“You should’ve done more.” I’d never heard Roan’s voice be that cold before. “He should be dead.”

That look in his eyes was trouble, especially now. “Don’t do anything. Don’t be stupid. Not like me, because I think I’ve been played.” I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry but damn it. The more I thought about it, the worse this whole situation got. “I think Jason was moving me—his pawn—to the place he wanted. But what does he want? What’s his goal? Why bait me like that? If he knew who I was, why not just turn me in and start the war SpaceTech has been itching for? I don’t get it. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“We have to find a way to contact Declan without his brother finding out.”

I sighed. “I don’t know how. I mean, we could look up some of his public accounts, but those will all be monitored. That would give our location straight to SpaceTech. But Declan said he was watching. I’m hoping that means that he’s taking care of Mom, and if I can stay away from SpaceTech long enough, maybe he can catch up to me. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the run, but I’m sure I’ll remember what to do. Maybe he’ll get to me before Murtagh finds me again.”

That was a couple more maybes than I wanted.

I got up and started walking around the train cars.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m getting my go-bag. That’s the whole reason we came here.” I’d made a little star mark on the side of a blue car. Three rows in. Five cars down from the entrance.

I paused when I spotted it. “Here. It’s here.” I tried to open the door, but it was rusted shut. “Help me with this.”

“You’re going inside? It’s full of bones.”

I looked back at him. “Yes. As you said, no humans would look in there.”

He muttered something but came to help. A few good tugs and the door moved just enough for me to squeeze through the opening.

I climbed over the piles of bones, moving to the back corner. The bag was about a foot under there. In retrospect, I probably didn’t have to do such a good job of hiding it, but at the time, I wanted to make sure no one ever found it.

As I dug through the bones, I tried to tell myself that it didn’t matter. That they were just bones. That bones didn’t care that I was shoving them around, but these had been people. Aunare with full lives that had been ended too soon. I could almost hear the ghosts of them screaming for revenge, but there was nothing I could do. Not right now.