The air already had her overheated, but Romy felt her body temperature rise that little bit more. She turned around and flung her arms out, stopping the five men in their tracks.

She faced Atlas, anger coursing through her. Because she was sure when she was spilling out her life story to him on the walk to the beach, he never once mentioned five other men.

His face remained impassive as she glared up at him.

“I said, what are you going to do with Deimos?” she demanded.

Romy hated that her anger made him laugh. Not laugh outright, but he was doing that pursing lips thing again. Deimos shivered violently behind him and Atlas’s expression grew grave.

“He doesn’t have time for us to talk. You should all come. Only grab what you need—we have supplies at camp.”

Romy looked from the mysterious man’s sincere expression and met the gazes of her knot. Thrym nodded at her and she understood he was passing the decision to her.

She knew Atlas the best of any of them. But she hardly knew Atlas before this moment—Romy looked at the other men behind her—and now she knew him even less. She thought they’d forged some kind of bond, a camaraderie forced upon them by their situation: two people possibly alone on Earth. Apparently not.

He’d disappeared without any explanation back at the beach. The most horrible feeling was building inside because nothing was as it was supposed to be. On Earth, with Atlas, with Knot 27—nothing.

Did Romy trust the grey-eyed mysterious man with her knot? Deimos’s breathe gurgled, and her heart stopped until he resumed his stuttering efforts to survive.

Deimos would die if they stayed. But if they went with Atlas, Deimos might live. Put like that, it was the easiest choice she’d ever made.

Romy stepped aside and let the five men rush forwards.

Atlas met her eyes and she avoided his gaze, preferring to watch the ministrations of the men transferring Deimos onto a stretcher. The extra heat flushing her face had not dissipated in the slightest, and she knew it wouldn’t until she knew what the hell was going on.

No matter what he’d done since they’d met, she knew Atlas had been lying to her the whole time.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The men swept Deimos out on a stretcher.

Romy left everything behind and followed.

The others scrambled to collect food and water, not willing to leave it behind and place sole trust in the men who had barged into their midst.

She just wanted to make sure they wouldn’t disappear with her brother.