is staring off into space. An unsettling new habit he’s picked up since our prison break.
I’d been worried about Erik after the High Council turned on us and declared us traitors, and while he’s mostly gone back to his old sarcastic self, my anxiety increases by the day. How long until he decides staying in the sector that betrayed him isn’t worth it? How long until he gets tired of our rapidly disintegrating team? How long until he wants to know about his past badly enough to return to the rebels?
Stop that, I tell myself. Erik isn’t going anywhere. He’s our friend.
“Look, the warehouses were a bust,” Al says, still with her back to us. “That’s finished. We can’t just sit around doing nothing, so we need to pick a new direction. A more useful one.”
“Such as?” Erik asks.
But Al doesn’t have anything to offer. She knows she’s right—we all do—but no next step comes to mind. Well. Not to Al’s or Erik’s mind.
I feel Jay watching me. Don’t you think this is a good time to tell them about the Order?
Jay’s gaze is steady when I meet his eyes, but that just makes me look away again.
I still haven’t told Al and Erik about the secret organization seeking peace between gifted and ungifted that I helped found with several old friends. I need to. They’re already suspicious about me just happening to know a place for us to hide out. But I don’t want to. The four of us can barely hold a conversation for more than ten seconds without it dissolving into a fight anymore.
Our peace coalition of gifted and ungifted is sacred to me. I don’t want to bring two impulsive, mistrustful people—one who could decide to go to the rebels and another who indirectly caused the death of Paul, one of my oldest friends—to the Order just because we have nowhere else to go. But I also know it’s our only option. I won’t abandon my team, and there’s no other place for all of us. I just don’t want to face it yet.
“How many times have we had this conversation already?” Erik asks when no one says anything aloud. “Isn’t that why we decided to investigate the warehouses? We have nowhere to go, we’re notoriously wanted criminals, and there’s nothing we can do to fight against the rebels without drawing attention to ourselves and getting caught by the military. We’re stuck.”
“Everything’s going to be fine,” Jay says softly but firmly, in that way only he can, with words only he could say without anyone getting angry or arguing over them. “We just need a little time. Once the rebels make their next move, the military will have to shift their focus from finding us to countering them.”
He doesn’t mention the Order. He doesn’t say if Erik and Al wait just a little longer, we’ll be able to go somewhere we can actually work toward making a difference. Even though he doesn’t understand my hesitation, he doesn’t interfere with my decision.
That consideration is so like him. A well of gratitude surges in my chest and I send the telepathic message, Thank you. He smiles slightly but says nothing aloud.
“How long are we going to have to wait?” Al mutters. She sits with a thump and props her chin up on her fist, but her impatience from before has already blown away. Now she only looks tired. “The longer we just sit around here, the more damage the rebels can do.”
“I know,” Jay says. “Believe me, I know. But if we move too rashly, we’re just going to make more trouble for ourselves—and then we won’t be able to do anything at all. We’ll come up with something. We always do.”
Silence greets his words, and I can’t decide if it’s one of uneasiness or agreement. Either way, no one’s really satisfied.
“Lai’s in charge of breakfast, right?” Erik asks without looking at anyone. “Be sure not to burn anything this time.”
“Hey, that was once, and it was a mistake anyone could’ve made,” I say.
“Pretty sure you’re the only one who’s caught the food on fire, though,” Al mutters.
“Learning curve.”
She rolls her eyes.
Erik goes to the single mattress, pretty much signaling the end of the night’s conversation. “I’m going for a walk in the morning. I’ll pick up food on the way.”
“Be careful,” Jay says.
Erik waves a hand vaguely over his shoulder in response. He’s already lying facedown on the mattress. His thoughts are preoccupied with a multitude of