Enclave

Unknown

The platform looked the same — with one notable exception. There were no Freak bodies, not even bones, just the smear of blood where they’d been dragged off. Ears sharp, we took a break for food and water, and then Fade strode over to the metal gate.

It had a lock on it, but the gate itself was old and rusted. He kicked it repeatedly until it finally bent and gave enough for us to slip through the gap between the gate and the wall. The fit required us to turn sideways and it scraped a little, but we made it.

Then we stood on the other side. Steps led upward with a metal divider separating the two sides. Fade led the way, and we climbed toward the surface. It took far less time than I expected. If everyone in the enclave knew just how close we were, figuratively speaking, people would’ve suffered some sleepless nights.

The air felt different, the higher we went. It moved against my skin, carrying new scents. But the stairs ended in a mound of rocks. The wind could slip through, not people. We stood there for a moment, stymied in our attempt to escape before we ran into the first hunting party.

“It will have to be the Burrowers,” I said.

“If not, I think the steps near where you found the relics go all the way up.”

That was halfway to Nassau. With the scant provisions Twist had supplied, it would be a terrible run. The closer we came to the dead settlement, the greater the risk we’d run afoul of the Freaks too. But there was nothing else for it. I retraced my steps with Fade on my heels and we scraped back past the metal gate.

“You know the way from here?” I asked.

“It’s not that far.”

Relatively speaking. We ran at a strong clip for several hours. Noises echoed in distant tunnels, but we didn’t see any Freaks. Our patrols had done a good job of clearing the area in the past days.

When we came to the split where I’d lost Fade, I started counting, and the correct number of steps brought me to where I thought we’d found the Burrowers. I ran my fingers over the stones until I found the loose ones. I pushed one until it plunked out. A pair of huge eyes stared out at me.

“Deuce.” I recognized Jengu’s voice at once.

He made a wide-enough space for us to slip through. As we continued down the narrow shaft toward the wider common area, I heard him rebuilding quickly; they gave the Freaks no sign of their presence. This couldn’t be the only entrance or exit, just the only one we knew about. The other Burrowers stared at Fade and me, but they didn’t speak. None of them looked wounded, and a weight lifted.

“Doan spect to see ya so soon,” he said with a friendly smile.

“Did you have any problems with the first trading party?” Fade asked.

Jengu grinned. “Not once we make clear we don’t open up til dem give us fish, and maybe Eaters find dem before den.”

Relief sparkled through me. In its own way, cleverness counted as strength. The Burrowers could trade with the enclave on equal terms. “How much did they take?”

The Burrower shrugged. “Lots. We doan need it. Can’t eat it.”

That was more or less what I thought. Fade was smiling. “We wanted to warn you not to trust them completely, but it looks like you were one step ahead.”

“Doan trust nobody completely,” Jengu said, philosophical. “But fish is fish.”

I declined an offer of a steaming cup of something. It smelled none too good. I’d rather eat the last of my dried meat and drink the tepid water Twist had given me. But right now, I had business to discuss.

“We need to leave the underground,” I said.

Jengu tilted his head, wearing an expression I interpreted as concern.

I went on, “We’re not asking you to reveal any of your hidden tunnels. But if you could point the way out, we’d appreciate it.”

The Burrower considered. “I can. But dem”—he jerked his head toward the other Burrowers—“gonna wan know how you paying.”

I hadn’t factored that. “What do you want?”

“What you got?” he countered.

With a shrug, I dumped the contents of my bag onto the floor. We were close enough to the torches that he could see everything I owned. The few baubles I’d held on to over the years caught the light and sparkled. Jengu bent down, entranced with a small blue object that shimmered. I showed him how to open it. Inside, it had a tiny mirror. Unlike most it wasn’t broken or anything. The item carried a nice scent too. I had no idea what it might’ve been used for, but I liked to open it up and look at my eyes. It was the one thing my dam had passed along to me, a family treasure. I’d had it for as long as I could remember.

His hand curled around it in a possessive gesture. “Dis. I show ya for dis.”

Of course. I suffered a little pang but acknowledged the price must be paid. “Deal. Is it a long way?”

“Two sleeps.”

“Can we rest in storage again before we go?”

“Plenty room now.”

He didn’t bother guiding us. I’d counted the way before, and that was one of my chief skills, besides fighting. This time, the platform stood half empty. Hunters had taken a lot of relics for the Wordkeeper to catalog; the work would keep him busy for a long time.

If I portioned it away, one step at a time, the fear of the unknown wouldn’t overwhelm me. Maybe Fade knew how I was feeling. We went to sleep on the platform without talking about what the future held.

After we woke up, we ate the last of our food. Then Jengu came to get us. The path took us back into the common area and down another tunnel. I counted the steps, but the twists and turns soon had me lost. Even counting, I doubted I could find my way again.

These tunnels were dank and damp, and they smelled terrible. Jengu carried a small torch with him, which told me there were no Freaks in here. Dark water trickled down the center, so we stayed to the edges and tried to dodge the floating, furry corpses.

It was a miserable journey. By the end, we were reduced to eating what Jengu gave us and hoping it wouldn’t make us sick. The air tasted disgusting, so I tried to breathe through my nose. Our Burrower guide didn’t seem to mind and Fade never showed his discomfort.

At last we came to slimy wall that had metal bars fastened to it. Jengu tilted his head. “Climb up. Push. And ya out.”

“You’re not coming?”

“Dem doan need nothing from Topside now. But we go sometimes. Get things.”

They did occasional supply runs to the surface? Interesting. Maybe Fade knew what he was talking about. Maybe we could make it.

“Thanks for everything,” Fade said.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Welcome.”

The Burrower didn’t wait to see how we fared. He turned with the torch and trudged back the way we’d come. Soon the shadows devoured us and I could only see the vague Fade-shape nearby.

“I’ll go up first.”

I didn’t argue, but I didn’t let him get far ahead of me either. As soon as he started to climb, I did too. The metal was slick beneath my palms; several times I nearly lost my balance and fell. Grimly, I continued up.

“Anything?”

“Almost there.” I heard him feeling around, and then the scrape of metal on stone. He pulled himself out of what looked like a small hole. Diffuse light spilled down, a different tint than I’d ever seen. It was sweetly silver and cool, like a drink of water. With Fade’s help, I scrambled up the rest of the way and saw the world above for the first time.

It stole my breath. I spun in a slow circle, trembling at the size of it. I tilted my head back and saw overhead a vast field of black, spattered with brightness. I wanted to crouch down and cover my head. It was too much space, and horror overwhelmed me.

“Easy,” Fade said. “Look down. Trust me.”

He was right. When I looked at the ground, the terror dialed back. From that point, I didn’t look up more than I had to. Tall things surrounded us, mostly blocking my view. Shards of glass and broken stones littered the ground. The air was full of sounds I couldn’t identify, after having known only enclave noises. Wind rustled through rock, creating a mournful kind of song. Chitters and scrapes alarmed me. We weren’t alone, and I didn’t like not knowing what waited in the dark.

Down below, I always knew.

I refused to show my fear. Lock it down, Huntress.

“What are those?” I asked, pointing.

“Buildings, mostly abandoned.”

Some towered, spearing up to unimaginable heights. I couldn’t even imagine how such a thing had come to be built. Others had buckled and toppled, leaving rubble strewn all over the ground. That, I was used to.

The air didn’t burn the inside of my chest, at least, and it smelled fresher than I’d expected, based on the stories. No rot, no fetid wind like that down below. And I didn’t feel sick from standing here. I shouldn’t have been surprised that the elders had lied. Or maybe things had changed Topside since we first took shelter down below.

While I tried to get my bearings, he fitted the metal circle back in place and stomped it down. We stood in the center of an endless stretch of old rock. It didn’t look natural. Despite its age and poor condition, I thought it looked like something poured down and left to harden.

“I think you better tell me everything you know about this place,” I said shakily.

“I will,” Fade promised. “But first we should find shelter. There are no Freaks up here — at least there didn’t used to be — but from what I remember, there are other dangers.”

“There are places to hide all around us.”

He nodded. “But they’re marked. See?” As we walked, he pointed out bits of white or red paint marking the buildings. “The Topside gangs take their territory seriously. We don’t want to cross anyone.”

“What’s a gang?”

“Kind of like the enclave,” he said. “But meaner.”

“Is that why you left? To get away from the gangs?”

“Partly.”

I saw I’d get no answers while he was distracted and scanning the buildings, so I tried to help. I might not know what the symbols meant, but I could tell if they were present. We’d been walking for a while over the rough stone path — it buckled in spots as if the world had lifted up and given it a sound shake — when Fade spotted a crumbling red building that bore no marks at all.

“Here?” I asked.

“Let’s check it out.” He ran up three stairs to the door; it swung open when he tried it. But he stumbled away, one hand pressed to his face. “Stay back. There’s a reason nobody has claimed this place.”

The distance we covered seemed incredible to me. All the while, I fought my urge to panic. I couldn’t be up here. To combat the feeling, I focused on the new sights. Something flapped above us in the dark and I ducked down, curling myself into a ball.

“What was that?”

Fade was smiling. “It’s a bird. They can’t eat you. You’re too big.”

It sailed upward, riding the wind. The wings showed in silhouette, tapered and graceful. I marveled at the existence of such a marvelous creature, and wondered how it must feel to move like that, all elegance and velocity.

“All the old stories are true,” I breathed.

“Most of them.”

We walked until my feet hurt. I saw more birds, perched on poles and buildings. Rusted metal wrecks sat here and there along the street. Fade told me they were called cars and they’d once owned the surface we walked on. I found that hard to believe. Plants had forced their way through the cracks, giving the rock a mossy, uneven look.

The sky had begun to lighten by the time we found a building that didn’t smell terrible and didn’t bear any gang markings. Fade tried the door, but it was locked.

“Maybe there’s another way in?”

We circled and found in the back something Fade called a window — low enough for me to slide through. Fade wanted to, but it was too small. I waved off his concern.

“I’m a Huntress,” I said, out of habit. “I’ll be fine.”

And then it hit me all over again. I had no right to call myself that. I squashed the sadness and let him boost me up. The window slid open and I wormed my way through it. I hung upside down and managed to twist to my feet as I dropped. On the way down, I banged my shoulder on the wall.

When I got my bearings, I saw I stood in a dark room, but I could make out the shape of the door. Even the dark didn’t seem as black as it had down below. Maybe there were benefits to being Topside. I avoided the junk: dusty piles of broken glass and items that had rotted away or crumbled into dust. Still there were a few things I recognized like eating utensils, bottles, plates, and cups in different colors and patterns. The Wordkeeper would die of excitement if he could see this place.

After some fiddling, I managed to unfasten all the bolts, and then I opened the door to let Fade in. He joined me, redid all the latches, and then took a look around.

“It’s a storeroom. I think this was a shop of some kind.”

“A shop?”

“Where people traded.”

It sounded like a good idea. At the enclave, we’d held a shop on a regular basis in the common room, where we could examine what everyone else had and then barter for it with our best items. But if you lived in different buildings, people needed a place to gather and trade.

“Let’s take a look around.”

I led the way out, down a dark hall and into a bigger room. Metal shelves — we’d scavenged a few like that over the years — stood mostly empty. There were only a few tins left, nothing familiar, though, nothing I’d ever seen before. Broken glass crunched underfoot. Another door led to a waste closet, but this one didn’t smell like the other. Nearby, Fade twisted a handle but nothing happened.

“There used to be water, sometimes,” he said. “We used to drink it, my dad and me, but then he got sick.”

“From drinking that?”

“Maybe. I was a brat. There was a lot of stuff he didn’t tell me.”

“I have a little water to tide us over. Turn around.” Without asking why, he did. I struggled out of the leather harness. “Twist gave it to me. It has water pouches. The meat is gone, but I still have these.”

“Why? He risked everything by doing that.”

“I know.”

“I wish I could thank him.”

“I did for both of us. Let’s see what else there is here.”

We found another doorway off the hallway leading from the back room. I hadn’t seen it the first time because I wasn’t used to tunnels leading anywhere else. Fade noticed it and opened the door. Stairs led up.

“I thought this building had another level,” he murmured, and went jogging upward.

I didn’t know if going higher sounded like a great idea, but I wanted to stay by myself even less. Out of habit, I counted as I climbed, even though I could see perfectly well up here.

The steps opened into what I’d call a private living space. By my standards, it was unbelievably luxurious. Only the elders would’ve had something so nice in the enclave, but even they wouldn’t have gotten this much space. The room must’ve been sixteen feet long and almost that wide. I recognized the objects as furniture, but I had to ask Fade their names.

I burned with embarrassment when he grinned and pointed. “Sofa. Chair. Table.”

The sofa felt amazing when I sank onto it, despite its musty smell. Not even my rag pallet had been so soft. Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes. I could hear Fade moving around, checking the place out.

“There’s another room,” he said. “We can each have our own space.”

“I’ll take the sofa.”

He sat down beside me. “So you had questions before.”

That sounded like an invitation to ask whatever I wanted. “You were born Topside … how long did you live here?”

“Eight or nine years? And then after my dad died, it got too dangerous. They chased me down into the tunnels, where I just … lost myself.” His eyes went dark and distant, as if the memories required careful handling.

I remembered how he’d been when the Hunters found him, barely human. Living alone in the dark for years would do that. I marveled once again that he’d survived.

“Why did you stay with us when you didn’t want to join the gangs?”

“The elders didn’t give me a choice,” he said. “Well, they did, technically. Once the Hunters caught me, they said I could fight for them or die.”

“Oh.” No wonder he’d hated us. We’d held him prisoner.

“I’m bigger now, and I’ve learned to protect myself. It’ll be different when we run across the gangs again.”

“What’s so bad about them? I mean, how do they compare with the enclave?” I still ached with disillusionment.

He half turned to face me, his arm resting behind my head. “You know all the rules you believed in? They exist to keep you safe, and the elders only want what’s best for everyone?”

I nodded, barely managing to restrain a flinch. “What about them?”

“The gangs have none. It’s … ugly, Deuce. My dad had weapons and they left us alone. Once he was gone, they were determined to recruit me. They don’t always take care of their brats. Sometimes…” His eyes bored into mine, as if willing me not to make him say it.

A shudder rolled through me. “Oh.”

At the enclave, there had been rare instances where the elders discovered the Breeders were twisted in that way. Those Breeders weren’t just exiled; they were also cut so the Freaks found them faster.

“You can see why I didn’t want to be initiated.”

I would’ve fought against it pretty fiercely myself. “Tell me what you know about the gangs. What we’ll be up against.”

“They’ll want to breed you,” he said without looking at me. “The only way to advance is to kill and keep killing until there’s nobody tougher than you left alive.”

“So it’s not like the enclave, where age is a sign of wisdom.”

He laughed. “No. We’d be considered elders. People don’t live very long.”

“But not because of sickness or age.”

“No. In the gangs, they kill you because you have something they want or you’re just standing in their way.”

“They must breed a lot to make up for it.”

Fade brushed my hair back, grazing the curve of my jaw. The heat of his fingertips sent a tingle through me. I tipped my head to one side so that his palm landed on the nape of my neck. His thumb skimmed along the tender skin, making me shiver. By the time he drew back slowly, I’d almost forgotten what we were talking about.

“That’s all they think girls are good for. There are no rules about it up here, either. You have no power.”

Pure cold seized me. So that was what he’d meant about it being dangerous in a different way. Up here being female meant something else entirely. The marks on my arms wouldn’t give anyone pause, but maybe my skill with a weapon would.

“I don’t think I can take any more answers tonight,” I admitted without looking up.

“You know the important stuff now.”

“Wait. Maybe one more.”

“Go ahead.”

“How did you get your name?” I’d always wondered.

For a moment I thought he wouldn’t answer, because according to enclave rules, it was an intrusive question. If I hadn’t been present, hadn’t contributed to the stack of gifts, then it should wait until he volunteered the information. But we didn’t live by their regulations anymore.

He delved into his bag and came with a tattered strip of paper. I took it, held it to the faint light, which was just strong enough to make out the shape of letters. They were so old that many of them had worn away:

C l rs w l n t fade.

His blood speckled lightly on the final word. I fingered the silky slickness of the paper, nothing like what we made in the enclave. It shone in the dark. He had attended my naming or I would produce my card. But he’d seen. He knew. Feeling honored, I handed the talisman back to him.

“It came off an old bottle,” he said. “But that was too big to carry around, so I peeled off the paper.”

“Do you know what it says?”

He stroked the edges with his thumbs; I could actually see the darker imprint where he’d done that often since his naming. “I think it says, ‘Colors will not fade.’”

To me, it sounded like a wonderful message, a promise of loyalty and fidelity. His colors would not fade or change, no matter what. The name fit someone who wouldn’t leave his partner, even when she disappeared in the dark, and who wouldn’t let her go Topside alone.

“It suits you.” I paused, wondering if I should ask. Maybe he didn’t remember. Maybe he wouldn’t tell me. “What did your sire call you?”

“Like you said, I’m Fade now. I’d rather not go back.”

I understood. A dead man had given the old name to him. It didn’t seem like a good idea to speak it. When he put his arm around me, I didn’t resist. He waited a beat, as if gauging my reaction, and then he eased his head against mine. Sorrow cloaked him, losses I could neither see or know.

Such closeness felt new … and intimate. It had been different with Thimble and Stone, none of the awareness that prickled through me with restless sweetness. Because he seemed to need me, even if it went unspoken, I let myself answer by turning my cheek to his and I remembered the kiss.

Long after he pulled away, the phantom heat lingered and haunted my sleep.

Sunshine

When I awoke, I first thought the room was on fire. I scrambled off the sofa and started to bolt when my senses caught up to my instinctive fear. No smoke meant no fire; it was a simple relationship.

So why was the room so bright?

I crept to the window and gazed out, eyes slitted in pain. Everything glowed. If anyone had tried to explain this to me, I wouldn’t have believed it. The light hurt.

Fade came up behind me. He wore something that wrapped around his eyes, and he offered the other to me. I slid it onto my face.

“Sunglasses. There were a few left on the floor downstairs.” He smiled. “Good thing. I’m not used to the sun anymore either.”

So the light had a name. I still wasn’t sure I liked it, but with my eyes covered, I could bear it. “Will it hurt us?”

“It might. Remember how long it’s been since I was here.”

Through the smoky filter, I gazed out over the city for the first time. I had seen pictures before, of course, old and faded. The elders had told us they reflected a lost world, now poisoned beyond hope. There was nothing Topside except terror and death. Like most of their stories, they contained a grain of truth buried beneath the lies.

Tall shapes filled my view; some had collapsed and lay in ruins. Shorter buildings squatted at the base, holding their shapes better. They were built of old stone — some natural, others looked as if man’s hands had shaped them. The colors had faded beneath the burning sun, much like the artifacts we’d found down below. Built side to side, not much space existed between them, and occasionally, time had pushed one to the side, so it leaned tiredly against its neighbors.

One building rose above the others, its sharp tower gleaming green. It was a different from the buildings that surrounded it, more beautiful and with rounded points atop the windows. Most of them hung in jagged shards, and it had been marked with white painted that identified it as claimed territory. For no reason I could name, the damage saddened me. Resolute, I turned.

“What’s our plan?” I portioned out what was left of our enclave provisions. In my opinion, the first priority should be finding food and water.

“My dad used to talk about getting out of the city.” Fade gestured. “That’s what he called this place. He told stories about where it was green and clean, where you could plant food and watch it grow, where there were plenty of animals for hunting, and you could drink the water without getting sick.”

That sounded unlikely, but … “Did he tell you where that was?”

“North. That was all he ever said.”

“Then let’s go.”

I hoped he had some sense of direction. I wasn’t altogether sure I could find my way around the corner Topside.

“We should wait until nightfall. We’re more likely to run into the gangs during the day, and I suspect we might get burned out there.”

“Burned?” I had visions of being roasted on a spit.

“By the sun.” Fade smiled slightly. “The gangs won’t cook and eat us.”

“Then what can we do for water? We may be able to find food along the way, but—”

“I’ve been thinking about that. There’s water downstairs. If we can figure out some way to boil it, maybe it would be all right.”

“We could build a fire out back.” There was plenty of stuff to burn.

I got up and rummaged through the cabinets. I turned up a pot, but we needed some way to suspend it over the flames. We occupied the day building a contraption out of scrap junk.

“Will this work?”

I shook my head. It took most of the day to put it together, and he stood watch while I started the fire. His vigilance made me nervous even as it reassured me. If there were any gangers around, he’d spot them. The noises were still too strange for me to tell what was threatening — I started at things he said were harmless, like the chittering of small animals and the flutter of wings. And my eyesight wasn’t what it should be. Even with the sunglasses on, I could barely tolerate the sunshine. Though the warmth felt strange and beautiful on my skin, Fade shooed me back indoors.

“Small doses, Deuce. You have to get used to it, or it’s going to sting.”

Right. He’d said the sun could burn me. It certainly looked angry enough, all orange and glowing mad. I peered up at it through the dark filter, through the glass, and wondered how we could’ve lost all memory of something so huge. Down in the enclave, there had been no talk of day or night, no mention of anything but burning air and water that scalded like fire. Somehow we’d mixed everything up. Sorrow rose in me, as I realized the Wordkeeper dedicated his whole life to lies. What a waste.

