“Do you know who he is?” Alexander asks, trying to understand why I’d go with this man.
“No I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before, but he knows who I am. He could help us, Alexander.” When he still hasn’t loosened his grip on my arm I continue, “Do you have a better idea?”
“Yeah, we ignore him and continue toward Zavy,” he says stubbornly.
“Alexander, trust me on this. I really feel like I need to follow him,” I say, locking my eyes with his. When he still hasn’t let go of my arm I add, “Can we at least find out how he knows who I am? Aren’t you at least a little curious?”
“I thought you wanted to get Zavy and Toby and get as far away from Paylon as possible,” Alexander says, still fighting me.
“I do,” I admit and bite my lip lightly He’s right, maybe we need to keep moving to Zavy, but how do we do that knowing this guy is just here and knows me.
“Your father told me about you,” I hear the mysterious man yell from deep in the woods, still not waiting on us.
My gaze with Alexander falls heavy and now he knows we have to hear this guy out. My father left me years ago and I have gotten no explanation as to why or where he went. I know Alexander understands that I need to go just for the chance I could learn something about my father’s disappearance. Alexander reluctantly lets go of my arm and we hurry to catch up with the hunter.
“How do you know my name?” I ask when I’ve matched my pace with his.
“It’s a pretty long story. I’ll tell you everything once we get back to my camp,” he says shifting his eyes between Alexander and myself.
“Are you with anyone else?” Alexander questions, taking in the two hunters.
“Yes, there are ten of us. We’ve been living out here for just under seven years,” the hunter explains shortly, being sure not to share more information than he wants. I look at this guy’s facial features more closely and realize that he can’t be any older than I am.
“What’s your name?” Alexander pushes.
“My name is Cooper, and this is Bren,” he nods to his silent partner. “I assume you’re Alexander?” Cooper shoots to Alexander and his eyes widen.
“How do you know,” Alexander begins
“Like I said, long story. So how exactly did you get out here?” Cooper asks.
“Oh, so finally something you don’t know?” Alexander mumbles.
“I know a lot, but not everything,” Cooper says as he glances between Alexander and me.
“Well, it’s a long story,” Alexander says, mocking Cooper.
“Well, how about you enlighten me with your story of how you got here? We still have quite the hike back to camp. I can take us back the long way,” Cooper says.
“We aren’t saying anything,” Alexander starts to say before I cut him off. I don’t know what it is about Cooper, but I’m starting to think I’ve seen him before. I just can’t place where. There’s something oddly familiar about him.
“Seven years ago I was thrown in prison with my mother and younger brother,” I pause and try to steady my breathing. Talking about my mother and Titus hasn’t gotten any easier for me.
“You don’t have to do this Adaline,” Alexander cuts in.
“No it’s okay,” I say to him and then continue. “Just about a week ago they ordered for my mother to be killed on Parting Day,” I stop and take in a deep breath. She’s already been gone that long. “My mother told me I was a Force lifter and I used my gift to escape with my brother Titus, but he was killed.” I stop as the words start to feel thick in my throat. I decide to leave out the fact I don’t know how to use my gift, he doesn’t need to know that. In case this is a trap he won’t know I can’t use my gift.
“I’m sorry,” Cooper starts to say, but I cut him off, not wanting to talk about their deaths anymore.
“When I was making my way out of the castle I ran into Alexander, he was on duty outside of the maze,” I glance over at Alexander and see he’s hurt that I have just told these complete strangers about my gift and I hadn’t told Alexander until Paylon forced me to, but if we want Cooper to share what he knows about us I have to give him something.
Cooper stops suddenly, dropping the deer. He shoves Alexander against a tree, pressing a small knife he had concealed to Alexander’s neck. “Are you still working for King Renon?” Cooper asks forcefully.
“No, he helped me escape,” I say and try to reason with Cooper.
Alexander chokes out, “I did work for him. I don’t anymore, I’m being hunted, same as her.” Cooper is hesitant for a second before backing away and releasing Alexander. He lifts the deer and starts walking again. I fall back in step with him, but Alexander has decided to stay a few paces behind us.
“Continue,” Cooper instructs me.
“Since then we were traveling south when we ran into our other friend Zavy and her younger brother Toby. We were heading to Libertas when the search group lead by Paylon found us and took us as prisoners. Alexander and I escaped and they locked Zavy up just a couple more miles south of here. We were on our way to help save her and her brother. That’s the summed up version of everything we’ve been through.” Cooper simply nods his head in approval.
We step through some underbrush and into a small clearing. There are three small tents propped up around the clearing and a large fire pit in the middle. Around the clearing different
