“She’s out of her mind,” said Heron. “We had a chance if we’d gone back east after Chicago—we could have gone to Dr. Morgan, we could have even gone to Trimble. Anything would have given us a better chance than this. What’re you looking for, Kira?” she asked, looking at Kira over Samm’s shoulder. “What is this about? Is this even about saving our race? Or the humans? Or is this whole insane expedition all just so you can figure out what the hell you are? You selfish little bitch.”

Kira was speechless. She wanted nothing more than to bash Heron’s head against the ground, but Samm kept himself solidly between them. He faced Heron solemnly, keeping Kira back with his arm.

“Why’d you come with us?” asked Samm.

“You said you trusted her!” Heron snarled. “You told me to come, so I came.”

“You haven’t done what you’re told since the day I met you,” said Samm. “You do what you want, when you want, and if anyone gets in the way, you take them out. You could have stopped us at any time. You could have incapacitated me and kidnapped Kira and brought her to Morgan and done everything exactly the way you wanted, but you didn’t. Tell me why.”

Heron looked at him fiercely, then scowled at Kira. “Because I actually believed her. She talked about researching everything ParaGen had done to find some sort of cure, and for some stupid reason I thought she meant it.”

“I did,” said Kira, thought the fight had gone out of her voice. She felt drained and empty, as hollow as the fiberglass shed they were hiding in.

“And you,” Heron spat, looking at Samm. “I can’t believe you’re still siding with her. I thought you were smarter than this—I thought I could trust you. That’s what I get for believing in something, I guess.”

Heron’s words were clearly meant to cut Samm deeply, and it broke Kira’s heart to hear them, knowing how they must make him feel. But if they did affect him, he didn’t show it. Instead, he held up a hand to silence Heron and turned to Kira, his eyes dark with fatigue. “You say you did mean it. Do you still?”

Kira was reeling from Heron’s accusations, and felt even more empty as she searched for an answer. Was she really doing this—putting them through all this hell, starving her friends and torturing the horses and killing Afa—just for her own selfish reasons? She didn’t know what to say, and they stood in tense silence for what felt like an eternity.