Page 33 of To Cage a Wild Bird (Divided Fates #1)

“Stop stalling,” he said, leaning against the wall. His fingers were still clasped casually over my skin like my words didn’t

faze him. But I saw how he swallowed harshly, his eyes flitting over my frame. “I don’t need an excuse to talk about being

pressed against you—I think about it every time I close my eyes.”

He did?

Here, he paused, seeming to savor my red cheeks and inability to form words.

“I want to know why you have two strike marks,” he continued when I didn’t respond.

Subconsciously, my free hand moved to trace the edges of my scars, reliving that night with Jed seven years ago.

“Why do you care?”

Vale blew out a harsh laugh. “I wish I knew the answer to that.”

Whatever that means.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“A truth for a truth, then,” he said, giving me a small smile. “Because I know you overheard what I said about Blythe Levine.”

I clenched my teeth together to keep my mouth from dropping open. But I only lasted a few moments before curiosity got the

better of me. “Deal.”

Vale gave me a crooked grin that did strange things to my stomach. “You first.”

I stared at him for a long moment, then took a deep breath.

“Okay. My parents were arrested for hiding fugitives in our home,” I said, reciting the words as if I were merely spouting facts about Dividium’s history and not reliving the worst night of my life.

“When they were caught, the guards wanted to give Jed and me a strike since we hadn’t turned our parents in.

The guards said we would have reported our parents if we were loyal citizens. ”

Anger rose within me at the memory, my hand forming a shaking fist. As if any of them would have turned against their loved

ones if put in the same situation.

Vale’s eyes darkened, a shadow passing over his face, and I didn’t miss the tic in the side of his clenched jaw. He pulled

on my wrist gently until I stepped closer, our chests a mere inch from touching as his eyes roved over my face.

My breath caught in my throat, but I pushed on. “I asked them to give me both strikes—to spare Jed. One of the guards took

pity on me and agreed.”

“You were so brave,” Vale whispered, reaching up and tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. He let his fingers linger on

my cheek, and it took all the strength I could muster to keep from shivering and pressing into the warmth of his touch. “You

took care of him, even then.”

I cleared my throat. It hadn’t been bravery that had made me take that strike for Jed. If anything, it had been guilt. I’d

deserved them—deserved the pain and the reminder of my mistake.

“Now you,” I said, forcing a subject change. “Tell me what you know.”

Vale frowned but didn’t refuse. “I’m sure you saw what the news reported about Blythe, but it was a lie. She wasn’t stalking

Coates—she was gathering evidence. She’d learned something about Endlock that would’ve made Dividium revolt.”

“What did she find out?”

He paused, squeezing my wrist. “You have to be careful once I tell you. You can’t let Larch suspect that you know. It’s one

thing for me to find out—I’m from the Upper Sector. One of them .” His lip curled on the last word. “But they’d kill you for knowing. Wouldn’t even risk waiting for a hunter to do it.”

I swallowed. “I’ll be careful.”

Vale blew out a long breath. “There’s no real food shortage in the Lower Sector. It’s a lie.”

A laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it.

“I’m serious, Raven.”

“Vale, I lived in the Lower Sector, remember? I can assure you that there’s a food shortage. I don’t think I’ve had three meals in one day

in the last ten years.”

“Exactly,” he whispered.

I stared, waiting for him to go on.

“I don’t know the details or how they did it, but the crops never failed on their own. Endlock Enterprises and the Council

worked together to create an artificial food shortage in the Lower Sector. Ten years ago.”

“No. No, they wouldn’t—”

Wouldn’t what? Starve their own citizens?

They let people pay to murder us for entertainment.

I swallowed painfully. “Why?” I asked. Because there had to be a reason. I was sure they’d justified the move in order to

live with themselves.

“Endlock hadn’t picked up in popularity like they’d hoped—there weren’t enough targets to hunt. Citizens were afraid of getting

arrested, and the crime rate dropped to next to nothing across Dividium. But it seems like Coates realized that if people

in the Lower Sector were hungry, desperate , they’d commit more crimes. And he was right.”

