“It continues when you accept that the people who died were…” Chris said, trailing off.

“Monstrous?” Sveta asked, archly.

“Assholes,” Chris said.

“Yeah. Let’s kill every asshole,” Sveta said. “That’d be great. We’re supposed to be a hero team. I wouldn’t feel very heroic if this was how we left this.”

“We don’t have to leave anything,” Kenzie said. Sveta moved her hand to reach over the top of the seat and touch Kenzie’s shoulder, and Kenzie pushed it away. “This is silly.”

“An awful lot of us have killed,” Rain said. “Consequences pending or interrupted.”

“You said, once, that you wanted to turn yourself in,” Sveta said. “You weren’t clear about what happened around that, but it led to your joining the group.”

“Time with Mrs. Yamada first, then the group,” he said. “I heard some of that discussion.”

“Mama Mathers kept you from confessing,” I concluded.

“Yes,” he replied. “I’ve always told myself that I’d face consequences for what I did. There’s no room in the jails, yet. But maybe one day I’ll face a sentence. A lot of people got hurt because I didn’t act. Maybe ten, twenty years, with time off because I cooperate. That doesn’t wipe the slate clean, like Ashley said, does it? But maybe it helps?”

“Ashley—you’re cooperating, aren’t you?” Sveta asked.

“Yes.”

“No,” Kenzie said.

“I think it would be a relief,” Ashley said. “Incarceration. I’ve been waiting a long time for it, I think, and there are people waiting for me on the other side.”

“I don’t want to be the bad guy. I just want due process,” Sveta said. “That’s all.”

“How does this relate to going after the Fallen?” I asked.

“I don’t want this to be all regrets,” she said. “You’re certain this is going to turn violent, Rain?”

“Completely,” he said. “It’s the mindset. The Crowleys are a bit of a mystery but Fallen as a group aren’t.”

“Then let’s get people to help,” Sveta said. “The patrol might not help, the Undersiders might refuse if we don’t give them Cradle, but we made other allies. If this is an emergency then let’s call in favors and do what we can.”

“Without getting involved,” Byron said.

“Yeah,” Sveta said. “Not us as a group. We’d be peripheral, coordinating. We all know people. We can do the right thing here, all of us working together. That’s what I want most—for this to have been a good thing.”

“You say that like it’s already over,” Kenzie said.

“This part of it’s almost over,” Ashley said.

“No,” Kenzie said. “Nuh uh.”

“Does not compute with K-z logic,” Chris said.

“Fuck off, Chris,” Kenzie said. “Dickhole.”

She grabbed her helmet as she stood up, putting it on as the two halves. She stopped walking as I put a hand out.