I turn my back on Mia and her phantom, letting Nazarin’s hands remain around my shoulders, reassuring in their realness. It’s only as we’re leaving I notice that Nazarin is also covered in blood, cuts marring the skin of his arms and his left cheek. He’s wearing the same dark clothes from Zenith as well, fitted close to the muscles of his chest and narrow waist. He looks dangerous. What nightmares has he endured, over the past few years?

Or what nightmares has he enacted?

We trudge silently down the abandoned corridors of the apartment complex, the dead leaves whispering underfoot. Outside, we look up at the building again, the rain drenching us through. The sky still boils red, blue, black and purple, an endless, wounded expanse. Even though the bloodlust of Verve still sings through my veins, I am comforted by the fact that I can’t imagine how anyone would do this willingly.

Nazarin rests his forehead against mine.

“Wake up.”

12. Tila

TWELVE

TILA

I remember dreaming of trees after we fell.

The redwoods towered above me, the branches criss-crossing like dark lightning against the blue sky. Taema and I were lying on our sides, staring up. There was no birdsong, and barely a rustle of wind. I felt like we were the only two people in the world.

“Are we dead?” I asked my sister.

She leaned close, pressing her forehead against mine. “Not yet.”

*   *   *

It was our heart.

We’d always known it was weak. There’d been a few scares when we were little. Thinking about it, it’s pretty crazy that we had as few health problems as we did, without proper medicine and all that. That day, at the age of sixteen, we had a heart attack.

So then it was us resting in the Wellness Cabin, in the same bed where Adam had been when we threw grapes at him. I hated being in the bed where he had died.

I was so scared that we were going to die too. Taema slept a lot. I think she had less oxygen than me, since I was the bigger twin, just barely. The supposedly stronger one.

I kept wondering if this was the beginning of the end.

It was.

*   *   *

I had to stop writing for a bit. The lawyer came to visit me. It’s not long until the trial.