“Our seeds may have sprouted here, but a bear’s not a citizen, and that means we’re not either. Citizenship is for humans.” I smiled bitterly. “If we want to insist we’re not members of their species, they’re going to stop treating us like we are.”

“That makes … sense, I suppose,” said Jeff. He frowned. “But they’re not torturing you.”

“No.” Now it was my turn to frown. “Why are you focusing so much on torture? What aren’t you telling me?”

“I’m fifteen miles away. I’m not going to tell you which direction. This is the first time I’ve been able to find you in the forest.”

“So?”

“So I’ve been here for three days.” This time, his expression was pure anguish. “I couldn’t get into the forest until I moved out more than ten miles. It’s taken boosting the signal to—”

“You’re not alone.” I stared at him. “You found more of us.”

“Yes.”

It was a small admission. It changed everything. Suddenly, my boring days and lack of torture seemed less amateur hour, and more like a way to lower my defenses. “Are any of them scientists?”

“A few,” he admitted. “One is—”

“Don’t tell me,” I snapped. He fell silent, a surprised expression on his half-vegetable face. I shook my head. “Ask them whether there’s any way someone who isn’t one of us could know about the forest. Ask if we give out a … a signal, or something people could track.”

Jeff’s surprise faded into wariness. “Why?”

“Because I think they’ve figured out a way to block that connection, at least over short distances,” I said. “I haven’t been able to reach the forest, and you haven’t been able to reach me. That’s not normal. When I’m upset, when I’m alone, I come to the forest.” Until I had recovered my connection, I hadn’t even realized it was lost. There was something chilling about that. We were so close to human, thanks to upbringing and outward appearance. It would have been so easy to let go of the things that distinguished us and melt into the quiet comfort of belonging to this world, of fitting in.

It would have been easy, that was, before Toni had decided to boost our fleet’s signal around the globe. I untwined the vines of my transformed hand from Jeff’s fingers, trying not to see the sorrow that bloomed in his eyes in response to my withdrawal, and held it up for him to see.

“The green hasn’t spread outside of here,” I said. “It’s still just a patch on the inside of my elbow.”

“Maybe it’s beneath the surface.”