Rex put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Alina. He seemed like a great guy. He showed a lot of courage following you to Gordian.” He gave her a playful nudge. “Showed a lot of interest in you, too.”
Alina burst into tears. Rex coughed.
“Sorry, what I meant to say—he’s a smart guy. He may still get here. There are rebel spies working at Gordian who can help him.”
“You think so?”
“Yes,” he affirmed. “It’s very possible.”
She wiped her eyes and looked at Jade. “Let’s get moving. Jade is too weak to walk. Can you carry her?”
“I think so. Let’s look for water. I’m so thirsty, and this heat might be the death of me. I remember hearing how hot the sun is here, but I didn’t know it was a big ball of fire that would burn the flesh right off my bones.”
Alina looked at him, astonished. “You’re hot?”
Rex scowled. “Don’t tell me you feel all cool and comfortable in that heavy jumpsuit, with this brutal sun beating down on us.”
“Actually—I do.” She paused. “In fact, I feel the best I have in my life. And I’m wearing a tight gown under this suit.”
Rex stared at her with wide eyes, then glanced at her legs. “Where did you cut yourself? Where’s the blood?”
She looked down, pulling up the leg of her jumpsuit. There was no trace of a cut.
Rex gasped. “Alina!”
She jumped. “What?”
“The dagger changed you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re immortal!”
Her jaw dropped. “No—” She flipped her hands in front of her as she examined them, then looked down at her legs. “I can’t be.”
“It’s the only explanation.”
“Am I really beautiful, then?”
Rex grinned. “Do you mean in that perfect, Prian way? Hmm, it’s hard to tell.” He studied her for a moment. “It could be a gradual process. Your blemishes are gone, for one.”
Alina ran her fingers over her face. She felt comfortable and contented. Not a pain or itch irritated her.
A bead of sweat dripped from Rex’s scalp as he struggled to lift Jade. “I’ll carry her,” Alina offered. Jade gave a soft moan as Alina pulled her onto her back.
“Where should we go?” Rex asked.
“To the trees. There should be water next to growing things, don’t you think?”
He shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
They walked in silence. Rex seemed too labored to speak. When they reached the shade, he leaned against a tree, took a long breath and sat down. Alina set Jade beside him.
“I’m going to have a look around,” she said. “You stay with Jade and rest.”
Rex gripped her arm. “Don’t go far! People get lost and die in the woods.”
Alina turned to him, surprised by the fear in his voice. Rex, who was scarcely afraid of Sampson himself, was terrified.
She gave him an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t go out of hearing distance. Then I can call for you if I can’t find my way back.”
He nodded. “Hurry.”
She walked through the forest, sticks snapping at her feet. Sampson’s words echoed through her mind: Carthem is dangerous, mostly because I make it so. She thought of the creatures in the Gordian laboratories. Rex shouldn’t be left alone with Jade for long; he wouldn’t respond well to terrors like those. She moved faster, trusting his scream to alert her if needed.
The trees’ bark flaked from the trunks like a fruit peel, so different from the smooth, polished wood of Prian trees. She found no signs of water. They would have to travel farther. As she turned back, her eye caught a twitch on the forest floor.
She stared at the ground. Could rocks move here? She crouched down and studied the gray, smooth stone, so well-proportioned it stood out from the jagged rocks around it. After several minutes with no movement, she decided she must have imagined it and stood up to leave.
Something whistled and bounced off her forehead. A second whistle followed, hitting her chest. She spun around and saw the hard shell sinking back to the earth.
The rock was alive! She dropped to her knees, scanning the ground for what had hit her. Two long, gray quills lay in the dirt, the tips oozing a red liquid, like blood. She picked them up and tapped the tips with her finger. They seemed sharp, and heavy for their size. With their speed, they could pierce any mortal to the heart.
She slid them into her pocket, then scrambled to her feet and ran back to Rex.
He sat with Jade’s head in his lap. “What did you find?” he asked.
“There’s something out there that shoots deadly quills! It looks like a rock but has an outer shell that lifts up when it shoots—and it seems to sense movement!”
Rex stared at her with wide eyes. She nodded. “This wilderness is dangerous. Sampson sends in creatures from his laboratories. I saw some of them—one left me so terrified I couldn’t move.”
“We need to find Stormport soon then, and water and food. Jade isn’t well. The transition has put her in some state of shock.”
“What’s Stormport?”
“The nearest town to the portal.”
“Do you know how to get there?”
“No.”
Jade stirred, and Alina knelt beside her. “How do you feel, Jade?”
“You have to leave me,” she mumbled.
Alina looked at Rex. “Does she understand what’s going on?” she whispered.
He furrowed his brow as he looked at her, then gasped. “The surveillance device! Sampson could be watching us! And he may send something in to kill us.”
“But the last thing he wants to do is kill me—”
“Shhh!” Rex hissed. “He can probably hear everything we say. She’s right. She can’t stay with us. It’ll be too hard to keep our plans secret.”
“But we can’t abandon her, she’ll die!”
Jade reached for Rex’s hand. “Don’t worry about me. I’m a survivor.” Rex gazed at her, tears glistening in his eyes.
Alina shook her head. “We can’t leave her. She survived Sampson’s cruelty, yes, but surviving Carthem is different. No one can make it here alone.”
Rex chewed his lower lip. “She could close
