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I feel my stomach drop. I look around this bare, metal room and realize we must be in the hold of a spaceship. It’s takes off – I can tell by the sinking feeling in my stomach as the artificial gravity struggles to compensate.

Clutching Lilac close, I weep for my little sister. My eyes flood with anguished tears. The teardrops splatter on the cold, steel flooring of this cargo bay – all that pain and anguish dropping, wasted, onto the floor.

“Lilac,” the one thing I never do is stop talking to her. “It’s me, Lilac! It’s Allie! It’sme!”

Suddenly, her eyes focus.

“A… A…Allie?”

It’s like she’s awakening from a trance. My sister gasps in a broken, horse croak.

“Yes!” Now my tears are those of happiness. “Yes, it’s me!” I hug her tightly. “Oh, thank the Gods! You recognize me!”

“Allie!” My sister croaks. “Allie! You have to be careful! He’s… He’sevil.”

She clutches her knees, bobbing her head up and down, repeating those same words over and over.

“He’s evil... Evil!”

She must be referring to Torelli – and, sadly, I’d discovered that already.

I have tothink.

I look around desperately. So, we’re in the cargo bay of a ship. If it tries to Orb-Shift, I could use the augmentation in my left arm as soon as I feel the gut-wrenching lurch.

But where would we be going? We must be flyingsomewhere. Probably to the home of some rich bastard with a fetish for twins.

“Aurelians are evil,” Lilac murmurs says, rocking her head back and forth.

I gently sooth her. “No. They’re notallevil, Lilac.”

I feel a gut-wrenching twist of anguish – thinking of Daccia, Kitos and Hadrian – and how I’d betrayed them.

I shake my head.

“We don’t need to worry about Aurelians, anyway, Lilac. We’ve got each other. Now, I’m going to find a way out of this, I promise. I’m going to save us.”

I grab my head. I hadn’t noticed it earlier – I’d been too distracted by Torelli, and my sister – but there’s some type of helmet on my head.

No, not a helmet – just a ring around my ears. However, it’s skintight – and I can’t pull it off.

Whatever it is, it must be the reason I can’t feel the triad in my mind.

But even if I could… Would they still come for me, after I’ve betrayed them?

But I know, deep in my heart, that they would.

“Fuck,” I growl. “If I could just get this thing off, I’d have a triad of Aurelians rushing to come save us right now!”

Lilac gasps and crawls away from me like I’m trying to hurt her. Panic fills her eyes as she starts hyperventilating. She must have suffered horrific abuse at Torelli’s hands – and, as such, Aurelians have become her worst fear.

I’d thought my sister was dead. I hoped, every single day, thatsomehowI’d find her alive again.

Now I have – and I’d always thought this moment would be one of pure joy.

Now, instead, I feel pure hatred for the man who did this to her.

Lilac sobs silently.