You’re fine. He sounds doubtful as he echoes my words back at me.

There’s another pause on his end, and an instant later, my surroundings shift. I find myself sitting on a white couch across from an open terrace, staring out at a twilight of glittering city lights beyond a balcony lit by a circular, stone fire pit. Wherever he is, it’s not his home that I’m familiar with, nor is it Henka Games. It’s an estate more lavish than anything I’ve ever seen in my life, overlooking a city I don’t recognize. Baroque columns tower up to the sky, and gossamer curtains drift on either side of the entrance leading out to the balcony. Neatly trimmed bushes dot the space. Somewhere in the distance come the buzz of voices and the clinking of glasses, the sounds of a party.

Hideo’s shadowed silhouette stands against the open terrace, leaning against the railing of stone pillars. Dim light outlines the edges of his body.

My dream. His hands on me. His lips on my skin.

I try in vain to stop my cheeks from heating up.

It takes me another moment to notice a young woman at his side. I don’t recognize her, but in the darkness, I can tell that she’s in a slender, glittery dress, her long hair falling in waves past her shoulders. She leans close to Hideo, her hand running along his arm, and whispers something in his ear with a smile.

Bitterness shoots hot through my veins before I can rein it in. Who the hell is this, and why is she cozying up to Hideo?

And why the hell do I care? I’d broken things off between us, anyway. Is it such a surprise that someone is already trying to catch his attention?

Hideo doesn’t lean back toward her. Instead, he gives her his polite smile that I’ve come to know so well, then murmurs something to her that makes her remove her hand from his arm. She tilts her head at him, flashing him another smile, and then strides off the balcony. Her stilettos click rhythmically against the floor tiles.

Hideo turns his attention to me without watching her go. He doesn’t look like someone capable of controlling the minds of almost everyone in the world. He doesn’t seem like the reason why we might all lose our freedom of thought. Right now, he’s the person I fell for, flesh and blood and painfully human, looking at me like he’s seeing me for the first time.

A jolt of jealousy from him surges through our Link, and I realize that, from his view, it looks like I could be in someone else’s bed. I allow myself a petty moment of satisfaction.

“Where are you now?” I mutter.

He glances briefly over his shoulder at the sparkling city behind him. “Singapore,” he replies. “I have some financial business to take care of here.”

Financial business, billionaire dealings. He’s probably expecting me to comment on what kind of party he’s at or the identity of the woman who just left, but I’m not about to give him that.

“Well,” I say archly. “I guess you seem fine.”

“What happened to you?” Hideo says.

His words are cold and distant, but a torrent of his emotions crowds my mind. Joy, at seeing me again. Anger. Frustration. Fear, for my safety.

For an instant, I want to tell him that I miss him. That I keep dreaming about him every night. That I can’t bear to turn my back on him, even now.

But then the reality of our situation returns, and my own temper flares. “Nothing. I was just about to leave this Link.”

He steps toward me until it’s as if he were standing barely a few inches away. “Then why are you still here?” he says.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard the ice in his voice—the tone he uses for strangers. The realization hits me harder than I thought it would. “You have no right to be upset with me.”

“I’m not. I just don’t want to see you. Isn’t that what you want?”

“More than you know,” I snap.

“You’re hunting me, aren’t you?” he murmurs. His emotions suddenly shift into doubt, the reminder that we have a wall separating us. He looks sidelong at me. “That’s why you reached out to me, isn’t it? This is all a setup. You were lying about needing help. This is part of your hunt.”

“You’re suspicious of me?” I scowl at him. “Do I need to remind you of what you’re doing?”

“Enlighten me,” he says coldly.

“Are you serious? You must’ve heard about the long lines at police stations—you’ve seen footage of people committing suicide. None of that chills you?”

“Of convicted sex traffickers committing suicide. Of untried murderers turning themselves in. Meanwhile, reported crimes over the past week have plummeted.” Hideo’s eyes are hard and unmoving. “Now, what are you trying to convince me of?”

He’s confusing me, and it only angers me more. “You shouldn’t have this power.”

“The algorithm is unbiased.”

“You betrayed me. You made me think I was working with you to do something good.”

