“Don’t neglect Sveta,” Ashley said. “Her teams are her families. She’s not so different from Kenzie. The only people who stick by her are the same kinds of people who get caught up in helping other people. It’s a very lonely thing when you’re not anybody’s first priority.”

“There’s Weld,” I said.

“Make sure he remembers, then.”

“These feel like the final instructions of someone who expects to die soon,” I said. “Do I need to worry? Do we need to worry?”

“If Death comes for me I’ll shred him with my power,” Ashley said. “I beat him once, and I hardly expect to kneel before him now.”

“You’re sure?”

She shrugged. “Death doesn’t worry me. Destruction does.”

“Destruction of?”

“Of me,” she said.

I glanced around the room, then indicated the wardrobe. She nodded.

I began packing up the clothes as best as I could, when I couldn’t fold very effectively. She didn’t seem to mind.

“Destruction of you? How is that different from death?”

“Before you all came, I nearly destroyed those bookcases, and the artwork. I almost destroyed that man, Harry, from the Patrol. I could have shredded him, and it would have been easy.”

She said it so casually.

“The girl from the train, Presley, she looks up to you in a way, I think. She thinks you’re awesome.”

“I am awe inspiring in my own right. It’s not a surprise, Victoria. I don’t need a gimmick to do it.”

“Hey,” I said.

She smiled.

“Alright, but—does that not give you a reason to hold back from those impulses? For this girl who really wants to know how to get her hair as white as you have yours, because she wants to emulate you? For Kenzie?”

“It’s hard to explain. Today, I knew you were all coming, and your friend Jester was there, talking to me about nothing. I don’t know what the reasons for holding myself back will be next time, or if I’ll look for reasons and find nothing there.”

I nodded. I focused on folding a dress.

She went on, “I’ve been told a sentence is inevitable. I’ll be confined, and people will bark orders at me and expect me to comply. I’ll be destroyed or I’ll come through it with a better idea of what I need to do to manage it.”

“You made a promise to Kenzie,” I said. “You can’t betray that. Don’t give yourself any other choice except to manage it.”

“You look after her in the meantime, then?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Then that leaves only three more things,” she said.

“Three things?”

“The clothes. Pack them, please, but keep anything you like.”