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“I don’t know. I don’t care.” She bowed her head, throwing the blanket back over her shoulders while I leaned against the wall as if seeking support. “It’s just… I’m the only one left who knows the whole process. Those children… they keep coming into my nightmares. I don’t want to live with lies anymore.”

Her words faded into the Buzzing of the android in the corner. I leaned my head against the cold wall and watched the galaxy on the screen. The stars we were approaching, the gliding meteors…

“Everything is a lie on Mars, you’re not the exception, doctor.”

“I suppose so.”

I knew in that moment our conversation was over. As we traveled away from the planet where I was born and raised, I made room for the ache spreading across my chest. It was well-deserved. All those years of buried pain deserved to spread through many more hearts.

There was still so much I had to write about Mars.

But first, I had to rescue my first and last love from the darkness he had fallen into.

CHAPTER 12

Mina

The moment I set foot on Mars, confusion washed over me.

I thought I was stepping straight into hell, but getting acquainted with Mars’ natural weather was never part of the plan. I tried to stop my jaw from chattering. I pulled my breather strap tighter against my jaw as if it could warm me.

I was freezing. Literally. The temperature gauge on my wrist hummed a steady warning: -62°C and dropping.

I slipped a hand into my pocket. And sure enough, there it was. The butterfly I’d picked up at the shop. I checked to see if it could still warm my hand. Raymond had said it wasn’t the original, but he was dead wrong. Just like when I was a kid, that tiny little thing started spreading warmth from my palm straight through my veins, and I sniffled. Tears flowed in a relaxed manner, I couldn’t hold them back anymore.

“Warm…”

These sob fits weren’t from the cold, I knew it. Looking at the silver butterfly filled me with an uneasy sorrow. A sense of being too late. A sense of inadequacy. The realization that I hadn’t been able to give a single magical memory to the boy who had given me a million.

But I couldn’t give in to despair. There was still time. I could still turn this around.

Through the swirling orange haze, I looked up at the silhouette of the UE News agency.

It looked like a carcass.

Only yesterday, I was sitting under there, drinking coffee, complaining about the deadline for my editorial. This was all strange.

A hundred years of terraforming—a century of force-feeding this cold rock green grass, blue skies, and thick, breathable air—erased in less than a week.

What a joke, truly.

And unlike the last time I’d walked these streets, panic didn’t swallow the air. There weren’t even people around to feel it. Those left behind knew precisely why they had stayed. Those who were saved and those who were left behind. The distinction was as sharp as a knife.

Everyone had learned their lesson, it seemed, and had set off in search of somewhere safe.

I wandered the deserted streets like a ghost, letting the fog guide my steps.

Where could Raymond possibly be? What had happened while I was unconscious? If Dr. Aneta was telling the truth, I had only been out for a few hours. My one and only lover hadn’t gone and blown himself up in that short window of time, had he? At least, I prayed he hadn’t. He wasn’t that crazy, I hoped.

“Miss!”

A stranger’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. My hand instantly darted to my bag, slipping the butterfly toy out of sight.

He was wearing one of Prisne’s insignia patches. I kept my chin held high as the officer approached.

“You shouldn’t be out here. If you haven’t found a shelter yet, take this.”

He pressed a slip of paper into my palm. It was a map detailing the capital, including the Lesse sector.