Chapter 2

"Julian, can you lend me some money?"

"My ID's been cancelled, too. Can you help me get a new one?"

"Julian?"

"...Julian?"

He was somewhere far away.

The car moved fast, the amber blur of streetlights strobing across his sharp profile. I tried again and again to reach him.

I was worried he'd take me back to the Harrington estate. Or do something else entirely — have me hauled off to some private research facility to be studied.

"Does it hurt?"

Julian's voice broke the silence.

"What?"

"The fire. Does it still hurt?"

I tried to think back. The memories were blurry, fragmented. What I remembered most clearly was a feeling of release — something loosening in my chest as the smoke filled my lungs.

"A little," I said. "I think."