Eli brings an armful of stringy, tough brush. When he adds it to the fire, it crackles and the smell of sage rises into the night—sharp and wild.
Cassia and I sit as near to each other as we can. She leans into me and I keep my arms around her. I don’t fool myself that I hold her together—she does that on her own—but holding her keeps me from flying apart.
“Thank you,” Cassia tells Eli. I can tell from her voice that she smiles at him and he smiles back, barely. He sits in the spot where Vick sat last night. Indie moves to give Eli more space and leans in to see the fire dance. She glances at me and I see a flash of something in her eyes.
I shift position a little, blocking her view of us with my back and angling my flashlight so that it shines on Cassia’s hands. “What happened?” I ask her.
She looks down. “I cut them on a rope,” she says. “We climbed into another canyon looking for you before we came back to this one. ” She glances at the other two and smiles at them before she leans in more closely. “Ky,” she says, “we’re together again. ”
I have always loved the way she says my name. “I can’t believe it either. ”
“I had to find you,” she says. She slips her arms around me, underneath my coat, and I feel her fingers on my back. I do the same. She’s so slight and small. And strong. No one else could do what she’s done. I pull her even closer, the ache and release of touching her a feeling I remember from the Hill. It is even stronger now.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” Cassia whispers in my ear.
“I’m listening,” I say.
She takes a deep breath. “I don’t have the compass anymore. The one you gave me back in Oria. ” She hurries on and I hear the sound of tears in her voice. “I traded it to an Archivist. ”
“That’s all right,” I tell her, meaning it. She’s here. After all of this the compass isn’t much to have lost along the way. And I didn’t give it to her to keep for me. I gave it to her to have for her own. Still, I’m curious. “What did you get in the trade?”
“Not what I expected,” she says. “I asked for information about where they were taking Aberrations and how to get there. ”
“Cassia,” I say, and stop. That was dangerous. But she knew that when she tried it. She doesn’t need me to tell her.
“The Archivist gave me a story instead,” she tells me. “At first I thought he’d cheated me and I was so angry—all I had left to get me to you were the blue tablets. ”
“Wait,” I say. “Blue tablets?”
“From Xander,” she says. “I kept them because I knew we’d need them in the canyon to survive. ” She looks at me and misreads the look on my face. “I’m sorry. I had to decide so quickly—”
“It’s not that,” I tell her, grabbing her arm. “The blue tablets are poison. Did you take any?”
“Only one,” she says. “And I don’t believe they’re poisoned. ”
“I tried to tell her,” Indie says. “I wasn’t there when she took it. ”
I breathe out. “How did you keep moving?” I ask Cassia. “Have you eaten?” She nods. I pull out some of the flat bread from my bag. “Eat this now,” I say. Eli reaches into his bag and holds out a piece of bread too.
Cassia takes the food from both of us. “How do you know the tablets are poisoned?” she asks, her voice still doubtful.
“Vick told me,” I say, trying not to panic. “The Society always told us
that if there was some kind of disaster the blue tablet would save us. But it’s not true. It stops you instead. And then you die if they don’t come to save you. ”
“I still don’t believe it,” Cassia says. “Xander wouldn’t give me something that could hurt me. ”
“He must not have known,” I say. “Maybe he meant for you to use the tablets for trade. ”
“If it was going to work, it would have by now,” Indie says to Cassia. “You must have walked through it somehow. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. But you wouldn’t stop until we found Ky. ”
We all look at Cassia. She’s thinking something through, her eyes thoughtful. Sorting information. She’s looking for facts to explain what happened, but the only one she needs I already know: She is strong in ways even the Society can’t predict.
“I only took one,” she says softly. “I dropped the other. And the paper that came with it. ”
“The paper?” I ask.
Cassia looks up, as if she’s just remembered that we’re there. “Xander hid little pieces of paper with notes printed on them inside the tablets. They’re little scraps of information from his microcard. ”
“How?” I ask. Indie leans forward.
“I don’t know how he managed to do any of it—steal the tablets or put the messages inside,” Cassia says. “But he did. ”
Xander. I shake my head. Always playing the game. Of course Cassia didn’t leave him behind completely. He’s her best friend. He’s still her Match. But he made a mistake in giving her the tablets.
“Will you give them back to me?” Cassia asks Indie. “Not the tablets. Only the scraps. ”
For a moment I see something flash in Indie’s eyes. A challenge. I don’t know if she really wants the papers or if she just doesn’t want to be told what to do. But then she reaches into her pack and pulls out the foil-backed packet. “Here,” she says. “I don’t need any of it anyway. ”
“Can you tell me what they said?” I ask, trying not to sound jealous. Indie darts a look at me and I know I haven’t fooled her.
“Just things like his favorite color and his favorite activity,” Cassia says gently. I know she heard the false note in my voice, too. “I think he must have known that I never looked at the microcard. ”
And just like that, my worry is gone—swallowed back up—and I’m ashamed of myself. She came all this way to find me.
“That boy in the other canyon,” Indie says. “When you said he’d waited too long, I thought you meant that he’d waited too long to kill himself. ”
Cassia covers her mouth with her hand. “No,” she says. “I thought he’d waited too long to take the tablet and it didn’t save him. ” Her voice falls to a whisper. “I didn’t know. ” She looks at Indie, horrified. “Do you think he knew? Did he mean to die?”
“What boy?” I ask Cassia. So much has happened to us while we were apart.