We’d been living in Goldnesse for three years when the rumors started. Stories of cyborgs that had survived, of artilects who’d been created after all. People laughed at these rumors, said they were tales to frighten children, but after that, everyone who came to town was treated with more suspicion, looked at more closely. But I wondered, if their humanness was threatening enough to cause a war in the first place, how would we even be able to tell?

—Love, Grace

My hair was tucked too tightly under my head, making my scalp burn. I tried to sit up, but I was in the air, my legs swinging uselessly.

Ella. If she was dead, how could I hear her? Where was she? She wasn’t at the compound. What had she found out about the silver rain? That it was man-made? It wouldn’t have surprised me. I’d ask Oliver later if he knew anything. If it was bad, he’d have told me by now.

Tor’s hair mingled with mine on his shoulder, silvered by his breath in the cold air.

“What are you doing?” someone asked with my voice. Me.

His grip tightened. “I’m taking you home. What were you doing out here?”

“You’re hurting my head. And I’m perfectly capable of walking. Put me down. Why are you carrying me, anyway?”

“Pax said you called out for him, that you might be in trouble. I came looking for you and found you passed out by an old log. I assume from the crosses and burnt earth that was where—”

“Yes. And I’m fine. I told Pax I was fine. Now please, put me down.”

Fane must’ve knocked me out. Motherf—

Tor kept walking, his long strides eating up the ground. “Faster this way,” he muttered.

“You just want to make sure I can’t run away. Or slap you.”

“Slap me for what? I— Oh, Christ. How did you—?”

“How do you think?”

“I—”

“It’s fine,” I said stiffly.

“It was a mistake.”

“It went pretty far for a mistake.”

“Did you— No, you know what? I don’t want to know.”

My anger suddenly fell apart. “No, I’m sorry. I know what you were feeling. I get all the way in here, remember?” I gently tapped his temple.

“I remember. Still, it wasn’t exactly the way I wanted you to find out.”

“So are you a couple, then? Did you go back?”

“No. I— I mean, she’s great. She’s beautiful, she’s strong, she’s—”

“Terrifying?”

He stifled a laugh. “She’s not that bad. I do like her. I just…wish it hadn’t happened that way. I tried. I thought— I can’t live like this, with you.”

“I’m not the problem,” I reminded him.

“Ailith, we’re both the problem. What we are is the problem. You made your choices, I made mine. I can’t be with you if I don’t know that what I feel for you is genuine. And I also can’t be with someone who’d choose their power over my freedom.” He shifted my weight in his hands. “I thought that if I tried to move on, something would change. That I would feel different.”

“And do you?”

“No. Except now I have to find a way not to be an asshole to Kalbir.”

“So we’re not together?”

“We are not together.”

“I cut the tether. Well, Oliver did.”

“What tether? What do you mean? I know you can still control me.”

“The one that keeps you from leaving. I can still control you, but I have to be near you. You can leave now, if you want. You have your freedom back.”

He didn’t reply, but his arms tightened around me.

I rested my head on his shoulder, and for a long time, we didn’t speak. He smelled of wood smoke and old blood, and I closed my eyes, pretending we were back in the woods, long before we’d ever come to the compound.

“So, are you going to tell me what you were doing?”

Fane. The necklace. “I will see you again soon.”

“Shit! Where is it? Put me down. I have to find it!”

Tor dropped me onto my feet. “Where’s what? What are you talking about?”

“The necklace. I have to find the necklace.”

“The one around your neck?”

I snatched at my throat. There, so delicate I could barely feel it, was the chain.

“What the hell is that?”

“Remember when I thought someone was following us?” I told him everything. My father. Fane. My suspicions about Mil and Lexa. It felt so long since we’d properly spoken that I just kept talking, wringing out every idea I’d had about anything in the last week. We stood outside the copse of trees leading to the compound.

“And they want to have their group meet with ours? A bunch of Cosmists? And they’re not trying to kill us? And who is this Fane guy? Can you trust him?”

“I think so.” To my surprise, a warmth twined up my neck and bloomed in my face, fortunately invisible to Tor in the shadow of the trees.

“Well, I think it sounds fucking insane.”

“It must be a Wednesday, then.” I put my hand on his arm “Seriously, Tor, what about our lives isn’t?”

He conceded with a shrug. “True. Okay. Are you ready to go in? Or should we just run away from here, right now. Go back to our cabin and forget the rest of the world exists and the end of the world never happened?”

“Can we do that?”

“No,” he said, cupping my chin and running his thumb over my cheekbone. “But every day I wish we could.”

The thicket ended at the entryway of what must’ve been an old mine shaft. Rubble and debris had been placed in meticulous chaos, perfectly staged to draw an observer’s eye to a wide passageway at the back. The mining tunnel carried on, for how far I had no idea, but the overall effect neatly disguised the barely-visible alcove leading to our front door. We slipped though and, after a short, tunneled corridor, stood in front of the entrance to the compound. A red light slid up and down Tor’s face like eerie war paint, and I flinched, as I always did, expecting it to hurt. The locks slid back, and we stepped through, closer to our cabin than we’d been in a long time.

***

“You did what?”

“I spoke to my father. Yesterday. And he spoke to Asche.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cindra, still dressed for the outdoors, put her hand over her chest, shielding her heart.

