6
The next morning, the sun warms our tent, light beating against the canvas. It might feel nice if I’d gotten an ounce of sleep. They called an all-clear sometime in the night, and we headed back to our beds, where I stared up at the canvas until dawn.
I hear the soft chatter of people in the distance, soothing some lonely place inside of me.
This is a community. A place for people to belong.
I think of Rook’s whispered words in the hallway last night.
The Veil is battling a war with The Shield and New Manhattan.
What exactly did he mean by that? Is this why everyone here seems to hate me so much?
He called himself a Storm Caller—called us Storm Callers.
He knows what we are, and he withheld that from me, too.
A noise has me flipping over to find Rook sitting on the edge of his mattress, his feet on the floor, his hands clasped and elbows resting on his knees, his eyes on me. He’s wearing his jeans and a fresh long-sleeved shirt that stretches very nicely over his chest and shoulders.
“Were you just watching me sleep?” I joke.
He smirks. “No. Of course not.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Waiting for you to wake up.”
“While you were watching me sleep.”
“There isn’t much to look at in here,” he answers, spreading out his arms.
“Weirdo,” I say, and he laughs. It’s a bright, sparkling sound that makes my heart feel way too big for my chest. Then I remember that I’m supposed to be mad at him.
I look away, annoyed at myself because it’s too easy to be happy around him.
I have no idea how to get rid of this feeling. Maybe I don’t want to.
I miss him. He’s been right beside me since we left New Manhattan, but I miss him.
I miss knowing who he was. Or at least thinking I knew.
I understood that he hadn’t told me everything.
Even during our quietest moments at Amery, I knew there were things he couldn’t tell me yet.
But I still felt like I understood who he was.
I remind myself that he arrived at the academy as an outsider. As someone we were taught to hate and fear. Of course he couldn’t just open up to me. I had to earn his trust, and maybe it’s my fault that I never became worthy of it.
Maybe that’s actually what’s bothering me so much.
I should have figured out that he was more than he was pretending to be. The way he fought. The way he carried himself. His father is a leader in this strange, new world. His mother is a warrior.
Every jumbled thought sits on the tip of my tongue. I want to pour them out, dump them at his feet. Rage at each other and fix this thing curdling between us.
“Lunch time!” someone announces cheerfully as the tent flap opens, throwing me off.
Cole arrives with a set of trays and deposits them on a table near the wall. “You must be hungry.”
“Thanks,” Rook says, getting up. “Starving.”
“Good, good,” Cole says. “It’s a camp favorite today.
Roast chicken and Edna’s famous fried potatoes.
” He kisses his fingertips and makes a mwah sound that coaxes a smile out of me.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it. A heads-up that you’ll be heading to Cloudspire after lunch. Percy’s already on his way.”
With that cryptic statement, he leaves the tent.
“What does he mean?” I ask. “What’s Cloudspire?”
Rook stands and approaches the table, picking up a potato and popping it into his mouth. He chews for a few moments before he answers. “It’s the headquarters for the Veil, where my family lives.”
That news makes me sit up straighter. “Your family? As in your high commander father and your commander mother?”
He nods and then passes me the other plate. “Eat up.”
I stare down at the food, which looks hearty and warm.
It smells delicious. Yet again, I’m forced to reconcile this fact with everything I’ve been taught.
This is regular food, and there’s seemingly enough to go around.
No one here appears to be undernourished.
Maybe there isn’t an abundance, but does it matter if everyone has enough?
“Where does it all come from?” I whisper, my voice thin as tissue.
“Farms scattered throughout the Tiera Frais,” Rook says. “It took a long time, but we’ve managed to build up our food security to a mostly sustainable level. We also trade with the Neo-Cities.”
I remember that word from last night.
“What’s a Neo-City?”
“New Manhattan isn’t the only city left on the continent. Other places rebuilt themselves, too. The only difference is that they didn’t isolate themselves from everyone else.”
He pauses, giving me a moment to grapple with those statements. I need to stop being caught off guard by all this new information. Remember that none of what I’ve been told is real.
