Hassan, Ephyra, and Jude all had the good sense to look contrite. Khepri looked incensed, Illya amused, and Anton and Hector were both glaring.

“Now,” Beru said serenely, “if everyone is done, I think I know why we haven’t been able to lose the Witnesses.” She hesitated. It was a huge risk, taking advice from the god. But—it was probably right. “They’re tracking me.”

Hector looked at her sharply. “How do you know?”

“I just do,” Beru replied. If she told them the full truth they would, rightfully, object to taking ideas from the god. She could feel it pressing in on her will, drawn closer to the surface. She had to hope that the Godfire collar’s sting was enough to keep it at bay. She let her fingers hook into the edge of the collar, feeling the cool metal at her throat.

And that’s when she realized.

OH, VERY CLEVER, the god said, amused. LITTLE MORTAL, SO CLEVER.

“They’re tracking the Godfire collar,” Beru said, regretting the words as they left her mouth. But they were true. It made sense. “It—it must have been artificed. That’s why there are so many of them right on our tail.”

She watched the realization settle over the rest of them—it was the only thing that made sense.

“I—” She swallowed. This was a terrible idea. “I think I need to take it off.”

The god wanted her to take it off. Desperately. She was a fool to even consider it. It could easily be trying to trick her into making a desperate move that would bring it a step closer to its freedom.

“No way,” Hector said when the shock of Beru’s pronouncement had worn off. “It’s too dangerous. If you take off the collar and the god manages to seize control from you, then that’s it. We can’t risk you like that.”

“I agree with Hector,” Jude said. “It’s too big a risk. And we don’t even know if it’s true.”

YOU DO KNOW, the god gloated. YOU KNOW THAT IT’S TRUE, LITTLE MORTAL.

“It would make sense, though,” Illya said slowly. “Pallas would have put a safeguard in place in case Beru ever escaped. Another way to track her down.”

Hassan took a hesitant step toward her. “Can I—Can I see the collar, a moment?”

Beru nodded, and he came nearer, using his incandescent light to peer at the collar in the darkness. He moved all the way around her until he was behind her, and then stopped.

“Look at this,” he said. Beru wasn’t sure to whom he was talking, but a moment later she felt Hector step toward her, his breath warming the back of her neck.

“That’s an artificer’s mark,” Hassan said.

Hector touched the collar, and Beru shivered.

“Sorry,” Hector murmured.