The thought sends me shaking again. No, no, no. I can’t let this happen. But how can I possibly stop it by myself, when I’m trapped by the Premier’s side?

I wince and clutch my head in my hands. This is going to hurt my mother. What was I thinking? But what else could I have done?

My mother’s safety or Adena’s life. It is not a choice.

Red, I call through our bond. I feel my voice echoing futilely, like sound through a tunnel with no end. Look what is happening to everyone I love. Why can’t you just stay away and protect yourself?

I sit with my head in my hands and count the minutes. In the morning, I will have to walk back out there with Constantine. Stand ready at the Premier’s beck and call. Shadow General Caitoman on tours of the city. Dole out punishments as they see fit. The solstice celebrations will continue. There will be banquets and dancing. There will be another game, and this time I will see Adena and Aramin murdered, I know it. And I’ll have to attend all of it.

Someday, I remind myself again and again. Someday, this will be over. The rebellion will unfurl, Raina and Mayor Elland will turn the country against Constantine, and the unrest stirring in all corners of the Federation will finally crack open. And I will be at the heart of it, taking him down.

The thought of it is so clear and sharp that I immediately force my feelings back into line. Push all images of Raina out of my head. Stop thinking about Red. Stop thinking about Adena and Aramin. I focus on stilling my emotions until my heart beats at a normal pace again, slow and steady.

I don’t know when I drift off. I’m only aware I’ve fallen asleep because when I suddenly stir, I am heading down a rope bridge suspended in a fog of darkness. Down below is an endless chasm. And somewhere ahead is a land of pale mist, its air pulsing with the slight, steady rhythm of Red’s heart.

I must have opened myself up again, enough to let my link with Red come through. Our dreams have bound us together, letting us meet once more in this singular state of unconsciousness.

The realization sends me into a new panic. No, Red. Go away.

But in this state, I’m helpless. Gradually, Red’s mind responds to mine. Fragments of his surroundings materialize around me.

He’s somewhere on the outskirts of Cardinia, outside of the city and beyond the bridges that stretch over the river encircling the capital. Out here, there are cheaper installations displayed in the same pattern as those inside the city—narrower thoroughfares radiating out from the city walls, with old bits of twisted steel taken from stolen fields and razed forests arching along their paths. Messier apartment towers sprawl outward. Many of them are worn down, some of them painted on. One of these towers casts its shadow into the alley where Red’s camped for the night.