They found the laguses exactly where he’d thought to find them, helping themselves to a large pool of water. It didn’t fit the parameters to be called a spring, lake, or dam. It was simply… well, a large pool of water. But the important thing was that it had been in the exact same spot he’d seen it back in Severity.

  Zach agreed with Noah that it would’ve been far too suspicious if they’d finished the hunt so soon. But the taste of the animals when they did finally roast them over the fire was more than worth it.

  The laguses tasted like smoked chicken, though Zach supposed the people of this world wouldn’t understand the concept of smoked meat.

  Under Kareg’s watchful instruction, they’d skinned the animals. Perhaps it was a quirk of being so close to Noah, but Zach didn’t want them to know this wasn’t his first time.

  Both creatures were large enough for them all to get a piece, though Zach and Noah had a greater share. Even as they ate, Zach felt some of his vitality being replenished, though it wasn’t enough. To compensate, he could already feel his eyes getting heavier. He’d have to sleep soon.

  Still, it seemed the others picked up on how much he ate. John, in particular, remarked that he never knew Oliver could eat like that. But they all attributed it to both the long walk from the camp and the hunting.

  For the trip back to the camp, they were allowed to ride atop the wagon. To the west, the sun was only a hint, silhouetting the strange mountains. Like those he’d seen in the east, their shadows stood stark, bent at all sorts of strange angles, as if parts of the mountain range were fighting to get away from itself.

  He stared at the strange landscape, John and the others talking about the upcoming expedition. It was a very strange feeling, knowing that Cardinel, another transmigrator, had seen this landscape. Knowing that he’d managed to infiltrate the locals of this land and done... Done what?

  He shook his head.

  Beside him, Noah sat just as quiet, that frown and distant stare showing he was just as lost in his own thoughts, no doubt poring over everything he’d heard today. Thankfully, John and Kareg seemed too absorbed in their own discussion to pay them any mind.

  In a much shorter time than it had taken to walk, the wagon rode down the road, past the jagged line that marked the end of the farmlands, and finally into the residential area. The streets were busy, people moving back and forth, lining up to retrieve their evening rations and picking up their waste buckets for the night.

  The wagon rode past them all until they reached Cache Street. The Emery apartment building was the first one they stopped at. Zach and John got off, Kareg and Noah riding on. Zach turned to head into the building, but John remained where he was, staring after the departing wagon.

  “When Ava first found you in the hold, she told me you mentioned a friend needing poppy tea. It was Oliver, wasn’t it?”

  Zach blinked, trying to think of the best and safest answer. Unfortunately, John was looking at him and seemed to take his silence as confirmation.

  “Was he lucid already, when you asked for the medicine?” He gave Zach no room to answer. “Of course, he was. You didn’t know him before the hold. You must’ve spoken to him inside. That means he’s been lucid this entire time and never said anything. Never tried leaving. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  Zach blinked, still unsure of what he was supposed to say. What was this about? This time, though, he waited for a response. Before Zach could think of anything else, the truth slipped out.

  “He didn’t want people to know.”

  John glanced back in the direction the wagon had gone. His hand went up to his neck, and he gripped something hidden beneath his T-shirt. He shook his head. “Has he said anything to you? Anything strange?”

  “Strange?”

  “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “You know what? Forget I said anything. Michel and the expedition have me stressed, and it’s playing tricks on my mind. Your walk was a little slow, but faster than I thought it would be. You also hunted faster than anyone thought you would. A lot of first-time recruits lose theirs. You did good.”

  He reached out and awkwardly patted Zach on the shoulder, then gave a sharp nod and headed in. Zach stood still, John’s praise washing over him. He felt fulfilled by it. He’d done good. He shook his head.

  It was distressing, feeling validated by those simple words, but a part of him felt starved for them. What did that say about those memories, about his past life? He sensed the wall before it echoed its powerful reminder.

  What were those cracks? Why do I feel like I’ve seen them before?

  “Ol?” John called.

  He started, hurrying inside. With any luck, he’d find something in the journal tonight, though the grainy feeling in his eyes was only a small hint at the deep tiredness he felt. Again, he’d used too much of Severity. He’d have to practice controlling his vitality output. This was far from sustainable.

