Page 6 of To Cage a Wild Bird (Divided Fates #1)

“The Lower Sector curfew is now in effect. Citizens are not permitted to leave their homes under any circumstance until morning.

If found in the streets, you will be arrested on sight.”

Councilor Elder’s monotone voice droned from the speakers on repeat, cutting through the silent streets.

“How much farther is it?” I asked.

We’d been walking in the dark for several minutes, sticking close to the buildings and scanning the shadows for patrolling

guards.

My heart thundered in my chest, and only now, as I was following a stranger down a dark alley, did I realize my stupidity.

The ale and the way Vale’s lips had looked in the lantern light had gone to my head, but now, with the cold breeze slipping

its fingers beneath my worn jacket and the threat of patrols, I knew I should be safely tucked in bed back at my apartment.

“It’s just a bit farther,” Vale said, reaching out and grabbing my hand. His warm fingers curled around mine, igniting something

inside me.

Maybe it would be all right, then.

Maybe this once, I could take the night off from thinking about Jed and rent and my next payout. I could do something for

myself.

A clatter came from the street at the end of the alley, and I froze.

“I heard something over there,” a light voice, too close for comfort, called from the street.

“Just leave it, Glin,” a rumbling baritone answered. “Our shift’s almost up. If we find someone, there’ll be paperwork, and

we won’t be home for hours.”

I felt a tug on my hand, and Vale pulled me backward, holding a finger to his lips.

With my next step, I kicked an empty bottle, which shattered against the brick of the nearest building. I turned to Vale,

wide-eyed.

Silence.

And then the sound of quick footsteps.

I took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as I scanned my surroundings for an escape route.

The alley was lined with apartment buildings, but there were no emergency exit staircases or ladders to climb. No lower-level

windows to slip through and nothing large enough to hide behind.

I felt for the dagger strapped to my thigh.

“A blade will be no use against their guns,” Vale whispered.

I paused.

If I couldn’t fight, it was over.

The only way out of the alley lay in front of us or far back the way we’d come.

My throat tightened, and I froze, unable to draw a breath.

I was going to die at Endlock, just like my parents.

And Jed would be left to fend for himself.

I clamped my shaking hand harder around the handle of my dagger, pulling it from its sheath. I wouldn’t let them take me alive.

Then there was a hand on my arm.

“Do you trust me?” Vale was close enough that I could feel his breath on my cheek.

“Not at all,” I breathed.

He walked toward me, and I backed away until my shoulders met brick and there was nowhere left to go.

“I promise I can get you out of this,” Vale whispered. “Let me kiss you.”

I nearly laughed at the absurdity of the suggestion but paused, as everything seemed to clarify around me.

My hands trembled, the guards’ footsteps pounding closer as I drew what I knew were my last breaths.

There was nowhere to run or hide.

No chance of making it out of this alive.

But I could decide to live my final moments in pleasure instead of fear.

I slipped my dagger back into its sheath.

“Okay.”

If Vale was surprised, he didn’t show it. His large hands slid up the sides of my neck until his fingers framed my face, his

thumbs beneath my jaw. And then he pressed his lips to mine.

He groaned as my mouth parted beneath his, and his tongue traced over my lips before delving into my mouth.

I pulled him closer, my pulse ratcheting up as I ran my hands up the back of his neck and into his hair until I reached the

tie holding the smooth locks back from his face. I yanked the tie free and tangled my fingers in his hair, relishing the softness.

Someone was speaking in the background, but I couldn’t make out their words.

Adrenaline filled my veins, fear merging with lust as I lost myself in Vale, kissing him harder, breathing him in. One of

my hands slipped beneath the hem of his shirt and over the smooth plane of the muscles of his abdomen. Molten heat pooled

in my core as I let out a soft moan, and he bit my bottom lip in response.

“Careful, Little Bird,” he growled. “You’ll make me forget we’re not alone out here.”

I’d already forgotten.

“Face the wall and put your hands up.” A flashlight pierced the darkness, momentarily blinding me.

“Don’t move,” Vale whispered, running his thumb over my still-parted lips. Then he turned to face the guards, his body blocking

me almost entirely from view.

“I said—” the guard began.

“I heard you,” Vale interrupted, voice low. He was doing something with his hands that I couldn’t see, rolling up his sleeve

to show them something on his wrist, a watch or his wristband or—

“Vale, I think you should listen to them,” I urged, using his body to shield my movements from the guards as I pulled my dagger free once more. “They’ll hurt you.”

