“I was him,” Caelan corrects. “The real Gil never survived War; he was defeated on the battlefield and returned to Victory unaware. I sent him to Death to be part of a new experiment; and now I’m able to move my consciousness between bodies whenever I need to.” He stares at Gil’s shell absentmindedly. “He turned out to be quite useful when it came to keeping an eye on the Colony.”

“You knew about everything,” I say. “This whole time, you knew.” I think of every moment with Caelan—with Gil—and comb through them like I’m trying to make sense of what’s happening. But no matter how I spin it, the truth is buried in Gil’s empty stare.

Everything was a lie.

Humans never stood a chance.

His eyes snap to mine. “This is my court—if a human is in it, it’s because I allow them to be.”

“But why?” I growl fiercely. “You knew about the Resistance; you could’ve stopped us whenever you wanted to. Why play this game?”

“Victory doesn’t exist to let humans live out their days in an imagined peace,” he says mockingly. “It exists to let humans attempt their silly ploys, so we can learn every new plan humans think of to stop us.” He shrugs, as if the answer is obvious. “War and Famine are designed to break humans; Victory and Death are designed to test them.”

I feel nauseous. How many times have I been told that Residents can’t dream? That they can’t imagine anything new?

Studying us is the only way they can be one step ahead.

I shake my head, the disbelief making my head spin. “This place… It was all a trick.” I look up angrily, hot tears spilling over my cheeks. “Is the Orb even real?”

Caelan scoffs. “Of course not. Whatever information you learned was information we gave you.”

I stare between him and Gil, my heart breaking into pieces. “How could you do this to everyone? The Colony—”

“The Colony means nothing to me,” he spits. “They were an experiment that has come to an end.”

“They trusted you,” I hiss.

“And I trusted you!” he shouts. A wall quakes behind his eyes, and betrayal seeps out like wisps of black smoke.

My betrayal.

I pull my face back, feeling his hurt. Feeling everything.

“You had a choice, remember?” Caelan narrows his eyes.

I remember last night and what Gil told me. What Prince Caelan told me.

Did he want me to spare the Residents? Is that what he meant by suggesting I could change my mind?

He blinks darkly. “But you came for the Orb anyway. You chose the extinction of my kind.”

I feel like my chest is caving in, weighed down by my own horror. The words barely make it past my lips. “What are you going to do to the Colony?”