a healing one. To cleave isn’t only to cut, but to bind and bring together, to join and to make whole. We were meant to explore the multiverse, to learn and protect and make better every world we pass through. We were born to fight entropy, to weave it back into order and beauty. That is our calling, not destruction and death. And so we shall.”
Silence followed her words, the kind of hush usually found in a church.
“That’s not what we’re taught.” I said, thinking of the leather-bound Bible in our living room. “I’m not saying the Consort is right—but they’ve been teaching the exact opposite for generations. They have books and writings and scripture to back up what they say. How are you going to convince anyone to listen?”
“Because we have proof. Think about it, Delancey—the Free Walkers have never attacked the Consort, or the Walkers in general. We’ve never done anything to damage the Key World. And yet we’re branded as threats and traitors. Why is that?”
“They’re afraid of you,” Simon answered.
Rose smiled, brilliant but weary. “They’re afraid of you. Hybrids are the future of the Walkers. The Consort has chosen to deal with the population crisis using brute force. They see Half Walkers as a weakening of the line, but the truth is, you’re more powerful. You make cauterization possible, and your Echoes mean the population crisis is a moot point.” She shook her head. “You and your kind could save us all, if we’d let you.”
“Telling them Simon could preserve Echoes won’t change their minds.”
“Showing them will,” she said grimly. “We just need to get their attention.”
“You’ve got their attention. They’re planning the Tacet because they’re afraid of you. How are you planning to stop it?”
Rose’s eyebrows snapped together, the same as my mom’s whenever I talked back. “Let us worry about the details. It’s time for you to rest.”
She took my arm and angled me toward the infirmary. I jerked away.
“I’m not tired!” I sounded like a little kid up past bedtime, but that’s how she was treating me. “We have a right to know what you’re planning.”
“No, you don’t. You’re not a Free Walker yet.”
“I brought you the frequency. I brought you Monty. I turned my back on the Walkers. My friends. My family. What else do I have to do to prove myself?”
“You’re inexperienced. We can’t send you out without the proper training.” More gently she added, “This is a marathon, not a sprint. Once we’ve dealt with the Consort and you’ve caught up, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to help.”
“You mean once you trust me.”
Simon squeezed my fingers, but I was done being careful. Careful worked for Addie, maybe, and Eliot. But careful made you hesitate, and if I’d learned anything in the past few weeks, it was that hesitation could be as deadly as haste.
“I trust you, Del,” Rose said, but there was a precision to her words that underscored everything she wasn’t saying. She didn’t believe I could be helpful; the Free Walkers didn’t trust me or believe in me.
“Then tell me what the plan is.”
“I’ve told you all you need to know. You are both guests here—valued guests—but we expect that you’ll abide by the rules we’ve set.” She stopped herself from adding “or else,” but it hung in the air between us.
Simon shifted closer to me. If you didn’t know better, his movements would have seemed lazy, but it was the opposite—fluid and easy, an archer drawing a bow and taking aim without spooking the rabbit.
She was small and white-haired, but Rose was no rabbit. Instead of spooking, she gestured toward the infirmary. “We can talk more once you’ve rested.”
I was planning to do a hell of a lot more than talk.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
ROSE RETURNED ME TO THE main infirmary—a generic hotel room, identical to mine, but every surface was covered with regimented rows of medical supplies. A middle-aged woman wearing a lab coat and mom jeans startled when she caught sight of me.
“Rose! I had no idea she’d left!” She opened the door connecting our rooms, like she was making sure I wasn’t there. “I’m so sorry!”
“Del has a mind of her own,” Rose said, waving away the apology. To me she said, “Rest now. Pushing too hard will turn you into a liability.”
There was no room in the Free Walkers for a liability.
“Come on,” Simon said, in a voice I’d heard him use to charm everyone from the lunch lady to my mother. I couldn’t tell if