Reece rakes his fingers through his brown hair. "I think we need a decoy. One of us can lead them the other way while we get Allura to the caves. You know they won't step foot in those because of the curse."
"We're not going in there, either." The veins on Blaise's tattooed neck bulge. "Especially with Allura."
"Blaise." Reece's tone is calm, controlled, and carries authority. "The curses are just legends. You need to calm down."
"Tell that to my brother," Blaise mumbles under his breath, kicking the dirt with the tip of his black boots.
Reece sighs, slipping his gun into the holster that's underneath his grey, hooded jacket. "It's our only shot. If we can make it to the caves, we should be safe until sundown."
Blaise's jaw ticks. "This is the stupidest plan you've ever come up with."
"Do you have a better one?" Reece asks, glaring at him.
"Fine," Blaise grits out through his teeth. "Let's get this fucking show on the road before we end up gutted and left to rot in the sun."
My stomach churns. Gutted? Is that what the Forsaken are going to do to us?
"You want to be the decoy again?" Reece asks Blaise. "It'll keep you out of the caves."
Blaise hesitates, his gaze flitting in my direction. "Maybe I shouldn't this time."
"We'll make sure she's safe." Ryder tightens his hold on my hand and pulls me closer to his side. "We're just as capable of protecting her as you are."
Blaise seems torn but backs away. "I'll lead them south for a while. Then I'll round back and head up the west trail."
Reece nods. "When we get Allura to the station, we'll head back for you."
Without saying a word, Blaise spins around and strides down the trail, leaving a cloud of dust behind him.
Reece hurries off in the opposite direction of Blaise and signals for Ryder and me to follow. "Keep to the side on the rocks so we don't leave tracks," he says, taking long, even strides.
Ryder gives him a thumbs up then tries to offer me a comforting smile. "We'll be okay. We know what we're doing."
Nerves bubble inside me. "But will Blaise be okay by himself?"
Ryder nods. "Blaise is an expert at being the decoy. You don't need to worry about him."
"I know, but ..." I peer at the trail behind me. Blaise is so far away from us now that I can barely make him out amongst the rocks and cliffs. "He seemed so upset."
"He's always upset. Once you've known him for a while, you get used to it." Ryder speeds up to keep pace with Reece's superhuman power walk.
"That thing Blaise said about the caves ... about his brother ..." I stumble to match Ryder's lengthy strides. "What did he mean by it?"
Ryder tenses. "I'm not sure I should tell you right now."
"I'm sorry," I say quickly. "I'm always asking too many questions. I don't know why I do it."
"I didn't mean that I can't tell you." He glances at me from the corner of his eye. "I just don't think now's the best time. I don't want to scare you."
I gulp. It's too late for that.
"So, I was thinking ... When we get back to the station, you could take a few classes," Ryder says, gazing up at the sky.
"Okay, yeah." I think he's trying to distract me from what's going on, and while I'm grateful, my thoughts remain stuck on Blaise. Is he okay? What will happen to him if the Forsaken capture him? "What kinds of classes, though? I don't know very much."
"You know more than most," he insists. "And besides, that's what the classes are for. You'll learn more about the world, the Grim, and maybe you can even take some self-defense and general fighting classes."
"Blaise should just teach her," Reece chimes in. "He's better than all of the instructors."
"Yeah, but he lacks the patience," Ryder points out, maneuvering us around a crack in the trail.
"Well, I guess it would be a good learning experience for him, too, then." Reece glances over his shoulder at us. "He needs to practice his patience and people skills."
Ryder arches his brow. "Do we really want Allura to be the one he practices on?"
Reece studies me, considering. "You know what? I think she might be the perfect person for the job."
"Yeah, maybe," Ryder mumbles, stuffing his free hand into his pocket. "He does seem to like her."
"Yes, he does, which means two things." Reece counts down on his fingers. "One, he'll work extra hard to train her. And two, he won't yell at her."
