When I stand and there’s no more fireball in sight, Alfie approaches. But I will not be knocked over or tied up again. When he grabs me, I don’t struggle; instead, I lean into his pull, which causes him to stumble from the unexpected lack of resistance. I use the moment to reach for his neck, praying I picked the right spot. I conduct Ha’i toward his vagus nerve, and I must have done it right, because he slumps to the floor in a faint.

I feel like my heart could explode from relief.

I fumble through Alfie’s pockets and take my stuff back and immediately use my phone to call Mom.

Ugh! Why does she never answer? I hang up and try Kor, but it goes straight to voicemail.

Rafe and Hypatia can’t wait for me forever. I’ll have to head back without learning what I came to learn. I use the torch on my spoon to try to find the path back to the water, but without Rafe to lead me, it’s too dark and overgrown for me to navigate.

I suddenly notice light coming toward me from a much clearer path than the one I’m on.

“Ada? Is that you?”

In the poor light, it takes me a minute to recognize that it’s Kor. He’s thinner, which brings out the exquisite bone structure of his face even more than before, and his hair has grown out longer than I’ve ever seen it. But he looks as calmly commanding as ever, and I feel a sense of relief come over me. He’ll know what to do, and he’ll be able to explain to me what’s going on.

“Hey,” he says as if we’re not on the grounds of a rotting hospital.

“Hi,” I say as if I’m not out of breath from escaping capture.

Then he rushes to me and wraps me in a hug. “It’s good to see you.”

I hug him back, hard, delaying the moment when I’ll have to face the difficult questions that might change everything.

“Ada,” he says into my hair, “what are you doing here? With a heretic?”

I break our hug and step back. Heretic. That’s how the exiles are referred to in the Families’ earliest texts—in the Inquisitor texts—but no one calls them that anymore.

“I came to—”

There’s a squawk from the tree above Kor, and he moves a few feet away, motioning me to follow.

“Herons,” he explains. “We need to be careful not to disrupt the birds too much. Our activity on the island has already decreased their breeding, and we don’t want the Audubon Society poking around. You were saying?”

“I came to warn you about how much the Makers know about you and to rescue Hypatia.”

“Why would she need rescuing?”