“I’m out of options,” he said.

“You know what I want,” March said.

“Foil. Flechette. From your cluster. I’ve seen her.”

“I’ve been planning on dealing with her and her acquaintance Tattletale for some time now. It puts me in a unique position to help you.”

“You want her to die.”

“That discussion can wait until tomorrow. For now, you look like you need to sleep.”

Heartbroken, exhausted, he couldn’t bring himself to say no.

⊙

He dreamed, and the dream slipped from memory as soon as he entered the room.

Rain bent down for the chair, found it in its usual place, and set it on the ground.

There was no discussion. The others stood, Snag approached the dais. Love Lost hung back. Cradle paced.

Rain sat, and he watched. After so many hard days and nights, he felt eerily calm.

Not so much left to lose, in a way.

It dropped from the sky, and it bounced on the tip of the crystal spike that stood up from the center of the dais. A token. A coin, flipping in air, a shard of metal as it showed its other side. A tooth, shadow moving across it as it rotated in the air. A piece of glass.

It bounced on the point of crystal with eerie accuracy, landed, wobbled, and then slid to one side, breaking apart as it slid. Rain stood, and he approached the dais.

He pushed everything else aside, and he collected his shards of metal.

With them, a piece of glass and a coin.

Today mattered. The others’ expressions were trying not to betray anything, but they were bothered.

I’ll see you tomorrow, Rain thought. And at least one of us here is going to die.

Shadow 5.6

Sveta tugged my arm, dragging me off the train. The sky was dark and the lights of the city were at their deceptive stage where so few apartments and buildings were lit up that it looked like it was four in the morning, not seven in the evening.

“Come on,” she urged, tugging.

“There’s stuff to do before everything happens tomorrow,” I said. “I really want to, but plans.”

“Change your plans. You need to talk to the Wardens, right?”

“I was planning on doing a write-up I can bring with. I sent an email before we got on the train, I’d have to get my computer or phone out to see if they responded already.”

“Come on. Talk to Weld. We’ll work something out for the rest.”