Dru approached before we could continue our conversation, dropping an arm over my shoulders and nudging Evie out of the way so that he could stand between us. He also dropped an arm over her shoulder, but she was so tiny that she basically started to get sucked into the space between his arm and his meaty torso.

“Evie?” I called out, perhaps louder than was really necessary.

I heard a muffled reply, before Dru announced, “She’s fine. The important question here is what are you doing here?”

I knew that he was talking to me, because he was staring at me, but I wasn’t quite ready to answer his question yet. Mostly because … I had no idea what I was actually doing there. Apparently, I had blacked out and then returned to consciousness without being aware of what I was doing, whilst actively plotting to join in on a very important meeting for the future of Blesswood—acting as a fake official dweller representative. Either Cyrus had somehow manipulated me into doing something while I wasn’t entirely aware of it, or else I had finally gone insane.

“She was invited,” I finally answered Dru, spurred into saying something simply to escape my thoughts. “She’s an official dweller representative.” I was motioning to Emmy, who was frowning at me.

“I was talking about you,” Dru clarified.

He sounded genial enough, as though we were old buddies and he was pleasantly surprised by my sudden, unwarranted appearance … but there was something more in his eyes. Something that glimmered. Something that didn’t belong there—and I couldn’t place what it was. Anger, maybe? Suspicion. Yes, probably suspicion.

It was suspicious, after all. I wasn’t an official representative, I hadn’t been invited—I shouldn’t have even known about the meeting—and yet there I was, standing right outside a building with stone columns lining a front courtyard and giant oak doors leading into a huge hall teeming with sols. It seemed as though the most important sols of Blesswood had not been the only people fortunate enough to be invited to the meeting.

“I’m here because …” I fumbled for an answer as I stared past the doors, following the robes of the people as they passed into the crowd and began to clump into little groups, conversing with each other in hushed little whispers. “Someone put an enchanted necklace on me, because my soul was trying to eat me, and then I passed out. Because it hurt, you know? Anyway, when I woke up, I wasn’t really aware of waking up. I don’t remember it at all, but apparently that version of me really wanted to come to this meeting, so I just walked into the cart. I don’t think the other sols cared enough to count how many dirt-dwellers were in the other seat. We were probably just one big, dirty blur to them.”

Dru chuckled. “I never know what’s going to come out of your mouth—but I have to admit, it’s almost worth it to never get a direct or honest answer from you.”

“I just told you everything,” I deadpanned.

“Right.” He chuckled again, before allowing me to escape from beneath his arm.

I reached around for Evie’s arm, and pulled her out too, almost expecting her to have suffocated at some point—though she looked more or less the same, with only a few extra inches of frizz added to her hair.

“So are you going to let me go to the meeting?” I asked Dru, since Emmy and Evie were standing there and staring at him instead of moving toward the building like the others.

I couldn’t actually see any other dwellers standing around, so I assumed that we were waiting for Dru’s approval. There was every chance that the other sols present in the hall would object to our appearance, so we would need everyone from Blesswood, at least, to support our attendance. I supposed that was why Emmy and Evie had spent so much time sucking up to Dipshit, Numbnuts, and Fred.

Dru was sizing me up, his small eyes flicking from my head to my feet, as though trying to visualise what the other sols would see when they looked at me. I also looked down, and then sideways at Emmy, and then at Evie.

“We’re all dressed,” I stated dryly. “We have all the same parts you have. The head. The arms. The legs. The lack of ball—”

“We were assigned to be present at this meeting,” Emmy cut in quickly, “by the new Chancellor himself.”

“Then you’d better get the hell in there,” Dru said, his smile stretching into a grin. “It’s about to start.”

Emmy and Evie didn’t waste another click, and they each grabbed one of my arms and started dragging me toward the hall, as though I would cause irreparable damage if left alone with a single sol for any period of time. They were probably right. I was already craning my neck to look suspiciously over my shoulder as Dru followed us. What was his deal? He gave up that fight way too easily. He was a terrible sol. Sols were supposed to make it hard for the dwellers to feel special. It was basically written into their genetic makeup.

