Page 81

Eden

Bridges were made to be crossed.

“Jayk?” Jasper mumbles. There’s a knock on the door. “Jayk, get up. We have company.”

Sleepily, I lift my head, but Jasper sighs and gives me a reassuring squeeze, already slipping over Lucky’s sprawled legs. He ties his silk robe tighter around him and pads to the door, looking deliciously untidy.

Jayk flops over grumpily, burying his head in his pillow.

My eyes are gritty. Soft light filters around the edges of the curtain, so it must be dawn or later, but it feels like I only just put my head down.

Jasper cracks open the door. “What is it?”

“Jasper?” Ava’s voice lifts in surprise. “Uh... is Jayk there?”

Groaning, I roll out of bed, ignoring Lucky’s sleepy hands trying to snatch at me. I pull on Lucky’s discarded shirt and come up beside Jasper.

“Jayk’s sleeping, Ava. Do you need something?” I ask, rubbing my eyes.

Her mouth opens, then closes, then opens again. She shakes her head.

“You know what? None of my business.” She flicks her tongue piercing against her teeth. “Get him up. We’ve been scouting Red Zone’s approach. They’re here now—and they’ve run into the Reapers. No one’s shooting, but...”

On the bed, the blankets are tossed to the side.

“I’m up,” Jayk grumbles. “Get Dom and Beau.”

“Hey!” Lucky complains. “No— Don’t shove me. Hey! I’m moving!”

Ava blinks, then lifts onto her toes, trying to peer over Jasper’s shoulder and into the room. “How many of you are in here?”

I blush to the roots of my hair, but Jasper only smiles politely. “We’ll be down momentarily. Thank you, Ava.”

He closes the door, and the four of us look at one another, disheveled and scarcely dressed—right as my alarm goes off to meet Dom and Beau. Silently, Lucky turns it off.

It wasn’t exactly the date I’d intended, but...

What’s one more group adventure?

Dark, roiling clouds cast an ominous shroud over the dawning light, and the morning’s wet heat makes my clothes cling to my skin.

Dom’s eyebrows twitch up as the four of us come out together, only passably put together, but he doesn’t say anything. Beau squeezes my hand, taking it as we pass them, and we all head across the lawn together.

As a group.

Jayk’s gaze only flickers over us for a moment before he refocuses on Arthur and his small group standing uneasily between the Reapers.

The four from Red Zone all have short, heavy-looking bows that are much more complex than the simple ones the civilians hold, and a dangerous mix of other weapons strapped around their bodies.

I’m only marginally surprised to see Jennifer tucked beside Sawyer... on the Reapers’ side of the moat.

“I didn’t forget about our date,” I whisper to Beau as he matches his long stride to my shorter one.

“I know, darlin’.” His lips tilt up, and he slants a look down at me. “I’m pretty curious about what you’re going to share with the class later, though.”

On his other side, Lucky seems to catch that, and he grins. “It’s really more about what she shared with the class last night.”

My cheeks flame, and Beau’s eyes twinkle in amusement.

We slow as we get closer, and Jayk catches Dom’s arm.

“I don’t know them,” he mutters.

They stop a few feet from the moat, and Dom stays silent, watching him. The cloud that crosses his face is as dark as the ones above us.

“It’s yours, King,” Dom says evenly.

Jayk’s jaw flexes, and he scowls. “Shut up. Can you just talk to them? They know you.”

I hold my breath, and Beau’s hand tightens on mine.

I couldn’t say exactly why but watching these two men like this feels like watching the Discovery channel. A David Attenborough documentary, where two pack leaders circle one another. Only this isn’t a challenge.

It’s an offering.

I just don’t know if Dom will accept it.

“Can we cross?” Arthur calls from the other side of the moat, tension brittle in his voice.

Still, Dom hesitates, and Jayk’s face turns grim.

It’s too soon. Dom isn’t ready.

Releasing Beau’s hand, I walk between the two men, touching them absently, reassuringly. This much, I can do.

I’m getting rather good at speaking up.

“Welcome, all of you. We’ve been waiting for you,” I call back to Arthur, glancing at the four people with him—two women and two men.

They’re all in light armor, equipped with daggers and swords and bows that look far more impressive than the ones the civs have carved. Some look handmade, others are metal and I can only assume more modern.

The five of them stand bunched at the foot of the bridge. They haven’t reached for their weapons, but they seem uneasy as they watch the large group of men surrounding them.

The Reapers watch them back with open curiosity, but most haven’t even rolled out of their tents or bothered to stand up from their breakfast cookfires.

