He was, in a way, reminiscent of everything that had gone wrong with Amy. Duplicity, villainy, the fact he breached my boundaries simply by being here when I didn’t want him to be, and that he’d stayed despite the conflict of interest, when the Ferrymen had left.

The others had some sense of what had happened now. I’d shared hints, but I hadn’t spelled it out.

I would have to explain the Wretch.

Maybe if I went to Dr. Darnall.

“Victoria,” Capricorn called out. There was a note of urgency. “Sveta!”

“What?”

“Go! He’s dying!”

“Door’s electrified!” Lookout shouted.

I flew. Sveta was right behind me, struggling for a lack of good things to grab beyond the field of green.

I offered her my hand.

Just the force of her pulling made my sling wound hurt. I could have asked Marquis for help, and yet there was no way I would.

I broke through the electrified door. Sveta was right behind me, launching through the gap between myself and the top of the door.

A man, bloody, bearded, with a mullet and glasses. He had a tattoo on his arm and I couldn’t see it because he was bleeding so much.

There were liters of blood on the ground and he didn’t have many to spare. His head moved as I flew over to him, and his eyes were unfocused.

“My name is Kingdom Come,” he said. “Help this man and help me.”

“What’s going on?” Sveta asked.

“He’s controlled,” I said. “We’re going to help you, okay, Kingdom. Stop struggling, you’re making it worse.”

“Can’t hear you,” he said. “Can’t really see. If I’d known you were coming, I wouldn’t have done this.”

“Help,” I said. “Towels, by the bed.”

There were towels in the corner of the cabin. Sveta grabbed them and I began using them to staunch the bleeding. It wasn’t enough.

“They left the body like this, punishing me because I wasn’t being fast enough. I couldn’t bear to sit here and feel a body starve to death, can’t disconnect my power from victims like this. They won’t let me. I pulled until the wires did enough damage. If I’d just waited twenty minutes…”

“Stay strong,” I said. “Stick this out.”

“Can’t hear you,” he said, sounding far away. “I feel like I lose a little piece of me every time one of these bodies gets discarded.”

The wires were in the way. I reached out, activating my forcefield for just a moment, so I could wrench them, tearing them from where they’d been lashed. A floorboard broke to my right.

It was easier when the wires were removed, but there were some that were acting as tourniquets. It was hard to know which was which, so I focused on the ones that were scraping bone.