Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(33)

“Wait, what?” Abe asked. “Why you two? What are you trying to do, pick the biggest people we have? Of all of us, you’ll have the most trouble hiding!”

I hid my grin at that. Abe didn’t know who Jace and Kory had been in their previous lives, so of course he didn’t know that they were in fact the best options when it came to sneaking through the woods without being seen. I knew, though, and gave Jace a quick nod of agreement. The others, having seen him in action, agreed as well, and a moment later Jace and Kory were sneaking through the trees, somehow making themselves look like part of the forest itself. It was amazing, and I would never have believed it if I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes, but it was as if the shadows of the trees grew larger to accommodate their forms, making it so difficult to see them at times that I had to blink and squint to remind myself that they were actually there. They moved incredibly quickly, and then became completely and utterly still a second later, when they hit a sheltered place. Before I could count to ten, they were at the end of the copse of trees and staring out into the clearing that surrounded the house.

They both paused, considering the ten feet of open space between them and the small cabin. Then they began moving in opposite directions at the same time. They melted through the shadows and around the trees in the circle of woods that surrounded the cabin, and I remembered suddenly that the woods came closer to the cabin on the other side. So close that they sometimes scratched at the roof, if the wind was right—a sound that had woken me with a scream on my lips more than once. I glanced at the cabin, wondering whether they’d known that they’d be able to get closer on the other side, or were just searching for soldiers, and when I looked back to where Jace had been, he was gone.

It was the first time I’d been away from him in more days than I cared to count, and though it was stupid, my stomach plummeted at his sudden absence, my fingers aching for the warmth of him.

I gave myself a mental shake and turned my head to stare at the cabin, trying to figure out whether there was anyone inside. It was a tiny place, so even if there were Authority agents in there, there couldn’t be many of them. Still, it only took one of them with a gun to kill us, and there was no telling how many of them might be in the woods around the place.

I held my breath, my hands clenched, as we waited for any sign that Kory and Jace had been caught or had found that the place was safe.

Around me, I could hear the deep silence of four other people holding their breath as well and knew that my friends were just as tense as I was. Nelson and Abe might not have spent the last week running and hiding from Authority agents, but they’d actually been in their jail, and had no doubt experienced enough of them to know that the Authority didn’t mess around when it came to dealing with anyone they saw as their enemy.

Suddenly, Kory and Jace returned, striding boldly past the cabin and through the open space toward us.

“Everything looks clear,” Jace said when he reached us. “There’s no sign of anyone having been in the woods around the house, and you left the curtains open on the window on the other side, so we could see into it. Not much space in there for anyone to hide, is there?” he asked, grinning.

I gave him a soft punch. “You try affording a place all by yourself on a factory worker’s salary,” I said. Then I thought about what he was saying, and grinned back. “So it’s safe, then. There’s no one around, and all my stuff is still there?”

He shrugged. “As far as I can see. Of course, I don’t know how much you had before. Half of it could be missing, for all I know.”

I gave him a narrow-eyed look, half pleased and half annoyed at his teasing, and then started quickly toward the house, my mind already making a list of the things we needed to do once we were in there. Gather supplies. Food. Medical stuff. Clean clothes. Maybe even a chance to wash my face with my own soap…

Once I was there, though, I realized that I had a problem.

Since the last time I’d been here, I’d worn several different suits, run from Authority soldiers at least three times—four if you counted the man we’d met outside of Nelson’s house, who I was sure was with the Authority— showered a number of times at someone else’s house, slept at someone else’s house, and invaded a prison to break out my friends. I had no idea where my keys were. I didn’t even remember the last time I’d seen them.

But before I could turn around and ask for help, Kory dropped to his knees next to me, the lockpicking device in his hands.

He looked up and gave me a quick, infectious grin. “I saw the pause,” he said. “Didn’t take much to guess that you’d misplaced your keys.”

I grinned back at that, and when the lock clicked and the door swung inward, I stepped over the threshold, back into my home.

It had been a week since I’d seen it, but as far as I could tell, it was just as I’d left it. My tablet computer was on the table, probably drained of battery, and a cereal bowl sat next to it—courtesy of me having been in too much of a hurry to put it in the sink after I finished breakfast. Last time I’d been here, I’d been in a rush to get out and get to Nelson’s office, to start the raid on the warehouse. Doing the dishes or charging my computer had been the last things on my mind.

I strode into the small space and turned to my friends, who were either crowding into the cabin or standing outside, staring.