Ash didn't know how she was still standing. They'd won. They'd beaten the Establishment. It seemed she would not be needing to use her father's invention. At least, not yet. But she was far from relieved. The emptiness in her chest that had been slowly filling since she'd arrived on the island was hollow again. The night spent with Eli, the mere minutes she'd had with Gigi seemed a million miles away now. The pain of what had happened was too much. All she wanted was to be free of it. And the only way to do that was to use what her father had given her.

She lifted the pocket watch from her sternum and considered it. All it would take was a turn of the dial. A half turn to the right and the clogs would set the change in motion. She could feel the metal heating against her skin, tempting her to do it now. She closed her eyes, tilting her head back to let the rain wash the dirt and mud from her skin. Not yet. Opening her parched mouth, she caught raindrops on her tongue, let them slide down her throat and cool the embers of her force, failing to fight the urge to turn the dial, preparing herself for the shift that her father, the watchmaker, said could take a few minutes.

Not yet.

Somehow she managed to wrench her hand free and let the pocket watch fall back to her chest. Something wasn't right. There was a strange buzzing in the air like a swarm of bees getting closer. When she dragged her eyes open, there, in the sky were five dark grey vessels like helicopters but without the rotor blades. They dropped below the storm clouds and hovered.

It wasn't over. The Establishment was far from defeated. Her father's invention would have to wait. She snapped the dial of the pocket watch back to its original position and tucked it back under her robe.

Shorty and his air-wielders braced their arms against this new threat, ready to play havoc with the wind currents, when an eerie voice drifted from the vessels, raising ridges on Ash's skin.

"Don't try anything foolish. We have three of your own onboard." The Director's voice was raspier than she remembered, which could've been an effect of the speakers. Still, there was no denying its musical lilt. "You don't think it was a little... misguided of you to leave your healer unattended?"

Ash's gut wrenched. He was talking about Gigi. She shouldn't have left her in the tavern.

"And your leader," the Director continued. "While it was gallant of him to stay behind and help the kid, he shouldn't have wasted his time. The boy has a weak heart for living. He will die if he doesn't receive immediate attention from your healer."

The Director was talking about Oroton and Gus. And by the sound of it, Gus was in trouble.

Exhaustion and despair threatened to black her vision, but she braced herself against it as she recalled the fleeting look on Jacob's face as he flung the bomb away from the Wanderers and into the soldiers, twisting his broken body in a way that shouldn't have been possible. The memory forced her to remain alert. Be damned if she let Jacob sacrifice go to waste.

The Director had finished his raspy taunting, and his voice took on a business grit. "We've been watching the spectacle and are suitably impressed by the extent of your abilities. Thus, we've decided to make you a deal." The drama of the ensuing pause made it sound as though he was about to award them a prize. "Work for us and we'll make sure you're elevated to Socialised Citizen status. You'll never have to hide again."

Eli answered on behalf of the Wanderers. "In return for what?" His un-microphoned voice seemed meek alongside the Director's elaborate announcement. "What would you have us do?"

"Experiments like this?" Fingerless Fred yelled, holding up his mutilated hand.

"We've made some regrettable choices in the past. But this time, nobody will be harmed. We simply require you to teach us the secret to wielding the forces so that Ace can be the most powerful city in the world. We'll put an end to the drought that has crippled our people for the past ten years and mine the resources needed to expand. You'll be saving our city from ruin."

"Give us one good reason why we should trust you," Eli said.

"You of all people should know I can be trusted," the Director said. "Or have you forgotten who took double beatings from our father just so you wouldn't have to suffer the pain?"

Our father? The Wanderers shifted uncomfortably. Some gasped. Others, such as Miki and Gunner, pursed their lips as though they'd known all along. Ash's mouth dropped open. She could see it now. Where her memory of the Director was pale and waxy, a man with dark eyes and an aquiline-beaked nose, nothing like Eli, their bone structure was the same. Same height, same stringent-muscle build. Brothers. Light and shade. Opposite poles on a magnet. No wonder Eli never spoke of his family.

Inevitable. The word rang with new meaning.

"You're not the brother I used to know," Eli said. "And you certainly shouldn't be messing with the elements. We decline your offer."

