Naomi sagged, relief flooding through her like a drug. She’d been convinced he’d be just another casualty out of many. That they’d return to a planet where the person she wanted most to see was gone.

The first message had arrived only an hour ago. What had delayed him? She kept reading.

Evan Kan: I got into the warehouse, but there was nothing there, so that was a complete bust. I was trying to find a way back out when the news broke. I turned myself in to the authorities to try and get out—they checked me and I showed no symptoms.

Evan Kan: In fact, I was immune.

Evan Kan: She must have inoculated me before she went. If I’d known, I could have tried to research the beginnings of a vaccine from the antibodies in my blood. It still likely would have taken too long.

Evan Kan: When they first told me, I worried Valerie would have given me the dubious honour of starting her plague and then leaving me alive to watch everyone around me die. But I wasn’t the index patient. Don’t know if she made me immune out of some sick sense of love, or if she wanted to punish me. Knowing her, maybe both.

Naomi dragged her fingernails across her scalp and the short bristle of her hair. Evan would always feel guilt that he was never truly at risk.

In Valerie’s mind, she would have thought giving him immunity was a sick sort of kindness. Letting Evan survive, so that if she came back for the children, she could gather up her son and welcome him into the fold of her new world. Ever the hero. Would Valerie even have considered the trauma he’d have had to endure?

Evan Kan: I’m still being detained by the authorities, or what’s left of them, but they agreed to let me send these messages. They’ll be reading what we write, but we don’t have anything to hide.

He was alive. He was safe. Imprisoned, sure, but safe. She laughed softly, despite everything. She closed her eyes, imagining the way his eyes narrowed, crinkling at the corners when he concentrated. How many looks had she stolen at him as they studied in undergrad, hoping he wouldn’t catch her?