Page 114 of The Heart Trials

I shake my head but can’t tear my eyes away from the alliance a stone’s throw away. If Rhythe is leaving them here, this is our chance to ensure he’s disqualified. If he’s gone, he’s no longer a threat. Rhythe shoulders his bag with his gear. When his back is turned, Talia eyes Ivy narrowly.

“Tent here?” Ivy asks, missing it completely.

“No, deeper into the woods,” Rhythe says. “South, it isn’t as steep.”

The four trek deeper into the forest, and I don’t move until the earth stops crunching under their feet.

Caelus’s body is still tense beside me. “Are you alright?” he asks, and I realize my hands are trembling.

“I’ll be fine. Talia and Ivy are going to camp out here and let Rhythe do the search?”

“Jace is not coming back,” Caelus says darkly. “Kade will intercept him somewhere and kill him, I’m sure. Or Rhythe will do it himself.”

An icy shiver fingerwalks up my spine. Dorian. Mae. I hope they’re okay. “I should have pulled Ivy aside when it was obvious she wanted to talk to me,” I say. “I don’t believe she’s as diabolical as Rhythe is. There’s something else there.”

“Even if that’s true, when could you have? You can’t be sure she’d even believe you. She’s been stuck to Rhythe since the beginning.”

“Mmm, maybe.” Ivy’s been curious about me compared to the absolute silence she gives everyone else. And there’s something in the intense way she stares, like there’s a puzzle piecing itself together in her mind. “She doesn’t say much, but when she looks at me it feels like she wants to talk to me.”

“Axira, you have to be in this for yourself. You have to be Saltblood, through and through.” His hand touches mine, as if trying to anchor me with his words.

“Says a Skyborn who knows nothing about where I’m from.” I shift back on my heels, away from him slightly.

“I know enough to know that you’re starting to care too much.”

“About them?”

“About everything.” For a heartbeat his expression unravels, all the polish giving way to worry and fear.

An awkward silence blows between us.

“It’s not just about them, Caelus,” I finally say. “Rhythe is after you and me. He said he was going to ‘deal with me himself,’ whatever that means. Any way you look at this, breaking up his alliance and weakening him actually helps us. If we can pull Ivy away from him, he won’t have a match. He would be disqualified. That makes everyone, including us, safer.”

His mouth pulls taut. “Feels like you’re carrying their problems. And I expected—”

“You expected what?”

“I thought you would be more heartless.”

“You what?”

“I meant…that didn’t come out right. You’re not what I expected, in a good way. When Lucent and I decided to hire you…” He sighs. “This is not the time for this. We have a long day. We have to start climbing.” He touches his chest where the Heartfiller disappeared. “I’ll be stronger today than tomorrow and the next day. These are more intense for Skyborn.”

He’s right. I’d almost forgotten. His sedative will take effect sooner. We don’t have the same time the others do. He brings a hand to my cheek, his thumb gently stroking my jaw, fanning feelings I’ve decided to bury. “I want you to have your ship, Axira.” He whispers it like a regret. “If that’s what you want, I want you to have it. And sometimes I worry you’re losing sight of that.”

My ship.

He’s trying to protect me. Again. It’s endearing.

“I want many things,” I say. “Most I can’t have. But what if we could convince Ivy to not trust Rhythe? She doesn’t seem calculating and cold like him. She’s distant, but do you think she’s vicious? Do you think she knows about the people he’s been plotting to have killed?”

Caelus shifts his weight. “It would surprise me, I suppose. She seems smart, but docile.”

“She’s our best bet to get Rhythe disqualified,” I say.

“This feels like a waste of time we don’t have.” His eyes plead with me. “Trust that I can get us through this without them.”

I glance away. I have to be smart. I can’t lose myself in the way he looks at me. I can’t trust only in this power we have. “It’s not a waste,” I say. “I’ll convince Ivy to come with us.”