The Dead Zone slept under smoke and broken stars.
Juvy couldn't.
She lay inside a bus they turned into a shelter, staring at the ceiling where bullet holes looked like constellations.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw men breaking in half.
Maxruell's face didn't move when he killed them.
That scared her more than the blood.
She slipped outside.
The fires were low. People slept close together like animals afraid of the dark.
Maxruell sat alone on the roof again.
"Why don't you sleep?" she asked.
"I hear things," he said.
"What things?"
He touched his chest.
"Dead people."
She didn't know what to say.
At dawn, a scream cut through the camp.
A woman ran from the road, barefoot, white dress torn and soaked with blood.
"They took them," she cried. "The church people took my kids."
Varkos grabbed her shoulders. "Who?"
"The ones with masks. With crosses cut into their faces."
Juvy's stomach twisted. "The cult."
The woman collapsed.
"They said Mother Cain wants them clean."
Maxruell's shadow twitched.
The cult camp was two miles away, inside a ruined mall.
Black banners hung from shattered signs.
Children's shoes lined the entrance.
Juvy felt sick.
Inside, robed figures circled a pit carved into the floor.
Children were tied to poles.
A tall woman stood above them.
White dress. Black hair. Skin like porcelain.
Mother Cain.
She didn't turn when the twins entered.
"I wondered how long it would take," she said softly.
The cultists knelt.
Juvy stepped forward. "Let them go."
Cain smiled.
"Why?"
"They didn't do anything."
Cain turned.
Her eyes were wrong.
Not empty.
Too full.
"They are vessels," Cain said. "Like you."
Maxruell's shadow rose.
Cain lifted her hand.
The pit glowed red.
Something inside it moved.
"Your brother smells like graves," she said.
"You smell like heaven."
Juvy shook. "You're insane."
Cain laughed.
"Your parents thought so too."
Maxruell froze.
Cain leaned closer.
"They begged me to hide you."
Juvy's heart slammed. "You knew them?"
"They chose death over divinity."
Maxruell whispered, "Liar."
Cain raised her voice.
"Kill the girl."
Cultists rushed Juvy.
Maxruell's darkness exploded.
Walls cracked. Bodies flew.
Juvy tore ropes apart with crystal light.
Fire. Blood. Screams.
Cain walked through it untouched.
She stood before Maxruell.
"Your power is a crown," she said.
"You just don't know how to wear it."
She pressed two fingers to his forehead.
For a second—
He saw a memory.
A man with his face.
A woman screaming.
A church burning.
Then Cain stepped back.
"Come to me when you're tired of pretending you're human."
She vanished into smoke.
The cultists were dead.
The children were alive.
But Maxruell dropped to his knees.
Juvy grabbed him.
"What did she show you?!"
He looked up at her.
"Our parents didn't die running."
He swallowed.
"They died refusing her."