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Yes, Lillian. It’s like a diamond—pure and strong.
His father gave him that. Rowan makes all of his moral decisions based on what he thinks his father would do. Seeing River in the barn would take that compass away from him. Do you know what love is, Lily? Real love?
I’m not sure anymore.
Love is being willing to become the villain so that the one you love can stay a hero.
* * *
Lily awoke with her head in Una’s lap. Her sore arm was bound tightly to her chest.
“The train’s beginning to slow,” Una said. “We think we’re pulling into a station.”
“Are we in Richmond?” Lily asked.
“Not yet, but we’re getting off anyway to heal you,” she answered. “I think we’re in Baltimore, so we’re not too far.” Una looked down at Lily. “That was some dream you had—if it was a dream. Felt more like a memory to me.”
Lily kept her voice low and her face calm even though she was anything but. “How much did you see?”
“One or two images,” Una whispered. She swallowed hard around a lump in her throat. “That wasn’t you in the barn. It was Lillian, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” Lily sat up and looked Una in the eye.
“Who was the doctor?” The way Una said the word it was obvious she meant “butcher.”
Lily turned her head and looked pointedly at Rowan, who was caught up in a heated discussion with Breakfast and Tristan. Then she looked back at Una, her eyes begging. “Please, Una. He loved his father. He can never find out.”
“I know a thing or two about secrets,” Una replied. “About keeping secrets no matter how much they hurt, although lately I’m starting to think that maybe it’s better when you don’t.”
“Please,” Lily whispered again.
I won’t tell Rowan, but maybe you should. I don’t understand what was going on in Lillian’s memory, but I could feel an emotion in you that I recognize too well. Shame. That never ends well, Lily. Trust me. The only way to end shame is to bring it out of the dark and into the light.
Lily and Una stared at each other. Thank you, Una.
On top of the next train car Rowan, Tristan, and Breakfast were busy discussing what food to get at the station and how best to get it. Rowan was trying to explain to them that stealing wasn’t the smartest thing to do in a world cloaked in wards, even though Rowan could break just about anyone’s ward of protection if he chose.
“I traded for some money with Riley,” Breakfast said reluctantly. “But I wanted to hold on to it in case we needed something to pay the Outlanders.”
Rowan shook his head and smiled. “They’re my tribe, Breakfast. We don’t need to pay them. Just get Lily some salty food, but don’t ask to buy salt directly. It’ll look suspicious.”
As he spoke of her, Rowan glanced over at Lily and saw that she was sitting up. His eyes softened when they met hers and her heart hurt just looking at him. Luckily, he misinterpreted the source of her emotion.
You’re still in a lot of pain.
I’ll live.
The train stopped. Una and Rowan helped Lily down off the top of the train and brought her aboveground while Breakfast and Tristan stayed and went shopping around the station.
“We have to get you out of the city quickly. Cast a glamour before anyone recognizes you,” Rowan said urgently. Lily did as he said as they melted into the foot traffic lining the city streets.
Lily noticed that Una was staring up at the soaring architecture. It was the first time she’d seen a city in this world, and the scale was overwhelming.
Baltimore wasn’t quite as big as Salem, but it was still New York City tall and compact. Yet it didn’t look or feel like any city in Una and Lily’s world. Vegetation spilled off every rooftop and terrace, and greenhouses dotted every block. Huge spiraling lattices, called greentowers, soared up into the sky, dwarfing even the tallest skyscrapers.
Rowan quickly explained to Una that vertical farming had become a necessity inside the Thirteen Cities after the Woven took over all the arable land outside the walls. All the structures needed to support vegetation or the people would starve to death inside their walls. The architecture made sense, maybe more sense than the way cities were constructed in Lily’s world, but it was still strange to Una’s eyes.
And then there were the tame Woven, called guardians, which were chained to the bottom of the greentowers to guard the precious food they supported. Una stared at the guardians, as unsettled as Lily had been when she first saw them. They looked like a combination of dog, bear, and tiger, but Lily thought that the eyes were different. They seemed intelligent—almost human. Lily looked at one of the guardians, and she could have sworn it was looking back at her like it was thinking.
