“Will you watch him?” I ask.
Harper wraps her arms around her slender waist. “Of course. Just be careful.”
“Nah, I’m gonna intentionally try to get myself killed.” I grab hold of a rock and bring my boot up onto the first flat surface I find. Behind me, I feel Harper slip something into my back pocket. “Harper?”
“That’s my switchblade,” she says. “I sharpened it while I was sitting there all night. I’ll bet yours is about as dull as a butter knife.”
I don’t tell her the truth. That I lost my knife to Titus. I just reach out again, and pull myself up.
“Tella,” Harper says suddenly, loudly.
“Harper,” I mimic. “I’m scaling a mountainesque object, so can you not scream my name?”
“I hardly screamed it.” Though I can’t see her, I know she’s rolling her eyes. “And anyway, all I was going to say was that while you climb that thing, I’m going to trek around it. Then you can come down the opposite side and we’ll save time.”
“But you don’t know how thick this thing is.” I grunt like Braun’s pig as I find another handhold and ascend higher. “What if we get separated?”
“I can’t just stand here all day.” Harper doesn’t say anything for a minute. When she finally speaks again, she says, “I’m going to do it. See you on the other side.”
At this point, I’m not about to argue. Or explain how I haven’t killed a Pandora. I’m about five feet off the ground. I need to cease talking and start focusing. So I do just that. I look up the side of the formation. I fill my lungs.
And I climb.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
I’ve almost gone into cardiac arrest by the time I near the top of the formation. Heights have never been an issue for me. But I guess that was before I decided to go rock climbing with no training, little sleep, and severe dehydration.
Running my hands over the ledge, I grab hold of a fist-sized stone and flip myself over the side. Then I lie on my back and wheeze like a pack-a-day smoker. I decide I might take up smoking after this thing is over. And any other recreational drug that’ll help me forget the things I’ve seen. On second thought, drugs make you ugly. Scratch that. I pledge to get weekly massages instead.
After catching my breath, I get to my feet and realize the formation isn’t all that wide. It’s maybe five football fields long, but only about thirty feet across. Overhead, the sky is a crisp shade of blue. And from here, the sun seems even bigger, like it’s preparing to swallow me whole. I smell fresh soil and the faint scent of metal. It’s refreshing, considering the only thing I’ve smelled in days is BO. Plenty of it mine. Superhot.
Carefully, I cross the distance to the other side of the formation, and look out across the desert. A tidal wave of excitement rushes through my body. There, on the horizon, is base camp. Torches are lit in a circle and small huts dot the interior. My eyes widen when I notice green grass growing within and around the camp. But that can’t be possible unless …
And then I spot it.
Water.
A thin stream runs between the huts and past the circle of torches. My throat tightens just thinking about having a taste. For the past twenty-four hours, it’s felt like I’ve had cotton balls shoved into my mouth. And now I see so much water.
I’m so close, I realize. Maybe a half-hour walk. Fifteen minutes if I run.
Stepping closer to the ledge, I look again. Just as I suspected, I don’t see anyone walking around the camp. Sure, there could be people inside the huts. But something tells me there aren’t. Glancing down the side of the cliff, I wonder how quickly I could make it down.
I could win this leg.
I’m so close, I can taste it.
My heart sinks when I remember the promise I made Harper. I have to free her Pandora. And I will.
But then I will grab Madox and run.
Spinning around, I scour the formation, searching for RX-13. It doesn’t take long to find her. The rope that was tied around her left leg is tangled in some foliage growing between the stones. When the eagle spots me, she squawks and beats her wings.
“It’s okay, girl,” I say, bending over the Pandora. “I’m going to cut you loose.”
“No, you’re not,” a voice says from behind me. I bolt upright and goose bumps race along my arms. It’s him.
I reach for the blade in my back pocket, then slowly turn around.
Titus stands twenty feet away, his hair matted with blood, face swollen and bruised. “We’re going to need that Pandora.”
I back up so that I’m blocking Harper’s eagle. My mind spins with surprise, but one thing remains clear — I can’t let him hurt RX-13. Though if it comes down to me against him, I’m not sure what I’ll do. He’s hurt, but so am I. And he easily has eighty pounds on me.
“Back away from her.” Titus tips the point of his knife toward himself. “We don’t want to hurt her quite yet. Unless you’re eager to get on with it.”
“What are you talking about?” I snarl. There’s no use pretending anymore. I hate Titus. And it’s high time he realizes that.
“Well, we each have to kill a Pandora that isn’t our own. So I’m going to kill that bird. And you’re going to kill mine.” He points over his shoulder, and I spot his bear on all fours some distance away.
AK-7 jerks his head like this is the first he’s hearing of this plan. Pain and anger fill the animal’s dark eyes, but mostly, the bear looks defeated.
“I’ve gotta tell ya, I’ve had nothing but good luck since that dick sucker punched me last night.” Titus squares his shoulders. “You know I could’ve taken him, right? I mean, if he’d fought fair?” He shakes his head. “Anyway, once my boys — sorry, my ex-boys — distracted Guy, I headed toward these rocks. And when I got here last night, I heard that bird making a racket. So I waited until morning so I could see, and I crawled my ass up here. And there” — he gestures toward RX-13 — “was a Pandora just waitin’ to be killed.”
Titus bites his bottom lip to hide a smile. “But you know what? Things just got better from there. Because right as I was about to slice that yappy bird’s head off, I saw your bitch friend beneath that tree. And then I look out across the desert, and you know who I saw?” He nods his head toward me and mouths the word you. “I couldn’t believe you were coming to find me.”
I toss the knife in my hand and catch it so that the blade faces downward. “I wasn’t coming to find you, Titus. I’d rather leap off the side of this thing than be anywhere near you.”
He tilts his head and shrugs. “That’s always an option.”
Titus strides toward me, his arms outstretched like he’s going to give me a hug. It’s a show of safety, but I don’t miss the knife still gripped in his palm. I take another step back and hear RX-13 shriek behind me. Without thinking, I glance over my shoulder to see what’s happened.
It’s a terrible move.
Titus crosses the distance between us. He grabs me around the middle and shoves his knife against my neck. “Always worried about those damn animals,” he growls, thrusting me against him. He looks me up and down, then meets my eyes. “It’s your Achilles’ heel, sweetheart. But don’t worry. I’ll make sure it doesn’t get in our way. We’re partners, see? Now give me your knife.”
Gritting my teeth, I let him steal the blade from my hand. As soon as I release it, he spins me in front of him and presses his own knife against my back. Flashbacks of last night torture me. I can’t believe I’m in the exact same position again, Titus behind me with a weapon to my body. Again.