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"We’re going to give it to one patient," she says "Our patient Ky"

"We can’t go against Colin," one of the guards says "He’s our leader And we’d lose our chance at the Otherlands"

"This is your chance at the Otherlands," Cassia says Her voice is low, quiet, full of conviction "This is what Oker was going to find" She pulls so "Mariposa lily" I can see fro a flower "You eat the bulb, don’t you? You eat it when it blooms in the summer, and store it for the winter"

"Are they already in bloom?" one of them asks "How many did you pull up?"

"Only a few," Cassia says

Another shadow moves into view and I hear Anna’s voice "We had these flowers in the Carving, too," Anna says "We also used theather theain next year"

"What does it uards says to the other "If we’re gone to the Otherlands, on’t need to harvest"

"No," Anna says "Even if everyone is gone, the flower "

"The bulbs are so suard says dubiously "I don’t see how it could be a cure"

Cassia comes into view, and I see that she holds the real flower and the paper that her mother sent her They’re a perfect match "Oker sawthe vote I believe this is the flower he was going to find" She sounds confident that she’s sorted everything She could be right: Oker did change his ht after he saw her take out the paper

"Please," Cassia says to the guards "Let us try" Her voice is gentle, persuasive "You can feel it, can’t you?" she asks, and now she sounds wistful "The Otherlands are getting farther and farther away"

Everything goes quiet as we realize that Cassia’s right I do feel the Otherlands receding for me, like the real world probably did for Lei and Ky when they went still I feel everything slipping out of s didn’t go as I’d hoped I thought I’d see a rebellion, find a cure, and have someone love me back

What if they all left? What if everyone else flew to the Otherlands or went still and I was here alone? Would I keep going? I would I can’t see

"All right," one of the guards says "But hurry"

Anna has thought of everything She’s brought equipe, a mortar and pestle, clean water that’s been boiled and treated, and soredients in each "How did you knoe’d need?" I ask her

"I didn’t," she says "Tess and Noah did They think it’s possible that Oker changed his mind They’re not sure they believe you, but they’re not sure that they don’t, either"

"They gave all of this to you?" I ask

She nods "But if anyone asks, we stole it We don’t want to get theht forsolution I use the edge of the pestle to split the bulb in half "It’s beautiful," Cassia says

The inside of the bulb looks white and lurind it down, pulverizing the bulb until it’s a paste Then Anna handsMaybe it’s the ht back in Oria when I traded for the blue tablets I took blood when I shouldn’t have, and when I did, I implied promises that no one was in a position to keep I did exactly what the Society and the Rising have done--I took advantage of people’s fears so that I could have so this cure? I look at Cassia She trustswith the blue tablets I didn’t do it on purpose, but if it wasn’t for me, he would never have had the tablets in the first place

I haven’t let h I’ve known about it since we caether in my throat and I want to run away from what I’ve been asked to do I can’tcall too uarantee that this ork," I tell Cassia "I’ht aent in the base that I don’t know about--"

"There are a lot of ways it could go wrong," she agrees "I redient But I think that I have And I know you can make the cure"

"Why?" I ask

"You always coh for the people who need you," she says, and her voice sounds sad Like she knows this is going to costme to do it anyway and it breaks her heart

"Please," she says "One more time"

CHAPTER 47

CASSIA

Inside the infirmary, Anna distracts the medics while I inject the cure into Ky’s line It doesn’t take long; Xander told ht have been afraid to try, but after seeing Xander compound a cure in a prison cell and Ky labor to breathe on through the stillness, there is no room left for my own fears

I cover the needle back up and slide it and the empty vial that held the cure into my sleeve, next to the poems I always carry As I sit down next to Ky, I pick up the datapod I pretend to keep sorting, thoughthe biggest risk; it’s his veins the cure runs through But we all have so much to lose

I have sometimes seen the three of us as separate, discrete points, and of course we are that, each individuals But Ky and Xander and I all have to believe in one another to keep each other safe In the end, I had to trust Xander tohi, and around and around we go, a circle, the three of us, connected, always, in the turning of days and the keeping of proain