“That’s what you’re most angry about. Not the algorithm. This.” Hideo lowers his head, closes his eyes for a heartbeat, and opens them again. “You’re right. I wish I’d told you sooner, and I’m sorry for that. But you know why I’m doing this, Emika. I opened my heart to you.”

“Your choice to, not mine,” I fire back. “It’s as if you believe I owe you something for it.”

“That’s what you think?” An edge comes into his voice. A warning. “That I’d use my past to bait you? Because I wanted something from you?”

“Didn’t you?” I say. My words are hoarse. “Why did you open up to me, anyway? I was just another bounty hunter on your payroll. Just another girl passing through your life.”

“I’ve never told anyone about my past,” he snaps back. “You know that.”

“How can I believe anything you say now? Maybe what happened to your brother is something you tell every girl you want to get into your hot spring.”

I can tell I’ve gone too far the instant the words escape my lips. Hideo flinches away. I swallow, telling myself not to feel bad for spitting my retort out at him. “We’re done here,” he says in a low voice. “I suggest you not waste our time by contacting me again.”

He disconnects our Link before I can respond.

The suite, the glittering city lights, and Hideo’s blue-black silhouette vanish abruptly, and the white couch I’d been lying on shifts back into the silk sheets of my bed. I realize that I’m trembling all over, my forehead hot and damp with a light sheen of sweat.

My burst of fury is over as quickly as it came. My shoulders droop.

I shouldn’t have said it. But all I want to do when I’m angry is stab the deepest wound I can find. And it shouldn’t matter anymore, should it? If the distance in his tone hurts, it’s just because I’m not used to it. Because I’m exhausted. Too much has happened over the course of the day, and with Hideo’s brief presence, I’m suddenly so worn-out that all I want to do is sink into my bed until I disappear.

I shake my head, then head to the bathroom. In the mirror, I see a dark bruise on one side of my throat. It must be from where Jax shot me with that drug. I rub carefully at the sore spot before I turn away and step into the shower.

The steam from the hot water clears my head a bit. Maybe I was fool to think I could ever pull Hideo off his current path. If anything, my conversation with him has only confirmed how unwilling he is to compromise. He’s unfazed by what’s happening around the world, and that means he’s moving full steam ahead to make sure the last two percent of the population is hooked into the algorithm, too.

Soon, that’ll include me.

I have to stop Hideo. Before it’s too late to pull him back. I repeat this to myself, trying to feel convinced, until the water has wrinkled my fingertips.

By the time I step out, the aftereffects of the drug seem to have worn off, and I feel a sense of alert wariness instead of the fog of panic. I walk out into the bedroom with a towel wrapped around me and bring up my menu. I know I’m in a hotel in Omotesando, but that’s about all I can find. Nothing about my suite or this building tells me anything about the Blackcoats. Not that I’d expect it to.

An hour has passed when I finally get an invite to connect from someone I don’t have in my contacts.

I’m about to accept it, but it goes through before I can. I freeze, clutching my towel closer. Has someone hacked into my NeuroLink?

“You’re awake.”

I recognize Jax’s voice. I feel a curious mix of relief and unease at her words. “Are you watching me?”

“I just saw your status blink green.” She sounds as clipped as I remember.

“And where am I, exactly?”

“A hotel, of course. You should probably stay here for a while, at least until you’re no longer at the top of the lottery.”

“Why’d you drug me yesterday?”

“Two days ago. You’ve been asleep for an entire day.”

I’d lost a day? I blink. So this isn’t the sunset after the night Jax had come for me. No wonder all the Riders sounded so worried.

“Why’d you do it, Jax?” I ask again. After my argument with Hideo, I’m in no mood to play around.

“Relax. I needed to get you here without you causing a scene. You said you didn’t trust me entirely, so I couldn’t trust you not to attack me in the car. I could’ve thrown a sack over your head, but I didn’t want to freak you out.”

I make an incredulous face. “Because I totally didn’t freak out when you shot me instead.”

She responds with a bored sigh. “You’re fine. Now go get dressed.”

“Why?”

“Because Zero is heading upstairs to see you.”

That brings my sarcastic comments to a halt. The thought of Zero coming into my suite sends a trill of fear through me, and I find myself stepping toward the bathroom before Jax can say another word.

“I’ll be ready,” I mutter.