‘We trusted you!’ Evelyn Darke shouted. She slapped his face with an open hand, sending his aching head ringing anew. ‘We trusted you, Sulaman! Our stupid little cult, with our stupid little signs, gnawing away at Ascension City’s entrails like a worm. I thought you were my family! I should have known better – people like me don’t get to have families, Sulaman! Anyone who speaks kindly to us wants something!’

‘Evelyn…’ He tried to protest, but she leaned down until her face was a mere hand’s breadth from his own, and he couldn’t form the words.

‘I burned Della alive for him,’ Evelyn hissed, ‘because I trusted you!’

Sulaman swallowed painfully. Everything was painful at the moment: his head was throbbing. ‘Evelyn,’ he asked, hearing the tremble in his own voice, ‘what are you going to do to me?’

‘I walked through his ritual, Sulaman,’ Evelyn said quietly. ‘I wasn’t going to, but the old Navigator woman convinced me. She said we weren’t quick enough. I think she lied. I think she always knew we couldn’t get through without getting caught. She told me something so I’d do what she wanted. The galaxy is the same everywhere.’

‘Evelyn,’ Sulaman whimpered, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’

‘It tore me, Sulaman.’ Evelyn’s eyes were darker and more hollow than he remembered. ‘I felt it, although I didn’t realise it at the time. After that, when I burned Cormack’s body, when I stopped the ritual, I was empty. My power had gone. I’d have died, but that old Navigator woman saved me. I don’t know why. I know I don’t deserve saving. But she did, and now I’m here.’

‘Your powers are gone?’ Sulaman breathed. Perhaps this wasn’t quite as bad as he thought. Evelyn Darke was not a large person. If he could get free, he could perhaps overpower her.

‘They were gone,’ Evelyn replied with a smile. She raised one finger, yellow flames sprang into life around it for a second, and Sulaman Eichner’s heart dropped. ‘They came back. But the tearing didn’t heal. That damn ritual took part of my soul, Sulaman. I know that now. I can feel it. I can feel where it isn’t.’

‘Evelyn,’ Sulaman said. He tried a smile. ‘Evelyn, I don’t think you’re well.’

‘I know I’m not well, you imbecile!’ Evelyn snarled. ‘My soul has been torn up, and I don’t think I’m getting it back! So I thought to myself, what do I do now? Do I go back to lurking around Ascension City, eating scraps and waiting for someone to fool me again? Or do I take control? Do I do what I want to do, for the first time?’ The right side of her face quirked up into a lopsided smile.

‘I decided to do what I want to do.’