Page 206 of Somno Slave

“Like I’m him.”

His jaw moves once.

The room hums loudly but my pulse goes harder. “Let me out. I’m not supposed to be here.”

Peter inhales slowly through his nose like he is steadying himself before approaching a wounded animal. “You suffered a psychiatric event during Harris’s procedure—”

“Stop.” My voice breaks sharply. “No, I—”

The restraints cut into my wrists.

“Let me go, Peter. Please.” My voice cracks badly on the last word. “Just let me out. I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I didn’t mean to kill Harris,” I say suddenly. The words spill out too quickly once they start. “It was an accident. I swear to God, Peter, I didn’t mean to hurt him. I just—I thought...” My throat closes hard around the memory of the injection. “I thought you were going to kill him.”

Peter stays silent.

“I know what it looks like.” Tears burn hot behind my eyes now. “But I didn’t want Harris dead. I didn’t. You know me.”

“I know,” he says quietly.

Relief nearly caves my chest in. For one pathetic second, I think he believes me. Think maybe this can still be fixed if I explain it properly enough, if I can just make him understand that I’m innocent.

He inhales slowly. “And the others?”

My breathing stops. The room stills around me.

“What?”

He leans forward over the monitors. “The others, Rheda.”

“What others?”

“The other people you killed.” He says it slowly like he can force the meaning through my mind.

“I didn’t kill anyone—” my chest seizes. “Peter, this is ridiculous. Let me out!”

He watches me carefully now, like he’s deciding how much truth I can survive. “The wounds matched in all of them.”

My stomach tightens.

“All four victims had penetration trauma directly through the sternum.” His eyes stay fixed on mine. “The pathologist said whoever did it knew exactly how much pressure it took to split cartilage without shattering bone.”

I gag.

Peter swallows once. “You violated their hearts, Rheda.”

My pulse stops.

“Why?”

“Peter, I didn’t—”

His voice turns low, raw. “Why would you kill a doctor?”

“Peter—”

His gaze sharpens. “A librarian,”