"Hey, Kaden, look!" Sam's face lit with delight as he tilted a comic book up to catch the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

"What is it?" I didn't move from my spot by the window, or lower my gun from its position trained on the street. When Issac said Sam needed to continue his education and broaden his horizons, a bookstore wasn't exactly what I'd envisioned.

"It's a Batman comic," Sam said, consumed with turning the pages, his bow forgotten on the table beside him.

"Batman worked alone—that meant he was always vigilant. Always alert and watchful," I said, hoping Sam would pick up on my hint. He didn't. Gabriel wanted us back at the clan tonight. At this rate we'd be late, if we made it back at all. As much as I loved pissing Gabriel off, I wasn't sure books were worth it. Then again, I hadn't seen Sam this happy in ages.

Issac finally returned from the stacks, his pack loaded with books.

"Let's go," I said, eager to move on.

But he stopped me, and held out a book of his own. "Here. This one is for you."

Curiosity made me stop, and look down at the cover. "Where the Red Fern Grows?" There were two red dogs and a boy on the front, and I tried not to scoff. "Let me guess, the boy grows up and the dogs die? Pass."

Issac laughed. "Yes, it's about a boy and his dogs. But mostly it's about working as a team. And the ones we leave behind."

I didn't read books before the plague, but I'd started to during those couple of years in the clan. I told Sam it was because we no longer had TV or football or social media, but really it was because of Issac. But I hadn't read a single book since Issac had died, not even the Bible he'd given me. It reminded me too much of him. For Issac, every book held a different lesson.

Standing before the massive wall, I wondered what lesson Issac would construct from this situation. Would he think everything we'd been through was worth it? A clan left burning in our wake. Countless lives lost. Months spent journeying through the mountains and then, just when Ara and I had drawn close, the two of us taken captive again. Ara and I had both sacrificed so much to follow her father's map here, to The Last City. And I'd lost her the moment she'd walked through the front door.

"Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. We will do that." Ronnie, Talia's second, hung up the phone outside the wall. He towered over me, reminding me a bit of the massive Clydesdale horse he rode—yet somehow he had the smooth rosy cheeks of a twelve-year-old boy. I stared at him as he stood there, barely resisting the urge to shake him.

"Well?" I couldn't keep the panic out of my voice. The doors had sealed shut twenty minutes ago. I'd run down the road and begged Ronnie and Harrison to come back to the wall to help me demand entry. Instead, Ronnie had slowly picked up the phone and talked to the guards inside while I tried not to rip the phone from his hands.

"Well what?" Ronnie stared at me with calm brown eyes. The night should have been dark with the swirling snow, but the wall's lights blazed above us, blinding us to the shadows that lay beyond.

"Where is Ara?" I demanded. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine. Apparently, she knows the Chancellor. We'll be getting three times the normal reward."

Harrison whooped and thrust his sword—which I refused to call Jessica—into the air. "Three times! Did you hear that, K-man?" He slapped me on the shoulder; I barely felt it over the shock coursing through me. First that they had turned Ara in for a reward—they definitely hadn't told me that—and second that Ara could possibly know someone here. "Why didn't you tell us you knew the Chancellor? We would have turned you in for a reward too!"

"I don't know the Chancellor," I muttered as I stepped out of the reach of his sword. My entire plan to fly under the radar and never meet the ruler of The Last City had blown up in the first ten seconds of getting here. But Ara couldn't know the Chancellor . . . could she? The closed gate and wall loomed above me, offering no explanation or passage forward.

"Maybe we could use the reward to get our own place that's not a dump," Harrison said excitedly to Ronnie, both of them already turning and walking away. "Or maybe we could all get our own horses. I swear I could have outrun my last horse. Or maybe a better sheath for Jessica—she could rust in this weather."

"Wait!" I ran after the two of them. I'd once led an expedition team, and then nearly a clan. Surely I could get two men—one of whom had braces, acne, and a sword he'd named—to follow me. "Talia went in already," I said, skidding to a stop before them. "She was with Ara. Aren't you worried about her? Isn't she your leader?"

Harrison and Ronnie's eyes slid together, then away, both of them suddenly quiet. Ronnie finally said, with that slow, deep trudge, "I'm the leader. Not Talia. That's what it says on the expedition team papers."

"I wouldn't lose sleep over it. They're women." Harrison winked at me. Somehow being winked at by someone with braces in the apocalypse wasn't remotely comforting. "They're the true survivors in this world—not us. And Talia doesn't like the Chancellor. She probably made herself scarce."

"You're saying Ara's alone with the Chancellor?" My voice crept higher. "Who is he?"

"The ruler of The Last City," Ronnie said simply. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, "I would advise not getting on his bad side. Or any side. Best never to meet him."

Harrison swung his sword in front of him so that I was forced to jump out of the way—clearing their path. "Don't worry, he's super old," Harrison said, the two of them trudging by. "I'm sure you're still her number one."

