Her words took a moment to filter through the discord of Eris’s thoughts. Sher. He’d betrayed them.

Emotions like betrayal and failure and grief could wait until after escape.

Clo led them through the door and down a hallway. The jarring movement of Cato’s body nauseated Eris. She still reeled with pain and remnants of the drugs, and Cato’s hard grip on Eris burned her skin. She was so tired. Keep your eyes open. Stay awake.

Clo took them through a supply room. She swept aside a window curtain to reveal a hidden door that led to the servant’s wing. They all hurried down the next hall.

Eris reached out to touch Clo’s arm. Thank you, she mouthed.

“You’re welcome,” Clo said, striding next to Cato. She reached into her coat and pressed a heavy cloth into Eris’s hands. “I brought your piece of junk. Apparently, this ancient silted scrap slips through security.”

Eris unwrapped the cloth to find her old, treasured blaster nestled in the center. Thank the gods. The familiar weight of it felt like coming home.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

They all froze. Outside, the shouting began anew. Screams echoed in the night.

“What is that?” Clo stopped at one of the windows and swung it open.

Nyx was impatient. “We don’t have time—”

“Oh my gods.” Clo’s hand covered her mouth. “Oh my gods.”

Eris struggled in Cato’s grip until he wordlessly released her. They all gathered around the window and looked outside. There, she could see some of Damocles’s guards, out of uniform, forming a human chain to march on the crowd, attacking any Evoli stragglers uninfected by the ichor.

They were spreading the disease faster.

They had found a way to replicate Ariadne’s weapon, the failsafe useless. They’d made it look ornate, cruelly beautiful. The Tholosians loved making death into art.

“In Discordia’s name,” the soldiers shouted, spraying the crowd with weaponized ichor propellants. People fell. They screamed for help, to be spared.

But there was no God of Mercy.

Eris made a sound in her throat. Despite all of Ariadne’s efforts, Damocles must have reproduced it before Zoe came back with the updated model. He now had documentation that she’d invented it under the false name of Zoe Eirene-X-2 with the intent to completely massacre every Evoli. This would erase any doubt that she was involved, any doubt at all.

In Discordia’s name.

“We have to go,” Nyx said, urgent.

“No,” Clo shook her head, her eyes filled with tears. “No. We can’t just leave them. They’re using—” Her breath hitched. “Godsdamn it, this is my responsibility.”

“No, it isn’t. We can’t do anything for them, Clo. Most of them are probably already infected.”

“And the ones who aren’t?”