“What did they do with the Unaffected?” asked his friend, a woman with purple eyelashes whose pupils were white and slitted like a feline’s. Perhaps Dex should offer her the backpack. “I’ve heard that the queen personally thanks each person who turns them in,” the woman added reverently. “That her blessing is like a kiss from the Godstars.”

The man nodded. “Word is, they turned the Unaffected over to the Guardians manning the sector.”

“Good riddance,” the woman said, clucking her tongue. “All glory be to the queen.”

The man repeated her words, pressing his hands together and holding them out toward a Solis flag that hung from a building nearby. “Just wait,” he breathed. “Once she completes Nexus... We’ll root out the Unaffecteds forever.”

Dex’s stomach clenched at the thought of more innocents dying because of this new world of Nor’s. The depth of grief he’d felt at Lon’s death had surprised him—though the two of them had bonded over their need to survive on board the Marauder, Dex hadn’t realized how much he’d come to depend on Lon’s calming presence until it was gone.

Klarisa’s death...that had struck him with the same devastation that the death of a fellow Guardian always had. Though Guardians protected Mirabel—gave their lives up to do it—they protected each other first, always, no matter the cost. And Dex had failed to protect Klarisa.

He could hardly even begin to imagine how Andi felt, with all she’d lost.

“There haven’t been any other signs, have there?” the man said, drawing Dex’s attention back. “Those Unaffecteds have been leaving their mark on this city far too often.”

“Not as many lately,” the woman answered. “Soon Craatia will be as clean as Arcardius.”

Dex cast a glance at Andi, who was glaring at the citizens with furious eyes, as if the mention of her home planet only added to her rage.

If only she knew just how much the mention of Arcardius made him bristle—made guilt pick at his insides, for the secret he still harbored about what he’d helped Cyprian do.

In time, Dex would tell her. But not today.

“Where have those scum been lurking this time?” Dex asked the duo, pitching his voice so that he sounded like a confident businessman.

The man barely cast him a second glance as he stepped into a waiting pod. “Mostly in southern Briog, with the other scum of the city.”

The woman tsked as she joined him, and they were off, what little bit of extra information they may have had gone.

“Southern Briog,” Andi said. “Well, that narrows the search a bit, I’d guess.”