We’ve been called arrogant, but I believe our plan was sound. Sometimes, to get people to act in their best interests, you must show them what those interests are. And because it’s human nature to act against our self-interest, in some cases, you have to act for them. Sometimes you need to be cruel to be merciful. I still believe this to be true.

—Mil Cothi, personal journal

I stared down at the bead of blood welling from the injection site.

“I know what you are.”

Her voice had been conspiratorial, not accusatory or malicious as she’d withdrawn the needle and walked away to tend to her patients, as though discovering that your neighbors were cyborgs was a normal thing for her.

What do I do? Do I tell the others? If what Lily said was true, we were in a very precarious position. If I told the others, they might panic. If I didn’t…

You made Tor a promise.

And I had. When we’d made our way through the province to save Pax and Cindra, I hadn’t told Tor I suspected someone was following us. It had turned out to be Fane, but I was keenly aware that I could’ve put us both in danger.

“Tor, I need to talk to you. What are you doing?” He was carrying lengths of old beams on his shoulder, beads of sweat on his forehead. He slid the beams onto the ground. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “They’re heavy, that’s all. I’m building a temporary charnel house. Lily doesn’t want anyone to go too far out of town in case it begins to rain again, but they need to put the bodies somewhere. They’ll burn it when it’s full. It’s going to fill up fast.” He glanced at the beams impatiently. “What do you need?”

“Lily knows what we are.”

At first, he didn’t understand. “What? What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, Tor. She knows we’re cyborgs.”

He yanked me by the hand closer to the wall, farther out of earshot. “You can’t be serious. How would she find out?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Kalbir was right. Maybe it was my father—" Please don’t let it be true. But I hadn’t seen him since we’d separated upon our arrival.

“What did she inject us with? Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“She only told me after she’d injected me. Maybe she’s on our side, Tor. Maybe the injection was nothing more than what she said it was. She wouldn’t know how we worked even if she did know what we are.”

“We can’t take that risk. Fuck, Ailith.”

“So what should we do? I don’t know if we should tell the others. Who knows how they’ll react?”

“We have to tell them. They need to know in case we have to protect ourselves.”

He was right. I pressed my fingertips into the corners of my eyes. “Okay, I’ll tell Cindra and Oliver. You tell Kalbir and Callum.”

I searched the blur of faces for Cindra. The air was hot and humid with vomit and spilled bowels, the former lobby full of bodies in various stages of dying. Some lay comatose, blood leaking from where their skin had split. Other had lost control of their nervous systems, their limbs jerking like marionettes on strings. Still others screamed in agony as they clawed at their chests.

For a moment, I froze, caught in their maelstrom. Pax’s red-mist vision of the future stuck in my mind. Was this that future coming to pass? Had we failed after all?

“Ailith?” It was Stella.

The Cosmists. The Cosmists could’ve betrayed us. They’d taken advantage of this disaster, just like they said they would. “What did you do?”

“Do? What do you mean?”

“You told them about us, didn’t you?”

She backed away from me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I stepped toward her. She threw her hands up in front of her face.

“Ailith, Stella? What’s going on?” Cindra materialized at my side.

“Stella’s betrayed us. Lily knows what we are.”

“No, I didn’t. I promise. I’m not like Ethan. You can ask Fane.” Her voice broke over his name.

Across the room, Tor’s shoulders convulsed. He turned his head toward me, his eyes wide. Calm down. If I possessed Tor now, it would be a disaster for all of us. Breathe.

Wisps of white clouds drifting through an azure sky.

“You’d better be telling the truth. If I find out otherwise—”

“I swear. I’ll help you any way I can. What can I do?”

“Just keep helping people. Keep your eyes and ears open. And Stella, I’ll be watching you. I know how precious Fane is to you. Don’t forget where he is right now.”

The shine of her eyes before she turned away filled me with a vicious satisfaction.

Cindra stared at me. “Ailith, what are you doing? I understand we don’t trust the Cosmists, but threatening Fane? I thought you—”

“We could be in very real danger right now, Cindra.”

“I know, but still—”

“Do you feel any different? Since the injection?”

“No, I—”

“Let me know if you do.”

“What do we do now?”

“Carry on as normal. Help these people. Like I told Tor, maybe Lily is on our side.” I glanced around. “No one seems to be looking at us any differently. One or two people could pretend, but a whole town? If that is what she meant, she hasn’t told many people.” I thrust a shallow tray of bandages and syringes at her. “Here, help me. Have you seen Oliver?”

“He went to get some more bandages. He’ll be right back.”

I knelt beside the patient closest to me. Her legs were kicking violently, her face tight with pain.

“Please, help me,” she whispered. Pink spittle formed in the corners of her mouth.

Cindra handed me a syringe. “Do you know how to use this?”

“Yes.” I’d injected the ports in my own arms many times during my illness, fighting to stay home rather than the hospital.

