“Please, Marina,” I say. “I know what I’m doing.”

Slowly, she starts to lower the icicle. As soon as it’s away from his face, Five darts around it and puts me between himself and Marina. He looks at her, a mixture of fear and shame on his face, then hustles down the hallway towards Nine and the soldiers.

“Of all the horrors of war I’ve seen, this is the worst one,” Nine observes as naked Five approaches him. Some of the soldiers chuckle. I shake my head—that’s exactly the kind of comment that could set Five off.

To my relief, Five squares his shoulders and doesn’t respond. The crowd of soldiers part for him, staring and murmuring. Five ignores them all. For now, he seems content simply to return to his cell of his own volition. That’s a good thing. Maybe he’s learning to pick his battles.

“Show’s over, people!” Nine yells, waving the crowd away. He follows Five around the corner, his voice carrying as he yells at a soldier, “Do your patriotic duty and find this boy some pants!”

It’s just me and Marina now. She floats the icicle over to herself and plucks it out of the air, breaks off the sharpened tip and presses what’s left over against her forehead. She looks up at me with a shaky smile.

“I’m sorry if I reacted . . . poorly. Waking up here and seeing him, I just—I am trying not to be so . . . so vengeful.”

“You reacted like I would’ve,” I tell Marina. I nod to the chunk of ice against her head. “How are you feeling? Head still bothering you?”

“Just a little headache,” she replies. “I remember Setrákus Ra smashing me against the ground and then . . .”

“You were in rough shape,” I say. “I healed you as best I could.”

“You saved my life,” Marina says, touching my arm. “I was close to death. On the precipice. I know this for a fact.”

I raise an eyebrow at that. Marina’s right; she was barely hanging on when Lexa’s ship arrived here. The way she talks about it, though, I can tell there’s something more.

“While I was out, I dreamed about Setrákus Ra. Or, he invaded my dream. He pretended . . .” A look of deep revulsion crosses Marina’s face. She shudders. The ice chunk in her hand cracks and expands, a fresh burst of frost coating her fingers. “He took on Eight’s appearance. Tried to coax me into . . . into letting go.”

I glance over my shoulder in the direction that Five went. He mentioned a dream about Setrákus Ra as well. I guess just because he needs to recover physically doesn’t mean he can’t keep screwing with us telepathically.

“He showed up in Five’s dream too,” I tell Marina. “Asked him to give us up.”

Marina arches an eyebrow. “And did he?”

“He claims he didn’t,” I reply. I believed Five when he said he didn’t betray us, but I know that’s a stretch for Marina. “Anyway, we brought him here blindfolded. He couldn’t give us away if he wanted to.”

“Setrákus Ra must have come to me because I was vulnerable and to Five because . . . well, their history . . .” Marina pauses, thinking out loud. “Did anyone else . . . ?”

“No, I saw everyone this morning; they would’ve said something,” I tell Marina, although something nags at the back of my mind.

“So Five and I are the easy targets,” Marina says, frowning. “That is disheartening.”

“He’s desperate,” I say, although I’m not sure I entirely believe that. “He doesn’t know where we are, but we know he’s hurt, and we know where to find him. As soon as we sort some things out for the military, we’re going to West Virginia, and we’re going to finish this.”

Marina stares blankly at my mention of the military. It occurs to me how much she’s missed in the short time that she’s been unconscious. I walk her back into the medical room. There’s not a lot inside except for some cots partitioned by curtains and monitoring equipment, the place completely empty since Marina was the only patient. Now that we’re alone, I bring her up to speed. I tell her about the battle in New York, the call from the president, the origin of Patience Creek and the appointment of General Lawson as special commander. I know what I sound like—all business, like a commander bringing a soldier up to speed—but I can’t stop myself.

Marina listens patiently, but I notice her eyes begin to narrow as she studies me closely.

“John,” she interrupts when I pause for breath. “Where are the others? Is everyone all right?”