Jayse started my rebellion against the Civilization. His departure showed me the Civilization's ugliest side--when he left and took something with him, he exposed me to torture and truth at once. I've always wondered what he stole from the Civilization, but now that I'm faced with potentially uncovering the truth that Ryke has held for years, I'm as terrified as I am curious.

My voice shakes as I ask, "What does Jayse have to do with anything?"
Ryke narrows his golden eyes at me. "I think you already know the answer to that."

"So now you're going to tell me what happened?" I growl. "After all those times I asked you and you wouldn't tell me?"

"Hey, I don't have to tell you now, so just shut up and listen," Ryke retorts. I squeeze my lips together even though I want to wring the truth out of him.

"Ryke--"
"This weapon, this gas, it's the Civilization's," he blurts, and the truth comes to light. As soon as he said Jayse's name, I knew he had to be connected to this. When Jayse left the Civilization, the Civilizers were furious at him, and they weren't just mad because he disappeared. They're mad because he stole something: the gas. But how did he steal it? And how did he and the weapon end up in Domus? He must have arrived while Luk was still Father Paul's prize son. Then my heart drops to the bottom of my stomach. When I asked Luk all those months ago if he knew Jayse, did he lie to me?
"Jayse stole it," I say, tripping over my words. "The gas."

Ryke nods, running a hand through his long hair. "Yep. I...I don't exactly know how. I didn't work in weapons like Jayse, and honestly I don't think I would have cared if I'd seen it."

"But he told you what he found?" I ask, leaning towards Ryke to keep our voices low.

Ryke tilts his head to study me, thick eyebrows furrowed. "Ren, he didn't just tell me that he found the strafing gas. He created it."

My world shatters again--Jayse didn't discover the weapon and save the Civilization's enemies. He invented this horror, this weapon of mass destruction. How could he have come up with something so incredibly evil? And why didn't he just turn it over to the Civilization if he was capable of creating kind of atrocity? Did his conscience

"He--he made it? How? Why?" I stutter.

"You know he was a genius, Ren. Probably smarter than even you." Ryke shrugs again. "I don't know why he made it--probably just to see if he could. We were both hungry for something, but I wanted power and he wanted knowledge, and he ended up creating, well, this."

"So why'd he leave?" I ask, trying to put together the pieces of the man I apparently didn't even know. "Why didn't he just give it to the Civilization?"

"He realized what he created was too dangerous to leave in the Civilization, and he wanted out anyways. He always felt...I don't know, squandered there. He wanted freedom and he was curious, always too strafing curious."

"So he left and took the weapon with him."

I can't forget the day the Civilization discovered his disappearance when Mizpah interrupted my Advanced Training test to take me in for questioning. How they strapped me to a chair and shot electricity through me, waterboarding me in between shots of electric. All because Jayse was too curious, too smart, too creative and cruel for his own good.

"Why didn't you tell them the truth in the interrogation?"

This is the question I've always wanted to ask Ryke. For all his loyalty to the Civilization and the brazen things he did in its name, he never betrayed Jayse, not even to me. I don't understand his blind loyalty to a friend who deserted him.

"Jayse told me he was leaving," Ryke explains. "He even asked me if I wanted to come with him, but I couldn't. I had it made in the Civilization and I wasn't sure there was anywhere in the Outside I'd actually want to go." Ryke glances around the room. "Now I'm positive there isn't. So he said he was leaving and taking a canister of the gas with him."

"What for? Where did he want to go? Did he know about Domus?" I list off all the questions rattling around in my brain.

"He didn't know about Domus--he was searching for somewhere else, some place he heard about that's almost like the Old World. I don't know, it sounded like a joke to me, but that's where he wanted to go, and he thought that if he could give them this weapon, they would welcome him."

Somewhere else besides Domus? I've thought about other societies out there, but this is the first time I've heard of a specific place. I know better than to get my hopes up, however. If human nature is involved, it can't be any sort of haven.

"So Jayse stole the gas and left? How'd he get out?"

"I'm an Enforcer, Renna." Ryke stops and touches his forearm, tracing a tattoo. "Or I was. I helped him get out with the gas."

"So you're part of the reason Domus is getting ready to kill all of your old friends?" I growl at him.

Ryke puts his hands up. "Lay off, I'm one of the good guys now, remember?"
Ryke's lack of guilt for any of his misdeeds always boggles my mind. Still, I can't blame him for what Jayse did. I should be brainstorming how to destroy the weapon, but all I can think about is Jayse.
"So where is he now? If he came to Domus and traded the gas away, why isn't he still here?"

Ryke shrugs his shoulders. "I have no idea. The last time I saw him, he was carrying a canister into the snow. It's not like we've been pen pals since he left."

"But--"

"What are you guys whispering about?" Hayl asks, returning from the bathroom in a white tank top and shorts.

"Nothing," Ryke answers. "I was just leaving."
He shoots me a sharp look and returns to his bed, rolling himself inside the blanket without any sign of consternation over the news he just gave me. It's my problem to deal with now. I lie back onto my bed and don't even try to quiet my racing mind. Jayse. I've always wondered where he went, but when Luk said he didn't know anything and Ryke refused to tell me the truth, I let it go. I figured it would remain an unsolved mystery, but now I know why he left and what he's done.

