Hadley stretched her limbs under the blanket as she slowly woke up. She felt well rested, but there was a sharp twinge on her leg when she tried to move it. The snapped tibia. It still hurt, but the pain was orders of magnitude less than before. She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Jamila walking up to her. Jamila smiled and knelt next to Hadley, sitting back on her heels. She had some folded clothes on her lap.

"I was just coming over to wake you," Jamila said.

Hadley sat up as best as she could, cupped Jamila's face with one hand as she supported herself with the other, and kissed her, smiling as she did.

"Are you okay?" Hadley asked, pulling away and starting a quick head to toe check on Jamila.

Jamila laughed and swatted Hadley's hand away from her head, where Hadley's fingers were combing through her hair as she slowly massaged Jamila's skull to check for injuries.

"I'm fine," Jamila said, still laughing as she fixed her hair, into a sexy, dishevelled, voluminous mass. "I should be the one asking you that. When Ruq carried you back, you'd been out there for almost an hour, and you... well, you weren't looking so good. It reminded me of the day she carried you out of Mrs. Smith's basement, and I just couldn't..." Jamila sighed. "You two should really stop doing that."

Hadley sat up fully, looked at her hands and flexed her fingers. She rolled her right shoulder too. Her left thumb and broken fingers were fully healed, and her shoulder was back to normal function, healed as well.

"It's all good. I'm perfect! See?" Hadley announced with a smile.

"Except for that," Jamila said, raising a brow as she pointed at Hadley's leg, which was set using a makeshift splint of twigs and ragged pieces of cloth.

Hadley looked down at the leg. It wasn't fully healed yet, but the bone was back under new skin, and she could, if she concentrated enough, feel it healing in real time. She'd be back to normal soon.

"That's just a scratch," Hadley said with a crooked smile.

Jamila laughed. Then she looked down at Hadley's belly.

"May I?" she asked.

Hadley nodded.

Jamila gently placed a hand on Hadley's baby bump at the exact moment that the little one kicked out hard, as if she knew. Jamila gasped at the foot-shaped nudge against her palm.

"She's strong," Jamila said.

Hadley beamed at the statement, enjoying Jamila's touch.

"She already adores you," Hadley gleefully announced.

Jamila laughed and gave Hadley a hug.

Hadley looked around their little camp. The night before, Ruqwik had said it was a section of ruins from before the Human Error and in the morning light, Hadley could finally see that. Most of what remained of the building was covered in vines and plants. They were camping in the only intact section of the ruins. It was mostly square, though one of the four walls was pretty much decimated. It had a concrete floor, rough and cracked in sections where grasses and other tenacious plants forced life into lifeless space. The ceiling was held up by a few cracked concrete and steel pillars and looked like it had once upon a time held another floor above them that was now lost to centuries of weather and nature. It was a good shelter to keep them dry from the storm that continued to rage outside.

The sun's light just barely pierced through the grey, rainy clouds, making it a little lighter outside, the only sign that it was daytime, but it was still early, so the others were asleep around the fire. The humans, that is. For the first time, Hadley noticed that Ruqwik wasn't the only vampire with them. There were others. A group of seven vampires in total. They stood guard at all the "openings" around the camp, keenly watching the forest beyond. Kade was the only other human awake, hunched over a small fire in the corner set up with three stones and a soup pot over the stones. He was stirring something in the pot that smelt divine.

"What about the others?" Hadley asked, pulling out of the hug and nodding towards their sleeping friends. "Are they okay?"

Their group was completely different from whom they'd started with back at the Compound. As Jamila had previously informed Hadley, Billy and Crystal had been abducted, leaving Hadley, Jamila and Jael as the only survivors from the Compound. Of the men from Teroi's group of Progenies, the only ones left were Yuvan, Jael's partner, and little Drew. There were also three people in the group who'd joined their camp at the hot springs after the debacle at Trisca's camp – a woman named Lulu and two men, Kilo and Chaz. Hadley didn't know much about them. Then there was Kade and two men from his tribe, as well as Brielle, Chasina and Max.

And Brownie the dog, of course.

Hadley took a T-shirt from the clothes that Jamila had brought over and pulled it on. As she did, she watched Kade leave the pot he was stirring to go wake the others.

