Page 10 of Beautiful Prey

He didn’t answer. He just looked at me with those tired, hopeful eyes.

Light. I knew what he wanted before either of us said it.

The trail drops toward a shallow gully. I stop before following it down. The ground there is already damp, and when the rain comes, it will fill first.

I take the higher ground instead.

“Nobody at intake has ever seen either of us,” Onyx said.

“That doesn’t make this sane.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“They could catch me.”

“I know.”

I looked at him for a long time. The same blond hair. The same green eyes. The same face I’d worn my whole life, gone thin on him from being sick.

I already missed him so much.

“I’m going to need better boots.”

Onyx smiled.

The trees thicken as I climb. Behind me, the light grows darker until I can barely make out the intake building through the branches.

The forest sounds different now. There’s less talking and fewer footsteps. Perhaps that’s why every crack of a branch makes me look over my shoulder.

Reaching into my pocket, I close my hand around the compass. I bought it when I was seventeen because I wanted to learn to navigate somewhere other than Calder. For years, it sat on a shelf because there was nowhere for me to go.

Now the needle points to a country I’ve never seen. For the first time, it’s pointing toward something that matters.

Come back, Onyx told me before I left him.

Obviously.

I mean it, JaJa.

The voices around me are thinning. Somewhere deeper in the trees, someone shouts, and another voice answers before both voices cut off.

I keep walking, trying not to look over my shoulder. A branch snaps behind me, then a boot presses into the soft ground.

My fingers tighten around the compass. Turning slowly, I find an Adjudicator standing between the trunks, black visor fixed on me.

My breath catches. I look away, blinking once, then turn back.

The space between the trees is empty.

For a second, I can’t make myself move. Wherever he went, he knows exactly where I am.

But I have no idea where he is.

2

ASHER

When the alarm shrieks, I move.