She closed her eyes and tested her ability to shift. Her skin rippled. She tried to let go, to bleed into the floor, but once again, she hit some kind of barrier. A—nothingness. Held her head high. How had she seen them walk? She gripped her hands together in front of her, so her long sleeves hid her arms, and began to walk purposefully across the room.

As she neared, she could make out the voices.

“You deserve to die here for what you’ve done,” one of them said. “If you had broken her we would not be in this mess.”

“We should have had her case transferred a month ago,” another said.

“The letters should have made her crumble, with the right delivery and persuasion. Are you so unskilled that you cannot release a confession from a weak-minded woman?”

Inaya glimpsed the group from the corner of her eyes. The Angel on the floor was unmistakably the one who had interrogated her these many long weeks. No, months, from what they were saying. Months. An entire season, perhaps?

“You do not understand,” her interrogator said. “I could not condemn an innocent woman. How many times—”

“Fool! None of them are innocent. No one brought to this place is innocent. Don’t argue innocence. Not here before God’s fist.”

“I humbly request—”

“Leave him incarcerated here with his charges. He made this mess. He can soak in it.”

“No, please. I am still useful. You must understand!”

Two of the Angels picked up her interrogator and hauled him back the way she had come.

Inaya quickened her pace until she was on the other side of the room. Her fingers met the door. She turned the handle. It opened.

A burst of cool, humid air met her face. She gasped. In her hurry, she nearly stumbled over her robe. She walked out into the rainy afternoon, and was struck by how… normal everything looked. There were a few outbuildings here, but for the most part, they were surrounded by jungle. She would need to wait to shift before she traveled, or hijack one of the bakkies. If they were indeed very far from a major city, there would be no proper transit station.

Inaya heard the door open behind her, and scurried forward to a nearby bakkie barn. She crouched behind a parked bakkie.

“The entire facility is a loss,” one of the Angels said. “I want it shut down until the emergency is over.”

“What about the girl?”

“We need to bring her to a senior Arch Angel. We’ll have her transferred. The records are a mess. I’d have to go through every cell to find her. Then we’d have to transport her ourselves. I’m not doing that without the proper help. Let’s come back with a relocation team.”

“And what of Pieter?”