"Ruby, don't you get it? You hate what you are, but you were given these abilities for a reason. We both were. It's our right to use them-we have to use them to stay ahead, to keep the others in their place."

His finger caught the stretched-out collar of my shirt and gave it a tug.

"Stop it." I was proud of how steady my voice was.

As Clancy leaned in, he slipped a hazy image beneath my closed eyes-the two of us just before he walked into my memories. My stomach knotted as I watched my eyes open in terror, his lips pressed against mine.

"I'm so glad we found each other," he said, voice oddly calm. "You can help me. I thought I knew everything, but you..."

My elbow flew up and clipped him under the chin. Clancy stumbled back with a howl of pain, pressing both hands to his face. I had half a second to get the hell out, and I took it, twisting the handle of the door so hard that the lock popped itself out.

"Ruby! Wait, I didn't mean-!"

A face appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Lizzie. I saw her lips part in surprise, her many earrings jangling as I shoved past her.

"Just an argument," I heard Clancy say, weakly. "It's fine, just let her go."

I burst outside, completely out of breath. My feet were drawn toward the fire pit, but I forced myself to stop and reconsider. There were so many people still out, gathered around the food tables. I wanted to find Liam and explain why I hadn't been there, to tell him what had happened, but I knew I was a mess. I needed to calm down, and there was no way I could do it here. There were too many potential questions. I needed to be alone.

So of course when I backed up a few steps, I managed to walk right into Mike.

"Hey, there you are!" His hair was pulled back into a ponytail, a black bandana tied around his head. I could smell gasoline on him, and something metallic. "Ruby? You okay?"

I bolted, heading past the Office, down the path to the cabins. Eventually, I found what I thought was the path we had walked Zu out on, but it turned out to be nothing more than an old side trail, overgrown and unforgiving to bare skin. Fine. It would do. There was no one around. That was my only criterion.

I walked until I lost the light from the fire pit, clawing at my T-shirt, trying to pull it away from my skin. It smelled like his room. Like evergreens and spice and old, decaying things. I pulled it over my head and threw it as hard and far as I could, and still-still-I couldn't shake the smell. It was everywhere: my hands, my jeans, my bra. I should have run straight for the lake, or even the showers. I should have tried to soak his venom out.

Calm down, I thought. Calm down! But I couldn't pick apart exactly what was pulsing through me. Anger, for sure, that I had been lied to, that I had fallen for it. Disgust, for the way he had touched me and invaded even the pores of my skin. But something else, too. An ache inside of me that expanded and twisted, turning me to stone.

Liam was standing right in front of me, and I had never felt so alone.

"Ruby?" His hair was pale silver in this light, curled and tangled in its usual way. I couldn't hide from him. I had never been able to.

"Mike came and got me," he said, taking a careful step toward me. His hands were out in front of him, as if trying to coax a wild animal into letting him approach. "What are you doing out here? What's going on?"

"Please just go," I begged. "I need to be alone."

He kept coming straight at me.

"Please," I shouted, "go away!"

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on!" Liam said. He got a better look at me and swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Where were you this morning? Did something happen? Chubs told me you've been gone all day, and now you're out here like...this...did he do something to you?"

I looked away. "Nothing I didn't ask for."

Liam's only response was to move back a few paces back. Giving me space.

"I don't believe you for a second," he said, calmly. "Not one damn second. If you want to get rid of me, you're going to have to try harder than that."

"I don't want you here."

He shook his head. "Doesn't mean I'm leaving you here alone. You can take all the time you want, as long as you need, but you and me? We're having this out tonight. Right now." Liam pulled his black sweater over his head and threw it toward me. "Put it on, or you'll catch a cold."

I caught it with one hand and pressed it to my chest. It was still warm.

He began to pace, his hands on his hips. "Is it me? Is it that you can't talk to me about it? Do you want me to get Chubs?"

I couldn't bring myself to answer.

"Ruby, you're scaring the hell out of me."

"Good." I balled up his sweater and threw it into the darkness as hard as I could.

He blew out a shaky sigh, bracing a hand against the nearest tree. "Good? What's good about it?"

I hadn't really understood what Clancy had been trying to tell me that night, not until right then, when Liam looked up and his eyes met mine. The trickle of blood in my ears turned into a roar. I squeezed my eyes shut, digging the heels of my palms against my forehead.

"I can't do this anymore," I cried. "Why won't you just leave me alone?"

"Because you would never leave me."