I sat in the storeroom while Fade handled the actual work, and I kept busy examining the items piled in dusty, papery boxes. I found a metal object that appeared to be nothing much at first glance, but the more I played with it, the more parts I found. I recognized the knife, but not the other tools. Two looked like they might be good for stabbing, but I could only guess at the rest. Since it was light and it folded nicely, I stowed it in my bag.

Through the open door, I watched Fade work. He used the lighter his father had left him to kindle the smaller objects and then the sparks spread. Eventually the fire burned bright and clean, curls of smoke floating off toward the sky. In the enclave, we’d never have allowed it to get so big. Here, it didn’t seem to matter. I had the fleeting thought that someone might see the blaze and come to investigate, but if so, we’d handle them.

He turned and saw me staring. “Find anything good?”

“Maybe.”

I prowled some more, frustrated by his refusal to let me help outside. I wondered if I’d always be so useless Topside. On a tall shelf, I found a dusty metal box. I lifted it down and looked for a way to open it. Something important must be inside. An opening looked as though an item would fit, possibly opening it.

Eventually, I located the right object. I slid it in and heard a click. When I lifted the lid, I found the most marvelous thing. A book. Not part of one, not loose pages. A whole book. And it wasn’t flimsy like the ones I’d found down in the tunnel. Still, I was almost afraid to touch it.

The beige front had raised letters and green paint, outlining a fanciful design with a girl in strange clothes, a winged brat, and a bird. With some effort, I read the letters: “The Day Boy and the Night Girl. Fairy tales by George MacDonald.” Though I understood most of the words, others escaped me. Enthralled and breathless, I opened it. The book made a little popping sound, as if nobody had touched it in a long time. That was probably true. Using my finger to mark my place, I put more letters together slowly, and other words leaped out at me. “London: Arthur C. Fifield, 1904. Ed. by Greville MacDonald; printed by S. Clarke, Manchester.”

With great care, I turned the page, and my breath caught. Someone had written in the book. The Wordkeeper would be livid. In faded ink, it read: “with love to Gracie from Mary.” Those were names, I thought, and it implied this book had been a gift. Other hands had touched this, people who lived in the lost world. They’d known dreams like mine, and I’d never know how those stories ended. A marvelous sense of connection thrummed through me.

I forgot my worries. I forgot the danger. Using only my fingertips, I flipped to the next page, lightheaded with wonder.

There was once a witch who desired to know everything. But the wiser a witch is, the harder she knocks her head against the wall when she comes to it. Her name was Watho, and she had a wolf in her mind. She cared for nothing in itself — only for knowing it. She was not naturally cruel, but the wolf had made her cruel.

She was tall and graceful, with a white skin, red hair, and black eyes, which had a red fire in them. She was straight and strong, but now and then would fall bent together, shudder, and sit for a moment with her head turned over her shoulder, as if the wolf had got out of her mind onto her back.

“What do you have there?” Fade asked.

I almost hid it from him, and then with a burst of shocking relief, I remembered I didn’t have to. Wordless, I held the book out to him. He looked at it, and his hands were as reverent as mine had been. He read faster than me, and when he finished that first page, his gaze met mine, glazed with awe.

“We’ll take it,” I said. “It doesn’t weigh much.”

He slipped the book into my bag and went back to work. By dark, we had enough clean water to last us a few days. Secretly, I feared leaving this place because I’d gotten used to these two rooms. Inside didn’t scare me. Outside, that enormous, monstrous sky hung over everything, and the size of it made me want to hide.

But there was something different about the dark this time. I took off my glasses and stared up. A curve of silver hung amid the brighter specks; it looked to me like a curved dagger, pretty but deadly, as if it might slice the sky in two.

I didn’t let him see how terrified I was. Instead I geared up as if this were nothing more than a routine patrol. I checked my weapons and our supplies; I shouldered my bag with the resolve of a Huntress. I could handle night.

But you’re not a Huntress. You’re just a girl with six scars.

At least Fade had them too. Maybe I’d been cast out of my tribe, but I wasn’t alone. That made all the difference. If I’d been sent Topside on my own, I’d have already given up. It was simply too different from what I knew. But his calm resolve made me believe we might someday see the green land promised in his father’s stories. If we didn’t, it would be because it didn’t exist, not because we hadn’t tried.

As I stepped outside, a boom sounded, practically shaking the ground itself. I flattened myself against the building. While I cowered, water spilled down, like the pipes in the enclave, but a hundred times more powerful. It soaked me to the bone in no time, and I stood frozen in it, face upturned.

“Don’t worry. It’s rain.” Fade stood close enough for me to feel his heated breath against my ear. A shiver rolled through me, echoed in distant crashes that shook the ground beneath my feet. He lifted his face as well, drinking it in, and I gazed at him through that silver curtain, watching as it glazed his features, all pallor and prettiness. Droplets spiked his lashes, so that I wanted to—

I shouldn’t want that. Rain. Instead I focused on the other part of what I felt.

“It doesn’t burn,” I whispered.

In fact, it felt amazing. I hadn’t bathed recently, and this was the next best thing. I started to smile. I turned slowly, admiring the flashes of light. Rain pounded against the ground until it sounded like a chorus of running feet combined with shushing whispers. I’d never heard anything so lovely. I didn’t even mind we had to walk in it; I only hoped the book was safe and dry. At the first chance, I wanted to read more of it.

“No. They had that wrong too.”

Along with so many things. For the first time, I felt sorry for the people trapped by the enclave rules, who would never break free, who would never see any of this. Who would live and die in the dark.

“I want to go back,” I said. “The elders need to know the truth.”

Fade put his hands on my shoulders. “They won’t listen, Deuce. They’ll kill us on sight. Besides … don’t you think I told them?”

Sickness boiled up inside me. They didn’t share the knowledge with us. Not even a whisper got out, after Fade’s arrival. None of us ever knew where he came from, nothing he’d seen or done. I’d thought his silence meant he didn’t want to talk, but now I realized the truth.

“They threatened you.”

“Not a threat, so much. I could fight for them or I could die.” He repeated what he’d said before, and only then, the enormity sank in for me.

All along, they’d known, and they’d chosen to keep us all in the dark. Literally, figuratively. I felt lost, as if I had nothing left to believe in.

“That’s why you never tried to fit in. Why you didn’t talk to anyone much.”

Besides Banner, the girl he’d said was his only friend — and maybe only because she shared his belief that things needed to change. If I’d helped instead of running away, maybe she wouldn’t have died. For the first time I accepted that the elders’ spies might’ve overheard our conversation. If they’d suspected her, my exchange with her had caused her death.

“I was afraid they’d hurt anyone I cared about. As an object lesson.”

“So you didn’t feel safe, the whole time you were there.”

He shrugged. “I had a place to sleep and food to eat. The work wasn’t that bad once I was trained, and people left me alone, mostly. It would’ve been worse up here.”

“I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

His silence said he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I understood. There was no point in discussing things that couldn’t be changed.

We set off in the direction Fade said was north. Gradually hope sprang up within me, replacing the sick disillusionment. I hated walking off and leaving Thimble, Stone, and the brats, but I had to accept there was nothing I could do.

If a better place existed, we’d find it.

As we walked, I lost myself in the cool air and lashing water. It silvered the buildings, blurring them as if through a veil of tears. Fade watched the dark street and eyed the markings on the doors. The red and white paint hinted at hidden dangers.

“You’re in our territory,” a hard voice said.

The rush of the rain must have masked their footsteps because I hadn’t heard them. They came from behind and were just suddenly there, surrounding us in a full circle — all male, most younger than us, and they all carried weapons. But I couldn’t mistake their youth for weakness. In their eyes I saw a feral anger I’d never noticed in the enclave. I knew then Fade had spoken the truth. I understood why he’d chosen the more obvious risk of the Freaks and the darkness below.

Fade stepped forward, putting himself in front of me. It was pointless, as they’d come at us from all sides. So I turned, facing the gangers behind him. We’d fight back-to-back. He had made it clear what would happen if they took me. I’d die first.

Falling back on my training, I counted them. Eight. They all handled their weapons like they knew what to do with them, and they looked stronger than the average Freak, rested and well fed. This would be the toughest fight we’d ever faced. The prospect made me smile.

“We don’t want trouble,” Fade said. “We’re just passing through.”

The big one shook his head. “No, you’re not.”

Clearly he was in charge; the others looked to him for leadership, and they might scatter if he fell. I’d go after him first. In a smooth motion, I drew my daggers.

I grinned over my shoulder at Fade. “Let’s see how many we can kill.”

Resistance

I brought my knives up into a fighting stance. The weight of my club comforted me; even if I couldn’t use it and stay close enough to Fade to guard his back, I liked knowing I had it. The gangers eyed us as if wondering whether we could be as good as we claimed. I guessed we were about to find out.

The headman rushed me and I met his swing with a dagger in the wrist. Quick in and out, I didn’t want to lose my weapon. He danced back with a cry of pain, his eyes wide with disbelief. Soon I had three on me, but I hadn’t been running in the tunnels all day. I had meat in my belly and a night’s sleep behind me.

I blocked their movements with graceful speed; I never felt beautiful unless I was fighting, and even then it was something that went beyond skin and bone into the kinetic joy of successive movements. Kick, thrust, slash. I never doubted Fade at my back. I never faltered.

The big ganger went down first. I took another one before they broke and ran. Their footsteps pounded away through the rain, leaving me staring at a couple of bodies, and blood thinning away to pink trickles. I turned to Fade and found him smiling down at me, his lashes tangled and damp.

“I don’t think we need to worry about them,” I said.

“Not unless they bring more. And they will, next time.”

“Then what’re we standing here for?”

He answered by setting the pace. We walked through the night. Fade guided us. He used the compass on his watch. I’d noticed it underground, but I didn’t know what it meant until I saw him using it. I’d always navigated by counting steps; that was how small my world was before.

“It tells me which way is north,” he explained.

“Did your sire ever say how far north you’d have to go?” The distance and space aboveground still bothered me. If I watched my feet as I walked and didn’t think about it, I could manage to function. But it was all so vast, and I felt tinier than ever.

“No. He didn’t say a lot of things.”

“At least you remember him. Sires and dams never played much part in the enclave. I mean, some Breeder looked after us, but we never knew…” I trailed off, wondering why I was telling him. It didn’t matter.

According to Fade’s watch, we had been walking for two hours when the rain stopped. It left everything clean, though I was wet and cold. The buildings climbed to insane, unimaginable heights — and yet they were obviously dead, relics of the old days. I had the impression of immense solitude laden with expectation, like when we dragged our dead out into the tunnels and left them for the Freaks. We were alone … but not wholly. Eyes weighed on me from unseen hiding places and left me uneasy.

Birds swooped after the small, furry creatures that scampered in the shadows. A fat, brave one paused some distance away, gnawing on a seed. This thing, I recognized; relief surged through me. I knew how to snare one, if we needed to eat. It made me feel more settled — not everything had changed.

Fade followed my gaze and nodded. “Rats live up here too.”

Other animals prowled the dark along with us, different than any I’d seen before. Herds of something with horns clattered down the streets. Deer, Fade said. The word meant nothing to me, except he promised they made good eating. They were fast, though, and too big for a simple snare. More cries split the silence: growls and rumbles and yowls. I couldn’t imagine what made those noises.

“Where is everyone?” I whispered.

The Wordkeeper had taught us enough that I knew these cities used to be filled with people, teeming crowds of them. Of course, he’d also taught us that the sky blazed fire and the rain would burn our skin from our meat and leave nothing but bones. So I couldn’t count on anything I’d learned before.

Fade hesitated, looking young and unsure. “My dad said they left the city a long time ago. That people went north and west to get away.”

“From what?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe we can find out,” I said. “We found one book and we weren’t even looking for it. There might be more.”

He stopped and looked through me as if remembering. “He told me about a place filled with them. A library.”

“A place for books? Do you know where it is?”

Fade shook his head. “We’d have to ask. It’s too dangerous to stay in the city, roaming around searching. The gangers would take us sooner or later.”

“Is there anyone we could ask?” I gazed into the darkness, and suppressed a shiver when it seemed to stare back. “And do you think it’s worth it, trying to find out?”

“We can do what we want, now. So I guess the better question is, how much do you want to know?”

“A lot,” I realized aloud.

I was no longer content to swallow the half-truths and outright lies I’d been fed as a brat. I wanted to understand everything as nobody from down below had in generations. I needed to know the truth.

“Then there might be someone. My dad had a friend.… I’m sure he’s gone now, but he had a daughter. Pearl could tell us — if she’s alive. Her dad had maps.”

I felt dumb, but I had to ask, “Of what?”

“Where everything is in the ruins. Or used to be.”

If we had complete maps of the tunnels, I wouldn’t need to count everywhere I went. How many steps, how many turns. I could memorize the paths and hold them in my mind before going into the dark. We had maps of trips we made often, like the route to Nassau, but we’d had no idea where the back ways led, or about hidden rooms full of relics, like the one Fade found.

My awe and elation faded as I recalled that wasn’t my job anymore. I had no purpose. I wore a Huntress’s scars but I had nobody to protect.

“Can you find her?”

“If she hasn’t moved. It’s a lot of ifs.” He started walking.

“Why didn’t you go to her, after your sire—”

“Because it was too far. I barely made it to the underground.”

“But you think we can do it now.”

“You’re tough,” he said. “And we’re not stupid brats.”

For the remainder of the night, we walked in silence. Fade watched for landmarks and familiar streets. I wondered what it was like for him, if he remembered passing this way with his sire and if those memories felt like another life. I tried to imagine living Topside, and even now, I found it more of a dream than a real thing, as if I would one day wake from this wild, unlikely world with Twist’s foot in my ribs and hear him demand I get up and get to work.

In the dark, I could see as well as anyone, and I noticed the shadows almost at once. I tracked them in my peripheral vision. They seemed to be stalking us, more than readying to attack. But maybe that was worse. Maybe they were, as Fade had predicted, gathering numbers for their next attempt.

“Do you see them?” I whispered.

“Gangers. I told you they’d bring more.”

“How many are there? Can you tell?”

He shook his head. “But there will be twice as many as last time. They won’t underestimate us again.”

Even as he spoke, they rushed. There had to be at least twenty, this time. Some were young enough that I’d call them brats. Their size made me hesitate; I’d been raised to protect brats, not fight them, so I didn’t react fast enough. I fought, but they didn’t fight like Hunters. They kicked and bit and scratched and leaped like wild animals. Sheer numbers overwhelmed me and one clubbed me across the back of the head.

I heard Fade calling to me as the world went away.

When I awoke, it was dark. Not nighttime, as I’d come to know it up here, or the blackness of the tunnels, but a soft, textured darkness. They’d tied something around my eyes. I tried to sit up, found my hands bound behind my back, and slammed my face against a hard floor. I could tell they’d taken my weapons. Another shift told me my ankles had been tied too.

Laughter erupted around me. I didn’t give them the pleasure of seeing me struggle further. Worry ate at me. Where was Fade? A strip of cloth in my mouth prevented me from speaking, or I’d call out, even if it meant a boot in the face.

As the ringing in my ears subsided, I distinguished voices and then words. “Who gets her?” someone demanded.

A high, thin voice answered, “I do. I brought her down. I own her.”

A different male spoke, low and mocking. “Good work, cub. But you wouldn’t know what to do with her.”

Instinctively, I knew I should fear the owner of that voice, even as he knelt beside me. He pulled my blindfold off and left me to recoil at the sight of him. His whole face had been carved up, not from battle like Fade’s scars, but in a purposeful mutilation. The lines bit deep, and he’d painted them red as blood; they striped his skin in savagery. The marks shocked me, maybe because I didn’t understand their purpose.

His eyes reflected the firelight; they were pale as rainwater and flames danced in their depths. “So you’re awake. Where do you come from that you fight like a Wolf?”

He snatched the tie from my hair, but unlike when Fade did it, it wasn’t a pleasant shock. It was invasive, and when he twisted his hand in my hair, it hurt. He turned my face side to side, inspecting me, and pure fear slithered through me at that gesture. Those light eyes examined me as if I were a strange creature.

I tried to tell him with my eyes that he didn’t want to do this, that he would be sorry before we finished this story, but I didn’t think it worked. In response to my look, he laughed. As I lay there, bound and helpless, I knew only one thing: I’d die first. I hadn’t fought my way out of the tunnels to wind up like this. He pulled the cloth from my mouth, just enough to let me answer.

“Underground,” I bit out.

Interest kindled in his savage features. He whispered, “Then you’re worth something, more than just a Breeder. Later, I want you to remember how I saved you.” He straightened and spoke loud enough for his Wolves to hear the order, this time. “Take her and clean her up. I’ll break her in personally later.”

Hands grabbed me and towed me away. I felt each seam and divot in the floor; they would leave bruises. The place flowed over me in glimpses. I had the impression of immense space and a tall ceiling as I jolted along. Then movement stopped. My head hit the ground again.

Someone pulled me to my feet and then knelt to untie my ankles. That person was smart enough to do it from behind, or I’d have certainly broken his or her neck with a kick. Twisting round to peer over my shoulder sent pain shooting through my skull, but I managed to see it was a girl. She was small and thin, liberally covered in bruises. Some were days old; others looked fresh. She didn’t wear any marks, so I guessed gangers only gave such status to the males.

She left my hands tied. Smart girl. Well, relatively. She couldn’t be too smart if she took those bruises without complaining, but as I knew, you got used to anything. If she had been born here, among the gangers, she probably didn’t question that this was how things ought to be. I was having a hard time adjusting my worldview too.

With complete indifference, she left the cloth in my mouth and went to work on me with a knife. My clothes fell away in ragged strips and then she washed me like I was a piece of junk she was trying to make ready for use. Twisting didn’t do any good; she only moved closer and completed the job.

Then she dressed me in a long, ragged shirt like she wore. It showed way more of my legs than I liked, and she didn’t give me anything to wear underneath. I supposed that was the point. Fear tried to dilute my anger, but I didn’t let it. Instinctively I understood the purpose of this ritual. They took away my things; they reduced me in rank to one of their cowering, subservient females. But they could never take away the marks on my arms. I’d earned them.

The strong survive, I told myself. Though it was a Hunter tenet, if anything could get me out of this, it was the resolve I’d learned in training. No matter how many times a bigger brat knocked me down in class, I got back up. I fought harder. I learned a new trick, or a new throw. Except in that match against Crane, I’d never been defeated.

Now I regretted not laying into those brats with everything I had, but it was too late to change my circumstances. I couldn’t let panic paralyze me. This might be a new world, but I could survive it. I would.

Finally, she untied the strip of fabric from around my face. I spat on the ground to remove the stale, fuzzy taste. I studied her face. She might’ve been pretty if she wasn’t so beaten down. The poor thing wouldn’t even meet my eyes.

“I’m Deuce,” I said. “And you are?”

She glanced up in surprise, as if she hadn’t known I could talk. “Tegan.”

“What did they do with my friend?”

“You have your own problems.”

That made me smile. She stared at me like I was crazy. “I’m aware. But where is he? Is he alive?”

“For now. They’re going to hunt him later.”

My blood chilled. “What does that mean?”

“They’ll cut him and give him a short head start. Then the Wolves will give chase, following his blood trail. When they find him, they’ll kill him.”

The word “Wolves” was unfamiliar to me, but I guessed it was the name these gangers used for themselves. I didn’t doubt Tegan was telling the truth. Somehow I managed to conceal my desperation.

“And what’s going to happen to me?”

“Stalker’s claimed you,” she said with a shrug. “So I guess you belong to him until he gets tired of you. Usually, you’d end up with the Wolf who brought you in. Stalker doesn’t often exercise his rights.”

So it meant something when he’d said, Later I want you to remember how I saved you. Was I supposed to be grateful for his favor? Not likely.

“And then?”

“When Stalker’s finished, they’ll probably fight for you. You’re new.”

“But nobody wants to fight Stalker?”

I did. One on one, I had my doubts he could beat me, even with this lump on my head. If he didn’t hide behind greater numbers, they never would’ve taken us in the first place. If only I hadn’t paused over the idea of fighting brats. If only we’d run. But there was no use in treading over lost ground.

“They stopped trying,” Tegan said. “You can’t win.”

Clash

My shoulders burned.

Since Stalker hadn’t given her any instructions, beyond cleaning me up, Tegan didn’t know what to do with me. So we waited. Right now the Wolves were occupied with the deathsport part of the evening, and if I didn’t find some way to prevent it, Fade would die, bloody and alone. Because he’d lied for me.

I didn’t want him to die for me.

We sat by the fire. The enormous building was mostly empty, and rain drummed on the roof. I craned my neck looking for anything I could use to untie my wrists. Nothing behind me that I could see. Ahead I focused on a sliver of glass. It would cut my fingertips, but it would slice through the cords as well.

I inched forward. Tegan didn’t seem to be paying me any attention. The licking flames held her eyes; I hoped they would continue to until I finished my work.

My heart thudded in my ears. It took ages but I eventually set my fingertip on the shard. I shifted to cover the small scrape it made as I raked it behind me. Time pressed on me, weighty and inescapable, while I sawed.

Blood trickled over my fingertips, so I knew I’d cut myself, but I couldn’t tell how bad it was. It slicked my hands and let me slip free at last of the loosened bonds.

When Tegan spoke, it surprised me. “Have you gotten free yet?”

I froze. “If you knew what I was doing, why didn’t you stop me?”

