“Just grab a fork. The meat should tear right off,” Kiera instructed, her chin glistening with a dribble of fat.
As I leaned toward the fire to grab a slender branch topped with two metal prongs secured by twine, I caught Quinn scrutinizing me. The flames bounced against his hazel irises, heightening his already suspicious air.
“What do you eat when your supply of tigri runs out?” I asked, taking a small bite. Although unseasoned, the meat was delicious, melting on my tongue before sliding into my empty stomach, which emitted its own little pleased rumble; nothing like the sound that had come from Remo earlier though.
“Panem leaves and mollusks.” Kiera wrinkled her nose as she wiped her chin on the back of her hand. She’d probably eaten too much of both.
Remo finally sank down next to me, leaned over to grab a Scourge-made fork, and pierced the roasted leg of tigri. He gobbled the chunk of meat so fast I didn’t think he even tasted it. His stomach grumbled again, which spurred him into tearing through a second piece.
I thought of all the cuts of tigri dangling in the jungle. “How long will the meat keep?”
“Once it dries, we’ll smoke it.” Cruz carved himself another piece of browned roast. “And then, we bring it into the caves, dig up a hole in the sand, and layer panem leaves around it. It’s not as effective as a freezer, but it’ll keep a few weeks. Months even.”
“What’s your deal with Kingston? Why’d you two kill him?” Quinn’s change of subject was so abrupt it made everyone fall quiet.
“Just keeping him in line,” Remo finally said.
“In line? Who do you take yourselves for? The police?” Grease glossed Quinn’s beard. He brushed the wiry hairs with blood-crusted fingernails.
Kiera shrugged. “He tried to assassinate her dad, Quinn.”
“Are you just going to shrug when she comes after us seeking revenge for what we did to her aunt?”
Kiera’s shoulders locked up tight. “We never tried to assassinate no one, Quinn. We were protecting our people.” She slanted me a look. “You don’t have any plans to off us, do you?”
“You’re seriously asking them?” Quinn snorted, tore off a chunk of meat, then swallowed.
“Do you plan on hurting Amara’s aunt when you get out of here?” Remo asked calmly.
“We don’t care about her!” Quinn stared at Remo through slitted eyes. “But we plan on giving your granddaddy a piece of our minds.”
“Quinn . . .” Kiera hissed.
Remo’s grip tightened on his fork. “He’d deserve it.”
“What he deserves is to be locked up in this fucking prison,” Quinn huffed out. “I give him a week before he bites the apple. Fuck, even I was tempted. If Kiera hadn’t knocked it out of my hand, I would’ve given up. What sort of life is this?”
A sorry one.
“And you, Cruz?” I asked. “Were you ever tempted to bite the apple?”
He swirled the prongs of his fork in the sand, shaping an image that looked so much like Lily’s face it made my heart miss a beat. When he caught me staring, he swept his palm across the sand. “Yes.” The muscles in his arms flexed as he pressed his hands against his knees as though to rise. He didn’t, though, just stared at me from across the flames. “She’s happy right? With Kajika?”
“She is, but she’ll be happier once she sees you still exist.”
Cruz’s jaw stiffened, then relaxed, then stiffened again. “I heard she had twins.”
I found myself smiling. “Giya and Adsookin. They’re a couple months older than I am. They’re both”—my voice caught—“they’re both amazing.”
Remo’s hand landed on my thigh, stayed there.
“Kingston told us the Farrows and the Woods hated each other’s guts,” Kiera said, not missing Remo’s grip on me.
My heart felt as though it were ballooning a little. “They do.”
“But not your generation?” she asked.
“Oh, no,” I said, with a smile. “Our generation hates each other.”
“Then why are you two so”—she wrinkled her nose—“touchy-feely?”
“Because he’s my fiancé.”
Her eyebrows, which were a few shades darker than her white-blonde hair, jolted up. “Your fiancé?”
“Yeah. My father wanted to appease Gregor, so they agreed on tying me to this one.” I nodded to Remo, whose fingers traveled to my waist and pinched the skin, which just made my smile broaden. “It was the worst day of my life. Well, until I went through the portal your brother told me about.” I looked back at her, saw so much of Josh, the same blue eyes and smattering of freckles, although he