“Well, now what?” I asked the fur ball snuggled tightly against my chest. With no answer but a soft purr, I decided to look around while I waited.

The hallway was empty, but as before, the strange symbols and strips of light marked my progress as I strode away from the habitat, still stroking the kitten’s cheek. I soon came upon a separate hallway I hadn’t seen before, blocked by heavy double doors, closed, but without a lock. “A clear invitation to enter,” I muttered into the soft, spiky fur.

But this hallway, if possible, was even more stark and cold than the rest. No lights lit up as I entered, and the rooms lying diagonally to one another were laced with viewing windows and bars, each dark inside. The kitten stirred restlessly in my arms. I took this as a sign that maybe I shouldn’t be there, and was backing up when one of the doors suddenly bounced open. Greta appeared, murmuring softly, and I would’ve called out to her except that she was followed by Chandra. Both women were focused on a third, whom they had by the arms and were gently coaxing into the hallway.

I recognized her immediately. Her robe was grimy, and she looked thinner than she had in the manual, but it was Tekla. Shuffling forward almost reluctantly, her head was down, eyes moving over the floor vacantly, seeing nothing. The two other women continued to murmur soft encouragements, and I did back away then, not wanting to interrupt.

Then Olivia’s cell phone went off in my pocket. The kitten startled awake in my hands, and I scrambled to soothe her as “Viva Las Vegas” continued to chime from my thigh. I fumbled for the phone as tiny claws burrowed into my chest and Chandra cursed at me from down the hall.

“Olivia Archer,” I answered, shooting Chandra and Greta an apologetic smile. But whoever was on the line, and whatever they were saying, was lost on me as Tekla lifted her head and frowned, staring directly into my eyes. “I…I…”

I didn’t know what I was saying so I flipped the phone shut and swallowed hard as Tekla regarded me with utter clarity. “I’m sorry,” I managed, not sure which of the women I was talking to. Greta had noted the change in Tekla too, and her eyes were darting from her to me and back again. Chandra just continued looking pissed.

“I see you.”

We all froze, except Tekla, who’d uttered the words and was uttering them again, over and over, her voice cracking as it grew louder and louder. “I see you.”

“Tekla, love,” Greta soothed, taking her more firmly by the arm and trying to guide her the other way, “calm down now. Let’s go this way.”

But Tekla’s eyes had narrowed on mine, and she was suddenly heading my way. “I see you,” she said, and Chandra cried out in surprise as Tekla broke free from their hold, while Greta fumbled in her pocket. She came out with a syringe, but Tekla was well out of reach by then.

“Get back, Olivia!” Greta yelled, but I was afraid to exit the sick ward. If I stayed where I was, she’d be contained, and Chandra and Greta could regain control.

In fact, Chandra had recovered enough to catch up to Tekla, but when she laid her hands on her this time, Tekla wheeled and struck out blindly, her arm crushing Chandra’s nose. Chandra fell backward, Greta yelled again, and Tekla began to run.

“Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!” She was on me so quickly I could only release the kitten. Hissing, it escaped out the double doors as I fell into them. Tekla tripped me up, fell on top of me and climbed my chest until her face was inches from mine.

She smelled of unwashed skin and sour memories, and I swallowed hard, not wanting to fight or hurt her. Thankfully, Greta was suddenly there, a syringe prepped and already angling toward her shoulder. Tekla whimpered when it struck, whipping her head around to face Greta before slumping without another peep.

I relaxed beneath her as Chandra reached her other side and she and Greta began lifting the unconscious woman to her feet.

Then her head jerked back up, and he was alive in her face.

The skin and even the bones of Tekla’s face stretched, and the Tulpa leered out at me. “I see you,” she repeated, but it was his voice, rotted and threatening. “You think you’re safe in there? You can’t hide from me. I’m your bogeyman…I’m your poisoned fate.”

“Jesus!” Warren was suddenly there, pulling her—him, it—away, and it took all three of them to do it as the Tulpa’s face continued to leer at me. Halfway back to her room, Tekla’s head again dropped, bobbed, then lifted, her gaze returning to mine. It was imploring again, as was her whisper. “Traitor…”

Then the door to her cell slammed behind them all, and I was left lying alone on the floor, my glyph once again burning a hole through my heart.

20

An hour passed before they got Tekla settled. Afterward, Chandra was sent to tell the others the training session in Saturn’s Orchard would be postponed, and the rest of us gathered in Greta’s office, where she busied herself with making yet more tea, though her hands shook as she stole nervous glances back at me. For the longest time Warren didn’t look at me at all.

We were trying to figure out what had happened to Tekla. I was relieved because they too had seen the Tulpa leering from Tekla’s vacant face, but my relief was diluted because even Warren didn’t know how it’d happened. But after I told them about the night before, and how a memory had turned into a nightmare—the Tulpa speaking to me as clearly as if he’d picked up a phone—he was pretty clear on the why.

“Obviously Ajax has told him about you,” Warren said, pushing his teacup aside. “He knows you’re his opposite, the new Archer. He’s letting you know he’s targeted you.”

“He wants vengeance for Zoe’s betrayal,” Greta said softly, shuddering.

“Okay,” I said slowly, not liking it, but following easily enough. “But how’s he getting in my dreams? In the sanctuary?”

“Well, he’s not really in the sanctuary, dear,” Greta answered, steadier after my explanation, the suspicion that Tekla’s accusations had raised in her seemingly tucked away, if not entirely forgotten. “Dreams are simply psychic energy, and the one you had last night was linked to a particular past trauma. My guess is that you had a hard day yesterday, and like Tekla, that left your mind more open to his influence.”

“So he can get to me? At any time?”

“Not physically.” Warren shook his head adamantly. “You’re safe in here.”

“So why was there a woman with a demon’s face straddling me, Warren?” I said sharply.

But he merely stared back at me, and the suspicion was still clearly alive in his face.

“Look,” I said, rising from my chair so quickly it nearly tipped backward. “I didn’t do this! I didn’t even touch her. I said my name and she charged me. She looked right at me and she told me…” I trailed off, remembering exactly what she told me.

“That she ‘sees’ you,” Greta finished for me, almost reluctantly. “And then she called you a traitor.”

She had. And though Warren was silent as we left Greta and headed toward Saturn’s Orchard, he didn’t need to say anything. His anger arrowed inside of me in white-hot flashes that burst in my core, rippling outward to die in my limbs. What remained, though, was a shard of well-hidden guilt that the anger had encased like a hard, protective shell.

Warren shot me a quick glance as we ascended a stout stairwell, his jaw clenching, and the feeling immediately subsided.

I looked away, pretending I hadn’t noticed, but it made me wonder. What did Warren have to feel guilty about?

There was a single door facing us as we reached the top of the landing, and Warren stepped aside so I could peer through the window. After a moment, despite it all, I felt a smile slip over my face. There were people; a few I recognized, a few I didn’t, but that wasn’t why I was smiling. In a room of unrelieved white, mats lined the floor and lower walls, and punching bags dangled from steel beams set at cross purpose to one another. Along the far wall were baskets of ropes, pads, and mitts, full to overflowing. It was a dojo. Sure, it was shaped like a pyramid, and its walls were mirrored from floor to pointy little tip, but it was a dojo all the same. For the first time since yesterday I felt at home.