The HIVE wouldn’t catch her—not today.

Once they reached the condemned building, they ducked into the front entrance, past the forgotten security desk, and made for the stairwell and began to climb; Elara and Xu first, and Ana behind. She closed the stairwell door and blasted off the handle. Hopefully that would hold—the door buckled in—never mind. She turned on her heel and took the stairs up two at a time. One flight, then another. Ana could hear the Messiers’ Metal gears whirring behind her. One false step, and they would catch her. Her heart pounded in her chest.

She had not been caught yesterday. Or the day before. Or the months before that. She had never been caught by a Messier or a guardsman or a patrol.

She was Ana of the Dossier, and she would not be caught today.

Elara threw open the door to the top level. The view stretched across the slums of Neon City, black shadows giving way to glittering windows of bright neon lights. Above them, clouds obscured the skies, thick like gray marshmallows, covering up the moving star that was the Dossier.

Ana’s lungs burned as she tried to take a deep enough breath, but she didn’t have time. “Keep running!” she cried.

Elara threw her a stupefied look. “There’s a ledge!”

“Jump off it!”

“But—”

“TRUST ME!”

Because she trusted Jax.

To her surprise, Elara launched herself off the side of the building, ratty black cloak fluttering behind her like wings—

And landed in the backseat of a skysailer. Xu landed on the cushion beside her.

Robb whipped around in the passenger seat, throwing out his arm to reach her. “ANA!”

She could read the fright on his face—the disbelief, and then the horror—a moment before she realized what was happening. Because as she went to launch herself off the side of the building, a hand snaked up and caught her by her hood and pulled her back.

Away from the skysailer.

Away from Robb.

Away from Jax, and the Dossier and her captain.

I’ve never been caught, she thought, and then realized her mistake.

Because she had, on the dark side of Cerces all those months ago. Something she had almost forgotten because she had escaped.

Because of Di.

One moment she was launching herself off the side of the ledge, and the next she was on the floor, rolling back onto the rooftop. She heard Robb shouting her name, about to dive out of the skysailer to help her, but Elara grabbed him and held him back. Jax turned the skysailer to the sky, a rain of bullets showering them as they ascended into the night—

And were gone.

A Metal grabbed her by her arm and pulled her to her knees, slamming the butt of its Metroid into her cheek. She tilted sideways with the blow but caught herself. Her head spun, ears ringing. Her lungs burned.

She couldn’t catch her breath.

Stay calm, she told herself. Her heart was racing—but not from fright. And that scared her. Because she recognized the shiver up her spine, the tingling across her skin.