A shudder crept down his spine. It was Siege’s voice, and not Mellifare’s, the honeyed dip and swing of her accent. He felt Ana tremble beside him.

“It is not real,” he told her, trying to convince himself.

“I died,” the Great Dark went on in Siege’s voice. “You let me die, darling. You disappointed me.”

“I . . . I didn’t . . . ,” Ana whispered.

He felt the HIVE shift then, pulsing, raging, and suddenly he shoved Ana out of the way. The next thing he knew, a hand grabbed his face—and red eyes sparked to life in the dark, illuminating Mellifare’s twisted snarl. The electricity she had expended had cracked her skin, making chunks of it flake off. She did not look the least bit human anymore, the shadows clinging to her like an extravagant robe.

Lightning bolts leaped across his skin, leaving blossoms of black burn marks, sinking beneath his wires. His memory core in his chest flashed so hot he thought it would boil out of his skin—and there was a pop.

His eyes darkened.

Mellifare picked him up and launched him into the pews with enough force to snap them in half.

Ana

There was a loud crash. His name tore from her throat in a wail—but he didn’t respond. The light in his eyes flickered for a moment—moonlit—and then was gone.

She gritted her teeth, anger pulsing in her stomach, and tore the steel dagger out of her boot. All she could see were the red pinpricks of Mellifare’s eyes. Ana slashed her across the middle, but Mellifare backstepped, and then again. Ana took the offensive, remembering what Siege had taught her.

Don’t let them stop, darling, don’t let them think, she heard her captain say.

Rage and regret pulsed through her in equal measure, and she blindly jabbed into the darkness. She caught glimpses of Mellifare only when she came too close, and then the darkness swallowed her up again. Ana cursed, making herself stop, and listened for footsteps, but her heart beat so loud she could barely hear anything at all—

This was useless. She was useless in the dark.

“I’ll barter with you!” Ana cried desperately, and with her other hand she curled it around the heart in her pocket and brought it out. “Release the Metals in the HIVE, and I’ll give you your heart.”

Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched Mellifare’s electric footfalls come to a stop a few feet away from her, eyes bright. “Liar.”

“It’s here and you can have it. Just release the Metals in the HIVE first.”

“And give up my only power source for when you refuse to give me my heart?” Mellifare laughed. “Ana, I am not that gullible. I will just take it once I kill you.”

Ana curled her shaking fingers around the heart.

She was afraid of dying—of ending like a sigh in the universe, inconsequential, a blink in time. She wanted to be more than a blink—she wanted eons with that boy of metal and moonlight. And she couldn’t have it.