“We’re moving on Morgan,” I said. “I can’t play cat-and-mouse any longer, he’s getting too close.”
Logan nodded. “I’ll have a team together in two days. We will wait for you at the secondary drop point.”
“Thank you, Logan.”
He only stared at me. We had known each other our whole lives, fought and played side by side for two decades. Our world had crumbled around us, and yet, even when what I was doing made no sense to him, he trusted in my decision. “Two days,” he said.
Two days and it would be either me, or Morgan. The unforeseen, or death.
Logan switched the device off and slid it into his pocket. We turned to stare out the darkened glass until the security team rushed into the room. I couldn’t help but notice the corner of his mouth turn up at their urgency.
It had taken Brendan to finally calm things down with the security team. He was highly disappointed in both of us, though he clearly had more pressing issues to resolve and didn’t stick around to berate us. Logan left the house after restocking his supplies, and I trudged up the stairs to my room, tied napkin in hand.
It was nearly two a.m. when Emily showed up.
I’d been standing in front of the side table, wondering if I should check on her. The napkin full of bread had been an excuse, I knew, and that knowledge was what had kept me from going. But when I heard soft footfalls outside my door, I knew she was standing there, unable for some reason to bring herself to knock. It was that same magnetic polarity that caused me to open the door.
She stared wordlessly at me from the hallway, barefoot in jeans and a plain cotton tee, completely unprepared to explain her late night visit.
“Couldn’t sleep?” I supplied.
She seemed grateful for the excuse, though it was probably true, given that we’d both napped most of the afternoon. I stepped aside to let her in, resisting the urge to glance down the hall. The door clicked shut behind me as I turned to face her, and the sound seemed amplified in the empty room. Emily twisted her hands in front of her stomach.
“Sit,” I said, taking the napkin from its place on the side table. She returned obediently to her spot on the bed, completely ignoring the reading chairs on the far wall. I pulled up the lightweight chair that sat beneath the narrow, matte black desk to sit in front of her and untied the knot. When she saw the bread, her unease melted away. I offered the open bundle to her and she pulled a braided roll from the small pile.
She held it in front of her, tearing a section away with one hand, and then stopped. “I’m sorry,” she muttered.
“For what?”
She rolled her eyes in a gesture much like the one Brianna had displayed earlier. They were very much alike, she and her sister, but not indistinguishable. Emily’s hair was sun-streaked, less orderly. Her eyes were not quite so wide, or at least, I thought, didn’t seem so against fuller cheeks and decisive expression.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” I said. “It’s just a little less conspicuous than calling them humans.”
She bit her lip, not wanting to ask the obvious question.
I sighed and sat the napkin on the bedside table. “We are all human, Emily. There is very little of thatotherin us now. It’s just an expression. Old habits die hard, is all.” It wasn’t entirely true. Many of the eldest refused to believe we were anything like the humans. But I didn’t need to tell her that now.
“Brianna and me,” she said, “are we… other?”
“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. She put down her uneaten bread and I took her hands. “We may never know how you tie into our lines, Emily. Your mother wanted it that way. If she was a prophet, then she had good reason.” I stared into her green eyes. “But you have to know, whatever you are, you are special.”
“I think that came out way cornier than you meant it,” she said. When I didn’t respond, she swallowed hard, and pulled her hands free of mine. “I just can’t do this,” she said. “I can’t sit there playing nice while one of them might be the one who wants to kill Brianna.”
I sat back in my chair. She was right. But until Morgan was contained, the Division was the only safe place for Brianna. I had to leave her here, but I couldn’t expect Emily to abandon her.
“Two days,” I said. “Give me two days and you can take Brianna and run.” Take Brianna and run? Was I so sure of my failure? So certain of the prophecy?
“What happens in two days?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Eat. We will talk about it later.” When I figured it out myself.
Several hours later, we’d fallen back into our former locations on the bed. I couldn’t be sure how it had happened exactly, but we both seemed to migrate toward it, that comfort that waited where she lay in my arms and rested her head on my chest. We talked softly of her sister, Emily’s stories reinforcing my first impression of the girl.
“What does she think of Brendan?” I asked, certain there was a good story there. If I’d had to describe Brianna before seeing them together, it would have been with words like “meek” and “unassuming,” but the way she’d spoken to Brendan had me questioning my assessment. But, in truth, Brendan wasn’t exactly himself around her, either. Something about Brianna set his teeth on edge.
Emily laughed and I knew I wasn’t the only one to notice. “I suppose she’ll let me know when she figures it out,” she said. “She knows you don’t trust him, but she likes to form her own opinions.”
“Fair enough,” I said.