Neo-Cities. Of course we were never the only ones left.
“And what are the Kindred?” I ask, recalling yet another new term he shared.
“They’re people that have decided against city life and taken to the wilds, where they live mostly off the land.”
A long silence. “Is that all you’ll tell me?” I ask.
Rook shakes his head and scrubs a hand across his face. “I want to tell you everything. I just can’t figure out where to begin.”
“How about: Why are they taking us to your family? Was that your destination all along?”
His shoulders drop as he takes his plate and settles on the bed across from me. We’re close enough that we have to arrange our knees so they don’t knock together. I’m acutely aware of his legs around mine as the warmth of his skin seeps through the fabric clinging to my thighs.
“Along with protecting and fostering the safety and development of the Veil, my father is also a passionate defender of the lives of Whispers. As I said, they’re never to be harmed except in the most extreme circumstances. I broke that rule yesterday.”
“And because of that, you have to go and see him now?”
“Yes. And you’re right, it was always my intention to return to him,” he says.
“But then Cal found us, and Fisher thought he’d try to make me sweat a little by holding us hostage.
The area around New Manhattan is divided into numerous stations managed by the Veil, each with a base commander responsible for anyone passing through their land. Particularly, anyone leaving the city.”
“Such as?”
“Scavengers,” Rook says. “The rare citizen who decides to leave. As you’ve gathered, there is little trust between us.
Any departures from New Manhattan are monitored.
In the case of Scavengers, they’re encouraged to make for one of the numerous abandoned cities nearby, where they can search for goods to bring back.
And though we do our best to ensure they know as little about us as possible, it’s our understanding that they are forbidden by The Shield from sharing anything they might see out here.
For everyone else, they’re directed out of the Veil and into other areas of the continent, where they can try to build a new life. ”
“People do that? Just leave?” I ask, my brow creasing.
“On occasion. And this is Fisher’s camp, and I was using his tunnels, so he was within his rights to detain me for a little while, though the accords of the Tiera Frais demand he treat us somewhat humanely. But then I killed a Whisper under his watch, so he has no choice but to turn me over.”
“How did he find out?” I ask, wondering if someone saw us.
“I told him while you were sleeping.”
Of course he did. I’m not surprised. Rook might have lied to me again and again, but he’s always held to his own code. He’s a man of secrets and integrity in equal measure.
Neither of us speaks for several minutes, chewing in silence.
“What do you use the tunnels for?” I eventually ask.
“Generally, they’re used to acquire food and supplies for the station camps.”
“You mean they’re used to steal from the city?”
He offers me a grim smile. “Yes.”
“Why don’t you want us to know you exist?” I ask.
“If The Shield wants to keep it from you, we see no reason to enlighten you. Besides, it’s safer for us if you don’t know we’re out here.”
My stomach twists abruptly at those words, and I set my food aside, deciding to change the subject.
“What’s with you and Fisher?” I ask. “Why do you dislike each other so much?”
Rook falls silent, staring at his feet. “My mom was really young when she had him. His dad left when Fisher was a baby, abandoning them both to the harshness of our world. A couple of years later, she met my dad, and he fell in love with her instantly. He’s always claimed it was love at first sight. ” Rook smiles, eyes growing distant.
“But my dad spent a lot of time working, helping to establish the Veil, and it kept him away a lot. So let’s just say, Fisher and I spent a lot of time competing for my father’s attention and approval, and it drove a wedge between us. Maybe I was also a little shit sometimes.”
“You were a kid,” I say. “It’s natural to want your dad’s love.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he says. “I do love my dad a lot. He’s everything to me, but he has his flaws.”
“And what’s Cal’s problem with you?”
He shrugs. “She’s mostly just being loyal to Fisher.”
“Hmm. That’s almost . . . sweet?”
He cracks a grin and rolls his eyes. “Almost.”
“What about your mom?”
His face softens, a genuine smile curving on his mouth. I recall the story he told me when I was stitching him up. About the flashlight she gave him so he wouldn’t be afraid of the dark. “She’s fierce and protective. She’d die for any of us. We’re all really lucky to have her.”
