He poked his head in the cabin. “We’re nearly there.” They were now sitting in a circle, as best as they could in the small space. It looked like they were playing some form of spin the bottle with a can, with Amy bouncing in and out the circle, patting the can, providing even less legitimacy.

Matt realized that he had done it again—segmented himself off from the rest of them. They hadn’t done anything. It had all been him.

Tim jumped up from the circle, using Rachel’s and Edmund’s shoulders as support. “Come on, then. I’d like to see it coming up. For last time’s sake.”

There he was again, insisting it was the “last time.” Matt went back to the deck, clearing the way for Tim to join him. Tim slipped a little and Matt grabbed him for support. “Just a little drunk is all.” He looked around. “Standedge, eh?”

“Yeah,” Matt said.

Tim tipped the rest of his can into his mouth, upending his head. Matt caught sight of it before he even knew what he was looking at. “What is...?” But he stopped himself. On Tim’s left wrist, just like Rachel’s, a small word. Six letters. Ascend.

They were getting closer to Standedge, but Matt couldn’t look away from Tim’s wrist.

“Why do you have that tattoo?” Matt said. “And why does Rachel have the exact same one?”

“What?” Tim said, in the exact same tone Rachel had. “This thing?” He showed him the tattoo.

“What does it mean, Tim?”

“‘Ascend’? I think the dictionary definition is...”

“Cut the shit, Tim. What does it mean?”

Tim took a step backward, an impressive feat in such a small space. “Matt, mate, calm down. It’s just...”

Matt didn’t wait to hear the end of the sentence, and he didn’t even care to see that Tim swung for the steering lever when Matt launched himself inside the cabin. Inside, the others were sitting in the circle again. This time they seemed to just be watching Amy chasing her tail in the center. Matt didn’t think about what he was doing, operating on some kind of instinct that he knew what to do. He ignored the greetings the others gave him, and he just grabbed Pru’s left arm, as she was nearest to him.

“Hey.”

He pulled Pru’s sleeve down. He didn’t want it to be there so much that, for a moment, it almost wasn’t. But a microsecond later, when reality set in, there it was, exactly the same as Tim’s and Rachel’s. On Pru’s wrist—Ascend.

“What the hell is going on here?” Matt barked, rather like Amy. The dog jumped and looked around at him as though he were a canine. The others looked equally shocked.

“Matt,” Rachel said.