Page 53 of To Cage a Wild Bird (Divided Fates #1)

My mouth dropped open. “August...”

“Gus,” he whispered.

I felt my forehead wrinkle. “What?”

“I think it’s about time you call me Gus. All my friends do.”

My throat tightened, and I had to look away for a moment. “Okay. Gus,” I whispered, nearly choking on the words.

“Good. Now go. You need to hide,” Gus insisted. “She’s good at this, so she’ll be nearby. Tracking us. I’m going to call out

for her. If she hears me, she’ll come.”

“She’ll shoot you from above,” I whispered, shaking my head.

“Not if you shove her into the trench, Thorne.”

I paused, picturing it. Gus calling out to her and Elder rushing to the edge of the pit while I snuck up behind her.

He could do it. He was strong enough to kill her with his bare hands, and it would send a message. It would ripple through

Endlock and Dividium and the Lower Sector, and they would know the Council wasn’t as invincible as they’d like us to believe.

“I’m doing this with or without you,” Gus told me. “Though I’d prefer it to be with you.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding, even as more tears pricked the backs of my eyes. I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat. “Of course I’ll help.”

He turned his head, meeting my gaze. Something flickered in his eyes, and he let out a sigh. “You’re a good friend.”

My heart clenched.

“Not as good as you,” I whispered, getting to my feet. “Once she’s dead, I’m going to find a way to pull you out of there.”

The words felt hollow, even as I tried my best to believe them.

“Okay, Thorne,” Gus whispered, giving me a sad smile.

I bit my lip, turning before he could see the tears collecting in my eyes. I sprinted into the nearby woods, throwing myself

against the side of an ancient pine. I shut my eyes as my chest tightened and struggled to keep my breathing even.

In, two, three, four.

Out, two, three, four.

“Come and get me, Elder!” Gus’s shout split the air.

I choked on a sob.

In, two, three, four.

Out, two, three, four.

“I’m right here!” Gus’s voice came again. Louder.

He kept yelling, taunting, a siren call to anyone who might be around. I prayed it was Councilor Elder.

In, two, three, four.

Out, two, three, four.

Movement to my left.

I turned, tracking the hunter as they stepped through the trees.

Not just any hunter—Councilor Elder, with her black curls bouncing as she strode through the clearing, rifle raised, sunlight

glinting off her pearly teeth. She’d changed out of her glamorous red pantsuit and heels in favor of a black uniform and matching

leather boots.

I stepped out of my hiding space and took off at a run back into the clearing.

I would reach him in time. I had to. I panted as I ran, great, gasping breaths. Sticks snapped beneath my pounding feet, but the Councilor was so focused on her quarry that she didn’t seem to register my presence.

I was strides away. A few paces and I would knock her down like I had with the last hunter who’d tried to hurt one of my friends.

Her finger tightened on the trigger. I leaped into the air.

A gunshot split the silence as my body collided with hers. The rifle slipped from her grip, and she flew forward, headfirst

into the trench, landing with a satisfying thump .

I tried to stop from falling forward, my arms pinwheeling at my sides to keep me balanced, but it was no use. I careened into

the pit, landing hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. I found myself lying on my back, on something sturdy but pliable,

gazing upward at a sliver of blue sky framed by overhanging leaves.

I groaned, hesitantly moving my arms and then my hands. I concentrated on my body, waiting to feel the sharp pain of a broken

bone. Aside from an ache in my ribs, there was nothing.

I turned my head to the side to find a mess of black curls spilled across the dirt beneath my arm. Curls that led to a head

that belonged to Councilor Elder.

Her body had broken my fall. And she was either dead or close to it.

I burst into hysterical laughter.

“That was way too close.”

Silence.

“Gus?”

Still no answer.

Terror gripped me, and I rolled onto my stomach, the ache in my ribs blossoming into a widespread throbbing pain in my abdomen.

I wrapped an arm around myself, holding my body together, and moved to stand.

My eyes closed instinctively. Perhaps to shield me from what was to come. I took a shaky breath.

“Gus?” My voice was barely a whisper as I peered deeper into the chasm.

Gus stared back at me with unseeing eyes, a pool of blood oozing from the gaping wound in his chest.

So much blood.

I jerked my head away as if refusing to look would make the scene disappear. But my eyes landed back on Councilor Elder. She

lay still, her arm twisted at an impossible angle. I was shaking too much to tell whether her chest heaved with breaths or

if she’d joined Gus in the land of the dead.

August.

Dead.

I doubled over, emptying the contents of my stomach onto the ground, retching over and over until my body convulsed with dry

heaves.

It’s not real. I’ll open my eyes, and I’ll be on my bed in my cell. It’s a nightmare. It’s not real.

The world spun behind my eyelids as I counted down from three and then forced my eyes open.

Gus’s lifeless, accusing eyes still met mine, his blood seeping into the soil beneath him.