“That’s not my job,” she said with a glimmer of spirit. “He told me to clean you up. That’s all. They should’ve left some guards, but they’re stupid and they only saw a weak female.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Stalker knew I was different. He’d asked why. So maybe this was some kind of test. But I wouldn’t wait around to learn his agenda. I didn’t care what he wanted with me; it wasn’t happening.

“But they’re wrong about you,” she went on. “You’re not helpless.”

I acknowledged that with a nod. “Then you won’t yell if I slip away?”

Her eyes locked on to mine. “I will if you don’t take me with you.”

I made my decision in a split second. “Where did they put my gear?”

The building was long and squat with windows set up high that let in very little light. Grime obscured the glass, and some panes were broken. It must be daytime, but the interior didn’t reflect it. Then again, the rain pattering overhead might have something to do with the gloom.

“Over here.” She led the way to a corner where my things — and Fade’s — had been carelessly piled.

“Do you all live here or is this just where they bring their victims?” I hadn’t seen any females other than Tegan, so I leaned toward no.

“We live wherever Stalker tells us to sleep,” she said. “But no. Not here.”

“Are there more girls?”

“Yes, but I’m the one they don’t trust. That’s why they keep me close.” Her mouth tightened in the firelight, anger burning beneath her bruised skin.

“Why?”

“Because I wasn’t born a Wolf. I lived with my mom until a couple of years ago. We hid a lot and we moved around.”

Like Fade, I thought in wonder.

“They took you, after she died?” I didn’t ask what it had been like. I could see the pain written on her skin.

Tegan nodded, her eyes flat and hard. “I’ve lost two cubs in the last year. The last time, I almost died. That was when I decided, if I ever got a chance to run, I’d take it. So I bided my time.”

I listened, not having any idea what to say. In the enclave, if anyone had treated a girl this way, he would’ve been fed to the Freaks, piece by piece. Maybe the elders weren’t as good as I thought, but they weren’t nearly as bad as they could be.

While she spoke, I dug into my bag. My dirty clothes had been sliced up, but I still had the spares. Everything was still here, even my weapons. I closed my eyes on a surge of relief and then pulled the shirt over my head. I scrambled to dress before the Wolves realized Tegan was aiding in my escape.

She finished, “And so I fooled them. I made them think they’d beaten all the hope out of me.”

I picked up my daggers and strapped them on. My club went across my back in a reassuring weight. This time, I wouldn’t check myself. Until meeting Stalker and his Wolves, I don’t think I fully understood when Fade talked about how it was Topside, how different the dangers. Now I did. The gangers were like Freaks in their way; they could not be reasoned with.

Tegan watched me with hunger in her eyes, but not for food. She sought strength, surety, and revenge for what they’d done to her. Without thinking overlong, I slipped the club free of the loop and handed it to her.

“This is simpler than the knives. It requires less finesse. Just swing it as hard as you can until they stop moving.”

She gave a jerky nod. “This way. I’ll show you where they always start the hunt.”

Though she didn’t move silently compared with a Hunter, the noise as we drew nearer drowned out any sound we might’ve made. A high, curling wail filled the air, raising the hair on my forearms.

I glanced back at Tegan, who whispered, “That’s normal.”

We crept closer, through the gaping maw at the back of the building, and into a strange yard mounded with relics from the old world: rusted metal, tilted gates, and hunks of dead machines. Overhead, the sky loomed like a rock about to fall; it was no color I had ever seen in my short time aboveground. Swirls of green and blue made it look angry and bruised.

At Tegan’s word, I stayed behind piles of relics, moving carefully. The Wolves had Fade on his knees; he was completely surrounded. There were more than there had been earlier too. They tilted their heads back, all stomping and making that horrible noise. I couldn’t tell how badly he was injured, but when Stalker curled his hand around his neck and went in with the knife, my whole body tensed.

Tegan pinched my arm fiercely. “Not now. Our best chance is after they blood him and then send him off.”

The tactical part of my brain asserted itself. “Better not to face them all at once. If we can get to Fade first, we can take them out a few at a time.”

The strategy was not unlike hunting Freaks down in the tunnels. We’d always done our best to stay away from huge packs, so we weren’t overwhelmed. This would be the same principle, more or less.

So I stood silent while they cut him, and I counted their number, calculating how long it would take to dispatch them all. I didn’t know how Fade had faced his naming day or the white-hot marks Twist laid atop his wounds, but he hung silent while the Wolves worked on him. Hate seethed in my gut. Stalker watched it all with an amused air, as if it were all intended for his entertainment.

“Done,” Stalker said when the Wolf finished. “Run, meat. We’ll take you soon.”

Tegan and I broke from the shadows, slipping off as soon as Fade sprinted away. We made sure not to draw attention from the Wolves by rounding the building on the other side. It was a calculated risk. We might lose sight of Fade if—

He slammed into me coming around the corner of the building. His hands came to my arms to steady me automatically, and his battered face broke into a wide smile. The blood smearing his arms didn’t detract from his Hunter scars. I’d never seen anything so welcome — or so puzzling.

“What are you doing?” I demanded. “You’re not even trying to get away!”

“I circled back to cut you loose,” he said. “I thought we had a better shot together. Who’s this?”

“Tegan.” Nervous energy had her bouncing with my club in her hand.

I didn’t know whether to hug or hit him. “Let’s get out of here.”

“We’re not going to get far before the Wolves catch up,” she said. “You might surprise them at first — most meat just cries and dies — but they’ll rally.”

Fade and I shared a smile, and then I fingered my daggers. “That’s all right. We don’t want to run.”

A nearby building proved ideal for ambush; it was like the one where they’d taken me initially, but this one smelled even more unused: of wild animals and feces and weird, damp growth. While we explored, we planned. The relics here would prove helpful and dangerous, if we could use them as we wanted to.

Several factors played in our favor. First of all, the Wolves thought Tegan and I were still sitting by the fire, waiting for their triumphant return. They also didn’t realize Fade could turn almost anything into a weapon — and he fought even better bare-handed. They thought they’d laid hold of a couple cowards, a girl who would do as she was told and a boy who wasn’t brave enough to become a ganger.

This was going to be fun.

In setting the trap, we didn’t try to stem the bleeding. Fade’s wounds were light and shallow, and we wanted them to follow the trail. Before long I heard rustling that indicated one of the Wolves had taken the bait.

“Fresh,” a voice said. “He’s in here.”

“He didn’t get far,” another muttered in disgust. “I hoped he’d make this interesting.”

Fade stepped out from behind a stack of crates. “You mean like this?”

Predictably, they rushed him, making that horrible wailing noise. I guessed it was to tell the others they’d found us. I dropped one from above. My knees slammed into the boy’s back and I heard bones snapping. Fade took the other down with a kick in the crotch, and Tegan finished them.

“Two down,” she said, smiling.

I slid away from the unconscious ones, as footfalls sounded outside. They weren’t even trying to be quiet, which showed a profound disrespect for our skills. I shook my head silently at Fade, who shrugged. They’re crazy, he said with his black eyes. Who understands what they do?

Rows of crates offered hiding places, making it difficult for them to track us. Fade smeared his blood all over everything as we moved in and out of the shadows, avoiding detection. I had been born in the dark. Once, torchlight was the brightest light I’d ever seen, so this felt like coming home.

I listened for them, eyes closed. They came after us in twos and threes. It was almost unfair. Because they searched for Fade, we made sure they found him, time and again. When I joined the fight, their expressions shocked me. You’d think they had never seen a girl who knew how to use a weapon before. Stupidity kills.

“How many was that?” Tegan asked, breathless.

Fade looked at me. “I counted ten. You.”

“Twelve. You forgot the two that tried to run.”

Tegan wiped off the club. I’d have to explain to her how the blood would damage the wood if we didn’t keep it clean. Later, if we could find supplies, I’d oil it.

“Then we’re more than halfway there,” she said.

My mouth tightened. “It’s not over. We have to teach Stalker a lesson.”

“Agreed.” Fade led us deeper into a knot of old machinery and rusted metal.

More Wolves came hunting for easy prey. Too bad they didn’t find it. I put a blade in one and then ran to retrieve it. Fade guarded me from a distance, as I pretended to be unaware of the boy sneaking up from behind. He got a knife for his trouble.

“My turn,” Tegan said. “I’ve been dreaming of this.”

We let her take the next two. She had good reason to be angry. It twisted me up when I thought of what she’d suffered — and just because she was born a girl. Wolves — and maybe all gangers — had a sickness in their brains that didn’t let them grasp the truth: People’s value came from their actions. In the enclave, the strong and the physically perfect survived, but if you were strong, you protected the weak until they had an opportunity to grow into their own power. At least, that was the ideal. In practice, it hadn’t always worked that way in our settlement, and maybe in other enclaves, like Nassau, it had been even worse.

But I saw none of that balance Topside, and it sickened me.

At last, by my count, we had only two left: Stalker and whomever he hunted with. Footsteps warned us of their approach. I motioned Tegan to stillness because she had the least skill in stealth. Though she frowned at me, she complied, pressing herself against the crate.

“He dropped Mickey and Howe,” a new voice said. “And there’s blood all over. I’ve lost count of the bodies. Maybe we should let this one go.” He sounded scared. And young. That bothered me until I remembered the gleeful way the brats had attacked me. It might even have been him that clocked me, and that possibility steeled my resolve. “Stalker, I don’t think there’s anyone else left. We still have the girl. That could be fun, huh?”

“The meat has teeth,” Stalker replied. He sounded serene and certain. “But we’ll take him.”

“That’s what you think,” I whispered.

Rush

Stalker was every bit as fierce as I’d first thought. But he was smarter too. When the three of us stepped out into his path, he stilled. He didn’t seem surprised to see me somehow. I’d guessed right about the test, but I couldn’t believe he had been willing to see so many of his own injured in order to assess my skills. It was certainly an honest challenge, but it carried such a high price that it told me a lot about his character.

Silk would’ve approved.

His pale gaze touched on Tegan and he shook his head. “You’re going to regret this.”

So he hadn’t foreseen her help. He’d thought I would best her and escape on my own. Good to know.

He winged a dagger at me and I dove wide. Instead of pressing the attack, as Fade charged toward him, he tapped his cub and they both took off running. I started to give chase, but Tegan snagged my arm.

“Don’t. He isn’t stupid.”

Deferring to her greater experience, I called to Fade, “Wait!”

After he returned, she added, “He won’t return until he has enough Wolves to deal with us. The hunt is over, and it’s a matter of pride now.”

My heart sank. “You mean there are more of them?”

“Those were just the cubs, who needed their first blood. The more experienced Wolves are guarding the den.”

Kind of like the naming day ritual, I guessed, except we didn’t hunt down some poor person to get our names. It came down to personal bravery instead. I didn’t like much of what I’d seen from the surface so far.

“Sounds like you have some experience with this,” he said.

She nodded. “We have one chance to get away. This is it.”

I glanced at Fade. “Can you find Pearl’s place from here?”

“I think so.”

Before we took off, I wrapped his arms; we didn’t want to leave a trail this time. It was a quick patch job, nothing more. Once we found a safe place to hide, he needed better care and some of Banner’s salve. But as usual, he didn’t show any pain.

It was dark again, thankfully, as we trekked through the city. I found the silence disconcerting. In the enclave, you could always hear human noises. Here, the buildings stood like dying sentinels, and I had the unnerving fear they could topple over at any second, crushing us in dust and rubble. Down below, I’d possessed the sense of being a valuable part of the community. Up here, I felt like nothing. The space filled me with disquiet, and I found it nearly impossible to believe this place had once been filled with people. I couldn’t imagine it.

At dawn, Fade found us shelter. The building bore no paint, and the front windows were shattered. That made it easy for us to enter, but I held myself ready in case we ran into trouble. Though the place smelled of animal musk, I saw no signs of human habitation. Whoever had broken in first, they were long gone.

“We’re far enough from the Wolves to risk a rest,” Tegan said. “With any luck, they’ve lost our trail in the time Stalker took getting the rest of them.”

“How much do we need to look over our shoulders?” I asked.

“He’s a good tracker, but we covered a lot of ground.”

My aching feet could attest to that. Walking Topside was nothing like traveling in the tunnels. Our cured-skin slippers worked down below, but here, we needed something heavier.

Fade said, “I hope it will be enough.”

After crawling carefully past the broken glass, we found a shop, similar to the one where we’d sheltered before, but bigger, with row after row of metal shelves. A huge blue and red sign hung sideways from the ceiling. Tilting my head, I read some of the letters: CAL’S MEGAMART. Wonderingly, I walked up and down between the shelves. Most had been picked clean, but I found a few tins. Those I slipped into my bag.

We split up by mutual consent to explore the place thoroughly. A few minutes later, when Tegan started yelling, I drew my daggers and sprinted in her direction. I stopped short when I realized she was excited, not scared. Clothing surrounded her. The styles and colors were bright and unfamiliar; the fabrics felt cool and slick. A few items tore when I picked them up, but others seemed to be in perfect condition.

“I haven’t had anything that was mine since the Wolves took me,” Tegan said, and her voice broke in a way that tugged at my heart.

“Find some that fit,” I suggested. “If these traders had food and clothes, then they probably have a bag around here for you too.”

Thanks to her work with the knife, I needed a spare outfit as well. Life in the enclave had taught me one didn’t need more than could be easily carried, but I didn’t like not owning anything to change into when what I wore got too dirty to bear. And I was getting there.

I prowled through the garments until I spotted a green combination of shirt and pants. The shirt had a metal strip running down the center; I yanked it up and down before deciding it was meant to make it easier to get dressed. The pants were as simple as I was used to with a simple string to tighten the waist. This would do; it was light, smooth and should be comfortable. The material was a little dusty, so I beat it against the wall; the slick, shiny stuff shook clean unlike any cloth I’d ever seen. That would come in handy.

I left Tegan searching for a bag to carry her stuff. In the next set of shelves, I saw a bunch of bottles, and they looked like they held water. Marveling at the luck, I took a couple with me. There might be a waste closet here, I thought. At the back of the shop, I found it, tucked into a dark hall. The shadows didn’t bother me. My ears were good and I’d hear movement.

Inside, it was dingy, but not disgusting at it had been on the platform. The mirror didn’t take me by surprise this time. I ignored the girl going about her business — even though with my brain, I knew she was me, I felt no connection to her, and every now and then, I looked up just to see if she would continue what she was doing, or stop and stare, as I did. Each time, her movements matched, but my sense of unease remained. It was like a doorway, I thought.

I cracked open a bottle. It didn’t smell like the water we boiled, but I didn’t intend to drink it. Instead I used it to wash off before putting on my clean clothes; they were warmer and lighter than I’d expected. When I’d done what I could to remove the bloodstains, I felt a little better.

“Deuce!” Fade called. “Come here.”

I expected more clothing, but he’d found another room, hidden behind a heavy metal door that read EMPLOYEES ONLY. This one was full of boxes and crates and beyond that, another space, this one smaller still, that held tables, chairs, tall storage units, and two dusty sofas. We pounded them until they looked clean enough to use.

“We can lock that door,” I said. “And hole up in here while it’s so bright out.”

“That wasn’t what I wanted you to see.”

I sat down beside him while he pulled the top off a tin. It contained a red substance that made me recoil. Surely that couldn’t be — then he lifted it to my nose so I could sniff it. It was the best thing I’d ever smelled, and my mouth watered.

“What is it?”

“Taste it.” Fade dipped his finger into the tin and offered it to me.

I couldn’t resist, though I knew better than to let him feed me like a brat. Sweetness exploded on my tongue, contrasting with the warmth of his skin. Shocked and pleased, I pulled back and dipped two of my fingers into the tin in a little scoop. This time I caught more than the sauce. A round little red thing sat in the curve of my fingertips. I ate it without hesitation, two, three more scoops until I was sure I had red all around my mouth, and I didn’t care. He watched me with amusement.

“How did you know it would be so good?” I asked

His smile slipped. “I had some with my dad, once.”

I turned the tin, which was covered in red things, and had a blue banner with white letters on it. They read, “Comstock,” and below that, it said, “More Fruit Cherry.” More new words. We were eating cherries, something I’d never had before, and they made my mouth water for more. I stopped because I wanted Tegan to taste them too.

“Do you miss him?”

Fade nodded and set the tin down. Hesitantly, I put my hand on his shoulder. I wasn’t a Breeder, so touching didn’t come naturally to me. If I was, I guessed I’d know how to comfort him. I might even have the right words instead of a throat full of silence. It was the first time I’d ever thought being a Breeder might come in handy.

For the first time, I looked at him and I didn’t see reflexes or muscles or fighting potential. I saw only a boy who had followed me from the tunnels, who had been a friend no matter what obstacles we faced. Even while the Wolves had been hunting him, he thought of saving me. My heart shifted a little in my chest; it seemed to swell and beat against my bones until I couldn’t hear.

“You were right, you know,” he said finally.

“About what?”

“Why I stayed. I didn’t have anything better waiting. The enclave was better than being alone.”

“You’re not alone,” I said. “And you never will be. We’re partners now.”

Fade smiled then. I didn’t know why. Until he said, “My dad had a partner. I don’t remember her.”

“Oh?” I wondered if his dad had been a Hunter too, some Topside variety I didn’t know about. The whole world couldn’t be populated with people like Stalker.

“She was my mother.”

The words struck me like a question, but I didn’t have an answer. “Come on. I found some water on the shelves. We need to clean your arms up.”

“The cuts aren’t that deep,” he protested.

“And if they get infected—”

“I know.” He followed me back into the shop, where I walked along the shelves finding things I might be able to use. Some of them even looked like they might be suitable for tending wounds.

Fade winced when I unwrapped the cloth strips. I tried to be careful, but the dried blood made it stick. With perfect gravity, I stared at the way they’d made the cuts run parallel to his Hunter marks. Now he bore twelve. Part of me wished I could seal them properly, so his arms would say to anyone, I’m twice the Hunter you are. But Topside such symbols were meaningless. They were just scars. Nobody would admire him for having more. I hated that loss too.

Head bent, I washed his wounds and applied the salve Banner had given me. The primitive part of me didn’t think I should use it — whatever power she had given to its making would fail because of her death. But it was all we had, and I wanted him to heal.

He didn’t show further signs of discomfort. I sliced up one of the shirts for bandages, and turned the soft white side to his cuts. The outside was slick like the clothing I wore, and should keep the rain out. It seemed like a very useful fabric. Too bad the making of it had been lost. But then, everything I knew was lost too. I felt like I must learn everything again, like a brat, or face painful consequences.

When I finished tying the cloth, I looked up to tell him he could go, only to find a steely, fixed expression on his face. He didn’t look away. His hands came up to frame my face, warm against my cheeks. Before he bent his head, I knew what he was going to do. Touch his lips to mine. Oh, and I wanted him to. He left me the chance to back away and break his hold. I stilled, hardly daring to breathe. The old refrain of can’t and shouldn’t sank beneath the weight of new words like, please and yes.

This time I did wrap my arms around his neck. I met him on raised toes and melted into him. I breathed his breath and tasted the essence of him. He was the heat of a fire and the sweetness of the moon I’d only just met. No wonder Breeders were so cheerful, I thought, breathless.

“I never belonged anywhere until I met you,” he said, resting his cheek against my hair.

“I thought I did.”

Remembering the enclave gave me a pang. I would always miss Stone and Thimble. I would worry about Twist and hope the brats were doing well, especially Girl26. But it wasn’t my place. I knew that now. There was a reason besides pity I had sacrificed myself for Stone.

“And now?”

I couldn’t lie to him. “I was born there. I expected to die there. If I’d never left, I think I would’ve been content. I believed what they told me about the surface. When we started climbing that day, I thought I’d die of fear.”

“Not you,” he said. “I’ve never seen you defeated. You were so determined to prove to everyone you deserved to be a Huntress, when nobody questioned it but you.”

That astonished me. “What do you mean?”

“You were among the best. If not for Crane’s physical strength, you would’ve been facing me in the finals. But I think you doubted it because from the beginning you didn’t have the same hardness as the rest of the Hunters. It’s not easy for you.”

“No,” I said softly, thinking of the blind brat we’d failed to save.

“And that’s why I—”

Before he could finish his thought, Tegan found us. “So this is where you two are hiding.”

The moment was broken, so I led the way back to the room with the sofas, where we’d left the can of cherries. I handed her the open tin. “Try it.”

“It looks—oh.” After one wary taste, like me, she dug in with hooked fingers.

I saw why Fade had enjoyed watching me eat. Her pleasure was contagious and it found its way to my face in a quiet smile. We let her finish the rest; I figured she deserved something sweet.

“I have a couple more in here. Why don’t you bolt us in for the night?” While Fade locked the door, I rummaged in my bag. “Let’s see what else is for dinner.”

The first can we popped open smelled fishy, but not rancid. Over the years, I’d grown fairly expert at detecting whether such food could be safely eaten. Judging by the color and texture, this actually was fish. The three of us divided it up. I knew we would need the energy, no telling how long before we’d eat so well again. I also had a tin that read, “Mixed Vegetables.” The multicolored stuff in there tasted none too good, and it was mushy, but it filled our bellies.

“Thanks for taking me with you,” Tegan said.

Fade sighed. “Don’t thank us yet. We’re heading north. By the time the journey’s done, you might wish you’d stayed with the Wolves. We don’t know what’s out there.”

“I’d like to find out.” Her look held a sweet kind of hunger, a longing that didn’t devour, only the need for truth.