  Not only that, but there was another problem. Tomorrow, he’d have to ask Noah about why it felt like the realm was trying to capture him. The chains swinging toward him? At least this time around, he hadn’t heard those demons, howling and snarling as they chased after him.

  “What are you thinking about?” John asked.

  “The hunt,” he replied. “I just,” he breathed out. “I surprised myself.” He finished with a self-deprecating smile.

  “Oliver,” John said, his face looking like he was physically searching for the next words. “I’ve already said it, but with what happened at the hold... if you want to talk...”

  It seemed like torture to let him go on, so Zach quickly interjected, “I know. Thank you.”

  John nodded slowly.

  An idea came to him then, but Zach shied away from it, thinking it cruel to take advantage of someone’s good intentions. But it’s the only one of Oliver’s blocked memories I can try to find.

  He had to.

  He took a deep breath. This time, he would try a different angle.

  “I’ve just been thinking,” he said, his voice suddenly sounding small in the quiet of the stairwell. “Do you really know what happened with Leo?”

  “What do you mean?”

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “I just feel that, with everything that’s happened, it’s all blurring. Like maybe I didn’t know as much as I thought I did.”

  “He didn’t talk with me; he only told you. Not that I’m blaming you. I just,” he sighed through his nose. “He didn’t tell me.”

  What did he tell me? Zach wanted to shout.

  “And... mom?” The word felt strange and pained on his tongue.

  John looked at him, his eyes suddenly wide. “You can’t tell her, Oliver. Promise me you won’t tell her. Not that she’d blame you, but it would hurt her again. She just got you back. She’s been struggling to sleep. If she knew the truth about Leo...”

  Zach paused. Seeing such emotion on his face felt disturbing. It served as more of a warning than anything he’d said. What was this secret? Was it the same thing the Head knew?

  He remembered Leo’s screams as he stood upon the execution block. The spray of blood as his hand was blown apart. The violent shaking afterward, the mumbling, and the final gunshot that had killed him.

  “Oliver,” John said, stopping on the landing and taking him by the shoulders. “You have to promise me you won’t say anything. Alright?”

  Zach nodded without hesitation. “I promise.”

  I promise not to share a secret I know nothing about.

  John broke contact immediately, as if realizing what he’d done. “Sorry. Come on, you’re going to have a long day tomorrow. Back to the base for shooting.”

  They walked to the door halfway down the hall and found it ajar. The way John paused to study it, looking up and down the hall for any sign of movement, seeded the worry in Zach’s chest.

  Had someone broken in? Had that person come back, looking for the journal? At that moment, he wanted to run past John to check. But how would that look? As far as John and Eve were concerned, he had no valuables.

  “Again?” John asked softly.

  “Again?” Zach echoed.

  “When you were in the hold, we found the door like this once or twice, but the apartment always looked untouched. Stay behind me.”

  John stalked forward, slowly opening the door, before his tension vanished all at once. Just a sharp change of expression that Zach somehow sensed. No deliberate sigh, no rolling his shoulders. Nothing. He just... wasn’t tense anymore.

  “Eve. I thought someone snuck in again,” he said, making way for Zach to enter. “Eve?”

  She sat with her head leaned back on the couch, the Deck opened on the table before her.

  “Eve?” John called again, a bit more stern.

  “I’m not in a coma, John,” she said, leaning forward. “I came home, what? An hour ago? I wasn’t feeling well, but I’m fine now. I got the buckets, if anyone needs to go.”

  She turned back to the Deck, putting all the cards together again before she started shuffling them.

  “Were you crying?” John asked, sharing a glance with Zach.

  Her eyes were rimmed with a rawness, the whites slightly red. The more Zach stared at her, the more agitated she seemed. She looked apologetically at Zach, though he couldn’t understand why.

  “Bad dream,” she said, wiping her eyes. “It was just a bad dream.”

  John looked one more time at Zach before he finally understood he was being asked to leave.

  “Now that you mentioned it, I do need to go,” Zach announced, stepping away into his room.

  He closed the door and found the bucket standing there in the corner. Staring at it, he realized she’d been doing a lot of that since coming back from the medical ward. It didn’t seem fair.

  He could almost imagine them now, discussing him, commenting on how useless and lazy he was. No. She’d been crying about something else. That’s what John wanted to discuss with her. Not to nitpick his actions.