But how the shell do we destroy this thing? If Ior and Orrick can figure out where the gas is held, we'll destroy it. But then what? Father Paul will make sure we're all kicked out, and we can't return to the Civilization. The room feels hot and muggy and suddenly I can't handle it. Using the cane on the floor beside my bed, I limp to the door and open it. The air isn't any cooler out here, but at least I'm not surrounded by all of my friends.

The guards jump when I open the door, but I roll my eyes at them. "Relax, I just need some fresh air. It's really hot in there."

The guards eye me, greed in their hooded gazes, and I suddenly wish my tank top was tighter around my neck. Apparently word about my rendezvous with Ior has already gotten out.

"Sure you're not here to visit us?" one asks, his words still slurred by Elz's sleeping drug. "Guards are just as good as technicians, y'know."

I chew on my lip so hard it bleeds--I just want a moment of peace, but I can't even find that. Maybe I should have hidden in the bathroom. The door opens and Luk emerges.

"What's going on out here?"

The soldiers balk at the sight of Luk Adrian and I smile gratefully at him. He's the only one I can be with when I'm alone. But then I remember--Jayse. Another secret he might have kept from me. Did he lie to me or just withhold the truth? Is there a difference?

"Just give us some space," Luk growls at them, and they back away. He turns to me, the same severity in his voice obvious in his expression. "We need to talk."

"Yeah, we do." Luk has hardly said two words since we found out about the poisonous gas, and with this revelation about Jayse, I know he's hiding something from me. "So what haven't you told me this time?"

My voice is icy and bitter, but I don't care. Just when Luk and I started to make things right, this happens and I uncover another lie.

Luk sits next to me, resting his arms on his spread knees with his head hung. "What did Ryke tell you?"

He lied to me. "I want to hear it from you."

"I didn't lie to you, Ren." His words slice through me. "I didn't know who Jayse was--he never told us his name--but I thought, or at least I suspected, that's who he was when you told me about him."

When I asked Luk if he knew Jayse all those years ago, he told me he didn't. He lied to me. Another lie. Another layer of deception and betrayal. My chest aches, but I've been emptied of everything except exhaustion and anxiety.

"Just tell me what happened."

Luk runs a hand over his face. "I used to patrol outside of Domus a lot, that's how I had the skills to become a Survivalist in the Civilization. That's when I met Jayse--but I didn't know who he was. He was just a civilian, long dark hair, and all he had were these canisters."

I picture him, trudging through the snow and carrying the most powerful weapon known to man. A shiver goes down my spine.

"Canisters? More than one?"
Luk nods soberly. "Yeah. He only gave me one, so there's another canister of this gas floating around somewhere."

"Where'd he go?" I demand. "He didn't stay?"

Luk shrugs, looking down at his hands. "No, he left. I don't know where he ended up, but he took that gas with him."

"He created it, Luk. He didn't just steal it. It was his invention."

Luk's eyebrows raise and he looks at me. "What kind of lunatic creates a gas capable of killing thousands of people?"

"What kind of lunatic takes that gas and gives it to a tyrant?" I bite back. Luk must have given the gas to his father, so if the weapon goes into use, he'll be as guilty as Jayse and his father. "You gave it to Father Paul."

Luk's shoulders slump. "I had to, Ren. To get me and Ila out."

Of course Ila is the reason. Of course Father Paul used his daughter to bribe Luk to hand over an insanely dangerous weapon. And of course Luk did whatever he asked, regardless of the consequences. Not only did he spy on the Civilization as payment for his freedom, he gave his father the most valuable weapon on this earth.

"Spying on us wasn't enough?"

"Ren--"
"Everyone in the Civilization and the Underworld could die because of what you did."

Luk flinches away from me, and I almost regret my hasty words. Almost. "Ren, I did what I had to do."

"To save Ila, I know. But do you ever think about anyone else? Did you even think about what could happen?"
Luk sighs, twisting his neck and cracking it. "Of course I thought about it. I regret it, okay? But I was depressed and desperate. We all make mistakes."

It's my turn to flinch--I let them torture Ila. His lies and my mistakes will always remain between us.

"Why do you always do that?"

Luk stills at my words and studies me. "Do what?"

I pull at a loose string on my shorts. "Throw away logic when people are involved. You...you could have saved so many lives, Luk, but you didn't. You gave the strafing weapon to a crazed tyrant."

"I throw away logic?" Luk asks, his voice getting louder as he turns to face me. "That's what you call loving my daughter and...and caring about you? I can't be as heartless as you are, Ren. I just can't."
Heartless.

Is that seriously how he sees me? I have a heart that aches for everyone I've lost and everyone I might lose. I just don't let my emotions dictate my choices. To me, that's a strength, but to Luk, it's a weakness.

I stand up abruptly, using the side of the building to support my weight. My hands are shaking--I don't want to fight with him. Luk and I don't matter, but the gas does. It has to be destroyed. I have to forget the weight that settled on my chest when he called me heartless.

"None of this matters, Luk. We just have to destroy this strafing gas."