This was a hospital? A shabby waiting room filled with mismatched duraplast bench seats was off to the left. A single long hall ran to the far end of the building. No one was in the reception office. From the dust and piled boxes, it looked like it hadn’t been used in years. The next room on the left would have once been a nurse’s station. A woman with a sickly green complexion—and even after blinking, she was still green—was studying something on a notebook.

Next came what had to be the doctor’s office; no one there.

Pushing open the door to the first room Falise came to, it was to find Kylee, sitting on the foot of the single bed. Some brown-haired boy was propped up, looking drawn and emaciated. He had those same quetzal eyes—though sunken—as Kylee and Derek. Another half-breed freak.

“Where is Derek?” Falise asked. “I need to speak to him.”

“Wow! And a happy hello to you, too,” Kylee told her. Then she glanced at the boy. “You get some sleep. I’ve been here long enough.”

“That her?” the boy rasped.

“All five feet nine inches of her,” Kylee said as she stood and slung her rifle over a shoulder. “Can you believe something like that is Dek’s sister?” A half beat. “Love you. Get well.”

“Love you, too,” the boy whispered, closing his eyes.

With a hostile stare from her weird blue eyes, Kylee got Falise to back out of the room and closed the door behind her.

“Who is that?”

“That’s Tip Briggs. He’s lineage. Some kind of creature ate its way into his leg. Don’t know how, but somehow Raya’s managed to keep him alive. We’re trying different antibiotics brought down from Turalon. Even if the invasive proteins can be whipped, it’s still nip and tuck if Raya can save his leg.”

“Oh.”

“Oh? That’s it?” Kylee crossed her arms. “Hey, I might have been raised in the bush by quetzals, but even I’m more human than that.”

Falise pinched her nose again, wondered if she’d wear through the skin over her nasal bones. “Listen, I just need to find my brother.”

“Why?”

“That, child, is none of your business.”

Kylee laughed, the sound of it bitter. She leaned close, big eyes fixed on Falise’s. “Are you dumber than rocks? Must be, because you don’t seem to learn. Dek’s lineage. He’s got me, Rocket, Flute, and Talina in his head. All you’ve got is some shared DNA and the fact that you both slipped into the universe through the same vagina.”

With unusual grace, Kylee slipped past her, starting down the hall.

Falise exhaled her frustration, started after the girl. “Just tell me where I can find Derek. Dek. Whatever.”

“Best bet? Somewhere in PA. Why the fuck should I tell you? You’re a waste of skin.”