Page 76 of The Shadow Sanctum

My stomach lurches, but I straighten my back and school my face to stone. The Keepers glance up at me as if searching for guidance. For some beacon of hope falsified with assurance I don’t have.

Thorne is right. This is bad.

“Execute the worst cases,” I order, my voice flat. “Anyone on their last legs goes… When you’re finished, move on to isolating the sick. Keep them in the cells with plenty of water and move the healthy to another tunnel. All Keepers who’ve been assigned to the mines in the last forty-eight hours will be monitored for symptoms and quarantined until further notice. No one else is to enter the cells.”

They bow their heads as they backpedal. No questions. No panic. The Keepers know better.

But Thorne does not. He steps closer with his jaw tight and eyes flicking from the pile of bodies to the still-living that wheeze and hack behind the bars. “You think the Keepers spread this to the children?”

Sucking in the putrid smell of death, I shake my head. “I don’t know… Until we figure this out, we’ll assume that’s what happened and act accordingly.”

His brow furrows as he stares at me. More confusion than concern swirls in his brown eyes. “But you think it’s something else.”

Not a question, but a statement. Even when I think my face is stone, Thorne can see the worry underneath. Because he knows me, like Sawyer. Even if it isn’t in the same way.

A stab to my chest.

I force my eyes back to the rows of cells where a man grips the bars with skeletal hands, his eyes glassy with fever as he coughs blood down his chin. My heart pounds faster.

“We should talk outside.” I nod down the tunnel and start that way.

He follows me silently until crisp, cold air kisses our cheeks. I stuff my hands in my pockets while looking over my shoulder to check for Keepers in earshot.

“What is it?” Thorne asks while practically leaning over me.

I take a long inhale to let the air chill my lungs, then slowly blow. We trudge through the snow in the direction of the compound, though I couldn’t say where we’re going. What the next move should be.

“Is anyone else sick?” I ask instead of answering him. “Anyone besides a child or Dreg?”

“Two of the Nurturers… but no one else that I’m aware of.”

“None of the Keepers? Not even the ones who worked the mines?”

“No.” Thorne’s quick to say. Because of course, he’s already checked.

If I’d been with him, I would already know everything, and the guilt of that knowledge makes my throat feel tight and stiff. Precious hours wasted…

I nod slowly, processing.

“Luna, please. What are you not saying?”

Pausing, I wrap my arms around myself and turn to Thorne. My feet slide in the slushy snow. “The primary people affected have the weakest immune systems and zero contact with one another… It’s possible the Keepers are spreading the illness to the children, but if that were the case, I would think there would be a gap in symptom onset. Instead, there’s a wave of sickness hitting both groups at once.”

Thorne blinks. “Okay… What does that mean?”

“It means it’s unlikely to be viral. And it’s unlikely that it’s a bacterial infection spread through contact alone… The children and the Dregs had to have been exposed at the same time. Which means it’s likely they’ve ingested something contaminated.”

Thorne shakes his head. “That’s not possible. Their diets are different. We would never feed the children⁠—”

“I agree, I don’t think it was food.”

He squints at me a moment before looking off, searching for an answer right in front of him. The worst possible scenario, out in the open for anyone to see.

His jaw falls when it occurs to him. “The water.”

When Thorne’s head snaps back to me, all I can do is grimace and nod.

“What do we do?” His eyes dart around like he’s looking for the answer. As he finds me again, I try to appear calm. But it’s pointless.