“Okay,” Ana promised, pulling the strings to seal her sack, and looped the strap over her shoulder. The gunner pulled her into a strong hug. Lenda was just a few years older than Ana, but sometimes she felt decades older. She never talked about her past or where she’d come from, but Ana always got the feeling that she hadn’t come from a place of love. Ana was glad she was here now.

“I won’t die,” Ana promised. “Stars keep you steady.”

“Iron keep you safe.”

Ana didn’t look back as she left down the ramp and wove through the nighttime crowd toward the transportation vessel on the other side of the docks. It was the last one to Eros for the night, and she quickened her pace to catch it, rummaging through her rucksack one last time to make sure she had her fake ID—when she collided headfirst with someone.

She stumbled back. “Oh, I’m sorry—Viera!”

The ex–guard captain gave her a careful look, her gaze lingering on the rucksack over her shoulder. “You are leaving.”

“Yeah—but the Dossier’ll be leaving soon, too. If . . . if you want to come with us. What’s that on your face?” she asked, pointing to a soot spot on Viera’s cheek.

Viera slid her finger against the mark and smeared it. “I was praying in the Iron Shrine when Metals set it on fire earlier. I helped put it out, but I could not follow them.”

“Are you okay? Did the smoke get to you or—”

“I may not be a guard captain anymore, but I can take care of myself,” she snapped, and Ana took a step back.

“I’m—I’m sorry.”

Viera rubbed the bridge of her nose and gave a long sigh. “No, I am sorry. It has been a long few months. Where are you going?”

“Oh, um. Eros. I gotta do something,” she told her. “I’m going to make sure that whatever the HIVE did to you they’ll never do to anyone else again. I promise. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there to stop it—but we’ll stop it now.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Because I’m going to find its heart,” she replied cryptically. Viera opened her mouth to ask what the heart was, but the freighter had powered on its thrusters, and she cursed. “I’m sorry—Elara’ll explain everything. I’ll see you in a bit, okay?” Then she drew Viera into a quick hug and tore off through the crowd toward the freighter ship, and she didn’t looked back.

But as Ana found a seat in the galley of the freighter, curling her fingers around a warm cup of coffee, her eyes darting to all of the people around her who could be human or Metal or HIVE’d, she wondered if maybe she should’ve brought someone with her—Lenda or Viera or even Xu. But that would’ve been asking them to risk their lives for her again.

It’s fine, she told herself, pulling her hood lower over her brow. No one knows where I’m going.