“What about the people here?” Jost asks, and I know he’s thinking of Sebrina.

“A group needs to stay and get everyone out. If we send someone through the loophole, we can get the rest of the survivors evacuated in minutes,” Albert suggests.

“Are you sure?” I ask.

“I’ll make sure,” Erik says, stepping in. Our eyes meet and we both know that our talents are needed in too many places at once to allow us to go together now.

“But the second they rebound into the other sectors, their personal identifying sequences will be flagged,” Falon points out. “They’ll have you ripped in minutes.”

“We’ll use a veil,” Loricel says. “The veils will mask your personal identifying sequences. We might as well use the talents of the Tailors in the room.”

“I don’t have the materials to make a veil,” Erik says.

“You have me,” Loricel reminds him.

“How long do we have?” Dante asks Alix.

“About an hour,” she says.

“Arras time or Earth time?” Jost asks.

“That’s relative,” Albert says.

“What does that mean?” Jost demands.

“It means that in this set of circumstances, we have an hour. We’d better get to it.”

Everyone rushes in opposite directions, and I don’t have time to say goodbye to Erik before Dante has pulled me to the side. We’re leaving with Jax and Falon.

“That’s it?” I ask. “How are we going to do this with only four of us?”

“Jax will stay with you the whole time, Adelice,” Dante says.

“I’m not much of a bodyguard,” Jax points out.

“You know how to initiate Protocol Three and Adelice claims she can get Cormac to tell her the pass code,” Falon says.

“That was before I knew he’d ordered my death,” I point out.

“Be extra sweet,” Dante advises me.

“And the other sectors?” I ask, ignoring Dante’s helpful advice.

“We will have several minutes in each sector before the coventries detect an anomaly,” Loricel says. “You must get word out before I start the next rebound.”

“We should go alone. Cover more territory,” Dante says.

“I can handle two of you at a time, but past that, things will get tricky.”

“I’ll go to the Western Coventry,” I volunteer. “Pryana will help me get the evacuations going, and I have to be sure that Amie gets out.”

“We need to focus on the population, not the coventries,” Dante argues.

“I’m not negotiating on this,” I tell him. “I need to make sure Amie gets out, and Pryana is Agenda. She can notify others.”

“Amie will be safe, Ad,” Jax says.

“If the evacuation measures are in place,” I say. “There are four of us. We can cover all the sectors and the Western Coventry, too.”

“Fine,” Dante relents. “Loricel, can you do it?”

“Absolutely,” Loricel says.

Dante nods, his eyes flicking to each of us as if to gauge our readiness.

“Then Falon will take the leader of the Southern Sector, Jax the Northern, and I’ll take the Western Sector, and then we’ll all meet in the Northern Ministry to deal with Cormac together.”

I nod, my pulse building to a frenzy. From this moment on we are on borrowed time, but before I can even consider how much danger we’re rebounding into, Erik appears.

“I hear you need disguises.”

TWENTY-THREE

I ALWAYS EXPECTED THAT HAVING MY FLESH altered would hurt, but other than an initial prickle across my nerves, I don’t feel much.

“How are you doing?” Erik asks me.

I don’t bother to look at him, because then I’ll see what he’s doing and I definitely don’t want to see.

“I’m great,” I say as enthusiastically as possible. “I’m still not sure what you’re doing, though.” I never mastered my Tailor abilities past basic alteration, and my work was overseen by Dante or Erik every time. This is well beyond the scope of my skill.

He snorts, but I’m telling him the truth—it doesn’t hurt. “Veiling creates an alternate pattern of information in a person’s personal identifying sequence. If you tried to go back in without it, it would only be seconds before a security alert was activated. One of the many unfortunate side effects of having total control over an artificial world is how easily anyone can be found.”

As a child this information made me feel safe. Now that I’m the person being hunted, I can see the problem with this setup.

“But one of the perks,” he adds, “is that what they see on the security looms can be manipulated.”

“And what they see in person?”

“That doesn’t change, and unfortunately, I don’t have time to alter your appearance. Not that I want to,” he adds.

“So this isn’t an actual disguise?”

“Only for the security looms.”

“Shoot,” I say, trying to lighten the mood. “I was hoping to get rid of these freckles. I guess I’ll have to settle for some funny spectacles or a big hat.”

“I love those freckles.” Erik leans in and brushes a quick kiss over my bare shoulder, straightening up again when Jax turns back toward us.

“How long does veiling buy us?” I ask.