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As I watched her, I realized what Molev had encouraged by standing back and letting others speak and make decisions. He wasn’t the leader of these communities. He wasaleader. One person that people could go to for help and answers, but not the only person.
I laced my fingers through his.
“You’re pretty smart. You know that?” I said.
He smiled slightly at me and swung me up into his arms.
“I want to return to the house with you,” he said.
“But you won’t. Because you know I need more time, and we have a lot to do.” I rested my head against his shoulder, and he just held me for a moment.
“I love you, Andie,” he said softly. “You are the only light in my dark world.”
Quelling my instant need to hide from that level of confession, I met his gaze and tried to give something back instead.
“You have very pretty eyes, Molev. I think I could look at them every morning for the rest of my life and never get tired of seeing them.”
His smile widened, and he pressed a passionate kiss to my mouth before taking off at a run. He jumped the wall with me and started for Tenacity. It was a healthy distance away, but at his speed, it didn’t take long until I spotted their wall. People walked the top of it. Mostly humans with a fey or two mixed in.
The streets of Tenacity were busier than Tolerance with more people gathered by a large pole shed.
A man spotted us and came jogging over as Molev set me down.
“Heard you were back, Molev. Welcome to Tenacity. June, Tenacity’s new co-leader, should be around here somewhere. Let me introduce you.”
“Matt Davis,” Molev said, “this is Andie, my—”
“Partner,” I said before he could claim me as his wife again. I shook Matt’s hand. “We heard a lot about what’s been happening here from Emily and wanted to return the favor with news from the outside if you have time.”
Matt nodded and waved for us to follow him. When he spotted a fey, he called, “Can you find Tor and June for me?”
The fey ran off as we followed Matt to a house. It was more lived-in than Molev’s, with hints of clutter here and there, but definitely not as cozy as Mya and Drav’s place. On a side table, I spotted the radio.
“Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to the sofa.
I withdrew the folder from my jacket as I sat and handed it over to him.
“This is the information your predecessor failed to pass to you. Frequencies and when to use them to contact the rest of the bases.”
He took the folder and opened it to stare down at the information.
“I can’t even imagine how things might have gone if I’d had this from the beginning,” he said. “I’ve heard a little about what it was like out there for you. The barrier that was keeping the infected back. Camps of survivors. How you managed to leave just before it all fell.”
He ran a hand through his hair.
“I have to admit…I’m both relieved and disappointed it fell. I don’t want us to be the last of humankind. But I also don’t want to worry about something interfering with the coexistence we’ve finally managed.”
I heard the underlying warning in his words.
“Molev believes that the infected are drawn to humans. The larger the group, the stronger the draw. Right now, anyone who might care about what’s happening here is too busy trying to stay alive. And even if they do survive, we all have bigger problems. Once the infected are done chasing the humans on the coasts, we’ll be next. And we won’t survive the numbers headed our way.”
Matt glanced down at the papers. “I know you’re not telling me to give up. You wouldn’t have come all the way here and handed me these papers if that were the case.”
“The researchers with us are working on a cure for the plague. And the team we left behind was working on an easier way to stop the hellhounds. The infected pose a threat because of their numbers and the hounds because of their indestructibility. We need the answers to both if we want to win. We need to get word back to Fort Irwin that there is a group of immune humans here and hope there’s someone left to update us with their progress.”
He stared down at the paper for another minute before nodding. “All right. I’ll make it happen and let you know if we get an answer.”
“Thank you,” I said just as his front door swung open.