I understood that look. Since I had let go of the possibility I could change everything for the brats, I had begun to throb with the desire to understand why things happened, why some people lived under the ground, like our enclave, the Freaks, and the Burrowers, and why some stayed Topside and turned into the greatest monsters of all.

“Do you still have that book?” Fade asked me.

Wordless, I laid hands on it in my bag and gave it to him. The light shining through the distant window was sufficient to see the pages. Without asking if we were interested, he opened it and began to read. I listened until my eyes grew heavy, and I slumped over onto his legs. I dreamed of boys who gleamed red-gold, and girls with shadows in their skin.

Pearl

It took us two days to find the part of the ruins where Fade thought his father’s friend had lived. We traveled in the dark and avoided the gangers as best we could. The markings helped with that, and we stayed away from the areas that bore the most paint. Still, it was slow going.

The air smelled different here, sharper, stronger. Each open-mouth breath tasted of that salty, tinned fish. Tegan noticed it too; she lifted her face and then took off. Fade called to her, but she ignored him. I ran after her because I wanted to know what was causing the change too. We drew up short when the world ended. Below, a sharp drop, down to loose earth, and beyond that, water. I had never seen anything like it or even imagined; it met the sky for vastness. In the distance, they kissed in whispering shades of blue, deepening as the stars twinkled in reflected light. I drew in my breath, overcome.

“Have you seen this before?” I whispered to Fade.

“Once. But I wasn’t sure I remembered right. I thought I might have dreamed it.”

In my mind’s eye, I saw him half his height, clinging to his sire’s hand and watching the water tear high against the rocks. I saw no ending to it, just this beginning, or perhaps I had it wrong, and this was the ending of all things. Certainly it felt that way to me, as I gazed in aching silence, and refused to weep for the wonders the enclave brats would never see.

And so I saw the sun come up completely for the first time, rising over the water until it shone with a reflected light that arrowed toward me. I didn’t know how long we stood there, rapt, but eventually Fade tugged on my hand. I hadn’t even realized he was holding it. His fingers were strong and sure. Tegan looked dazed; perhaps it was only weariness.

“I hope we didn’t get you lost,” she said.

Fade shook his head. “No, I recognize that, actually.”

“That” was a building, oddly shaped with a walkway that wrapped around it. Unlike most, it looked like rotten wood, long since given way and hanging in chunks. He continued north from there, following the water until we came to a short red structure. It had a few letters painted on it, but most had peeled away, leaving only the cryptic message OLEA L U GE. I didn’t know what it meant, but Fade seemed sure of himself. He went to the side of the building, where steps led down to a door. The windows here had all been barred with heavy black metal.

He rapped urgently as the day grew brighter. I still didn’t like being out in the sun, so I got out the glasses that shaded my eyes. It grew progressively warmer until I could feel it prickling on my skin. Fade banged on the door forever and then pulled a string that dangled from the top. We stood outside for a long while.

“Go away!” A female voice shouted eventually.

“Pearl?”

At last part of the door slid open, just enough for the person inside to see us. “Who are you?”

“My father knew yours. You’re Oslo’s daughter? We came to see you.”

She spoke a word that I didn’t catch as the sliding metal clanged shut. I heard the sound of her unfastening many bolts and chains, and then the door swung open. “Get inside, quickly.”

We did as she asked.

She led us down endless flights of stairs to a solid metal door. She unlocked it and as we went in, I took in the place with wide eyes. Everything was clean. New looking. She had relics that looked as if they had just been made the day before. I recognized some of the items: sofa, chair, table, but the rest puzzled me. She also had a whole room devoted to supplies.

“It’s been a long time,” Fade said. “You’ve changed.”

His smile held layers that I didn’t like. Of course Pearl had changed. It had been at least six years since he’d seen her. She was his age, or a little older, and she was pretty. Clean. Her pale hair shone like stars, and her eyes were green as the water we’d marveled at only moments before. And her skin, her skin lacked the sickly pallor that was my legacy from a life underground. Instead it glowed with delicate warmth.

Pearl took in his scars. “So have you. Where did you go?”

“Down below.”

“Ugh,” she said. “I’ve heard they’re little better than animals.”

Funny. I thought the same thing about most Topsiders I encountered. Tegan touched my hand in silent sympathy, and I set my jaw.

“They’re not so bad,” he said. “At least, not all of them.”

I stepped forward and pasted on a false smile. We were in her home, after all. The least I could do was be polite. “I’m Deuce, animal from the underground.”

She had the courtesy to display chagrin. “I’m sorry. I don’t get many visitors.”

“Do you never go out?” Tegan asked. She had to be wondering why gangers hadn’t snatched Pearl yet.

“Not often. I have just about everything I need here.”

Fade nodded. “Your father left you well supplied.”

Apparently his hadn’t, or I would never have met him. All of a sudden, I wanted to know more about him, more than Pearl or anyone else would ever know. But this wasn’t the time or place. I’d had my chance to ask questions, and somehow I still didn’t know as much as I wanted to about him.

“Yes,” Pearl said. “I’m lucky. His great-grandfather built a bunker down here, a long time ago. They were scared of the world blowing up, or something.”

The word “bunker” was unfamiliar to me, but I didn’t ask for a definition, as I might have done from Fade, if we’d been alone. I had the inexplicable impression that I shouldn’t show weakness in front of Pearl, as if it might incite her to a feeding frenzy like a Freak. Tegan watched her with wary eyes, I think for different reasons. She simply didn’t trust people; I wasn’t sure she would’ve trusted us, except that we’d fought together, and that tended to create faster bonds.

“I was hoping you could help us,” he said.

She smiled. “For Stepan’s son … anything.”

Encouraged and plainly pleased, he went on, “We need to sleep and then we’d like to look at his old maps, if it’s all right.”

“I have them boxed up. I don’t have much room, I’m afraid, but you’re welcome to my bed. They can bed down on the floor here.” To us, she added, “You have blankets?” Her courtesy was false; it tasted like bad meat.

She didn’t want Tegan or me sleeping on her floor or under her roof. Fade didn’t seem to notice. He followed her into the other room, where they spoke in low voices. She told him how lonely she’d been. In the silence that followed, I knew he was hugging her and they were sharing childhood memories.

Since Tegan didn’t have her own blanket, she had to share mine. That meant lying close and wrapping up together. I didn’t mind. It reminded me of sharing space in the brat dorm. It cured some of my homesickness.

“I don’t like her,” Tegan whispered. “Why are we here?”

I explained what the library was and why we wanted to go there. She listened with a frown building between her brows. When I finished, she asked, “Does it matter why anything happened? I thought you were leaving and going north. That’s what I want — out of this place.”

“We are,” I said. “But we want to find answers first. I thought if we knew what happened, we might be able to prepare better for what’s out there.”

“That makes sense,” she acknowledged.

I lay back and gazed at the gray ceiling. “I don’t know anything about this world. Well, nothing but what Fade tells me. And sometimes he doesn’t seem sure either because he’s spent years underground.”

“I might be able to answer some questions,” she said.

After thinking a bit, I settled on, “Your mom wasn’t a ganger?”

“No. She and my dad were part of a small group that managed to stay hidden. It wasn’t just us, at first. But people got sick. My dad died first. My mom was the last to go. And then it was only me.”

Fade said his dad got sick too. A common thread?

“There was a disease in the enclave, a long time ago. The elders told us about a time when nearly everybody died of it. Do you think it was the same thing?”

Tegan shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Do you know why you didn’t get it?”

“I wish I did. When the Wolves had me, I asked myself why I didn’t die too.”

Her mind surprised me. In the enclave, I’d never questioned why some brats lived and some died. There seemed no pattern to it. Sometimes brats I thought were small or frail, like Twist, would wind up thriving. Sometimes a strong, hardy one died in his sleep. The world made no sense at all.

“Maybe it was to make you stronger,” I suggested.

“It did.” She rolled on her side to face me, her eyes angry. “That’s why I’ll be watching that girl. I won’t give anyone a chance to hurt me again.”

I was glad she’d said it. Now I didn’t have to wrestle with the uncomfortable suspicion that I didn’t like Pearl simply because she knew more about Fade than I did. We listened to them talking until Tegan fell asleep. Rest wouldn’t come for me, though. I kept waiting for something — a bad something — and expectancy coiled me tight.

Eventually, I slept. I dreamed of Stone and Thimble. When I woke, I wondered what they were doing, whether they missed me at all or if they still nursed righteous indignation about my exile. I missed them, regardless. They had been my best friends from the first.

That morning, I also discovered we’d been right to dislike Pearl. Her voice carried from the other room; I’m sure she didn’t know I was awake.

“You can stay as long as you like, of course, for old time’s sake. But I don’t have enough food to provide for your friends. I’m sorry.”

Fade said, “Don’t worry, we won’t be long. I just need to finish looking over these maps.”

So he was already working on finding the library. Good. I started to sit up, and then froze at her next words.

“I wish you wouldn’t go,” Pearl said softly. “I’ve thought of you often. I know your father wouldn’t want you to leave me alone.”

There was something off about her, something wrong, and not just because she was trying to talk him into abandoning me. I thought being by herself might’ve driven her crazy. I didn’t like the way she looked at Fade.

His tone was gentle, almost conciliatory. “You’ve been fine all these years. Deuce can’t make it without me.”

I set my jaw. I didn’t want him sticking with me out of pity. With Tegan’s knowledge of the surface, and my ability to fight, we’d probably be fine. I almost said so, but then I’d have to admit I was pretending to be asleep so I could listen to them.

“Safe doesn’t mean fine. I’m lonely, Semyon.”

“Don’t call me that,” he said. “He died in the dark. And maybe what I meant when I said that about Deuce is I don’t want to do without her.”

Oh. My heart made that funny little turn again, as if I were frightened, but it was better and warmer than that.

“I see.” Her voice went sharp and hard, covering hurt or some darker emotion. “Then whenever you’re ready to go.”

“I’m set. Thanks for your hospitality and the use of your father’s maps.”

I sat up then and nudged Tegan. Her hair tumbled into her face, making her look younger than she had before, too young to have suffered what she had with the gangers. Maybe she’d never be Stone or Thimble, but I already knew we would be close friends.

“I think we’ve outstayed our welcome,” I muttered.

She assessed me and then whispered, “Did you hear him?”

Mutely I nodded, and her smile made me feel both pleased and ridiculous. It shouldn’t matter that he’d picked me, but … it did. From her expression, she knew it. I wondered that she could trust us, even a little bit. Maybe, like Jengu, she didn’t trust anyone completely, but we were better than anything she’d known since her family died.

By the time he came out of the back room, Tegan and I were ready to go. We both mouthed the right words to Pearl, but she just wanted us gone. I’m sure she felt rejected by Fade, but she hadn’t spent long nights in the tunnels with him, or guarded his back when Freaks were determined to eat him. All she had to offer were maps, and he didn’t need those forever. Apparently, he did need me. I quietly savored the feeling.

Outside, the night was chilly. My breath puffed from between my lips and I blew it out several times to make sure it wasn’t a coincidence. The shirt I wore had an extra bit of fabric at the back so I tugged it up and was pleased to find it covered my head. Tegan did the same, as we wore matching clothes, just in different colors.

Fade guided the way back toward the water. I heard it and smelled it before I saw it. Instead of going down toward the wider body, he turned toward a narrow channel that angled into the land itself.

He read the puzzlement in my face and explained, “If we follow the river, it’ll take us nearly all the way there.”

Another new word. River. I stored it away. “You memorized where the library should be?”

“If you’re ready, we’ll go find it.”

“And maybe some answers,” Tegan added.

Together, we set out on the next leg of our journey.

Enlightenment

The trip took half the night. Where the river twisted and turned, so did we. This part of the ruins was quiet, a place where the spirits of the dead ghosted on the wind and whispered across my skin. So much had been lost. I marveled at the size of it all and tried to work out the purpose of the buildings we passed.

I liked the gentle light of what Fade called the moon. Tonight it had swelled from when we first came Topside.

“Will it get bigger?” I asked.

He followed my gaze upward with a faint smile. “Yes. It turns into a perfect circle. Sometimes it’s silver and sometimes it can glow almost orange. Other times it’s golden, but never as bright as the sun.”

I didn’t like the sun. Neither Tegan nor Fade seemed bothered by it as I was, but I hated the thing. I thought it might well burn me up, if given the chance. When it set fire to the sky, I wanted to hide, or I might end up like a chunk of meat on Copper’s spit, all the juices crackling out of me. I tried to hide the worst of my fear because I didn’t want them to think I was weak.

Tall, abandoned buildings surrounded us. Green covered the sides, growing in along the stone and rock. Parts had crumbled away from lack of care, showing the insides. I had the wild idea we could climb up, as if over the bones of a great beast. I had to pick my way carefully, avoiding enormous holes and sunken bits of rock. The plants had grown wild here for so long, they had reclaimed the whole area: Tall ones Fade called trees and long ones he named grass that flowed in the wind as if brushed by invisible hands.

Eventually we came upon an enormous structure built from gray rocks. It too had been claimed by the green; a web of leaves wound up the sides. A vast number of broken steps led up to the gaping doors, and two giant stone monsters guarded the entrance. I eyed them warily. We all stopped and stared. Unlike the others, this place had an air of majesty, even in its disrepair. I could tell great things had happened here.

“And this whole place is full of books?” Tegan asked.

“It’s supposed to be. That’s what my dad said.”

She studied her feet. “My mom didn’t talk to me much, unless she was saying, ‘Be quiet, they’re coming’ or ‘We have to run now.’”

“What was she like?”

“My mom?” At my nod, she grew thoughtful. “She looked like me, but she was always scared. I don’t think I ever saw her when she wasn’t.”

If I had a brat to protect, I’d be scared too. Fade mounted the stairs at a run, as if trying to flee the memories Tegan’s words evoked. Or maybe now that we were here, he was just eager to find out what secrets the building contained. So was I.

The doors had been broken at some point. No paint marred the exterior, so this wasn’t ganger territory — a lucky break for us. But someone had been desperate to get inside. We stepped from the chill into a dark stillness. I could tell there were books all over the place, a few still on the enormous wall of shelves, but mostly they had been torn, broken and flung around, as if by wild animals. A certain smell made me think some might be nesting here.

“We’ll have to wait for daylight before we can read anything,” Fade said.

I agreed with a nod. “But should we check the place out while we do?”

Tegan shivered. “I hate the idea there’s something in here with us.”

“Something might be better than someone,” I muttered, thinking of Stalker.

“True. Let’s explore a little.” Fade was already wending his way into the shadows, going at a near run. This place probably seemed wonderful to him, as much as he’d loved finding that old book. Here, was the prospect of countless books.

There was no point in sitting by the front doors until the sun rose. Now that my eyes had gotten used to the shift, I realized there was more light here than in the tunnels. It trickled in through the windows, painting cross-paths of silver on the dusty floor. My feet left visible tracks, and that made me uneasy. Topside, it was too easy to track us.

I told myself I was worried for nothing and I let myself be awed by the grandeur of this place. It must have been quite a world, where books lived in a house finer than anything I’d ever seen built for a person. The plants had gotten in here too, breaking through the floor in wild profusion.

“It will take hours to go through this whole place,” Tegan said.

Fade grinned. “The sun will be up by then.”

We explored each level, going up winding stairs. My nerves coiled a little tighter with each one we climbed. I’d never been so high up. I could hear my heart thumping in my ears until I would have proven no help at all, if we’d encountered anything but small animals and nesting birds.

The high ceilings and endless rows of shelves created interesting shadows. We passed through vast open rooms filled with tables. A few locked doors barred our way. Whoever broke the front doors hadn’t carried the attack all the way to the heart of the library. Here, I only heard the flutter of wings and scrabble of tiny claws skittering on the floor. If I were so inclined, this would be a decent place to lay snares for meat.

I was tired by the time Fade pronounced the place safe. Sunlight struggled through the dirty glass. Most of the windows were broken, though this part of the ruins had avoided the worst of the damage. Time had certainly taken its toll.

“What happened here?” I asked aloud.

Tegan put her hand on my shoulder. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

We made our way back down to the ground. I felt safer, but that wasn’t the reason I thought we should begin there. It made sense to me that we should start looking at the doors and fan outward. Otherwise, we’d cross paths and might wind up covering the same area more than once.

The stuff nearest the entrance had been exposed to weather, and it was useless. It had gotten wet and shriveled up and dried, leaving the words illegible. Many of the books we touched crumbled in our hands. My hopes sank.

Farther on, we found sealed doors, and past them, an enormous room full of tables. Some of them held books; others yellowing papers. In here, the sunlight was sufficient for us to start reading.

I picked up a faded yellow bundle of papers. There were images, right on the paper, beside the words, but none of them were of happy things. I saw a lady crying, and a fire rising up from a car. I’d only seen them rusted and motionless. This one seemed to have been drawn at the exact moment it hit another one, and they both had flames all over them.

“‘CDC reports vaccine failure,’” I read slowly. Most of the words were unfamiliar to me, and I sounded them out as best I could.

“Did you find something?” Fade asked, coming to my shoulder.

He rested his hand there as he leaned in, an easy touch like Stone would’ve bestowed, but coming from Fade, it meant something else. Not comfort or connection or a quiet way of saying he was there. I sensed the difference in every part of me.

“I’m not sure.” I handed him the paper.

There was no shame in admitting his reading skills exceeded mine. I knew my letters and I would never be hurt because I’d failed to understand a warning sign. What else did I need? He skimmed the words, using only his eyes and not his fingers, as I did to mark my place.

“I don’t understand all of it,” he said at last. “But it seems like the disease my dad had — and Tegan’s mom — it killed a lot of people. So they tried to make medicine for it, but it didn’t work, and things got worse.”

Worse. Like now? Or had life improved for people since then? That was hard to imagine.

“Are we the only ones left then?” Tegan whispered. “The underground tribes, the gangers, and a few survivors like my mom and me?”

Fade shook his head angrily. “No. My dad said people went north. That it was better there.”

With a little twinge of pain, I wondered if those had just been stories, like the one he was reading to us — full of promise that could never be realized. Because I knew the question would hurt him, I didn’t ask it. Maybe he saw it in my eyes because his sharp features drew in on a frown.

Presently Tegan came over with a different paper. “What’s ‘evacuation’ mean?”

I shrugged as Fade took it and scanned the words. Maybe he could figure it out from reading the rest. Not for the first time, I admired his mind as much as I admired the way he fought.

“I’m not sure,” he finally admitted. “But I think it has to do with people leaving. The person who wrote this seems angry. ‘Evacuation plans are slanted toward the rich and powerful. This is going to be Katrina all over again,’” he read aloud.

“Powerful, like the elders,” I muttered. “So whatever happened, the important people left first.”

“There were people left behind,” Tegan said. “That’s why we’re here.”

It was a sobering thought. We came from those who hadn’t been important enough to get evacuated. Though I might not be sure what the word meant precisely, I was positive its opposite was “left behind.”

“We could spend forever here and not learn more than this,” I said.

I was a little disappointed not to find all the answers in a single book, waiting for us turned to the right pages, but I now realized my expectations had been too high. A place like this couldn’t tell us where to go, or what lay beyond the ruins. If we were brave enough, we’d have to find out for ourselves.

“I’d like to look a little longer,” Fade said.

“Fine with me.” But I sat down. I was done poking around the dusty pages, looking to dead words for my answers. On the table beside me, I found what must be a child’s book because it was mostly pictures.

On a whim I opened it. “A is for Apple. B is for Bear. C is for Cat.” Intrigued, I went through, learning new words, things, and creatures with each flip. This book was sturdier than the others, so the pages had held up better. They still felt stiff. At W, I paused, wide-eyed.

“Tegan!” I called. “Come look!”

She got up with a sigh. I think she was ready to leave too, but we were indulging Fade, as neither of us really wanted to set out before nightfall anyway. We both preferred walking after dark.

“‘W is for Wolf,’” I read and tapped my finger on the picture. “Have you ever seen one of those?”

“Not for real. Just the human kind.”

“But you knew what they were?” I was disappointed and chagrined. Apparently I was the only ignorant one. Our schooling hadn’t included much Topside lore, and most of what I’d been taught was wrong. I comforted myself with the fact that Tegan didn’t know about Freaks or Burrowers. She didn’t know what my scars meant. Unfortunately, my knowledge was useless up here.

“My mom had this exact book. She taught me to read with it.” She sounded odd and choky.

There was no way it had survived her captivity, so I held out the book to her. “You want it?”

Her eyes got bright and teary. “Thank you.”

Tegan took it and hugged it before stashing it in her bag. I fiddled with a few more books before losing patience and going to look for Fade. I found him sitting on the floor, surrounded by books. They were huge and old with tiny words. My head ached just thinking about trying to puzzle all of them out.

“Learning much?”

“Yes,” he said. “But not about the things I wanted.”

“Like what?”

“The old days.”

I sighed. “Are you almost ready? It will be dark soon. I think we should get out of here as soon as we can.”

Before he could answer, a long keening noise echoed through the halls. I recognized it, and it chilled my blood. Fade’s black eyes met mine. “Where’s Tegan?”

Library

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Stalker shouted. “Come on, Semyon. There’s someone here who’s dying to see you.”

Fade closed his eyes. “He has Pearl.”

I didn’t care that much about Pearl, but I could see he did. “He’ll have brought the rest of his Wolves.”

