Chapter 121

• In all honesty, I don’t want to face Lucas’s Second alone. The man is unnerving—sharp in a way that feels both dangerous and deliberate, like a blade balanced on the edge of civility. Having another person there feels not just preferable but necessary. A witness. A buffer.
• Ruth doesn’t argue. He hums, a low noncommittal sound in his throat, but I appreciate the lack of resistance. I know he doesn’t like Axis either—no one does, really—but he’s not pressing me for details or trying to dissuade me. That’s something. It tells me I’m not overreacting, even if my chest is tight with the weight of the situation.
• “Do you know where he usually is around this time?” I ask, hoping Ruth might have gleaned something during the brief stretch when he was cleaning the man’s quarters.