“Nova?” she says, her hand on her hip, giving me a questioning stare.

Ash looks at Emily. “I’ll keep your friend safe. I give you my word.”

“I don’t want your word,” she says, turning toward him. “I don’t want any of this.”

“We have to go,” Ash says again, and there’s a warning in his tone, a warning not to linger and let someone other than Ash catch me here.

I approach my best friend, wanting to tell her everything she means to me and that nothing is the same without her, but also not wanting to scare her. So I simply say, “I’ve missed you, Em,” and I hug her. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

She clings to me. “You better be,” she says, insistent, and pulls back to look at me once more. “I’ll never forgive you if something happens to you, Nova. I will hold a grudge into the afterlife if I have to.” She attempts a smile, but her eyes well up.

I smile back, the weight on my chest almost unbearable. We share a look in the moonlight, one that says what I can’t bear to voice—that we need each other. Turning away from her is the single hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. And as I slip back out the window, I leave a piece of my heart behind.

Chapter Nine

ASH AND I move quickly across town. He follows me through backyards and side streets, not attempting to talk to me about what just happened. And even though I don’t want to discuss it, I also hate the silence. Every familiar inch of this town does nothing but remind me of Emily and the life I’m giving up. When I was in the Academy all I wanted was to come back here, and now that I’m here I want to shut my eyes, crawl under my covers, and sob. I bite my lip, trying to physically hold back my upset, and I blink away the wetness in the corners of my eyes.

Ash stops when we reach the edge of the forest that leads to my house. He gives me a hard look. I’m certain he’s thinking that going to Emily’s was a terrible idea. But he doesn’t say it; he doesn’t have to. We both know.

“We need to retrieve whatever your dad left you in that tree,” he says instead.

The shock pulls me out of my thoughts. “Hold on, now?”

“Now,” he says, and I can tell he’s frustrated with me. “We can’t sneak back into your house in the pitch dark, because we’ll have no idea if someone is following us. Because you didn’t even know that I was following you.”

“All of our stuff—”