“I had no one left after that, so I was moved from foster family to foster family. You know how it is—just like in the movies. Some people get lucky and end up with a great family. I … didn’t.”

We hit a fork in the tunnel, and Arryn leads us down the right, her flashlight still bobbing ahead of us, shining into the darkness.

“Three days after my sixteenth birthday, my foster dad came home drunk and …” She trails off, before saying, “Well, I’m sure you can fill in the blanks.”

Bile rises in my throat.

“I managed to fight him off before he could get too far, but by then, I’d had enough. I took off—I left everything behind and didn’t return. I lived on the streets after that, dropped out of school, scrambled for food and shelter. Until one day, all that changed.” She places her hand on the breakout Speaker’s shoulder, moving him slightly to remain on a straight path. “I’ll never forget that day—it was pouring rain, the storm so bad that I had to find shelter at the entrance to the State Library. I was leaning against one of the pillars out the front, my clothes filthy, my body unwashed, my hair a matted mess. I wasn’t even wearing shoes. I was nearly seventeen, so I’d been on my own for almost a year. I had nothing to live for in the world, no one who cared whether I lived to see another day. It was … the lowest I’d ever felt, the only time I’d considered whether or not it was worth struggling through another day.”

I suck in a breath at what she’s admitting, the pain of what she went through. I look over and see Cami blinking quickly to keep tears from falling.

“It was while I was standing there and considering my … options that a guy walked up to me and took my hand in his. He didn’t care about how much of a mess I was. He didn’t care how bad I smelled or how grubby I looked. He just smiled at me and said, ‘You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for you.’ And that’s when I felt it—energy coursing through my body, coming right from where his skin was touching mine.” She nudges the breakout again, realigning him once more. “I’d always felt somewhere deep inside me that I was different, even if I’d never experienced that kind of energy sensation before. I wanted to know what it was, what it meant. And honestly, I had nothing left to lose at that point. But still, for some reason I trusted him, so when he asked if I’d come with him, I did.”

“Let me guess, that boy was Kael?” Cami hedges.