They took the body of the boy away when the sun had crept over the tops of the redwood trees, but they weren’t done with the girl. Mana-ma used every trick in the book to brainwash and manipulate her. Before long, she believed it was her fault, that the boy was evil, that Mana-ma had saved her. Yet she was dead inside, walking around like a zombie, unable to feel happiness or sadness.

The spell didn’t last forever. Eventually, Mana-ma stopped paying such close attention to the girl. There were other things on Mana-ma’s mind besides a follower she thought had been dealt with. The girl started thinking again. Started waking up. And one night, deep in the dark when the moon was just a little sliver in the sky, she escaped and climbed over the chain-link fence, making her way to San Francisco, where the Hearth could not catch her.

When Mana-ma realized a member of her flock had fled, she was even angrier. That’s when the swamp was created. She said it was to protect us from those outside who would want to hurt us. It’s really to keep everyone inside.

*   *   *

These were the people Taema and I were raised with.

These were the people we were trying to escape from, naive and unaware of what we were really dealing with.

You must be wondering where I learned this story, if we didn’t know it when we left. Or perhaps you’ve already figured it out.

The girl in the story was Mia, the woman who took us in after we left. The woman who saved us before she damned me.

22. Taema

TWENTY-TWO

TAEMA

We’ve come to see Kim again.

We haven’t gone back to that empty safe house; instead, we’re going to her home. She seems nervous as she opens the door and ushers us inside. She’s been sworn to secrecy. At the moment, not even Sudice is meant to know what she’s about to do to us. If they find out she’s lied, even if it’s on behalf of the SFPD, she could easily lose her job.

Nazarin knew, without a doubt, that she’d do it. His former partner, Juliane Amello, had been her partner as well. Her wife. She died, and Kim wants answers, too. Or at least retribution.

“Well, no point wasting time in pointless pleasantries or offering you a cup of tea,” she says. “Might as well come through to the lab.”

We follow. I had forgotten how tiny Kim is. At the safe house, she wore a simple suit, but now she’s wearing something made of strips of fabric in all the colors of the rainbow, and it billows behind her as she walks.