Today is the day Dion and Daisy leave. Daisy had wanted to stay longer and help us fight Singh, but Dion put his foot down. Whether she wanted Daisy's help or not, Tae also insisted that she needed to rest if she really wanted to help. Right now, she's a liability. Besides, it's not like we've got any plans yet.

I hate to see them leave, especially because Tomas is driving them to a safe house outside of the city. I don't like how far they'll be. If something happens and they need Tae again, we won't know until it's too late.

But it's not like they can stay here. Tae's parents are already saints to house all of us. We're already putting them at risk without having two people that are supposed to be dead walking around. If word gets back to Singh that they're alive, either she'll take them for experiments again or figure out what Tae can do. Getting them away from the city is the safest thing.

But I can't help but feel like I've been here before. Even the jeep Tomas is driving looks similar.

"You look more worried about him than I do," Tae says.

"Don't be ridiculous," I say. But I can't help the way my eyes follow the jeep all the way down the road until I can't see it anymore.

Miss Night leans against the house, watching the taillights disappear into the distance. She's probably seen the photos of the scene. She knows the car I'd survived in almost as well as I do.

Oddly enough, I find that I am worried most about Tomas. I know he'll get Dion and Daisy to the safe house... if it's the last thing he does. He's not as eloquent as Tae and he's rougher around the edges, but it's clear he's not in this fight for her alone. He cares about people as much as she does... In his own way. He'll save Daisy and Dion even at the expense of his life.

It doesn't sit well with me. I don't like that he insisted on going alone. Like he expects something to go wrong and wants to minimize the losses.

I watch Tae's face. The tightness around her eyes. The pinch of her lips. The crease in her forehead. If I could get past the city limits without getting spotted by Singh's guards, I'd go myself.

Amari grabs Tae's shoulder. "He'll be back," she promises.

Tae's face absolutely lights up. "You saw that?" she pleads, grabbing Amari's hand in hers.

Amari doesn't hesitate to nod.

Tae sinks into Amari's arms.

I watch Amari squeeze her eyes shut and suck in her bottom lip. A bad feeling spreads through me, like cement settling onto my legs. Before she can go inside, I grab her arm. "Why'd you lie?" I hiss, low enough I know Tae won't be able to hear, even with her enhanced hearing.

Amari looks up at me, jaw locked, eyes set on mine. "I didn't lie."

"Please," I snarl. "I know you. Is something going to happen to Tomas?"

"No."

"But you didn't see him make it back?"

She flinches now and looks down. "I just meant to offer her some comfort. I didn't think about her assuming I'd had a vision."

"You need to tell her."

"Why? Would that do anything but hurt her?"

"It would prepare her."

Amari's shoulders slump. "That's not always better."

My eyes flicker up and I find Sasha watching us from the living room window.

Here it is again. Amari's secret that I'm not supposed to touch. No matter how hard I try not to, my brain keeps trying to piece things together. Every time I feel myself getting close, I try to distract myself, usually by talking to Augustus. But Augustus is still hibernating and Sasha's eyes are boring into me like she's willing me to figure it out.

I drop my hand from Amari's arm and look out into the street. "Then prepare yourself. If something happens to Tomas, you're going to be the first person Tae blames."

Amari's eyes drift past me to Tae's mother's flower bed. She studies the overwatered tiger lilies with a nod. "I know."

The door opens before I can say anything else.

Tae stares at us with a frown. "Y'all coming?"

We join her in the living room as if we'd planned a meeting. But we end up sitting in silence for a long time. Suddenly, Tae sits forward and grabs her knees like someone's punched her in the stomach.

"What's wrong?" Sasha asks, winding a string between her fingers.

"Tomas," she breathes, rubbing a hand into her chest. "Something-." She lurches forward, off the couch. Her knees hit the carpeted floors and she yelps.

Amari's eyes flash to me.

Sasha drops to her knees beside Tae and grabs her shoulder. Whatever pain Tae is feeling must not be hers, because Sasha's eyebrows knit together and she shakes her head. "There's nothing for me to heal," she rasps. She glances from Amari to me. "What do we do?" she asks, as if I'm the one that has the answers.

My palms start to tingle and I watch as Tae curls into herself, clutching at her chest like she's having a heart attack. She gasps like she can't breathe.

"Mason!" Amari shouts. "We have to do something!"

I stagger back, away from my friends.

"Mason!" Amari cries as I turn on my heel and escape the living room.

I dash to the room I had been staying in and find Miss Night on the bed. She holds a locket in her hand that her fist curls around when she notices me. "Diana! We need your help!"

