“Ada… please…” He grabs my hand, and there’s a desperation to his voice that I can’t afford to interpret. There’s too much at stake for me to be swayed by feelings that once I acknowledge, I won’t be able to ignore.

I refuse to look up; there’s a lump in my throat. “Goodbye, Michael. Thank you for everything.”

I pull my hand free and leave the hotel without looking back.

As I make my way through the streets, I let the sounds and smells of the city whip past me. Tears are torn from my eyes by the wind as I give myself the journey home to mourn my choice. But once I get there, there can be no more doubt. No more tears.

I gave the Families a lot of sensitive information. And now Genesis is at risk. Because of me.

I have to fix it.

37

“Do you like it?” Kor asks me. Referring to the new song he just played, which he wrote for me as my eighteenth birthday present. If I didn’t know him so well, his ongoing attempts to win me back into his good graces would have me charmed into a quivering puddle of hormones.

Of course I like the song. It’s gorgeous, poignant, maybe the best thing he’s ever written. But it’s hard to care anymore.

I smile stiffly, and Kor shifts closer while he lazily strums “Happy Birthday,” and I try to find stars in the cloudy city sky.

We’re on the roof of Grandfather’s house, a small, flat spot that can be reached through a window in one of the rarely used guest rooms. Both Kor and I have been so busy—and maybe I’ve also been avoiding him a little—so we haven’t had much opportunity for alone time, but tonight he came over for my birthday dinner, and afterward we migrated up here with a six-pack and a guitar like old times.

But it’s nothing like old times.

I’ve been back for two weeks. Most of which I’ve spent being interrogated by the Inner Chamber. Kor and my mother managed to explain away my actions at the hospital—which wasn’t too difficult, since many from the Inner Chamber don’t even know what’s really going on there—and now my full-time job is gaining their trust while also trying to withhold any information that could be used to harm the Makers. Today involved a lot of questions specifically about the Avant Guard and the mists surrounding the island.

Despite my mission supposedly having been one of the most important in the history of the Families, the Oculus and the Grand Master have remained completely out of everything. I need to find out more about who they are and what they’re up to, but I am the last person likely to get ahold of that information at the moment.