“You have questions,” she said, lowering her voice so we wouldn't be overheard. “I do too. But you’re the kind of person who isn’t willing to let them go despite having a good thing going here. So ask them.”
“They won’t tell me. You heard their leaders—”
“So don’t ask their leaders. Ask him.”
She nodded in the direction ofGryfon.
“I’ve seen you staring at him,” she told me. “Either that means you’re contemplating how to kill him or how to fuck him. Either way—”
“Zya!” I exclaimed, turning to find her grinning at me.
I rolled my eyes.
“Where are the others?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Roxy is with their metalworkers. They’re showing her how they craft their weapons without a standing forge. Kane is helping the other giant men take down the tents and Hugh is somewhere with a group of people talking about something called aqueducts.”
“And Darius?”
She frowned. I sighed.
“He’s off by himself again, isn’t he?” I asked.
“Not much use for a farmer in the desert,”Zyareplied with a shrug.
“He isn’t a farmer. And you aren’t a seamstress,” I snapped, shoving my half-eaten bowl of breakfast porridge into her hands as I strode away from her in search of my moody old friend.
I angled myself away from the camp, knowing Darius had preferred to keep his distance from the others ever since we'd arrived, a fact Roxy had taken harder than anyone else. Kaneand Hugh still integrated themselves into the camp, adapting nearly as quickly asZyato everyone’s surprise. Roxy might have done the same if it weren’t for Darius and his melancholy moods pulling her away every night to sleep on the fringes of camp beneath the stars, even denying the use of the tents this encampment offered to provide. Darius was nothing if not stubborn. I remembered that as a quality I’d always admired. Now, I simply found it annoying.
“Did you at least get some breakfast?” I called out as I approached him, ensuring he was aware I was there.
I’d found him in the same place he always was, leaning against a massive orange rock and staring out into the desert as if he believed if he squinted hard enough he might find the way home. I had no doubt that if he ever did lay eyes on the Underground again, he’d start walking and leave us all behind without a second thought. I didn’t blame him for that. I imagined I might do the same, though not for the Underground but for the city that rested above it.
“I’m not hungry,” he grunted in reply.
“I know that’s a lie,” I told him, doing my best to keep my tone light, casual.
Things had been awkward between us ever since we’d spent nearly all of my time in the Underground arguing. I’d hoped we could set that aside, now that we were out, but Darius seemed to take as much issue with our escape as he had with my attempting it.
“We’re leaving again, aren’t we?” he asked, ignoring my inquiry about his eating habits altogether.
“They say we’re days away from the city they callArchí,” I told him. “They seem eager to reach it as soon as possible so I imagine it’ll be another long day of walking.”
“Do you think they’ll actually tell us everything once we get there?”
“Everything? Probably not. But more than theGeistever did. More than Tiberius and the others ever did.”
“More than they knew, Adrian.”
He finally turned to look at me where I leaned against the rock next to him.
“Tiberius wasn’t keeping secrets from you,” he told me and he sounded so certain of it I was tempted to believe him myself. “He didn’t know there was a world outside of Sanctuary and the Underground. None of us did.”
I wasn’t so sure about that but I didn’t argue. Instead, I nodded and we both turned our attention back to the rising sun on the horizon before us.
“I want you to learn how to fight,” I told him, my tone low even out here, alone as we were.
He turned to look at me again.
