Page 52

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Finn stood behind Rose, his hands gripping the back of her chair. His knuckles brushed against her shirt collar, just below where Duke had stitched her head wound. His jaw clenched. Another scar Rose shouldn’t have to carry.

“Rose.” Thea ran her tongue along her cracked lips.

Rose lifted the water glass from the makeshift bedside table, angling the straw. Thea sipped, her gaze darting between them like a cornered animal. Something fevered, almost alien, burned in her eyes. She let her head fall back with a theatrical sigh.

“Thea—”

“You brought the heavies with you again, I see.” Her mouth twisted as she eyed Finn.

Finn folded his arms and held his tongue. This was Rose’s play to make, though every instinct in him screamed to step between them, to shield Rose from her sister’s fuckery.

“Thea. We were worried about you.”

Thea’s mouth flattened. “Don’t pretend like you care.”

“Of course I care. ”

“You just feel guilty because mom and dad died.”

“That’s not true.”

“Spare me the platitudes. You’ve always had it so easy. You don’t understand how hard it is for me.”

Rose recoiled as if struck. Thea didn’t even notice, too caught up in her own performance.

“Doesn’t matter, anyway. You’re too late.” Thea lifted her head from the pillow, her eyes fever-bright and unfocused. “Too. Late.”

“Too late for what?”

Thea fell back, her eyes fluttering shut as if consciousness was slipping away. “I saved her. You’re too late.”

“Who did you save, Thea?” Finn’s fingers dug into the chair back, wood creaking beneath his grip. The urge to shake answers from her cramped his gut, but he forced himself still. Rose needed answers, not his rage.

Thea’s tongue darted out over her cracked lips. “Still thirsty.”

Rose offered another drink, her hand steady despite the tension lifting her shoulders.

Thea gulped the water greedily. When she finished, a smile cut across her face that made Finn’s skin crawl.

Rose set the glass back on the rickety table. “Thea, why are we too late?”

“The nanobots.”

Jesus Christ . His jaw was burning . His gaze shot to Nion across the tent, but the doctor was hunched over his laptop, seemingly oblivious.

“They’re secured in the habitat, Thea.” Rose lowered her voice. “I can’t guarantee they won’t be destroyed, though. You pushed beyond the parameters of what is ethical, put people’s lives at risk?— ”

“No, they’re not in the Io.” Thea’s eyes gleamed with an unsettling clarity.

Finn tasted coppery blood from the inside of his cheek as he fought to stay silent.

“Thea? What are you not telling us?” Rose’s voice stumbled on the last word.

“I took the queen. She didn’t need much to re-establish the colony. Just some Ceto bacteria for the initial protein synthesis, nanobot assemblers for rapid replication. You can’t stop evolution, Rose. You, of all people, should understand that. The nanobots, this work—you’re part of it whether or not you accept it. Your research helped shape what I’ve created.”

“Thea….” Rose recoiled against Finn’s hands, her spine rigid.

“You can’t bury progress.” The pitch of Thea’s voice escalated. “I had to complete our work even if you weren’t willing to take the necessary risks. I had to prove to them it could be done, that I could do it.”

“Thea, what have you done?” Rose whispered.

Thea wasn’t listening. Her eyes glazed. “This will be my mark on the world. When we worked together, everyone kept talking about how brilliant you were. How lucky I was to have you as a sister. The golden child. Perfect grades, perfect career, perfect life. Always one step ahead of me. Always overshadowing everything I achieved.” Her voice took on a honed edge. “Did you know they used to call me ‘Rose’s sister’ at the lab? Like that was my only identity. But now—now they’ll talk about me, about my brilliance. They’ll remember my name, not yours.”

Finn understood now. Thea had spent years cultivating her resentment of Rose, tending it like some monstrous flower, feeding it daily with spite and resentment until it had blossomed into this terrible thing that consumed her.

“Thea, what the hell are you talking about?” Rose shook her head. “Before you took our work, published it under your name?—”

“No matter how hard I worked, no one ever gave me the same recognition you got.” Thea’s voice trembled with barely contained rage. “It came so easily to you, and you just squandered it, completely blind to your privilege. But now.” She stabbed her forefinger against the thin sheet covering her legs. “ Now they will listen to me. Now they will have to acknowledge what I’ve achieved because they’ll have no other option.”

Rose’s hands bunched in her lap.

The venom of her sister’s words landed like poisonous barbs on Finn. He wasn’t sure he could take much more. The tent felt too small, the air dense and suffocating, each breath a struggle.

“I never thought any less of you, no matter your achievements, Thea. You’re my sister. You were always good enough for me, even if you weren’t enough for yourself.”

Thea’s face pinched as the truth hit home but just as fast her features hardened into a mask.

Rose buried her face in her hands. Finn held her shoulders. He wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and take her far from her sister’s vitriol.

“It’s too late.” Thea gave a dismissive shake of her head. “They’re already free.” Her eyes shone with fevered triumph. “Released to evolve. We’ll witness the next stage of human advancement—organic matter and nanotech merging to create an enhanced species, a transformed world.”

“You know that’s not true.” Rose’s voice caught. “ Without containment protocols the replication cascade will be exponential. You’re gambling with every living organism on the planet. Self-replicating nanobots don’t stop.”

She took a shuddering breath. “This isn’t evolution, Thea. You know as well as I do it’s extinction. No hybrid paradise. Just a spreading tide of gray death as your nanobots consume everything in their path. Plants. Animals. People. Entire ecosystems reduced to microscopic machines, mindlessly replicating until there’s nothing left to devour.”

Thea’s chin tilted. “Spare me your doomsday theories.”

Finn swore under his breath. “Enough of this shit. She’s insane. Where are they, Thea? You need to tell us.”

Thea’s mouth curved into a sly smile. “Your guns and your hotshot team can’t help you now.” Her features warped. “It’s too late.”

Rose’s chair clattered to the ground as she lurched to her feet. Her fingers scrabbled at her throat as she stumbled. “Can’t— I need air?—”

“Hey.” Finn caught her before she hit the ground, steering her toward the slice of daylight marking the tent’s exit.

The outside world was a physical assault. All garish brightness and a cacophony of sound.

He pressed down on her neck, easing her to her knees. “Head down. Slow breaths. You’re hyperventilating.”

She folded forward, her trembling fingers latching onto his hand.

“Fuck.” The word scraped through his clamped teeth.

Her breathing steadied, each exhale less ragged than the last.

“You good? ”

“Yeah.” She straightened, planting her feet wide, hands braced on her hips like a boxer steadying for the next round.

Life churned on around them, obscenely normal. Students hunched over artifact tables, heads bent together in easy laughter. Voices drifted from nearby tents. The sun blazed overhead, indifferent.

He thrust a water bottle at her. “Drink.”

She obeyed, her throat working as she swallowed.

The image of Thea's face replayed in his mind—her features contorted with a manic intensity.

“I’ve never seen her like that before.” Rose wiped her mouth.

“I’m sorry.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze. As far as he was concerned Thea’s mental health had ruptured into something incomprehensible. “Can we track the bots?”

“We’ll be chasing dust scattered in a hurricane. Across the entire planet.” Briefly she heeled her hands against her eyes. Sweat sheened her temples and her skin tone was waxen in the harsh sunlight. “Finn. I don’t know how to fix this. I don’t see a way out.”