“I don’t know,” I say to Asher now. “The kids idolize me. They’ve got these big eyes, as round as the moon. They believe everything I tell them, and all I’m telling them is lies.”

“No, you’re not. The storm will pass. And then the General will fall.”

“But I’m not who they think I am. I’m nobody.”

He shakes his head, breathing out a quick laugh. “You are far from nobody, Delta. And not just to me,” he adds before I can argue, “to everyone. The weapons you brought the Prime mean that her plan is more likely to succeed. The changes you made to Harlie’s wagon allowed it to sail. The truth you found at Eden—the truth we found . . . It will reshape everything.”

“You act like I did those things alone . . . Like I read the map without your brand and traveled without Harlie’s wind wagon. Plus, I hate lying to the kids here. I wouldn’t want Bay to think I’m some Green Goddess. I’d want her to know the truth: I’m just a girl with a brand that led to the biggest lie of all.”

“We’re frauds together then,” he says. “Branded with falsehoods.”

I crack a small smile.

“Although I feel like I’m the one with a bone-dry waterskin,” he says. “You get revered as a god and I still have to turn over shit all day. Damn saltpeter beds.”

I’m laughing into my palms when a flash of light erupts to the east. A yellowish cloud glows low on the horizon, flickering, fading. It’s small—so tiny I may have missed it if I wasn’t looking precisely in that direction—but I shoot to my feet, terrified.

It’s too early. Far too early. I wait for the resounding blast to come a few heartbeats later, rolling through the night like distant thunder, but there’s nothing. We’re likely too far away to hear it.

“What was that?” Asher says, eyes fixed on the horizon.

“The powder,” I say. “I think Reed just blew the black powder.”

“Could he have betrayed us?” asks Luce the Reaper.

Everyone has gathered in Prime Hall—me, Asher, the Trinity, the Prime. Tensions are high and tight, poised to snap.

“No,” I say. “He wouldn’t have done that. Something went wrong.”

“Hold on. We don’t even know if the flash of light you saw was the powder blowing,” the Chemist points out. “It could have been something else.”

The doors to Prime Hall fly open and Saph bursts through.

The Prime bolts to her feet.