Ryder shoots him a skeptical look. "You don't think he'll yell at her, huh? I know he likes her and everything, but this is Blaise we're talking about. Remember when he chewed out our instructor for teaching us what he thought was a wrong technique? Or the time he yelled at Rae because he thought she was drawing blood the wrong way? Or the time--"
"I know how Blaise is, Ryder. I don't need a recap." Reece silences him, holding up his hand. "But I don't think he'll yell at Allura. He's shown more patience toward her than with anyone else--well, except for maybe you and me."
"Still ..." Ryder scrubs his hand across his unshaven jaw. "I think we should let Allura decide. She's the one who's going to have to put up with his shit."
Both of them look at me expectantly.
"I don't mind if Blaise trains me," I say quietly. "I'm just glad I get the opportunity to learn."
"She's too nice," Ryder tells Reece. "She doesn't know what she's getting into."
"She'll be fine." Reece waves him off, facing forward again and ending the conversation.
"If you really want to do this thing with Blaise, that's fine," Ryder says to me. "But promise me, if he's mean to you, you'll tell me."
I nod, even though I can't really picture Blaise yelling at me. Sure, he has yelled at other people, but even on the cliff when I could tell my hesitation was frustrating him, he kept his composure. And I'd rather him teach me than a complete stranger. I just hope I'm not a terrible learner.
For the next half an hour or so, we hightail it down the trail, weaving around corners and dodging around rocks blocking the path. Reece stays a few feet ahead of us, his eyes roving the cliffs and the enormous hole skimming the side of the trail. Occasionally, a scream cuts through the air, but the noise dwindles the longer we walk.
"The screams are getting quieter," Ryder hollers up at Reece, wiping the sweat from his brow. "That probably means they're heading away from us and after Blaise."
Poor Blaise. He's probably out there all alone, being hunted by killers. I wish someone could've gone with him.
"Not necessarily. They could've split into groups and went after both of us." Reece halts in front of a sloped cliff carved with various size caves. "It's best if we lay low for a while, maybe wait until dark. It's a full moon tonight, which means they won't hunt."
"They won't hunt during a full moon?" I don't know why, but that seems strange to me.
Ryder shakes his head. "The Forsaken are big on legends, curses, and all that shit. And they believe that, if you hunt during a full moon, the Grim will find you because their abilities are heightened."
My eyes widen. "Is it true?"
"No. It's just a legend that someone probably made up to scare everyone." Ryder brushes his knuckles across my cheeks, causing my eyelashes to flutter. "The Grim are equally as strong day or night, regardless of the moon."
Tell that to whoever started the legend of hybrids. I might be walking proof that some legends are true. A chill slithers down my spine. What other legends could carry some truth to them?
"You said the caves were cursed." I glance up at the caves. There are so many I can't even count them all. "Cursed how, exactly?"
Ryder's mouth compresses into a thin line. "I'd rather not tell you."
"But I kind of want to know what I'm getting into." Not knowing is eating away at me.
Ryder struggles with what to say, his lips parting and closing.
"One of us needs to climb up and make sure they're vacant," Reece announces, stepping beside us.
Relief washes over Ryder. "I can climb
a lot better than you two," he jokes, backing up toward the cliff.
"Just hurry," Reece says. "The longer we're out in the open, the more we're at risk for getting spotted."
Ryder salutes Reece then whirls around and takes off in a mad run toward the cliff. The incline is the perfect angle for him to easily maneuver up, using his hands to keep from slipping down.
"He kind of looks like he's running up a slide," I remark. When Reece doesn't say anything, I glance at him and find him studying me intently. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing." He gives a half-shrug. "I just think it's funny you know what a slide is when there's not a lot of them around. Most people don't know what they are."
I swipe away a few beads of sweat trickling down my neckline. "But you do?"
He nods. "Only because there's one at the station. It's the only one I've ever seen. When I first came to the station, Ryder had to show me how to use it."
"Oh." I rack my mind for how I knew, but all I see--or feel, rather --is a blinding pain in my left eye. Wincing, I slip my hand up through the glasses and press my fingers to my eyelid.
"Are you okay?" Reece asks with concern.
"Yeah. My eye just hurts. I think I got some dirt in it or something."
"Let me look at it." He removes my sunglasses and positions them on top of my head.
