one of his fists against the glass and huffs in frustration. “They're not going to let her out. This is proof that she didn't do it herself, which we already knew. North and Gryphon have already agreed that there's no way that she did it, but if someone's already gotten into her brain before, there's a chance they'll do it again. As much as I need her out of here, I don't want to run the risk of her killing someone else. Beyond the fact that an innocent life would be taken, Sage can't have any more blood on her hands like this.”
My eyes flick back to her and I see her staring down at her feet, swallowing roughly as she tries to pull herself together.
All I see there is strength.
“She can handle a lot more than you think she can.”
She glances up at me and I nod back at her. “You've survived this, you can survive being out of here as well. So long as we keep someone with you at all times, someone who knows what is going on and can keep an eye on you, then you should be let out of here.”
Kieran shakes his head. “It's not that easy, Fallows—”
I cut him off. “If it is a Neuro that is outside of the Sanctuary, and they managed to get to Sage, then they could get to any of us as well. If it's a Neuro that's inside the Sanctuary and has managed to get past Gryphon’s security checks and lie detector… again, they could do this to anybody. On the off chance it is someone that Sage made contact with before we came to the Sanctuary… Well, that's one out of three options. I'm willing to take the risk as long as there are precautions.”
Gabe stares at me for a second and then nods. “It's hard to argue with that kind of logic. She's right though, if someone is strong enough to get through the Shields to get into Sage’s brain and commit that sort of act, then we have a lot bigger problems on our hands than worrying about keeping Sage in a cell or not.”