Now I had a mental picture of them too: fierce and fanged with silvery gray fur and shining eyes. Stalker’s human versions couldn’t look like that, but if they came close, we’d have an awful fight on our hands, further complicated by Tegan and Pearl. Fade wanted to save his old friend for his father’s sake. I’d concede her loss if there was no other choice. But not Tegan. We’d saved her. He couldn’t have her back.

The darkness helped. I slipped along the edges of the wall until I could see what we were dealing with. Fade stayed close, his presence reassuring at my back. To my surprise, Stalker hadn’t brought an army, just a few Wolves who looked every bit as frightening as he did. They wore the same scars on their faces, but they’d painted them different colors. I guessed his meant he was in charge and nobody better forget it.

They stood just before the broken doors. As I’d feared, he held Tegan casually, a knife to her throat. One of his Wolves had ahold of Pearl. They were strong, well armed, and rested. To make matters worse, we lacked the element of surprise. They expected us to attack.

“What do we do?” I whispered.

Hiding was an option. If we slipped away, it was unlikely they’d ever find us. In fact, I was impressed he’d tracked us this far. I wondered if Stalker had only pretended to run and sent his cub for more Wolves while he tracked us, leaving quiet signs for them to follow. It was the only explanation that made sense.

“There are four of them.”

But they wouldn’t be like the cubs we’d faced in the warehouse. We’d tried not to kill them because they were brats, but these opponents would be like fighting four trained Hunters, I had no doubt. Were we good enough?

Stalker lost patience. “You have one minute before I start making new holes in these two Breeders.”

I made the decision before I realized I had and stepped into view. “So you found us. What’s the complaint? We’re not in your territory now.”

“You injured eighteen of my cubs. Two of them died.”

“They had it coming,” Fade said. “And they’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”

I murmured, “Why don’t you let them go? We’ll talk.”

Stalker smiled. “I don’t want to talk.”

Before he could give the order to attack, a horrible smell drifted to me on the wind. I’d only smelled anything like it once before, near Nassau. Oh, no. Before I heard the scrabbling movements, I knew we had Freaks incoming.

I didn’t realize they ever came Topside, but as soon as they burst through the doorway, I saw we were dealing with the smart ones. Their eyes looked different, not swimming with hunger and madness. No, these were worse because I recognized cunning and craft. In daylight, these creatures looked more horrible with their yellow skin, bloody claws, and fierce, sharp teeth. Sparse hair sprouted from their misshapen skulls, stained dark with their kills.

“We’re not your biggest problem now!” I shouted.

To his credit, Stalker whirled. His Wolves shoved Tegan and Pearl away and fell into a fighting stance. Unlike their brats, the Wolves fought well — and as a unit. Not up to the standards set by Hunters, but they had a surprising amount of discipline. But they weren’t used to Freaks. I could see fear in the way they tried to block snapping fangs and raking claws.

My daggers in hand, I joined the battle with Fade close behind. As I whirled into the attack, I counted — part of my Huntress nature. Twenty Freaks. We’d once faced almost as many underground, but they had been weak and stupid, plus the shelter offered a certain amount of protection.

We stood back-to-back, blocking and striking in harmony; sometimes it felt like his arms and legs were an extension of me. I could count on him to keep them off me from behind. My daggers became a blur as I cut and thrust, driving the Freaks back. I couldn’t spare any focus to see how Tegan and Pearl fared. I didn’t use any of my flashier moves — no kicks or spins. My goal was to protect Fade’s back. I heard Silk telling me relentlessly, Take them down. Simple and clean is best. Don’t waste energy.

Now that he wasn’t trying to kill me, I admired Stalker’s style. He was incredibly fast, using two small blades strapped to the backs of his hands. Slash, slash, slash. Fighting him, you wouldn’t die of one great wound, but instead bleed out slowly, surprised to find yourself weak and dying after a thousand cuts.

The Freaks dropped back after the first wave fell. They studied us with their red eyes, as if assessing for weakness. Beneath my feet, the floor flowed with blood. We’d lost three of Stalker’s Wolves, and I didn’t see Pearl anywhere. Tegan was hiding — smart girl. This wasn’t like knocking cubs unconscious.

“What are those things?” Stalker asked.

That answered my question as to whether they’d seen them before. “We called them Freaks underground. I’ve also heard them called Eaters. I don’t know what they are. I do know they’re hungry.”

His pale eyes widened as the Freaks decided to make another run at us. But he had no chance to ask further questions as the fight began anew. We’d taken ten of their number at a cost of three. The Freaks seemed to think math favored them — those who survived would feast on the dead — and I wasn’t sure they were wrong about the odds.

But Stalker and his sole remaining Wolf went back-to-back like Fade and me. They didn’t have our rapport or our rhythm, but they made up for it in desperation and ferocity. I slashed open a Freak’s jugular and blocked with my left hand. But I was slow. It sank its teeth into my arm. I screamed and slammed a dagger into its eye. The pop and squelch turned my stomach every bit as much as the smell.

And Fade went feral. He broke formation, fighting as he’d done in the tournament; it seemed so long ago now. His hands and feet were a blur as he demolished the one trying to eat me. When all enemies stilled, red spattered him from head to toe and he was shaking.

The last Wolf had taken grievous wounds. He bled from four different bites and had a painful claw wound across his chest. I couldn’t tell if Stalker was hurt. Like Fade, he had too much blood on him for me to be sure if any belonged to him. He stared at me with his odd, light eyes, wearing an unreadable expression.

So help me, I thought, if he tries to fight us now …

“Are there more of those?”

“A lot more,” I said. “Underground. I guess they found a way out.”

Part of me feared they’d broken through to the Burrowers and discovered those subtunnels with the holes that led up the surface. Jengu might be dead, and there was nothing I could do about it. The whole enclave might be dead by now. I feared for Stone and Thimble; maybe the underground tribes were no more. Quickly I put those worries aside.

“We need to move,” Fade said. “If I know anything about those things, there will be more. They’ll smell the blood and come, looking to eat.”

Stalker gazed down at his fallen and shook his head as if apologizing for leaving them to become Freak food. I doubted they minded, now. The strong survive, and the dead are past saving.

“Tegan,” I called. “Let’s go.”

She crawled out from under a table nearby, shaking from head to toe. “That was … the way you…”

“I grew up learning how to fight them,” I said simply.

There was no reason for her to be ashamed of her fear. I was afraid of the sky and the sun, after all, and those things probably wouldn’t hurt me. Not like the Freaks, though I was less than convinced the sun served any benevolent purpose.

“Where’s Pearl?” Fade asked.

She’d called him Semyon. It sounded exotic to my ears, a hint of a past I would never share. I tried not to mind when he went looking for her. He’d chosen to stay with me when he could’ve remained in peace and comfort. A choked sound echoed, and I went to find him.

Fade stood over the body of a Freak. Pearl lay partly chewed between the shelves. She’d tried to run and had drawn the attention of a hungry monster. While the rest of us battled and talked, it had been eating her, quietly. These really were smarter than the rest. If it had been clever enough to slip away before we finished fighting, we never would’ve caught the thing.

“Come on,” I said. “You can’t help her now.”

“She died because she let us look at her dad’s maps.”

That was true. We’d led Stalker to her door, and once we left, he had forced entry and taken her. So I had no words of comfort to offer.

We rejoined the others. I had no fears for Tegan anymore. Stalker had his hands full trying to get his lone Wolf out of the library before more Freaks showed up. Regardless of Fade’s sadness, that had to be our priority too.

“The city’s going to be overrun,” I said quietly. “As more Freaks find the way out, they’ll go looking for food.”

“It’s time to go,” Tegan agreed.

I skirted the pile of bodies and still left a bloody trail of footprints as I headed for the door. She followed and after a few seconds, Fade got moving. Stalker caught up with us halfway down, more or less dragging his man.

“Go where?” he asked.

I didn’t want to tell him, but he had helped us against the Freaks. “North. It’s supposed to be better outside the ruins.”

“Who says?”

“My dad,” Fade said quietly.

“Was he some kind of holocaust expert?” Stalker’s tone was mocking.

Fade shrugged. “He had a lot of books.”

I wasn’t about to let this disintegrate into an argument on the steps. We had a long way to go and no real idea where we were heading. “Which way is north?”

He tinkered with his watch and then pointed. “That way.”

“Then let’s walk until the sun comes up. Let the light mark our rest breaks.” Stalker and his Wolf didn’t need to know my fears.

Fade gave me a knowing glance but he nodded. “Moving.”

“We’re coming with you,” Stalker said.

Tegan froze. “No. If you try, I swear I’ll kill you in your sleep.”

“What about your cubs?” I asked.

“They might be meat by now. If those things are swarming, then I can’t help them by getting myself eaten on the way back.”

“But why do you want to come with us?” Tegan demanded. “Just a little while ago, you wanted us dead!”

“Wanted. Not anymore. Those two”—he jerked his head at Fade and me—“seem to know how to fight these things. That means I need to stick with them if I want to survive.” Then he fixed a pale gaze on her again. “I don’t care what you do. You’re useless to me.”

Silk would find his attitude commendable. He embodied the Hunter tenet: “The strong survive.” Part of me hated him for what he’d let the other Wolves do to Tegan, but the Huntress half of me wondered why she hadn’t fought until she died. And I admired his ruthless skill with those blades that seemed an extension of his hands.

I glanced at Fade. “It’s up to you.”

“We can use another fighter,” he said. “It’s likely to be a tough journey.” He glanced at the Wolf. “But I’m not sure he’s going to make it.”

He didn’t state the obvious — that the bleeding wounds would draw more Freaks. If they could smell warm meat down in the stench of the tunnels, it would be like an invitation on the clean, crisp wind. I waited to see how Stalker replied, interested in how deep his pragmatism ran. He was ready to abandon his cubs. Would he leave his Wolf?

The question became unimportant when the boy in Stalker’s arms gasped for breath. Blood bubbled up. We laid him down on the steps and when I peeled back his ragged shirt, I saw the wound was much worse than we’d originally thought. As a brat, I’d tended gut wounds in Hunters because nobody else wanted to, and they always died. Sometimes it took a long time but there was no coming back from the kind of damage I saw. The claws had torn into his belly, scrambling the flesh. Stalker whispered to him, and the boy gave a jerky nod. He ended things for him, and then we left him.

We walked along the dead streets in silence. None of us had the energy to do more. The vast wreckage around us weighed on me, as if I could hear echoes down the years from a time when these ruins were live and vibrant. Instead, there were only our footsteps, echoing in the dark.

Tegan hunched her shoulders, tension in the lines of her body. From the way she kept stealing glances, she seemed upset with Fade’s decision. I suspected she would follow through on her threat to kill Stalker in his sleep. Or try, at least. I didn’t think he would prove an easy target, even then. If he had fought his way to the top of the Wolves, then he qualified as strong.

As we walked, I kept my eyes down. I ignored the throbbing of my arm and the weight of the dark sky above. Sometimes I stole a look and the scope of it overwhelmed me. Fade had told me about the pricks of light above; he didn’t know what they were, exactly. I imagined they were torches from a city built on high. It would take a bird to reach it, so maybe the people who lived up there had wings. They would be pale and beautiful with ivory feathers and starry hair.

We passed a dark pond with still water, where rainwater had pooled in the broken rock. It smelled stale, but I used it to wash the blood off. The others followed suit. Afterward, the chill made me draw my head covering up. Then we walked on until light showed on the far edge of the sky. It began in a gray that softened to pink and then gold. Before the sun came up fully, I could admit it was beautiful, the way it tinted the buildings and softened their ruined lines.

This far north, I saw no ganger markings. Stalker noticed it as well. “We learned how to survive close to home. We never went beyond our territories.”

“Unless you were raiding for Breeders,” Tegan said bitterly.

Stalker shrugged, as though her opinion didn’t matter to him. I understood, I thought. He could respect Fade and me because we’d fought. Because she hadn’t, Tegan might never gain full value in his eyes.

“Even then, we never came this far,” Stalker said.

“Let’s look for another shop,” I said. “Maybe we can find more tinned food and water. I’d rather not build a fire before we leave the ruins.”

The others agreed, so as we went on, the light starting to hurt me, we scouted for a likely place to rest.

Respite

Stopping at three different shops provided us with enough food for a few days, but we didn’t like the way the places smelled. For me, it was more of a danger sense, cultivated during my days as a Huntress. So we kept moving, even through the daylight. By the time we found a building that looked solid and secure, apart from the broken window we crawled through, I was exhausted, and my skin tingled unpleasantly. I went inside first, and Stalker followed.

“You’re red,” he told me. “Haven’t you ever seen the sun before?”

His attention didn’t bother me. I had already proved I could defend myself.

“Not that much. I told you, I’m from an underground tribe.” I used Tegan’s word for us. “College enclave,” I added, as if it would mean anything to him.

“You were serious?”

“Yes.”

Tegan and Fade slid in. He came in first and helped her through. We stood in a hallway illuminated by rays of light that swam with dust. The floors were intriguing, a mix of green and white. I studied the pattern as if it held some clue about this place. It seemed almost like a hidden pathway.

Fade said, “We should split up and scout the place. I’ll take Tegan.”

Maybe he knew she wouldn’t want to go off alone with Stalker whereas I could hold my own, even against his lightning blades. I moved out. The sign on the outside of the building had a number of missing letters, but I’d recognized the word “School.” That was where brats went to learn. We’d had school underground too. The idea of a building this size devoted to teaching brats astonished me.

He fell into step with me, still thinking about what I’d said about coming from underground. “What was it like down there?”

“Dark. Smoky. There wasn’t space like there is up here, so you got used to less. And I grew up knowing there were Freaks out in the tunnels, and that if I was brave enough and strong enough, I’d go out to fight them for the rest of the enclave.”

“And did you?” he asked.

“For a while.” I didn’t want to talk about the exile, but I just knew he was going to ask.

Sure enough, he did. “So how did you wind up here?”

“Bad luck.”

That sent the message clear enough. He subsided and took to searching the rooms across from the ones I picked. In silence, we patrolled the rest of the place. It was big with three levels, and lots of little spaces full of tiny tables and tiny chairs. They really had made this school just for the brats. In each room, there was only one big table and one big chair. Awed, I stepped in and saw a black wall with white dust on it. I could nearly make the faint impression of letters, but time had been too much. It was like almost glimpsing something in my own reflection that I wasn’t meant to see. I touched my fingers to it and drew the first letter of my name. I didn’t know how to spell the rest.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“A D.”

We moved on. Stalker moved different than Fade, less caution, more aggression. If there was anything in here, he meant to kill it before it threatened us. I found the contrast interesting, but he was still thorough and watchful.

“Seems safe enough,” he said, once we’d walked our assigned levels.

I had to agree. There was nothing here but the signs of rats and birds, nothing larger or scarier. We passed into what I recognized as a kitchen from the pans, more than anything else. Copper had used similar objects for cooking down below.

Here, I found enormous tins of food. I’d never seen anything like it. “Too bad we can’t carry these,” I said. “We could eat for months.”

“We should save the smaller ones for travel. Eat some of this stuff now.”

“‘Creamed corn,’” I read aloud.

His pale eyes flickered. “How do you know that?”

“I can read, some. Not as well as Fade.”

Stalker stared at me, and then he asked, “What does that mean?”

How could he not know? And then I remembered how he’d come up, no Breeders to teach him anything at all. The only things he knew, he’d learned the hard way. Nobody like Stone had shown him anything or made sure he showed up for basic brat training. It was a wonder he could talk, let alone read.

“The letters here,” I pointed. “They spell out what’s inside the tin. I don’t know what ‘corn’ is, but I’m hungry enough to eat almost anything.”

I got out my tiny knife with all its funny blades. One of them punctured the tin, so I did it repeatedly, until I could pry the top off. I peered inside at the yellow goo. Stalker cocked his head and sniffed.

“Doesn’t smell bad.”

My fingers were clean enough from the pond that I dipped them in and tasted. Sweet. Not like the cherries, in a different way, but good. Following my example, he gave it a try too. I ate until I didn’t want anymore and then got out some of the bottled water we’d found. So far I hadn’t tried drinking it; I’d only washed off in it. But we didn’t have any choice now. I cracked the bottle open and took a drink. It tasted funny, but not dirty. I made myself down half of it, then I offered it to him.

“It’s not very good, but I think it’s clean.”

He took it, leveling a strange look on me. I realized he wasn’t used to the idea of sharing. What he wanted, he took. But it didn’t work like that, now. And he had to understand that.

I narrowed my eyes. “You realize, you’re not in charge. You never will be. Fade thinks your blades will come in handy on the trip and he’s probably right. But if you try to hurt any one of us, especially Tegan, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

His pale eyes narrowed, drawing up his scarred cheeks. “Don’t threaten me.”

“It’s not a threat,” Fade said, coming up behind me. “It’s the truth.”

Tegan growled low in her throat. “He can’t change. We should just kill him.”

“There’s been enough killing.” Fade put a hand on her arm. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on him. He won’t hurt you.”

Part of me didn’t like the new additions to our group. I missed when it was just Fade and me against the world, even as I acknowledged we needed the help. There was no telling how far we had to go. He hadn’t found any maps in the library, showing us the route. We only had his dad’s stories and the hope we might get out of these ruins if we walked far enough. Right now it seemed impossible.

We lived in a dead world. The idea if we went far enough, we might find living people, who had fires and homes and food to eat — I might as well wish for those pale, lovely winged people to come down from the stars and take us there, as long as I was hoping for things beyond my reach. But giving up wasn’t an option either. I’d put my faith in Fade’s sire, and the fact that his stories must be true.

“Have some creamed corn.” I passed the huge tin to her, and she smelled it, much as Stalker had done. It would doubtless make her mad to find out she had anything in common with him. “It’s better than it looks.”

If the water had been bad, I would know soon. Stomach pains, coupled with quick eruption, marked the dirty disease. So far, so good. I missed proper baths with soap, but the clumsy cleanup at the pond would have to do. All things considered, it was a small complaint.

Shouldering my bag, I found a dark corner and rolled up in my blanket. Tegan lay down on my other side; she still had my club, I noticed. She kept one hand on it even as she fell asleep. Fade put his body between Stalker and us. He didn’t seem to care.

No harm came to us while we slept. I woke first, roused by the noise Tegan was making in her sleep. I put my hand on her shoulder and she came up swinging. She landed a solid punch to my face before she realized who I was. I rubbed my cheek and smiled at her.

“That’ll teach me to wake you up.”

“Sorry.”

“Sounded like you were having a bad dream.”

Her gaze cut over to Stalker. “You could say that.”

“About him?”

“Well. No. But about what he let his Wolves do to me.”

“I thought you said he took all females first.”

“Not if someone else brought the girl in. He had the right to claim anyone he wanted, but he was usually generous.” Her anger sizzled. “He made an exception to that rule when you showed up.”

“You blame him for not helping you.”

“Of course I do! He was in charge — they listened to him. If he’d asked them to stop or leave me alone, they would have.”

“Can you fight?” Stalker demanded from the other side of Fade. I hadn’t realized he was awake, but she wasn’t being quiet, either. “Hunt? Can you make clothes or any other useful item?”

Tegan glared at him. “No!”

“Then as far as I can see, you’re only good for breeding. My job was to keep the cubs together. Keep them hunting as a pack,” Stalker said. He sat up and ran a hand through his fair hair. Like Pearl’s it shone brighter when the sun hit it, and it stood in unruly spikes. “I did that. Better than anybody had before.”

“And then you left them to die, because you were afraid to go back alone.”

Stalker lunged for her then, but Fade slammed up an arm and gave him a shake. “Shut up, both of you.”

I listened for signs there might be something coming for us. But I heard only the moan of the wind through the halls. After pushing to my feet, I put away my blanket and took up my pack.

“This can go only one way,” I said. “The two of you have to forget what came before.” At Tegan’s black scowl, I held up a hand. “If you don’t, we won’t make it. You think it’s easy for me? I could be safe and warm right now in my own pallet in my own space with nothing more to worry about than following orders.

“Instead I’m here, where day by day, I don’t know if I’ll have food to eat or a place to sleep, if I’ll wake up with something trying to kill me. It’s hard. And it will get harder, the farther we get from known territory. We have no idea what’s out there. None. And either you’re ready to start over … or you’re not. No more of this. If I didn’t let go of what I’ve lost, I’d go crazy. I suggest you two do the same.”

Angrily, I unfastened my shirt. I slipped my arm free of the sleeve and studied the bite. I should have tended it last night, but I’d just been so tired. The skin was purple around the wound, and the flesh was ragged and puffy. I couldn’t tell how bad it might get. I dumped some water on it, smeared it off and then dug in my bag looking for the salve. It smelled no better than when Banner first gave it to me, still sticky and awful, and it burned like fire as it sank into my skin. I hissed, my eyes watering, and unaccountably, longing for home swept over me.

The Freaks might’ve taken College by now, if they’d refused to listen to our warnings. I’d never know what became of Stone and Thimble, and the uncertainty ate at me like the ointment on my wound. I didn’t bother to wrap it, just pulled my sleeve back up. It hurt for a good long while, reminding me of Bonesaw’s treatments. As Silk used to say, What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. The Wordkeeper had a book of sayings like that, written by one man, a really wise one, I guess. I couldn’t remember his name.

Sighing, I ate some more of the creamed corn and opened another tin. It smelled like meat, chopped up, with some other stuff in it. With a mental shrug, I ate some of that too. I drank some water and then passed the bottle around. The others were packing their things when I headed out of the kitchen toward the doors.

