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“What else can I do? He’s pretty much the only one left who believes in me. Even you don’t believe in what I’m trying to do,” Lily said.
She wasn’t accusing Caleb, just stating a fact. Caleb had made it clear that he didn’t agree with Lily about the Woven. As far as he was concerned, they were worse than animals and there was no way they’d ever be able to coexist with the Outlanders.
“I don’t need to believe you in order to follow you,” Caleb replied.
Lily gave him a baffled look as she turned his words over in her head. “Nope, that actually makes no sense, Caleb.”
He laughed and looked down at his hands, thinking of a better way to put it. “You could have made those braves stay. You could have forced them by taking control of their minds and bodies, but you didn’t even think of doing that, did you?”
“Of course not,” Lily whispered, remembering how it felt to be paralyzed and thrown in a cage—and remembering that there were still things she wasn’t willing to do. “It’s wrong.”
“The witch I had before I left the Citadel? She used to possess me for fun. Just to prove she had power over me,” Caleb said. “Alaric has power in those bombs, and he hid them from us so he could use them without putting it to a vote. You’re the best leader I’ve ever had.” He paused before adding one more thing. “And you’re nothing like Lillian.”
Some door that had been shut tight unlocked in Lily, and she leaned her forehead against Caleb’s chest. “Why can’t Rowan see that?” Lily replied, a sob escaping from her mid-sentence.
Caleb took it in stride. He let her lean into him, crying tears that seemed to scrape her raw as they came out. He said soothing things that didn’t impart any wisdom or change what Lily felt, but that comforted her nonetheless. He talked about how much he missed Elias and Lily only cried harder. So many had been lost in this war, and she knew the dying wasn’t done yet. When Lily finally heaved her last sigh, Caleb looked at her and frowned in thought.
“Not that I’m trying to bring up Rowan and get you crying again,” he began cautiously, “but something’s always bothered me about how we left things with him.”
“Me too,” Lily said ironically as she dabbed at her leaky eyes.
“No, what I mean is how we got away with you.” Caleb picked up a stick and started drawing in the dirt around the fire. “So it was me, Tristan, and your Tristan who went to Rowan’s tent to get your willstones back. Rowan’s tent was in the middle of camp.” He drew an X in the middle of a circle. “We woke Rowan up trying to get your willstones from around his neck and he knocked my Tristan unconscious before he was even out of bed. I jumped in and we went at it. Then Rowan knocked me out.”
“Yeah. I remember seeing your face,” Lily said apologetically.
“We’ll get to that in a second,” he replied. “I wake up ten minutes later next to my Tristan, who wakes up just after me. The thing is, we’re here with horses tied up right next to us.” Caleb made another X on the outside of the circle of Alaric’s camp. “Even if your Tristan had beaten Rowan in two or three punches, how the hell could he have carried us out here by himself in ten minutes? You were unconscious. You couldn’t have fueled him, so he would have had to pick me up, carry me, then go back for the other Tristan and carry him.”
“Can someone do that in ten minutes?” Lily asked.
“Not alone,” Caleb said. “And another thing? Your Tristan didn’t have a scratch on him.”
“Yeah, I figured he didn’t fight at all,” Lily said, grimacing. “He obviously doesn’t want to say what happened, so I didn’t want to ask him in case it’s embarrassing.”
Caleb frowned and leaned back. “Maybe you’re right.” He swiped his foot across his crude drawing, erasing it. “Maybe it’s best if we just let it go. He got you out. I guess it doesn’t matter how.”
Caleb left Lily sitting next to the fire. She still felt shaky and strangely elated from crying.
“Hey, Lily? Sorry I blew up like that,” her Tristan said, coming up behind her. Lily turned to face him, still wiping her nose, and he saw her tear-streaked face. “What happened?” he asked, his expression darkening. “What did Caleb say to you?”
“Nothing upsetting. I had a good cry, not a bad one,” Lily said, giving him a teary smile. She took Tristan’s hand and pulled herself up by it. “There were some things I needed to let go of.”
He kept her hand in his. “What? What did you let go of?” he asked hopefully.
“That I’m not like Lillian,” she said. “I may agree with her, but I’m not going to do things the way she did.”
“Good,” Tristan said quietly. He looked disappointed, and Lily knew why. He was hoping she’d let go of Rowan.
Lily stretched up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. The smell of him was so familiar and comforting. His hands on the small of her back eased her closer until she could feel the solid shape of him on the other side of her clothes. For the first time in months she remembered what it was like to kiss him, and how once, long ago and a universe away, it had felt when he’d moved against her and said her name. Lily let her lips rest against his skin longer than a friend would, and then spun around and left him.
But Lily didn’t get the chance to decide how she felt about him. Just days later, her tribe left Pack territory and encountered the Hive.
CHAPTER
15
Lily heard the Hive long before she saw them.
It started as an anxious static in the air. The remaining braves slowed their horses and shared puzzled looks. Although still faint, the vastness of the sound was almost like a waterfall in the distance—low, steady, and enormously powerful. Then the sound grew until the buzzing shook the little bones in Lily’s head. The horses shied and stamped their feet as Lily and her braves craned their necks in all directions across the rippling grass of the plains, trying to find the source of the buzz. It seemed to come from everywhere.
