ASTRID
This can’t be happening.
It’s what I repeat like a mantra. I feel as if I’m hovering above the scene, like an angel.
Luca’s an angel now.
The thought breaks me. I rise from the blood-slick floor, stagger through this place that used to be a home, and fall upon the nearest neighbor I can reach. Freddie.
“Tell me what you saw!” I demand, his tunic balled up in my fists.
I’ve never touched another person this way before, with such violent intent, but I don’t care. I’ll tear the entire slum apart, nail by board, if that’s what it takes to find answers.
“No-nothing!” Freddie says. “I swear!”
But he won’t look me in the eye when he says it.
None of my neighbors will look me in the eye. Goddamn cowards.
“Astrid!” Everett calls, and then he’s there, gently pulling my hands off of
