The soft voice in my head jolts through me like an electric current. It doesn’t hurt—it never hurts when these confusing transmissions strike out of nowhere—but it’s such a foreign sensation that it triggers my anxiety.
I think…that was Ivy? I can’t hear her anymore, so I’m not sure. But I hear Cross. Loud and clear.
“It’s twoa.m.and you showed up at my door. What else am I supposed to think?”
She’s in his quarters? This late at night?
The mere notion makes my vision swim with a white-hot rage, andI realize I’m shaking. Jealousy squeezes my chest like a boa constrictor.
Stop it. You ended it. He’s not yours anymore.
Right. Cross and I aren’t together anymore. I haven’t heard a peep from him in months. Which is my fault—I own that. He asked me to run away with him and I said no. I’m not allowed to care who he’s talking to or whether he’s indulging in late-night trysts with his ex-girlfriend.
“Please. Cross.”That’s Ivy, all right.“Can I come in?”
My mind suddenly goes silent.
Why aren’t they talking?
Keep talking!
I hate this new ability, whatever the fuck it is. I want to be able to control it, but the silence drags on and on and on, until I’m nearly screaming with frustration.
Just as I’m about to give up and go to sleep, their voices fill my mind again.
“I know. Trust me, I know.”Cross sounds as tired as I feel.
He knows what? I grit my teeth in frustration.
“I didn’t want to be up on that platform,”Ivy says, a note of misery in her voice.“What he did to those silverbloods…”
Roe. She means Roe. They must be discussing the executions after the salt mine rescue.
Their voices fade away, then return.
“…scares me.”
“I’ll reassign you. If you don’t feel safe serving on his unit, I’ll transfer you to Hadley’s team.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
There’s a long, long pause, and for a moment I think I’ve lost the connection. Until Ivy utters the words that bring another hot clench of jealousy to my chest.
“Do you ever think about us, Cross?”
This time, when the silence returns—and sticks—I welcome it.
I wake up the next morning still feeling dispirited, so at breakfast I convince Tana to come to the valley with me for a trail ride. She resists at first, but whatever she sees on my face causes her to capitulate. Luisa flies us down, going to visit with her parents while Tana and I walk to the stable. We don’t see Gray’s aunt Jenni on her porch today, thankfully. Something about that woman puts me on edge.
Tana and I have slowly been reconnecting in the months since her rescue, but this afternoon is especially reminiscent of our childhood. I’m overcome by a wave of nostalgia as we saddle the horses and take off in a steady trot along the trail.
“I miss the ranch,” I remark. “All the wide-open spaces.”
“I miss my dad.”
My stomach twists at the reminder of Griff. Big, gentle Griff, with his bushy beard streaked with gray.
“You’ve been observing the coal mine, right?” I ask her. Tana is assigned to Intelligence, so she spends most of her time on the Dagger’s R&I floor, coordinating with our operatives in the wards. “Any chance the network will rescue the Mods there?”
