Page 43 of The Verdant Cage
“You wish I’d wanted you instead?” His expression is inscrutable.
“Yeah,” I say, shocked into honesty. “I guess I did.”
“Allow me to make up for it,” he says, his voice husky.
His jaw muscle twitches. I think he’s going to say something cruel, but instead he wraps a strong arm around my waist, pulls me close, and presses his lips to mine. My body reacts instinctively, curving to his shape. Already on my tiptoes, I think he might lift me off the ground, but for how he’s kissing me, I might as well be floating. For all the many times I’ve seen Gryphon’s frown—the expression he seems to reserve especially for me—I never imagined his mouth could be so soft…and so electric.
His kiss carries the weight of all the words we’ve left unspoken. I’ve been choking on them for years, but now I taste their honey sweetness, their languid heat.
Then he releases me.
I stumble back. He’s watching my mouth, breath heavy.
Then he steps away, toward a waist-high glass cube at the center of the rooftop. What is it, and how long has it been up here? Is there one on top of every Guardian cottage? And more importantly, did Gryphon Tzu just kiss me?
“Come here,” he says, having already recovered from the moment.
I shake my head. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to move again.
“Please.” There’s something tender in his voice.
It’s enough to get my legs moving. I walk over, gently touching my swollen lips. A bundle of emotions throbs in my chest, and now isn’t the time to detangle them.
“Look,” he says, unlocking and then opening the top of the cube. The Harvest tablet is resting inside. He touches its screen with his finger, and it flashes to life before going black again.
“It needs to charge after Peter’s funeral,” he says. “A couple of days of sun, and a person could use it to ascend the Wall.” He avoids looking at me.
“But you said I’m a fool if I think Jonas—”
“I’m just saying it’s possible,” Gryphon interrupts, his voice gruff.
“The Guardians have been taking the Harvest basket Beyond?”
He shakes his head. “We have not.” A dark cloud crosses his face. “At least not that I’ve been told. But my father is getting strange items from…somewhere.”
Gryphon stares into the distance, his profile carved by the moon’s own hand. Understanding dawns on me. “You whispered to Jonas before you pushed him out,” I say, forcing myself to remember that awful scene. “What did you tell him?”
Gryphon rubs his hand across his eyes. He doesn’t answer.
“Did you tell him how to survive?” I’m shaking.
Gryphon nods once, the motion tight. “I told him to look for a way down the other side and water and shelter if he reached it. That’s all.”
We’re told that those honored with a Harvest leave the basket and ascend directly to the Heavens. What does it mean for them if survival is possible? Could a human hope to crawl down the other side of the Wall? My voice wobbles. “Are there dangers? Atop the Wall, and in the Beyond?”
“Almost certainly. The exact nature of the ills that sent our holy Founders behind this Wall have been lost to time, but the ongoing threats from Beyond are thoroughly imparted on the children of my House.” He turns to face me, eyes black in the shadows. “That’s why I think Jonas can’t be alive. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have given either of you false hope.”
My brain’s buzzing. “Then why are you telling me any of this now?”
His face hardens. “I tell it to everyone who’s training. If we’re caught, we’ll be Harvested. We need to know the basics of survival Beyond, at least as best as we can guess.”
“You’re training us for death, then?”
His frown deepens. “My father has plans he’s keeping from me. All I know for sure is that he thinks this new weapon will make the Guardians invincible. That it can stop whatever’s picking us off inside the Wall.” He glances at me, his expression fierce. “I disagree. So I train anyone brave enough to ask. We must be able to protect each other.”
My head’s spinning. There are too many threads to track. “You know Jonas didn’t kill my mother, that he’s no murderer. Peter’s death after Jonas’s Harvest proves it.”
Gryphon’s face shutters. “All I know is that there’s a danger inside the Wall. That doesn’t mean your brother was innocent.”
