“Legion! Get over here!” Mia shouts.
“She’s got to stop shouting my name,” Legion mutters but jogs away from me.
“Was that a hard story to tell?” Cadel asks, rubbing a hand up my spine.
I squint up at the canopy. “Yes, and no. It’s hard to talk about what happened there, but I survived, and I used to think that surviving was just because I was lucky and fate picked me. There was nothing special about being a survivor. Now, I can look at it and go, well, I fought to stay alive and sane. In the dark, minute after minute, I clung to who I was, and I didn’t give up, and maybe I should be proud of that. But to be proud of it, I have to admit it happened, and I’ve been avoiding it for so long.”
“Be proud. You inspired an entire Resistance.”
We round a corner of the path we’re walking on and find Mia wrestling with a massive three-headed cat. I take in the situation in a second, and I can’t let her kill it.
“What are you going to do with that?” I ask her.
“Eat it.”
I wrinkle my nose and shake my head, protesting. “No, let it go.”
Mia turns, letting it go. It’s still got a rope wrapped around its paws, and all three heads hiss wildly. Flashes of me trying to get to Jarek bloom in my mind. I hear my screams and see the blood pooling.
“We’re all hungry; people need to eat,” Mia snaps.
I stare at the cat. They used to stay with me when I was wild. They are so filled with curiosity and are absolutely adorable when they aren’t terrified. It pulls, fighting and struggling.
I break out into a sweat.
“Let it go, Mia,” I say in a deep voice.
“The Resistance needs to eat.” She turns and makes for it again.
I pull a knife and throw it. My aim is deadly. I know because I spent five years practicing. It cuts the rope off the cat, and before Mia can say anything, it’s gone with a flash of a bushy tail.
She turns on me. “We need food.”
“We have plenty of food. You don’t need more right now; it's wasteful. That animal’s life is important to this world.”
Mia lets out a stifled shriek. Sophie stares after her.
“I think she’s struggling with everything.”
“She’s not the only one,” I mutter.
We spent the whole day checking traps, but every single one had been tampered with, except the one that held the cat. The unease within me has turned to apprehension.
I can almost feel them here. Behind every rock and tree.
We head back, but I linger, watching the shadows, watching for movement that doesn’t belong.
“Kaida?” Cadel whispers. “We’re not going to find them.”
“They are here somewhere.”
“I don’t doubt it, but not right now. We need to get back before we give away the Resistance to the Path.”
With reluctance, I allow him to lead me back to the cliffs, where we slip between them. Bear is waiting for us when we enter, and as soon as he sees Sophie, he wraps her up in a hug.
Legion, Mordecai, and Mia rush off to inform Bear of what happened.
I look around and then do it again. I turn and start rushing from tent to tent, looking inside.
