“Let me finish washing off and then we’ll go outside.”
I quickly rinse my face and body one last time. Feeling refreshed, I redress in my pants and boots. When Tela finishes drinking her sap, she slips her boots on her feet. I reach my hands down and pull her to her feet.
“We really need to get back to Delta,” I say. “We’re out of time.”
“I know what we need to do,” she replies with obvious irritation.
“You’ve been drinking wild sap for seven morrows. I’ve been drinking it for six.”
“Did you hear me?” she snips. “I already said that I know.”
I bite my tongue to stop from verbally lashing out at her. After all I’ve done for her since we’ve been in the Barrens, she has no right to talk to me that way. With the veins in my forehead starting to bulge, I step past her to the tunnel and pause by the entrance to grab my spear.
“Let’s see if you can travel,” I say without looking back. “If not, I’ll carry you.”
“Chase . . . I’m sorry.”
I glance over my shoulder at her. “This is why we have to get back. It’s getting harder and harder to control.”
“I know,” she replies evenly. “Will you help me outside?”
With Tela’s hands clenched to my waist, I guide her through the tunnel. At the end of the passage, I help her step down the rocks and into the gully. Loosening up before she tries to travel, she slowly rotates her head and shakes her arms by her side.
Outside in the light, I clearly see that the once blue streaks in her hair have faded to icy-white strands. The centers of her eyes are red and dissipate outward to dark orange. The veins under her skin are the same purplish-black as mine. When she finishes stretching, she jogs up the gully to the north. I run by her side and stay at her pace.
“What do you think?” I ask.
She turns her face to me and widens her eyes. “Go!” she shouts.
With her legs flexing into contoured lines of muscle, she sprints ahead of me. It takes me a few seconds to realize that she was challenging me to a race. After Tela runs about twenty yards, she blasts into the light and disappears around the curve of the gully. I charge forward, enter the beams, and arc around the bottom of the hill.
Tela only travels a few miles before coming out of her blend. As she coasts to a stop, I exit the light and jog to her side.
“How did it feel?” I ask.
She rubs the back of her neck with one hand. “The initial jolt hurt my neck, but I felt fine once I was traveling. I didn’t want to go very far to be safe.”
“I’ll carry you to the Delta if you think it’s too much,” I tell her.
“I think I’ll be fine,” she says. “My left leg still hurts, but it’s not bad. If I start feeling too much pain, you can carry me the rest of the way.”
“What if the Murkovin come after us?”
She squints her eyes while thinking and looks to the north. “You said that we’re west of where they attacked us, right?”
“A few hundred miles,” I answer.
“We can travel due north,” she says, returning her attention to me. “We can go way past where the Delta is, cut across the Barrens to the river, and follow it back down to the bridge north of the Delta. If they’re searching for us between here and the Delta, they’ll never see us.”
“That makes a lot of sense.”
She smirks at me. “I have my moments, too.”
“You sure do.”
A few raindrops splatter on top of my head. The billows above us roll into motion and the light fades away. My blood instantly simmers with the insatiable appetite unleashed by Darkness.
“Let’s get to the cavern,” I say.
We both take off down the gully. Although Tela sputters forward a few times, she never fully blends with the murky rays. She finally gives up trying to travel in the dark, so we have to settle for running to the cavern.
“It’s hard to focus,” she shouts over the wind.
“Believe me,” I yell. “I’ve already learned that.”
By the time we’re halfway to the cave, we’re wallowing through knee-deep water. Afraid that she’s still too weak to make it through the rising river on her own, I grab Tela’s arm and swing her onto my back. With her arms clutched across my chest, she locks her legs around my waist. I loop my free hand under one of her legs.
The force of the water pounding against the back of my legs almost knocks me down several times. Using my spear to help me stay upright, I finally make it to the tunnel entrance without falling. After I lower Tela’s feet to the ground, she clings to my shoulders from behind as we hurry through the cramped passage. Inside the cavern, we plop down on the ground and ravenously share two flasks of sap.
“How much do we have left?” Tela asks.
“One full canister and two flasks,” I answer.
“That should be enough to make it back to the Delta.”
“Do you want me to go out for more?” I ask.
“No,” she says, shaking her head. “We can stop at the transport before heading to the Delta if you think we need to. Where is it?”
“Two hundred miles southwest of here.”
She looks down at her empty flask. “I’ll miss the warm feeling.”
“You can always go the Dunes,” I tell her.
“It’s not the same.”
I take the last swig from my flask and stand to my feet. After stepping through the expanding pool, I raise one leg at a time under the fall to wash off the mud. With the rain outside fueling a powerful rush, my pants and boots are clean in no time. Tela stands and crosses the cavern to me.
“Since there’s a real waterfall right now,” she says,