As soon as the words left his mouth, hatches slid open on the base of the vessels, from which a dozen soldiers dove out, head first. Like spiders attached to safety threads, their rappel lines whizzed and slowed their fall, landing them gracefully amongst the Wanderers. Safety catches clicked around them and Ash found herself looking down the barrel of a gun.

The Wanderers didn't resist, couldn't resist without risking the lives of Gigi, Oroton and Gus. Knowing this, the soldiers unlatched a complex harness system from around their waists and awaited further orders. Ash could see what was going to happen. They were going to restrain the Wanderers, secure the barina's around their waists and pull them into the hovercrafts.

"It's been too long, brother." The Director landed central to the group, with a tarmac grace that would've rivalled Herald. The rasp in his voice was prominent without the disguise of hi-tech speakers.

"You don't sound well, Falco," Eli said, his tone careful, like someone approaching a rabid stray on the street. "Has the shisha caught up with you?"

The Director dropped a glare so vicious, it was enough to rock Ash back on her heels. "I see your manners are somewhat... lacking as usual."

Eli didn't blink, nor did his body so much as twitch in response. Ash saw in that moment just how similar the two men were. "If you find our hospitality so lacking, why don't you leave?"

The Director let out a long, crowing laugh and swept his arm around. "I quite like it here. You've certainly made a nest for yourself away from the problems of the world." He crowed again. "Funny. This island reminds me of what that loony watchmaker used to speak of. What did he call it again? A utopia?"

Ash inadvertently reached for the pocket watch around her neck, regretting the movement when the Director's bird-of-prey gaze snapped over to her, his eyes hovering just below her breast bone. The watch ticked too loudly in the silence.

"What's that you've got there, little girl?" The Director sidled up beside her and reached out to stroke the golden chain with the back of his fingers. His eyes widened when he heard the ticking. "You don't say. This is certainly... a welcome surprise."

"Don't touch her," Eli growled, taking an aggressive step forward. A nearby soldier pushed him back with the butt of his rifle.

The Director raised his eyebrows. "Touchy, brother." And tugged on the chain to reveal the pocket watch. "I only meant to ask how the young lady came into possession of such a fine piece of jewellery."

If Eli's face had been the perfect mask of indifference until then, the mask fell away when he saw the watch. "Ash?"

The Director crowed with laughter, so whole-heartedly, he coughed on his own phlegm. "They say coincidences are the work of the dead playing havoc on the living." He stoked the metal. "I tend to agree. Now, why would Gigi entrust an orphan with her son's most valued possession? The one he died for? The one that was supposedly destroyed."

A trickle of sweat dripped down Ash's back. She remained silent. Now wasn't the best time to be revealing her family lineage.

The Director's raven eyes roamed Ash's face. "Unless... " he said to himself. "You do have the same eyes..." He smiled. "And the same skin."

"You're seeing what you want to see," Eli said, flicking his hand in an attempt to bely his puzzlement.

The Director grinned. "I don't think I am. Shall we ask the girl?" He turned to Ash. "Girl. Are you the daughter of the watchmaker and the grand daughter of the healer?"

Ash's silence was confirmation enough.

Eli shook his head as though trying to dislodge a pesky fly. "So she's his daughter. Doesn't mean anything. The watchmaker's claims were proved false. The pocket watch is nothing but a well-made watch."

"I might've thought so too. But now I've seen with my own eyes that there are people in my city who can bend the forces of nature—" He retracted his hand from her neck and held it, palm up as an offering. "Nothing seems impossible now." He motioned to the female soldier closest to him. "Take the girl. Leave the rest."

The soldier hesitated. "You said you'd kill her." Freia was almost unrecognisable beneath her newly shaved head. She must've escaped from Phoenix Cave. That, or the Director had found her and released her. Ash worried for the children and seniors concealed behind the waterfall and hoped the soldiers hadn't found them too.

"Did I?" Falco said. "Plans change."

"You said if I followed your orders, you'd kill her and all her people."

The Director scoffed. "Firstly, I never said 'kill'. I said I'd give the girl and her people what they deserve, which are two very different proposals." He turned back to Ash. "And that was before I knew the watch wasn't destroyed. And that the watchmaker was her father." He smiled ironically. "It's been quite the day for family reunions."

A scream burst from Freia's throat and suddenly, her revolver was pressed against Ash's heart. "If you're not going to do it, I'll do it myself."

"Foolish little fly," the Director spat. "Do that, and you won't live to see another day."

