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She passed it to me, along with a pot of chopped fruit and a sandwich, and took out a salad for herself. While we picked at our early breakfast, she kept an eye on her phone. When a light on the dashboard flashed, indicating a full charge, she started the car again.

‘You had better take your … alysoplasm,’ she said. ‘We’ll be in Rome in forty minutes.’

‘I would be grateful for a syringe, if you have one,’ Arcturus said to her. ‘My dosage must be precise.’

‘Why?’

‘It makes him sick,’ I said offhandedly. ‘Sicker than it does me.’

Terebell would never forgive me if I let the truth slip. Even my closest friends had no idea that the Rephs could become Buzzers.

Ducos unzipped a medical kit and handed a syringe over. Arcturus used it to draw a tiny dose of diluted alysoplasm from a vial. I sipped from the one Terebell had given me, and the æther faded again.

‘You both look as if you’re about to die,’ Ducos observed as she drove out of the station.

‘Yeah, thanks.’ I covered my mouth. ‘I need to be quiet now, or I’ll throw up.’

‘Please don’t. This is a work car.’

Ducos drove along a deserted stretch of motorway. Arcturus sat in rigid silence. I kept glancing at him, even as my skin turned clammy and my stomach cramped. Rephs could only tolerate one or two drops of pure alysoplasm when they were on good form. Even watered down, I couldn’t stop worrying about the havoc it might be wreaking on his body.

I let myself doze off again, if only to escape the discomfort. I couldn’t stand not being able to sense the æther. If I didn’t find Cade quickly, I might have to endure it for days.

A sickening crash jolted me awake. I snapped forward before my seatbelt went taut. Ducos had barely spun the wheel before the car swung to the left, and suddenly we were careening off the road.

Ducos hit the brakes. The car slewed and tipped, and before I knew it, glass was exploding around us. Her phone escaped its holder and clipped my cheek. I kept my eyes shut and my heels on the floor until I was slammed back against my seat, pinned there by an inflated airbag.

There was no light. I could hear my own laboured breaths, then Arcturus: ‘Paige, are you injured?’

‘I don’t think so,’ I said, shaken. ‘Are you?’

‘No.’

‘Ducos?’

‘I’m alive,’ she said, her voice straining.

‘Fuck.’ I tried to catch my breath. ‘Did we roll over?’

‘Yes. A car ran us off the motorway.’ She pressed her gun into my hand. ‘It’s either bounty hunters, or Spinner got wind of us. Shoot to kill, if you must. I’ll be right behind you.’

I only had one knife on me. Ducos had locked my other weapons in the boot. Once my seatbelt was off, I tumbled out of the car, using the door as a shield while I readied the gun. I was going to have to fight in the dark with only five of my senses.

The yellow lights of the motorway shone up ahead; so did a pair of headlamps. I ran, leading them away from Ducos and Arcturus. The car veered towards me and gave chase.

Had someone really come for that obscene reward?

Nick had trained me to have quick reflexes, but that had been with my clairvoyance. It was as much a part of me as my sight or my hearing, and the loss of it had unbalanced me. I fired at the windscreen, but the car still struck my thigh as it passed, knocking me down.

The car reversed with a wet screech. Teeth set, I pointed the gun, but even with all six of my senses, I had never been a crack shot. I landed a hit on one of the tyres, blowing it out just before the car reached me.

Someone got out of the passenger side. I raised my torch, aiming for the eyes. The beam revealed a massive bald man I recognised. Bohren, the unreadable who worked with Cordier. He grinned at the sight of me, turning my blood cold.

My gun went off.

The unreadable looked down at his chest. I froze as the grin slipped off his face, and a stain darkened his shirt. He collapsed to the ground, revealing a pale woman with short black hair. All the memories came pouring over me, roughening my skin with goosebumps.

‘There you are.’ Cordier levelled a small pistol at me. ‘Get in the car, Paige.’