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The morning sun warmed my chilled arms as I walked through the knee-high wildflowers. Breathing in that glorious scent, I allowed my tense muscles to soothe. I knew I wouldn’t get a breath of clean air once I made it to the prison of ore atop the hillside.

Medica was silent beside me, as he often was. We kept one another company every day, but the last time we had a full-length conversation was a thousand years ago.

That was alright. Just knowing I had one friend beside me was better than having none.

His arm jutted out in front of me. “Wait.”

I followed his gaze, squinting at the prison. A figure stood in the grass, steady as stone, facing us.

“I’m not mad, am I?” Medica asked.

“You’re not.” I looked past the flesh to the ethereal realm, watching carefully for the glow of a soul. And I knew it immediately. Rafael. “He’s no threat.”

“You’re sure?”

I made a noise in my throat. There was no way toknowmuch of anything these last few years. I had my best guess, and that was all I could go on.

If he killed me, so be it.

“I’ll handle it,” I said.

“Wait—”

I’d already lapsed just before him. He didn’t jolt upon my landing, having prepared for it, I supposed. “Hello, esiasch.”

“Hello, Nix.” His eyes were ginger, voice no different. “Could we speak?”

“About?”

He jerked his head to the prison in answer. “That.”

“What about it?”

“You know what.”

I arched a brow, huffing a laugh. “What—are you saying I should free them?”

“Fuck no.” He scooped his messy auburn waves to the back of his head, tying them in a knot. “But I would like to speak with you about what you plan to do with them.”

“We’re speaking now. And exactly as I’ve been doing to them.”

“For a decade, Nix.” He frowned. “At some point, you have to—”

I laughed. A deep, obnoxious belly laugh. “I have towhat, Rafael? Move on? Is that what you’re going to say? Do you want me to release them? Is that what this is?”

His frown deepened. “They deserve far more than a decade of imprisonment.”

“Then what do you want?” I snapped. “Do you want to imprison them instead?”

“I want them recycled,” he said. “But that’s irrelevant.”

I arched a brow, waiting for him to elaborate.

He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. “Can I question Michael, at least?”

“No.”

He said nothing, just kept frowning at me.