“You’re not one of us anymore,” Mara spits at me.
“You don’t get to decide that, Mara, I do!” Dane yells, his face twisting into fury as he shoves it in hers. “Say one more word against her, and I will bring you back home immediately.”
Mara’s face drops, eyes widening as she stares at him in complete disbelief.
Hope swells in my chest. If Dane is threatening to bring Mara home, he must not be worried about using the last of the dust. Maybe he found a way to replenish it.
If this works, I can help everyone get home.
“Go back to bed, everyone. Now!” Dane yells, and the Voyagers meander back to their beds. Mara gives me one last look of disgust before turning on her heel and walking to theladder, followed by everyone else who made it down to the clearing.
“Goodnight, Lennox,” Roley says with a small wave. “I’m glad you’re home.”
My chest squeezes as guilt courses through me.
This place isn’t my home anymore.
Roley sprints to the ladder and climbs up, waving as he runs through the pathways back toward the bunks.
“Come on,” Dane says, his hand wrapping around mine. I take a deep breath, trying to hide the revulsion I feel, and squashing the reaction to pull my hand away. “We need to talk.”
He leads me to the platform, and we wordlessly weave through camp to the infirmary. The door barely shuts behind us before Dane is pulling me farther into the room and wrapping me in his arms.
“Gods, I missed you. I can’t even tell you how relieved I am. I searched for you every day.”
The pressure of his body is stifling, but I fight it and hug him back.
“You did?” I say.
He leans back quickly, his gaze imploring. “Of course I did. I could barely rest knowing that he had you.”
I gulp as a tear slides down my cheek. Dane had been searching. I’d seen it myself, but the feelings his words brought up then, are entirely different from the ones now. He needed to find me, at all costs. He couldn’t let Weston convince me. Back then, both times I saw him on the island, he sounded desperate, crazed. It lines up with what Taril told me had changed at camp.
He swipes it away with the back of his fingers and I try not to flinch.
“Hey, it’s alright. Let’s get you fixed up.”
He looks over my scrapes, applying the salve heavily and making sure each one is cleaned and covered. When he gets to the bruise on my cheek, I stop him.
“I can do it,” I say, reaching to take the salve from him. I need a break from his hands on me already, and I’ve only just gotten back to camp.
I cringe inwardly, anticipating the next two days.
He watches me massage the salve into my skin, but stays silent. The look on his face tells me there’s a lot he wants to say, but he’s holding back, taking it slow.
“I don’t want to pry,” he says warily. “I know you just got back, but we need to talk about what happened.”
I finish rubbing the salve into my face and wipe my hands on my pants, dropping my chin so I don’t have to meet his eyes.
“I know,” I say. This is it, everything Sig and I planned for and rehearsed. I need to tell the truth where I can, so he doesn’t catch inconsistencies, but I need to protect everyone back home.
“Let’s start with what happened?”
I heave a deep sigh. “Honestly, I don’t know. I felt a blade at my throat and I froze. People appeared around me and took my weapons. I didn’t recognize anyone, and I got scared. I just listened and did what they said so they wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Did they come into camp?”
“No,” I say with a firm shake of my head. “It’s my fault. I know I was supposed to stay at camp that day, and I left. I thought staying put would help me deal with losing Fin, but it didn’t. I started getting so anxious and worried, and I just needed to get out.”
