Page 39 of Reverie

There’s another passing of the joint.

“Do we really have the luxury not to trust them?” she asks in a smaller voice.

I know what’s at stake here. We’re really facing wholesale extermination if The Legion succeeds. When I left the war room, I took the provided tablet with me and sat on the bed in the foreign room. I read how The Engineers lead The Legion, controlling The Directors who do their bidding and still operate across the globe.

This shit runs deep and wide; it’s a cancer that will take over the world without a doubt if given the right fuel.

BwP’s technology is that fuel.

“The people who raided Amelia Manor weren’t looking for August. They were looking for you,” I say. That part of theinformation was hazy—their motivations behind wanting Ella. But I have my suspicions.

Her eyebrows go up and her hand shakes as she rushes to bring the smoke to her mouth.

“They wanted…me? Why?” She pats her pockets, likely looking for a sugar fix to help her stabilize.

“I don’t know. But what Idoknow is that to end this and get us back to some sense of normalcy, I have to do something.”

Because fuck if I’ll let them use Ella.

Ella stares at me, a curious look in her gaze. “What aren’t you telling me, Hunter Brigham?”

But before I can respond with a lie, Leo’s voice comes from the vicinity of my left shoulder.

“Mind if I join you?” Leo says. When I turn toward him, I notice his gaze on Ella’s hand and the joint she holds between her delicate fingertips.

“Might as well,” Ella mutters. She points the smoke in Leo’s direction. “Want some?”

Leo gives her a disapproving look.

Ella shrugs. “Suit yourself.” She takes another hit.

I suck in the smoke deep when Ella hands it over to me.

“And what will you do with Winter and August? Hide them away and play the martyr? Or are you planning on us all living in hiding forever? If I recall correctly, running hasn’t done you much good in the long term,” Ella says, her tone grave.

With that statement, all my anxiety comes rushing back to the surface. She’s right. I’ve kept away from her and August because of my fear of putting a target on their backs.

And I was right.

Now, I have August and Ella and Winter…and we’re bringing another life into the mix.

But that was your plan, right?

I shrug. I want to seem casual, aloof, but the action is more to shake off the guilt.

“Hunter, you can’t go off on a suicide mission. Let’s think of anything else,” Ella says.

Leo’s head swings toward me. “What, H?”

I take another hit and pass it back to Ella.

I inhale slowly, letting the morning air soak into my lungs. I shrug.

He grunts in response.

I focus on the sounds of crickets in the distance.

“So, BwP,” Leo says, changing the subject. “We have to do something about Panacea.”

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