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I lever ain in ti away from us, half lost in the spray of our wake, and the cluster of boats atte the our route to meet mine for a split second We’re out

We don’t speak There’s nothing to say anyth to shout over the roar of the motor I look back at him once and see a ju with the spray from our boave--and look aith a jerk I don’t try to look at hi to shift frohts of the base rise, e-like, from the horizon Flynn shifts the h the corridors of water until the bow of the boat slides up ontolurch The es hovering after being dropped into sudden darkness There are no frogs, no insects on Avon, nothing to color the quiet I stare at the lights of the far-off base until o?" I ask in a whisper that splits the silence

"I don’t know" His voice is rough Frorief I can’t tell which "I’ll find somewhere"

I reach for my jacket, abandoned in the bottom of the boat, and press it into his hands He’ll need it more than me, out here with no shelter and no heat "Molly, the barles and sticks in my throat If you need me

He nods, but I’rab hold ofprepared me for this

If it were only h and sank and theit aith every ounce of strength I have left Flynn was right--I’et onto our base and try to find outto Avon

I force e of the boat, to land in hip-deep water I grab the gunwale to steady myself as ht to feel strange to say his na to keep a distance between us But instead I find I’h the sadness in his eyes doesn’t recede; he looks back at ht

"Flynn--I want you to know I never would have done that To your people" I keep s loudly It coht, fierce "I would never I’d die myself first"

He watches me in silence while e When he does speak, his voice is low to match mine "I know that, Jubilee" He levers himself up onto his knees so we’re eye to eye "I knoho you are"

He knows He knows, I believe that But he can’t even bring himself to look at me for ive up" The words are asto hold on to So at unwale--hands still sticky with blood, too congealed for the water to have rinsed clean I start to pull back and hide the one of theently in his He scoops water overthe crusted, vile mess away

My arms feel li toAll I can feel is Flynn’s touch, rubbing at first one hand, then the other, sloorking the life back into thedown atand thin, until it snaps and he lets go, pulling back, his grief-stained face turning away fro to an unfamiliar pull in my chest, an ache in my soul I shouldn’t ht to pull that trigger, and instead threw himself between me and death This boy, the only one who believes I’m not what they say I airl with no heart to break He’s the only one who’s proved

There’s a desperate want so for his touch, for the quiet he finds in theFor him

But instead I just stand there, the meter of space between us as vast as any canyon I wish the dawn had coh to see his features as more than shadow Despite h Molly I knoon’t coain

"Good-bye, Flynn Corer puzzled by the way her h he’s always been there She’s stalking hileefully at every noise When she reaches the garbage incinerator, he ju, "Pshew, pshew! You’re dead!"

The girl shrieks and obediently falls to the ground

The green-eyed boy laughs and crouches down to lean over her "Okay, you be the bad guy this time"