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Not in the way the Rebels agreed with him, but because of what Revik just said. Balidor knew something about Menlim’s connection to Revik that maybe I knew less consciously but somehow avoided whenever the truth skirted too close.

Menlim wouldn’t kill Revik because Revik was tied to him still.

In through the out door.

My jaw hardened, right before I focused on Revik.

“I’m giving you a direct order,” I said. “I’m ordering you to stand down, Revik. Stand down, and come out of there. Now.”

Revik’s jaw hardened as he stared up at me, at the camera.

I saw his eyes reflect the green light from the walls, then realized they’d ignited somewhere in that pause, that he’d triggered the telekinesis for real as he listened to me speak.

It only occurred to me later that he’d gone in there with a gun.

He hadn’t wanted to kill her with the telekinesis. Maybe using the telekinesis was too personal for him. Maybe there was something too intimate about using his light.

It made me realize, too, that some part of him didn’t want to kill Cass, either.

Even as I thought it, Revik lowered the gun back to his side.

I hadn’t even seen him raise it the second time.

When he looked up at the camera next, fury blazed in his clear eyes.

I felt everyone inside the virtual communication hold their breath as he glared up at me. Even Cass seemed to know enough not to speak, maybe because she, like the rest of us, knew it wouldn’t take much for Revik to pull that trigger, even after what I’d said.

He might never forgive me for this, I realized as I looked at him.

Looking past him, I saw Cass watching him from where she stood on the floor, her chained hands held in front of her. Seeing the manic, almost excited look on her face, I wondered what I was doing, too.

Why was I keeping her alive?

On some darker, more strategic level, I knew I should probably let him do it.

I should let him kill her.

It had been a mistake to keep Ditrini alive, to not let Revik kill him. Hell, it had been a mistake not to put a bullet in his brain myself, when I had the chance.

That had been my mistake, and maybe Balidor’s, but not Revik’s.

He would have killed the Lao Hu infiltrator. He would have killed him on the boat before we left in San Francisco, and dumped his body into the sea.

If I put the rest of them at risk because of Cass, that would be my mistake, too.

I knew that.

But I still couldn’t make myself do it.

Frustrated, I stared into Revik’s angry eyes, and tried to decide why. Apart from nostalgia, apart from holding onto the past,whycouldn’t I kill her? Every logical thread in my mind told me Revik was right, that it was the right thing to do. When I didn’t let myself think about Cass––my best friend,Cass,who I’d grown up with since we were both in preschool––my logical mind told me it was the right thing to do.

But the answer in my light wasno.

No, my light insisted. No, it couldn’t end that way. Me, Jon and Cass growing up entangled in each other’s lives, Cass’s family, Jack, all the fights and late night parties and bonfires on Baker Beach. Revik, Jon, and Cass in that mountain prison. Cass bringing Terian down from that capsule in orbit. Cass being captured by Shadow––

It couldn’t end that way.

I wouldn’t let it.