Freia's hands shook harder. Her finger tensed and released on the trigger. "You said you wanted her dead because of what happened to Lydia."

The Director laughed. "Lydia meant nothing to me. She was merely a nice distraction from the drudgery of this job."

Freia let out a strangled squeak.

"Freia," Eli said in a low voice. "Don't do this."

"Why?" Freia spat. "Because you're so in love with her?" she looked around. "Because everyone's in love with her? I don't get it. She's as ugly as a rat."

Ash's hands rose in submission. "Freia," she began. "I'm sorry. I'll never forgive myself for what I did."

"You crowed my brother!"

"Because he threatened mine." Ash said the words before she could think of the repercussions. When her outburst didn't culminate with a bullet in her chest, she continued, "He said he was going to fuck my brother then slit his throat. And all over stupid quota."

Freia's chest heaved. "Eric might've been a rat, but he looked after me. I've been green all my life." The gun shook so violently in her hands, Ash was sure that if she fired it now, she had just as much a chance of hitting herself as hitting Ash.

"I'm sorry," Ash said. It was all she couldsay. The words rolled from her mouth like tumbleweed. She couldn't explain why, but in that moment, she felt connected to Freia in a way she couldn't be connected with anyone else on the island. None of the other Wanderers had come from the orphanage. None of them had lived their lives like her and Freia. She didn't realise how much she yearned for someone to understand what it had been like until now. She reached out to Freia, intending to comfort her when—

Bang! Freia pressed down on the trigger, releasing the deadly shot.

Ash closed her eyes, felt nothing but a slight quiver in the air, a rush of wind in her face, and the gentle thwackof something hitting the ground at her feet. When she opened her eyes, it was to a horror so stark, she felt her chest cease and her stomach convulse. Herald lay in the dirt twitching, his neck crooked to one side, beak agape, right wing all but torn off. He must've swooped down from the sky in a flash, a torpedo of gold, to save her life.

Freia dropped the gun, hands shooting to her mouth, eyes wide, face paling. Ash screamed, all sympathy for the waif girl lost to her fury. She gathered up what was left of her strength, found the pulsating essence of her force and—

Bang! Bang!

The Director lifted his gun and fired two shots. The first lifting Freia onto her toes. The second landing her with a thud on the ground, eyes flattened in a death glaze. The shock of it raised Ash to her own toes, as though she was the one with a bullet logged in her chest.

She screamed, body surging with power. The air crackled with heat, but she held her force back by sheer willpower. She wouldn't do anything rash until she knew Gigi, Oroton and Gus were safe.

The Director checked the barrel of his gun, then took a step towards her. "So, what will it be?" The question came out as dry as someone asking about the weather. "Will you give me that lovely antique around your neck and come with me on a personalised hovercraft trip while I leave your friends to grow old and die in peace?" He reached out and touched the chain again, wincing when the metal scolded his fingers.

"Bitch," he hissed. His cool calm cracked and with it, the power of his words fizzed. For a second, Ash saw the man beneath the steel, who was as fragile as glass.

"You're a monster," Ash said.

The Director blinked. "I'll could kill them all instead. You know I'd do it." He swung his revolver in a wide arc, letting it settle on Miki, then Gunner, then Eli. His finger tensed on the trigger.

Click.

The sound of a safety catch disengaging swung his focus. A soldier had broken rank pointed the barrel of his gun at the Director. "Not if you die first," he said. Though his back was turned to Ash, she knew from the fall of his hair and the curve of his spine who it was.

The Director settled a cool look on Jai. "I'm going to have to have a word to Emmeline," he said. "Her orphanage seems to be manifesting a plague of rats." He paused. "Let me guess, you're still smarting from our little... affair and so you've decided to try your hand at revenge? Green doesn't suit you, boy."

Jai twisted the lines of his face into a sneer like Ash had never seen on his soft, handsome features. The effect of it raised the hair on her arms. "Surprised?" It seemed she wasn't the only one who'd changed since they'd left the orphanage.

The Director narrowed his eyes. "I'd only be surprised if you shot me, boy."

"Jai," Ash began."He's got Gigi, our grandmother."

The Director closed his eyes. "Ahhh." He let out breath through his nose. "Siblings."

Jai's eyes never left the Director's. "He doesn't have anyone," he said. "He's bluffing. They're already dead." And with that, he pulled the trigger.