“There’s something you should understand now, Adelice,” he whispers in my ear. The urgency of his words and the heat of his breath raise goose bumps down the back of my neck. “I am the one with power in Arras.”

“I have talents of my own,” I say.

“And they are mine now,” he replies. Hannox appears beside us and Cormac points to me. “Get her to the transport. We’re leaving for the Northern Ministry shortly.”

“I’ll have her transported back to the Western Coventry, and—” Hannox begins.

“No.” Cormac stops him. “She stays with me.”

Hannox lowers his voice. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“Do not second-guess me, Hannox,” Cormac snarls.

Hannox’s jaw tightens and he glances briefly at me before snapping off a salute. “Yes, sir.”

“Take her to the transport.” Cormac shoves me toward Hannox and I stumble into his arms.

I’ve overheard enough exchanges between the two men to know things are tense between them because of me. The funny thing is that in some ways Hannox is a lot like me. We’re both at the mercy of Cormac, a man who thinks a relationship consists of ordering the other person around. It’s also clear that I’m not going to get any answers from Cormac about what’s happening here.

As soon as Hannox leads me away, I ask him what’s going on. Maybe Hannox can see that we aren’t so different, too.

“If Cormac wouldn’t tell you, why would I?” he asks.

“Cormac won’t tell me because he thinks my ignorance gives him the upper hand.”

“And you don’t think it does?”

“I can’t possibly stop him,” I explain as he marches me out the exit of the Eastern Ministry.

“For the first time, I agree with you. Remember this: Cormac’s fuse is considerably shorter these days,” Hannox warns me. He gestures for me to lead the way, ending the discussion.

Outside the building, two shallow pools run the length of the path leading to the entrance. On each corner of the pools fantastical creatures with long hose-like extremities extending past marble spikes spray water. It ripples together, immediately becoming part of the pool. The fountains are like the coventries: both provide material directly to the source, parts flowing into one whole.

“Elephants,” Hannox says beside me.

“I’m sorry?” I say.

“The animals are elephants,” he tells me. “We brought some of every animal from Earth here initially. The elephants were my favorite.”

“What happened to them?” I ask.

“Some animals died, others evolved with the changing conditions, and others were deemed unnecessary.”

“And these?” I ask.

“No one saw a use for elephants. If an animal served no useful function, it was removed to allow Arras to prosper more efficiently.”

“And elephants have no purpose?”

“I guess not.” Sadness colors his words. Hannox doesn’t speak again until he hands me off to the security guard waiting by the fleet of armored transports near the Ministry. Hannox didn’t strike me as the friendly type when I first met him and I’m not sure why he would volunteer such a peculiar detail now. But sentimentality does strange things to people, I suppose.

As soon as Cormac joins us, we’re evacuated out of the Ministry’s emergency rebound chambers directly into the Northern Sector. But we don’t go to the Ministry offices as Cormac insinuated earlier. He still hasn’t given me any answers about what’s going on. Instead we’re whisked through the metro in a motocarriage.

I take a deep breath and push the words out of my mouth that I don’t want to speak. “I think there is room for compromise regarding the Eastern Sector. You don’t have to destroy it.”

“There is no compromise,” Cormac growls. “Our partnership doesn’t extend to the governance of Arras.”

“I thought you wanted someone to help you control the situation on Arras,” I say.

“I do, but I’ll tell you when and how you will be necessary for that purpose.” He tugs at the vest strapped tightly around his neck.

“Then I’m not sure why you brought me here,” I say. I don’t shrink away from him even as he presses closer to me. There’s a violent electricity in the air between us. One of us could snap at any moment, and I can’t say how much longer I can play nice.

“Because you’ve never been able to see the big picture.” His breath stings my nostrils as he gets in my face. “If this taint spreads through Arras, Earth will die along with it. I’ll be forced to use more of its resources to rebuild our world.”

“And the only way you can stop this threat is to destroy everything you built here?”

Cormac grabs my wrist so forcefully that it feels as though my bones will snap. “I have this under control.”

“Are you sure?” My question is soft.

“Never presume that I’m not in control.” His words are firm but his eyes tell a different story. He can’t hide the fierce panic blazing in them.

“There are a lot of innocent people in this sector,” I reason with him. “Are you going to desert them?”

His voice lowers to a whisper. This point is meant only for me. “Tell me, Adelice, how do you know when someone is innocent? Because two years ago I was called to a retrieval gone bad, and I walked in ready to face a traitor. And do you know what I found? A scrap of a girl who couldn’t run fast enough to get away.” Cormac trails a finger down my throat, and my hands curl into fists. “You looked innocent, and what a fool you made of all of us.”