“I’m just pissed at myself,” I said when I found my voice. “I told Chubs I’d ask Clancy if he could use his laptop, but I got distracted and forgot.”

“Hmm…” Liam’s fingers were busy untangling my wet hair. “I don’t think he’s upset at you. I think he’s upset that I’m keeping us here. It’s just reinforcing his fears about not getting home.”

“How do I make it up to him?”

“Well, for one thing, you could ask about the computer,” he said, his other hand taking mine. “Though I still don’t really understand how you’re in the position to ask to borrow it. I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“You haven’t,” I said. “You’re always on watch.”

He laughed. “It’s lonely sitting up in a tree without you.”

“I want to hear about what you do all night,” I said. “Have you tried talking to anyone about freeing the camps yet?”

“I brought it up with some of the guys on my watch, and Olivia. She’s trying to get us in to see Clancy about it. I think…I think it’s going be great, I really do. It could work.”

“Clance said that the western gate is the one that used to give them the most trouble,” I said, twisting to look up at him. “You’re being careful, right?”

Liam went very still beside me, so still that he seemed to forget to breathe.

“Clance, huh?” he said in an unnaturally light voice. “I guess you are in the position to be asking favors.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Liam sighed. “Nothing, sorry. I didn’t mean for that to come out like that. It’s great that you guys are friends.” I tried to look up at him, but he was looking at the other end of the cabin, where a set of drawers with our things rested against the wall. “So he’s been giving you lessons?”

“Yeah,” I said, wondering how much, if anything, I should hold back. “He’s been teaching me how to keep others from prying into my head.”

“What about tricks to keep you from slipping into others’ heads?” Liam asked. “Is he helping you with that, too?”

“He’s trying to,” I said. “He said that if I strengthened my control over my abilities, that would come naturally.”

“Well, you can always practice that with me,” he said, resting his forehead against mine. I felt the trickle start at the back of my mind, the warning before the flood. Clancy had told me that when I felt it coming on, I needed to break all physical contact and imagine a white curtain sweeping between me and whomever I was with.

But I didn’t want to do either.

I felt his lips travel from my forehead, whispering something against my eyelids, my cheeks, my nose. His thumbs stroked the length of my jaw, but even they stilled as I pulled back and turned away from him.

“What are you so scared of?” he whispered, his voice laced with hurt.