He didn’t hesitate to pull her flush. “And you’re a good woman.”

Resting her cheek on his shoulder, she sighed. She might have been a good woman once, but the truth was, she was not a person anymore. She was a shadow.

“I want you to know that while you were gone, we uncovered the distributors of the counterfeit heat-suppressants. Omegas were rescued. They are recovering and protected. The drugs were destroyed; every last man paid for his crimes.”

There was a flutter in Claire’s chest, a moment of feeling she tore to pieces before it might infect her. “Thank you, Corday.”

“You are a part of that, you know?” Boyish eagerness, a desire to see Claire pleased, infected his grin. “Your determination—you fought for them. They have you to thank for their freedom.”

“I didn’t do anything but get raped and cry about it.”

“You’re wrong.” Corday took her cheek, made her meet his eye. “You stood up to the biggest monster of them all. You have escaped him twice now. You are strong, Claire.”

But she wasn’t. “No… you don’t understand. The pair-bond, the pregnancy… I started to care for him, to need him.” Saying it out loud made her mouth taste of vomit. “I was weak.”

Corday knew none of that was her fault. “Given the circumstances, what happened was only natural.”

“I don’t know what it was… but it was. I stopped seeing a monster and wanted the attention of the man. And once he’d persuaded my affection, he made it the world’s sickest joke. I should be grateful, I guess. Listening to him with her… it ripped the pair-bond out. He can’t control me now.”

The total lack of emotion in Claire’s voice disturbed Corday. Whatever Shepherd had done had damaged the Omega, and a part of him wondered if every expression she was making was only because she was supposed to remember things like breathing and blinking.

Oblivious to the apprehension in her friend, Claire continued. “I get it now. This breach was not about gaining power. We’re his puppets, falling rabid at the snap of his fingers. We dance on his stage. Shepherd, his Followers, they’re punishing us all for…” she scoffed under her breath, “for blind ignorance. For allowing what was done to them.”

“You are free of him, of his lies, and his evil, Claire. Remember that.”

“The Dome is cracked. It’s snowing outside. Not frost, real snow. We are not free of him, not when we let that happen. We let this all happen.”

“We can take back Thólos.”

Claire’s breath hitched. “Not so long as he is alive.”