Page 121 of Thorne
After everything I've done. After four thousand names, nanites, and the architecture that let Phoenix colonize her blood. A six-year-old girl looked at me and found someone worth loving.
I don't know what to do with that either.
It seems there's a lot I don't know what to do with these days.
The vehicles are loaded.The team is assembled. Twenty minutes until we move.
I'm standing at the window in the main room, one hand flat against the glass. The grounding gesture. The thing I do when the numbers get too loud and I need something solid to hold on to.
Outside, scrub and desert stretch in every direction. No cover. The kind of terrain that makes operators nervous and financial architects feel exposed.
Footsteps behind me. I don't turn. I know the weight of that tread.
Thorne stops beside me. Close enough to feel the heat of him through the sleeve of his jacket.
"You ready?"
"Define ready."
"Willing to walk into a facility controlled by a hostile AI with nothing but a tablet and a bullet wound."
"Then yes. I'm ready."
He remains silent. His hand finds mine on the glass, covers it, presses it harder against the surface. The warmth of his palm against my knuckles.
"The official record." I don't look at him. "Cassie showed me. You had her include my defection attempt."
He's quiet for a moment. "She wasn't supposed to tell you."
"Why?"
"Because it wasn't for you. It was for the file."
"For people to see. After."
"For people to know." His thumb moves across my knuckles. "The whole picture. Not just the parts that make you look like a monster."
"I am a monster." I turn my head. Look at him.
"No. That's the lie I told myself to make it easier to hate you. I've since discovered you're inherently a good person, and how very wrong I was."
"When this is over, when Phoenix is gone, the trials will start. Everyone will get to decide what to do with Julianna Stratton. But they'll haveallthe facts. Not just the crimes. The whole picture."
"And what will they do with it?"
"I don't know." His other hand comes up, cups my face. "But whatever they decide, it'll be based on the truth. All of it. The monster and the woman who fought to stop being one."
I don't have the words. The something in my chest, the thing Lily cracked open with three words and a drawing, expands until it presses against my ribs.
"Thorne."
"I know." He leans his forehead against mine. "I know."
We stand like that for a moment. His breath mixing with mine. The weight of what's coming pressing down on both of us.
"Time to move." Ghost's voice, from the doorway.
Thorne pulls back. His hand slides from my face to my shoulder, squeezes once, then drops.
