We take the bridge across the river and thread our way north through town. It’s quieter now, all the spectators who gathered in the clearing when we arrived having cleared out. The scent of fresh bread and cooked vegetables wafts through the streets. Saph stops before a home with a single, eastern-facing window and jerks her head at a heavy woven blanket hanging in the doorframe. “You can stay with my sister while we raise a new structure.”

“Cleo hates me,” Asher says.

“Well, she has reason to, doesn’t she?” Saph gives Asher a particularly pointed glare. She looks only a few years older than we are, but when she steels her eyes, Asher folds like a baby.

“I’m sorry, Saph. Really. But I had to go. You all knew that. I had to try to find them.”

Now Saph’s gaze drifts to me. “Seems you were successful.”

“Not really,” Asher spits out. “One, when I should have found more than a dozen? That’s not a success. He has the Loyalists combing the wastes now. Did the Reaper tell you that? Does she tell you that while everyone is safe here, everyone outside the walls suffers?”

“Don’t make this about me. You’re the one who left.”

“You could barely stand me any more than Cleo.”

“I was trying!” Saph snaps. “Which is more than you can say—”

“I’m sorry,” I cut in. “But how, exactly, do you two know each other?”

Saph levels her gaze to mine. “We were sharing a bed.” She spins on her heel and stalks off, and I stare after her, dumbstruck. When she’s disappeared between shanties, I turn to Asher. His face is blanched and his mouth stuck in a small circle. Well, good. He should be mortified! He’d finally managed to find some safety after Bedrock, and what’s the first thing he does? Ditch his clothes and expose the map to a complete stranger, all for a few minutes of pleasure.

“You move fast” is all I can think to say.

“It wasn’t like that, Delta. I slept beside her. That’s it. I was gone before it could go anywhere.”

“I don’t care. You can roll with whoever you want.”

“Amari the Tender pushed us together, had us sharing a home,” Asher goes on. “I don’t know why.”