Summary

In Chapter Forty-One, Sloane attempted to convince Matt and Esther that Nero was the Dark One. She almost had them ready to come with her to the Cordus Center, but then Nero walked up to them with Mox in his thrall. Nero crushed Matt’s wrist-siphon and Esther’s throat-siphon, then tore out Ziva’s mouth-siphon with Mox’s magic. He asked Sloane for the Needle, but she refused and instead allowed it to enter into her skin again. She put up a barrier between herself and Nero and asked him if he had always been obsessed with the Needle. Sloane and Nero locked eyes and she began to read his memories.

In Chapter Forty-Two, the text is italicized throughout, signaling Nero’s memories, which Sloane read as time stood still in the narrative present. He explained to Aelia that the Tenebris...