He drops his arms and takes a long breath. His chest rises and falls.

Then he reholsters his unfired gun, ice-calm again, and he points southeast, across the fields. “That way,” he says. “To the pathways and to Tir.”

30

We cover the bikes—camouflaging them with dirt and leaves and branches—and set out across the field. Rows of hollow plant stalks rise to my midriff, covered in rinds of ice that shatter when kicked. The air is brittle. We cut through the field at a swift walk. Malik leads. Then me. Then Vidhan and Akuji. The frozen mud underfoot makes it slow going. My teeth clench against the cold.

Above us, apart from clouds, the sky is clear. No sign of Reapers. I switch off and let my feet carry me. I run my hands, palms down, through the stalks and they come away wet. I follow Malik’s flattened trail, without speaking, without thinking.

Vidhan walks up alongside me.

He slaps his hands together, cups them and breathes into them. His breath smokes. The cold is to-the-bone. We trudge side by side, wordlessly.

Malik is far ahead, out of earshot.

Akuji flanks us, scouting out wide to the right.

“Whatsamatter?” Vidhan says to me. “You ain’t askin questions no more?”

“I’m done asking questions,” I say.

Vidhan sniffs and spits. “Bloody Gabe,” he says. “He was one of the good guys.”

“He was trying to protect us,” I say, flipping up the collar of my leather bike jacket. “Making sure we got away.”

“He was a Pathfinder,” Vidhan says. “Doing what he was born to do.”

“It’s my fault, Vidhan. If it wasn’t for me—”

“Don’t,” Vidhan says, looking at me. His eyes are magnified behind his glasses. “Don’t get swallowed up in that blame game. Ain’t nobody’s fault. Got me?”

“Yeah,” I tell him, listening to my feet crunch. “I got you.”

“Gotta stay sharp, Ana. Keep it together. Only gets harder from here.”

Gabe’s disembodied voice hammers in my head. Six hard words.

We want you to kill Shinigami.

I take a deep breath. The cold air hits my chest like a hammer. I stare at Malik, up ahead. His head swivels side to side, endlessly scanning the field and the sky.

“He’s different around you,” Vidhan says, observing my gaze.

I say nothing. Keep walking.

Vidhan shrugs. He lifts his glasses and cleans them on his shirt. “I always thought his heart was gone. That if ya cut him, you’d find nothin inside. He’d be hollowed out. But now…with you…”

Vidhan falls silent.

“Bad things have happened to him,” I say. “I can see it. Terrible things.”

Vidhan pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose and sniffs. “Hell. Terrible things have happened to all of us. Me? I choose to forget.” He quickens his pace and marches away.