“I think that’s exactly what happened to her,” Erik says.

“Do you know something about this?” Dante asks him. “From your work with the Guild?”

Erik holds his hands up. He doesn’t look guilty but it’s obvious Dante doesn’t trust him yet. “There were a lot of rumors flying around the Coventry. I never knew what to believe. The Guild was always testing new weapons and alterations. If I had to guess, I think that’s what we’re dealing with. But I have no experience with this.”

“Did you touch her?” Dante asks Jost.

“No, why?”

“Until we know what it is we need to assume it’s contagious.”

“I saw it,” I tell them. “It was like a swarm of insects.”

Dante looks to Erik, who nods slowly. I know he saw it, too.

“It’s possible,” Erik says. “They altered people to create Remnants. It wouldn’t be that hard to manipulate animals or insects in similar ways.”

“You think it was an altered bug?” If he’s right there’s a good possibility I’ll be seeing these things in my dreams.

“They dictated what came into Arras. They could eradicate entire species, or…” Erik trails away, leaving us to our imaginations.

“Or create weapons,” Dante finishes.

“We should keep moving,” Erik suggests. I nod in agreement, but before we make it out of the alley a man appears at its end, blocking our departure. He has the same decaying appearance as the dead girl.

“We need to get out now,” I murmur.

“You want to run past him?” Dante asks. He has a point. “We need a distraction.”

Erik rummages through his rucksack but comes up empty-handed. “We can shoot him,” he suggests weakly.

I don’t even know what to say to that suggestion. But I don’t have any suggestions of my own. In this strange severed existence, I cannot be sure my powers will work. I could do more harm than good.

“We don’t know how the disease travels. We don’t want any of his blood flying around. It’s too dangerous,” Dante says.

“I’m out of ideas,” Erik says.

If we touch the man, we could become infected. But how are we going to get past him without touching him or hurting him?

Dante motions for us to huddle together, but as we come closer, I notice something is off. Our group is smaller.

“Wait. Where’s Val?” I ask, but I’m afraid I already know. I pop my head out of our cluster and immediately spot her. She’s no longer waiting silently by us. I know what she’s doing. And I know why. Valery, so in need of validation after her betrayal, so eager to prove herself, is going to sacrifice herself. It is too late to stop her.

“Val!” Jost shouts, trying to call her back, but she’s already only a few steps from the decaying man. She turns just as his arms close over her frail figure. When the man opens his mouth, a swarm of insects spills out, engulfing Valery. They cover her skin in a teeming black coat.

“No!” I yell. My fingers whip through the air, trying to latch on to the weave around us, but Dante grabs my hand.

“Stop,” he commands me. It’s only then that I see the tear I’ve left in my wake. The weave around it frays, unraveling into thin, brittle strands. This world is dying. Valery is dying. And I can’t do anything to stop it.

Valery calls into the dead night, but her words are soft. The only one I’m sure I understand is, “Run!”

“It’s too late,” Dante says, dragging me beside him. I know he’s right. As we rush past Valery, the insects have vanished, but then I see them trembling along under her skin as it puckers and bubbles until the bugs begin to strip her flesh. Even through her agony, she manages a small smile.

My fingers reach toward her, but Dante pushes me out of the alley and away from her.

“Did anyone touch the girl?” Dante demands.

I can’t bring myself to answer his question. Valery will be dead soon. There’s no way to stop it. If one of us is infected, we all will be soon.

“Ad!” Dante shakes me.

“She’s clean,” Erik says. “If any of us were infected, there would already be signs. You saw how quickly it infected Valery.” He places a protective arm around my shoulder, and Dante turns his attention to the rest of us. No one shows signs of infection. We have to hope we’re safe, but the truth is that none of us knows what we’re dealing with.

We keep our lights on and move in a huddle. No one talks. A sense of shared urgency pulses among us.

“Why would she do that?” Dante finally says. His words are a mix of disgust and admiration, and I’m almost certain he’s not looking for an answer.

“Guilt.” Erik answers anyway, though his eyes never waver from the street ahead of us. “She betrayed us. This was her way of making it right.”

I want to thank him for this obvious answer, but I know I’m looking for an outlet for my anger. I want to crack a joke and make the ache in my chest go away. But it’s not going to be that easy this time. If it was ever that easy before.

“She didn’t have to get herself killed.” Erik’s words are few, but full of meaning.

“Sometimes death is the only absolution,” Dante says.

I shake my head. I don’t buy that for one minute. “There is no absolution in death, only escape.”

“There’s absolution in sacrifice,” Erik says softly. I hear it in his voice—the pain of his own sacrifice. But what has he given up, and why?