“And Cindra just happened to go to Goldnesse today? We told you to wait. You can’t trust them not to reveal you. Lexa and I—”

“Have decided our fates enough. We won’t spend our lives hiding, cowering behind these walls. I believe I can trust my father. And if it turns out I can’t, well, I can’t trust you either.”

Mil and Lexa exchanged glances, reminding me.

“Oh, and if anything happens to either my father or Asche, if they suddenly die or disappear, I will kill both of you. No,” I said as Lexa glanced involuntarily at Tor, “I won’t be using Tor to do it. I’ll do it myself, using the nanites you created. They’ll crawl slowly through your veins, working their way toward your heart. You’ll lose control of your muscles. You’ll become deaf, blind, and mute. Your organs will fail, one by one. Your deaths will be excruciating.” Fear, mixed with something else, flashed across their faces. “Just ask Pax and Cindra. They’ve seen it happen. And if you’re thinking of finishing me off, Oliver will take my place.”

A stunned silence followed. Every head in the room turned toward where Oliver slouched in his chair, one leg thrown carelessly over the armrest.

Please, Oliver, back me up.

He winked and spun his chair in a lazy circle. “What fun would life be without some stakes?”

“I can’t be a part of this.” Cindra’s voice broke. She stood up slowly, tucking her chair neatly under the table. Her back rigid, she left, climbing the stairs toward the dormitory.

Oliver looked as though he’d swallowed poison. Shit. I needed him to go along with me, but I knew who he would choose if it came down to me or Cindra.

“Pax. Listen. What I said about Mil and Lexa, I was bluffing.”

“I know. It wasn’t very good.”

“Well, Cindra was convinced. I need you to go after her, tell her it’s not true. Tell her it’s just a bargaining chip, that’s its protecting Asche. Protecting us.”

“Okay.” He leaned over and rubbed a smudge off the table surface with his sleeve.

“Can you please do it now?”

“I’ll go talk to Cindra,” Pax announced, nodding at Oliver as he pushed himself away from the table.

Oliver relaxed back into his chair. Looking at me, he curled his lip.

“So now that that’s been discussed, I have something for you.” I fumbled with the clasp of the necklace.

Mil and Lexa stared at me as though I were an angel of death, come to take them to Hell.

“How could you threaten us like that?” she whispered.

“What? You were perfectly happy to put a kill switch in us. Does your life somehow mean more because you consider yourself more human?”

She blanched.

“Look, I have no intention of actually pulling the trigger unless absolutely necessary, Lexa. It wasn’t a decision I made lightly. If you keep up your end of the bargain, I won’t harm you. You have my word.”

“We have no choice,” Mil said.

“No, you don’t. So, you’ll adapt. Now, on to the other thing I want to talk to you about. I met someone today, someone named Fane. And he gave me this. He said you would know what it meant.” I held the necklace out to him.

Mil’s face grew pale, deepening the shadows under his eyes. The tremor in his hand made it impossible for him to grasp the slender chain, so I slid it over his hand to hang around his wrist. He lifted it, watching it twirl in the light of the little moons.

“It’s not possible,” he whispered.

“Mil, what is it? Sit down.” Lexa fussed over him, guiding him into the closest chair. He sat down, hard, the tiny robot bouncing in protest at the end of its leash.

“Lien,” he said.

That one word had more power over Lexa than even my threats. She sank into the chair next to Mil, her hand at her throat.

“Who’s Lien?” asked Kalbir. I’d forgotten she and Tor were still in the room. When we’d first come in the door, she looked like she’d been sucker-punched. Now, she seemed to have regained her equilibrium.

Yes, Kalbir, I’m perfectly capable of ruining whatever relationship I have with Tor on my own, thank you very much.

Mil took his time answering her. “Lexa and I used to work with Lien and her partner Ethan, back when we were just beginning to understand how to build the brains that would one day be used to create artilects. We had some…differences of opinion. They were ruthless, determined to create artilects, no matter the cost. We advocated a more conservative, ethical approach.”

“You? Ethical?” Oliver interjected.

Mil ignored him. “It caused a rupture in our partnership. That was when Lexa and I began to develop what you are today.”

“You mean you were once Cosmists?” Kalbir’s voice was incredulous.

“Well, we didn’t really think of ourselves like that. Like I said, our approach, both in method and outcome, was far more moderate. I haven’t spoken to Lien in many years, long before the war. Did she tell you how I was to contact her?”

“On the radio. She said you would know.”

He nodded slowly.

“Fane said they’ve been living in Goldnesse for years. They saw us with Lexa the other week and figured it was time to meet.”

“What do you think they want?” Tor asked.

Mil sighed, twisting the metal man in his fingers. “I honestly have no idea. I mean, I can think of many reasons, and none of them good. But what her motives are, I couldn’t begin to guess. We’ll ask them to come here for the meeting.”

“Here? You can’t be serious.”

“Tor, they already know where we live. At least here there’ll be no surprises. Besides, it’s either ours or theirs. It’s not like we can just grab a table at Tim Horton’s, is it?”

“God, I miss Tim’s,” said Oliver dreamily. “I would murder you all for a double-double right now.”

“I don’t like it,” Tor said.

“Me either, but I don’t think we have much choice.” Mil’s voice was heavy. “If we don’t respond, that will give them an answer we don’t want to give.”

“So we’re throwing a party?” Kalbir asked.

“Yes,” Mil replied, “it looks like we are.”