The red flashes again and then comes near me. She is at the fence now, with the others. And it's clear from looking at her that she is Unconsecrated. Her limbs don't work as if of one body and her skin stretches tight over her frame, as if the bones on her face could punch through at any moment.

But the red of her puffy vest is still vibrant and strange and I know that it's her. It's the Outsider. Gabrielle.

I want to link my own fingers through the fence. Travis hobbles behind me and pulls me back.

“What are you doing?” he demands, his voice a hiss as he sucks in breath. He walks with a cane and a limp and it suddenly occurs to me just how much of a struggle it must have been for him to make it down the hill after me so quickly.

Gabrielle darts around the other Unconsecrated. She's like them but somehow different.

Sleeker. Faster. She thrashes against the metal links with a speed and voracity that I have never seen before. I stand with Travis on our side of the fence, not knowing what to feel, what to do.

“Never do that again,” Travis says into my ear, his arms wrapping around my shoulders, pulling me against him.

I want nothing more than to let go, to let him envelop me and take me in and protect me. My entire body shakes with each heartbeat, my hands tremble. “She was the one in the room next to you,” I say, pointing to Gabrielle. “The Outsider that came to the village that night I was in your room.” Heat crawls up my cheeks as I remember the feel of his body under mine.

We watch as the girl in the red vest pulls against the links in the fence, desperate for us. There is something so wrong with her—neither of us has ever seen an Unconsecrated like this.

“She spoke to me through the wall one day,” I tell him. “After you were moved and I went looking for you. She told me her name was Gabrielle.” My throat burns and I swallow sobs that threaten to break free. I can't believe what has happened to this girl who dared wander the paths of the Forest, who dared enter our village.

Tears slip down my face and I turn toward Travis. “Did she tell you anything?” I whisper.

“Did she tell you where she came from? Why she came to the village?”

“Oh, Mary,” he says.

And then his lips fall on mine and I am silent.

I remember the wonder of my almost first kiss with him that night so long ago. It was the night that Gabrielle had come through the gate. Back before either of us knew anything about the Outside and cared only about the two of us in that room. How my heart pounded and my body felt on the verge of anything and everything. I have had kisses since then. Friendly kisses. All from Harry. All during our abbreviated courtship. I have never kissed anyone but Harry.