lashed out. I tasted blood. Oh my god, I think I killed someone.”
“That would be me,” Camina growled. “Takes more than a slagpaw to take me down.”
“It wasn’t him,” I said, turning to Trevor. “It was the other slagpaw. And no matter what you did, it wasn’t your fault. You weren’t yourself.”
“I smelled something calming, something familiar, and then I saw you. I remembered you. But how did you know it was me?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I did, and here we are.”
“So we ran away together after all,” Trevor smirked, with far too much satisfaction in his eyes.
“That’s a stretch,” I said.
“I’ll take it.”
Yesterday I’d had way too much elixir, more than I’d ever had – more than should be possible. It made me so strong, but now that it was gone my muscles were on fire. Other than that, and feeling gross in my pageant clothes, I felt fine. The marks on my wrist where I’d cut them were almost healed, but not quite. I guess my body had run out of elixir. And I felt lightheaded when I stood up, and weak after only a couple hours walking. I had to stop, short of breath. And my skin itched, though it was hard to tell with the sweat on my neck or ash on my bare skin. We covered our mouths with scraps of fabric, and took turns using the more functional gas masks we’d found in the cave, so we didn’t breathe in too much toxin.
Even so, hiking through the open landscape, for miles and miles, soon had me gasping for air. There was always not quite enough oxygen in the atmosphere.
We left the rocky base of the mountain and trekked through thick woods for hours, getting scratched by thorny brambles until we came to a small cabin. One wall was missing entirely, and moss and roots had grown up through the floorboards. The remains of a small kitchen and fireplace were tucked into one corner, near the wire frame of a bed. A small room to the back was covered in ash. The roof had rotted away completely and I could see branches through the hole in the ceiling.
“Some place you’ve got here,” Jazmine muttered.
“It’s too exposed for a real settlement,” Beatrice said, “but scavengers mostly leave it alone, if they can even find it in the woods.”
She stood on the bedframe and lifted a moldy wooden panel in the ceiling, pulling out a large satchel with supplies.
“It’s not much,” she said, handing us a parcel of clothes wrapped in plastic bags. “A change of clothes, a few weapons, and food for a couple days. There should be a few drops of elixir in the pocket.”
Trevor had spent most of the day in boxers, so he pulled on a pair of jeans, a threadbare blue sweater, and pushed his dark hair out of his eyes.
Camina, Jazmine and I were all mostly still in our bloodstained costumes from the trials – meant more for display than practicality, and definitely unsuited for our current journey.
“I would kill for a shower right now,” Jazmine grunted, pulling on a sweatshirt over her dark, matted hair.
“It’ll have to wait. Bounty hunters and the king’s guard will be out combing the woods, we won’t be safe till we get to Havoc.”
“Havoc?” Jazmine asked.
“Headquarters of the resistance,” Luke grinned. “The last bastion of free-range humans.”
“Here, put these on,” Beatrice said, holding out thin paper masks. “It’s better than nothing, you’ve already been out in the ash too long.”
I shut the door for a little privacy, stripped out of the pink and white dress, which was stained with dark blood, and put on a thick wool skirt that came down to my ankles. The rough fabric sent shivers down my spine. I felt like I was too hot and too cold at once, but it was clean, and dry, and didn’t make me sick to my stomach. When I turned around, the door creaked open.
“Here,” Trevor said, handing me a glass vial, with a couple drops of elixir still in it. “The others, we decided, this should be yours.”
“Camina needs it more,” I said.
“Camina isn’t the one who opened her wrists last night. Seriously, that was stupid, and risky.”
“You’re welcome,” I said.
He grinned, and mouthed thank you. I tucked the elixir away, though my body ached for it. I’d gotten too used to my daily dosage, and after yesterday’s brutal events, and the bloodletting, I was running on empty. After hesitating another