Doug stands over her, blood streaming from his nose. A deep violet bruise darkens his cheek and burn marks checker his coat. He doesn’t spare Lixue a glance as he treads over a puddle of her ashes.

How the hell did he find us? I have the eye; he couldn’t have known where we were going. And there’s no way he made it here this quickly on foot.

I look past him, expecting to see a car full of Guards, but he’s alone.

“Haven’t you learned by now?” he asks, limping closer. “There’s no point in running. You can’t stop what’s coming. You can’t hide from Inevitability.”

I back away from him, one slow step at a time. “I can stop it. I can change it. We both can. It’s not too late to make the right—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence. You and Lyon can both go to hell.” He lumbers toward me, gripping his scythe with both hands. Nostrils flared, he lurches to a stop halfway down the alley. His head tips toward the sound of a door creaking open behind me.

“What a surprise,” Doug says, baring his teeth. “You look like shit, Kai.”

I stiffen at the familiar sound of an arrow being drawn from a quiver. I turn slowly over my shoulder. Rain drips from the short dark ends of Kai’s hair. Her hands shake with stasis tremors around her bow. Her arrow’s already nocked and ready, the wicked retractable barbs aimed somewhere between me and Doug.

“What can I say? I’m full of surprises.” Her voice is raspy and low as if she’s just woken up. An oversize flannel shirt hangs lopsided on her shoulders, the buttons misaligned, as if she rushed to fasten them. The pajama pants she wears are far too big, trailing the ground so only her toes stick out.

Doug spits blood on the pavement. “Glad to see you made it out of the Observatory.”

“Are you?” Her bare feet drag through the puddles, slow and cautious, her narrowed eyes darting between us as she creeps steadily closer. “I was under the impression you didn’t care. Maybe I was dreaming, but I could have sworn I heard the Guards call you on the radio when the evacuations started. If I remember correctly, I believe your exact words were, ‘Let her rot down there.’”

Doug’s laugh is harsh. “You remember that, do you?”

“I remember a lot of things you never meant for me to hear.”

His smile crumbles. A muscle works in his jaw as they exchange a long look. Thunder rolls, ominously close.

“How’d you get out?” he asks.

“Someone carried me.” The point of her arrow shifts slowly to me. She licks rain from her lips, drawing a steadying breath as if she’s preparing to shoot. “Sommers has the eye. He took it from me.”