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“It’s clear, Atlas, but I don’t know if we have the manpower. Everybody is focused on rebuilding.”
“Find the goddamn manpower!” I howled.
I caught Dahlia staring at me with a mixture of awe and terror.
“What can I do?” she asked when Vivian and Petyr left to form their own teams. “I feel so helpless sitting here.”
“You can tell me where you think she might have gone,” I offered, knowing that it wasn’t the most useful thing, but at least it was a start.
Dahlia scoffed. “I don’t have a clue,” she replied. “I mean, I don’t know what she was thinking, leaving. All I told her was that I thought you might be having legal problems. I didn’t think she would scare over something like that. It’s not like Bianca.”
“That’s not why she left,” I muttered, sinking onto the couch and dropping my head back against the cushions.
The remnants of Bianca’s scent were still there, our first encounter embedded into the fabric forever. My chest tightened.
“Then why did she leave?”
“Because I’m fucking cursed, Dahlia, all right?”
I sprung up. I couldn’t sit there, either. This wasn’t the way I did things. Every minute I wasted was a minute that Bianca was endangered. I hadn’t gone through all this just to lose her again.
“I changed my mind, Dahlia. Stay here. I am going to find your sister.”
“What are you doing?” Dahlia called out, rushing after me as I shifted between the living room and the front door. “Where are you going?”
I ignored her, bounding through the front door and into the night, allowing my primal instincts to take over me and lead me to Bianca.
I hoped I wasn’t too late.
Chapter30
Bianca
Isat under the falling tree, shivering. How had I forgotten that the nights were so cold? They didn’t seem that way when I’d been at Atlas’ home. All I could remember was heat and sweat, endless warmth over these past days.
But the nights were chilly in Covale City when the sun went down and even colder in Forny, where the electric city lights didn’t offer any extra padding, and the wilderness settled in. I had no resources for lighting a fire—not that I really knew how to build one.
This was such a stupid idea. I should have planned it better. I should go back to Atlas and tell him I need to go. We’ll work this out together. He’ll see the sense in letting me leave.
Except that I’d tried that already, and he had made it clear that I wasn’t going anywhere, that he would rather lose his entire empire and everyone else than me. I just couldn’t bear the guilt of it, not when people were dying.
No. I had to keep going, make my way out of Forny, beyond to Crishope. Maybe I could go somewhere tropical, like Montshire. Not now, though. It was too far to get there by foot. Maybe someday, if I saved up enough money, that would be a great place to plant some roots. Somewhere that no one knew me or Jesse—or at least less of Jesse. I could get a job and find a place to live. Then I’d write to Atlas and go back for Dahlia.
It had to be this way.
First, I had to get out of Forny. I shouldn’t have even stopped to rest. This was dangerous territory, and I had no business being there at all. If there had been any other way to go, I would have taken it, but without any money, a sea passage was out of the question. If I wanted to go by land, it was through Forny, at least for a few miles.
The sound of scuffing tensed my body, and I peeked around the side of the tree, my breath escaping in small puffs.
“Who’s there?” a man called out, half-curious, half-cautiously.
I chewed on the insides of my cheeks and willed myself to be still.
“I can see you. By the tree. Show yourself, or I’ll shoot!”
My chest constricted, and I again turned my head to look. I wished I’d thought to put a hat on, something to mute the shining blonde of my hair in the darkness.
“Don’t shoot,” I begged, rising from the base of the tree. “I’m just heading home after a long day of work.”