"Rise and shine everyone!" he called out, playfully kicking a few of the sleeping bundles. "Breakfast is ready! Once this rain stops and we're moving again, we won't have time to stop for meals like this, so we better make the best of it."

"The others are fine," Jamila said, helping Hadley into a pair of pants, which was a little tricky with the make-shift splint against her broken leg. "Ruq and her friends saved everyone. Some of the vampires wanted to kill Brownie, but Ruq convinced them he's harmless. But now Drew won't let the dog out of his sight anymore because he doesn't fully trust them. Only Ruq."

Hadley stomach fell. It wasn't just the dog that was in danger. Out here, it was all of them. And it was her fault!

As always!

She pushed the dark thoughts aside before she spiralled too far into them.

"Speaking of Ruq," Hadley said, smiling as she put on the field jacket Jamila handed her. "Did you get to talk to her? Did you tell her how you feel? You said you would."

Jamila blushed. "Not yet. With everything going on, there hasn't been any time or opportunity. And I'm also kind of nervous. I don't know how to... you know... approach her."

"You have nothing to be nervous about," Hadley assured her. She reached forward and kissed Jamila again, knowing that she'd take every chance to do so that she could, after everything they'd just been through! She was never going to take a single second spent with the golden beauty for granted. "You're absolutely perfect. Just go up to her and tell her you like her."

Jamila smiled, gazing lovingly into Hadley's eyes. "I can't believe this is happening."

"What?" Hadley asked.

"I fell in love with two of the most amazing women on the planet." Jamila replied.

Hadley chuckled and lovingly cradled Jamila's cheek. "We're the ones who should be in disbelief. I don't think either of us deserve your love, to be honest. I certainly don't."

"Everyone deserves love, Hadley," Jamila replied, her eyes shining as she planted another soft kiss on Hadley's lips.

Hadley smiled into the kiss, letting herself drown in bliss for a moment, before playfully pushing Jamila away. "Okay. Go talk to her. And I demand a detailed debrief later!"

Jamila chuckled, took a deep breath, nodded, then stood up and walked to where Ruqwik was standing guard, stopping to grab a cup from her blue backpack on the way there.

Hadley lay back on her bedroll and sighed, happy that there was at least one good thing happening in the world.

The storm petered out after a few hours. It was still drizzling, but Kade requested everyone to gather their stuff and get ready to leave. From how he kept looking at the sky and the nervous energy he exuded, something wasn't quite right and Hadley was curious about what that was. Before leaving the ruins, Kade asked Hadley and Jamila to join him and Brielle so he could explain their plan now that they had left the gorge.

"I know I didn't give you much detail when I broke you out," Kade said, looking at Hadley. "But there wasn't any time. Even now, Uriko and the others will be searching for us. Especially you, Hadley. Getting to your father is the most important mission for the Council. We've been trying to for years, but he's always been a step ahead of us, until you showed up! They won't let you go easily."

Hadley nodded, but she couldn't ignore her apprehension.

Her father.

She still didn't know what the word meant.

All Hadley had ever wanted was a safe home and freedom for her daughter. And now she'd lost that, not because she'd failed to find it, but because of an inherited facial feature, a name, a historical legacy she knew next to nothing about, and being connected to a person she'd never met or heard of. Hadley was the embodiment of agency. That was the core of her being. She was not a victim! Her life was shaped by her actions – nothing else. That she was now helpless to the whims of this world beyond the Compound walls because of factors she had absolutely no control over eroded parts of her that had always informed who she was.

And it broke her.

Hadley felt Ruqwik's presence before the vampire had walked up to them. Their connection was different from the last time they had shared a mindscape. Before, that connection was more of a compulsion. A push and pull between their minds. A force that neither of them could fight or fully accept. This new iteration was defined by calm, order, and choice. Hadley could choose to step into the vampire's mind and step out of it. And she could choose to allow Ruqwik the same freedom. Intimate, yet not smothering. She couldn't help but cling to this modicum of control when everything else was so chaotic.

She opened her mind to the vampire.

Hadley breathed in deep at the rush of affection from Ruq's mind – seemingly always open to hers. It was a grounding force she held onto for dear life.

"I'm told that you helped Hadley and her friends escape," Ruqwik said, joining the group and interrupting Kade. The vampire's stern, serious tone belied the comforting, calming, soothing caresses she telepathically shared with Hadley. Hadley rubbed at a non-existent nose itch to hide her smile at the dissonance. "I'm assuming you have a plan that doesn't involve traversing a rainforest that's under the rule of a sadomasochistic tyrant as some kind of pseudo–Wildling Tribe."

