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The other woman takes the bags from Marcus and looks inside them, her lips parting with surprise. She shows the woman with the toddler what’s inside, and she cries.

“Thank you,” she says, looking from him to me.

I nod, wishing we could do more. Marcus backs away from them, returning to my side.

“You okay?” he asks.

“I wish my parents had lived. But I think it would have broken my mother to know she had any part in this.”

When I’m trying to get my mind off the pain of the plants and trees that’s living inside me, I think of them. In my heart, I’ve known for years that they were dead, but I got confirmation of it from the database on the island.

My dreams of reuniting with them someday died for good that day, and I mourned the loss of that hope. But the closure also allowed me to start healing in a way I hadn’t before.

I remember the good times. We had so many years of simple, beautiful times together. I know their hearts. My mother would have chosen death over continuing with scientific experiments that were harming people, and my father would have chosen to die trying to save her.

Even if it was hopeless. That’s how I feel about my sister. I’m not going to recklessly walk into Lochlan’s home and demand he let me take her, but if going to Carson City and working with the ILF to free her is the end of me, so be it.

I have a great love with Marcus. However much time we get together, it will never be enough. Knowing what it feels like to love and be loved so deeply is a gift some people never get.

“You’re in pain.”

Marcus states it as fact, and I don’t deny it.

“I’m okay.”

“I feel it, too.”

I pinch my brows together, confused. “What are you feeling?”

“It’s hard to describe. I’m not hurt, but I feel pain. I sense it, like something else’s feelings are taking mine over.”

“Yes.” I cough, smoke irritating my throat. “But that doesn’t make sense. It’s the plants and trees. This is the same thing I felt on the island. Do you think there are wolves here with aromium, and that’s what you’re feeling?”

“Maybe. I don’t think it’s as bad for me as it is for you.” He pushes his dark, wavy hair back from his forehead, but it flops back into place. “You want to hear something really wild?”

I smile. “Nothing’s wild anymore.”

“True. I haven’t said anything for a few days, because I didn’t know what was going on with me, but I’m pretty confident that the pain I’m feeling is actually ... yours.”

I’m struck silent for a few seconds, because that is wild.

“When we stopped at that place yesterday to take showers, it was more intense while you were in the shower. And when we stopped to check our feet and rest for a few minutes last night.”

I just stare at him, wondering how.

“I cried in the shower,” I say. “I’ve been trying to fight the pain for days, and when I was alone in the shower, I stopped fighting and let it all in, and I just cried. And anytime we stop, and I don’t have the forward momentum to focus on, it gets more intense.”

He glances up, checking behind me to make sure we’re still safe before looking down at me again. When he does, he brushes a thumb over my cheek and says, “Don’t hide from me, B.”

I tug on his T-shirt and he takes a half step, closing the last of the distance between us. “I didn’t say anything because I’m trying to think about literally anything else.”

“I can take out your implant.”

I shake my head. “Aromium will help me get Mae.”

His eyes shift with wariness. “It’s getting worse as we get closer to the fires, though. Didn’t you say you passed out from the pain on the island?”

“If it gets that bad, you’ll have to take my implant out. But for now, we keep going.”