I come around to face her. “All that time, it was supposed to be you. Before Sommers arrived. Before Fleur came along. It was supposed to be you and your sister breaking the system to be together. Lyon saw something in you, didn’t he?” Kai’s unwillingness to look at me is answer enough. “So Gaia turned you and Névé into Seasons, but she made you both different. She split you into different wings, knowing how much you’d fight to be with your sister. Lyon groomed you for years. He played off your guilt about the fire, making you feel like you had to redeem yourself for it, delivering those stupid letters for you and planting thoughts in your head, hoping you’d convince your sister to run, expecting you’d be the pair who’d start his rebellion. But Névé was the weak link, wasn’t she? She didn’t care enough about you to risk what she had.”

“She loves me,” she says, her voice quivering. “She was just scared.”

“Or maybe she was just too angry at you.” Kai flinches, staring at the floor. “Then Sommers and Fleur came along, and Lyon had new puppets to play with. And suddenly, you weren’t the professor’s pet project anymore. So what happened? You were bitter and jealous and joined the Guard out of spite?”

“No! I joined the Guard because it was the only way I could think of to see Ruby.”

“Because Lyon had given up on you, and you’d lost your chance. And when you had an opportunity to bring down Lyon’s star pupil—the person who’d accomplished what you couldn’t—you took it.”

“I didn’t want to!”

“Does Jack know? Did you grovel on the doorstep of Jack’s villa and confess that it was your failure that brought him here?” A bead of sweat trails down her temple. “Did you tell Sommers that you shot him for doing what you couldn’t? That the only reason you joined the Guard was to be closer to your sister, and that’s the only reason you’re helping him now?”

“Shut up!”

“You and Sommers haven’t been very honest with each other. What makes you think you can trust him?”

“He brought me this far.”

“So you could find your sister and save her?” I shake my head as I slowly pace the room. If I didn’t hate her so much, I might feel sorry for her. “He could have saved you so much time. Not to mention the plane ticket.” I pluck a dead leaf from Névé’s plant and hold it up where Kai can see it. “Jack should have told you what happened to her.”

Her voice shakes. “What did you do to her?”

I laugh. “I didn’t touch her.”

“Then where is she?”