“We interrupt this program to bring you a special report.” The reporter looked a little frazzled, staring away from the camera and muttering something to the crew before continuing. “The sudden winter weather shows no sign of stopping. So far, we’ve received five centimetres of snow, with at least twenty more forecast overnight. We would like to remind you all not to panic. We’ve been receiving reports from grocery stores about supply shortages and rushing. Please be considerate of your fellow citizens. We’re all in this together. I’ll be back at eight with another update. Thank you.”

The report ended. The cartoons resumed playing as if nothing had happened.

“Hot chocolate?” Sarah offered. I shook my head. “Okay.” She patted me on the shoulder before sitting down beside me. “How are you doing?”

“I’m okay, now.”

“You’re not feeling the chills anymore?”

“No. I’m much better.” My hands still trembled a bit. It had been surprisingly hard to get back here. My Imago froze up in the cold, wings refusing to work properly longer than a few minutes. My human body just hadn’t been dressed for the weather. And Vespa...

Noticing my eyes wandering, Sarah reassured me. “Vespa will be fine. Torpor. Pretty typical stuff. It’s going to be hard to operate in the cold. I’m so glad you got back here safely. Though...”

“I know, I know. I shouldn’t have gone out.”

“How did you get out?”

“Thea broke open my window and— oh, my window!” I tried to get up, but she put a hand on my shoulder and guided me back to the couch.

“Yes. I noticed. We’ll deal with that later. Continue.”

“She broke open the window and took me to... to my house. To where Ecto was staying. She wanted to show me the paradise that they were preparing for humans.”

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “And you believed her?”

I sighed. “I wanted to see.”

“And what did you see?”

“A city. A beautiful city. But I couldn’t see anything more because she... she brought me right into Ecto’s lap. And then ran. Said something about not wanting to fight. Leaving me.”

“Typical. It’s okay. You can be upset.”

“I’m not upset,” I said. “That’s the weird thing. I feel like... like I’m missing something. I want to find her. I want to talk to her again. I just need to know a little more. A little more and—”

“That’s how they get you, isn’t it?” Heidi slammed the door behind her, brushing the snow off her sweater and gloves. “I shovelled the walk,” she said, bringing the handle to her mouth and taking a bite. Or trying to, at least. “Sorry,” she muttered before discarding it. “Force of habit.”

“Heidi—”

“You got into enough trouble with this demon Thea already, and you want to go crawling back to her. I know. I know. You can’t help it. She’s so interesting. It’s sickening. Grow up. She is your enemy. Treat her as such.”

“You... see this is what Thea’s talking about. You don’t even want to give them a chance. When she showed me the city... I want to see it, really. It could be... what if they’re telling the truth?”

“Here’s your truth.” Heidi dropped something small and hard onto the coffee table.

On the table was a tiny little chrysalis. “What is this?” I asked.

“Oh.” Sarah’s expression changed to alarm. “It’s...”

“It’s Angelina.” An unfamiliar insect landed on my shoulder. A dragonfly, golden-and-black, just like Angelina’s Imago. I supposed that was to be expected. “Sorry. We haven’t met, have we, Quinn. I’m Libellula—”

“That’s Angelina? What? How?”

“She’s in torpor. I will probably enter torpor soon as well, due to the cold, but I was able to bring this to Heidi to safekeeping.”

“What happened to her?”

“The demon. Thea, was it? Devoured her. The Echo E1-Host. Ate her Imago. Thankfully she kept calm and didn’t try to transform back. Had she been in a human body, this would not have ended so nicely.”

Thea? Thea did this? “So then what’s this on the table?”

“What’s left of her Imago. It may be small, but it will be able to regenerate her body fully.”

“And she... was... devoured?”

Heidi scoffed. “Your demon ‘friend’ had her Echoes eat Angelina alive.”

What? “But Angelina’s still alive?”

“Yes. Though to save energy, she is currently unconscious. She should wake up in about three months.”

“That’s... that’s...”

“It’s disgusting. You understand now? It’s all just an act. It’s all just doing things for their own ends. She never wanted you to see things her way. Never wanted you to understand. She just wanted to trap you. Food for her Echoes. Like Angelina.”

“I... I see.”

“And so now, thanks to you, we’re down one person, just as Ecto gets all uppity about his stupid plan and throws us all into this world-ending snowstorm—”

“Calm down, Heidi.”

“I’m not going to calm down, Sarah. I have every right to be upset. Where’s Nep, anyways?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But we have protocol for this. And step one is not panicking. Something that I am very good at.”

“What’s step two?”

“If she doesn’t get back in time, we’re supposed to contact Mali. But we’re supposed to wait at least 48 hours before—”

“Argh!” Heidi slammed her fists against the coffee table. “Where is she? Why did she have to make that deal with Vespa and leave all the work to us? She never takes care of Quinn, she just tells us to help her all the time, like she thinks it’s so easy. No pressure. Just teach her a bit. So that when the whole freaking world ends we can ask her to save it.”

Sarah glared at her. “Heidi!”

“Look, you want to keep up this facade, Sarah? Do it on your own, okay? I’m tired of this. Let me know when you can convince her that she needs to grow up and learn to kill demons.” She stormed out and slammed the door.

“What was that about?” I asked.

Sarah bit her lip. “Maybe... maybe it is about time we tell you, then.”