Jeran. I don’t see him here, but I don’t dare utter a sound about it. Still, my eyes scan the prisoners and the grounds before I come to the realization that Jeran isn’t among them. He’d been here during the attack—I’d seen him in the fray.

At first, I worry that maybe one of the soldiers had killed him. But he’s far too talented a Striker for that. Had he escaped in the chaos? My heart hammers against my ribs, and I hope that Constantine associates it only with the fact that I’m seeing my companions chained before me.

Jeran and Red have escaped. I let myself hang on to this threadbare hope as I meet the gazes of the others.

What Constantine will do with them once they arrive in Cardinia, I already know. The Chief Architect will see them, just as she saw me. She’ll take them to the National Laboratory and have them tested to see if they can withstand the Skyhunter transformation. Or, if they don’t pass that exam, they may be transformed into Ghosts.

Or worse, he might hand them over to his brother. I tremble at the thought of what General Caitoman might do to them.

“Firstblade,” he says when he sees Aramin. I expect Constantine to gloat, but instead he just shakes his head. “You should have surrendered at the warfront. So many of your talented soldiers could have found new purpose within the Federation.”

Aramin doesn’t respond to that, but he does keep his eyes fixed steadily on the Premier, a silent challenge.

The guard standing beside Aramin hits him so hard that he crumples to his knees, then shoves him face-first into the ground. I push down the pain of this sight, biting the inside of my lip until I taste the metallic tang of blood. Constantine watches coolly, unfazed.

My eyes go to Adena. She looks hollowed out, a shadow of who she’d been in Red’s vision only the night before. She searches my gaze and finds what she’s looking for in there—the truth. She knows I’m the reason why they were ambushed. Why their plan today didn’t work. She knows that, somehow, I discovered what they were doing and I passed the knowledge on to the Premier.

The grief I see in her now reminds me of when her brother had first died.

Adena had gotten heavily drunk that night. She threw up everything in her and fell right outside of our mess hall. Jeran carried her half-conscious form back to the apartments, where Corian made her guzzle water before I helped her change and get into bed. As she went down, she turned to me, eyes glazed with despair.

How did you do it, Talin? she whispered to me. Make it day after day, after Basea?

I gave her a sad smile. Honestly? I don’t know. I don’t remember many of the days after my mother and I settled in the Outer City. They blended together. I shrugged, hesitating. And then, one day, you realize years have passed and you’re still here.