Someone’s voice springs into my head, bold and clear.

There is no hiding behind a whisper here.

The Chinese man, I suspect. Then a different voice. Gabe.

You wanna say something? Speak your mind, Ana.

“You’re lying,” I tell him. “Malik, Akuji and Vidhan—they didn’t know who I was. They weren’t following me.”

“Like I said,” Gabe says calmly. “Your importance is known only to a few. The fewer people aware, the better. Malik finding you first like that? Pure chance. One in a million. But he knows now. I’ve told him.”

“And Bea?” I repeat.

“Look, here’s the thing,” Gabe says. “Sometimes, no matter how careful you are, the watchers become the watched. We think the Order got wind of our operation. They might’ve been suspicious. Followed you too. Likely without knowing why, at least at first.”

I stare out of the conservatory glass at a city in ruin. I feel hunted. Cornered. Caught in the middle between two factions fighting a war I don’t understand. Pathfinders. The good and the bad. On both sides.

And me, between.

“What happened to Bea?” I demand. “Just tell me.”

“We believe your friend Beatrice Gold was taken in error,” Silver-Hair says. “We believe her abduction was a case of mistaken identity.”

Silence falls on the room.

A buzzing sound. Swirling dots of light. The warping glass wall of the conservatory seem to expand and contract. Malik was right. You think life is one way, then a door opens and you realise the world is bigger than you thought.

“Ana,” Gabe says, dragging me back to the present. “Did you hear us?”

“Wait,” I say, head spinning. “Just…say that again.”

“We think Shinigami learned, or guessed, you’re the girl from the prophecy and ordered your capture,” he says. “But the Order got it wrong. Your friend was taken instead of you.”

“How…I mean, how’s that even possible?”

“Reapers,” Gabe says. “They’re brutal and strong, but they aren’t the brightest. You and Bea, you were always together, right? Inseparable? They mixed you up. It was a mistake.”

“But what did they want with me?”

“Haven’t you been listening? You’re the last piece Shinigami needs to access Kronos and its powers. We know the Order located the Seventh Gate some years ago. And we believe Shinigami has managed to use the gate, but only one way. People go in, but they don’t come back. That’s the significance of Mother’s prophecy: that a girl from Sol would open a pathway to and from the seventh. Without you, Shinigami can enter Kronos but never come out.”

I take a deep shuddering breath.

“Who is this Shinigami?”