“You trust me,” Pax says.
“I do?”
He lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “I could easily kill you right now if I wanted to.”
“Maybe. But you’d die for it. Maybe what I trust is that you want to keep breathing.”
His lips quirk in a grin. “I miss that sharpness. I never wanted you to leave our camp.”
“And yet.”
“Yet what?”
“You manipulated me and let Virginia imprison me in a hole in the ground.”
“I should have rescued you. We could’ve run away together.”
My short, humorless exhale is my response.
“Where’s Marcus?” he asks.
“I’m not telling you that.”
“Have you forgiven him for lying to you?”
I cut a sharp glare at him. “We’re not doing this. Go get a shovel from the supply shed.”
“Isn’t it locked?”
I sigh heavily. “Fine, I’ll get it. Stay here.”
“I’m not going anywhere. You want me by your side all day, remember?”
Rolling my eyes, I say, “Not for the reason you seem to think.”
“We’ll see.”
If Marcus saw us right now, his jealousy would incinerate the ground we’re standing on. Pax is clever, and while I trust that he’s not going to murder me, I don’t trust him enough to let him out of my sight.
I can’t wait until Marcus wraps his arms around me again. I miss his salt and leather scent. His voice. The way he can communicate so much to me with just a look.
He’s okay. He has to be. And he keeps his promises. I just have to rely on my trusted friends for support until he gets back.
But I know for sure that Pax isn’t one of them.
28
“I fear my best operative’s fearlessness has gotten her killed. She’s been out of communication for nearly a month. What a loss this is.” - Decoded message from ILF handler Hiro Tanaka to ILF leadership
Three Years Ago
Briar
Carson City glows. I knew New America’s Capitol had electricity, but it’s one thing to be aware of it and another thing entirely to see it.
The aura of light around the city is visible before I get close enough to make out any details. I’m used to inky darkness at night. It’s impenetrable on dark, cloudy nights, and magical when the sky is illuminated by the moon and stars.
With every step I take, instinct tells me to turn around and run away. The virus didn’t just kill nearly everyone and rewrite Earth’s story. It also made civilization uncivilized.
