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“They don’t? You don’t think The Guard you so bravely fought for on Six ever killed an innocent while fighting for what they thought was right?”

I thought of my last deployment. The child’s shoe in the dirt.

In Delirium, I’d been able to save them. The children.

But in real life, we’d never extracted any children.

I didn’t know there had been any until I saw their dirt-covered shoes strewn about after the bombs. Until I saw their lifeless bodies in the streets.

Innocents.

We had killed innocents. And someone up the chain of command had known. Had dropped the bombs anyway.

Leo dipped his head at my silence. “See, I told you. I’m not the bad guy. What I’m fighting for is freedom for people like you and me, Bryn. Men, women, children. I want to give them the freedom to live without limitations. Without constraints under the ideologies of a council that works to contain us because they don’t have what we have.”

Leo opened his hand, then closed it, squeezing it into a fist. “They suffocate us out of envy.”

“The Nine have never killed anyone, Leo. They only want peace. Their constructs maintain the balance necessary⁠—”

“The balance necessary,” Leo guffawed. “You really think that’s true, Bryn? You think The Nine just formed one day and created rules, and everyone listened and followed along?” He swung his legs over the cot and stood up. “You think all of the magic-wielders who had lived in peace in a fruitful world for thousands of years just returned their powers the second a council formed and told them to?”

I couldn’t stop myself from allowing him to bait me. Thinking back to the journals in his study.

When I had died, it was year 4989. That would mean it was year 5015 today.

But there had been the journal entry from Leo’s ancestor, claiming the year had been 7117 at the time of their entry: 7117 – Induction.

As if history had restarted.

“What are you trying to say?” I whispered.

“I’m trying to say that all is not what it seems. The Deks aren’t our enemy . . . They’re our salvation.”

I turned to look at Adrian, his face a mask of calmness, but I could tell he was in deep concentration. Working to free our bond.

Leo turned his attention to Adrian. “Did it kill you? Seeing me with Bryn on the rooftop? With Bryn all flushed . . . clearly in the middle of something.”

Adrian remained silent.

Leo smiled, like a cat with a mouse. The whites of his teeth almost glowing in the dim light of the dungeon. “I couldn’t figure out how, or why, Miranda Portal had been destroyed. But it makes perfect sense now, of course. You needed a reason to stop me from ravishing the lovely Bryn. You knew we had left the castle grounds. Sensed it with that Malesa blood of yours.”

I looked back at Adrian, who stood eerily still, his face emotionless. Whatever he’d been attempting to free my soul had been halted by Leo’s words.

“A smart diversion on your part,” Leo continued. “I should have been quicker to put it together. You’d already conjured the purple flame before, on Ten, the morning Bryn . . . well . . . you know . . .” Leo swiped his finger across his neck, his head lolling to the side as he stuck out his tongue, before nodding at me. “I suppose I was distracted by you, dear Bryn. Tell me, does Adrian know about our time together, on Six?”

My face grew hot with embarrassment. “Go to hell.”

I couldn’t believe I’d let Leo touch me. The thought made me want to tear at my skin and rip it off me.

“Hmm.” He laughed. “I’ll take that as a no, then.”

“I still didn’t choose you. You lost, Leo.”

“You’re right,” Leo said, hanging his head in defeat, before lifting it back up and winking at me. “At least we know it wasn’t because I couldn’t make you come.”

Adrian snarled behind me.

“Fuck you,” I spat. “Enjoy rotting in your cell.”