The Cage(31)

“I’ll go first. Just watch how I do it.”

He swung out. Alone in the tree, Cora grabbed the trunk harder, eyes squeezed shut. She waited for the terrible crash as he fell, but none came. When she opened her eyes, he was standing on the next platform, dusting pine needles off his shirt.

“See?” he called. “Easy.”

“Easy for you,” she muttered. He threw the rope back. She searched her brain for words of advice from her father, but none came. She couldn’t smile her way through this one. She gripped the rope, blood pulsing in her ears. Don’t look down. She jumped off, shrieking as she hurtled through the air. The world was a blur. Branches and leaves and Lucky, and then his gentle laughter was in her ear, and his body was pressed against hers.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

She pulled away to hide the burn in her cheeks. “Okay. I’ve met my vine-swinging quota for the day. I’m ready to head to solid ground.” She punched the chute’s red button. A flood of tokens slid out. Lucky pushed it too—just one.

“I guess I’m better at this than you,” she teased.

He wrapped his fingers around his single token. The smile fell off his face. “That’s the second time you’ve gotten more for solving the exact same puzzle. Listen, maybe we should keep this just between you and me. You know what Rolf said about how lab rats get angry when they sense unfairness. Not that we’re rats, but . . . When you got more tokens before, Rolf seemed frustrated.”

She shoved the tokens in her pocket nonchalantly, but Lucky’s words stuck in her mind like a thorn. What could the Kindred hope to achieve by spreading unfairness?

“Well. At least we’re done.”

“Uh . . . not yet.” He pointed toward the clearing. “We have to climb down.”

Any sense of accomplishment she’d had collapsed.

Lucky went first, moving fast, and was on the ground in no time. Cora took a deep breath. Not letting go of the trunk, she crawled to the closest branch, her muscles shaking. Left hand, then the right. Not so bad as long as she didn’t look down.

“You’re almost there,” Lucky called. “Two more branches.”

His voice gave her enough courage to glance down. That was a mistake. The ground was dizzyingly far, telescoping toward her, and her mind was already so sleep deprived.

Her tired hands slipped.

She grabbed for the branch, but her hand glided off it, and she tumbled toward the clearing.

Lucky caught her. It was awkward and painful and she must have landed half against his head, because when she found her feet, his ear was red and his hair was ruffled.

“Whoa. That was close.” His breathing was only slightly taxed, his eyes glinting with the thrill of having finished the puzzle.

She tried to comb her hair into some semblance of neat. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were enjoying yourself.”

“Rescuing a pretty girl? I don’t mind too much.” He still held her tight. He was warm—she had missed that. The only other boy who had ever hugged her so close was Charlie. Her brother had always smelled of cologne, but Lucky was pinesap and cut grass. Home. The burn spread to her cheeks.

He let go of her almost reluctantly, and she almost wished he hadn’t.

Overhead, the light grew brighter.

“Noon.” Lucky slipped his token into his pocket. “We should keep going before it’s time to turn back.”

“I hope Rolf and Nok are getting along,” Cora said, as they ducked through a perfectly engineered tunnel of vines. “They’re sort of a mismatched pair.”

“Maybe the Kindred’s research found that opposites attract. Look at us—I mean, back home, guys like me don’t end up with girls like you.”

“Girls like me?”

“Rich girls. Important girls.” He paused. “Beautiful girls.”

Beautiful? Not with her eyes sunken from lack of sleep. Not with her hair tangled and wild. At least she was walking in front, where he couldn’t see her burning cheeks. The last thing she needed was to start blushing whenever he threw his dimple around. The Kindred would love that. The researchers were probably checking off boxes left and right. Attraction? Check. Witty banter? Check. Rescuing a girl in distress? Check.

“Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with opposites,” she said. “Maybe there’s some connection between the couples we don’t know about. We both lived in Virginia for a while.”