I stood there, alone in the swirling snow, as they left me to stare up at the blazing, impossible lights. All summer I'd doubted the map and letter that Ara had clung to. But for a moment, standing before these walls, I'd allowed myself to believe we'd finally found a sanctuary. A safe place.

Now I wondered if this was only the beginning of another clan, another Gabriel, another place that would seek to imprison and control Ara—but on a terrifyingly enormous scale. And if it is, then you're going to need all the help you can get.

"Wait!" I called out after Harrison and Ronnie, running to catch up with them. Outside of the reach of the lights, the night was bitterly cold and dark. "Can't we break in somehow?"

"It'll open in the morning." Ronnie shrugged his massive shoulders.

"What about the women in the wagon? Where will they be taken?"

This time Harrison answered. "They've got safe houses out here for women, to hold until the gates open, but even Talia can barely get in them—they won't let you in. They'll take them to the Sanctum tomorrow. Relax, if your girl knows the Chancellor then she's in the safest place in the whole world right now."

That's exactly what I'm afraid of. I cast a final look back at the wall that seemed to bisect the world: ruins on one side, and something different, new, and equally terrifying on the other.

~

The stables were warm and rich with the scents of horses and hay. After all the time Ara and I had spent sleeping on the ground in the mountains, it felt like a luxury bedding down in the hay. Or it would have, had Ara been here.

"Just don't think about it," Ronnie said, as if that were possible. He took up half the stall on his own. "She'll be fine. Probably eating steak and potatoes right now."

Harrison moaned. "No talking about food."

We'd been given a small ration of some smoked fish and dried apples. Even though Ronnie was twice the size of Harrison, it was the latter who'd whined at the small portions.

"I still don't get why you aren't worried about Talia," I said. From what little I'd seen of her, Talia was fierce, but she was still a lone woman in a city of men. "Aren't you all a team?"

Harrison squinted down at his sword, polishing a nonexistent spot before he answered. "Talia's got more lives than a cat—don't think you could kill her if you tried. They'll both probably have a whole harem of new boyfriends before dawn." He winked at Ronnie, who just shook his head.

"You're sure we can get in tomorrow?" I said.

"Gates open at dawn," Harrison said, seeming irritated that no one had laughed at his joke. He turned over in the hay, presenting me with his back. "Then you'll wish you were never in a hurry to get in. All men have to go through citizenship and defense training before getting placed in a job."

"Defense training?" Sounds like something Gabriel would cook up.

Harrison shrugged, unable to ignore me despite his turned back. "Basically boot camp but with lots of propaganda thrown in. Teaches you all about how the Chancellor saved us, how we'd die without him, how without him there'd be no plague flower or new tech or electricity and the world would be a dark, broken place, blah, blah, blah. Just say 'Hail Chancellor' a bunch and you'll be fine. Now shut it. Jessica needs sleep."

With that ominous bit of information, the two men fell silent. Ronnie whittled at a piece of wood before he yawned and settled down in the hay. Harrison polished his sword with a rag for a few minutes before he too yawned and then began to snore. The sounds of horses, creaking wood, and the storm outside weren't near enough to still my racing thoughts. Sleep evaded me, straw poking into my back as I stared unseeing at the rafters. How was it possible Ara knew anyone within The Last City? Old fears I thought I'd forgotten—of Colborn reaching for her, of Gabriel with his hands on her waist and mouth pressed against hers—swirled and haunted my restless dreams, until I suddenly came violently awake, a cold hand clamped over my mouth.

I jerked away, reaching for the knife at my waist. A hooded figure loomed above me, a single lantern hung in the center of the barn lighting him from behind. But then my eyes adjusted and I recognized the mocking eyes and slim form.

"Talia!" Anger replaced fear as I shoved my knife back. "I could have hurt you."

She held a hand up to her lips, and then glanced over the edge of the wooden stall, to the noises of the barn beyond. The storm howled outside the barn, a horse nickered softly, no other noises rising. Still, her caution brought me fully awake and alert.

"Did they open the gates?" I whispered.

"No." She crouched low beside me, the wooden door to our stall at her back. "Not for a few more hours. That's why I came here. I know which horses are fastest—I can help you steal one. I'll draw you a map. There're faster ways south than the way you came. Take the highways, there'll be men, but as long as you have a horse and a gun, and travel light, you should be safe."

I stared at her in confusion. "I'm not leaving Ara. The people on the phone said she knows the Chancellor—she could be in trouble."

Her eyes shifted nervously. "I heard that too. That's why I think you should leave. They've been saying she's his granddaughter."

His granddaughter. Shock coursed through me. Of course Ara had told me about her father, and that he might be in The Last City. But Ara had never told me she had grandparents still alive—or that one might possibly be ruling The Last City.

Ara doesn't keep secrets from me, I wanted to say. Instead, I kept quiet. Her father had kept so many secrets from her—it was entirely plausible she hadn't known.

