rustle of wings that signified an owl hunting for prey. I’d left Trevor some clothes I’d found in a broken closet, so he had something to change into at least this time.
“Morning,” I said when I found him, sprawled out in a pile of blue plastic tarps, in the middle of what looked like a large outdoor bathtub.
He blinked and groaned, flexing his muscles as pushed himself up, but he was human again.
“I feel like I drank a bottle of whiskey last night.”
“In other words just another day for you, right?”
He grinned, pulling on the pair of brown overalls I’d left him, then stood and stretched.
“Thank you,” I said. “For going back for her. For saving us.”
“She’s important to you,” he said. “And if you haven’t figured it out yet, you’re important to me.”
He stepped closer, his voice husky. This time I didn’t pull away.
“When the building blew up, I was so scared. I thought I’d lost you. I didn’t know what to do.”
“I’m still here,” he said, cupping my cheek with his rough palm.
“But for how long?” I asked. It was mostly rhetorical, but I couldn’t help myself from following the train of thought.
“I mean, this is crazy. Did you ever think, growing up in Algrave, we’d be on a quest to topple the kingdom? King Richard was practically our god; a savior. That’s what we were taught.”
“We’ve changed, we’ve learned,” Trevor said, reaching for his shirt. “But now we’re free. Free to choose our own paths. Free to be together. Isn’t that worth the risk?”
A flash of metal caught my eye and I recognized the simple gold band on a long chain around his neck. It was the ring he’d tried to give me once, in Algrave. Somehow he’d held onto it, all this time.
My eyes drifted to the scars on his chest and arms. Scars he’d gotten fighting for me; and he was still fighting. If I hadn’t been chosen, would he have gone down this violent path and joined the rebels? I was a whirlpool of destruction. If not for me, he wouldn’t have been tortured, turned into a slagpaw by the king.
And it wasn’t just an accident of fate. If I hadn’t gone out hunting; if I hadn’t somehow captivated Nigel’s obsession, I doubted any of the elites would have given me a second look at the choosing ceremony. What a different life we might have had.
“We may have to pay with it for our lives,” I said finally, answering his question. “And that’s a choice we can make for ourselves, but not for others. Jacob said they were going to attack the compounds. Is that really what you want?”
“Something has to happen,” Trevor said darkly.
“Not that.” I turned away from him, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. Then he blocked my path, pushing his hand against the wall.
This time he kissed me hard. Hungry. His lips were salty, and a heavy musk tickled my nose, but it wasn’t unpleasant. His body pressed up against mine, and for a moment I forgot everything. Damien, the capital, being chosen.
That all seemed so far away now, like a dream; and the illusion had been shattered. Even if I could go back, pretending to be Damien’s companion, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to, knowing what I knew now. No matter how I felt about Damien, I’d never be welcome in the citadel again, and even if we somehow managed to kill King Richard, Damien might never forgive me.
I’d never really had a choice before, but maybe, for the first time in my life, I could be the one to do the choosing. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about Trevor, but there was something seductive about having responsibility over my own body.
“Get a room,” a voice called down from above.
“Besides, aren’t you married?”
“Engaged,” I said. “Kind of.”
I glanced up to see Jazmine and Camina, leaning out the window on the floor above us. I grinned, as Trevor bit and pulled softly at my lower lip.
“To be continued?” he murmured, brushing a hand over my tangled dark hair.
“Maybe after I’ve had a shower,” I said. “I feel disgusting.”
“Good idea,” he said. “You stink.”
“Watch it, furball,” I teased.
At dawn, we started moving again. We traveled during the day, and at night took shifts sleeping. We lit fires to cook in the afternoon, before the night fell – it was too dangerous to have a fire in the dark and give away our position. During the