An Hour of Need Read Free Page A

accomplices,” I said in a hushed tone. “And… ‘planned demonstration center’…” My voice trailed off.
    “Given that it’s a hotel,” my father said, “it sounds like they had been calling for a secret convention—I guess to demonstrate the antidote.” His eyes grew wider with optimism. “You realize what this would mean, don’t you, Grace?” he pressed. “It would mean that they must have had something very solid in order to demonstrate in the first place.”
    “Right,” I breathed, attempting to allow my father’s optimism to roll over me. “They must have.”
    “And we have addresses now. I’m going to leave right away to visit the first name on the list—Deirdre. And I checked the location of the hotel on the map already, it’s not far from Deirdre’s. I suspect that I can visit both within a matter of hours.”
    “Don’t say ‘I,’” I told my father, frowning. “I want to come with you this time. I can’t sit around here any longer or I will go mad.”
    “And I will come, too,” Orlando said.
    My father exchanged a glance with my mother. Reluctantly, the two of them nodded.
    “Of course I understand that,” my father said. “All right. You can come.”
    After that, every single member of my family waiting in the corridor volunteered to accompany us.
    “We should also take Ibrahim with us,” my father said. “A warlock might come in handy. And a jinni too. I could ask Horatio.”
    And so it was decided; we would leave within the hour.
    We’re going to pick up where Georgina left off. We’re going to take up her fight. The fight she lost her life for…

Grace
    M y parents returned to our penthouse to fetch me some things for the journey—several fresh sets of clothes and my toiletry bag. I also requested them to bring me a pen and my pink polka-dot notebook, in case there was something I needed to take note of. I had to be alert to every clue we might come across.
    After my parents returned and handed me some clothes—since I was still wearing a hospital gown—I changed before heading back to Orlando’s room to see if he was ready. He was locked in the bathroom when I arrived. I sank down on his bed and pulled out the notebook while I waited. My chest twinged as I paged past the notes I had taken on Lawrence while I was his caregiver.
    Orlando soon emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed in new clothes given to him, I assumed, by one of the hospital nurses. He wore extra-warm clothes, like those my mother had given me. She had even gone to the extent of providing me with thermal leggings, which I couldn’t help but appreciate. Even while inside the building, it felt like it was all I could do to retain my body heat. As much as I tried not to think about it, it felt like my temperature was dropping slightly every hour.
    Orlando seated himself next to me on the mattress, stealing a glance at my notebook. I shut it and stowed it in the mesh side pocket of my backpack. Some things felt too private for an onlooker to behold…
    We were just waiting now for the rest of our party to gather in the corridor, probably within the next five or ten minutes. Then we would all be ready to leave.
    I slanted a look at Orlando’s face. He was frowning. “I don’t understand why you people are so invested in finding the antidote. You people, here on your perfect island, away from the mess of the outside world… I guess what I’m asking is, why do you even bother?”
    One answer to this, of course, was that we did care about what went on in the world outside of The Shade. Our island, as isolated and protected as it was, was still part of Earth. But, since Orlando would find out soon enough anyway, and I wanted to be completely honest, I decided now was the moment to just tell him. “Those Bloodless who bit into me in the sewage tunnel… They infected me.”
    Orlando’s eyes bulged. “A-Are you serious?”
    I nodded painfully. “I’m already starting to show signs of turning…