The sunlight immediately stings my eyes, but the pain isn't as unbearable as when I first came out of the channels.
He leans forward to inspect my eye. "You look like you're having an easier time seeing without the glasses."
"I am." My breath catches in my throat as he splays his fingers across my cheek and angles my head to the side, aiming my face more toward the sunlight. Unlike Ryder and Blaise, Reece hasn't touched me more than once or twice. His touch throws me off, but not necessarily in a bad way. "Do you think I can stop wearing them? The glasses, I mean."
"Maybe." He dips his head to get a better look, and his breath dusts my cheek. "It's a little red, but I don't see anything in it." His thumb skims below my eye and a shiver rushes through me. "We can try to rinse it out with some water."
I will my voice to come out balanced. "I'll be fine. It doesn't really hurt anymore."
He nods, but he doesn't move away, sketching his thumb back and forth below my eye. I'm not sure what he's doing, but his silence is making me nervous.
I peek up at him, trying to read his expression. He looks lost in thought, staring off into empty space. I study him--the way his brown hair sticks up chaotically, the scars on his skin.
Before I even realize what I'm doing, I reach up and touch a scar just above his brow. His skin feels so soft, despite the scars.
"How did you get this?" I ask.
He blinks from his daze. "What?"
I graze the scar with my fingertip. "This scar, how did you get it?"
He seems thrown off by what I'm doing, so I decide to pull away, worried touching him is inappropriate. But he captures my hand, brings my palm back to his brow, and moves my finger over the prominent scar.
"I got this one during self-defense practice after Ryder knocked his elbow into my face," he explains. "He hit me so hard the skin split open."
"Ryder did that to you?"
"He didn't do it on purpose. He was only following our instructor's directions. It was my fault; I didn't block him properly." He brings my hand down to a thin scar on the bottom of his chin. "And this one was from a warden."
"That's horrible. How did it happen?"
"It was during a rescue mission," he answers with reluctance. "We ran into a bunch of them when we were trying to get a group of Nameless out of the channels, and one of the wardens managed to cut me with a knife."
I think about all the times a warden took their knife and sliced the blade across my skin. It seems like ages ago when I was trapped underground. How did time go from moving painfully slow to zipping by startlingly fast?
"You made it out, though," I say. "You must be really strong."
"Not strong enough to get all the Nameless out alive." Guilt floods his eyes, like invisible, unseen scars, and he looks away from me.
My heart aches for him, for all the Nameless who didn't make it out, for the ones still trapped in the channels. "But you got some of them out alive. Think about all the people you've helped."
His throat muscles move as he swallows. "Yeah, I know. I just hate that I can't save them all."
"Me, too." I remind myself to breathe as memories of being imprisoned crash over me. "Whenever I heard someone crying in the cells, I felt horrible that I couldn't help them. I tried to escape a few times, but I never made it very far."
"You're a complete mystery, Allura." He shakes his head, looking more befuddled. "You go against everything I know about the Nameless. The way you act, the way you interact, how well you adapt. You're an anomaly."
"I ..." I'm unsure how to respond. Is that a bad thing?
"It's good that you're different. You're stronger. Braver. I've seen so many give up ..." A breath eases from his lips. "I just want to make sure I get you back to the station safely and that you ... you end up okay."
"I'm sure you will." I offer him a smile, hoping to reduce some of his worry.
His lips lift into a faint grin, but he promptly puts on a serious expression. "Good. I'm glad we're on the same page."
His exaggerated seriousness causes a giggle to sputter from my lips.
He cocks a brow. "What's so funny?"
"Sorry." I bite down on my lip, feeling a bit ridiculous for laughing over something that probably wasn't supposed to be funny. "It just looked like you were trying so hard to be serious, and I thought it was funny. I don't know why."
"You sound just like Ryder. He's always laughing at me whenever I'm trying to give a serious lecture," he admits with a grimace. "He says, one day, my face is going to get stuck in a permanent scowl."
"That doesn't sound very good."
