Recompense

TWENTY-SIX

Even with the help of the soldiers, it takes a few hours to evacuate the dead and wounded from the field and clear the cave of Bruelim. I mark off the portal with stakes and caution tape and stand guard beside it, making sure no one ignores the barricade. It interferes with the evacuation, sitting so tight against the rock face, and I hear plenty of complaints about the very normal-looking rectangle of ground inside. Each time, I tell them it marks a dangerous sinkhole. My explanation prompts some odd looks, but we don't lose anyone through the portal.

Every single Bruel—the dead, the wounded, the apparently recovered, and the hibernating—they're all taken to a lockdown facility fifty miles away. Ethan and I are among the last to leave Settlement 18. As I pass one of the few remaining AVs on my way to rendezvous with him at our aeropod, strong arms suddenly pull me behind the vehicle, and soft, insistent lips find mine.

I wrap my arms around Will's neck. The body armor that separates us makes the embrace feel distant and wrong, but the taste of his lips, the feel of his hands on my face, the smell of his skin, they're all exactly right. I close my eyes and let him take me far from the battlefield, far from the wonders and horrors I've seen this day. I cling to him, unwilling for the kiss to end.

When our lips part, Will presses his forehead against mine. "I've missed you."

I tighten my arms around his neck and he lifts me off the ground with the force of his embrace. It's pure luck, this stolen moment, and we both know it.

"What are you doing here?" he asks. "How'd you end up in Military?"

"I'm not. I work for Axis."

He shakes his head. "I don't know the name."

I never mentioned it during our discussion the night of graduation. "It's pretty hush-hush. Intelligence, mostly. But I had to go through basic training. And I passed a Military Five," I tell him, just in case he never got my letter. Not that it matters anymore, but I want Will to know.

He grins and kisses me on the nose. "I knew you could do it."

"Opal said you graduated with honors. Where are you stationed?"

"Still in Macron City."

It's a comfort to nail down a location, even though it could change at any moment and I would never know.

He kisses me again, and I'm transported back to a simpler time, before guns and Military training and a knowledge of the Bruelim. Back to when there was only me and Will against the future. How different everything is now. How different I am.

I realize that Will doesn't even know about my genetics. About Ruby or my past or my connection to the men he has just fought. And this is not the time to tell him. Not when we have only minutes. Not when I haven't even figured out what it means for myself. There will be time to sort through that later. For now, I simply cling to this moment. To what is comfortable and sweet and familiar.

Footsteps approach behind me, pause, and retreat around the front of the vehicle. We've been discovered, but I don't care. This moment is too precious. Will looks up, but I pull his head down one last time and savor the pressure of his lips. "I love you, Will Ransom," I whisper as I pull away. Just in case I never get the chance to say it again. "Tell Ernie good-bye for me."

He nods, and I leave him there. Looking back is too hard, so I don't.

Ethan waits for me at the front of the AV. By the closed look on his face, I can tell he was the one who stumbled onto me and Will. We walk to the aeropod and board in uncomfortable silence. I try not to let the awkwardness steal the lightness from my heart, but the cabin feels much smaller than it did this morning.