  Still, one of these days, he’d have to start getting the rations, the water, and their empty buckets.

  “What happened?” he heard John ask beyond the door.

  Zach contemplated blocking them out, but something about seeing Eve like that… the way she’d looked at him. It was difficult to tell whether these were Oliver’s lingering emotions or if they were purely his. All he knew was that seeing her like that made him confused and anxious.

  “John,” Eve said. “Remember when she said we stole that book from my father’s study?”

  “I’m sure the entire camp remembers that,” John said. “Getting upset like that over a blasted book.”

  “I remember it,” Eve said dully.

  Zach went cold. His eyes went to the bed, to the book hidden within. What were the chances? Why would they be talking about it now? This was more than a coincidence.

  “What do you mean you remember it?” John asked. “You said you didn’t know what she was talking about. You said you didn’t even know how it looked, that it was just another book on one of his shelves.”

  “I know what I said, John,” she replied, her voice heavy. “I don’t know why I forgot, but for some reason, I remember it now. He showed it to me when I was younger—I think I was eight or nine.”

  “Okay. Fine. So, what? You actually took the book? You have it here?”

  “No, I didn’t take it. But it was important to my father.”

  “Why? What was in it? Eve, I know your family was involved in dark things, but it couldn’t be what I think it is, could it? Unravel me, Eve, was it... was it a grimoire?”

  Zach basically pressed himself into the door, listening carefully. The disgust at that word dripped off John’s tone as though it were a physical thing.

  “No,” she said quickly. “It wasn’t a grimoire. All he said was that it was important to our family. It was proof of a promise.”

  Her voice was decidedly small and unsteady. John clearly picked up on it, too.

  “There’s something you’re not telling me, Eve. What is it?”

  “My mother was there that day,” she said. Zach could hear her shuffling the cards again. “I probably blocked it out on purpose. But my father asked if I wanted to know what was in the book. I remember saying no. I wanted to go outside. That’s when she came in. She told me my children would take over for me, because I was clearly a waste.”

  The room was quiet.

  Even from behind a closed door, Zach could feel the tension in the room. He heard John’s footsteps thud across the floor as he approached Eve. Their voices were softer now. Zach strained a bit more, drawing from the last of his vitality for the day.

  It was harder than usual. He could almost see his levels deplete even as his hearing sharpened. No matter how hard he fought it, he would not be reading the journal tonight.

  “What are you saying?” he heard John ask. “Take over what? You told me your family had a lot of strange… traditions. What were they supposed to take over for?”

  “I was a child when she said this. By the time I grew up and understood how dark everything was, I didn’t remember this conversation. I want to think she was just speaking out of anger, but that doesn’t sound like her.”

  “Take over what?” John repeated.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered fearfully. “I don’t know. I think… I think it had something to do with that book. My father wouldn’t have talked to them behind my back. I know he wouldn’t.”

  “Your mother’s not your father, Eve,” John said. “She would sleep with pigs if it would give the Emery name more power. You know it, and I know it.”

  Zach blinked. He never would’ve thought John would say something like that, especially with such heat and venom.

  “Damn it,” John cursed. “Is that what she was doing with Leo? Making him take over for you?”

  “John...”

  “Leo always went back there. He hated it, but he went back. We both know he was the only reason Oliver ever went with. Leo wouldn’t stop going even when he came home pale. Frightened.”

  “John, we need to know what was in that book. Maybe she showed it to them,” Eve said weakly. “Maybe Oliver saw it.”

  “Leo’s gone,” John said, his tone suddenly blunt. “Oliver’s still here, but Leo’s gone. Oliver never had any interest in your mother, so we know he won’t talk to her. We should leave it at that.”

  “You’re fine leaving it like this? Not knowing what they were doing there? Not knowing what Leo—”

  “We have to, or I’ll do something we might regret. Do you think it’s fair to ask Oliver to relive those memories? Anyone can tell he’s still adjusting from coming out of the hold. But he’s different now, he doesn’t live in that usual gloomy silence. Do you want to change that? Remind him of his time with your mother?”

  Zach swallowed, wondering what the Head had been doing with Oliver and Leo. The way they spoke about it reminded him of what Noah had said. That the Emerys might have killed his father.

  “You’re right,” she conceded after a time. “That would be cruel.”