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“I’m not.”

“You are.” He cracks one eye. It's glassy at the edges, fever coming up beneath it, but the green is still sharp. “Stop worrying, JaJa. We have enough for the trip. You checked four times.”

“Five.”

“Five. Sure.” He huffs something that almost sounds like a laugh. It turns into a cough.

My hand is on his back before I decide to move it, feeling the rattle work through him until it passes. He’s paler when he straightens, a thread of pink at the corner of his mouth that he tries to wipe away before I can see it.

I see. I always see.

“Okay?”

“Peachy.” He settles against me again. “Tell me you at least ate something on Tempest.”

“I ate.”

“Liar.” He smiles. “You look like you haven’t slept in a week.” His hand finds my wrist, his thin fingers wrapping around it. “You can’t carry me all the way home on nothing, Jade. Who carries the carrier?”

“Just eat your ration.”

“And you, just answer the question.” He gives me a weak shove. Light, I love him so much. I can’t lose him.

Onyx settles against my shoulder again, watching the stars drift past the window. “So, what was it like?”

“It wasn’t that bad.” I keep my eyes on the stars. “We mostly walked. There were trails. As long as you kept moving, you were fine.”

Bodies under trees. Packs ripped from cooling hands. Men killing each other over half a bottle of water.

“And did all those rich people actually sit there and watch?”

A snow globe full of poor people. Shake. Watch. Repeat.

“I suppose some of them did.”

He hums. “And there was enough food?”

“Yeah.” I shrug. “There wasn’t much, but nobody starved.”

Candidates clawing through mud for dropped rations. A boy crying over an empty pack.

“And water?”

“There were refill stations near the checkpoints.” I smile a little. “They even gave us clean water for free.”

A stream. My face in the water. His voice behind me. Prey.

Onyx studies me. “You don’t sound convinced.”

“I am.” I look back out the window. “It was just... a forest. A lot of people trying to finish before dark.”

The Hunt. Thank you for volunteering to improve your future. Run.

“What about the Adjudicators?”

“What about them?”

“Everyone on Calder talks about them. Were they as bad as people say?”