Adam was in the Wellness Cabin that first day, and he seemed ill, but not on the brink of death. And the next day he was gone. “Did he escape, like we did?”

“It’s possible.” He taps his fingers on the countertop. I think back. Escape for us was hard. Escape for us meant planning. Adam didn’t escape. I meet Nazarin’s eyes, knowing what he’ll say next.

“Or Mana-ma sold him to the Ratel,” Nazarin says.

Which lost soul are you? Mia asked.

Did that mean there’s more than one? Who else did we lose in the Hearth? Who else might be here?

“In the year before I left, at least three teenagers died. A cut that went septic. A flu that wouldn’t stop. And then they’d be gone. They were all men.” My stomach hurts.

“So you think your Mana-ma might have … sold Adam and others to the Ratel?”

“She might. She just might have. It’d mean money to keep us afloat and keep the Hearth solvent. We weren’t self-sufficient from trading our makeshift items and selling produce. A lot of us were raised to be pliant, to listen to those in charge. Despite that, though, I can’t picture Adam turning into a hitman. And why would she do it? It’d be against the morals she taught us, to sell Hearth folk to the Impure.”

Nazarin exhales. “Brainwashing can be very persuasive, if it’s done over years. The Ratel might have been able to break him, psychologically. And I don’t know. Maybe your Mana-ma wasn’t as holy as she led you to believe. In any case, this is circumstantial evidence on top of more circumstantial evidence.”

“Stop calling her my Mana-ma. She’s no such thing.” Not anymore. How could I ever have believed in her?

“Sorry. You’re right. I’ll send the sketch back to the station, see if they can make any matches.”

“My drawing might not be good enough. Unfortunately I don’t have any photographs.”

“We’ll see what they say in any case. The drawing’s good.”

I feel a strange little rush of pleasure at that. “So, if this is all true, then there could be a link between the Hearth and the Ratel. Maybe Tila found that out. And that’s why she went after them.”

I fight down a rush of nausea. Even if this is why she did it, why didn’t she tell me? Why didn’t she ask me to help? And if Vuk was actually Adam, why the hell would she kill him? She loved him just as much as I did. Wouldn’t she try to help him instead?

Tila was stupid, brash, and left me behind. She never used to leave me in the dust … but then, she never used to have a choice in the matter.