Her chest rises and falls faster as she darts fearful glances to the door. I get down in her face. “What do you think he must have offered Jack to inspire that kind of loyalty? More magic? Freedom? A coveted place on his Guard? And what did Jack get? Nothing, Kai. He got nothing. He’s a Handler. A human, with no magic of his own, playing servant to a Spring.” Creases of doubt furrow her brow. She stubbornly looks away. “Daniel Lyon can’t be trusted,” I whisper, my back shielding our conversation from the smazes. “Whatever he offered, it will disappear the moment he’s done with you.” Her eyes snap to mine, the truth laid bare in them. “What was it? What did he promise you, Kai?”

She swallows hard. “Clemency. For my sister.”

“Who’s your sister?”

She hesitates. “Her name is Ruby.”

I roll the name around in my mind. Ruby’s a July birthstone—a common name among Summers. There were no Rubys in Michael’s Guard and the name doesn’t ring any bells, but there are hundreds of Summers in the Observatory, and I only remember those I was assigned to hunt—the ones who caused problems. “What did your sister do?”

“Lyon said . . .” Her face is pained. “He said she hunted Jack and his friends. That she attacked them when they ran away from the Observatory. I told him she probably only did it for the bounty. Michael offered a huge reward, and I know my sister; she’s competitive. She would have wanted it. I seriously doubt she had any ideological motives for wanting to stop Jack.”

I like her sister already. “What happened to her?”

“Lyon said she’s being held here in the Observatory. I assume she was rounded up with all the others who hunted for Jack. She must have had her hearing.”

“What does he plan to do with her?”

“He says he can’t release her. That her fate is a matter of my cooperation and Jack’s willingness to forgive and let her go, and that her ‘present situation’”—she puts Lyon’s words in finger quotes—“is a direct result of the choice Ruby made to hunt Jack.” Her sigh is shaky. She swipes a bead of water from her cheek, and I’m pretty sure it’s a tear. “He said that if I choose the right path, I can free her.”

“And what about you? What do you get out of it?”

She sinks down into the water, her arms crossed around her middle. “What happens to me doesn’t matter. I have to know my sister will be okay.” She sniffs and swats another tear from her face. “Lyon said this is my way forward. That giving up my magic is the first step toward forgiving myself.”

“For what?”

“For what I’ve done.”