Page 124 of The World Undone

The bonds were somehow stronger now, like the magic Darius had held always belonged to us, was always meant to draw us closer.

He was never meant to hold it on his own, I understood that now.

Even in sleep, I could feel that Darius was lighter, breathing easier than he had since we’d stepped foot in this place.

But I dreaded the morning, because I knew that I’d have to talk to him today—knew what had triggered the upset in the tenuous balancing act he walked every day. Eventually, I’d have to talk to the others too, but hopefully that could wait a few more days, until after they’d had a chance to process everything that had happened on the mission. We still needed to debrief, to figure out what we were going to do next.

The truth was, I didn’t have any ideas. And the person who’d been the brains of this operation, who’d put this meticulous plan together, was gone.

I curled into Darius, breathing in the scent of his skin.

Terror gripped beneath my ribs as I thought about what Charlie was going through right now.

More than terror though, in the parts of myself I hated, there was also gratitude—that I hadn’t lost any members of my team.

Losing Bishop and Evelyn was painful, but I couldn’t imagine losing one of my own team.

It felt selfish and horrible, to be excited by the fact that Darius was himself again now, that we’d been able to use our bond to keep that darkness at bay, at least for a little longer.

The sun had hardly crept through the window, when he shifted next to me.

His eyes met mine, his jaw tight. I watched the maelstrom of emotions play out across his eyes.

There was so much that I wanted to say to him, but I couldn’t find the words; didn’t know how to heal the wound between us, because there was no solution to the problem that had carved it there.

“I—” I whispered, searching for something to say, to ease his pain, but I couldn’t. “I’m glad you’re back.”

Slowly, the anger and grief there bled into a hard determination.

Wordlessly, he slid his hand into his pocket, pulling out a phone I didn’t recognize. He swung his legs over the bed and dialed a number while he stretched, his lean muscles glistening in the soft light of the window.

“When did you get a phone?” I asked, already missing his warmth. He’d lost every phone he’d been given, and had stuck to borrowing Dec’s more often than not when he needed one. It was a habit that she hated, because he always made sure to change her background photo to a ridiculously up-close selfie of his face—the kind of proportions only a well-intentioned boomer could manifest.

Secretly though, I knew she loved it, that she loved him. We all did.

Shadow ran into the room, then nudged her head along his calf in greeting.

I froze, not entirely sure Darius was fully back to himself. I was fairly certain Wade’s siphoning plan had worked, but it was also a very real possibility that Shadow was unknowingly walking towards her death.

We hadn’t had a chance to test the theory in action, to make sure that the hunger had abated.

But Darius simply looked down at her, scrunched his nose, then tossed a pillow to Wade. “Wake up, you prick.” Then he picked Shadow up and set her carefully in my lap, before wiping his hands on his pants like the transfer had left him contaminated.

Wade grunted, blinking awake. “What the hell? What time is it?”

“Get here now,” Darius said into the phone, ignoring us both. “And bring the girl too.” He paused, grunted. “No.” Another pause, he opened the door and walked out. “Yeah, that one. She deserves to know, so make sure she’s here too. Family meeting. One minute.”

There was the muffled sound of a voice on the other end, but Darius hung up on whoever he’d called without so much as a goodbye.

Wade mouthed, “family meeting?” then looked at me, confused, but I could only shrug.

“Well, he seems fine,” he said, his words muddy with sleep. “Back to his old confusing-as-hell self anyway.”

“Where’d you get that phone?” I whisper-shouted, not wanting to wake the others up. They needed sleep. We all did.

“Swiped it from Haley,” he yelled back, clearly unconcerned about noise control, “when we left her in the room. She wasn’t using it, so I didn’t think she’d miss it. I’ll return it today, she’s probably up and moving again.” His volume didn’t change, but his voice sounded farther away as we moved through the cabin. “Though come to think of it, not entirely sure how many of those darts she got hit with. Might be a few days.”

Loud banging proceeded down the hall as doors slammed open and a cacophony of groggy curses filled the small cabin.

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