“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. “It’s alright, Quinn. We’re not upset at you.”

No, they weren’t. They’d been surprisingly calm despite everything I’d told them.

“You’re not feeling the chills anymore?”

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

Noticing my eyes wandering, Sarah reassured me. “Vespa will be fine. Torpor. Pretty typical stuff. It’s hard for us to operate in the cold. I’m 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, guiding me back to the couch.

“Yes. I noticed. I’ve patched up the window as best I could. Though your room may be a bit icy for the next little while. 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 us.”

Sarah sighed. “And you believed her?”

“I just wanted to see.” And it seemed like... she had believed that as well? No. That couldn’t have been it.

“Well, what did you see?”

“A city. A beautiful city, but one that melted into a horrible... a... I can’t eve describe it. It didn’t matter. She brought me right into Ecto’s lap. And then she walked away on me. She said... she said she had a plan to stop him, but she just... well she just stood aside.”

“Typical,” she muttered. “Well... that’s okay, Quinn. You can be upset.”

“Oh, I’m upset,” I mused. “But I also want to find out more. I need to know what’s going on. What she was thinking. Just a little more and—”

“That’s how they get you, isn’t it.” Heidi slammed the door shut behind her, brushing the snow off her gloves and sweater, hanging them up on the rack. They curled up in the warmth. Alive. “I shovelled the walk,” she said, bringing the handle of the shovel to her mouth and taking a bite. Or trying to, at least. “Ow!” She discarded it. “Force of habit.”

“Heidi—”

“You got into enough trouble with Thea already, and still you want to know more about her. I know. I know. You can’t help it. They’re so interesting. It’s sickening. Grow up. She is your enemy. Treat her as such.” 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?”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“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’ and her Echoes ate Angelina alive.”

What? “But Angelina’s still there?”

“Yes. She is not dead. 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.”

“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 upstairs, slamming the door to her room behind her.

“What was that about?” I asked.

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