“Enough dick measuring!” Orion snapped as he slammed his elbow into Dante’s stomach.
“Fuuuuck,“ Dante wheezed.
“Boys.” Granny Lu’s voice cut through the tension. “Save the pissing contest for later. I’m not done with my questions.”
Riot forced himself to unclench his fists.
“You said your suppressants failed,” Granny Lu continued, her eyes sharp on Riot’s face. “Both of you, at the same time. That’s not coincidence.”
“No,” Riot admitted. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not coincidence.”
“Lilac.” Granny Lu didn’t look away from Riot. “What did the gangly, creepy one find when he tested the batches?”
“Clean,” Lilac said from her position against the wall. “Stave said the batches came back normal. Whatever’s happening, it’s not contamination.”
“So the suppressants aren’t the problem.” Granny Lu’s gaze was uncomfortably penetrating. She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was careful. “You said you met in an alley. Both of you bleeding. You patch each other up?”
“Yeah.”
“Your blood mixed?”
Riot shrugged. “Probably. We weren’t exactly focused on sterile technique.”
Granny Lu looked at Dante. Dante looked at Orion. Orion’s eyes widened slightly, and something complicated passed across his face—recognition, maybe, or a memory.
“What?” Riot demanded. “What the hell is that look? You all just did the same thing.”
“Did we?” Granny Lu’s expression gave away nothing. “Must be your imagination, sugar.”
“Bullshit. You know something. All of you.”
“I know a lot of things.” She smiled, and it was the smile of a woman who’d hand him fresh-baked sourdough and tell him she was feeding him to wolves, all without changing her tone. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to share them with a boy who brought an Elysian into my community without so much as a by-your-leave.”
“I didn’t have a choice—”
“Everyone has choices.” Her voice went hard. “You chose to bring him here instead of leavin’ him in the Neutral Zone. You chose to keep him instead of handing him off to someone else.You chose to spend two days fuckin’ him loud enough to wake the dead instead of thinkin’ about what it might mean for the people who live here.” She leaned forward. “So don’t tell me you didn’t have a choice. You had plenty of choices. You just made the ones that suited you.”
Riot didn’t have an answer for that, mostly because she was right.
“Here’s what I know about Elysian,” Granny Lu continued, settling back in her chair. “I’ve planted bombs in Gensyn buildings. I’ve sabotaged SVI supply lines. I’ve told Thresh to get off my god damn porch and shot Sunco toes off. Those corporations are bastards, but they’rehonestbastards. You can see their cruelty, map their operations, hit their weak points. You know what you’re dealing with.”
She pulled out another cigarillo and lit it, the flame casting shadows across her face. “Elysian is different. Elysian is a black box. You can’t fight what you can’t see, and you can’t trust what you can’t verify. Every person who walks out of Elysian territory is a potential true believer who doesn’t even know they’ve been compromised.” She exhaled smoke. “And you’re telling me this sweet, helpless boy just happened to need rescuing? That his conditioning justhappenedto fail?”
“He’s not a plant.”
“How do you know?” The question was soft, almost gentle, which made it worse. “How can you possibly know? Elysian specializes in makin’ people believe things. In makin’ peoplefeelthings. How do you know what you feel for that boy isn’t exactly what they wanted you to feel?”
“Because I know,” Riot snapped
“You don’t. Youbelieve. That’s different. And belief is exactly what Elysian manufactures.”
Before Riot could respond, the bedroom door creaked open.
Cass stood in the doorway, wearing Riot’s black t-shirt again, his eyes were still heavy with exhaustion, but there was something determined in the set of his jaw.
“I heard you talking,” he said quietly. “About me.”
Cass crossed the room to Riot, folding himself onto the arm of the chair and pressing close. The contact settled something in Riot’s chest, even as it made Dante’s jaw tighten and Orion shift restlessly.
