Amy’s lips parted. Anger flared in my chest. She got out just the two and a half words, “I’ll pay—”

I flew in, Wretch up. She hurled herself back and away, and it was like she was moving in slow motion. My flight was faster than her running.

Something connected with my forcefield. With it, the paradigm shifted. I couldn’t be close, couldn’t risk being touched. I changed the direction of my flight, placing myself near the wall.

It had been Sveta. As I turned around, she was reeling in her arm.

Amy had to circumnavigate the hole I’d put in the floor to get to the door. Dot jumped from Lookout’s arms to Amy’s shoulder as she passed.

“You’ll be happier if you stop here,” Sveta said. “We have a mission.”

The mission.

Do what’s lawful, do what’s right, when neither are clear, reach out for help.

The law and right aren’t in the prison right now. They needed help.

“Okay,” I said. “Absolutely.”

I headed for the door. Sveta reached out, extending an arm to my shoulder. I stopped.

“Give her a second to leave. Some distance will be good,” Sveta said.

“She won’t leave,” I said. “Because leaving would be the right thing to do. I have to make her.”

Sveta’s expression shifted, a frown.

“Sorry, Lookout,” I said. “I probably spooked you.”

She laughed. I imagined a smile on her face, on the other side of her mask.

I floated past the hole and through the door. I had to lower my head a little so I didn’t get a faceful of freezing rain.

On the ground beside the fire escape, Amy stood beside Goddess. She hadn’t left.

“Sorry, Natalie,” I said, as I passed her. She was standing on the uppermost stair that wasn’t the landing at the top of the fire escape.

“No,” she said, her voice small. “I get it.”

I wondered if she actually did, now.

Goddess was staring me down, looking utterly unbothered, beyond maybe some impatience about getting to the prison. Amy stood a little ways back, in her civilian clothes, her jacket’s hood up, her eyes not visible.

And I was—I was shaking, like the cold had gotten to me.

It hadn’t, but close enough.

As I drew nearer, I brought the Wretch out. I let the rain outline it.

Goddess didn’t flinch. Amy—I saw Amy take a step back. She said something I couldn’t make out over the drum of the rain.

I flew around the pair—put myself in front of her, instead. I touched down on the surface of the parking lot, and the Wretch scratched at it, scrabbled at it with multiple fingernails of a multitude of hands.