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“I don’t trust him,” he said, crossing his arms.

“If he wanted to kill me, he had much better opportunities,” I pointed out. “I don’t want you to collapse, darling. You’re burning yourself out, and that doesn’t help any of us. Please.”

I clasped his hand in mine and squeezed, and when he met my eyes, I recognized that he’d give in if I pushed. He was so exhausted that even his characteristic obstinacy wasn’t going to win out anymore. After a few more minutes of careful prodding, he finally sighed and agreed.

“But I’m coming back at dawn,” he warned. “And I better find you exactly as I left you.”

He kissed me goodnight and left. Leo came in and checked on me shortly after, then left me to sleep. I slept for a few hours on and off, the pain in my side a constant, unwelcome wake-up call.

It was still pitched black outside when I was awoken by Leo’s voice, but he wasn’t speaking to me. The only light came from a lit candle that he’d left on the exam table.

“This is not a good idea.”

“Come on,” Asha pleaded. “I won’t hurt her. You know I won’t, Leo.”

“I know that,” Leo said, exasperated. “But will she see it that way? Will her husband? I don’t think so, and the last thing I need is Cade blowing a gasket because her husband threatened you. He’s been doing well lately. You both have.”

“Cade will never know,” she insisted. “I just want to talk, without her man interrupting. That’s it. I won’t be long.”

I frowned. Why would Asha want to speak to me? She hadn’t been to visit me at all since I arrived, possibly because John would’ve never allowed it. I didn’t know how to process that my former friend had both betrayed me completely and saved my life. I had no grasp on what I felt for her anymore besides suspicion.

Still, something compelled me to say, “Let her in, Leo. She can speak to me if you stay with us.”

His golden hair reflected the candlelight as he turned to look at me. His expression was still skeptical, but he gave a short nod and allowed Asha in.

Even in the low light, Asha looked different to the last time I’d seen her. Her cheeks were a little fuller, her skin more radiant, and she held herself differently—more upright, confident. It was different even to how I remembered her at the Cave. She just looked… happier. There was no other word for it, and in that moment, I realized I’d never seen her truly content.

“Hey,” Asha said, almost shyly—so unlike herself. “Sorry to just stop by in the middle of the night like this, but I didn’t want Madi—I mean, John to be here. I’m pretty sure he still wants my head on a pike.”

I lay back on my pillows and sighed as she took a seat in the wooden chair by my bed. “Can you really blame him, Asha?”

“No,” she replied, and that surprised me. “I can’t.”

I paused as Leo took a seat at his tiny desk in the opposite corner, clearly pretending to be busy.

“So, why are you here?” I asked. “Your gangster boyfriend has already come by to threaten us, so if that’s why you’re here, he beat you to it.”

Asha blinked. “What?”

The bewilderment on her face seemed genuine, but I didn’t trust it. I explained Cade’s threat anyway, watching her expression.

She tutted and shook her head. “Cade. He’s trying to make things better, but as usual, his way of doing that is stupid.”

I couldn’t help it; her irritated tone made a giggle escape. To my surprise, Asha’s lips twitched at the sound, like she held back her own laugh. It was strange, and I realized it was because I rarely saw Asha laugh, even before the Cave was destroyed. She wasn’t as downtrodden as she was later on, but she was never like this. There was a sense of ease about her that was foreign.

“What I mean is,” Asha continued, “he’s trying to make our lives better here at Ashburn. And even though he came from the Delta, he lived the gang life for a long time. This is how you got shit done with the Guardians. He hasn’t totally unlearned that yet.”

I frowned. He came from the Delta…

Something suddenly snapped into place. “Is Cade’s surname Campbell? Was he in the military at the Delta? A captain?”

Asha’s lips parted in surprise. “Yeah. Why, is that important?”

Oh God. Oh no.

Cade had been the one Julius was describing—the soldier he’d ‘made an example of.’ And the settlement he’d destroyed with the virus…was it this place?

Leo’s head had turned at my words, and his frown told me he was listening. It was that, more than anything, that made me tell them the horrible truth. That Julius had deliberately sabotaged their efforts to build a new home for themselves, and had killed their friends using biological warfare.