Kade gave Ruqwik a dirty look but nodded.

"I have no interest in getting involved with the Baron of this Enclave. As I was trying to explain, before you so rudely interrupted, we will stick to the border of the Enclave and travel fast. There's a boat. It'll dock at the Coast not far from here in a few weeks," Kade explained.

He drew lines in the dust under their feet, mapping out the gorge they had climbed out of the day before. That schism in the ground was apparently the border between two vampire Enclaves and Kade explained that there was a split in the gorge ahead that forced them to travel on the more dangerous side to get to where they wanted.

"The plan is to follow the gorge's river downstream to where it meets the Coastline, find the waystation where we can safely wait for the boat, and then board it when it arrives." Kade continued. "The boat will take us to a ship. The ship is a small self-contained city. It travels the world, collecting items and people on the way. We'll be safe there."

"I haven't heard anything about a floating city contained on a ship before," Ruqwik said.

"It's not just one. There are others. And you haven't heard of them because they're havens for humans, not vampires," Brielle said, pinning the vampire with a disapproving gaze, her eyes clearly conveying that Ruq should keep this knowledge to herself. "The boat we're trying to catch is the only one that comes to this region's coastal shores, and it does so only once every year or more. That's how it stays a secret from vampires."

"Why hasn't every Wildling joined these floating cities?" Ruqwik asked, a question that was also on the tip of Hadley's tongue. "It seems like it would be a safer bet for all of you."

"Just like a vampire to think that." Brielle scoffed. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe we have a purpose here? Wildlings engineer the forests. We regenerate them, maintain them, keep them healthy and make sure they function as they should. These forests are the planet's lungs. Without us, your Enclaves would be nothing but barren swathes of land that couldn't support a single living being. Wasn't that the deal we made two centuries ago? Wasn't that the reason for the Accords between Wildlings and vampires? We keep you and your human livestock alive, and you leave us alone."

Hadley's eyebrows shot to the sky.

Accords between the Wildlings and the vampires?

An agreement that kept them separate? That bought the Wildlings' freedom over the humans in the Compounds? How was that even possible? And why didn't Aunt Zee mention any of this? Did humans already wield that much power over the vampires?

Even after knowing how the Wildlings hated the humans from before the Human Error – with good reason – if what Brielle was referring to was true, then Mrs. Smith was right after all when she talked about The Cause.

Humans could rule the world if they wanted to.

Why weren't they?

This was the first time in weeks that Hadley had thought about The Cause and about her place in the world, especially now that her attempted integration with the Wildlings had ended so horribly. She'd lost her daughter a home for reasons completely out of her control, but maybe it meant that there was no home for Hadley in the established systems, of which she knew too little about, which put her at a clear disadvantage. What if her obsession with The Cause was her subconscious desire to create a completely new system just for her and her little girl, where they would fully belong?

However, Kade's plan meant that Hadley didn't need to worry about that.

The Boat would be their new home.

A city on the ocean sounded better than anything Hadley would have ever been able to create as a new home for them! It would take them far away from vampires, vampire dogs, her Fisher legacy and this damned rainforest for the rest of their lives!

"How long do you think this journey to the coast will take?" Ruqwik asked.

"Two weeks if we keep a good pace. Hopefully much faster." Kade replied. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and squeezed, then looked up at Hadley, his eyes landing on her belly. "That two-week estimate includes room for interruptions – dog attacks, weather delays and the like."

And the like.

Hadley knew exactly what he meant.

Her and Jael were twenty-three weeks pregnant and, in all honesty, would slow them down a bit. Hadley wanted to hate that fact, but it was true. Hiking a rainforest with swollen ankles, an angry, aching back, constantly shifting centre of gravity, the constant need to pee and extreme fatigue from creating life wasn't exactly ideal. Add to that the endless dangers of these accursed woods and this was definitely a terrible idea. But Hadley wasn't afraid. Not as much as she should have been.

Not with Ruq here.

Ruqwik nodded and walked away to join the other vampires, leaving in her wake a telepathic cloud of hope and warmth, further bolstering Hadley's confidence in this plan to work.