His feet shuffled through the underbrush as he took a few steps closer. The air around me heated, taking on a charge I recognized. I gritted my teeth, furious with him for coming so close when he knew I couldn't handle it. When he knew I could hurt him.

His hands came up to pull mine away from my face, but I wasn't about to let him be gentle. I shoved him back, throwing my full weight into it. Liam stumbled.

"Ruby-"

I pushed him again and again, harder each time, because it was the only way I could tell him what I was desperate to say. I saw bursts of his glossy memories. I saw all of his brilliant dreams. It wasn't until I knocked his back into a tree that I realized I was crying. Up this close, I saw a new cut under his left eye and the bruise forming around it.

Liam's lips parted. His hands were no longer out in front of him, but hovering over my hips. "Ruby..."

I closed what little distance was left between us, one hand sliding through his soft hair, the other gathering the back of his shirt into my fist. When my lips finally pressed against his, I felt something coil deep inside of me. There was nothing outside of him, not even the grating of cicadas, not even the gray-bodied trees. My heart thundered in my chest. More, more, more-a steady beat. His body relaxed under my hands, shuddering at my touch. Breathing him in wasn't enough, I wanted to inhale him. The leather, the smoke, the sweetness. I felt his fingers counting up my bare ribs. Liam shifted his legs around mine to draw me closer.

I was off-balance on my toes; the world swaying dangerously under me as his lips traveled to my cheek, to my jaw, to where my pulse throbbed in my neck. He seemed so sure of himself, like he had already plotted out this course.

I didn't feel it happen, the slip. Even if I had, I was so wrapped up in him that I couldn't imagine pulling back or letting go of his warm skin or that moment. His touch was feather-light, stroking my skin with a kind of reverence, but the instant his lips found mine again, a single thought was enough to rocket me out of the honey-sweet haze.

The memory of Clancy's face as he had leaned in to do exactly what Liam was doing now suddenly flooded my mind, twisting its way through me until I couldn't ignore it. Until I was seeing it play out glossy and burning like it was someone else's memory and not mine.

And then I realized-I wasn't the only one seeing it. Liam was seeing it, too.

How, how, how? That wasn't possible, was it? Memories flowed to me, not from me.

But I felt him grow still, then pull back. And I knew, I knew by the look on his face, that he had seen it.

Air filled my chest. "Oh my God, I'm sorry, I didn't want-he-"

Liam caught one of my wrists and pulled me back to him, his hands cupping my cheeks. I wondered which one of us was breathing harder as he brushed my hair from my face. I tried to squirm away, ashamed of what he'd seen, and afraid of what he'd think of me.

When Liam spoke, it was in a measured, would-be-calm voice. "What did he do?"

"Nothing-"

"Don't lie," he begged. "Please don't lie to me. I felt it...my whole body. God, it was like being turned to stone. You were scared-I felt it, you were scared!"

His fingers came up and wove through my hair, bringing my face close to his again. "He..." I started. "He asked to see a memory, and I let him, but when I tried to move away...I couldn't get out, I couldn't move, and then I blacked out. I don't know what he did, but it hurt-it hurt so much."

Liam pulled back and pressed his lips to my forehead. I felt the muscles in his arms strain, shake. "Go to the cabin." He didn't let me protest. "Start packing."

"Lee-"

"I'm going to find Chubs," he said. "And the three of us are getting the hell out of here. Tonight."

"We can't," I said. "You know we can't." But he was already crashing back through the dark path. "Lee!"

I went back to find his sweater, and pulled it on, but not even that could keep away the chill as I followed him out of the woods, back in the direction of the cabin and fire pit.

When I got to the cabin, Chubs was already there, propped up on his bed reading. He took one look at me and snapped his book shut. "What in the world happened?"

"We're leaving," I told him. "Get your things-what are you staring at? Move!"

He jumped down off the bed. "Are you okay?" he asked. "What's going on?"

I had only just finished telling him everything that had happened with Clancy, when Liam came bursting through the door. He took one look at the two of us together and let out a shaky breath. "I got worried when I couldn't find you," he told Chubs. "Are you ready?"

I pulled on a baggy T-shirt and took Liam's jacket when he threw it to me. Chubs tied up his shoes, snapped his suitcase shut, and didn't put in a word of protest as we switched off the cabin lights and headed out into the darkness.

The smell of smoke from the fire pit followed us down the main trail longer than the light or the voices from it. I caught Chubs looking back toward it over his shoulder, just once; the distant orange glow reflected in the lenses of his glasses. I knew he wanted to ask what we would do next, but Liam hushed us both and started down a side trail that I had never seen before.

