Mei rolls her eyes. “That’s because you’d rather hang out with Lucy and Finn.”

“Well, I’m hanging out with you now.”

“Why?” Mei asks, her face going serious. Maybe I also grew up too fast. Is that why we drifted apart? Because we were in such a hurry to get older that we forgot to cherish the moments we had together as kids? As sisters?

We’ll never have that time back. And I’ll carry the regret with me like a weight in my heart.

“I want us to be close again,” I say, and my voice cracks like rice paper.

Mei blinks. “You never talk to me. You don’t know any of my friends at school. You always cancel plans.”

“That’s not true,” I argue, but maybe it is.

Mei doesn’t stop. “We used to be close, but we’re not anymore. You left me behind.” She blinks again, and when her eyes open, they’re silver.

“What… what happened to you?” I ask, wide-eyed.

“Why don’t you ask her?” Mei replies.

I sense her nearby—the familiarity. I bring my wrist closer, staring at the light emitting from my O-Tech watch. My heart hammers, fear snowballing quickly. “Ophelia, what did you do to my sister?”

Mei opens her mouth, but Ophelia’s voice comes out. “You did this to her. You all did.” She turns back to the stars, and I follow her gaze.

Thousands of stars. Of worlds. Of people.

We did this, my own voice hisses inside my skull.

“No!” I shout. Terror moves through my blood like tar, sticky and foul and dark. I have to protect Mei. I have to save her. I should’ve been a better sister to her, back when I thought I had all the time in the world. I failed her then, but I won’t fail her now.

I turn to Mei, fighting the darkness trickling through me.

But the silver eyes don’t belong to her anymore. They belong to Prince Caelan.

“The thing about creating monsters,” he says with a cold stare of defiance, “is that one day you’ll have to kill them.”

“Where’s my sister?” My throat burns. Am I screaming?

“Will you do it?” His eyes harden.

I feel the cold metal in my hand, and I don’t have to look down to know it’s a gun.

And for a moment Prince Caelan becomes that man—black mask, black gun, black stare. I can hardly breathe.

I shake my head. “I’m not a killer.”

“Will you do it for Mei?” he asks, voice ringing like I’m running out of time. “Will you do whatever it takes to survive?”

I grip the gun tighter. I don’t want this. I don’t want any of this.

I hear the click of metal, and when I look down at my fist, the gun has vanished.

“Because I will,” Prince Caelan says.