Darkness fell over me like a balm, cool wind carrying the hint of rain. I hoped it would hold off. I hadn’t enjoyed our first night aboveground with the water lashing my skin in stinging needles. I felt a little warm still and my face hurt, not just from Tegan’s punch. That would definitely bruise, though; she had a good solid swing.

Stalker caught up with me on the stairs. The shadows made him less fearsome, softening the scars and the paint. I noticed that hadn’t worn off, despite washing, which intrigued me.

“I will if she will,” he said.

“What?”

“Start over. I did what I had to with the Wolves. But things are different now. And I can accept that. I understand I’m not in charge.”

I considered his words. In that way he was like me; he could flow as needed in order to survive. It was different from brute force, but I recognized it as strength.

“Nobody is, really. We have to work together.”

He nodded and moved on, apparently considering the subject closed. “What do your scars mean?”

At first I didn’t know how he’d seen them and then I realized. He must’ve watched me taking care of my arm. “They mean I used to be a Huntress.” At his look, I added, “Remember how I said if I was strong enough or brave enough, I’d fight the Freaks for the rest of the enclave?” He nodded. “That’s what they mean.”

“So they’re a sign you protect people,” he said. “Fade has them too.”

“He has more marks now.” I spoke the words without accusation. Since I’d asked them to do it, I had to let the past go too.

“I guess he does.”

I surprised myself by asking, “What do yours mean? And the paint?”

“It’s not paint,” he said. “It’s ink.”

“Like they used in books?” My brow furrowed.

“Kind of. We do it with needles along the line of the scar. It marks our rank.”

I had been right about that much at least. “Did it hurt?”

“Yes. Did yours?”

I wasn’t about to tell him that I’d cried when they put the white-hot blade to my skin. But I admitted, “A lot.”

Before he could answer, the others joined us.

Fade cast a glance between us, as if wondering what we’d been talking about, but otherwise he was all business. “We should find the river again, and follow it north as long as we can. We’ll need the water to boil and drink. There should be fish too, and we can hunt along the way when the tins run out.”

That sounded like a good plan. I tugged the extra fabric up over my head as the wind kicked up. It carried a whisper of water, spattering us. The chill intensified. Though the days were warm, the nights were cold.

“Before we leave the ruins, we should look for warmer clothes,” Tegan said.

I agreed. “I’m sure we’ll pass more shops.”

Fade hadn’t talked to me much since yesterday. He was taking Pearl’s death hard, much as he had Banner’s. It made me angry. He didn’t understand the tenet: “The dead are past saving.” You could miss someone, but it did no good to fixate on loss. I wished I had the ready words of a Breeder or the ability to comfort with a soft touch. I didn’t. Instead I had daggers and determination.

That would have to do.

Trek

We traveled north along the river.

The ruins went on much farther than I could have ever imagined. They encompassed an incredible amount of territory. I could barely believe people once filled all that space. We stayed ahead of the Freaks, if there were any nearby. I watched for signs and sniffed the air, but the farther north we went, the less I saw any hint of habitation, human or otherwise.

At first, we set a good pace because we had some supplies left from the ruins. Once those ran out, the trip slowed because we had to find food, and boil water in the evenings to make sure we had some to drink the next day. Once we passed out of the ruins, we went longer without seeing any relics of days past. We still saw no indication anyone had survived the plague, other than the underground tribes and the gangers.

We had been walking for eight days when Stalker and Tegan complained about our hours. It was the first time they’d agreed on anything, though they were careful to keep the animosity silent and simmering. Neither of them let their past color our journey outwardly.

Stalker brought it up. “We can stop traveling at night. It’s getting colder, and there’s nothing much out here to avoid.”

Apart from wild animals, I had to agree with him.

Tegan seconded. “I’d like to see the sun again.”

Fade looked thoughtful. “We’d have to lay off travel for a day. Stay awake and gather supplies so we can shift to sleeping at night.”

“It’s not like we’re going to be late.” Tegan grinned at him.

I nodded. “It’s fine.”

Everyone had to make sacrifices, so it was my turn. But part of me couldn’t help but fear what would happen. The sun was going to burn me to a cinder.

“Your skin will get used to it,” Fade said softly. “Just stay covered up as much as you can during the adjustment period.”

“Good thing it’s cold anyway.”

We’d picked up warmer clothing on the way out of the ruins, but it had been harder than I’d expected. Bugs had chewed a lot of fabric and mold and mildew had gotten a lot too. The slick fabric I wore now was the most resistant, so we’d started looking for heavier clothing made of the same stuff. Layers made sense, so we were all bundled against the bitter wind.

It was nearly dawn now, the first fingers of light tapping at the sky, and we needed to find a place to rest. Fade didn’t like going too far from the river, so I scanned in both directions. I had the best eyesight in the dark, which balanced against the fact that the light hurt my eyes even through the glasses we’d scavenged. Stalker had the best day vision, by far, so once we started walking during the day, he would lead and scout for danger. I didn’t know how I felt about that.

“I see something over there. Might be a building,” I said.

“Can you tell how far?” Tegan asked.

I could tell by her posture that she was ready to drop. Of us all, she was least suited for a long trek like this. She wasn’t strong; her life with the Wolves had prepared her to do one thing — and it wasn’t walk all day long.

I shrugged. “Fifteen minutes, maybe? Can you do it?”

Otherwise, we had the prospect of rolling up in our blankets on the cold grass again. I didn’t know about anyone else, but I could do with shelter, particularly if we had to stay awake through the day. Stalker and Fade nodded; they could do fifteen more minutes, no problem.

I set off in front because at this distance, nobody else could see what I saw. We’d walked half of that time before Fade said, “I see it.”

As the sky lightened, the lines of the building came clear. Built of rough, irregular stones, it was very old, maybe the oldest thing we’d come across in our trek, but it had four walls and a roof. That was good enough for me.

The door had warped away from the frame, so it stood open as if in invitation. I shivered as the wind cut through my clothing. Inside, it was a little damp, and none too clean. Relics of days past gathered dust, and cobwebs trailed in the corners. Even with the dawn coming, there was no banishing the desolation from this place.

Broken furniture lay in piles in the first room, like someone had fought — and lost — here. It wasn’t a big place, just four spaces. I recognized the kitchen from the basin and the rickety table. The chairs’ legs had rotted away, built of lesser wood, and they lay tilted on their sides. There was an indoor waste closet and a room for sleeping, I thought, based on the lumpy pallet that had sunk into its wooden shelf.

In the waste closet, I pulled a handle down and was shocked that the stool responded with a gurgle of water. I pushed another lever, and the basin spat water at me too. I squeaked in surprise. How was that possible?

Fade came to the door with an inquiring look. “Everything all right?”

“Look at this.” I showed him what I’d found.

His expression reflected the same wonder I felt. On the far wall lay a bigger basin, one large enough to hold a person. He turned the lever there and more water spat out. It was a little brown at first, but then it ran clean, cold, but clean.

“If we boil a little water, we can add it to this and take a warm bath,” he said.

It sounded like the best thing ever, better even than the prospect of being warm and dry for the first time in days. The first part of the day, we spent cleaning, and then we dragged all the dry wood into the fire pit in the main room. With a little help from Fade’s lighter, we got a nice blaze going.

Indoors, the light didn’t bother me as much, though I still wore my glasses. The pit actually had a metal device that looked suitable for hanging pots. I was eager to test the idea that we could bathe in the waste closet, so I filled a pan with water and heated it. I used about three of those along with a judicious amount of cold from the spout. Under the basin, I discovered what appeared to be soap. It crumbled when I opened the paper, but it lathered when I stepped into the water and dunked it.

I only had a little water to stand in, but it worked, far better than the cold, quick washes we’d been doing in the river. Afterward, I washed my clothes in the water and rinsed them in more cold. I put on the one outfit I had left from the enclave and tried not to think about how I’d feel when it wore out too.

After I succeeded in getting clean, Tegan took the next turn. We were all filthy, after mucking out this place on top of all the days of hiking. But the fire felt fantastic as I settled down in front of it. I was tired and hungry still, but at least I was warm. I beat some of the dry dirt off my blanket, wrapped up in the clean side, and tried to comb some of the tangles out of my hair with my fingers.

A bit later, Stalker pushed through the front door on a cold wind. He let in both chill and brightness, an interesting contrast, I thought. In one hand, he carried a bloody something. On closer inspection I saw it was a bird. In the other, he held a furry animal.

“You may want to clean and gut those outside,” I said. “I’ll cook them if you do.”

I’d watched Copper do it a hundred times. We had a fire, how hard could it be?

He raised a brow. “You’re welcome.”

“Thanks.”

But he was already going back out. He pulled the door as far closed as he could, but it didn’t shut all the way, even when you applied force. Stalker was quick with a knife, I’d give him that. Before too much longer, he came back in with the flesh skinned from the bone and pierced on sticks. That looked like a good idea.

He sat down beside me and kept one of them. We roasted the meat companionably. Watching him, I turned mine often to prevent it from burning. Pretty soon, the room smelled so good my mouth watered.

Fade came in shortly with more meat, animals I’d never seen before. They had funny back legs and long ears. I pointed at the door.

“No blood and guts in the house.” It was an absolute rule.

He stood in the doorway, watching us for a moment while the wind swept through in a low moan. I couldn’t read his expression. Then he went back outside.

By the time Tegan finished in the waste closet, we had more hot water for the next person. She took Stalker’s place holding our food while he went to clean up. Once everyone had bathed, the meat was done; cutting it into smaller chunks helped with the speed of the cooking. Burning my fingers, I snatched a piece and blew on it until I thought it was safe to eat. It still stung my tongue a little, strong and gamy, but also juicy and delicious. We hadn’t eaten well while we traveled, mostly fish we snagged out of the river.

Everything the guys had brought in, we ate. Maybe we should’ve saved some for later, but I think we were all too hungry to be cautious. Afterward, Tegan went into the kitchen to prowl around. I followed her, curious.

“There’s more food in here!”

I peered over her shoulder and spotted tins like those we’d found in the ruins. She pulled them out while I examined the tins: mixed vegetables, tuna, something called “Spam,” peas, and more creamed corn. All of it was sized to carry too, unlike what we’d found at the school. Divided up, this stuff wouldn’t add significantly to our weight.

It was late afternoon by this time; I could tell by the angle of the light slanting through the dirty windows. My head ached with weariness, but we had to stay awake until dark. Then in the morning, I’d face my enemy the sun.

To occupy our time, Fade read to us from The Day Boy and the Night Girl. We were nearly to the end of the story, and I wanted to know how it ended, if they escaped from the witch, or whether she caught and killed them. Though I would never admit it, I felt their story had some connection to mine. Like Nycteris, I had grown in darkness and feared the light. In my heart I felt if she came to a good end, then I might also.

When dark finally fell, I felt weary enough to sleep without worrying about the future. But when we woke, the world had changed.

Snow

A white blanket lay across everything; it had appeared during the night and only the tiny paw prints dotting the surface gave me any assurance we weren’t completely alone in the world. The sky hung heavy gray, and even the sun seemed dimmed, though it reflected brighter off the ground than it did up above. I pulled the door open, picked up a handful of the stuff, and then dropped it in amazement, rubbing my fingers against the cold. The others looked at me strangely, and I realized I was the only one who had never seen this before.

“What is it?” I asked with some resignation. There was no hiding my ignorance this time. They should be used to it by now.

“Snow,” Tegan answered. “It’s what happens when the rain freezes.”

“It would be death to keep going north in this,” Stalker said. “We’re lucky we found shelter. We have water and food and the prospect of hunting more. This is a good place to wait out the storm.”

“We should have a bit longer until true winter falls,” Fade added.

“Winter.” That was a new word. It sounded cold. I glanced at Fade, whose face was closed and blank. If he wanted to keep going, I didn’t know. These days, I didn’t know much about him. He hadn’t been the same since Pearl’s death.

“The river’s close by for fish too,” I said, and then wondered if they froze to death when it got cold. Maybe there were no fish after the snow fell.

“What do you think?” Fade asked Tegan.

“I don’t want to walk in the snow.”

I glanced around, assessing its potential for comfort. We had no furniture, no rag pallets or so much as a stool or crate. Most of what we’d found, we would have to burn, and once that ran out—

“What can we use once the old wood is gone?”

Stalker went into the kitchen and came back with a tool that looked suitable for hacking things up. It made me uneasy seeing it in his hands. “I can cut more.”

“You should do it before the snow gets any deeper,” Fade said.

Their eyes met and clashed, a quiet dispute, and then Stalker turned with a shrug. “Fine. I’ll be back soon.”

To my surprise, Tegan got to her feet. “I’ll go with you. I can help carry it.”

Maybe she felt like she had something to prove, to herself, if nobody else. I could understand that. She didn’t take a weapon as a point of pride. The club wouldn’t do her any good against Stalker anyway; lack of training would betray her. Still, she had to establish that she didn’t fear him and carve out her place in our group.

They went out together on a cold gust of wind. Afterward, I wedged the door shut as much as I could, digesting the idea that we weren’t going anywhere for a while. I’d lost track of how long it had been since we left the underground, and I was a little surprised we were still alive.

“How long does this last?” I asked Fade, gazing out at the snow.

“Months, sometimes.”

I shivered. “I’m glad we got out of the ruins before it hit.”

“There probably won’t be anything left alive, soon,” he said quietly.

“Underground too?”

He shrugged. “The Freaks took Nassau, and College wouldn’t prepare, so I doubt they’ll fare any better.” The sharp way he said the words, it was almost like he wanted to hurt me.

“Why are you so mad at me?” There was no point in ignoring it. I had hoped he’d get over the sadness or whatever had him acting this way, if I gave him time, but it didn’t seem to be working.

“I’m not.”

I swallowed the urge to call him a liar. “Then who are you mad at?”

“Myself.”

“You feel bad about Pearl,” I guessed.

“She managed to keep safe, after her dad died. I show up — and in one day, I get her killed.”

Much as I wanted to, I couldn’t deny our part in it. At this point, it didn’t matter whether I’d liked her. I’d hardly known her, and in truth, neither did he. He only remembered the brat she used to be.

“Does it help anything for you to feel this way?”

“No. But I can’t seem to stop either.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

He stared at me for such a long time that I grew uneasy. And then he asked, “Are we still partners? I know Silk put us together, but would you choose me now?”

As before, I had the feeling he meant something different with the word. “I don’t trust anyone like I do you.”

By the way his face closed, it wasn’t the response he wanted. I sensed I’d let him down somehow, but he didn’t make it easy. He started poking at the fire, and the question weighed between us in the silence until the other two returned.

Waiting was tough. We divided up the work, marking the days by cutting wood, hunting, cooking, and turning our shelter into a decent nest. In trunks in the sleeping room, we found some fabrics we put to good use making proper rag pallets. I laid them before the fire, grateful for such small touches of home.

Tegan got stronger visibly. This work she handled better than walking all day. As for me, I missed patrolling. It was too cold for that to serve any purpose, though. Anything that might hurt us would get lost in the snow or freeze.

As the days rolled on, game got scarce and we ate canned goods some days. Spam turned out to be a hunk of slimy meat. That gave me pause, but once we sliced it, the stuff smelled and tasted fine. I concluded the goo must be to keep it fresh.

Fade fell deeper into himself, more like he’d been in the enclave before I got to know him. He had stopped reading the book to us, and I didn’t have the heart to ask for the ending when he clearly had lost interest. I picked it up sometimes and touched the pages gently, marveling at its age.

To pass the time, I borrowed Tegan’s letter book — the one her mom had used — and started teaching Stalker to read. He had a good head for learning. In just a few days, he memorized the alphabet, then the words followed swiftly. Sometimes I fell asleep listening to him murmur, “A is for Apple…”

Often I felt Fade’s eyes on me as I sat with Stalker, but I didn’t look up. If he didn’t have the courage to say what was on his mind, I couldn’t help with whatever was bothering him. The other two took to chopping wood during Stalker’s lessons.

Eventually, I had to admit, “I think that’s all I can teach you.”

Fade could probably do more but he wasn’t likely to offer to spend extra time with Stalker. He closed the book, stowed it, and stood. “Maybe I can return the favor.”

“How?”

“Come on.”

He led the way into the sleeping room, which was totally empty now. We’d burned or tossed out everything the former residents had left behind. That left us a good-sized space, though cold, compared with the front room.

“What are we doing?” I was no longer afraid of him. Whatever he had been in the ruins, he had sworn to start over clean, and so far, he was keeping his word. That was good enough for me. If anyone understood not wanting to be judged for past actions, I did. I’d always be haunted by the way I’d let them kill the blind brat, wrapped in fearful silence as the guards took him away.

“I thought I’d show you some moves. You’re good, but predictable.”

I brightened. It had been ages since I did any training, and sitting around would make me soft. “Don’t use your blades. I’m not fast enough.”

“I won’t,” he said. “Just hands and feet.”

We practiced for a while, but I just couldn’t get it. I was rusty and slow, and it made me angry. Some Huntress. He came around behind me to show me how to position my arms for the strike. My hands arced downward. Holding my daggers at the right angle, I’d slice a nice strip of someone’s chest.

“What’re you doing?” Fade asked from the doorway.

I turned. “Training. Want to go a round?”

He shook his head and slipped away.

That soon became our custom, and my fighting improved as I faced off against Stalker. Training made me feel better about our chances. I’d spent my life training to protect people; I couldn’t just stop.

After one particularly tough bout, I sat panting, elbows on my knees. As I glanced up, I caught Stalker smiling at me. It was such a break from his usual expression, I tilted my head with a questioning look.

“You’re good,” he said. “Truly good, dove. I like fighting you.”

The way he said fighting, it seemed to hold another layer. I raised a brow. “Dove?”

“It’s a bird.”

I pulled my knees up to my chest as he sat down beside me. “And why did you call me that?”

Stalker leaned back, resting on his arms. The room was cold, so his breath puffed out, curling before him. “I’d see them in the city, nesting in the broken buildings. They were small and fragile looking with their gray wings, but they could fly up where none of the other animals could hurt them.”

“Not even a Wolf,” I said softly.

I got the comparison. Though I looked weak, I had unexpected defenses. I couldn’t mind being likened to a creature that soared so beautifully on the wind. I decided I wouldn’t object to the nickname.

By the time the thaw came, we were all ready to move on. The little building had provided us shelter, and we were grateful. It was also small for the four of us when we had to stay near the fire pit for warmth.

The break had also given me a chance to get used to the sun without such burning heat. Now I felt ready to face it; I was used to staying awake during the day at least.

The morning we left, I took a long look at the place. We’d made it cozy and habitable, but unless we wanted to stay here, just the four of us, for the rest of our lives, we had to move on while the weather allowed. Since Fade didn’t know how far we had to go, we might need a long time to get there.

The ground was wet beneath my feet, and everything smelled fresh and clean. A little bite lingered in the air, but through my layers of clothing, I hardly noticed. We set out early and cut back toward the river. It shone silver in the distance with tall trees beside it. I had spent a good portion of the winter months asking the names of things I didn’t know, and they were all patient with me.

Now I could identify just about everything my eyes touched on as we walked. It would be hard traveling, but we could eat some of the plants, Tegan said. Fish leaped in the water, rippling the surface in telltale rings. Things could be worse.

We had been walking for five days, and that made our sixth, when the trees came into view around a turn in the river. I had seen a few here and there, but these lived in a village of their own. They clustered tight, throwing deep shadows across ground littered with fallen limbs and leaves. It gave off a rich, earthy smell, but better than dirt, and more rare.

I listened, enchanted, to the bird song. Bright flutters of color in red and blue among the green leaves made me cant my head in hope of seeing them fly free, burst upward, and soar on the wind. They didn’t oblige me, but continued to sing from the branches. Other sounds lay over the top of the rushing river, chatter of animals and scrabbling claws. I had never heard anything so lovely.

“We’ll find rabbits here,” Fade said.

Thanks to constant review of the letter book with Stalker, I knew R was for rabbit, and the picture matched the animals we set snares for, more or less. I nodded. “Should we do a little hunting along the way?”

“Let’s. Meet back here when you’re done. Come on, Tegan.” She gave me a puzzled glance as Fade strode deeper into the woods.

He had been doing that more and more lately, choosing her company over mine. At first, I thought it was because he didn’t want her to be alone with Stalker, but we’d been together for a while. If she still feared him, there was no hope for her.

“Let’s go get some meat for the pot, dove.” Stalker angled in the opposite direction, still into the trees, but away from the path Fade had chosen.

Blissful coolness spread over my skin as I entered the green-cast shade. Everything hushed as if the trees filtered sound as well as light. I could hear my footsteps, though I prided myself on my stealth. But maybe that only applied underground. Out here, I cracked every branch I stepped on.

As we went, Stalker laid his portion of the snares we’d made from stuff we found back at the old building. Then he led me away because the rabbits wouldn’t come running past if they smelled us close by. I didn’t mind this part of hunting; it was similar to what we’d done in the tunnels, only we hadn’t been catching rabbits.

He held up a hand when he thought we’d come far enough. I stood quiet, waiting for him to explain why I had to be silent. And then he stepped into my space, pushed me flat against a tree, and put his mouth on mine. He didn’t do it like Fade. His lips moved more and he pressed into me. I didn’t know how I felt about it, so I shoved him back.

