“Let me do that for a while.” Aerin gives me water and then looks at my hands. “You’re getting blisters.”
I shrug.
“I found part of a tarp that didn’t burn up,” she says. “I thought it would help to…to gather the remains on it. I’ll keep digging while you rest a bit, okay?”
I don’t have the energy to argue with her.
Digging the grave in the rough ground, collecting the bones and wrapping them carefully in the tarp, and then burying them takes the entire day. When we’re finished, I place the clay cup I found near Ava’s tent on top of the mound.
“I’m sorry, Ava.”
Aerin takes my hand, and I take a deep breath before I speak.
“I wish I had perfect words to say, but I don’t. I can only promise you that I’m going to make the people responsible pay for this.”
“We’ll figure it all out, Talen.” Aerin wraps her arms around me, and for a long moment, we just stand there in silence.
As the sky darkens, we head back into the woods and our small camp up the hill.
“When is your mother expecting you to return?” I ask as we walk.
“She knew it would take a while to get over the mountains,” Aerin says. “I only arrived in the area a few days before we first met, and it will still take time to get back to the city.”
“How long have you been gone?”
“I left in May, so about six months. It took me a little longer than expected to reach the complex, and I was there for a while before I came down to Hilltop.”
“Why did you go there?” I ask. “It seems like the complex has everything you need.”
“I wanted new books.” Aerin grins.
“Seriously?”
“I like to read.” She shrugs one shoulder. “I’ve already read all the ones I have, some of them more than once.”
“I can’t even think of the last time I sat down to read a book.”
“Maybe you should.”
“I guess now that I don’t have a community to look after, I’ll have more time.”
“I’m sorry,” Aerin says softly. “I was trying to get you to think about something else.”
“It’s okay. I know you were. I’m pretty sure anything you say is going to make me think about it, so you might as well—”
“Shh!” Aerin suddenly places her hand over my mouth. “Do you hear that?”
I listen closely, closing my eyes and tilting my head toward the east. Shuffling sounds come from the trail in front of us.
“Footsteps.” Aerin whispers.
We move off the trail and near a small tree trunk. I step in front of Aerin, but stay close to the side of the tree. The trunk isn’t large enough to conceal me completely, and if someone were to look in this direction, they would likely see us. I pull my blades out and hold them at my sides as the footsteps approach.
Two black shapes creep down the path, walking slowly but not particularly quietly. A twig snaps, and one of them stops just a few feet from us.
“Be quiet!” A male voice hisses in the darkness as the second shape nearly runs into him.
“I don’t think there’s anyone out here,” another voice says.