“Yes. Everything. I don’t—like a car crash in my brain.”

Leto exhaled. “Brave girl.”

“I don’t understand any of this.”

He’d have thought himself too tired and abused, with his pride burned to cinders, but he managed a sick smile. “Then we’re partners again. I don’t either.”

“She said Jack is waiting for me.”

“That doesn’t mean a Dragon-damned thing. She’s like the doctor’s extra limb. Whatever she said was something he wanted her to say.”

He pushed to his feet. He could save Pell and keep Nynn from getting herself killed. If either of them was harmed, he’d take his rage out on Silence and Hark. The plan they’d suggested was tantamount to anarchy. What they’d actually done was take the choice out of his hands.

For the best.

He’d never adjusted well to change. Everyone knew that. Now he needed to move as quickly in his mind as he could with his body. He was no longer the Asters’ champion, and his future was not clear. All he knew was that Nynn remembered her son. That eased the tightness in his chest that he’d carried for months.

Leto pulled her face nearer until their foreheads touched. “We haven’t much time,” he said. “We’ll have to take the bus back to the complex.”

“There’s snow outside. We’re somewhere high altitude.”

A shudder traveled across his body in a slow but leveling journey. “Is that what it is? That smell of cold?”

She touched his face. “Yes, Leto.”

“You’re back to thinking about getting free.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Hark and Silence have a plan.”

“Incinerating me with my own gift,” she said with a hard twist of her lips. “Great.”

“I don’t know that I trust them either. But right now, you need to do just as I told you. Play dumb. Be as brainwashed and compliant as I was.”

“Was?”

He nodded while pulling her to her feet. “Was.”

“I don’t know whether to gloat or celebrate.”

“Both. But later. If they think you’re useless or dangerous, they might send you back to the labs.”

“I’d see my son again.” Her hands fisted within his.

“But without the means of setting him free. Think like them. The long game.” He dipped his head, only briefly. “It’s something I’m not used to doing.”

Darkness passed through her eyes. He watched it as if her soul were being poisoned. Voice flat, body trembling, she said, “I was Audrey MacLaren.”

Not again, Nynn. Don’t go.

But he forced his stiff neck to nod.

“Before that, I crippled my mother so badly that she’d begged for death. How could I have forgotten that?”

“You . . . ?” He touched her cheek as understanding dawned. “The psychic block. Calm yourself, or you’ll never sort through the answers.”

“I was already a killer. Who knew? I was meant to be in the Cages all along.”

“You weren’t. Not you. Not down here.” The vehemence of his reply startled them both. Logic be damned, he was being selfish—and it felt amazing. “Do this, Nynn. Do it or they’ll take you from me.”

Her expression softened. She leaned into where he still cupped her cheek. “We can’t have that, now, can we?”

Then, as if by the trick of some magician, her gaze went hazy and heavy-lidded and dead. She was no magician now. More like a blunt instrument. She straightened her shoulders. Even in that ruined armor, or perhaps because of it, she looked every inch a soldier tamed by the Asters. Humbled, yes, but still proud, ready to rise again.

He recognized that posture. He recognized that stance and that vacant acceptance. He’d seen it in the mirror every day since his adolescence, when defeat was more common than victory.

“I’ve turned you into a fiend.” His throat was tight enough to gag him.

“You’ve taught me how to survive. Let’s keep it that way.”

A curt nod.

They cleaned and stowed their weapons, soon joined by Hellix and Weil. Weeks had helped the woman recover from Nynn’s attack during her first Cage match.

“Well, well,” Hellix said. “The Thieves figured out how to turn your freak against you. The champion taken down.” His sneer warped into a smile without mirth. A pitiless expression. “Maybe your punishment about her tattoo will be the first of many. I’d love to be the man who struck the lash on both of your backs.”

At Leto’s side, Nynn didn’t even flinch. Because she didn’t remember, or because she was that in control? She’d teased Leto, and she remembered Jack. He had to trust that her blankness was an act, just as he’d encouraged.

“How did your match fare, Hellix?”

“I’ll rip out your tongue, lab filth.”

She arched a golden blond brow. “I guess that answers my question.”

With that snide reply, she put an end to Leto’s doubts. Nynn was back. She was returned to him. Now to keep from letting everyone else know that.

After the rest of the Asters’ warriors returned their weapons, they walked toward the airlock corridor. Silence and Hark assumed no boasting posture, each flicking glances at Nynn. Silence kept her expression as placid as always, but Hark radiated an air of accomplishment paired with eyes brimming with curiosity.

They’d done their part, it seemed, even without Leto’s consent. He may well owe them an apology—and the serious consideration of their plan.

As if nothing had happened, the Dragon Kings offered their wrists and accepted their manacles. Leto was shocked by the urge to fight back. His imprisonment was real. The heavy metal cuffs biting into Nynn’s slender wrists were real.

As was the one-two-three thump of the Old Man’s shuffling rhythm.

His steps echoed down the corridor long before he came into view. Perhaps he took to the shadows on purpose. Even Leto could not discern the exact shape of his body as he approached. That should’ve been possible, even while wearing the collar.

Other steps followed: one set assured, one like a ballerina on tiptoe.

Cold swept across Leto’s skin. Nynn had been able to mask her true feelings when faced with Hellix. But when faced with Dr. Aster? The man who’d abused her and who still held her son prisoner?

Leto could only trust that her mind was clear enough for strategy. Otherwise, he’d be forced to make a choice—one that shook him to his bones. He could play along just as well, hoping for the guarantee for Pell’s care to be honored, or he could risk his sister’s safety by jumping to Nynn’s defense.

♦   ♦   ♦

Nynn felt each and every one of her scars.

Not the ones Hellix had carved into her back, although she knew they were there. They would heal in time.

No, the scars she felt were burning reminders of hell. They scorched beneath her skin, where cauterizing blades had rendered even Dragon King cells unable to heal. She looked down at her left hand and remembered the anguish of when Dr. Aster had broken each middle knuckle. No one else would ever notice the difference, but she did. Her fingers didn’t line up just right.

Scars.

More scars.

And he held her son captive, if Jack was still alive.

She banked a shudder and cut that thought off at the knees. Jack was alive. She would’ve felt it carved into her marrow, had he been killed. She’d endured that grinding agony when Caleb was murdered.

Her task, as it had always been, was to keep her boy safe. That meant suppressing the nearly overwhelming urge to jump on Dr. Aster, wrap the manacle chains around his neck, and smile as he turned the color of a bruise. She would snap his neck.

A glance at Leto’s profile revealed the same determination. He was trusting her, just as he had in the Cages. He was trusting her to remember all her training, and that his sister’s future was on the line, too.

I hate them. I hate them all for what they’ve done to us.

Us. Because she and Leto were in this together.

She realized now that he had saved her from wearing their mark forever—the serpent that circled his skull. She owed him so many different apologies. She’d never get to tell him if she gave hint of her true feelings.