I didn’t know exactly what had happened, but I had a rough idea.

  How could Ainsworth possibly let someone sneak into such a critical location—so close to the Life Furnace?

  “I need you to hear me out.” The man gave me a stiff smile, as if it wasn’t something he did often. He pulled a crucifix from under the table and placed it into a glass vial filled with clear liquid. “I’m the head of hunters for the Ainsworth Clade. What just happened was your final test before becoming a captain. Congratulations—you passed.”

  Of course. How could it not be something like that?

  Both of the Skills inside me had fully recovered. I activated Hoffman’s and used it on the man.

  The door—blending almost seamlessly into the gray wall—opened. Rafe walked in, expression unreadable. He held a key and knelt down to unlock the restraints clamped around my legs.

  “I know you’re furious right now, but I promise, it was all worth it.” He looked up from where he knelt, working on the locks beneath the armrest. “Besides what you’ve earned, I’ll make it up to you.”

  In truth, I didn’t feel much of anything at the moment. I was just concentrating on how best to split this so-called “hunter supervisor” into a dozen pieces—while keeping the Skill active.

  Rafe saw it too—the faint lines on his supervisor’s bare arms and neck, like scars that had healed far too neatly.

  “Listen to me. Look at me—”

  “Then I can’t keep the Skill going. Is that what you want?”

  Right now, my hatred for Rafe outweighed even that for the hunter supervisor: one was an enemy, the other was the knife that enemy used to stab me.

  “Stop!” Rafe gripped my hand. The hunter supervisor watched me closely too.

  That was a threat. I rose from the metal chair, fury nearly consuming my sanity—my Skill flaring stronger than ever before.

  Without it, I probably would’ve been knocked out cold in a second by either of them. But going along with whatever the hell they said felt worse than getting my brains blown out just minutes ago.

  A wild and reckless idea surged up in my head.

  Compared to the supervisor, that woman—higher-ranking and far less familiar with hunters—would be a better target. Less than two minutes had passed since she left; a regular person shouldn’t be able to leave the building that quickly.

  So as long as Hoffman’s Skill hadn’t yet reached her, this hunter supervisor would remain untouched.

  I casually wiped away the thin, fine scars on the supervisor’s skin. My vision blurred. The walls swayed. The air tasted like it had backwashed out of a corpse’s abdominal cavity.

  The Skill hadn’t connected with the woman yet—but I could feel it. She was close.

  “Let go of me!” My expression stayed furious, but I dropped my head in wounded disbelief. “Even you—YOU lied to me!”

  “This was an opportunity, and you already seized it.”

  Rafe let out a slow breath and pressed a hand to my shoulder, guiding me out of the interrogation room—a dull gray box.

  “Your rank in the clade is already higher than mine.”

  I couldn’t help it—a cruel smile spread across my face.

  And of course, it wasn’t because of this so-called “rank.” I wasn’t about to take pride in becoming king of the flies.

  Miraculously, among all those people, Hoffman’s Skill had finally found the one familiar person—and was beginning to learn her body.

  The Skill was growing familiar enough with her that, eventually, dismantling her body would be easier than anyone else's—greater range, less energy required. If my familiarity with her ever reached the level I had with myself, I could do anything to her, anytime, anywhere.

  Rafe carried a small metal case and led me to the restroom, where he injected something directly into the vein in my left arm.

  “This wasn’t meant to torture you,” he said, massaging the fingers of my left hand to help the drug circulate faster. “What hit you was a short needle coated with neurotoxin—like a bee sting. It just makes you feel like you’ve broken a bone. A real interrogation is far more brutal.”

  “You’ve been through one?”

  Now free from physical pain, newly promoted within the clade, and with a backdoor into an important Ainsworth figure—enough to kill her at will—I was starting to feel better. Calm enough to begin thinking about what to do with Rafe.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Just imagine what people would do for money, power, or something beyond these,” Rafe said, wiping the tears from my face with a warm towel. “If someone really wants something from you, cutting off my hand or skinning Otto alive in front of you is just the opening act. Eventually, you'd beg to die just to make it stop.”

  A cold shiver ran through me. Because I knew—he was absolutely right.

  “Plenty of people don’t chase Collections for money. Those kinds of people? Their insanity goes beyond anything we can predict. You've read the Collection files. How many died chasing that thing that can supposedly bring a brain-dead person back to consciousness?”

  Goddamn it. Rafe was right about everything. But I still needed to push back a little.

  “Revive them? Or let a Resident move into an empty shell of a body? That damn thing is playing both sides of the fence.”

  “Does it matter?” Rafe brushed my hair gently—if he hadn’t been worried I’d lash out, I think he would’ve pulled me into a hug. “Why do you think the Sun Clade hasn’t come after you? Because they believe I killed Hoffman. That’s what the clades are for—to solve as many problems as possible with money, not with blood.”

  “You’re right. But just now, I gave serious thought to the possibility of you and Otto dying... and realized you two affect me way too much. So I think we shouldn't stay in this kind of relationship anymore.”

  I rinsed the sweat and tears from my sticky chest with the faucet water and a towel. Oddly enough, I felt terrifyingly calm.

  “Tell me the name or number of the document you want. I’ll get it for you. Me going back alone will actually make them trust me more. And whatever happens after that... who knows? Maybe you’ll never have to see me again.”

  I thought relieving Rafe of any obligation to me would make him happy—fewer complications. Or at least get him to say something polite and disappear.

  But instead, he just stared at me like I’d punched the soul out of him—like he didn’t recognize me anymore.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I mean, you’re free.” I felt even lighter after saying it. I could even manage a polite smile. “Thank you for all your help. If you have anything else—”

  “You’re abandoning me for Ainsworth?”

  Rafe looked like he’d turned to stone. A pressure worse than earlier crushed down on my chest.

  “You were never mine to begin with,” I said. Noticing something off in his expression, I instinctively took a step back and redirected the Skill—previously focused on the woman—onto Rafe.

  “I’ll be part of the Ainsworth Clade. You’ll be my colleague—or whatever you people call it. I’ll give you all the files you want. Isn’t that what you wanted all along?”

  Rafe closed his eyes, took several deep breaths. “Wait here.”

  Then he left the restroom, his heavy, hurried footsteps echoing away down the hall.

  The hunter supervisor—who’d terrified me just minutes ago—now felt like the only person I wanted to see.

  If Rafe… for whatever reason… planned to hurt me, at least he’d restrain himself in front of his superior.

  I retraced my path to the interrogation room. The man was still standing by the door. When he saw me, he nodded politely—honestly, he looked less intimidating when he wasn’t smiling.

  “I need to know where Rafe went. And what he’s doing.”

  My brain had no capacity left for sorting out what I should feel toward this man. Or maybe I’d just gone emotionally numb from the constant overload. All I could do was state what I needed, directly.

  Thankfully, I got a calm, detailed response.

  “He didn’t say. He just told me to take you to the infirmary and wait. Said you were going to ‘resolve that problem.’” The man handed my belongings back. “I’m not going to force you to go anywhere you don’t want to. So—are you going?”

  “Only if you come with me, then yes.”

  I didn’t need to avoid Rafe—ducking a colleague right after joining the team would make me look unprofessional. It might even damage this supervisor’s impression of me—and that could affect how smoothly any future negotiations went.

  “Of course. I could use this wait to talk with you anyway.”

  The hunter supervisor offered his hand.

  “I’m Roman Grane, current head of hunters for the Ainsworth Clade. Welcome aboard.”

  A gift-wrapped plan B. I let Hoffman’s Skill swirl through me—and shook his hand.