Crossed

CHAPTER 26 CASSIA

Ky leaves one flashlight on so that we can see each other while we talk. When Eli and Indie fall asleep, and Ky and I are the only two left, he switches off the light to save it. The girls on the cave walls dance back into darkness and we are truly alone.

The air in the cave feels heavy between us.

“One night,” Ky says. In his voice, I hear the Hill. I hear the wind on the Hill, and the brush of branches against our sleeves, and the way he sounded when he first told me he loved me. We have stolen time from the Society before. We can do it again. It will not be as much as we want.

I close my eyes and wait.

But he doesn’t go on. “Come with me outside,” he says, and I feel his hand on mine. “We won’t go far.” I can’t see him; but I hear a complicated mix of emotion in his voice and feel it in the way he touches me. Love, concern, and something unusual, something bittersweet.

Outside, Ky and I walk down the path a little way. I lean back against the rock and he stands before me, reaching up to put his hand along my neck, under my hair and the collar of my coat. His hand feels rough, cut from carving and climbing, but his touch is gentle and warm. The night wind sings through the canyon and Ky’s body shields me from the cold.

“One night. .” I prompt him again. “What’s the rest of the story?”

“It wasn’t a story,” Ky says softly. “I was about to ask you something.”

“What?” The two of us draw together under the sky, our breath white and our voices hushed.

“One night,” Ky says, “doesn’t seem like too much to ask.”

I don’t speak. He moves closer and I feel his cheek against mine and breathe in the scent of sage and pine, of old dust and fresh water and of him.

“For one night, can we just think of each other? Not the Society or the Rising or even our families?”

“No,” I say.

“No what?” He tangles one of his hands in my hair, the other draws me closer still.

“No, I don’t think we can,” I say. “And no, it isn’t too much to ask.”