The team stumbled into the apartment on Kronos at around two in the morning.
“I think I’m going to sleep for a week,” Thea said.
Holly tossed her bags unceremoniously onto the ground. “Are we just going to gloss over everything Jasper said about knowing us on Earth? Because we should talk about that.”
“What is there to talk about?” Jasper asked through a yawn. She pulled her sphere from her coat and set it on the counter. “Whatever happened in the warp wiped away five years of your memories. I don’t know anything more than you do about how the warps work or what’s on the other side.”
“I want to know what I did in those five years. What the four of us did. What things were like at that academy you mentioned.”
“I’ll tell you,” Jasper said to Holly, though she glanced at the others while she spoke. “After we all get some sleep.” She didn’t have the emotional capacity for that conversation right now. She doubted she would tomorrow, either. In fact, she’d probably wind up putting the conversation off for as long as possible.
They deserve better. Jasper was surprised by the sting that thought brought to her eyes.
Holly, Thea, and Dax entered the hallway. Jasper moved to follow.
“Jasper,” Grace whispered.
Jasper turned around. “Something wrong?”
“I just have a question.” Grace hesitated, waiting for the sound of three doors to close before continuing. “What did you mean about Ringmaster not hurting Aymes? What secret were you talking about?”
“They have the same powers,” Jasper said. “I didn’t think much of it at first. There could be any number of reasons for that. But then there was the Silver Hands Fright House, and Nolan was one of the random names graffitied on the building—that’s Aymes’s middle name. I made a guess, and Ringmaster confirmed it.” She paused. “He’s Aymes’s father.”
Grace’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell Aymes?”
“I was going to, but then Ringmaster disappeared and—what would be the point?”
“Doesn’t he deserve to know?”
Jasper shrugged. “Was it my place to tell him?”
“Well, it’s not like Ringmaster can anymore.” Grace sighed. “But I guess he gets to go back to a normal life, now. Maybe that’s better.”
“Do you think I was right to keep the warp thing from the others, too?” The words came out before Jasper could stop them.
A moment passed. Another. “I don’t know,” Grace said softly.
“I had no explanation for it. And it was so hard to think about losing them to that thing, let alone talk about—” Jasper’s throat tightened. She swallowed. “I feel like I failed them. Twice now.”
“You didn’t fail us by letting Ringmaster get away. We have his data drive.” Grace folded her arms and glanced away. “And—I don’t know about the others, but I’m glad you didn’t join him.”
“Me too,” Jasper replied. “I am sorry, though. It might take longer than I thought to bring down Starr. But I promise you I will, and then you’ll be free to go—wherever you’re going, without worrying about him or Red Blades.”
“Right.” Grace started toward the hallway, passed Jasper, then paused. Turned around. “Sorry, one last thing. Did you look at the lab records yet?”
“I skimmed them on the way here,” Jasper replied.
“Anything interesting?”
The window behind Grace spilled city lights over her, illuminating the wings relaxed behind her, her dark waves of hair, her skin. Jasper’s heart quickened. She thought of the diagrams of cybernetic wings, the memory wipe procedures, the list of test subject after test subject. Grace’s name. The numbers.
That girl in the cafe. How many more were there?
And which one was Grace, if not the original?
“No,” Jasper lied. “Nothing yet.”
“Okay. Good night.”
Grace disappeared into the dark hall. Jasper’s heart still pounded, even after Grace was gone, and she silently cursed its unsteady rhythm. There was too much going on for her to start another battle with her own emotions.
Why not? Why not tell everyone everything? Maybe Jasper thought she could spare them from the repercussions of the truth if she carried it alone. If they never knew the terrible things that had happened to them, they could live in blissful ignorance indefinitely.
Not like Jasper, who had every memory burned into her mind forever.
Forever. God, she hoped the serum wouldn’t keep her alive that long. It had to wear out eventually, right? Would she resume aging normally, or would she drop dead all at once?
“Mia,” Jasper whispered.
The response came through the sphere on the counter. “Yes?”
Jasper swallowed. “Can you tell me who made you?”
“Thea made me. She doesn’t remember.”
“And you’ve never told her.”
“You told me not to.”
Jasper nodded. “Good.”
She opened the fridge and grabbed a Nova Cora. Drank it. Move to the window to stare out at the city.
“I’m coming for you Starr,” she whispered.
Not just Starr. His villains, his gang, the Fayes, the other elite families that kept him in power. She didn’t know who would replace the people in charge, and right now, she didn’t care.
The next morning, the team gathered around the counter to look at the data drive. Jasper had already hidden parts of the lab records in a different drive and deleted them off Ringmaster’s, careful to use all the procedures Thea had once shown her that would ensure they were gone for good.
Even without all that, there was a lot to sort through.
“I think we have some concrete stuff tying Starr to Ringmaster,” Thea said as she scrolled through one of the documents. “Our primary concern is making sure it can’t be disputed as fake. We need to be sure people will believe it. And, of course, make sure they see it in the first place.”
“How are we going to do that?” Grace asked.
Jasper grinned. “I have a few ideas.”