“Adelice wised up,” Cormac says, and I realize he’s been privy to our entire conversation. “She and I are working to make life in Arras stable again.”

“I can’t wait to see how you’re going to do that,” Hanna says.

“It’s too bad you won’t be around to witness it,” Cormac replies.

“What does that mean?” I demand, stepping in. I don’t care what any of them think of me anymore. Not when things are spiraling out of control.

“You know how I treat traitors, Adelice. You’ve seen it yourself.”

“But she hasn’t experienced it herself,” Hanna points out. “You’ve spared her. If we were all young and pretty, maybe you’d make an exception for us as well.”

“You are young and pretty, Hanna, but I can’t forgive everyone,” he says. “Adelice will help me to heal the wounds your generation has inflicted on Arras by becoming my wife. That was the price she was willing to pay for peace.”

“Better her than me,” Hanna says, and then she unceremoniously spits at him. It lands at his feet.

Cormac takes a step back and regards the floor with disinterest. “If you want to know why I chose her despite her clear lack of respect for Guild authority, then I’ll tell you. Adelice uses her intelligence to fight, which proves to me she is capable of reason. I’m less and less sure that’s something most of you are capable of.”

“When you say most of us, you mean women, right?” I say.

“Don’t bother, hon,” Hanna says. “You stopped being one of us when you partnered with him.”

Her accusation doesn’t sting like it once might have. Hanna has chosen her path and I’ve chosen mine. I have the benefit of experiences that she doesn’t. Hanna is young and angry, but there’s desperation in her actions and her words. It colors her ability to think rationally. The only way I can salvage this situation is to take the opposite approach. Reacting got me nowhere when it came to saving the man in the street. I can’t focus on a strategy now. I have to anticipate Cormac’s next move. It’s clear Cormac plans to execute the Spinsters. But I’m not certain what that will do to the Eastern Sector. The blackout will continue. Food supplies will cease to arrive. How long before the people cross the borders? What will happen to them then? I have to convince Cormac to keep girls on the looms.

So even as Hanna tosses her accusations at me, they bounce off, unable to penetrate the thick skin I’ve constructed. I need to think so that I can plan. I need to bite my tongue. I need to play dumb until I know the correct words to change Cormac’s mind.

Because I know they exist.

The other girls are watching our interaction with increasing dread. One has started to cry. Hanna is the ringleader. Several back away from her. I watch as they abandon Hanna, leaving her at the center of the rebellion.

“I will go back to the looms,” the crying girl shouts.

Cormac smiles at her, but then he wags a finger. “It’s too late for that. This whole sector has been tainted by disloyalty.”

“B-b-but … but…” The girl stammers against the sobs heaving through her.

“Cormac,” I say, taking his arm gently. “You’ve made your point.”

“No, I haven’t,” he snaps at me, wrenching free.

I swallow hard and say the one thing that’s always haunted me, that I’ve never brought up with him. “I know you are capable of mercy. You showed it to me once.”

“I needed you, Adelice. I always knew you would be a Creweler,” Cormac admits. “If you’d been any other Spinster, you would have shared their fate.”

“What fate is that?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer me. What will he do to them?

Instead he turns to the group of officers and officials surrounding him. “Protocol Two has been activated. Those with border privileges should evacuate now.”

“You can’t do that.” Grady’s face is ashen.

“I already did. The Guild can’t continue to pretend this issue will be resolved. You’ve had two years to deal with this, Grady.”

“There are innocent Spinsters here,” Grady says. “Most remained in the towers. You can’t punish them for the others’ actions.”

“I’m not,” Cormac says. “I’m punishing them for their own inaction. Five girls didn’t black out the sky. Five girls didn’t cripple a sector. Inaction breeds rebellion. And the Guild has been inactive for too long regarding this matter. I take responsibility for that. It ends today.”

“So that’s it,” Grady says, no longer trying to appeal to him. The fight has gone out of his eyes.

“Evacuate now, Grady, and try again if you can bear to show your face at the Ministry.”

“How will you show yours?” he asks Cormac.

“Proudly. Because I’ve done something important here.”

“Who has clearance to leave?” Grady asks.

“Those with border privileges. No one else.”

“But my family!” Grady protests.

“You can have another.”

“I don’t want another.”

“How sentimental of you.” Cormac laughs at his colleague, dropping his voice to whisper, “Would you have said that about your last family or the one before?”

But judging from their confused faces, Hanna and the other girls hear the question, too. I shake my head at them, a message that this is not going to end in their favor. The Spinsters thought they were making a stand. They suffered under the delusion of their own power. It’s a trap laid early in the Coventry. Make a girl feel pretty and important and she’ll start to believe it. Distract her while you lead her into a tower and strip away her rights. And never show her what you’ve hidden.