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Ryder cringes, and Zinnia's eyes wander in my direction as she shoves the leaf into his mouth with her tongue.
I recollect the memory I had where I was almost kissed and how I ran away, afraid of the hunger rising inside me. I then look away, unable to stand the sight of them. I hate that he's being forced to eat quercu by Zinnia. But something else is also bothering me, something I don't fully understand, and quite frankly, it makes me want to crawl over and claw Zinnia's face off.
"Where the hell did you get quercu?" Reece asks, shocked. "That stuff is practically extinct."
"I bought it off a traveler," Zinnia replies, smacking her lips. "You'd be surprised how often it comes in handy."
Hearing her voice means she's no longer kissing Ryder, so I turn my head and look at them.
"What do you do with it?" Blaise shakes his head in disgust. "Make trades? Because the only things that want that stuff are the Grim, and if you're trading with them, then that makes you a traitor."
"A traitor to whom?" She raises her brows in speculation. "Everyone at Leviter Station? Because one might say that entire place is full of traitors."
"No one there is a traitor." Blaise's eyes snap cold. "We help people, not try to kill them, unlike the Forsaken."
"Oh. You think so?" She inches toward Blaise. "Then tell me, when your team shows up here, will they or will they not try to kill me?"
"Why would a team show up here?" Reece asks. "They don't know where this camp is."
"They didn't know until you told them." She crouches down in front of Reece, still cupping flakes of dried leaves in her hand. "You guys are smarter than I gave you credit. Counting the steps from the caves to our camp and then finding my radio transmitter to send out a code. But how did you find the transmitter while you were so doped up? You shouldn't have even been able to think about anything else other than your nightmares."
"Your dreamland is weak. Whoever you got it from screwed you over. My bet is you probably killed a wanderer and stole it off them," Reece accuses. When she doesn't deny it, he shakes his head. "You deserve what's coming to you."
She leans forward, getting in Reece's face. "You think just because some rescue team is coming, that you're saved? You forget how savagely we fight. We don't need computers or machines to protect us, unlike you."
Reece carries her gaze, refusing to lean back. "If that's the case, then why do you have a radio transmitter, Tasers, an electromagnetic pulse activator, a scanner, and a broken chaser hidden in the dirt underneath your bed?"
"Zinnia, what's he talking about?" Wrath asks, his fingers curling around the armrest. "We don't have those kinds of things at this camp."
"It's your highness," Zinnia tells him without taking her eyes off Reece. "And that's none of your business."
"None of my business?" Wrath starts to rise to his feet, fuming mad. "The whole point of our way of life is to exist without the machines the Grim created and used to bring violence to our world!"
"The Grim didn't create all the machines. Humans had their own machinery and weaponry." She reels around. "And there was violence in our world before the Grim came along. That's the problem with humans. We turn on our own kind, which is why I have all that stuff--to protect us from our own kind."
Anger simmers in Wrath's eyes as he steps toward her. "We don't need that stuff to protect us. We've been doing just fine without it."
"Yes, we have, but things change." Her fingers fold inward, crunching the quercu leaves. "The Grim put bounties on not only Nameless but humans. Any human could turn in an escaped Nameless now." Her gaze flicks in my direction. "Or an unbranded human in exchange for immunity."
"No human would be stupid enough to fall for that shit." Wrath straightens his stance, his head almost clipping the ceiling. "The Grim would never give anyone immunity. It's probably a trap. They probably capture the people stupid enough to fall for it and get double the prisoners."
"Of course that's what they're doing," she snaps. "But that isn't going to stop people from believing them. And I'm not about to let us be susceptible simply because we refuse to steer away from the old ways. Yes, I understand that machines aided in the destruction of mankind, but we also need to be able to protect ourselves from the violence."
He eliminates the space between them, towering over her. "Those old ways make us who we are. Without them, we're just as bad as everyone else."
"Those old ways were created by our ancestors who had no clue what the outcome of our world was going to be," she says. "I've already heard rumors of human hunters grouping together to track down humans. We need protection and not just from the Grim anymore."
"The Deorum will protect us," Wrath growls, his nostrils flaring. "We have a truce. We give them ten lives every month, and in exchange, they protect us."
"The Deorum protect us from hybrids, not the Grim or humans." She stands toe to toe with him. "We already have a hard enough time making that quota."
