“I couldn’t move,” he whispers, his voice breaking. “I saw his face and I couldn’t move.” His words halt, and I hear him take in a sharp breath wet with tears. “I couldn’t do it. And they took Adena and Aramin because of it. Because they protected me.”

I wait beside him as he cries, the sounds of his weeping quiet and muffled in the silent stillness of the forest. I think of the look of fear that came across his face at the sight of his father’s Ghost. I know, in that moment, he must have seen not a monster but the man who he feared, who Jeran had always protected himself from by simply bowing to his wishes.

There’s nothing you can say to comfort him. You know how it is. You saw the same with your own family.

Finally, when his sobs have calmed, I say to him in a low voice, “The first time I saw my father and sister as Ghosts, I froze too. It felt like someone had plunged a hand into my mind and seized it, letting it bleed. That’s what the Federation intends, you know. To recognize those you love within something you hate. They know it kills something deep inside you.” My voice softens. “There was no other way you could have reacted.”

He shakes his head, wiping his sleeve across his face. We sit in silence for a while, the only sound being the occasional trill of some faraway bird.

At last, Jeran reaches up to retie his hair. The neater knot seems to give him a sense of calm, and he looks at me with clearer eyes.

“They knew what we were planning because of Talin, didn’t they?” He nods in the direction of the camp. “That’s why you aren’t going back.”

I tear my eyes away from him to the thick of trees surrounding us. All I can do is nod once. The joy I’d felt connecting with Talin is nothing compared with the rage and grief that swallow me now, knowing that my joy is the reason for my sorrow.

Our link pits us against each other, and the closer we get, the more we may hurt each other.

“I can’t risk it,” I reply. “Talin could sense, somehow, our planning—she may even have seen a glimpse of us there. The closer I linger to the others, the more danger I put them in.”

At the look on my face, Jeran reaches out to touch my elbow. “Your bond with her still works,” he says. “That’s a good thing. And that’s something we can turn to our advantage.”

“How?” I pause, letting the wind through the trees haunt us. “Her link with me is a constant danger to us.”

“Aramin always told the Strikers that we can always be the hunter if we think like the hunter,” he says. “If Talin can see you, then maybe you can see her, too. Maybe she can give us a look inside the Federation, into the heart of what Constantine is planning day to day.” Jeran’s fingers tap restlessly against the hilt of his blades, and some emotion flickers across his face. I wonder if his heart is with Aramin and Adena. “Maybe we can find a way to strengthen it.”