“You did,” Angela agreed. “But what did you do?”

Sammi’s smile slipped. “Just for a bit I felt...”

“Powerful,” Lilou said. She was panting hard, sweating, and grey dust was stuck to her skin in dark streaks.

“I never realised,” Angela said.

“I didn’t know how much I could do,” Sammi said. “I knew I had something, felt it growing and changing. But I didn’t know how much I had until now.”

“You still don’t,” Lilou said.

“We can talk later,” Bone said. “Right now, we’ve got to figure out a way of permanently containing them.”

“That wasn’t Mohserran,” Lilou said. “That wasn’t my friend. I haven’t seen him for over a century, but I remember so much about him. How proud he was, how amusing, how he loved life and loved to love. That... thing wasn’t him. Whatever the army or whoever did to him, he’d never want to be like that. We don’t need to contain them. We need to kill them.”

Bone’s eyes went wide. His stance became harder, readied for more violence. He knows them, she thought. If he has a personal link, we need to watch out.

A deep and regular banging began from the half-buried structure. The exposed metal door shimmered, and with each impact it seemed to blur as dust fell from its surface. The bent chair leg wedging the handle closed seemed solid, and the impacts settled the silt piled back against the door.

Even so, she wouldn’t put a bet on how long the three Kin could be contained.

“How the hell are they even still alive?” she asked.

“The Kovo,” Bone said.

“What’s that?”

“The infection. It’s kept them alive, somehow. Didn’t you see their eyes?”

“You know them,” Sammi said.

“I know them,” he said, but he offered no more. Angela saw a level of control in him, as if he was accustomed to situations similar to this. He reminded her of the Kin-killer Gregor, but Bone seemed to have a link with the Kin, something close and personal, not simply a desire to kill.

“We need to figure this out,” Lilou said. “But there’s something else.”

Angela raised an eyebrow.

“That was fairy stuff,” Lilou said, nodding at Sammi. “I’m sorry, kid, but it can’t be denied. You’ve got fairy blood somewhere in your past, and everything you’ve been through is bringing it to the fore. I’ve suspected for some time, but didn’t want to say anything in case it confused you or... hurt you. But I’ve been keeping watch.”

Angela glared at her. Lilou shrugged in response.

“I never believed she’d have anything like this much power.”

“So what happens to her now?” Angela asked, terrified for her niece, sad for herself. I’m losing the one thing left pinning me to the world I know.