“What are you doing?” she said, seething, staring up at him defiantly.
“What amIdoing?” August let out a bitter chuckle, lowering his voice. “What areyoudoing?” His eyes skated to the blade pressed against his neck. Wren wasn’t sure if she imagined it, but she swore she saw a flicker of amusement in his silver eyes. “And how the hell did you manage to get a knife?”
“That’s none of your business,” Wren huffed.
August rolled his eyes. He still hadn’t let go of her wrist, though he loosened his grip slightly.
“Where are Quinn and Arthur? They should be watching you.”
“First off, I don’t need babysitters,” Wren shot back. She unearthed the lock of hair from her cloak. “And somebody left this in my tent. It let me bypass the barrier. Was it you?”
August squinted at the lock of hair, brows cinched together. “No,” he replied. “It wasn’t.”
Wren shrugged, shoving it back into the cloak. “Well. It looks like we’ve got somebody else on our side, then.”
August let out a low groan of frustration. “Loughty…do you understand how difficult it was for me to convince Edith to stop torturing you? If she finds out you’ve been sneaking around Onyx Unit…” His voice trailed off, teeth digging into his bottom lip. Wren had never seen him look so panicked.
“How did you convince her, anyway?” Wren asked, stepping closer.
“I…” August swallowed. He balled his free hand into a tight fist, then stretched out his fingers as he searched for the right words. “I tried to think like her. To suggest something that would appeal to her…motivations.”
“And what did you suggest?” Wren asked.
August hesitated.
“I told her that your mind might be more…malleable…if she gave you time to acclimate,” he confessed, voice rough. “That if she let you grow comfortable, if she found a way to lower your guard…that you’d be easier to break.”
Wren shivered. A part of her couldn’t help but fear how easily August could tap into his sister’s mindset. How seamlessly he fit into their world.
“Good.” Wren swallowed back the tight knot in her throat.
“I also told her to wait until after Equinox,” August added. “I don’t know if she’ll listen, but so far it seems to have worked.” He let out a sigh, running a hand through his curls. “Which isexactlywhy it’s so reckless for you to be investigating alone.”
“You’re the one who said we needed to find a way out of here!” Wren snapped back.
“I know,” August muttered through a sigh of frustration. “I know. But…you can’t do this alone. If you want to investigate, thentell me. We’re in this together, Loughty. I’m on your side.” Wren’s expression must have reflected the conflicting feelings inside her, because as soon as the words left his lips, August’s expression shifted. He tilted his head, eyes roaming over her face, before adding a soft and agonized, “You don’t trust me, yet…do you?”
Wren opened and closed her mouth.
Do I trust him?
She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
“I want to,” she whispered back, surprised to find that she meant it.
August gave a soft nod in response. His eyes darted back to the knife pressed against his throat. The corner of his mouth lifted a fraction, a hint of a smirk.
“Then how about you start by lowering that knife?”
“Why?” Wren matched his smirk, daring to press the knife an inch closer. “Am I making you nervous?”
“Youdomake me nervous,” August admitted, chuckling, “but not because of the knife.”
Wren blinked, taken aback. “Do you think I wouldn’t do it?”
August shook his head. “No. It’s not that. I believe you’ve made it abundantly clear that you wouldn’t hesitate to jam a knife into my back…” August craned his neck forward, the edge of the blade just barely piercing his skin. When he spoke next, his voice was lower than before. Deeper. “But I don’t care.”
Wren flinched. “You don’t…care?”