She stands, frowning, the gold chain of the necklace still dangling past her fingertips. "What's happened?"

"C'mon!" I seize her arm and drag her back to the living room. "You perform the binding ritual," I say. "Which means you know how to do a temporary block."

Miss Night's eyes take Tae in like she doesn't recognize her. Her expression twists and she flinches at me. "I've never actually performed that before, Mason. I've only read about the ritual."

"She's not breathing," Sasha hisses.

"Do it," I order.

She grabs my arm and squeezes. "Mason, if I mess this up... there's a chance the ritual won't be temporary. She could be split from Tomas forever. I wouldn't even be able to reignite a bond between them!"

Sasha and Amari take a second to absorb her words before sharing a look and returning to trying to get Tae's breathing started again.

"If he dies, she'll die."

"She could be the only thing keeping him alive," Miss Night whispers. "It's too risky, Mason."

I look down at Tae on the floor. She's stopped moving, curled on her side, her face slowly losing color – her lips turning blue. "What about the opposite, then?" I drop to Tae's side and bring one of her hands to the center of my chest. I look up at Miss Night. "You could provide a battery for both of them."

"You're not strong enough."

"Do it," I order her.

Diana takes a step back from me, her expression hard. "No. Maria-."

"Maria is dead. And I'm not okay with sitting back and losing the people I love! So, do this and save Tae and Tomas."

She sets her jaw, dark eyes glittering. "Or, what?"

"Or I walk out that door and go kill Singh right now."

"Mason," Sasha warns, her voice low.

I turn my eyes on her, but it's like I'm not seeing her right. The lights are dimming around me and the world is thrown off balance. It's like I've been placed inside a jar and shaken up. Energy is building in my veins and I feel Augustus waking up. Our minds slot together perfectly and a blue haze starts to fill the air around me. I hold Sasha's gaze. "One of you... do it," I snarl. My voice has merged with Augustus's, so there's an echo following my voice, harsher and more commanding than I've ever been. Power drips from the air.

Sasha is the first to cringe away from it, gagging on the electricity coming off me.

"Fine!" Diana shouts. "Stop and I'll do it!"

I rein the energy back into me, but I don't know if I've gotten rid of it or just shoved it into a corner of my body.

Miss Night places her hand over Tae's on my chest and closes her eyes. She has eyeliner on still, smeared from the tears she'd shed earlier. Her hand trembles and her dark hair is knotted, as if she's been raking her hands through it. A tick forms in her right eye, pulsing faster as she pushes Tae's hand into my chest. Her lips move rapidly as she mouths the spell words.

The first indicator that anything is happening is the strong hook in my belly. It seems to tie me to Tae and something much, much further away. I hold onto it with as much force as I can muster. I find a place in my mind for it and latch it there like the locks of a vault door. The pain starts a little after, starting in my nose as if someone's punched me. Then it spreads like I've been hit in the chest by a ball of lava. It rips through me, faster and faster, peaking when it feels like my fingers are breaking and my lungs are collapsing.

I try to scream, or cry, or whimper, but all that comes is a harsh rasp of something vaguely word like.

My friends' faces swim through my vision like I'm spinning.

I put my hand into the carpet and it feels moist. When I look at it, it's discolored - grays and blues and reds - and spreading up my fingers like smoke.

Voices flicker in and out of my ears like an old radio that can't get a signal.

It's not just my friends' voices, but strange ones that feel familiar but I know I've never heard before.

"-Too dangerous."

"-Don't do-."

"Help m-!"

"AUG-!"

There is one voice that keeps returning, circling around my brain again and again. This one I do know. My mother. She's humming something, petting the hair off my forehead, pressing soft kisses to my cheeks. "It's okay," she says, and this voice is the strongest, the steadiest. "The pain will be over soon," my mother promises, but in my heart, I don't believe her.

I can hear my own voice too, begging her to stop, begging for relief. I feel her hands, like a ghost's, on my shoulders. They're firm, commanding, holding me down.

"Do it," she orders, in a familiar tone.

The pain in my body echoes through my mind and I'm suddenly not very sure where I'm at. It's like I'm blurring at the edges. Becoming me now and me then. Becoming someone or something different, but unable to let go of the everything I am right this moment.

The scream builds in my chest with magic behind it. I don't know if it's mine or Augustus's, but it sears my throat. When it does come out, blue light floods what remains of my vision and I'm thrown backwards, slamming into something solid.

My friends' voices come through a tunnel, crying in pain, or yelling names.

All I can do is curl onto my side and try to breathe.