"No, it doesn't." A hesitant, contemplative look crosses his face. "When we get back to the station, I think you should stay with us--"
"All clear," Ryder calls out from above. "Get your asses up here."
Sighing, Reece lets go of my hand. "Okay, we're headed up," he shouts back then glances at me. "Are you going to be okay getting up there?"
I eye the cliff, measuring the lengthy distance from the bottom to the cave Ryder is standing in front of. "I think so ..." I chew on my thumbnail. "It doesn't look as steep as the one we climbed down."
"It's not nearly that bad. We should be able to run up it if we keep a decent pace." Reece places a hand on the small of my back and inches me forward. "I'll stay behind you just in case you slip."
I nod, adjust my backpack, and then approach the cliff. I pick up momentum the closer I get, knowing if I slow down, I'll back out. When I reach bottom, I surge upward. Even with the clunky traction of my boots, I slip more than a few times, but like he promised, Reece stays behind me and makes sure I don't fall. Before I know it, I've reached Ryder and the cave.
As I turn and look back at the ground below, a strange sense of pride squeezes at my chest. I made it all the way up by myself.
Ryder shares my feeling, grinning proudly as he slings an arm around my shoulder. "She's a natural, Reece. She picks up everything so quickly. I'm telling you, with a little bit of--"
"We're not talking about this right now," Reece says, hoisting himself up the last of the cliff. Brushing the dirt off his cargo pants, he stands beside us and gazes down at the cliffs and the trails that make up the fault line. "I think Blaise pulled it off. I don't see any sign of him or the Forsaken anywhere."
"Blaise is always a good decoy, just as long as it doesn't require him to interact with anyone." Ryder sneaks a smile in my direction. "He has some serious social issues."
"That's not his fault. You of all people should know that." Reece shields his eyes from the sunlight with his hand. "The sun won't set for at least three or four hours. I think we should get something
to eat and get some rest before we head out. I'll take first watch if you want to fix us some food."
"Sounds like a plan." Ryder heads for the cave with his arm around me. "What sounds good for lunch?" he asks. "I've got beans and jerky. Or beans and jerky. Or wait." He taps his finger against his lips. "Beans and jerky."
I giggle. "How about beans and jerky?"
"You have the most beautiful smile." A grin breaks across his face, and my cheeks heat from the compliment. He calls over his shoulder, "Don't you think so, Reece?"
"Yeah, she does," Reece answers distractedly. "And don't just feed her beans and jerky. She just got out of the channels. She needs more than that."
"That's all I have." Ryder stops just shy of entering the cave. "They're a good source of protein."
"I know that, but she also needs some fruits and vegetables," Reece says. "I think I might have a couple of cans of pears and corn in my bag. Open those and have her eat them."
"Yes, boss," Ryder jokes then steps into the cave, pulling me along with him.
I squint against the darkness, taking a look around.
"It's empty," Ryder promises. "I checked it out all the way to the back."
"It doesn't go all the way through?" I ask, feeling smothered by the darkness.
He shakes his head. "Some do, though."
"Where do they lead?"
He shrugs. "I have no idea."
"You've never tried to find out?"
"No. And I really don't want to. The caves ... They're not my favorite place."
My gaze travels along the domed ceiling and rock walls. "Because of the curse?"
"The curse is just a legend." But he seems less convinced than he did when we were outside.
I summon a breath to alleviate some of my anxiety, but the foul stench of rotten eggs nips at my nostrils, and I nearly gag. "What's that smell?"
"Sulfur." Ryder slips off his bag and heads deeper into the cave.
My eyes water against the unpleasant odor, and I pinch my nose as I endeavor farther into the cave. I keep expecting something bad to happen, like the roof to cave in or a wild animal to appear.
"Why does it smell like sulfur?" I wonder as he kneels down on the ground.
He doesn't answer, unzipping his bag and taking out a can of beans. "I wish I could heat these up for you, but building a fire would probably lead the Forsaken straight to us."
"I'm fine with eating them cold." I sigh, sit down on the ground beside him, and crisscross my legs. I'm trying not to get frustrated that Ryder won't straightforwardly answer my questions, but I really do want to know what's going on.