“If she hadn’t done that, she would have eaten someone else,” said a new voice—Tahlia’s voice, transposed from the forest, where she could have passed for a safe hallucination, into the real and material world. I didn’t bother uncovering my face. I knew what she looked like under the skin, in the space where the alien flowers bloomed. No matter what she looked like here, that would be the face that mattered. “Once we germinated, our course was set.”

“So you’ve said,” replied Lucas tightly. “I don’t see it.”

“We’re not thinking creatures when we sprout, not as you measure the concept. We grow with the mindless needs of the young. We hunger, and so we eat. We yearn to be more than we are, and so we implant upon something that can carry us to greatness.”

“Wait.” I lifted my head. “How does that work? We come from another planet? What did we eat there?”

“Something else,” said Tahlia, and smiled. “Hello, Stasia. I’m glad to see you well.”

I said nothing. Only looked at her, and saw my future.

There was no human skin left on her face, only the smooth green that was spreading over Jeff—that would soon be spreading over me, once it made its way from my arm to my torso. Like him, her eyes were green. Unlike him, her teeth had been replaced, becoming hard, woody squares that looked like polished bone. A streak of her hair had somehow become long, twining vines no bigger around than a thread, covered in small, bright green leaves.

Her smile widened as she saw me looking. “Do you like it?” she asked. “Jeffrey mentioned you were concerned about losing your human form. I assure you, it will stay, and be replicated as closely as the vegetable world allows.”

“Because that’s not a mockery of humanity or anything,” muttered Toni.

“We don’t need you all,” said Jeff sharply.

Graham took my hand and squeezed it. “You’re wrong,” he said. “The invasion is coming. Your people look almost as human as we do. And how much do you really know about the aliens, huh? You were born here. You don’t remember anything but here. Maybe they’re not going to be so kind to you. Maybe you were just canaries, meant to show them whether or not they could survive our world.”