“You’ve got a look in your eyes,” Ashley said. “Fiercer.”

“I spent a good day and got a beating trying to find that fierceness,” Rain said. “That thing that would let me say this. Tristan called me out, said I needed to tell you guys, because it impacts what we’re doing. I needed to do some figuring out before I was able.”

“Yeah,” Tristan said.

I was silent. I could only see the parallels. I held my tongue because I didn’t trust it. If this was an echo of that situation in the bank, I had no better idea on how to handle it now in the present.

No rain, no enclosed area. We were at the edge of a park. It was sunny out.

No knife to anyone’s throat, not that Rain’s expression said any different.

“You’ve been hiding with powerful people,” Ashley said. “Capes, probably.”

Rain opened his mouth, then nodded.

“A gang.”

“A family,” Rain said. “Gang doesn’t really say it.”

“It was always us and them. And there was a lot of hate directed at them,” Rain said.

The in-group, out-group… and family. I could connect dots. I deliberately avoided doing so.

I focused on the situation instead, on the others. Chris was quiet, smiling slightly, but the smile had been a small, persistent thing since he’d nose-dived into indulgence. Tristan was quiet, but most of what he had to add were things that it was Rain’s responsibility to share. Ashley handled the questions.

No—Sveta joined her voice to Ashley’s. “You’re related to those powers. It’s why you have such a hard time pulling away.”

“The Fallen,” Rain said.

I winced. There were a lot of implications to that.

“Oh,” Kenzie said.

“I kind of connected the dots already,” Sveta said. She put a hand on Kenzie’s shoulder. “You first connected to Tristan after the God thing.”

“Religion came up in therapy,” Rain said, for the benefit of the rest of us. “Tristan came up to me after and asked about which church my family attended. I’d had a bad week. Nearly as bad as this week has been. We’d already connected some. Both of us have people invading our heads, questions of self, we talked a lot together in therapy. I cracked. I told him.”

“Yeah,” Tristan said. “Mom and Dad were looking for a church. I thought I’d ask Rain. I don’t think Rain’s church would’ve suited them.”

“It’s not funny,” Kenzie said. “Don’t make jokes.”

“I’m not laughing, Kenzie,” Tristan said.

“They hate black people, don’t they?” Kenzie asked Rain.