Pan crosses his arms over his chest. “We had eyes on the Alameeda in Chicago—Kyon, Forester, Lecto—they wouldn’t have gotten off Earth alive with her. We didn’t anticipate you. Once we put together what happened—your abduction of Kricket—we nearly had you at Naren Falls. If it weren’t for the Comantre Syndics there, you would’ve been in Amster sooner than now.”
“You had eyes on her on Earth? Whose eyes?”
Pan looks in my direction. “Giffen has been Kricket’s keeper since her last keeper was killed. How long has it been, Giffen?”
From behind me, Giffen says, “Almost six floans.” I turn around. Giffen’s eyes are rooted on me—on the spot that I occupy. He knows I’m here. He can sense me.
Trey glowers at Pan. “How could you leave Kricket behind on Earth? She was a child. She was defenseless. Your keepers were worthless—none of them sheltered her.”
“They were ordered not to shelter her. She’s stronger for it. Kricket has a destiny. What she learned on Earth will determine how she acts here. Now.”
“Do you realize that she didn’t even know that she had a sister? She thought Astrid was a doll or toy that she lost when her parents died—when you died, Pan! It didn’t stop her from looking for Astrid. She just didn’t know what she was looking for.”
Pan glances away, unsettled by the information. “The nepenthe assured us that all of her memories of Astrid would be expunged.”
“The nepenthe?” Trey asks in confusion.
“Sanham. He’s the first Alameeda male offspring with the EVS819 gene that I rescued from being exterminated. After I met Arissa, Kricket’s mother, we began our mission to find and shelter as many enhanced males that we could smuggle out of Alameeda alive. Sanham’s gift is instilling forgetfulness. He wipes away memories. He attempted to make Kricket forget us. Unlike with most Etharians, it didn’t work very well on her. She repelled it. She’s always been exceptional.”
“Why would you do that to her? Why would you try to make her forget everyone she loved?”
A part of me hopes that he’ll say that he didn’t want me to suffer with my memories of them. “I have two daughters,” Pan says. “I had to protect Astrid in case Kricket was discovered and interrogated. Sanham’s gift worked well enough. She forgot Astrid and Astrid was safe.”
I feel as if I’ve been stabbed. His betrayal is almost more than I can take.
Trey’s expression turns ugly. “Do you care about her at all?” he asks with resentment in his voice.
“Do you?” Pan tosses the question back at him.
“More than anything,” Trey replies without having to think about it.
“Then help us deliver the packages to Kalafin. That might help her. The Brotherhood has to have a reason to keep her alive. They have to need her.”
Darkness is caressing me. My vision is tunneling and I’m losing everything on the periphery. I’m overwhelmed by it—fighting myself to remain. Everything about me wants to return to my body, but my will—my will wants desperately to stay. The only people I care about now are my Cavars: Trey, Jax, and Wayra. Everyone else here can rot for all I care. I need to stay long enough to figure out how to communicate with Trey. I need to make him see me.
“Time for you to go, fighter,” Giffen whispers to me, as if he doesn’t want anyone else to know that I’m here. “Go back and run with the wolves. Don’t lose. I’m counting on you.” Whatever it is that he can do with the energy of his gift—his telekinesis—he uses it on me. The instant he pushes it in my direction, I’m banished from their presence.
Returning to my body in this time, I cannot move right away. I’m paralyzed. I breathe in shallow breaths; the first of which are characterized by icy air from my lungs. My skin is a bluish tone and frigid.
Something explodes outside on the beach. The cottage rattles. Decorative green glass bottles containing sand and shells clatter and fall off the teak shelves. Broken shards and sand settle on the wide-plank teak floors. It grows silent. Kyon is fighting the Strikers already. I haven’t been gone that long, but it must already be dark here. I must’ve come back to a later time. Staying away too long has cost me time.
Jerking my limbs, I crawl to the side of the bed, but I can’t rise from it. I slip to the floor and crawl on my belly to the