“You’re wrong,” I say in a quiet voice.

“You were innocent?” he asks.

“No, about me not seeing the big picture. It’s not that I don’t see it. It’s that I see a different one than you.” I pause, waiting for him to interrupt, but for once he’s listening to me. “You’re looking at the past, Cormac. Your world is falling apart while you squint and pretend the big picture isn’t deteriorating rather than face the truth.”

“And I suppose you’re going to enlighten me?” he asks with a scoff.

“I can’t do that, which is why you need me. You’re holding on so tightly that you’re strangling Arras. Call off the protocol and we’ll figure something out together.”

Cormac hesitates, his black eyes fixed on mine, flickering like he’s trying to read a secret code. He won’t find anything hidden there, because I believe every word I’ve said to him. “This sector isn’t beyond saving,” I continue. “Nothing in this world or the one below us is beyond saving. The fact that you brought me here proves you know that. You gave me another chance, Cormac. You can give those girls one as well.”

Cormac’s gaze falls to the floor and he straightens up, unable to meet my eyes. It’s the first time he’s backed down from me. It’s the first time I’ve won.

I try to bite back the triumphant smile tugging at my lips as he cocks his head. “Hannox,” he calls.

I think of Hanna’s judgmental eyes. She scorned my methods, but I have gotten results through diplomacy. Cormac might be a twisted man, but he always does the best thing to advance his career. Abandoning the Eastern Sector wasn’t going to earn him popularity points.

“Hold the protocol,” he says. “Wait for my orders.”

As soon as he ends his conversation, his eyes fall wearily over me.

My heart takes flight like a freed bird as we pass outside the central part of Cypress, past tall buildings and shops out to the cookie-cutter streets that comprise the neighborhoods. It’s evening and the streets are empty, lights flicker in windows, but curfew is imminent. Posted signs warn us to turn back—that we’re entering a restricted area. When we finally stop, Hannox helps me out of the back of the motocarriage. We’re on a bluff much like the one Cormac brought me to during a goodwill tour we took together. The men speak in furious whispers until Hannox climbs back inside the motocarriage, leaving Cormac and me alone.

“Are you here to tempt me?” I ask him as he appears by my side. He’d offered me Arras once as we looked over a cliff.

“No, we’re here to witness.”

“Witness what?” I ask, suspicion seeping into my voice.

He taps his wristwatch. “Soon. I thought it was time I showed you the big picture.”

I stare out past the edge of the bluff. A metro stretches, sparkling, at the foot of it. The night is still, not a trace of wind in the air, but as my gaze moves upward there are no stars. No moon.

“Why are we here? I thought we were going to the Northern Ministry,” I ask, not wanting to understand why he’s brought me here, because I think I already know the answer.

“We are standing at the boundary between the Northern Sector and the Eastern Sector,” Cormac explains.

This information sends a chill running through my veins, but I don’t repeat my earlier question. The lights below are merely the candles and emergency flashes the population is using while the sector is in blackout. Instead I wait, dreading the answer that I know is coming.

I’m here to witness Protocol Two.

The black sky flashes rainbow. Colors streak across, lighting it in brilliant ruby and sapphire, each shade fading into another. Until it ceases to be. It’s no longer empty air. It’s more. It’s become a gaping void. The space-time around us vibrates, filling the abyss overhead with the low hum of absence. Under it the metro tremors and fades, stripped before my eyes. My mind fills the silence with screams. But would they scream? Would the people of the Eastern Sector even know what was happening to them? Did they feel their removal from Arras?

Did they know they had been cast off from life? Through the lost cries echoing in my head only one thought is clear: Sebrina is in the Eastern Sector. I’ve failed Jost again.

I step closer to the edge, and when the air stings my tears, I realize I’m crying. “What have you done?”

“I’ve shown you who is in control here. Don’t forget what you’ve seen.”

I swallow my own scream as I stare across the expanse, wishing I could explain to Jost what just happened. And hoping I never have to.

For a moment there is nothing, and I understand why Arras has strict boundary laws. Passage between sectors is controlled to ensure citizens stay where they are supposed to and don’t see anything they shouldn’t. But also because this might need to be done at a moment’s notice. I feel certain it has been before.

“How many times have you done this?” I ask Cormac, forcing my hands to my sides even as they ache to reach out and rend him in half.

“Protocol Two?” he asks.

I nod, my eyes never leaving the empty space stretching before us. We stand on the precipice of this world. Past us lies nothing but a blank gap in reality.

“I’ll never tell,” he says.

I round on him, leaving no room between us. “You can’t do this. There are innocent people there. There are children!”

My throat is thick with grief, and I choke on the final word, my heart splintering even further for Jost and Sebrina until I’m sure I will crack under the pressure of my guilt.