“I thought you wanted me to.”

“Why?” I demanded.

“You taught me to read. And we spent all that time together training. I thought you knew it was an excuse to be close to you.”

I thought of all the times he’d stood behind me, his head near mine, hands on mine as he positioned my body, and I understood. But for me, it had been practice. I had missed any other meaning in it. When I thought of him, I admired his speed with the blades and the power of his scars. I didn’t know what else there might be. I’d never even considered it. He was my companion, like Tegan, but not like Fade. Nobody would ever be like Fade. That much, I knew.

“Why me? Why not Tegan?”

“I think Fade wants her,” he said with a shrug.

The words cut into me. Was that the reason he sought her out so often? Not just protecting her from Stalker. Maybe it was more.

He went on, “And even if he doesn’t, she’s just a Breeder. She doesn’t have anything else to offer. You, you’re like me.”

I didn’t know if that was true, or whether I wanted it to be. “You mean a Hunter?”

“Yes. You’re strong.”

My marks said I was anyway. Some I’d received on my naming day, and others I’d received in battle, as a true Huntress would. Someday I might even have people to protect again, if this journey ever ended.

I reached up, tentative, and touched my fingertips to his scars. Almost since I first saw him, I’d been curious. From the texture of his skin, they hadn’t used a hot blade to seal them. They had tasked him to heal them on his own. In its way, this was a kind of strength too.

“You don’t mind?”

His eyes closed. “I never let anybody do that before.”

“Why not?”

“It would look like weakness.”

That was a very Hunter thing to say. I understood that from the inside out, even if we’d grown up in different worlds. If you wanted people to take you seriously, you couldn’t let them think you were soft. You did whatever it took to prove you weren’t.

When I dropped my hand, he caught it and used it to pull me closer. Warmth curled through me when he lifted me up and ran his lips down my jaw to my neck. The feeling shook me, so I put my hands on his shoulders. I intended to shove or kick, something to remind him he couldn’t handle me this way. Instead, I found myself gazing down into his pale eyes. They didn’t look cold to me anymore; instead they shone like the sun on snow. For an instant, I saw Fade in his place, smiling up at me. And the sensation split until I couldn’t decide what I felt.

“We should—”

“Check the traps,” he finished.

Stalker set me on my feet, and I led the way, swirling with confusion. The snares only had one rabbit, but it was enough. So I collected the rest of them and he stowed them in his bag. Tegan and Fade met us in the appointed place with a couple more.

“How’d you do?” Fade asked.

And my cheeks burned as if he could see what we’d been doing. But for all I knew, maybe he had been doing the same with Tegan. Maybe the flush in her cheeks didn’t come from cold. They could’ve been pressed together in the shadow of the trees, whispering secrets. The idea didn’t make me like her less, but I did feel sad and heavy, as if I’d lost something without ever knowing what it was.

Nightmare

Two weeks after we left the little building, we found something worse, worse than the big ruins by far.

The smell hit me first. I lifted my head, scenting, and then the river turned. A faded gray length of poured rock angled into the ruins. Compared with the others, these were small, but raddled with damage. Many had rotted away or crumbled to rubble.

And the place reeked of Freaks. It was the first time since heading north that we’d seen any signs of life. I’d started to wonder whether we were the only ones left. Scary thought. But this frightened me more.

Because it was nearly dark — time when we started looking for a place to rest — I could see them, shambling in the distance. That was their territory; I sensed it in my bones. I wasn’t sure where we might be safe, but I was positive we shouldn’t pass. “Let’s not go through there.”

Fade turned. “You smell it too?”

“We all do,” Tegan muttered. “It’s disgusting.”

Stalker gazed into the distance, one hand shading his eyes. “If we cut east, we can go around it.”

“That’ll take us off course,” Fade said. “But I think we’d better.”

I didn’t say so, but it wasn’t like we had a course. Another path, overgrown with grass, led east. It had been made of that poured rock too, but time and rain had worn it down, so it was mostly broken, more dirt than anything else. It led away from the river, but maybe we could get back to it once we skirted the danger. Unless those ruins had a small human population, the Freaks must be preying on one another. That would make them more desperate and more feral than the ones we’d fought.

Or they could be hunting … like we did. The comparison worried me. I didn’t want to find them like us in any fashion.

“I can’t believe they’re here too,” I said.

“They’re everywhere.” Fade’s voice was grim, his face cast in sharp relief by the rising moon. It silvered the world, making it soft and cool.

A grim thought — everywhere we went, we would be hiding from them, running, or fighting. Maybe we should’ve stayed at the little house by the river. At least there hadn’t been any Freaks in the area, and we’d had food. But we’d all wanted to try to find the place Fade’s sire talked about, where things were better. I was beginning to think it was hopeless.

Coming over the next rise, I froze. There were ten Freaks, and at first they seemed as surprised as we were. Still hideous, still terrible, but they looked healthier than the ones we’d left behind. The Freak hunting party raced toward us; they dropped their kills — animals, as I’d guessed — and snarled in vicious anticipation of bigger, sweeter meat. I whipped out my daggers.

“Get behind us,” I called to Tegan, but she had my club and she took a position beside me with fierce determination.

“I’ve been practicing with Fade,” she said.

There was no place for her to hide here anyway. It hurt a bit when Fade and I didn’t go back-to-back like we used to, but I had other things to worry about. Stalker fell in on my other side, blades in place on his hands. The Freaks surrounded us, no doubt expecting an easy win. They couldn’t be used to prey that fought back.

These weren’t as hungry as others we’d encountered, so they attacked with their claws first, teeth second. I used my elbows to block like Stalker had taught me while going for the quick slashes against their torsos. I didn’t have his speed, but I managed to avoid most of the hits and protect my chest. We each needed to take down two, and then split the difference.

Beside me, Tegan swung wide and hard; I gave her plenty of room. She drove them off while I caught them in the recoil. The world narrowed to the stab and punch, kick and thrust. Blood spattered. I swiped it from my eyes and kept fighting. I had no time to look at anyone else, now. These Freaks weren’t going down as fast as the others.

Kill them, Silk whispered in my head. Kill them all.

My Huntress nature emerged, sharp and clean, like a new knife rising from the hissing steam. These were smart. I saw in their eyes, as they tried to learn my tactics and lunged to test my reflexes. My daggers flashed in the moonlight, blood on silver, and my heart sang with each spin, each press of the attack. I hardly felt the wounds I took. I didn’t know how bad they were. I lost sight of everything until the last Freak fell. Fade killed it with a clean slash of its throat. Beneath the stars, on the grass, it showed dark as the night sky. The gurgling, choking breaths slowed, then stilled.

My breath came in hungry gulps. “Everyone all right?”

“Few cuts,” Stalker said. “Nothing serious.”

Fade smeared some blood off his palms and onto his shirt. “I’m fine.”

I turned to Tegan just as she crumpled. Fade caught her as she hit the ground. She dangled in his arms, pale and wan. Her eyes looked big and scared.

“Where are you hurt?” he demanded.

“Her leg,” I said softly. The fabric of her pants had torn, revealing a long gash on her upper thigh.

With my dagger, I cut the bottom of her pants into strips and Fade tied off the wound. It helped with the bleeding, but she didn’t look good. That won’t heal on its own, I thought. The claws had rent her flesh deep.

The pain of having the slash tended put her out, or maybe it was the sight of her own blood. I’d seen people react that way before. Whatever the reason, she went limp in Fade’s arms.

“Let’s get out of here,” Stalker said.

I paused and glanced at Fade. “Can you carry her?”

A sense of having been here before came over me. I remembered asking him that about the blind brat — and look at how that turned out. His face went tight. “I can. We need to find a place to rest and see if we can do something for her.”

No arguments there. Since I had the best night vision, I set the pace and scouted ahead for more Freak patrols. The farther we got from their ruins, the more I hoped their numbers would be sparse. I couldn’t count on us finding a safe spot to rest soon, though. I had to assume they were all around us. My one comfort — that I’d smell them before I saw them, even with my good sight.

We walked through the night with Fade and Stalker taking turns carrying Tegan. She woke up eventually and asked us to let her walk. I just shook my head and kept moving. I hadn’t been this exhausted in a long time. Living aboveground had made me soft in some ways. As if from a distant dream, I remembered our run to Nassau and how only willpower kept me going. I called on it now to keep moving — and I wasn’t even helping with Tegan.

I felt like I had to offer. “If you want me to take a turn with her—”

“We need your eyes,” Fade said. “At least until it gets light.”

“Do you think we’re far enough to stop?” I sniffed the air experimentally and it smelled clean, only the crisp scent I associated with trees and plants, mingled with a hint of musk from some animal that had marked the bark, and a trace of rotting leaves. I also got the tang of blood from Tegan’s wound, so anything hungry in the area would scent her too. Bad situation. The Huntress in me suggested we should leave her behind, too much dead weight. I silenced that voice with an angry clench of my teeth. It wasn’t a choice I could make; maybe I did have part of a Breeder’s heart, and that possibility didn’t shame me anymore.

Stalker answered, “Best to keep going until daybreak, at least.”

Tegan just whimpered and Fade shouldered her again, taking her from Stalker. I didn’t have the watch or any sense of where we were going now, so I simply followed the road and watched ahead for trouble.

Just before dawn, I smelled it.

More Freaks — their rot carried on the wind. I spun in all directions, scanning for them. They came from behind this time, which meant they were tracking us. Worse and worse. Dark words boiled up, full of fear and dread, but I swallowed them and kept my report practical.

“Put her someplace safe. We have another fight coming.”

Fade carried her off toward the trees and laid her down gently. “Stay here. Don’t move. I’ll make sure they don’t go for you, and if they do, I’ll stop them. Understand?”

She nodded, flattened herself against the ground, and went still. Playing dead? It might work as long as we occupied their attention. This time, we had twelve incoming and we were down one fighter. Not that Tegan was great on her best day, but she’d been deft enough at swatting them back. It kept them busy long enough for the rest of us to slice the monsters up.

“Four each,” Stalker said.

I nodded and planted my feet, despite the aching exhaustion that coursed through me. It would have to be daggers this time. Though I could use my club — Tegan didn’t need it — I no longer had the strength or stamina. The odds of winning were steeper this time, and the potential consequences of loss more grave.

As the Freaks charged us, I braced for the first wave. I didn’t expect to survive the fight, but the steel Silk had instilled in me wouldn’t let me roll over. I wheeled and cut one open. Its guts spilled out, slicking the ground. I danced backward, dodging an attack and leaping away from a snarling bite. These Freaks were angry — I saw it in their bloody eyes; they knew we’d killed their kin.

I caught a claw in the side. The pain astonished me, but before the Freak could fully rip into me, I stabbed it through the hand, and it wrenched back, worsening my wound. But not as bad it could’ve been. I still had my guts in place. I ignored the pain and sank my other knife deep into its chest. Punch and pull, as Silk had taught me. The monster fell, but two more took its place.

Tiring, I fell back, slipping in the blood and guts. They came at me from both sides, and I took them with twin downward slashes, just as Stalker had taught me. I had no doubt the extra training saved my life. I turned to see how they were faring, only to watch Stalker and Fade drop the last Freak, cutting into it in unison. They were fierce, beautiful, and oddly complementary, like the moon in the night sky. For a moment, I studied Fade’s darkness and the fair gleam of Stalker’s hair, and I ached.

I covered my injury with one hand as we stumbled toward Tegan’s hiding place. She sat up, her face tight with pain. “Did we make it?”

“Yes,” Fade said. “I don’t think another tracking party can catch up to us.”

I wasn’t so sure, especially now that we were all covered in blood, and two of us wounded. To make matters worse, we all desperately needed a rest, and if we stopped here, now, they’d pounce on us while we slept. But I recognized that Tegan needed reassurance. I let the lie stand, but when Fade’s eyes met mine, I called him on it silently. He lifted his shoulders in a quiet shrug of acknowledgment.

As the sky lightened, I dug in my bag for my sunglasses. I still couldn’t see as well as the others during the daytime; maybe I never would. I’d do my best to compensate with hearing and smell. My bloody fingers left smears on the sidepieces, and my hands trembled as they fell. I pressed the right one to my side again, hoping it wasn’t as bad as it felt. I remembered how the Wolf had died on the steps of the library. I didn’t want a quick and merciful death — what was more, I didn’t want to see how easy it would be for Stalker to do it.

Keep moving, I told myself. Just like the tunnels.

Stalker took the lead this time, and Fade swung Tegan into his arms. I stumbled after him, knowing both of us needed our wounds tended, but there was nothing but this dusty, silent road, leading endlessly into the distance. The fields around it stood empty and quiet, only the lone tree occasionally breaking the rise and fall of the land. It was green and lush and lovely, damp with what Stalker called morning dew, and I wondered if it would be the last dawn we ever saw.

Still, I walked on.

Despair

Stalker found us shelter in the overhang of a ravine. Despite the bandage, Tegan passed out, her skin taking on a pale and sickly sheen. When I checked the wound, I saw she had been bleeding; the fabric was soaked. If we didn’t get it stopped, she would die, no question. Bonesaw would’ve taken a needle and thread to it, but we had none. So I knew of only one thing we could do.

“Get some wood,” I told Stalker. “And build a fire.”

Though he must’ve been exhausted too, he rose and went to do as I asked, gathering the scrubby grasses, leaves, and fallen twigs he could find first, and then he ran off toward a distant tree. Breaking limbs would create a smoky blaze, but it couldn’t be helped.

Fade sat with her quietly, her head in his lap. I recognized in his nature the Hunter instinct; it drove him to be fierce and protective of those weaker than him. Maybe that was why she drew him. She needed that part of him because she had no matching instincts. In that sense Stalker was right; she was a Breeder, but I no longer thought that was a bad thing. If not for them, our world would not go on, even in its limping way.

I scraped one dagger clean as best I could. The flames would do the rest.

“You think this will work?” Fade asked. He knew what I was planning, of course.

“Don’t know. But if we don’t seal that wound—”

“I know.”

Before long, Stalker returned with his arms full of wood. I arranged it and then we started the fire, using the twigs and leaves first, and encouraged the green wood to burn. It caught slowly, but with continual attention it stoked up. The smoke would signal any Freaks in the area to our location, but sometimes you had to make the hard choice.

I cut away the fabric from Tegan’s thigh. “Water.”

Since we’d been traveling along the river until this point, we didn’t have a lot to spare. I used it lightly, wiping away the worst of the blood, so I could see how deep it went, and where the ragged flesh opened up. It was bad, maybe crippling. If she walked again — if she lived—she’d limp far worse than Thimble. I rinsed off my hands as best as I could, and then I coated them with Banner’s salve. I applied that liberally to the injury, then put my dagger blade in the fire. I held it there until it glowed. Stalker watched me in silence. I glanced at Fade.

“Want me to cover her mouth?” he asked.

I nodded. Even if she was out, she still might scream. With one hand, I sealed the edges of the torn skin; with the other, I branded her. It was all we could do. We didn’t even have Bonesaw’s limited supplies.

She did cry out, a terrible wail of pain that ended in Fade’s hand. Tegan bit him hard, fighting to get away, but I didn’t stop until I could see it had worked. I pulled the knife away then, and put it back in the fire to burn it clean. The wound could still get infected; her leg might swell. If she took a fever, well, I’d never seen anyone recover from that down in the tunnels.

My hands shook. I closed my eyes for a long moment and dropped my head back against the rock-and-dirt wall behind me.

“You did your best for her,” Fade said softly. “That’s all we can do.”

Stalker’s expression said he’d just leave her. He wouldn’t have cared much about the brat, either. He embodied the Hunter tenet about strength and survival. Sometimes I admired that about him. Not right now. Tegan was my friend, even if she’d come between Fade and me. It wasn’t her fault he found her softness more appealing.

“I need someone to do me now,” I said, lifting my shirt.

Fade’s breath came in a hiss when he saw what I’d been hiding. I couldn’t actually see where the claws raked me, but by their expressions, it looked ugly. I glanced between the two, waiting to see who would reach for my dagger. It had to be sealed. I ran the same risks as Tegan: infection and fever. Freak claws weren’t clean.

Stalker said, “I will,” and plunged the knife in the fire.

He copied what I had done with our precious water and then applied the ointment. On my raw torn flesh, it burned like nothing ever had before, like fire before the white-hot knife. In a way it prepared me for what came after. I closed my eyes, clenched my teeth, and said, “Do it. Don’t give me any warning.”

He didn’t. The dagger seared me, felt like it cut nearly to the bone, so far past my pain threshold that I bit my lip until it bled. I choked my screams, clinging fiercely to my Huntress mettle. Don’t let them see you weak, Silk ordered me. I taught you better than that. You were my best, Deuce. Don’t you ever forget that.

Now I knew I was dreaming. Silk never said anything like that to me. She didn’t praise; she gave cuffs upside the head, orders and backhanded compliments, like, You might be decent, if you weren’t so stupid.

When I finally opened my eyes, I found myself somewhere else. The fire was gone. Fade was gone. No Stalker, no Tegan. Everything was black and white, like one of the pictures I’d seen in the ancient, yellow papers at the library.

And Silk stood there, waiting.

“You’re not dead,” she said.

She’d always been good at reading my expressions. I half smiled because it was good to see her, even if it meant my mind had finally snapped. She looked the same: small, imperious, and confident.

“But I am,” she went on.

The loss hit me hard. Could it be true? Was the entire enclave gone? If so, I was alone as I never had been. I thought of Thimble, Stone, and Girl26. I remembered Twist and ached to know his ending. I wanted to remember them all — each lost face, every crooked smile and funny gesture.

“Are the Burrowers gone too?” I whispered.

“I don’t know. But you’re the last of us, Deuce. Only you can tell our story.”

“There’s Fade.”

She shook her head. “He was never one of us. He’s a hybrid thing, and still doesn’t like the fit of his own skin, despite my training.”

“He just needs to find his place.”

Silk ignored that, her face quiet and grave. “I came to say good-bye, and to tell you to keep the fire burning.”

“What does that mean?”

I heard Silk again, whispering, Keep the fire burning. I opened my eyes, reaching for her. So much to ask. I grabbed ahold of Fade instead. For a minute, the two realities blurred, the black and white and the too-bright day. Then the dream went away, leaving me with that aching echo.

I’m the last Huntress.

“The enclave is gone,” I said shakily.

“You passed out for a bit,” Stalker said, kneeling beside me. “But I think you’ll be all right. You’re a tough one, dove.”

“Get away from her,” Fade snarled. “And stop calling her that.”

I could feel the tension in his body. He held me in his arms, as if he’d been rocking me. I must’ve scared him when I passed out; such weakness was humiliating.

Stalker didn’t back off. His scars pulled to the side as his mouth curled. “Deuce can make up her own mind.”

Were they going to fight now? I felt far too sick at my stomach to deal with this. I shoved away from Fade; the shift sent a lance of fierce fiery heat through my belly. Concern got the better of both of them; they put aside the quarrel at least.

I decided not to tell either of them I had seen Silk. They probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.

“How’s Tegan?” I demanded.

“You weren’t out long. No change,” Fade reassured me.

A relieved sigh slipped out. Gradually, I eased back against the packed dirt. My stomach burned with a steady heat, but I could bear it. I had to.

“Get more wood for the fire?” I asked Stalker. “We’re going to need it.”

I didn’t explain that request either. Fade pushed to his feet. “I’ll go see about getting a couple of birds for dinner.”

He was wicked quick with a rock. Often he could stun one with a throw and then snap its neck while it lay helpless. After the long day, I had no taste for food — I only wanted to sleep, but I couldn’t leave Tegan unguarded. Maybe I wouldn’t be much protection in my condition, but she was still unconscious.

Before they left, I made sure my knives sat within easy reach. I wasn’t sure I could get up if my life depended on it, but cutting the muscle behind the knee would do a lot of damage and bring the attacker down to my level. I watched the approach through the smoky filter over my eyes; it gave the world a peculiar green haze.

By the time Stalker returned, I felt light-headed. He bent to stoke the fire, and I grabbed his forearms in both hands. “Don’t let that go out. Promise me.”

“I’ll watch it.”

“No, promise me you’ll keep it burning.”

From his expression, he thought the wound had driven me a little crazy. But he said, “I swear. I’ll go back for more wood as often as I have to.”

That was all I needed. Darkness swept me away, deep as a night-kissed river.

When I woke, night had fallen. Tegan thrashed in a feverish sleep, and I felt none too healthy myself. The smell of roasting meat filled the air. That was welcome.

“Feeling better?” Fade asked. “Here.”

He passed me the water bottle, and I could see how little we had left. With the rise of the moon and stars, the air cooled as well. The fire banished some of the chill. I drank a little, taking care with it. There was no telling how far we’d come, or where we would find the next clean water.

“Hungry?” Stalker sliced some meat for me and held it on the tip of his blade until it cooled.

I ate it in two bites and wished for more, but I could see there wasn’t much. “Has Tegan woken?”

Fade shook his head. “Not once. She keeps asking for her mom.”

“We should get moving,” Stalker said, starting to kick dust in the fire to damp it.

“No!” I half pushed to my feet and staggered, astounded at how much I still hurt. I clutched my side, nausea rising. I hoped I wouldn’t lose my food. I needed it.

“You want to stay here through the night?” Fade asked.

Not just through the night. I couldn’t explain my irrational certainty, but Silk had been telling me something, something important, with the fire. We had to stay here and tend it. I just knew if we went roaming off, we were going to die, and nobody would ever hear our story, none of it.

