I didn’t think it was possible to blush any harder, but apparently I was wrong.

Pretty soon I’m all packed and the room looks amazing. My mind calms from being surrounded by order.

I walk Rafe to the door, and it’s awkward because it feels like he should kiss me, but there’s no one watching. Instead, I hug him, because he just cleaned my room and I’m honestly grateful. He seems surprised, but he tentatively hugs me back, friendly-like, with only the smallest fizz of tension as my ear barely grazes the skin above his collar.

Tomorrow we’re going to sneak off this island and face my family. And tonight I’ll sleep in a bed without any crumpled clothes beneath me. What a thought.

31

We start off the next morning before sunrise. I try to take note of the way down to the water for future reference, but I’m quickly out of breath from the difficulty of what is turning out to be a full-on hike. When we reach a break in the overgrowth, I halt. A hint of sun is beginning to purple the sky, just enough for me to see that the trail leads right down the side of the cliff. A narrow, steep descent of boulders make natural steps—each no more than a foot wide—with the cliff on one side and on the other side, only air. As in, a straight drop hundreds of feet down into the ocean below.

“How exactly do you expect me to climb down this?” I ask Rafe.

“With the two feet that the Conductor has benevolently granted you?”

“My hips are wider than this path.”

“Your hips, while lovely, are not relevant to your descent.”

“Was this plan all just a plot to kill me? Because there is no way I’ll make it down that alive.” I say this in jest, but I don’t fail to recognize that it wouldn’t be a bad way to take care of the girl that Rafe now has incontrovertible evidence is connected to the enemy.

He moves closer behind me, and his breath tickles my neck as he whispers into my ear, “If I wanted you dead, I would have found a much more delicious way to kill you.”

It’s official. I must be broken because a death threat should not make my breath catch.

Rafe tugs me around to face him, looks directly into my eyes, and says, “You can absolutely do this. This is no different from walking down stairs, and you walk down stairs all the time.”

“Most staircases won’t kill me if I fall.”

“When was the last time you fell on a staircase? The only danger is in your head. And if you do slip, I have excellent reflexes.” He winks.