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Ifelt a lot better than the first time I’d set foot in this place. Perhaps it was the sense of progress we had made. After all, we’d managed to save my mother and Richard from the clones’ clutches. We’d also survived multiple encounters with a Berserker named Haldor, whose shadow hounds still haunted me.

Strangely enough, we’d made a couple of friends, too—though “friends” was maybe too strong a word. Myst was a Valkyrie, and Brandon was a Berserker like Haldor. They all belonged to the realm beyond death, a plane of existence that we weren’t even supposed to know about. Thankfully, we’d found relative safety in the Black Heights because most of the clones spent their time down below in the more populated areas, rather than up here.

“I hate being sleepy all the time,” Thayen said. We’d been sitting outside, guarding the cave where Mom, Richard, Jericho, Dafne, and Soph had been sleeping. “This place is doing quite the number on us.”

“It’s how HQ keeps the clones in check,” Brandon replied, sliding down a stony black ridge. He had a stag over his shoulder, its eyes closed and its antlers poking him in the chest. I couldn’t help but frown, though my hastened breathing made it hard for me to deliver a proper reprimand. Regardless of where we stood—as friendly enemies or wary allies—my instinctual responses were pretty clear. It seemed like I had a soft spot for this guy.

“What did you do?” I asked. My tone was harsh. It surprised me, not to mention Brandon. He didn’t show it for more than a second, however.

“You all need to eat.”

I shot him a glare. He’d done us a favor, yet I felt the need to be angry with him. His allegiance was murky, at best, and I couldn’t let my feelings get in the way. HQ, the so-called rulers of this place, had taken his Aesir. I had yet to fully understand what an Aesir was, but I did understand that the creature meant everything to Brandon.

“If I’m being honest here, I’d rather save my blood reserves for when there is nothing else, so the fresh blood is a good idea,” Thayen admitted.

As much as I hated to admit it, Thayen had a point, and I had bigger things to worry about than finding reasons to be mad at Brandon.

“Thank you, Brandon,” Thayen added, offering an appreciative nod.

Brandon seemed pleased, smiling broadly as he set the stag on the ground and sat down next to us. He paused to look around. “Myst isn’t back yet, huh?”

She’d left us with the promise that she would return with Isabelle, Voss, and Chantal’s new location. Our troublesome stint at the Port dungeons had pushed the clones into moving our friends to a different hiding place, which would bring a whole new set of troubles with it, but I decided not to despair. We’d made it this far. We’d manage the next steps somehow.

“No. While we wait, I’d like to ask you about something else. You spoke before about this place sucking the life out of us,” Thayen replied, tension stretching his tone ever so slightly. “We’ve felt this way from the beginning. It wears us out. I tire more easily, get sleepy more often. It’s the same for all of us.”

Brandon had first come to me as a dark figure pointing us toward safety. First, he’d directed us to the cave where we’d hidden after escaping the Vale clones. Then, he’d guided us toward the little cabin in the woods that shouldn’t have been there but provided temporary shelter for us. He’d told us about the Port dungeons, which was good. But then he’d set Field and Aida’s clones on us, which was bad. And then he’d extracted my mother from that place. Ultimately, Brandon had proved an inconsistent ally, which made it hard to fully trust him. My brain wanted to trust this mysterious Berserker, but something in my gut was tugging in a different direction. As I sat beside him, I couldn’t help but wonder—would he keep helping us, or would this somehow end up blowing up in our faces?

“HQ made this place as a self-sustaining ecosystem,” he said. I raised a hand to pause him, since I had another question that I considered more pressing than the flora and fauna of this place.

“Who is HQ, exactly?”

“I told you before, I’m not sure. As I was saying, a self-sustaining ecosystem,” Brandon replied, keeping his focus on Thayen. His disregard irked me a little. It also felt odd not to have his full attention, though I could see him stealing glances whenever he thought I wasn’t really looking his way. It was a game we were playing, it seemed. “This world grows and develops by feeding on the life energy of its inhabitants. The force circulates through it—from the budding leaf to the ripening fruit, from the living and breathing clones to the giant redwoods. In order to exist, this world needs life force. But unlike your world, it’s not endless. It’s not unlimited. It’s just a pocket between dimensions, neatly sealed and containing limited resources.”

“Hence why it feeds on us,” Thayen concluded.

“Exactly. Your bodies replenish your energy through sleep, only now you’re forced to do it more often than before. Six to eight hours nightly for proper functions. It’s the standard effect for everybody,” Brandon said.

It applied to each of us here in the same way, then.

“Like regular humans would,” I said.

The Berserker shrugged. “Point is, the clones go through this as well, so there’s a day and night cycle happening here, even if this place is covered by darkness all the time.”

“Therefore, the clones all sleep at once, during the so-called night.”

“Yes. And that’s when we want to make our move,” Brandon said, his stern gaze fixed on the distant lighthouse. It flickered faintly in a thick grayish mist, its light rotating slowly across the nothingness of the ocean before returning across this false Shade. “Hopefully, our Valkyrie lady will return with useful information.”

