At last the sun began to dip below the horizon, and it was time to go. Benjy was in the section beside ours—the one Noelle had grown up in before she’d come to Section X. “It’s safer there,” said Knox as I hugged Benjy one last time. “The guards are gentler, and the section leaders don’t allow violence in front of the children.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Benjy, nuzzling the top of my head. “Take care of yourself, all right? Don’t do anything crazy. I can’t lose you again.”
“You won’t,” I said fiercely, and I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him. His lips were chapped, but it was the same familiar kiss I would have crossed mountains to find. He hadn’t been Masked.
One of the guards led Benjy down the stairs first, and as soon as he was out of sight, something inside me began to ache. I told myself again and again that this wouldn’t be the last time we would be together, but I wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.
“If he has so much as a scratch on him next time I see him, I’ll slit your throat,” I said to Knox as we descended the steps a minute later, once Benjy and the guard had disappeared beyond the fence into the other section.
“I know,” he said. “Come on, we’ll stop by your bunkhouse before we go back to the Mercers’. They’re probably wondering where we are by now.”
I yanked my arm from his grip. “I know the way. I’ll be back in time for dinner.”
“Kitty—”
“We’re not friends,” I said, walking backward and putting several feet between us. “After what you put me and Benjy through, we’re never going to be friends again. So you might as well stop pretending, all right? There’s no point anymore.”
I turned and hurried away, shoving my hands in my pockets and ducking my head. Knox didn’t call after me, and by the time I worked up enough courage to look over my shoulder, he was gone.
I tried not to think about him as I wound through the gray, slushy streets of Elsewhere, instead focusing on the fact that Benjy was alive. Every time I remembered the warmth of his arms around me, my heart skipped a beat, and it was all I could do to hold it together. There was still a chance. We still had a chance at the future we wanted together, and this time I wasn’t going to let anyone, especially Knox Creed, steal it from us.
When I reached the dining hall, I turned a corner to cut through an alleyway I remembered from the night before. Instead I nearly tripped on a girl curled up against the wall, sobbing.
“I’m sorry, I—” I began, but as soon as she looked up, I dropped to my knees beside her. “Noelle? What’s wrong?”
Her dark hair hung in a limp curtain, hiding her features, and I brushed it back so I could see her face. Her cheeks were red and streaked with tears, and her entire body shuddered with sobs as she forced herself to speak. “It—it’s Elliott,” she cried. “He—he wasn’t at the fence today. I think—I think—”
I hugged her thin shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m sure he’s fine. His schedule probably got shifted around or—something. Maybe there was an incident, and he didn’t have time to meet you.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand—he never misses a day. Ever. Something happened to him. I know it.”
“But he’s a guard. No one’s going to hurt him.”
Another choked sob escaped her. “Sometimes, if the guards are caught doing really horrible things—sometimes they—they—”
“Would Elliott do anything really horrible?” I said gently.
She sniffed and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. “No. I don’t know. He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met.”
“Then I’m sure he’s fine,” I said. But that only made her break down all over again, her body trembling as she hid her face in her bare hands.
I inched closer, pressing my side against hers for warmth and running my fingers through her hair, trying over and over again to reassure her. But the more I spoke, the harder she cried, until finally she gasped, “How do you know it’ll be okay? You’re here, just like the rest of us. You don’t know anything for sure.”
I bit my lip. She was right, but at least when I was wrong, that meant my nightmares hadn’t completely come true yet. “I do know we aren’t nearly as alone here as they want us to think,” I said quietly. “There are people out there—lots of people, powerful people—who know what we go through. They want to help, and they’re going to. You just have to hang in there and trust that nothing’s going to happen to Elliott.”
“There are?” She sniffed again and finally looked at me. Her face was blotchy and her eyes swollen, but at least she had stopped crying for a second. Seizing the opportunity, I nodded.
“Out there, everyone thinks Elsewhere is some sort of—” I hesitated. I knew what I’d thought Elsewhere was before Daxton had brought me here to hunt, but no one had ever really talked about it. It was a mythical, far-off place we’d never see, if we were lucky and behaved ourselves—but at the same time, it had been a constant threat hanging over our heads, ready to uproot us from our lives at any moment. “No one really knows what it is,” I admitted. “It’s just this—place. Some people think it’s somewhere warm, because they send the elderly here. Others think it’s...what it is, I guess. But no one really knows how horrible it is, not unless they’ve gone hunting. And even then—”
“Hunting?” she said. I silently cursed myself.
“Nothing—never mind,” I said quickly. Noelle was scared enough as it was. “There are people out there who know how bad it is, though, and they’ve told others. And people are rising up against the Prime Minister. They want to break us out of here—they’re going to really soon, so you just have to sit tight, okay?”
She looked at me dubiously, and I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t believe me, either. “Who?” she said. “No one cares about us.”
“Yes, they do,” I said firmly. “I care. I cared before I came here, and lots of other people do. Powerful people who can change things and help us—really help us.” I lowered my voice. “Have you ever heard of the Blackcoats?”
“The Blackcoats?” Her frown deepened. “What are those?”
“They’re a group of people who are going to get us out of here,” I said. “I’m here because of them—because I’m going to help them. And I’m going to help you, too, Noelle. I prom—”