It was well-worn but narrow enough that we had to walk single file. I kept my eyes on Liam's shoulders until he reached back to take my hand. The trail grew darker the farther we walked into the thick layers of young trees.

And then we were out, and there was light-so much of it, that for a moment I had to hold up a hand to cover my eyes. I felt Liam tense and stop, his hand tightening around mine until it hurt.

"Told you," I heard Hayes say. "Told you he'd try to get out this way."

"Yes, good call."

"Damn," I heard Chubs swear behind me, but I was too shocked to do anything other than step out from behind Liam, and see where Clancy, Hayes, and the cluster of boys from Watch stood blocking our only way out.

TWENTY-SEVEN.

THERE WAS A SINGLE MOMENT when no one moved at all.

I recognized where we were now that the area was lit up with flashlights and lanterns. I had seen it once before, on Clancy's computer screen. This is where, days before, the skip tracers had tried to slip through the camp's wire fences and Hayes had "taken care" of them. Much like how he seemed poised to take care of us now.

The boys in front of us stood where the path met the silver wire marking East River's boundaries. Clancy was at the center, looking infinitely more pulled together than he had a few short hours ago.

"I think we need to have a talk," Clancy said, his voice pleasant. "It seems like something dangerous is about to happen."

"We're heading out," Liam said, the anger in his voice barely contained. "And we don't want trouble."

"You can't just go." Hayes pushed his way to the front of the group, looming at Clancy's side like a cannon waiting to be aimed. "We have a system here, and you haven't earned your keep yet."

The words had just left his mouth when we heard the sound of footsteps and voices crashing through the dried brush of the other, bigger trail behind them. Olivia appeared first, followed by Mike and four of the other kids Liam had been working alongside the past month. They reacted the exact way we had-first, cringing away from the light, then stopping short in shock.

"What's going on?" Olivia demanded, cutting around the line of kids in black until she was standing right in front of Clancy. "Why didn't you radio me?"

"Hayes and I have it under control." Clancy crossed his arms over his chest. "You should head back to your posts."

"Not until you tell me what's happening-" She whirled around to face us, taking in our bags. "Are you leaving?"

"Lee," Mike said, making the connection at the same time. "What are you doing?"

"It seems that Liam Stewart is staging another breakout," Clancy said, "or at least was attempting to. Looks like it'll be just as successful as the last."

"Go to hell," I cut in, grabbing Liam's arm before he could have a go at Clancy. He was shaking with anger, but we were outnumbered-didn't he see that?

"Ruby," Clancy said quietly, with all of the familiarity of the kid I had thought was my friend. "Come on, can we at least talk things through?"

Yes, a voice whispered in my ear. Wouldn't that be for the best? The tightly wound anger in my chest began to unravel, slowly at first, then in a strange, cool rush. My fingers slid from Liam's. All of a sudden, it did seem like talking was the best option-the only option. I had been so angry and afraid before, but this was Clancy.

It was Clancy.

I took a step toward him, toward that smile. I could...I could forgive him, couldn't I? It would be easy. Everything with Clancy was easier. My feet moved on their own, knowing exactly where I needed to go. Where I was supposed to go.

But Liam didn't let me, and Chubs wasn't about to, either. I felt the latter's hands grab my backpack. The moment Liam stepped back in front of me, Clancy disappeared from sight, and I couldn't remember why it had felt so important to go to him, to let him walk me back to camp.

"Stop it!" Liam yelled. "Whatever you're doing to her, stop it!"

"He's not-" Mike began, looking between Liam and Olivia. I saw her just beyond Liam's shoulders, her face a grim mask. Behind them, the other kids from Liam's watch detail were abuzz, unsure of where to look.

"I'm not doing anything," Clancy said, his voice taking on an edge of ice. "You're the one that's jealous of the relationship she and I have."

The boys around him began to nod in agreement, their faces strangely expressionless.

"You're the one that's trying to break the rules here," he continued. "Because it is a rule, isn't it, Liv? If you want to leave, you have to ask me, right?"

She hesitated, but nodded.

Liam's arm dropped from in front of me slowly. His brows drew together, and he seemed to incline his head toward Clancy, as if listening to something the rest of us couldn't hear. I felt, rather than saw, the tension leave the lines of his shoulders. He took a step back, and then another away from me, one hand going to his forehead. "Sorry...I just...I didn't mean..."

"You're happy here, aren't you?" Clancy asked, pleasantly. "There's no reason why you can't go back to feeling that way. There are rules here. You know them now, and you won't break them again, will you?"