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“It’ll save your life,” I said. “It’s the only thing that’s worked to contain the disease.”

She set her jaw and nodded.

“We’ll go tonight. With that many houses fallen from the plague, there aren’t enough people left to stop us from leaving. We’ll take Jojo, and we’ll go.”

“Do you really believe I have a chance to—” Nessie’s voice was soft, and she didn’t finish her thought.

I gripped her hand—the uninfected one. “Yes,” I said, pouring every ounce of hope I had left into that one word.

•••

We packed. And we waited. Darkness fell.

Ernesta held the quilt around her shoulders. I slid boots over her feet, using the action to confirm that they weren’t infected as well.

“I can carry something,” she said as I slung the knapsack over my shoulder. At the bottom rested Master Ostrum’s book and the old book I’d found in Papa’s room, the alchemy text. And I packed a few knickknacks to remind us of home. Because we were never coming back.

And my crucible. Nessie wouldn’t let me take any of the pain from her hand. “You need your wits about you,” she said, and she was right.

“I have this,” I said, adjusting the pack on my shoulder. “Ready?”

Ernesta nodded.

I gripped a rope in one hand. Trying to take the cart would draw attention, but we could take the mule. Nessie could ride, and I’d lead.

Ernesta opened the back door. Quietly, we crept out onto the smooth stone step, the one my grandfather had found one day while plowing. We moved onto the path, my eyes fixed on our stable.

Nessie gripped my arm at the same time a shot cracked out across the night. I shifted my gaze. A stream of gray smoke rose from a man’s gun. I didn’t know him; he just vaguely looked like someone from our village, or perhaps the next one over.

“If you take one more step closer, I will kill you,” he said.

I had hoped that there wouldn’t be a night watch. That darkness would protect us, hide us for our escape.

“If you try to leave your house again until we call for you,” he said, “wewillkill you.”

Under the starlight, I saw more people emerge from the darkness, lining up around our fence. They were all armed, their faces set in grim lines. There were no more children throwing rocks. The plague was spreading, and so was the fear.

“You won’t get another warning,” the man said.

Beside me, I felt Ernesta slouch, defeat radiating from her body.

“You understand,” the man said.

“We’re just trying to survive,” he said.

“Six more houses have fallen ill,” he said.

“We can’t risk it,” he said.

We said nothing. We turned and went back inside. I locked the door.

Ernesta sat down at the kitchen table. She put her head into her arms, her right hand sprawled out in front of her.

The windows were dark with night and the black cloth that covered them, but I could still feel the villagers watching us, their eyes like wolves’.

I lit the oil lamps and every candle I could find and set them around us. The flickering light bounced off the walls. I lit the fire in the oven and stoked it.

“There’s no food left to cook,” Nessie said.