Long seconds passed. The screaming in my head was thin, faint.

Sister.

My sister was at the bottom of the hole. Maybe. All I had to do was look.

Would I be more at peace if I could verify her as dead or if I could verify I wasn’t a killer?

It made it so tempting. But it also meant risking having to set eyes on her, which meant facing dark thoughts, which meant—

Something grabbed me, and my first thought was Panacea. I grabbed it back, hard, with forcefield.

The moment I realized it was Sveta, I let go, guilt washing over me.

I followed the hand.

Down two floors, to a side room, partially lit. Dinah and Rachel sat beside a badly injured mutant dog. From the blood, it looked like Bloodplay had sliced it.

The descent into the hole might have been a tactical decision, or a bit of a post-injury mishap.

“We need you,” I told Dinah.

“I don’t have much. My head feels like it’s going to split open.”

“One more,” I told her. “One move, we make it count.”

I saw the doubt on her face.

She nodded, her mouth set into a grim line.

“Want a ride?” I asked Rachel.

She shook her head.

I scooped up Dinah, glanced at Sveta—

Saw Sveta’s hurt, as she held one arm to a bicep, where tendrils were especially active.

“Sorry,” I told her.

“It’s fine,” she said, in a tone that suggested it wasn’t, with a faint look of betrayal on her face.

The procedures for these missions suggest we’re supposed to avoid holding grudges, avoid blame, for ourselves and for others. Mistakes happen when you’re pushed to your limit by a psychic scream.

But that felt like shallow justification.

I took flight, carrying Dinah up. Sveta’s hands, blind, reached up and grazed me, but she didn’t hold onto me. Maybe she didn’t trust me to do it.

Up, into the darkness, through it, and into a battlefield I hated more than I’d hated any other, and I’d seen a good few. Against an enemy I despised more than anything. Someone who hurt my friends with the ease I breathed.

With more ease than I breathed, if I considered the damage to my collarbone and ribs.

“Now,” I whispered, as we emerged. “Use your power now.”

Sveta emerged from the darkness, but she did it as violence personified. I could see tendrils thrashing, lashing, throwing other tendrils that had been severed.

She caught Bloodplay and dashed Bloodplay into the ground.

“What question?” Dinah asked.

I couldn’t bring myself to speak, seeing Sveta lose all control.

The Simurgh was dismantling the Dragon-craft, pulling tech together. The Wardens were fighting a losing battle. The area was thick with blue motes. Damsel’s group was present, Damsel trying to get in close.

“What question!?”