What about your mother, Talin? he asks me.

I shake my head, not knowing what to do. But I do know this. The certainty of it sears through me in a wave of heat. Constantine’s control of my mother is the only thing he currently has with which to subdue me. But that means, with her, I can also control him. He can’t afford to kill my mother. Without her, his command over me breaks. So this moment is a bet between us. It is us pitted against each other, the Premier and his Skyhunter, each daring the other to back down first.

I don’t dare look directly at the Chief Architect beside him. But even from my peripheral view, I can see her figure turned fully toward me, her focus on what I’ll do.

Adena stares up at me, waiting in the wake of my hesitation. In her gaze, I see the Striker with whom I’ve fought side by side, who had brought me baskets of pies after Corian’s death. Who would fashion endless gadgets to help me stay alive at the warfront. For a moment, we are no longer standing on opposite sides of the divide. We’re companions again.

The crowd around us stirs restlessly, then begins chanting again. Some are chanting for her death; others are chanting something that takes me aback.

Mercy. Mercy.

Constantine rises, then lifts his arms. He raises his voice.

“My Skyhunter moves to defend me,” he calls out, “but for this good performance, this excellent entertainment, I order the life of this Striker spared.” His eyes meet mine again. “May she entertain us again on another day.”

Constantine is sparing Adena’s life.

I don’t know if it’s because he wants to appease the restless crowds, or if he’s sending a message to his people that he can be a merciful ruler. I don’t know if this is his way of reasserting authority, a way to soothe the fraying nerves at the edges of his Federation, or a way to disguise my defiance to the public, that he is actually capitulating to my demand. But I don’t care.

I drop to my knees before him anyway, on top of the maze structure, and bow my head in his direction. My subservience. My obedience to the Premier, on full display.

Mercy granted.

For a terrible moment, I think he will order his soldiers to kill Adena anyway.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he nods at me and folds his arms, as if he expected my reaction all along.

Nearby in the balcony, General Caitoman looks away in disgusted disappointment. The Chief Architect merely folds her arms.

I’m shaking. I don’t know what this will mean for my mother. But if I continue to head down this path, I’ll reach a point of no return. Where I will do something I’ll regret for the rest of my life. Where my own mother would shake her head in grief at my action.

Adena and I lock eyes a final time. She gives me a faint nod before the guards come. Then they grab her, and she’s escorted down the remaining path to the holding room at the end of the maze. The arena roars in delight over a stunningly entertaining game.