Birds soared through the city, their feathers morphing colors with each flap of their wings. Great, sweeping silver tunnels passed through the dome from street to sky, a network of passenger pods that allowed the citizens to travel quickly from one end to another.

A frozen lake separated the docking sector from the city’s entrance. Hovering boats glided above the ice like slinking ghosts.

“Wow,” Dex breathed. “Hard to believe this place harbors the Underground.”

A yowl sounded over his shoulder, from inside the squirming, half-shredded backpack that Andi had shoved Havoc back into before they’d disembarked the transport, much to Dex’s dismay. But she knew Gilly would murder them both, probably slowly and painfully and creatively, if they’d left the creature to die in the snow.

Then again, if Havoc didn’t stop kicking up such a fuss, they’d likely wind up attracting the wrong sort of attention, and die at the hands of Nor’s minions instead.

“Glorious, isn’t it?” Dex asked, drawing Andi’s attention back to the view ahead.

It was true—Craatia was a glorious city.

And so full of people that it made Andi feel as if she were being crushed.

All around them, Craatia’s citizens moved as one, heading toward their homes, their jobs, all manner of errands and entertainment. But no matter how different everyone looked on the outside, it was impossible to overlook the fact that they were all united in one dark, hideous cause. Prisoners whose chains lurked in their very veins.

Andi wondered if they were stuck screaming from within their own minds. If they screamed endlessly, wondering if anyone would ever hear them, or if they were happy to serve Nor, mindless in their devotion to her.

“Andi?” Dex said, turning his face toward her.

“So many of them,” she whispered. “How do you think it happened so fast? The feeds spoke of silver clouds that filled the galaxy, but with the domes...”

Dex shrugged. “Klarisa said there were Guardians here, ones loyal to Nor’s cause. They likely stormed the domes one by one and used the bullets to overtake everyone in sight.” His eyes turned distant and troubled, the way they often did when he remembered the night of the Ucatoria Ball. “It happens almost instantly, once they’re shot. All these people...”

“Five hundred thousand and seventeen, to be exact.” Alfie’s voice buzzed into her com. Andi flinched at the sound of it. “I have connected to the communication systems housed in your suits, Androma Racella and Dextro Arez.”

It was strange, hearing a different voice where the girls’ used to be. As if someone else had occupied a space that should have been theirs. It filled her with a guilt she knew she shouldn’t need to carry, but it was there, all the same.