and was pressed flat against my stomach; I felt its cold indentation on my skin. My head was twisted back and to the side. I could see the rabbit on the ground where she’d dropped it, its wrung neck and open eyes.
“What the hell have you been doing?” she said. As she leaned closer the blade became more insistent. “What did you see?”
“Zoe,” warned Piper. He wrapped his arm around her neck, but he didn’t fight her—just held her and waited.
“What did you see?” she repeated.
“I told you. Just the sea. Lots of waves. I’m sorry—I can’t control it. I didn’t even realize until just now.” I couldn’t explain to her how it worked. How my awareness of her dreams wasn’t an eavesdropping, any more than I’d eavesdropped on the sea while on the island. It was just there, a background noise.
“You said it didn’t work like that,” she said, her breath hot on my face. “You said you couldn’t read minds.”
“I can’t. It’s not like that. I just get impressions, sometimes. I don’t mean to.”
She shoved me backward. When I’d steadied myself, I put my hand to my stomach. It came away red.
“It’s rabbit blood,” Piper said.
“This time,” said Zoe.
“If it makes any difference,” I said, “you know what I dream about.”
“Everyone within ten miles knows what you dream about, the way you scream and carry on.” She tossed the knife down next to the half-skinned rabbit. “That doesn’t give you the right to poke around in my head.”
I knew how it felt—I would never forget the sense of violation that the Confessor’s interrogations had left me with. How my whole mind had felt sullied by her probings.
“I’m sorry,” I called after her, as she walked away toward the river.
“Let her go,” said Piper. “Are you OK? Show me your stomach,” he said, reaching out to lift my sweater.
I swiped his hand away.
“What was that about?” I said, staring after Zoe.
He picked up the rabbit and shook the dirt from its flesh. “She shouldn’t have done that—I’ll talk to her.”
“I don’t need you to talk to her for me. I just want to know what’s going on. Why did she react like that? Why is she like this?”
“It’s not easy for her,” he said.
“Who has it been easy for? Not for me, that’s for sure. Not for you, or any of us.”
“Just give her some space,” he said.
I waved at the plain surrounding us, the pale grass stretching for miles, and the sky so big that it seemed to have encroached on the earth itself. “Space? There’s nothing here but space. She doesn’t have to be in my face every moment.”
I got no answer but the rasping of the grass in the wind, scratching at the underside of the sky, and the moistened scrape of Piper’s knife on the rabbit’s flesh as he finished the skinning.
Zoe didn’t come back until after dawn. She ate in silence and slept on the far side of Piper, instead of her usual spot between us.
I thought of what she’d said earlier: Once they’d made it to the island, most people never came back. Is it Piper she’s thinking of, I wondered, when the sea floods her sleeping mind? The sea that he crossed for the island, leaving her on her own, after all that she’d given up to be with him.
chapter 3
I’d first heard Piper and Zoe mention Sally, and the Sunken Shore, when we were still in the deadlands. They were meant to be resting, but I could hear their raised voices from the lookout spot. It was dawn; I’d volunteered to take the first watch, but when I heard them arguing I left the lookout post and headed back to the fire.
“I never wanted to drag Sally into this,” Zoe said.
“Who?” I said.
They both turned to face me. It was the same movement, doubled. And the same expression: the same angle to their eyebrows, the same appraising eyes. Even when they were arguing I felt like an intruder.
Piper answered me. “We need a base, with someone we can trust. The safe-house network’s crumbling. Sally will give us shelter, so we can start to muster the resistance and send people to Cape Bleak to seek the ships. Outfit new ships, if we need.”
“I’ve told you before,” said Zoe, still ignoring me and addressing only Piper. “We can’t get Sally involved. We can’t ask her. It’s too dangerous.”
“Who is she?” I asked.
“Zoe told you about how we got by, as kids, after we