“You could feel everything about me,” he finishes for me. “It happens when you get close to someone … really close to someone.” He stuffs his hands in his pockets.

“So if I kissed someone else the same thing would happen?”

He feigns insult. “Who else are you planning on kissing?”

I smile, but a memory rushes back to me, sharp and painful, stinging my brain.

“It’s important that you practice standing alone, Kayla,” Monarch tells me. “So that when the time comes, you’ll be able to handle it.”

“But sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes I just want to be normal.”

“Life is hard sometimes,” Monarch replies. “But you’ll do what you have to if it means fixing the world. It’s what you were made for.”

“Kayla, did you hear me?” Aiden’s standing in front of me. I’ve stopped walking and he looks concerned. “Is everything okay? Are you remembering things on your own again?”

“No,” I lie, shaking the memory away.

“Maybe we should take that break now,” he suggests.

I force a smile. “We’ve got darkness chasing after us.”

“We have to make it through darkness, anyway,” he says, hiking toward a cluster of red rocks. “So we might as well take a break and make sure we’re all rested and reenergized.”

I trudge along after him, parking my unenthusiastic body on top of a flat rock.

Aiden takes off his bag and pulls out two bottles of water, tossing one to me. “Here, drink up.”

I take a sip, while he pulls a bag of funny shaped flat things that look like little pieces of bread. But when I put one in my mouth, it taste so much better than bread.

“This is good.” I cover my mouth as crumbs spill out.

“You know, they really didn’t feed us very well in The Colony.” Aiden sips from the bottle. “That’s one of the first things I noticed when I was thrown out here.”

I pop another piece into my mouth. “So you really don’t know what The Gathering is?” I question. “Even after all your memories resurfaced?

“All my memories haven’t resurfaced yet,” he says, his gaze lifting to the top of the hills. “And no, I don’t know what it is, because it wasn’t an erased memory—it wasn’t a memory at all.”

I chew slowly, confused. “I’m not sure I’m following you.”

“I was unconscious.” His eyes are still on the hill line, this strange look shifting into his expression. Then he jumps to his feet, tossing everything into his bag. “We need to move. Now.” He hooks the bag over his shoulder and pulls me to my feet.

I glance back, at the hill. “What did you see?”

“I’m not sure,” he mutters, dragging me toward a cave.  “But I think we might be being followed.”

“By Dominic?” I hurry with him. “Would he do that?”