The woman’s eyes were not unkind, though her words offered no comfort. Caledonia made herself a stone. Pisces would remind her that Aric was the one at the center of all this. Aric was the one who terrorized the colonists, who stole their children and then forced them, in turn, to steal their own brothers and sisters. Disrupting that system came with consequences.

But the real truth of the matter was that Caledonia had disrupted that system for her own selfish gain. Saving Ares and facing Lir had nothing to do with the colonists, yet the consequences had landed squarely, unfairly on their shoulders. They were fighting now because of it; they would die because of it.

“Are they already on their way to the colonies?” Caledonia pressed a fist to her stomach, pushing her thumb right up under the bridge of her rib cage. “Do you know?”

“Our information is always delayed,” Mino answered, apologetic. “But they were waiting until they could all come together. To make a production of it. A show for Aric.”

Nausea weakened the back of her throat. “How many days? I know you don’t know, but I need you to guess.”

Mino frowned hard. “I don’t like to guess.”

“Please.”

The woman drew a deep breath as she considered the obstinate, desperate girl before her. Her desire to refute the question once more was evident in her frown, but something she saw in Caledonia’s own expression must have changed her mind. With a sympathetic sigh, she answered, “Three days, Captain. If you’re going to do something. You have three days.”

Chapter Forty-six

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

That night, Caledonia lay awake in her bunk unable to quiet her mind or her heart. All she could imagine were dozens of ships racing north, hundreds of colonists watching the horizon with wary eyes—and Donnally. Was he truly capable of the kind of act that lay before him? Had he lost so much of himself that he could become a Fiveson in Aric’s army? Become the thing that had destroyed his own family?

As if she could hear Caledonia’s quiet desperation, Pisces arrived in the earliest morning hours when the sky was still dark and cool with mist, long before the rest of the camp would begin to stir. She slipped inside the room and padded over to the bed, seeming unsurprised to find Caledonia awake.

“What’s wrong?” Pisces asked.

She climbed onto the bed, taking Caledonia’s hand in her own. Their fingers wove naturally together, and the pressure of her warm touch was comforting.

“How did you know?” Caledonia asked in return.

They both looked up when the door opened again, revealing a star-stained sky and the radiant moon of Hime’s lovely face. Behind her was Amina. And behind them both, Nettle and Tin.

We always know, Hime signed. Her right hand was still stiff but finally free of its bandage.