Pete waves, nodding his sweaty head to Arthur, and Buck is back in his “part-time farmer, full-time charmer” cap, frying up some more bacon with whole-hearted intensity. Beside them, Akira turns a page in her paperback, seeming to ignore all of us.

Sawyer and Cole stand next to Arthur with careful expressions.

I clear my throat. “Yes, please. Come across. I hope you don’t mind camping on the lawn; we’re a little cramped inside. We’re happy to let you use our showers, though, and the kitchen. Anything you need.”

With someone keeping an eye on them, yes, but we had all agreed that we owed them the same hospitality that they offered us, at the very least. They’d offered us a lot of trust, with arguably more to lose.

Sawyer’s brows fly up as Red Zone begins filtering over the bridge, his gaze flicking between us and them. A kind of angry panic steals over him, and I hide my sigh.

I’ve worried about this.

Trying for soothing, I smile, then nod to Sawyer as Arthur steps off the bridge. “Arthur, this is Sawyer. He leads the Reapers, and they hold the farmlands a few hours south of you and Cyanide. Sawyer, Arthur is currently in charge of?—”

“We’ve met.” Arthur turns, patting a tissue against his round, kindly face. Now that he’s beside us, with all his people on this side of the moat, he seems to have regained some of his confidence. “In passing. We’ve traded with them, once or twice. Bentley handled most of it.”

Sawyer’s tension hasn’t subsided. He watches Arthur guardedly, his moustache twitching, and Jennifer runs a soothing hand up his back.

She catches me watching her and gives me a sheepish look.

But that look is free of the shadows that had haunted her as she left Jasper’s session. Despite her bandaged foot and being on the other side of our moat, Jennifer looks... happy.

And so, I smile reassuringly back at her.

Sawyer’s gaze snaps over us, and he shifts restlessly until Cole mutters to him.

Grimacing, Sawyer looks away, like he’s struggling with himself, then he sighs.

“Yeah, we were friendly. Red Zone makes good glassware. Knives, too, though I have to say, the beer was my favorite. You make it better than any of our sorry selves have managed to.” Sawyer’s lips twist, and he mutters, “We were real sorry when you cut contact.”

Arthur stiffens, and Jasper frowns, watching his face.

“Ah. Well,” Arthur starts uncomfortably.

He pats his dusty forehead again, sweating profusely.

“We saw the trucks of food coming through Cyanide. We understood. Business is business, and it’s your right to find.

.. more substantial... trading partners.

” Arthur’s kindly face turns startlingly severe.

“But the Sinners have given us a lot of trouble. We thought it was better to steer clear of any friends of theirs.” But then he hesitates.

He looks out over the Reapers, frowning, then looks at Dom.

His frown deepens. “It does make me wonder why you’re here , though. ”

This time, Sawyer can’t contain his bitterness. “Friends? Oh, I see. Now we’re the bad guys again, is that it? You all just going to team up and go on your merry way and leave us behind again? Leave us to be killed ?” His voice lifts. “The Sinners came to us . We didn’t want nothing to do with?—”

“Cool it, Sawyer.” Beside him, Cole catches his arm and gives him a warning look, but Sawyer throws him off.

Rubbing a frustrated hand down his face, Cole looks over at Arthur, his jaw tense. “The Sinners had our food, so you assumed, what, that we’re allies? Friends ?”

He laughs, and it’s dark enough, edged wildly enough, that Sawyer looks back at him sharply. Despite Cole’s call for calm, it doesn’t look like either of them are managing to keep their cool, and Dom shifts almost imperceptibly closer to me.

“We’re not their friends ! We don’t have friends.” Cole points to his own chest as he looks between us and Red Zone, and I start to see this for what it is.

Desperation.

But Jennifer’s lips turn down sadly as she watches him.

“The Sinners have been raiding them for years. Threatening them. Killing them. Taking their food, their things... their people.” She links her fingers with Sawyer’s, and he swallows hard as she adds, “Just last week they lost a lot of people they cared about. It was a massacre.”

At that, Cole’s face closes down.

Arthur is tense, and his frown eases into something apologetic—and deeply uncomfortable. He glances at the others from Red Zone, and they shrug and shift with similar discomfort.

“Ah. Ah, well, I apologize, we might have been a little over-cautious, I?—”

But Sawyer is shaking his head, and his eyes burn bitterly over us.

Hurt . “Y’all are really doing this? You’re just gonna let them go right on through?

Let them use your showers. Trust them with everything ?

” He huffs a raw, incredulous breath. “What more do we have to do? We’ve been here for over a week , playin’ nice and sharin’. Our people are dying out there!”

The last is a shout, and it has Jayk scowling in the dim morning light. He’s still messy and unshaven, but he cuts an intimidating figure.