Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(61)

I glared back at her. “No need for jealousy,” I joked, then grinned and poked Jace in the ribs. “Jace, it’s time to get up,” I said softly.

He exploded up off the ground like he’d been bitten by a snake and came to a crouch just to the side of me, his gaze roving from left to right. Nelson and I looked at him, surprised and more than a bit amused.

“Was it something I said?” I wondered out loud.

He turned to stare at me, and then started chuckling. “I guess sleeping outside brings back my caveman instincts,” he said with a shrug. “I’m almost never the last one up. Evidently I was more comfortable than usual.” He gave me a shy grin at that, and I grinned shyly back at him, agreeing wholeheartedly.

We were in the middle of nowhere, hunted by the Authority, and were on the verge of trying to travel through what might be a swarm of Authority soldiers, just to get to a mysterious contact who may or may not be able to get us to safety. And yet I’d slept like a baby, safe in the knowledge that he was with me.

I sat up and turned my brain to more important things. I rose and slipped my shoes back on. “Where’s that spring?” I asked Jace. I wanted to wash my face and clean my teeth—and get my thoughts moving forward. “And how exactly are we going to get into Samsfield?”

“Turn right at the mouth of the tunnel and go about twenty feet, and you’ll find it draining right out of the side of the mountain into a small pond,” Jace said, answering the first question. “By the time you get back, I’ll have an answer for you about how we’re going to do it.”

I nodded, all business, then turned toward the mouth of the tunnel. Before I left, I stopped by Jackie’s pallet to pick up some company.

“How are you feeling?” I asked gently.

“Like I’ve just slept on a bed of rocks next to someone who hogs the blankets,” she answered. “Are you going for water?”

I nodded. “Want me to bring you some? Or do you want to come with me?”

She jumped up before she’d even had much chance to think about it and took my hand. “Coming with you. I don’t even have to consider it. I’ve been basically sitting in the same place since we started telling stories last night. I want to move around, and I need a moment of privacy.”

I laughed softly at that and then turned and walked with her out of the cave. At the mouth, we turned to the right and headed for the pond Jace had told me about.

“How’s the leg?” she asked as we walked.

“Better than I expected,” I allowed. “Though, I don’t recommend the leeches. They’re cold and creepy.”

She shook her head, her mouth a moue of distaste. “That Jace,” she said. “Always surprising me. You two seem to be… getting along well.”

She looked at me and lifted her eyebrows as far as they would go, and I blushed.

“More walking, less joking. Jace wants to get moving, and I don’t want the lecture I’ll get if we’re the reason we end up leaving late.”

We made it to the pond relatively quickly, and I found a tree with the leaves Jace had been using to ferry water and picked one, then filled it at the rush of water coming out of the mountain and held it to Jackie’s mouth. She drank deeply and smacked her lips.

“God, that’s good,” she said. “Do you think it’s a bad thing that that water tastes so good? Is that my body’s way of appreciating the small things, suddenly? You don’t… You don’t think that means my body knows we’re going to die, do you?” She said it like it was a joke, but I took a look in her eyes and knew the truth—that she was just as worried about what we were about to do as I was.

I swallowed firmly, gave myself a mental shake, and said, “Absolutely not. It’s probably just the freshest water you’ve ever had. I mean, it’s coming right out of a mountain.”

She laughed while I tried to get my emotions under control, and I caught more water in the leaf and gave us each a makeshift shower, allowing the cold water to dribble over our heads and down our faces. Then I took a long drink and let the water run down my throat. She was right: the water was delicious. And I didn’t think it was because we were dying. Not yet, anyhow.



When we got back to the cave, we found Jace in the middle of explaining his plans for our journey into Samsfield.

“First, we drop off everything we’ve got in another location,” he said. “I don’t want everything in the same spot, in case one or the other gets discovered. Then we get down to where we left the scooters and see if they’re still there,” he said, pointing to things in the dirt.

I looked down and saw that he’d drawn a rough map in the sand in the middle of the cave. Our location versus where we would be going, I assumed. I could even see a little stick figure house that must have been my cottage, and to the side of it were several simplistic scooters.

“How do you know that’s safe?” I asked. “Don’t you think the Authority will have someone there watching them?”

He tipped his head to one side in a halfway shrug. “Maybe,” he said. “But I don’t think they’d leave more than one person to guard them. They think we’ve run into the wilderness. With luck they’ll assume that we’ve died out here. Without luck, they’ll be searching high and low for us in the forest, with as many men as they can gather. We’d have to be completely bonkers to go back to your house or the surrounding area. So, they might be guarding them, but not heavily. And if it’s only one or two men, we can take care of them.”