A pang of sharpness pulses in my chest. Not jealousy, because I’m glad he has this. Everyone deserves to love their family so much. But I can’t help wondering what it might have been like to grow up in a home like that.
“Sounds like it,” I say.
He looks up to meet my gaze. “I’ve missed them while I was away. It was hard.”
“I’m sure it was.”
“You made it easier,” he says. There is no artifice in his expression. Some hopeful part of me believes he’s being completely serious.
I don’t know how to respond, so I look away, picking up my tray and setting it on the table by the wall.
I still have more questions, but we’re out of time for now, because Cole returns, telling us it’s time to leave.
Before long, Rook and I are escorted to the edge of the encampment, marching between Calliope and Fisher.
It takes me a moment to process what I’m seeing.
A jeep of some sort stands at the gate. It has big, rugged wheels and a canvas top supported by thick railings.
A large solar panel is mounted on the back, along with what looks like a battery.
“Dear Daddy sent it,” Calliope says. “I guess he’s eager to see you.”
Rook answers with a grunt as we pass through the gates and approach. A driver sits with his arm propped up on the window’s edge.
“Afternoon!” he says. “Beautiful day to cross the Veil!”
He’s probably about ten years older than me and has honey-blond hair and brown eyes, along with an accent I’ve never heard before. Sort of soft and lilting, his words clip off at the ends like he doesn’t want to go to the trouble of finishing them.
“I’m Percy,” he says with a grin. “Welcome aboard.”
Rook opens the back door and gestures for me to sit. “After you.”
When Fisher flings open the front passenger door, Rook demands, “What are you doing?”
His older brother shoots a glare at the back seat. “Thanks to your little stunt, I’ve been summoned to see the high commander, too.”
August marches up to Fisher, and they exchange a few quiet words. I can’t hear everything they’re saying, but it sounds like Fisher is giving orders for the camp while he’s away. I get into the back seat, and I’m scooting across when the opposite door opens, revealing Calliope.
She scowls at me and drops into her seat, leaving me in the middle. Rook enters and pauses when he sees her before slamming the door.
“Can’t manage a few days apart?” he asks, deadpan.
Calliope rolls her eyes as Fisher shoots another dirty look over his shoulder. “How about we all just shut the fuck up for the entirety of this ride?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Percy asks. At first, I think he must be oblivious to the tension in the jeep, but he looks back and winks at me, telling me he very much knows what’s happening. I think I like him.
Everyone glares, and Percy throws the vehicle into gear. Then he honks a few times and turns us around.
“What about her?” Fisher says, pointing to me.
“What about her?” Rook asks.
“She should be blindfolded.”
Rook blows out a breath. “Is that necessary?”
Fisher arches a brow. “You know the rules. She’s an outsider. How do you think the high commander would react, knowing you showed her the way to Cloudspire?”
Rook opens his mouth, clearly about to protest.
“It’s fine,” I say. “Blindfold me.”
“Poet, you don’t have to do this,” Rook says.
I shake my head. “Do it. Better than being knocked out again.”
I glare at Calliope, who smirks, clearly not at all sorry about earlier.
Percy brings us to a stop and offers me a skeptical look, then pops open a hatch in the front dash. He retrieves a bit of black fabric and hands it to Rook.
“Go ahead,” I say.
He’s clearly reluctant, but I shift in my seat, and Rook wraps the cloth over my eyes, carefully tying it at the back. I feel the ghost of his warm breath on the shell of my ear as he softly says, “Sorry.”
Once I can’t see anything, I sit back in my seat, pressing up against Rook, worried that Calliope might skin me alive if I dare touch her. I can sense the tension in the jeep even without the benefit of sight.
“All set?” Percy asks, and someone must nod, because he revs the engine, and we lurch forward.
“Can’t wait to see you finally get what’s coming to you,” Fisher sneers, reminding me of why we’re heading to Cloudspire.
Rook’s punishment.
My stomach pitches, but I keep my mouth shut.
Beside me, Rook doesn’t move at all.