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Snapping my attention back to him, I scowl and swallow down the rage cocked at the back of my throat. “And how do I know you’re not the one lying? How do I know you haven’t been lying to me all along? How do I know you didn’t help me escape just so I’d get you into Szolen to free your friend?”
“Because up until now, I was certain Atticus was dead. I have nothing to gain by lying to you.”
The anger inside of me screams that he has everything to gain. All of Szolen. To seize it for his own. But my heart knows better. Knows that isn’t Titus. It isn’t the man I’ve come to care for over the last few weeks.
As much as I don’t want to, I let my mind carry the possibility that Jack murdered my father, and new thoughts spring up from all that murk in my brain. Conversations that I didn’t piece together until this very moment.
“Will told me that Jack sent him to retrieve one of those silver boxes from the convent. They were raided by Remus and his men. Jack must’ve set the whole thing up.” The more I think on it, the more I wonder if he was the reason I never reached the convent. The mysterious contact that Sam, the guy who sold me off to Madame Beaumont, didn’t want to divulge to me. “But, why? Why would he do such a thing? Why would he destroy my family?”
“Only two reasons: he wants something, or he wants to hide something.” His finger hooks my chin as he lifts my gaze to his. “Thalia, I have to go back for my friend. If he’s alive. I have to set him free.”
“Going back there is dangerous, Titus. The guards will shoot us on sight.”
“I know of a way in.”
“The tree? They tore it down. There is no way in now. Will was my ticket home.”
The defeat is written on both our faces, as we stare off, likely wondering the same thing.
How?
“I’ve not been there in a couple years.” He huffs, falling back against the wall behind him. “I’m sure it’s become a fortress by now.”
“It has. But hang on ...” Knocked with an epiphany, I grip his thigh as it unravels inside my head.
His comment brings to mind a conversation I overheard my father in a few months ago. He was complaining to the head guard at the gate about how a fortress like Szolen could have such a silly chink in its security.
“Every twelve hours, the Mediators switch off,” I say. “A truck carries supplies and the next shift of guards out to the solar panels. During the day, it’s well guarded and secure. But at night, they’re vulnerable. They have to shut the power down for emergency services only. If we wait at the panels, we can hitch a ride back into Szolen unseen.”
“The guards coming back will be in the truck. They’ll see us.”
“The food they take out there is transported in large cooler boxes on the back of the truck. I once helped pack them for a school volunteer project. They come back empty.”
“And I would fit in one of these.”
“Yes. They’re feeding a literal army of men. Both of us can fit in one. It’ll be snug, but it’s a relatively short ride from the panels to Szolen.”
“You know for certain when they’ll be at the panels?”
“Yes. I used to hide in the warehouse as a child, watching the trucks come and go. Waiting for my father. Will and I would sneak into the coolers, playing hide and seek when they returned.”
Hand rubbing across his chin, he seems to consider my proposal. “The panels are nearly four-hundred miles south of where we are now. Unless we find fuel for the vehicles, that’s a ten-day hike. There’d be stretches of no shelter from the sun, or marauders.”
“Where the hell will we find fuel around here?”
“There’s a corn fuel farm a few miles from Remus’s compound. If I walk through the night, I can make it there in about eighteen hours.”
“What do you mean I can make it there? I’m coming with you.”
“It’s too dangerous, Thalia. That’s a common stop for Remus and his men.”
“How much does each gas can hold?”
His lips press tightly together, telling me he’s already calculated this and knows what I’m going to say. “Five gallons each.”
“Not even ten gallons is enough to make it to the panels. You’re going to haul all that fuel on foot by yourself?”
“No. I’m going to retrieve enough to drive the vehicle there and fill the rest of the tank. From there, we’ll head to the panels.”