Hadley later asked about her team of vampires. Ruqwik called five of the vampires Freelancers, yet another word to add to the ever-growing list of words whose meanings were lost to her, and the remaining two men were Baron Fledglings – that word she knew. One was a Fledgling to the deceased Baron Lujeo, and the other to a Baron named Paluri. The Baron Fledglings spend most of their time together, sometimes holding hands and exchanging kisses. The other five, two men and three women, hang out as a group of tight-knit friends. They would make fun of each other for the most part, but they were extremely serious about making sure Hadley and the others were safe, as if it was their sole purpose.

They might have denied it if she asked, but Hadley knew for a fact that the small army of vampires were a comfort to the other humans as well, despite the inherent disdain that Wildlings held for them. It did seem a little too much for eight vampires to be protecting them. There weren't that many of Hadley's friends left.

There'd been so much unnecessary loss on this journey!

It broke Hadley's heart.

While they got ready to leave, Hadley asked Kade to allow her a few minutes to address everyone. Jamila got them all to be silent and face Hadley.

"Thank you, Jay." Hadley said, hoping the smile to her lover was filled with even half the affection she felt for the golden eyed beauty.

"Welcome back Hadley!" Yuvan suddenly called out from the middle of the group.

There was an eruption of applause and catcalls, Jamila's whistles being the loudest. Hadley laughed, then motioned for silence again.

"Thank you," Hadley said. Then she went solemn. "I wanted to apologise to you all. You're out here because of me andyou've lost yet another haven – The Caves. And I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry! We wanted to leave." Jael called out.

That caught Hadley off guard. "You did?"

"Yeah! Best thing that ever happened." Kilo commented.

This was followed by a buzz of agreement from everyone else.

"I thought you all liked it there?" Hadley said.

"We tried to show you we were happy because we thought it was what you wanted for us," Jamila said.

More murmurs and nods.

"They made fun of us and called us Shelts and other mean names," Drew said, his left hand in Brownie's fur.

Hadley turned to the little boy as he and his dog made their way to the front of the group.

Little Drew continued, as if glad he could get this off his chest. "And they forced us to do things. They never asked us, not like you and Jamila and Ruq. You always ask, and we can say no. And they made fun of me and said I wasn't going to be a vampire and they took Brownie away and they took you and Jamila away."

Jael made another contribution. "They always made us do the worst jobs too. They saved any interesting or dignified jobs for themselves."

The others joined in, each of them contributing their reasons for wanting to leave in an uncoordinated chorus of voices.

Hadley called the group back to order.

"Okay, okay. I get it. No one seems to mind at all that we are once again in the rain forest with vampire dogs, baby killers, crazy kidnappers, and weather that could kill us, because, apparently, this is way better than being at The Caves," said Hadley. The statement was answered with a little cheer. Hadley called for silence once more. "Then there's just one thing I want to say."

There was proper silence now.

"If you are ever dissatisfied with anything," Hadley's voice was poignant. "Let us know. Let me know. Let Jamila know. Don't suffer in silence ever again! Not for me! Not for anyone or anything!"

The little group nodded and muttered, promising Hadley that they would.

Hadley smiled.

Maybe she wasn't so lost without the Wildlings. Maybe this group of people with whom she'd gone through hell and back was all she needed.

All her daughter needed.

The group dispersed back to their bags to finish packing for the next leg of the trip. Hadley felt Ruqwik in her mind before the vampire joined her.

"Chills!" Ruqwik said, walking up from behind Hadley. "Right down my spine."

Hadley chuckled at the splashy display of pride the vampire telepathically showered her with.

"You keep doing things like that and it's going to get very inappropriate between us, in front of all these nice people." The vampire continued.

Along with the words, she streaked the mindscape with raunchy debauchery.

"Promises, promises," Hadley said, laughing, but happy that her dark skin would hide most of her blush.

Ruq toned it down, their minds settling on contentment between them both.

"Jamila talked to me this morning," the vampire said. "I have a feeling you know what about."

Hadley nodded. "Hurt her and I kill you in the slowest way possible."

"Funny. I was just about to say the same thing," Ruqwik said, the smile audible in her voice. "How about this: either one of us hurts her and the other kills the guilty party."

Hadley turned to look at the vampire.

She offered her hand.

"Deal."

Ruq shook Hadley's hand.

"Deal."