“You can’t. You can’t,” I said. I put a different emphasis on the second repetition. “You don’t get to. This is what I hate about you. This is—this is the point I was getting to. Hate. Anger hurts others, fear eats away at you, self-loathing fucks with your sense of identity. But hate? Hate’s focused. If I have to have shitty feelings in the aftermath of what you did to me, I prefer hate because it has one target, one casualty at most. You.”

“It bleeds into other things.”

“Maybe. Cross that bridge when we get to it. For now? Hating you keeps me sane. And I fucking hate that you’re arrogant enough to think you can fix me or fix my feelings, or fix this situation. Walk away.”

For a second, I thought she might summon the strength to push herself to a standing position and then leave the room.

Muscles that had momentarily tensed in her tattooed arms relaxed.

“I want to talk,” she said.

“I want you to die. I guess neither of us are getting what we want.”

“I want one hour of your time. Here. Talking. Fair, even conversation.”

“There’s that arrogance of yours,” I told her. “I can’t believe I thought any of this would be good for you, Red Queen.”

“One hour,” she said, firm. “You can leave Shin with your team. If you hear me out and if you’re fair, I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Whatever I want?”

“Anything that helps.”

“What about you going to Gimel, talking to therapists, counselors? Anyone and anything that helps you get your shit together. You stay away from Mom, you stay away from Dad, you stay away from Chris, my team, and me most of all. If I want to talk to you again, I make the first move.”

“I’d be willing. I haven’t had much luck with therapists, but I’d try.”

“What about—” I started.

I shouldn’t show my hand.

I couldn’t hold my tongue.

“What if I said you had a few days to try to fix Hunter, while Breakthrough and I handle some other shit, and then I had people take you to the Wardens for them to make a bigger decision?”

“A decision about?”

“About whether they give you some more of that counseling and a few more shots at fixing Hunter, and if you can’t, or maybe even if you could and they decided you were a danger, we’d get rid of you.”

“Get rid.”

“Chuck you into an alternate Earth with no other human beings. Where you can’t hurt another Hunter.”

“I can help Hunter.”

“You’re positive?”

“I’m—reasonably sure.”