“And so this person, Koren Vey, is hiding in the ark?” Robb asked skeptically, and shot Ana a regretful look.

I know, she wanted to tell him. I’m feeling pretty regretful right now, too.

Elara said, to their surprise, “It’s not like she can leave, Smolder.”

“And here’s where we just have to believe you, I suppose,” he deadpanned.

“Yep.”

Well, at least it was better than waiting in that stupid garden.

She didn’t want to admit that maybe she was just running from the inevitable—because as long as she was moving, pushing forward, doing something, time wouldn’t catch up with her.

Time that Jax no longer had.

Because of her. Because she was reckless.

Elara dug into the can, realized it was empty, and tossed it out into the forest. By now, Elara had eaten all the provisions, and both Ana and Robb realized that the provisions had been because Elara was hungry—not because the trek was long. The path they followed was almost not a path at all, overgrown with roots and vines. There were buzzy . . . things . . . everywhere, and she kept swatting them away.

Ana was raised on a starship.

She wasn’t meant for nature.

It had taken only an hour or so to get down the side of the mountain, with the help of a few pulleys and antiquated zip lines hidden in the foliage. The last bit of the trail was a hilly descent into the valley, and the ark already looked impossibly big.

It had once housed hundreds of thousands of Solani—but Ana hadn’t realized how big it was until she was halfway down the mountain and the bones of the ship stretched from one side of the valley to the other, like the skeleton of some great beast of lore. It wasn’t a natural valley, but a crater made from its impact.

Elara stopped them at the edge of the forest and looked back up to the city on the peak. “This is the tricky part. The lookout will definitely spot us here.”

“Then we can’t go any farther?” Robb asked, irately batting away a fly that had started pestering him about half a mile back.

“Nonsense, Smolder. We just have to go faster!” Elara spun back to them and dug into her own bag. She produced two fist-size plates. Ana recognized them from the Solgard’s belts. “I managed to slip away with a few of these. They’re shields. You just push the middle button here and”—she pressed the button in the center and a sheet of silver whirled out on all sides to form a fairly decent shield that covered most of her body—“magic!”

Ana and Robb each took one.

“And why do we need shields?” Robb asked dryly.

“Watch and learn, Smolder.” Elara dug out a third shield for herself, extended it, and took a running leap over the hill. She tucked the shield underneath her feet a moment before she landed on the grass, and went surfing down toward the ark at a remarkable speed.