Our mom helped run the accounts and our dad was in some ways Mana-ma’s muscle, along with Uncle Tau (not our uncle by blood). They didn’t often have to be muscle, thankfully, but if people weren’t pulling their weight they’d have a quiet word with them. But they weren’t Mana-ma’s right-hand men; her most trusted advisors were Kieran, Niran and Daniel.

When we were sixteen, Kieran, Niran and Daniel were aged about twenty-seven to thirty. They’re probably still her main muscle. She’d groomed them for the role since they were little. Loyal as watchdogs, and just as scary.

After our heart attack, everyone in the Hearth was very nice to us. We didn’t have to do our chores (we couldn’t really, anyway, we were so weak). Our friends came by the house a lot and we played cards. Taema and I played on the same team because otherwise it’d be too easy to cheat. Our friends were shy around us, not wanting to meet our eyes. They knew we were probably dying, and it embarrassed them. Made me want to force them to look at us, right in the eyes; but if I’d done that, they probably wouldn’t have come back and played cards again.

We’d ask Mom and Dad how much time we had left, but they didn’t want to answer. We heard them murmuring at night in the other room, but even though we pressed our ears to the doorjamb, we couldn’t hear anything. We knew they were talking about us, though, from the tone. Hushed, worried. Nervous.

We were in bed late one night when I finally asked the question I’d been wondering ever since we had the attack: “They could fix our heart out there, couldn’t they?”

Taema was silent for a moment, and then ran her fingers through my hair. I loved it when she did that. I found the faint tickling so comforting. I ran my hand through hers, offering comfort back.

“They could,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter. Mana-ma won’t let us go.” Getting past the swamp was difficult, even with a boat. And Mana-ma had eyes everywhere. My sister didn’t say it, but I knew what she was thinking: if we got out, we’d be Impure. Despite everything, she still believed a hell of a lot more than I did. It was so frustrating. Couldn’t she see how messed up this place was? It made me angry at her.

“Some have made it out,” I whispered. “Remember Mia? She left, even though Mana-ma didn’t want her to.”

“Nobody knows how, or what happened to her.”