My mouth dropped open, my head spinning.

We’d been starving. My family, our neighbors. Nearly everyone I knew had struggled with food insecurity at one point or another

over the last ten years, but it hadn’t always been so bad. Until I was about thirteen, we almost always had enough to get

by. Until suddenly we didn’t.

I remembered something Loria had said, just before my arrest, about how there was more than enough food to go around if the

Council allocated it correctly.

I hadn’t believed her. Hadn’t imagined, no matter how corrupt our society was, that they would intentionally starve us for profit. So they could arrest us and send us to our deaths for other citizens’ amusement.

My stomach churned.

“Who knows about this?” I whispered.

“I’m not sure,” Vale admitted. “Coates and Larch and the Council, for sure. A few of their most trusted guards. But the board

doesn’t know, and neither do the shareholders.”

So not everyone in the Upper and Middle Sectors knew.

“Okay,” I breathed. I couldn’t process everything he’d said. There probably wasn’t enough time in the world. And right now,

I had to catch Kit before the end of dinner. “I need to go.”

Vale went silent, his grip on my wrist loosening. His fingers brushed against my skin before his touch fell away entirely.

It wasn’t until I reached the main floor that I realized Vale hadn’t told me how he’d found out the truth about Blythe Levine.

I scanned the mess hall, then stalked over to where Kit and August were sitting.

“I got the wire cutters,” I said once I was at their table, not bothering with a greeting.

August jerked his head up from his meal, and Kit glanced around, likely checking to see who might be within earshot.

“Good work, bounty hunter,” Kit said, grinning.

“Say I manage to smuggle them onto the hunting grounds and cut the fence next time I’m chosen,” I whispered. “Have you made

any progress on the wristbands?”

“Why the rush all of a sudden?” August asked, looking around nervously. Our table was still relatively empty, but it would

fill up soon. “It’s dangerous to talk about it here.”

“There’s nowhere else to talk about it. And today...” I quickly filled the two of them in on what I’d overheard from Councilor

Elder and Coates and what Vale had admitted to me after—leaving out the part about the artificial food shortage.

Kit and August exchanged a long look.

“We need to know that we can trust you,” August finally said.

“Of course you can trust me.” I shook my head, exasperated. “The only reason I’m in here is to help Jed. I would never do anything to jeopardize his safety.”

“It’s not Jed we’re worried about you betraying,” Kit whispered, looking almost apologetic. “But we saw your face when we

told you we were taking Yara and Momo with us. You don’t want to take them along.”

“Of course I didn’t. It makes things complicated with the North Settlement leaders, and even if it didn’t, what we’re doing

is risky.”

“We can’t leave them behind,” Kit answered fiercely. “Gus and I agreed from the beginning that we each got to bring someone

with us. Yara for me. Momo for him. And that was long before you got here.”

I raised my hands in surrender. “I said I didn’t . As in when you first told me. I needed time to process. But I get it; you’d both do anything for them.” Just like I’d do anything for Jed.

“Don’t pretend you don’t care about them, too,” August insisted. “I know you spend your days burying your feelings and acting

like Jed’s the only person that matters to you, but it’s all a lie. That became obvious the moment you risked yourself for

Momo.”

“I—” I didn’t know what I planned to say in response, but August cut me off before I could decide.

“If we die trying, well, at least we’ll know we went out doing everything we could to help them.”

I nodded. I knew it was a bad idea to bring more people along, but the more I thought about leaving Momo and Yara behind...

fuck .

And Jed would be safer if he had a whole group protecting him.

“How are you going to disable the tracking?” I asked, trying to retain a modicum of authority over the situation.

“Say we can trust you, Thorne, and we’ll find a way,” August promised.

I paused, looking them both in the eye so that they could see the truth in my gaze. “We’re in this together. I won’t betray

you.”

And I meant it. They were right that I hadn’t wanted anyone else to leave with us. But my time at Endlock had changed things.

Kit grinned and leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table. “So. At first we figured we’d just find a way to take our wristbands off and save me the trouble of having to disable the tracking.”

