Page 7 of To Cage a Wild Bird (Divided Fates #1)

“They attacked him. Had him arrested as soon as he fought back.”

“But he was defending himself! That’s not a crime,” I cried, slapping the table.

“If the Councilor’s son says it’s a crime, it’s a crime,” Aggie said, gripping her mug of tea so hard her knuckles turned

white.

“But why hurt him? Why not me?”

“Leif said they taunted Jed. Told him they came here to your apartment, but when you weren’t home, they figured sending him

to Endlock in your place would be the next best thing.”

The unlocked door.

They’d come to find me, and instead of being here to take their wrath, I’d been drinking at Vern’s with the intention of warming a stranger’s bed.

I hadn’t protected Jed.

I stood, reaching for my jacket. “We can talk to Captain Flint,” I told Aggie. “I’ll do a few jobs for free. Let him keep

the credits in exchange for freeing Jed.”

“It’s too late, Raven.” Aggie touched my shoulder. “They put Jed on the evening transport. He’ll have already reached Endlock

by now.”

Her words hung heavy in the air, running through my head on an endless loop. Jed was at Endlock.

I sucked in a deep breath. My hands trembled, and the room spun around me as I struggled to draw in enough air. “We have to

do something.”

Aggie watched me spiral out of control and, realizing she’d have to be the calm one of us, quickly ushered me back to my seat

and sat across from me.

“I have to get him out,” I whispered.

“And you will,” she answered without hesitation, and some of the tension left my body.

“How?” I asked. My voice was small, almost childlike.

“I spoke with the Collective before I came here. They’ve agreed to help you get Jed to safety, in exchange for your assistance.

You do us a few favors, and we’ll get you into Endlock.”

“How am I supposed to help Jed if I’m locked up alongside him?” I asked, disbelief sharpening my words.

“My dear, the only way to break out of Endlock is from the inside.”

“Break him out?” A humorless laugh burst from my lips. “No one’s ever escaped.”

“Yet. We have someone on the inside who’s been working on it for quite some time. Between the two of you, with the Collective

on your side, you’ll be able to do it.”

“So that’s it, then?” She made it seem so easy, but I knew that no one who entered Endlock as an inmate had ever left. “I do you a few favors, and your contact helps me break out of Endlock? And then what? Where would we go?”

“No,” Aggie said. “The favors include you helping Jed and our contact escape. Then the three of you make the journey to the North Settlement, and you make sure our contact gets across

the Wastes unharmed.”

“Are you insane ?” I hissed. “It will be impossible to get Jed out as it is, and I’m supposed to walk in there and escape with him and a total stranger and make it all the way to the North Settlement?”

Aggie closed her eyes and took a deep breath before speaking. “I don’t think you understand this situation, Raven. I had to

call in all the favors I’m owed within the Collective for them to agree to allow you to go with our contact to the North Settlement.

The only reason they agreed is because I convinced them the combat skills you’ve acquired as a bounty hunter will be invaluable

in protecting our contact while you travel across the Wastes. They don’t care about you and Jed. I do. I told them you’d never join us if we didn’t help Jed, too.”

She was right, of course.

And I’d never be able to get out of Endlock on my own.

A plan with a high likelihood of death was still better than the certain death Jed would face if I didn’t try.

I sighed, rubbing my eyes. “What’s so special about this contact that the Collective is willing to risk it all to get them

out?”

“Need-to-know basis, Raven.” Aggie took a swallow of tea from her mug. “You’re not one of us.”

Fair enough. “How do you know your contact will still be alive by the time I get there? They could be killed in a hunt any

day.”

“She could.” Aggie nodded. “But she’ll be alive. She’s been chosen a few times, but for the most part she’s good at keeping

her head down during hunt selections. And we have people on the inside that intervene from time to time.”

I reached a hand up to stroke the locket I wore around my neck, a mindless, comforting gesture that I’d repeated thousands

of times since my mother had given me the necklace.

“I don’t understand,” I finally said, when I’d managed to calm my self a bit. “Why are you asking me to do this if you have people on the inside?”

“Kit isn’t their main focus. They only help her when they can do so without compromising their missions.”

Missions.

Apparently, Aggie had kept more from me than I’d realized over the years. For her to have assets inside Endlock... it was

unfathomable to me.

“Can you tell me who they are? In case I need help?”

She shook her head. “No. If someone caught you with that information...”

“I wouldn’t give them up,” I insisted.

“You’ve never been tortured,” Aggie whispered, and my mouth dropped open. “And I believe you’d give anyone up if it meant

sparing Jed’s life.”

I looked away, not wanting her to see the truth of her words on my face. “Okay. I understand. Need-to-know basis.”

Aggie nodded, and I blew out a long breath, still boiling over with questions.

“And the North Settlement’s leaders will let us in when we arrive? Just like that?”

Dividium was one of five cities that had formed fifty years ago, after the second Civil War tore apart what had once been

the United States. Two of the other cities were on the East Coast, like Dividium, though they were hundreds of miles away,

inaccessible across the Wastes. The other two cities were on the West Coast. All the cities were self-governed, operating

separately from one another, with their own leaders and laws. From what I knew about the other cities, which admittedly wasn’t

much, none of them had a prison system like Endlock.

Aside from the cities, I’d only heard whisperings, hushed conversations in forbidden basement taverns, of settlements where people lived with more freedom.

Places that hadn’t been hit as hard by nuclear warfare, where the land had been able to bounce back more quickly, and could sustain small populations of people who preferred to live in a more rustic setting, away from the modern infrastructure that the settlements didn’t have the materials to erect.

The North Settlement was the closest settlement to Dividium, and while I knew it existed, until I could lay eyes on it myself,

my brain insisted it was a complete fantasy.

“The North Settlement’s leaders don’t allow just anyone inside,” Aggie said. “But if you’re with our contact, they’ll let

you in. We’ve worked out a deal.”

“A deal?”

“Need to know,” Aggie repeated pointedly.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, but I nodded all the same.

There wasn’t any choice.

“Melody and Keaton would be proud,” Aggie whispered, and my breath caught.

My parents.

I hardly ever heard their names anymore. My father had led the Lower Sector cell of the Collective before his and my mother’s

arrests, and that era of the Collective had been more focused on keeping people out of Endlock than waging any attacks on

the Council.

They were peacemakers, and they would’ve hated that I was a bounty hunter.

But I imagined Aggie was right—they would’ve been proud of me for daring to save Jed.

I took a deep breath.

“Okay. I’ll do it. When do I go to Endlock?”

Aggie swallowed the last of her tea and pushed to her feet.

“Today.”