I flopped on my back before I got too emotional and squeezed my eyes shut. But it was true. I was so close to getting away, but it still felt like a distant hope. Like it wasn’t real. And the fact that I couldn’t even get a handle on my skin after hours and hours… I was wrung out.

“Amihanna?” Lorne’s voice felt like a hook in my soul. The way he said my name made my skin hum.

“Please. Stop.” I didn’t mean for it to come out as snappy as it did, but I couldn’t help it. “You make it worse every time you talk to me.”

“I can’t fix a lot of things, but if you want, I can stop the glow.”

“You can?” I wanted his help. I wanted it more than anything because I was so tired and the glow wasn’t going away. But Lorne wasn’t even in this solar system. How could he possibly help?

“Yes. If you’ll let me,” Lorne said. “How much do you remember about me?”

I glanced at Declan. He was sitting at my desk again, watching me carefully. I’d been through this last night with him. I don’t remember Declan. And I really didn’t remember anyone named Lorne. “Will you still help me even if I don’t remember you at all?”

“Yes.”

I was desperate, but I couldn’t lie. “I don’t know anything about you except what I’ve seen on the news. I’m not even sure I know what you look like. I don’t know how you and I and Declan are connected. I know my father is basically best buddies with your dad—that together they rule the Aunare—but other than that, I don’t understand why you’d even care enough about me to help me.”

Lorne’s long sigh felt like a stab in the chest. “Declan. Please. How could she forget?”

“Her mother had parts of her memory wiped.”

Lorne started quietly muttering in Aunare. I glanced at Declan, and he motioned to hold on.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds. Wipe is too strong of a word. Liz had them dulled enough that Ami wouldn’t remember you or me or her father or much about the Aunare. When they were on the run, Ami was really scared—with good reason—and kept asking for you and crying and asking to go home to Sel’Ani and speaking in Aunare. It sounds like it was a really terrifying few months. They were almost caught a couple of times. Liz had to make sure Ami didn’t say something that would get them killed. She was desperate. Liz said it got easier in some ways after the wipe.”

“Can it be undone?” His words were clipped, and I wondered what he was thinking. What he was feeling. Who he was to me.