I nodded. That did seem like the plan with the least amount of risk involved.

“But I’ve thought about it, and it’d be better to leave the wristbands on. That way I can disable the tracking and reverse

engineer them so that any guards that come after us won’t be able to shoot us. They’ll be like the wristbands the guards and

hunters wear.”

I whistled. I’d known she was an asset when she’d said she’d helped create some of the security systems, but being able to

reverse engineer the wristbands from inside Endlock was an entirely different skill set. She was dangerous .

“What do you need?” I asked, rolling my lips.

“A tablet, for one,” Kit whispered.

“Oh, just that?” I stared at her, incredulous. She might as well have asked me to walk her out the front door.

Kit arched a brow. “You stole a pair of wire cutters. What’s a tablet?”

It remained to be seen if I’d actually gotten away with stealing the wire cutters or if Endlock would be on lockdown once

Vale discovered they were missing. But I got her point.

“Where do they keep the tablets?” I asked.

Kit took a bite of stew and swallowed. “All the guards have one.”

“The—” I stopped, taking a deep breath and running a hand over my face. “You want to steal a tablet from a guard?”

She grimaced. “I know. And once we manage to get our hands on one, we’ll only have a few minutes before someone notices it’s

gone. Trust me—if it was easy, I’d have done it by now. But we’re making headway on the second piece, at least.”

I raised a brow. “And the second piece is?”

“I need a private space to work once we have the tablet,” Kit said under her breath. “Somewhere the guards won’t find me while

I disable the tracking.”

I had to fight to keep my mouth from dropping open. I let my incredulous gaze flit back and forth between the two of them.

August’s mouth twisted to one side. “I’ve got it covered.”

My mind flashed to seeing August and Vale whispering on the hunting grounds. Was he using another favor to get Vale to help

him?

“The tablet,” I started. “Does it have to be from one of the guards?”

Kit pursed her lips. “I mean, no. They have them in the security room, too. But aside from the front desk and Larch’s office,

those are the only tablets in the building.”

“What if we got one from outside of Endlock?” I asked.

Kit shook her head. “Wouldn’t work. I need one that’s already connected to Endlock’s network so that I can quickly go in and

kill the tracking. Getting a tablet from the outside would require me to hack into the network first, which could take ages—not

to mention set off alarm bells.”

My mind jumped to Vale, but I quickly shook off the thought. I didn’t know enough about him, and I definitely didn’t trust

him enough to risk our entire plan. It was one thing for him to want to help keep me alive during hunts, but that was a long

way from playing an active part in a prison break.

“There’s a guard that’s working with the Collective,” I said, thinking back to the woman who’d passed me a note from Gray

while I was in solitary.

Kit and August exchanged a look I couldn’t quite read before I continued.

“I don’t know who she is, but she smuggled me a letter from a friend while I was in solitary. Do you know her?”

Kit shook her head. “No. I’ve had someone slip me notes, too—tips for staying under the radar when certain hunters came to

my cellblock for selection. But I never saw who left them. But if she is Collective—it would be too dangerous to use her tablet.

If the warden noticed any unusual activity on the prison’s network, he’d be able to track it back to her.”

Great.

I’d have to swallow my pride and ask for help from the last person I wanted to speak with, then.

“Give me a few days,” I told them, thinking through how to use our code to write my first letter to Gray. Then a thought occurred to me, and my lips twitched, unable to suppress a smile. “Do you have experience working with weapons, Kit? I still have that rifle stashed out on the hunting grounds.”

Kit’s grin matched mine. “Maybe having a bounty hunter around isn’t so bad after all.”

“What are you talking about?”

My head snapped around. Jed had filled his tray and was standing behind me.

I forced a smile onto my face. “Just another potential escape route out on the hunting grounds.”

I didn’t tell him about the wristbands or the tablet. I’d said I’d let him help, but that didn’t mean he had to be involved

in everything , right? If he focused on helping me with the escape route and stayed out of Kit and August’s part in the plan, I’d be able

to keep an eye on him.