I shook my head, sending damp strands of hair against my cheeks. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you later. I promise. Okay?” I stopped abruptly, having to take a moment. “Just don’t worry. I’m okay. Everything is okay.”

“Ember—don’t hang up the phone. Please! Just tell—”

I snapped the phone shut, and after a few seconds, I turned it off. I knew Adam would call, and if he did, I would answer. Then I would break and tell him I’d been kidnapped by the neighborhood Friendly Freak Association. I had a feeling that wouldn’t end well—not for me, my mom, or Olivia.

Olivia.

What would happen if I made a run for it? I couldn’t leave Olivia here, but what would I be taking her to? There was nothing out there for us now. Staying here meant I’d have to trust Cromwell. Could I trust a stranger? But I knew the answer. I’d do anything for Olivia.

I’d even put my fate—my future—in Cromwell’s hands.

Chapter 6

I sat, staring blindly at a blank page. I started with one line—the horizon, but as I continued, the line became ragged and broken by tall elms with points as sharp as needles. I pressed harder, giving the shadows more depth, more secrets. The drawing wasn’t working, but I couldn’t stop. Smudged lines flowed across the page.

“What are you doing?”

I snapped the pad shut and twisted toward the voice. Hayden. In the sun, his hair shone a dozen colors of red and brown.

He took only one step closer, pulling his hands out of the pockets of his jeans. “Ember?”

I jumped to my feet. “Don’t come any closer.”

Hayden stopped. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk to you.”

“Not going to hurt me?” I backed up, successfully trapping myself against the wall. “You said that right before you knocked me out for three days.”

“I’m really sorry about that.” He looked away, drawing in a deep breath. “I know you, Ember. You’re a fighter—”

“You don’t know me. We only talked for five minutes in the library.”

A lopsided smile pulled at his lips as he turned toward me. “Since the accident, we’ve checked in on you. Sometimes I came with my father. I saw enough.”

A fine shiver coursed through me. I wrapped my arms around me, but it didn’t help. “Saw what?”

He looked away again, staring off at something I couldn’t see. “How hard it was for you. The way those kids at school treated you. How you managed to survive when there was no one there to help you.” The striking lines of his face turned hard. “I know you’re scared, but you don’t have any reason to be now.”

“Really? Because you tell me so, huh? And this is coming from a boy who has been stalking me with his father. Not to mention the fact that you guys have kidnap—”

“I wasn’t stalking you, Ember, and we didn’t kidnap you.” He faced me once again. “We just… relocated you.”