But both of the guards had gone quiet, and the flashlight fell from my face.

“We’re sorry. Please, carry on.”

I froze, knowing I must have heard them wrong.

But the two guards turned and practically ran back to where they’d come from, leaving me in stunned silence, staring at Vale’s

back.

Nausea churned in my stomach as I realized what I’d done. Who I’d kissed. Because there was only one thing that would keep

someone in the Lower Sector from being arrested after curfew.

I didn’t speak until a minute later when the guards’ footsteps vanished, and Vale finally turned to face me.

“You’re a guard.” The words shook as I pushed them past my lips even though I was sure I was right. Vale hadn’t shown a hint

of fear while the guards were rushing toward us.

He was one of the Council’s minions and I’d kissed him. My hands shook around my dagger, itching to stab him. Only the thought of Jed had me sheathing the weapon instead.

“Something like that.” He grimaced at whatever he saw in my eyes.

I reared back and punched him square in the face. I heard a crunch and a grunt, but I ran before I could see how he’d react.

When I returned to my apartment, the building was dark—the electricity was still out from curfew. I stumbled up the stairs

with the beginning of a headache thrumming along the back of my skull and dug in my pocket for my keys.

I jiggled the broken doorknob, angling it the only way that it would accept my key, but instead of catching on the lock, the

door creaked open without resistance, and I had to grip the doorframe to keep from face-planting on the cracked tiles of the

kitchen floor.

Jed had forgotten to bolt the door.

I looked around, noting that nothing seemed to be disturbed. That, at least, was a stroke of luck in my shit show of a night.

I stumbled into bed without bothering to change and woke up on my lumpy mattress a scrap of hours later to a pounding headache.

Or what I thought was a pounding headache until I heard Aggie slamming on my front door and yelling at me to get out of bed.

The bed creaked as I got to my feet.

“I’m coming!” I yelled. “Will you stop with the banging?”

By the time I reached the kitchen, Aggie had let herself in using her key and had my kettle heating on the stove. She sat

in one of the mismatched chairs that ringed the shaky dining table, her face illuminated by the low light of dawn filtering

in through the window above the sink, bringing out the dark circles that framed her eyes.

“For strike’s sake, Aggs. What are you doing here?”

“Sit down,” she responded, ignoring my question.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sit down,” she repeated, and my heart dropped. I’d thought she must have come over to convince me to help the Collective,

but that didn’t explain why her hands shook at her sides.

“Okay.” I held my hands up in surrender and sat on one of the rickety chairs. “But keep your voice down. Jed will have just

gotten to sleep after his shift. You don’t want to wake him.”

“Jed was arrested last night, Raven.”

I let out a shaky laugh. “That’s not funny, Aggs.”

“It wasn’t meant to be.”

“Jed’s sleeping,” I said, but as I spoke, I noted the empty hook by the door where his jacket should’ve been.

Aggie shook her head at me, and her lips turned down at the corners. And maybe I still wouldn’t have believed her if it hadn’t

been for her eyes and the tears that welled in them.

Panic clawed at me as I stood and sprinted for Jed’s room, heart pounding in my throat.

I flung the door open, flinching as it slammed against the wall, and scanned the space.

His bed was still made, the sheets smooth and untouched.

My gut twisted, my insides turning to ice. Jed was clever. Cautious. He always stayed out of trouble, and he never came home late. If he wasn’t here...

I returned to my chair in time for Aggie to set a mug of steaming tea on the table before me.

“I saw him at Vern’s right before his shift,” I whispered, my hands forming into fists and resting on the tops of my thighs.

“What happened?”

“Drink,” she insisted, pushing the mug toward me.

I lifted the cup, breathing in the scent of mint tea and letting the warmth from the mug seep into my hands and chase away

some of the chill that had settled in my bones.

“Tell me.”

“It was just after curfew. He’d only been on shift for an hour when Torin Bond’s son found him,” Aggie began, leaning toward

me as if she could feel I was barely hanging on to my wits.

“Torin Bond’s son,” I repeated numbly, taking a sip of the scalding tea and letting it burn down my throat.

Aggie nodded. “Torin’s son is a friend of Councilor Baskan’s son, Roald. Leif told me the two of them walked into the water

treatment facility with a patrol guard, and no one stopped them.”

Leif was another member of the Collective. He was the same age as Jed, and they had most of their shifts at the facility together.

“What did they do?” I set the mug back on the table before my trembling hands could drop it.