I couldn’t let her into my schemes. I was already under suspicion. “What are you planning on doing with that information?”

“Making a call.” Cass moved to stand beside me and a screen popped into our field of view as digital dial tone echoed.

“Any chance you’ll let me have some privacy here?” I already knew the answer, and it wasn’t as if I could physically force her out of VR. Not when she’d programmed the environment.

“Nope,” Cass said.

“Great.” I exhaled and tried to let it go for now. First I had to talk with Eva. It would be better if Cass knew none of what she was about to hear, but at least I could trust that she wouldn’t be reckless with the information or herself. It was too late not to involve her at all.

And now the call was taking too long to connect. “Are you sure—”

“Altair?” Eva popped onto the screen. Strands of her red hair stuck out from her twist and her face was flushed as if she’d run to the cam. Uncharacteristic panic rang in her voice. “What’s happened? Where’s Quanta?”

An eerie sensation paced up my vertebrae. Eva’s appearance alone would’ve given me pause, but this wasn’t the practical, composed Eva I’d known.

“Quanta?” The name dredged up… The echo of a memory I couldn’t place. “I thought she was dead.”

“You said she was captive.” Eva’s gaze narrowed to a piercing beam. “We picked up chatter about an accident in one of Nagi’s facilities. I feared you two were involved.”

“I was involved, but whatever happened, my memory’s been damaged.” Accident had to be a smoke screen for the truth. I needed to find out what that was. “What did we discuss the last time I checked in?”

“You’d been brought onto Nagi’s research team. You told me that Quanta had been under his surveillance for years.” Eva leaned closer to the cam on her end, filling the screen with her serious gaze. “I tasked you with either saving her or eliminating the threat posed by her powers.”

Eliminating… My chest contracted. “You make it sound so easy.”

Eva studied me for a moment before speaking. “There was also a third option.”

I stilled, suspicious of her tone. The girl was either a Red to be rescued or a traitor. There was no gray area. “What other option could there be?”

“To accept her as your genetic match.”

Match.

The gears in my head started spinning, but there was only one possible conclusion. I gripped my robes so tightly the fabric pixelated. “I don’t have a genetic match.”

Eva glanced away.

That one turn of her head told me everything. My jaw clenched. “You paired us.”

“Yes.”

How? When? And above all, why?