My chest cracked open, spilling my heart onto the ground at my feet. Somewhere, far away, someone was screaming. One long

note. A never-ending wail.

There was a thud.

Hands grabbed my shoulders, shaking me, but I didn’t care. If it was a hunter, let them kill me. There was no defeating them.

No fighting the warden or the Council. They would always win. They would kill us all eventually.

Arms clamped tightly around me, squeezing to bring me back up from underwater, and as I surfaced, I realized the screams were

mine. I shut my mouth, and the world became quiet again.

Too quiet.

Vale held me close. “Raven, shhh. You’re all right. I’ve got you.” His voice was a desperate whisper, his fingers digging

into my back, and when I turned my head, I met eyes that were wide and frantic.

Some strange feeling crept over me at the sight of him, but I couldn’t think .

“Vale, Gus, he—he’s...” My voice cracked, my shaking knees threat ening to send me sprawling onto the ground. My stomach churned, though there was nothing left to expel. “He’s dead,” I whispered.

“I know.” Vale’s voice cracked, too, and utter devastation flashed in his eyes.

“It’s my fault.” I couldn’t stop shaking. My legs finally gave out, and I sank to the ground. Vale dropped down beside me,

pulling me into his lap, and rocking us back and forth.

“It’s not your fault,” he insisted. He looked around the trench, and hatred filled his eyes. I wouldn’t blame him if he hated

me. I hated me. But instead, he pulled me closer, nestling me against him. He breathed into my hair and rubbed soothing circles

along my back. “You’re okay. Everything is okay.”

“No, it’s not,” I said into his neck. “Just leave me here, Vale. We can’t do this without him. And even if we could, I wouldn’t

want to. Not after what I’ve done.”

Vale leaned back, cradling my face in his hands and forcing me to meet his gaze. “This didn’t happen because of anything you’ve

done.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but a twig snapped in the distance and Vale slid me off his lap. “You need to get down. Someone

must have heard the shots.”

I sat frozen, staring at him until he crouched down, tilting my chin up with his fingers and leaning in until his face was

inches from mine. “I can’t lose you, too,” he whispered. “And neither can Jed. You have to survive for him. For me. I’m begging you. Get down on the ground and play dead, and I promise it will be okay.”

It wouldn’t be okay, but the mention of Jed’s name snapped something within me. I had made a promise to Gus. To protect Momo like I’d

protect Jed. I wouldn’t fail him again. The pain and horror were still there, but I shoved them to the back of my mind. I

needed to make it through the hunt before I could fall apart. The hunters’ shouts were drawing nearer, closing in on us.

I lay down next to Gus, a mixture of warm blood and gritty earth meeting my skin as I pressed my cheek into the ground, staring

into Gus’s vacant eyes. A single tear slid down my face, soaking into the soil.

Static filled my ears, and then Vale was speaking into his radio. “Councilor Elder needs help. Send a unit of guards, and bring a spinal board.”

“What happened?” a voice called down to us in the trench.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Vale ignored the affirmative reply from his radio, instead calling out to the voice above. “Looks like 224 fell into the trench,

and 412 came to help her. The Councilor must have gotten into an altercation with him—she shot him, but he pulled her into

the trench with him as he went down. The inmates are dead. The Councilor’s alive but badly injured.”

I bit my lip to keep from sobbing. She was alive. Why hadn’t I killed her before Vale showed up?

“Shit,” the voice replied. “Let’s get her out of there.”

More guards arrived and jumped into the trench, and there were grunts and groans and the sound of Councilor Elder’s body sliding

onto the spinal board and then being lifted out of the pit.

Vale heaved Gus’s body up and handed him to a waiting guard.

“Give that one to me,” one of the guards said above. “The crematorium’s back up and running. I’ll take her there, and you

can help the Councilor.”

“No,” Vale said, too quickly. “No, I’ve got her. You help the others with Councilor Elder. Get her back to the infirmary.

I’ve called ahead to Endlock, and Dr. Row is ready to receive her.”

There was a pause. “But don’t you want to—?”

“I said go ,” Vale snapped, and I heard the guards gathering Councilor Elder, several of them clamoring to grab the handles of the spinal

board, as if she would reward them handsomely for carrying her to safety.

A few stragglers grunted, and I pictured them hefting Gus’s limp body.

Vale scooped me up in his arms once the others started to retreat. I kept my eyes shut. My breathing was shallow as he set

me on the lip of the trench and then hauled himself out before gathering me into his arms again.

I wondered which guards were carrying Gus and what would become of him. Would they burn him to ash and scatter his remains to the wind? Or simply bury him on the hunting grounds, where his soul couldn’t possibly find rest?

Vale carried me gently, not so much as jostling me in his arms.

“It’s not your fault,” he said softly, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.

He repeated the words endlessly, grief coating his voice until it was rough enough to scratch. I wasn’t sure if the reassurance

was meant for me or himself.