In the background, Kenzie had stood up. She was looking in Victoria’s direction. Sveta broke away from the group to approach her. Disconcerting, in a very different way, to see how Sveta turned her head away, and she hadn’t fixed her hair since moving it away. The thin-ness of her face, the fact that the only thing behind it was the muscle-like bundle of finger-thin tendrils.

He hadn’t seen that often. It reminded him of catching a glimpse of Erin’s bra strap. Something hidden, that he wasn’t supposed to see. It left him feeling uncomfortable in a completely different way.

Disconcerting, to see Sveta looking at him, catching him looking, and the anger and hurt in her eyes. He thought of Love Lost.

Sveta was one of the kindest people he knew. Having her angry at him? It sucked. But Peat and Fen had been the closest thing she’d had to kin for a long time.

He couldn’t wrap his head around that, because he’d never had real kin. He’d never been in one place for long enough, he’d never been welcomed.

“You look like you’re in shock,” Tristan said.

Rain blinked. Was he? “I—for a long time, yeah.”

“Did you talk to Mrs. Yamada?”

“Yesterday afternoon. She helped me work up the courage to come. You were right. They all needed to know.”

Tristan nodded.

He was aware of the subset of the group that had gathered. Ashley, Tristan, Chris, and himself, with Erin in the background. He looked back at Erin.

He knew the accusation Moonsong had leveled against Tristan, and he had an idea of what that was about. Ashley hadn’t hidden her past. Three out of the five people present had killed in the past. It was disorienting, to track the number as it climbed.

Sveta had an especially bloody past. She’d even gotten blood on her hands after leaving the Asylum.

“Has Victoria ever killed anyone?” Rain asked, before he realized he was asking it.

The reaction was as one might expect. Blinks. Surprise from Tristan. A snort and smile from Chris.

“What are you asking?” Chris asked.

“I thought the admission I’d killed people would have had more impact than the things the Fallen has done in the past,” Rain said.

“I can’t speak for the others, but I guessed,” Chris said.

“Someone doesn’t have your kind of guilt without something that bad or worse,” Ashley said. “You didn’t think you had a choice.”

“I didn’t,” Rain said. “But it doesn’t change what I did.”

“I know,” Ashley said. “When I was talking to the group about understanding what I’d done and how, I knew that sometimes Mrs. Yamada would say things and it wasn’t to me. Most of the time, when you asked about things, it wasn’t about me, it was about you.”

“Sorry,” Rain said.