Page 88 of Blue Arrow Island
“Where will you sleep?”
He tilts his head toward the doorway. “In the other room. This door locks from the inside.”
“You’ll have to sleep on the floor, though.”
He shrugs. “No big deal. Get some rest.”
“Hey.” I sit down on the bed and unlace my boots. “How do I get in to see Ellison?”
“When you wake up, go find the guard at the tunnel entrance and tell them you need to see her. They’ll radio her.”
“Okay, and after that, I’ll take you to the cave.”
“Cave?”
“Where I found the knife.”
He nods, looking down at his dirty bare feet. “I’m going to take a shower. Lock this door.”
I can’t help smiling at his brusque tone.
“What? Is that funny?”
“No, it’s just...nothing.” I slide my first boot off.
He leans his shoulder against the doorframe, his expression relaxing. “What?”
I give in, working on my second boot. “Have you always been so bossy?”
He scoffs, the corners of his lips easing dangerously close to a smile. “Actually, yeah. Used to be a quarterback.”
I arch my brows with surprise. I can see that. He most definitely has the body of an athlete.
“Professional?”
“Not quite,” he says with a smirk. “All-state in high school, and then I played all the way through college.”
As much as I’d like to dig into every detail of just how broad his shoulders looked in those pads, fatigue tugs on my eyelids, my neck and back still sore from my day in the garden yesterday.
“Thanks for letting me have your bed,” I say.
Nodding, he pushes off the doorway, closing it behind him. I pull off one sock, then the other. Still sitting on the edge of the bed, I try to process the events of the last couple of hours. Vance is dead. If Nova hadn’t been patrolling the housing block as part of her watch, and if she or Marcus hadn’t believed me, things would have turned out much worse for me.
This place is harsh. There are countless ways to die. But I’m still here. And while I don’t wholeheartedly trust anyone yet, I know Amira is my friend. I know Olin is too. And I believe Marcus, Nova and Ellison are all decent people trying to make fair decisions.
I’m better off than I was at Rising Tide. And if I’m not fighting Virginia alone, my chances of defeating her are better.
Is death the only way to truly defeat her? Maybe she could do some soul-searching from the hole she kept me prisoner in.
“Briar,” Marcus barks from outside the door.
“What?”
“Lock the damn door so I can go take a shower.”
Lightness flutters in my stomach as I get up to walk over to the door. He really seems to be looking out for me, which is nice.
There are three different locks on the door—two dead bolts and a metal bar. Once I’ve secured all of them, there’s no way anyone could get through the door without a bomb or a pretty killer axe.