I turned to face him, and it made him grow suddenly tense. Why? I had a feeling the Berserker was revealing more than he’d intended through his body language. “What’s your deal with the Valkyrie? As a Berserker, I mean… you haven’t told us much.”

“And I don’t really plan on telling you more,” he replied with a cool grin. “Like I said, you’re not even supposed to—”

“Know about you and your realm, yeah, yeah, you’ve said that before,” I shot back, rolling my eyes. His demeanor toward me was uneven. Sometimes, he was warm and called me Pinkie. At other times, he gave me icy smiles and kept me at arm’s length. It confused me. Then again, I was just as inconsistent toward him. “But we’re here. We’re supposed to be helping each other. We’re supposed to trust each other. How can we do that when we know little to nothing about you? You keep saying you don’t know much about HQ, but I have a hard time believing that. I have a hard time fully trusting you.”

Thayen watched us closely, his gaze often settling on Brandon. I could see he didn’t fully trust him, either. Most of what the Berserker had done for us had been to our advantage, but I couldn’t quite get over the incident in the dungeons. He’d ratted us out once. What were the odds it would happen again when we’d least expect it? Still, I couldn’t stop myself from hanging onto this idea of him as a safe haven. In this wretched darkness, Brandon had brought light. A strange light, given his obscure nature, but a light, nonetheless. There was something about him I found difficult to ignore. Something that made my heart beat a little faster whenever he glanced my way. I struggled to reconcile these two sides of my clearly disrupted emotional spectrum.

“Any suspicion I might have about HQ is worthless without concrete evidence. To me, only one thing matters, whether you care to believe me or not,” Brandon said, slowly raising his chin. “They have Hammer. The best I can do is help however I can without drawing attention to myself from the leadership.”

“Okay. Then how can you help?” I asked.

“I know more than Myst, for starters,” he replied, giving Thayen a wry smile. “I suggest you try and keep it professional. She’s way above your pay grade.”

“Whoa.” Thayen’s eyes widened as he sat up straight. “Whoa, there. What are you talking about?”

Brandon laughed throatily, throwing his head back at the same time. “Oh, come on. She obviously rattled you. It doesn’t come as a surprise. The Valkyries have the same effect on everybody else, me and my brothers included. They’re beings of beauty and light, of grace and wisdom. You can’t look away.”

“I’ve never seen a creature like her before. Or you, for that matter. I think I’m allowed to be rattled,” Thayen replied, crossing his arms.

Below, it was quiet. The only sound was the emerald canopy rustling in the late evening wind, shadows dancing everywhere under the faint glow coming from above. The Black Heights had never looked so beautiful, even though they weren’t our Black Heights. This strange familiarity would keep getting to me, I realized. This idea that I was home, but not really home. I’d never tried to imagine hell before, but I could easily envision it now. It was this place, a beautiful lie filled with people who were desperate to see me dead. Yet it was also where I had pushed myself beyond known limits... and it was where I’d met Brandon—a secret I was eager to untangle and understand.

“Fair enough,” the Berserker sighed. “Just know that you’re in over your heads, even with Myst and me by your side. It’s not enough. It will never be enough. They’ve got at least a dozen of my brothers working for them, and Haldor isn’t even the worst of them. You wouldn’t survive an onslaught from all twelve.”

“Maybe you could teach us,” I suggested. “Or help us more.”

Brandon gave me a long, intense look. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but it made my stomach flutter. “I cannot promise anything. Not until I get Hammer back.”

“Okay. Let us help you with that,” I replied. “Do you know where they’re keeping him?”

“No.”

“Do you have a way of finding out?”

“No.”

Thayen scoffed, shaking his head slowly. “Don’t bother, Astra. I wouldn’t count on him if I were you. He has burned us once already. He could do it again.”

“I probably will,” Brandon replied. “But for now, I will assist however I can. Just understand that there are limits to what I can do.”

Unfortunately, that was as much as I’d get out of him for the time being. He unsettled me in ways I’d never experienced before. I kept trying to imagine what the absence of Hammer was doing to him. If I replaced Hammer with my mother, then the pain and the longing was too real, too much to bear. Maybe that was exactly how Brandon felt being separated from Hammer. If so, then I’d have to cut him some slack. “Can you tell us more about the Aesir?” I asked. “About your connection?”

“I believe I’ve already explained what they are,” he said.

“The spirits of animals that have crossed over,” Thayen replied. “Yeah. I get that part.”

That explanation wasn’t enough for me, though. “How is the connection made between you?” I asked. “How does it make you feel when Hammer isn’t around?”

Brandon’s fiery blue gaze darkened to a shade of indigo disrupted by white sparks. “It’s like a piece of me has been cut out and taken away. Once a Berserker bonds with his Aesir, that connection is unbreakable for all of eternity. If the Aesir is destroyed, it renders the Berserker meaningless. My existence will no longer matter if something happens to Hammer, which is why I’m doing my best to keep him safe while also stopping those doppelganger bastards from killing you.”