But I couldn’t put my conviction in any terms that made sense, so I just said, “Yes. Maybe she’ll be stronger by morning.”

But she wasn’t.

At dawn, Tegan burned hot as the fire I insisted on tending. I bathed her with the last of the water and tried to get her to drink some. She thrashed and moaned and cried. Tears ran down her cheeks until she didn’t have any left.

Glancing up, I saw the suggestion in Stalker’s eyes. We can spare her this. End it now and move on, before we’re too weak. If I had been going solely on my Huntress instincts, I would’ve agreed with him. But I had more, now.

“Give her until nightfall,” I said softly. “The two of you go see if you can find any water. Get more wood.”

Stalker raised his brows. “You’re obsessed with that fire.”

Yes, I was. Keep the fire burning, Silk had said. It was a promise we would survive, as long as we did. I wouldn’t fail her.

“I’ll go hunting again,” Fade said. “I’ll do better today.”

“Thanks.” Food wasn’t my primary concern today, though. Water and wood, those we couldn’t live without.

Once they had gone, I whispered to her. Little things the Breeders had said to me over the years, and then I read to her from the ABC book. “A is for Apple…”

Sometimes she cried. Sometimes she smiled. Once, she opened her eyes and tried to sit up but she didn’t see me. I pushed her sweaty hair off her forehead and knew the most awful fear — that I’d lose her, before I got to tell her how much she mattered.

“Don’t die,” I said. “You’re my only friend.”

She was different; she didn’t demand anything. There were no confusing layers with Tegan. I could talk to her — and that was all I meant by it, though it might’ve hurt Fade if he heard me. I didn’t care.

Maybe now I knew how Fade had felt about Banner and Pearl. I’d never lost friends like this. I hadn’t seen their bodies. I suspected Thimble and Stone were gone, like the rest of the enclave. He was right; it was different, and I understood him more. I wished I could go back and offer all the little kindnesses and comforts I’d withheld without realizing he needed them.

“Don’t leave,” she whispered.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay with you.”

“I don’t like it when you leave, Mama.” She clutched my arms with weak fingers, but she saw someone else imposed upon my skin. I imagined her mother, sneaking out for food, and leaving Tegan by herself. In the enclave, I’d never been alone.

There were different kinds of strength. I knew that now. It didn’t always come from a knife or a willingness to fight. Sometimes it came from endurance, where the well ran deep and quiet. Sometimes it came from compassion and forgiveness.

The guys were gone a long time, and Tegan finally quieted, but it wasn’t a good rest, like when a fever breaks. It was more that she had exhausted all her energy fighting, and now she would just die.

This time, Fade came back first, bearing several birds and a rabbit. He also had water for us to boil in the pot we’d taken from our winter home. “I found a pond. It was pretty shallow and muddy, but…” He shrugged.

At this point, we couldn’t be picky. Heat would kill most of the bad things in it, but it took time to cool. By that point, Tegan’s lips were dry and cracked. I tipped it down her throat and she swallowed, but I had no hope it was a long-term cure. When I checked her wound, it had started to swell. Oh, no.

Fade’s face went grim, but he set to work on the birds and rabbits, skinning and deboning far enough away that the entrails wouldn’t attract scavengers while we slept.

Later, Stalker returned with an armload of wood. He must’ve ranged farther this time.

He confirmed my guess by saying, “I did a patrol around the area. Seems quiet enough.”

“Good to hear.” We didn’t need more Freaks.

He sat down beside me and touched his fingers to my forehead. “You’re burning up, dove. Have you had anything to drink today?”

“I was saving it for Tegan.”

“Why?” he asked, genuinely puzzled. “She’s not getting better. You might.”

Fade passed me a bottle, now refilled with the lukewarm water. I drank some slowly, conscious of how sore my throat had become. I did feel warm, now that Stalker had pointed it out. I’d assumed it was the proximity to the fire.

“Because she’s one of us,” I said finally. “And I’m tired of giving up.”

Stalker shook his head. “Accepting the inevitable is not like giving up.”

Fade gave a bitter half-smile. “Yes, it is.”

“Well, she can’t walk, and I’m not carrying her this time.”

“I will.” Fade started cooking.

I knew Stalker would want to leave as soon as we’d eaten. With every part of me, I knew we couldn’t. We had to stay here. We had to keep the fire burning. Maybe it was the fever talking. Maybe I hadn’t seen Silk at all.

But I couldn’t believe that, or I’d have to accept Tegan was dying, nothing we could do would save her, and there was nothing better out there. Just more Freaks and empty land and silent despair. Before I realized it, tears streamed down my cheeks.

“The whole world is like Whitewall’s razors,” I burst out. “It cuts us, and we bleed but there’s no purpose to it.”

My fists clenched at my sides as I tried to get myself in hand. A Huntress wouldn’t act like this, I told myself. But this time, it was only my voice in my head, not Silk’s and I felt she had finally left me — that her good-bye had been real. And I wasn’t a Huntress, not truly. I had been exiled, even before my whole tribe died. As I’d thought, so long ago, I was only a girl with six scars.

I did as you asked. It’s not fair. I kept the fire burning.

Fade passed the roasting meat to Stalker, and then for the first time since I didn’t remember when, he sat down beside me. He put his arm around me, and leaned his head against mine, as he’d done so long ago in the tunnels, when we had only darkness and each other. The tears fell harder; I couldn’t will them away.

“We’ll get through this,” he promised, as I had, long ago, when we set off to Nassau with no hope of coming home again.

“Will we?” I asked, glancing at Tegan. “How?”

And then a strange voice, a new voice, called out from the darkness, “Whozere? I seen your smoke. If you’re friendly, I’d appreciate a reply. If not, I’ll be moving on ’fore y’can catch me.”

I gazed up at the column of smoke swirling toward the dark sky, made more visible from the green wood, and I whispered to Silk, Thank you.

Salvation

I scrambled to my feet, biting back a moan of pain, and gazed up, for the voice had most certainly come from above us. For a moment, I saw nothing, which made me fear my fever had gotten worse, and then a shadow sharpened into a man-shape. He was tall, and he was most definitely there, staring down at me. In one hand, he held a lamp, like the one Fade and I had used in the relic room underground, so long ago now.

The man shone the light on us, studying us. Surprise cracked his voice when he said, “You’re naught but young’uns. What’re you doin’ so far from safety?”

I strangled a laugh. In my world, there was no such thing. “We’re lost, and we have an injured girl.”

He eased cautiously forward to verify my claim, and he saw Tegan below. “Well, let’s get moving. We don’t want to linger.”

Using my hands as best I could, I climbed up the slope. It was a fairly steep drop with a good overhang; that was why we’d chosen to stop there. He gave me a hand up. Up close, I could see he was bigger than Fade — and old, but not like Whitewall. This was a different kind of age, a version I’d never seen before. He had sloped shoulders and he wore something on his head, but it didn’t hide the silver hair. I gazed at him in silent amazement.

“You’re a long way off the trade road. D’you hail from Appleton?”

If I hadn’t been mute with shock, I might’ve come up with a sensible reply. I kept my hand pressed to my side and my left on my dagger, just in case. Stalker came up behind me, and he too drew up short. But he had the presence of mind to say, “We came from the city.”

The man raised his brows. “You funnin’ me? Nobody lives in the cities anymore.”

Our savior had granted those words the kind of conviction I’d once offered the elders. But his ideas were no truer than mine had been. His people didn’t know about mine. This wasn’t the time to argue with him, however, or to convince him Stalker spoke the truth.

“Tegan’s pretty bad off,” I got out. “Her leg’s all slashed up.”

“Ran into the Muties, did you? No wonder, out here. I never go anywhere without Old Girl.” He raised a long black thing that I identified as a weapon, even before he made it pump and click. “I’m Karl, but folks call me Longshot.”

“Why?” Stalker asked.

“Because every time I live through a trade run, it’s a long shot. Been doin’ it nigh on twenty years.”

That couldn’t be possible. In the underground tribes, in the ruins, people barely lived that long, let alone held the same job for that amount of time.

“How old are you?” I asked.

I knew the question had to be rude, but his answer was crucial. Because his very existence shattered and remade my picture of the world.

“Forty-two.”

He had to a live in a better place, where people didn’t shrivel up and die so young. With every part of me, I wanted a glimpse of it. Maybe it wasn’t too late for me, despite my years below the earth. Maybe it wasn’t too late for any us. I clung to that hope, fiercely exultant.

“I don’t believe it,” Stalker breathed.

But the old man didn’t hear him. “Lessee about getting your friend up here. I can’t leave the mules standing long.”

“I’ve got her,” Fade called.

Stalker went down to help him. I waited up top because it had been all I could do to get myself up the incline with the hot knife in my side. I didn’t want to show weakness more than I had to. Silk might have sent this character; she might not. The boys gathered our gear, put out the fire, and then scrambled up. But when the old man got a look at Tegan he recoiled.

“That’s fever,” he said, backing off. “She plague-ridden?”

I shook my head, forgetting he probably couldn’t see me in this light. “No, I swear. It’s an injury. Let me show you.” I lifted her leg so he could see where we’d sealed the wound, and how her limb was swelling up.

“Y’did some backcountry doctoring. Right brave, that was. But her thigh looks bad, and we’re a day out of Salvation. Let’s get loaded up.”

He led the way back toward the road. I fell a little behind the others because the movement sent pain lancing through me. It was farther than it looked, and I was panting by the time I reached the wagon. I’d seen smaller versions, usually rusted and painted red. His was giant in comparison, and had two animals tied to the front of it. Mules, I seemed to recall him saying. They seemed placid enough as we approached.

“With all the supplies I’m hauling to trade, you’ll have to squeeze in back there. One of you can ride up front with me.”

“I will,” Stalker said, and vaulted up.

The old man hadn’t been kidding when he said it would be a tight fit. I climbed in first, swallowing another groan, and then I helped Fade get Tegan settled. The back was piled high with bags and boxes; luckily some gave when we leaned on them, and they weren’t all hard-edged awful.

“You set?” the man called.

“Ready,” I answered.

With a shout of “yah,” he snapped the lines he had tied to the mules and we jolted into motion. Once I found a corner to curl up in, it wasn’t so bad. Tegan lay across my lap and Fade’s. Every now and then, I gave her a little water. She had gotten too weak to swallow it unless I rubbed her throat.

I ached as I looked at her. Fever chills wracked me too. One minute, I felt like I was burning up, and the next, cold as ice. Fade put his arm around me and I put my head on his shoulder, not thinking about the future. Nothing we could do about it. We’d given this trip everything and then some.

“You knew somebody was coming,” he whispered. “Didn’t you?”

“Kind of.”

“How?”

At that point, I was too far gone to care if he believed me. “Silk told me.”

He fell quiet, either worried about my mind or pondering what I meant. It was all the same to me. I slipped into a sleep full of whispers, as if I listened through running water. Don’t leave me, Deuce. I need you. I want it to be like it was, before the others came. I never had the chance to say it—it sounded like Fade, but he’d never speak these words. Never whisper with such raw emotion. Did he just say—

I love you?

I had to be dreaming. The next thing I knew, daylight blazed against my eyelids. My whole body was stiff and sore; my legs had gone to sleep from Tegan’s weight. I couldn’t feel them.

I bent down, frantic, until Fade stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “She’s hanging on. It’s all right.”

“Nearly there?”

“I think so.”

A slow exhalation pushed out of me. “Could you do me a favor?”

He almost smiled. “If it’s in my power.”

“Tell me the end of the book?”

Fade didn’t ask why. He just dug into his pack, found it for me, and opened it to the page where we’d left off, before Stalker and Tegan came between us, before his sadness closed him against me like a heavy door. Softly, he began to read:

They were married that very day. And the next day they went together to the king and told him the whole story. But whom should they find at the court but the father and mother of Photogen, both in high favor with the king and queen. Aurora nearly died with joy, and told them all how Watho had lied and made her believe her child was dead.

No one knew anything of the father or mother of Nycteris; but when Aurora saw in the lovely girl her own azure eyes shining through night and its clouds, it made her think strange things, and wonder how even the wicked themselves may be a link to join together the good. Through Watho, the mothers, who had never seen each other, had changed eyes in their children.

The king gave them the castle and lands of Watho, and there they lived and taught each other for many years that were not long. But hardly had one of them passed, before Nycteris had come to love the day best, because it was the clothing and crown of Photogen, and she saw that the day was greater than the night, and the sun more lordly than the moon; and Photogen had come to love the night best, because it was the mother and home of Nycteris.

Though some of the words were strange, hope sprang up in me. It felt like the right ending, the day boy marrying the night girl. In their triumph I found faith.

Just then the wagon jolted to a stop.

“We’re here,” Longshot said to us, and then he yelled, “Trade caravan! Open up!”

Easing Tegan away, I pushed up on my knees so I could see, and my breath caught. Tall wooden walls surrounded an aboveground enclave. Men stood on top of the gate with weapons like the one Longshot carried. They gazed down at us with hard faces and scrutinized the old man, his cargo, and us before waving us through. Most were younger than Longshot, but older than us. I had little way of knowing more.

As my heart lightened, someone opened the gates, so the mules could trudge inside. They moved like they were tired, and no wonder, hauling us all through the night. I put the book away and drank in the sight of Salvation.

The place was wondrous. The buildings were all new, built of wood and clay, maybe, and some even had fresh white paint. People walked the streets openly and none them appeared to be armed. They were clean and well fed.

“This is the place,” Fade said. “My dad was right.”

Once the wagon stopped, I climbed down, ignoring the pain in my side. My fever had broken, leaving me more or less clearheaded.

“Let me take you to see Doc Tuttle,” Longshot said. “Bring the girl. If she can be saved, he’s the man for the job, and if not, he’ll say some kind words for her soul.”

“Soul” was a new word, one I didn’t know, but instinctively I connected it to the trace of Silk I’d felt with me, long after I knew the Freaks must’ve eaten her.

“Thanks,” I said.

Fade carried Tegan every step of the way. His back had to be aching, but he never faltered. After collecting our gear, Stalker paused every now and then to gaze around; I knew just how he felt.

People showed equal interest in us. We were wild looking and filthy, I had no doubt. The wall went all the way around the enclave, and people I took to be Hunters stood at every vulnerable point, guarding the safety of those who lived within. Here, there must be Breeders, who made sure the new generation could carry on, and the Builders, who made the things folks needed. It wasn’t so different from what I’d known, after all. But everything was bright and clean, and the air smelled sweet.

“Here we are. Bring her on in. Doc!” Longshot shouted. “Got business for you.”

“Did one of those mules bite you — oh.” The man who came into the front room was short and wide with a bald head. Like Longshot, he wasn’t young. I’d never imagined such a place, where people grew to look like this, instead of withered from the wasting that took us underground.

Longshot said, “Poor girl tangled with a Mutie. Hope you can help her. Anyway, I best get tending my goods before people take a mind to help themselves.”

“Did you cauterize this wound?” the man called Doc Tuttle demanded.

I shared a look with the boys and then said, “We put a hot knife on it to seal it up. It was bleeding buckets and we were in Freak territory.”

“That’s what I meant. Oh, you’ve made a mess of things. Get out of here now.” When we hesitated, he scowled at us fiercely, bushy brows drawn. “Get!”

“We’d like a minute with her,” I said firmly.

His frown didn’t vanish, but it softened. “Very well. I’ll go get my things ready.”

She wasn’t conscious, but it didn’t stop me from cupping her cheek in my hand, bending and kissing her forehead. “You’ll be all right. We’ll be back soon, Tegan.”

“We will.” Fade brushed her hair back and studied her, a muscle flexing in his jaw. I could see the idea of leaving her hurt him. But it hurt me too.

To my surprise, Stalker stepped forward and joined us at her side. He didn’t reach out, but I saw something new in his face. “You’re stronger than I knew, maybe stronger than you knew. So fight hard.”

“You should stay,” Fade said. “You’re injured too.”

I shook my head. “She’s more important.”

“You done in here?” Doc Tuttle came back with a tray of supplies, most of which I didn’t recognize.

Since none of us wanted to risk Tegan’s health by angering the man who could fix her, I nodded. And we left. I was afraid he might be cut from the same cloth as Bonesaw and would just make it worse, but we’d done all we could for her. I could only be glad we hadn’t given up on her. Beyond that, I could do no more.

Gazing around, I read the signs on the buildings. SHOES. REPAIR. CLOTHING. GROCER. BUTCHER. I knew shoes. Mine had worn clean through during the long hike, and I’d lined them with fabric to keep from walking my feet bloody. I could use new shoes, but I doubted I had anything anybody wanted to trade. What was more, I didn’t know any of the rules here, or where we should go.

The guys stared around, for once in complete agreement. They clearly didn’t know what we should do next. But … maybe I did.

“Longshot might help us,” I said. “He did once before.”

I led the way over to the wagon, half the length of the enclave. Longshot stood watch while men unloaded. He glanced over at us with a friendly air. Through my glasses, I noticed the lines on his face in the daylight more. He had a long, droopy bunch of hair on top of his mouth, and I’d never seen that on anyone before, either.

“Something else I can do you for?” he asked.

I nodded. “Is there anywhere we can stay while we wait for news of our friend?”

In truth, we needed a permanent place because we’d find a way to fit in here. There was nothing better out there; we already knew it. But one step at a time. Given our dirt, we’d sure need his help in securing shelter.

Longshot thought and then said, “Momma Oaks will take you in. She has a couple of spare rooms now. Lost one boy to Muties, and the other’s married.” He paused, looked us over, and added, “Say I sent you.” He went on to describe the house and how we could find it.

“I can’t thank you enough.” Then I realized I could help in turn. “We saw Freaks — that is, Muties—not too far from here. They’re smart too. You need to be prepared to fight.”

Unlike Silk he didn’t dismiss the warning. Instead he hefted the weapon he’d called Old Girl. “We’re always ready.”

I followed his gaze to the Hunters on the walls. “Do you get many attacks?”

“Less than we used to,” he answered. “But we haven’t gotten comfortable. Seen too many outposts pay the price.”

I relaxed a little, seeing tragedy wouldn’t repeat itself here. They were alert and wary. With a nod, I went to collect our belongings. It wasn’t much, but the few things I had in my bag — that was all that remained of the College enclave — the underground tribes, as Stalker called us. Longshot gave us a wave and then went back to supervising the work.

Stalker roved ahead of us, taking in the sights; local girls paused and gazed at him wide-eyed. He returned their looks with a wolfish grin. Fade walked more slowly, head down, sorrow in the set of his shoulders.

I touched him on the arm. “Don’t worry. Tegan will get better.”

He looked at me with his black eyes and nodded, but I wasn’t sure if he believed me. We’d lost a lot of people along the road. I thought maybe he looked at Tegan, and saw Banner and Pearl. I had to trust Doc Tuttle could save her. Any other outcome would break my heart.

This time, Fade led the way; this settlement wasn’t too big, but it was so bright and lovely that it hurt me a little to look around, not just from the sun. I wished the brats could see all the marvels, particularly 26. She’d like it here.

We found the place easily. It was bigger than some of the other buildings in town, taller too, and it had been coated with white paint that made it shine in the sun. Dark wood offered a pretty contrast, and there were even plants out front, blooming pink and red and yellow.

I slicked back my hair nervously and then drummed my knuckles on the door. The woman who opened it had to be as old as Longshot. I couldn’t get over the shock of it, no matter how many of these faces I saw. She drew back at the sight of us, and probably the smell as well. Her eyes widened when she noticed Stalker’s ink and his scars. Wisely, the boys left the talking to me.

“What do you want?” Her tone wasn’t friendly.

“Longshot sent us over. He said you might let us sleep in your spare rooms.”

“And why would I do that? You lot are filthy.”

This wasn’t going well, so I dredged up my best manners, learned through trying to appease the elders — and Silk, of course. “Please, sir. We’ll clean up outside and we can help with work if you tell us what needs doing. We’ve come a very long ways.”

“Oh?” That piqued her interest. “From where? Appleton?”

At first I couldn’t remember the name of the ruins. I’d seen it, I thought, at the library. I squeezed my mind tight, trying to dig it out, and then I had it. I said the name out loud, though probably wrong.

Her face paled. “You lie. Nobody lives there anymore. Not since the evacuations.”

“It’s not a lie,” Stalker growled.

I put up a hand, not wanting him to scare her. She was already upset with us. If she thought he was dangerous, she’d shut the door, and then where would we be?

“Show her the book,” Fade said softly.

I smiled, dug into my battered bag, and pulled out our copy of The Day Boy and the Night Girl. She took it with reverent hands, examining the age of it, and then she opened it and flipped to the back. An old yellow card was stuck there, stamped with the letters PROPERTY OF THE NY PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Her eyes lifted and met mine. “You do come from the city. I must tell the town council at once. Edmund!” she called to someone out of sight. “Listen, there are people living to the south in Gotham.”

“Are there?” a man asked.

I heard movement and then he stood beside his wife, peering at us. He, too, was old in a way that lightened my heart. His face spoke of years lived, not lost to the withering sickness. Maybe living here could grant us that health.

Momma Oaks murmured, “Come in. You must tell me your story, child.”

I almost said, I’m not a child, I’m a Huntress — the very last, but then I looked on her kindly face and knew the truth would scar her in ways she might not be able to bear. When she opened the door to us fully, we went inside.