“It’s starting,” Evie whispered to Emmy—speaking right across me.

“Is it?” I said in a normal tone, forcing her to acknowledge me. “That’s nice. And why are we here, again? I mean you guys, not me. I know why I’m here—or not, actually—but why is Blesswood sending dweller reps to a sol meeting?”

“Because the Abcurses demanded two dweller seats on the dweller-relations committee,” Evie replied. “And the entire committee is expected to be present, as well as all other Blesswood committees, and all relevant people from the other academies across Minatsol.”

I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out, and I stumbled, fighting off a sudden, disorientating wave of nausea. Evie and Emmy only tightened their grip on me, half-carrying me all the way across the polished wooden floor, toward the back row of seats. The entire hall was set up with folding wooden chairs, all facing a raised dais at the front.

“You weren’t exaggerating at all,” Evie muttered with a huff. “She really can’t walk on her own.”

You said that about me? I attempted to chastise Emmy, but again, the words wouldn’t surface, and another wave of dizziness hit me. I quickly wrestled out of their grip and took a step back, holding a finger up to Emmy when she tried to reach for me again.

I need a click.

I tried to plead with my eyes, hoping that she got the message. She nodded, and I huffed out a short breath of relief, before quickly running to the back of the hall again and passing through the door we had entered through. I made it around to the side before the next wave of dizziness hit me, and then I was on my knees in the grass, my hands on the outside wall, my head pounding with sudden pressure. There was a blackness edging into the corners of my vision, and panic clawing up to the back of my throat. I suddenly wanted to run back inside and grab Emmy, but as soon as I tried to stand, the blackness reared its head and flooded through me, claiming me completely.

“We have to get her to a healer; she’s never going to make it otherwise.”

Emmy’s voice floated to me through the ringing sound in my ears, and I cracked one of my eyes open. I was back inside the same cart in which I had woken up only what felt like ten or so clicks ago.

“What happened?” I croaked out, searching for Emmy.

I had been crammed into the corner of a seat, and there was a massive arm crossed over my front, clasping the windowsill, as though it had been needed to keep me from slumping to the ground. I didn’t bother identifying who the arm belonged to—I only knew one sol with limbs that huge—but looked past it to the sight of Emmy on the seat opposite me. Evie was stretched across most of the seat with her head in Emmy’s lap, and her arm dangling limply off the side, fingers touching the floor of the cart. Most of her dress was singed black, and there was a cloth covering half of her face, but I could still smell the stench of burnt flesh in the air.

I clenched my teeth against the sickening scent and forced the words out again. “What. Happened.”

Emmy looked up then, her expression shocked, her eyes wide. “We have no idea. The meeting was about to start … and then, suddenly … there was fire everywhere. We couldn’t stop it. The flames were completely surrounding the building. Only a sol could have made fire that quickly, but no sol would have been powerful enough to produce so much of it.”

“It must have been the work of several,” Dru muttered, his voice rumbling out beside me.

“But …” I frowned, fighting against the lingering pain inside my head. “I don’t understand. Why would anyone attack the hall? It was just a meeting.”

“Someone who wanted to stir up the community,” Emmy whispered, her eyes returning to Evie’s covered face. “Someone who wanted to take advantage of the current state of Blesswood to spread the chaos further.”

I stared at the two of them, feeling my body freeze and go hot with panic, all at once.

“How did I get in here?” I finally asked, my tone quiet enough that I almost thought I needed to repeat myself, before Emmy answered.

“You ran right up to us when we were carrying Evie out.” She didn’t seem to be paying any attention to me, which I was grateful for—but I could feel Dru’s stare pricking against the side of my face.

“Right,” I forced myself to say. “I … yeah. I think I inhaled too much smoke, it’s messing with my head.” I had no idea whether smoke had the ability to do that, but I didn’t have any better excuses.

I had no idea what was going on, but I had a very bad feeling that whatever it was, it had something to do with me. I needed to get off that cart, and get myself far away from the people I might hurt, before it was too late. I also needed to find Cyrus, because if this did have something to do with me, then it definitely also had something to do with him.