"Isn't that a good thing?" I finally said. "If Ara's grandfather really is the leader of The Last City, he'll protect her. Maybe that's why her father sent her here. To keep her safe."

Talia's eyes narrowed. "Sure. Because all women want is to be locked up and kept safe."

"You were the one who said The Last City was a place where we would be safe."

When Ara and I were both surrounded, the men had promised her safety—so long as I was tied up and left behind. It took me nearly two damn days to cut my way free of the ropes and another agonizing week to find the wagon. But then I was outnumbered, with only a single dull knife. I'd been about to throw caution to the wind and attempt to rescue her regardless when I ran into Talia and her group. After a tense exchange, she explained that the men were selling women along the way, and her orders, from the Chancellor himself, were to stop them and bring the women safely to The Last City. Talia had likely saved not only my life but also those of the women in the cart. How could that be a bad thing?

"It is a good place—in some ways. For some people," Talia finally said, "so long as you keep a low profile, and know who your friends are. But Ara is the Chancellor's blood. That changes everything. You can't hide from that."

"Why? Why does it matter?"

"The guards were talking about Ara—her test came up Invalid.
That's never happened before. To anyone. The best survival strategy in The Last City is to lie low. Recite the stupid sayings, kiss-ass to the officials, follow the rules, swallow your pride, and keep any thoughts to yourself. Surviving means joining the monster—not fighting it. And definitely not testing as the first Invalid ever."

I barely heard her, because a strange sort of pulsing fear had made my mouth go dry. "My test came up as Invalid too."

The two of us stared at each other, different emotions flitting through her eyes, as the storm battered the barn outside. "When?" she finally said.

"After the men tied me up, and Ara was already in the wagon, one of them held up a scanner to my eyes. He said if I was infected he'd spare me a slow death and kill me right then. But it said Invalid. He thought the scanner was broken."

Harrison coughed and muttered in his sleep, and we both felt silent. She looked deep in thought when she said, "Do you remember what happened to the machine they tested you with?"

"He tossed it. It's still out there in the woods somewhere."

Talia nodded at this, looking deep in thought. "Good. We'll make sure it stays lost."

"If Ara also tested that way, it has to mean something . . . right?"

She stared at me, her brow furrowed, and then finally smiled—not what I was expecting. "You know, Kaden, when you insisted on joining our team to save your girl, I thought for sure you'd die in the first five minutes. And then I thought your girl was just another princess bound for the Sanctum. But maybe I was wrong."

"Maybe? Wow, thanks."

She rose just enough to glance over the closed stall door, then sank back into a crouch. "You sure you won't go south?"

"If Ara is inside those walls, that's where I'm going."

She gave a low laugh. "Careful, Kaden; not all princesses want to be saved."

Her tone was teasing, but my voice wasn't. "Ara will always want me. And I her."

She stared at me, something assessing in her eyes. Then she reached into her pocket and lifted out a sort of lanyard with a card at the bottom. "Then take this. It's a shortcut into one of the side entrances where you're supposed to do your own scan—but you can skip it by using this. Be careful—they monitor all the entrances. If you only go in once, and stay in, you might be okay. As soon as dawn breaks, be at the side entrance—it's a half mile past the main one, next to the ruins of an old movie theater. Ronnie and Harrison will show you where." She paused, and considered me with a critical eye. "Maybe have Harrison cut your hair first; the blond curls stand out too much. And for the love of God, remember that citizen training is about blending in and conforming, not standing out."

Right. So another clan all over again. I reached out and took the card—it was simple, red on one side, black on the other, with the words One City. One People. One Ruler. printed in bold, with a barcode beneath the writing.

"Why all the secrecy?" I buried the card in my pocket. "If they took Ara to the Chancellor for testing Invalid, why would it matter if I tested that way too?"

"I'm not sure—but I'm going to find out." The smirk left her face, some deep warning buried in her eyes. "This isn't some hick clan where you can buy your way in with a fishing pole and some beet seeds. Secrets and connections are just as valuable, if not more so, as food and supplies. The quicker you learn that, the longer you'll survive here." Then she stood and opened the stall door. A creak sounded. She froze, her head whipping sideways at a sound—but it was just a horse moving in the stall beside us.

Only then did I think of what should have been my very first question. "Wait, if the gates are still closed, how did you get out here?"

Even in the dark, I could make out the flash of her smile. "Good luck, Kaden." Then she disappeared down the long center aisle of the barn. I waited in tense silence, expecting some kind of tussle as she tried to steal a horse, which would inevitably come back to us. But no noise came. Only the low howl of the storm battering the walls.

Eventually I turned over to find Harrison with one eye open, watching me. "Women," he muttered, shaking his head as he closed his eyes. When it was clear he wasn't going to say more, I settled back into the hay to wait for dawn.

Two Invalid tests. A grandfather who ruled a city I hadn't even entered yet.

Talia was right about one thing: The Last City was full of secrets.