“Please, try to keep still,” I said to the woman, knowing I was asking the impossible. “Cindra, hold her arm, around the top.” I squeezed the woman’s hand, trying to be comforting.

What’s happening to me? I promised him I’d be okay. It’s been so long since the rain came, so long. I’m going to die. Oh god, why does it hurt so—

I snatched my hand away.

It’s not possible. No.

“Is everything okay?” Oliver appeared at Cindra’s elbow. Cindra quickly filled him in.

“Shit.” He gave a long, low whistle. “Well, that’s us fucked. I wonder what she shot us up with?”

“Do you feel any different?”

“No,” he admitted.

“Cindra, can you do this please? I need to talk to Oliver.”

She looked between us.

“I promise we’ll tell you everything later. We need to hurry.”

She hesitated then nodded and turned back to our patient, sliding the needle in expertly.

“Oliver, something else is going on here. I-I can’t explain it just yet.” Please, please let me be wrong. “I need to you go back to the compound. I need you to find everything you can about the silver rain. If I’m right, anything on it will be buried.”

“Please, I’m amazing,” said Oliver. “If it’s there, I can find it. Do you want to give me a better idea of what I’m looking for? Might speed things up a bit.”

I told him.

“No. Ailith, what you’re saying can’t be possible. If it’s true…” For the first time since I’d known Oliver, he looked genuinely shaken.

“I know. Oliver, don’t let Mil know what you’re up to. Tell him you’re…I don’t know, you’ll think of something. Get Fane to run interference if you have to. Now go.”

“I don’t have to go back. Remember?” He tapped his forehead. “It’s all up here. I just have to find it.”

“Well, go find it then, and keep out of sight. I don’t have to tell you how important this is. And keep the door to your mind open. I might not have time to knock.”

He nodded then kissed Cindra quickly on the back of the head and melted into the crowd.

“How is she?” The woman’s legs had stilled, and the lines of pain on her face had softened.

Cindra pulled me to the side. “She’s okay for now…there was a paralytic and an anesthetic in there. But I don’t know how long it will last. It’s like she’s lost control of her nervous system.”

“Did your ability tell you that?”

“Yes. But it was more of a guess… I don’t know. It took a lot more effort than earlier. Maybe I’m getting tired.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Cindra?” Asche stood behind us. He was pale, with large, dark circles under his eyes.

“Asche? Are you okay?”

“Cindra, please, it’s Gaia and the girls. They—” He pressed a shaking hand over his face. “They got caught in the rain. They— I thought you could—with your…with what you are.”

She took his hand in her own. “Asche, it doesn’t work like that. I’ll do what I can, but—”

“Thank you, please, they’re over here.”

As he led her to the other side of the large room, I searched for the next person I could help. Through the glass double-doors of the entrance, there was a blur of movement and a scream of pain. Tor. Lily watched me stepping over bodies as I raced to the door, her hands full of medical supplies.

Tor was on one knee, his fists pressed to the ground, chest heaving. The heavy wooden beams he’d been carrying lay scattered on the ground.

“Tor, what happened?” I knelt beside him, my arm over his shoulder. His shirt was soaked. “Tor?”

“I can’t… I just…the weight.” He gasped for breath.

“What do you mean the weight? I’ve seen you toss boulders before.” I laid my hand on the back of his neck. “Tor, you’re burning up.”

“My strength, Ailith. It’s gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?”

“Exactly what I’m saying. It’s gone. I can’t—”

“When did this start, Tor? When?”

“I don’t know, I was feeling tired, but it—”

“Was it after the injection Lily gave us?”

“Yes, but—”

I found Oliver’s thread in my mind. At first, I couldn’t make the connection. Damn it, Oliver, I said to keep your door open.

…the catalyst will bind to the… Mobilize the nanites…casualties will be high, but… And he was gone.

Cold sweat soaked my palms. This can’t be happening. Concentrate. I closed my eyes.

All the threads, my connections to everyone, flickered as though they were shorting out. As I watched, some flared then went dark. No.

“Tor—”

Cindra seized my arm. “Ailith! Something’s wrong. I can’t…When I touched Asche’s wife, his children… Nothing. Ailith, I can’t help them.” Tears streamed down her face, making rivulets through the blood that stained her chin.

Oliver broke from the crowd at a run. “Ailith, I’m sorry, I can’t seem to…something’s wrong, but what I did manage to find before everything went tits up… You were right. You’re fucking right.”

No. How could they?

“Okay, listen everyone. Something is wrong with all our abilities. I can’t connect to anyone properly.”

“Was it Lily’s injection?” Cindra asked, her voice trembling.

“I don’t know. None of this started until after that, and if she knows we’re cyborgs…it’s possible. We need to find Kalbir and Callum. We need to stay together. You stay here, I’ll go—”

We wouldn’t need to look for Kalbir after all.

She stood on the balcony of one of the rooms on the first floor of the casino. In her arms was my father, the gleaming blade of a knife at his throat.