I saw three or four of the Fallen capes in the mix. Complicated. They were some of the ones who had been in the background during the raid on the camp, periodically using their powers. If they were here, they were diehard enough to be deemed irredeemable. Most of the others had either expressed genuine remorse or they’d feigned it well enough to convince a judge.

If they were here, they were the kind of Fallen who were unquestionable problems.

I was glad that most seemed to be going inside. Some found seats by windows, where they could stare us down.

I spotted Rain, who approached from the other half of the complex, passing through a corrugated metal gate that a guard managed, and approached us at the table.

The table was longer and wider than what I was used to, and so were many of the other parts of the area—the buildings were squat and heavy, with a lot of fortification. Roads were wide enough that four cars could pass down them side by side.

The large fixtures and the wide, broad planes of everything coupled with the isolated individuals to make the entire space out to look exceedingly isolated.

Rain took his seat. He’d trimmed his hair short, and with no hair in the way or covering anything up, his eyes were open wider, no longer shielded or half-closed in readiness to blink as hair fell over them, and a multitude of tiny nicks and cuts covered his face. There were places where the scars left a tiny notch in his jawline or ear. The lines of his hands and the half-moons of his fingernails were black with oil. He wore a prison-issue denim coat over his regular clothes.

At least he had that luxury.

“Hi,” Lookout said.

“Hey critter,” he said. “I heard about some of your adventures a few days ago.”

“All good now. Things are mostly the way they were, except I don’t see my parents outside of the courtroom. It’s nice. More peaceful, with more people to talk to.”

Rain nodded. “Peaceful, yeah. Same, except for the whole imprisonment part. Boredom so bad you might imagine you’d do something stupid. Some do—and I’d join them if I didn’t have the realty check every night. The days don’t seem to end.”

“We brought gifts,” Sveta said. “Things to read. The guards will bring it to you later. I hope that helps with the boredom.”

Rain smiled. “That’s perfect. I’ll probably end up reading each one twenty times.”

“Have you heard from Erin?” Lookout asked.

“Yeah,” Rain said. “She dropped by yesterday. She’s splitting her attention between me, her family issues, and Lachlan Hund.”

“The brainwashed teenager,” I said.