"Then we will find some other way." He leans in, his face inches from hers. "We don't need to use transmitters and electromagnetic pulses. That's not how we do things."
"That's not your call to make." She pokes him in the chest, and he staggers back. "You're severely out of line by speaking to me this way."
Metal snapping draws my attention away from their argument. I glance to my right to find Blaise unshackled and rotating his broken wrist ... or what I thought was a broken wrist. By the way he moves it, the bones don't appear to be broken. Either that or Blaise has rapid healing abilities, too.
He puts a finger to his lips, indicating for me to keep quiet. Then he reaches behind me and bends the cuffs until the metal gives way.
"Hold still until I get Reece and Ryder's handcuffs off, okay?" he whispers.
I nod, keeping my hands behind my back as Blaise shifts toward Reece. He works quickly, snapping the cuffs off them. By the time he's finished, Zinnia and Wrath are still yelling at each other.
"Should we run?" Ryder whispers to Reece. "Or try to take them out?"
"We need to take them out." Reece massages his wrists, his eyes trained on Zinnia and Wrath. "If we don't, they'll warn everyone, and we won't make it very far."
"Yeah, but people at the station are coming for us, right?" Blaise asks, wiggling his fingers on his should-be broken hand. "What Zinnia said about the transmitter, that's true, right?"
Reece frees a stressed breath. "I sent out a signal, but I never got a reply. Zinnia's transmitter was outdated. It might run on a different frequency."
"Shit." Blaise rubs the back of his hand across his forehead, smearing a trail of dirt across his skin. "So, what? We just snap their necks then try to slip out of the camp?"
"They have guards in lookout towers," I whisper. "And there are towers all over the place."
All three of them glance my way, their brows arched in surprise.
"How do you know that?" Ryder leans around Blaise and lowers his voice. "I didn't notice any when we came in."
"You were kind of out of it when we came in," I say quietly. "And I didn't even notice them until Calla, the girl who brought me to Zinnia, pointed them out. There's one on each corner of the fence."
"They have torches set up around the fence, too." Blaise shoves the sleeves of his leather jacket up, revealing the tattoos on his arms. "My guess is they light them up at night so they can keep watch from the towers."
"So we blow out the damn torches." Ryder crosses his arms defiantly. "No light means they can't see for shit."
"How the hell are we supposed to get the flames out?" Blaise hisses. "Just walk up and blow them out, hoping they don't see us first?"
"Or we don't do any of it and just make a run for it when the Deorum show up," Reece suggests. "It offers the perfect distraction."
I steal a glance in Zinnia and Wrath's direction, making sure they're still distracted, before scooting toward Reece. "You know what the Deorum are?"
"Not exactly." Reece tugs his fingers through his brown hair. "B
ut I know the word means gods."
"I'd rather not find out what they are, at least not while we're being offered as a sacrifice," Ryder says, glancing at Zinnia and Wrath. "We need to get out of here fast."
"I think we should just run," Reece contradicts what he said earlier. "On the count of three, we all bolt?"
Ryder and Blaise nod in agreement, and my confusion increases. Are we running or fighting? I'm so lost.
I put my hands to the ground and shift my weight to the balls of my toes, preparing to jump and either fight or run. Either way, I'm not sure if I can make it. Being in the channels for so long has made me so uncoordinated and slow, like I forgot how to use my body.
"One," Reece whispers, exchanging a look with Blaise.
Blaise nods his head once, as if answering a silent question.
"Two." Reece glances at Ryder then reaches for the chain behind him, and Ryder mimics him. "Three."
I spring to my feet, but Blaise grabs the back of my dress and drags me into his lap. Then he scrambles backward toward the chairs, kicking up dirt.
Zinnia lets out an untamed laugh, reeling toward us with her knife out. "You think you could plot your escape right underneath my nose?" She strides toward Reece with the knife aimed at his throat. "How stupid do you think I am?"
"Pretty stupid, since we weren't ever going to try to escape." Ryder grins sweetly at her then lunges at Wrath, swinging the chain like a whip.
Blaise wraps an arm around my waist and tows me with him as he continues to move toward the back of the tent. A revelation strikes me. Reece, Ryder, and Blaise must have known Zinnia was listening to the plan, and somehow, they made an alternative plan without actually verbalizing it. How, though? Did Blaise get into their thoughts somehow? But that doesn't make sense. He didn't touch Ryder and Reece, nor were any of them relaxed or unconscious.
