Page 64 of To Cage a Wild Bird (Divided Fates #1)
At first we ran.
Stumbling over roots and rocks, panting terrified breaths as Endlock’s alarms echoed around us, pressing at our backs and
urging us onward.
Every snapping twig, every rustle of leaves in the wind, each time a tree dropped a pine cone to the forest floor—we jumped.
But after several hours of trekking in the silvery light of the full moon, the alarms faded from piercing to a dull drone
to nothing. And then there were miles between us and the prison.
We exchanged tentative glances and small smiles, though now we missed two of our friends. Gus’s absence weighed heavily on
us. I could almost hear his encouraging words, hear him laughing at something Momo said and affectionately palming the boy’s
head.
Vale’s absence was too fresh for me to pry at the wound.
Our escape didn’t feel quite real, and we’d fallen into a silence, broken only by the soft rustling of our footsteps treading
over pine needles.
After a long uphill journey, we arrived at a clearing, and I couldn’t help but gasp at the sight that greeted me. Bathed in
a brilliant midday sun, the world spread out before me—below the conifer-adorned mountain where we stood was a barren flatland,
dried and cracked as far as the eye could see, akin to the deserts I’d read about from the world before. The Wastes.
In the distance, I could just make out the bare outline of a magnificent mountain.
The world beyond.
And somewhere, the North Settlement.
It was there that I finally let the tears stream down my face. Tears for those I’d lost. Tears for what I’d done.
Standing there, looking out over the world that had been kept from me for so long, I felt a rush of emotions. Fear. Exhilaration.
Hope. Hurt.
Determination.
“Crying tears of joy just at the sight of me, Thorne? I never thought I’d live to see the day.”
I turned, and a wide grin spread over my face as Gray and Opal stepped out of the forest, the latter surveying our ragtag
group.
“Crying because I’m going to have to spend an entire month listening to your righteous bullshit,” I told him, but I threw
my arms around his neck just the same, breathing in the familiar scent of leather and soap.
“That’s more like it,” Gray murmured against my ear. “I was getting worried. Thought you’d gone soft on me.”
“Why, because I called you pretty?” I leaned back and winked.
Jed came up beside us and Gray released me to sling an arm around his shoulders and rub his knuckles over his already mussed
hair. Jed laughed, and I looked over at Opal, who gave me a hesitant smile.
“You did it.” She laughed. “You actually did it.”
“It was a team effort. I don’t know why you all thought you needed me—Kit did most of the heavy lifting,” I admitted, turning,
and introducing the two of them to the rest of our group.
A bounty hunter, an engineer, an agricultural scientist turned poisoner, a water treatment facility worker with a will of
steel, and a dagger-wielding twelve-year-old. It sounded like the start of a joke.
We sat in a circle, not daring to kindle a fire as we passed around a couple of ration bars, munching on them and leaning
over the map of the Wastes that Opal spread before us, weighed down by a handful of stones.
“We need to get moving,” she insisted. “There’s not enough space between us and Endlock. We need to make it at least a few
miles into the Wastes before we sleep.”
“Agreed.” I nodded. “The farther we get from this place, the better.”
We gathered our belongings, hoisting our packs. I paused, turning back to Endlock just for a moment, picturing the distance between where I stood and where we’d left Vale.
Nothing could keep me from you.
I closed my eyes, letting Vale’s words wrap me in a warm embrace.
And then I stepped into the unknown.