Thayen turned to face him. “What are they after? The clones, I mean. What’s their endgame?”

“You might find it hard to believe, but I actually don’t know,” Brandon replied. “I’ve scouted for them. I’ve done work both for them and for HQ, but I am not privy to that information. They’re shockingly well organized. Information is kept on a need-to-know basis only.”

Glancing over my shoulder, I observed the big, dark opening of the cave. Deep beyond that blackness, my mother and friends were sleeping, recovering from a difficult day. I needed them rested, and they needed me with a clear head. Fortunately, having my mother back had come with a sense of newfound clarity. My mind and heart felt lighter, though the latter had an annoying tendency to beat faster in Brandon’s presence.

For my mother and friends’ sake, however, I would keep pushing and find a way for us to move forward. That meant getting Brandon to tell us more, or to at least commit to helping us with our next mission. We would need his support in our attempt to get Isabelle, Voss, and Chantal back.

“They took Isabelle about two months ago,” I said. “Do you know anything about that? Or why her, specifically?”

Brandon shifted uncomfortably, his brow furrowed as he avoided looking me in the eyes. “I’m the one who took her.”

Thayen shot to his feet. “What?!”

“Hold on. Take a deep breath,” Brandon said, raising his hands in a defensive gesture. “It was an order from HQ. They said her genes would be useful for something related to the cloning process, but I admit I didn’t pay much attention to the details. Two months ago, I’d seen Hammer for the last time, with a promise from Haldor that they would destroy him unless I did their bidding. And their bidding involved Isabelle’s abduction, so I complied.”

“You came to The Shade, and you took her,” I murmured, disappointed. I should’ve understood, but still… it felt like a good reason to stay angry and distrusting of him, if only to make myself feel better. His allegiance was to Hammer first, not to us. Not to me. I needed to remember that.

“Yes. I came to The Shade, and I took her. I would do it again, if I were to go back in time,” Brandon replied. “She wasn’t hurt. I was careful and gentle. Barely a tap on the forehead, and she was asleep. By the time she realized what was happening, Isabelle had already been settled in the dungeons beneath the Port here.”

“They had you coming to The Shade often,” I said, remembering his account of stolen and tainted DNA samples. “What else did they have you do?”

“They have me run different errands, but I usually stick to labors of this false Shade. Keeping the order, disciplining the clones, stuff like that.”

“Disciplining the clones?” I asked, exchanging a brief glance with Thayen. He looked curious, too.

Brandon lay on his back, groaning as he stretched his arms and put his hands under his head, staring up at the blank, black sky. My gaze wandered over the toned muscles drawn from his shoulders to his forearms. The skin was almost pearlescent, faintly shimmering under the artificial glow. “It takes a while to get the newly made ones under control. They tend to be rebellious at first. They long for freedom and independence, which is exactly the opposite of what’s expected of them. Naturally, some refuse to cooperate and make a little bit of noise, which is where some of my brothers and I come in. Crack a whip here, kick an ass there, and poof! Obedient doppelgangers to serve HQ without further objection.”

“Right, because you’re punishers,” I muttered.

“It’s in my nature, yes. I cannot change who I am. I live and breathe violence, Astra.” That was the first time he’d said my name. And the way he’d said it sent a rush down my spine. I would’ve liked to respond, perhaps offer a witty retort, but my brain betrayed me. Brandon seemed to have that effect on me. Why?

“You’re always so dark and full of yourself,” Myst cut in, appearing on the same ridge where the Berserker had shown up earlier with the stag. Her presence made all three of us stand, and my heart started to pound in my chest.

Brandon smirked. “Took you forever.”

“It wasn’t easy to find the hostages,” she replied dryly, then looked at Thayen, the blue fires in her eyes burning brighter than before. “I know where they are.”

Silence settled as we waited for her to continue. It seemed like Myst didn’t quite pick up on certain social cues. “Well?” I croaked, stomach tight.

“You won’t like it,” she said.

“We didn’t like it earlier in the Port, either,” Thayen replied. “Please… just tell us.”

Myst sighed. “They’re in the glass extension on the west side of the island.”

Brandon swore, a muscle ticking in his jaw.

I moved closer, watching his expression carefully. It made him take a step back, eyeing me nervously as though I might attack him. “What is it?” I asked, secretly enjoying the knowledge that I had some kind of effect on him, too, though I wasn’t sure what it was exactly.

“That’s where HQ is,” Brandon said. “They took your people back to HQ.”

I finally understood why this made him nervous. Why he’d felt the need to curse. Our friends had been taken under the watchful eye of the alt-Shade’s leadership. Going in to save them meant going deep into the belly of the beast. It made me wonder, considering Brandon’s earlier warnings—were we even cut out for this mission? Had we survived purely on the basis of luck so far, only making it through because of help from Myst and Brandon?

It didn’t matter, I realized. We’d come this far. We could go a little further.