Clenching my abs, I say, “We’re both going to get very sick. But we’ll get through it together.”

“What do we do?” Tawni asks, her voice rising precariously high. Her lips are tight. I’m afraid she might lose it. Since I met her, Tawni has always been strong, even when her best friend was viciously murdered. But now she looks seriously freaked out. She must’ve seen firsthand what the Bat Flu can do to someone.

“Who do you know that had the Flu?” I ask, stepping out of the bile-choked water, Tawni flitting out next to me. We are still filthy, but there’s not much we can do about it now.

Tawni’s eyes flick to mine and then back to the water, to the bat droppings. “My cousin,” she says.

“What happened?”

“She passed.”

“That’s not going to happen to us.”

“It was awful.”

“Tawni.”

Her eyes dart back to mine and stick this time.

“We’re going to be fine,” I say. “Stay with me.”

Tawni’s steel-blue eyes get steelier, and then, after reaching a hardness level I’d never seen in them before, soften, returning to their soft blue. “Right. We’ll be okay,” she says, almost to herself.

I take the soap from Tawni and chuck it, along with the two canteens, across the pool. They clatter off the far wall and plunk beneath the surface.

“We should dry off with our dirty tunics and then chuck them away, too,” I say.

Although it’s kind of gross soaking up the water with our filthy old clothes, we both do it because we have to. It’s the nature of things in our world. Out of necessity you have to do a lot of things you don’t want to do. I wonder if it was the same in the old world, before Armageddon, before Year Zero.

When we are dry and our old clothes have been thrown into the foul water, we each don one of the fresh tunics from our packs. It feels good—the simple act of putting on clean clothes. It’s like a rebirth, a second chance, a new beginning. At least usually. This time neither of us wants to turn the page on our story. But like so many things in life, we have no choice.

“How far to the Star Realm?” I ask.

“We’re in the Star Realm now, technically.”

“But how far to the first subchapter? Subchapter 30, right?”

Tawni consults the map. “Yeah, first we’ll hit subchapter 30. I’d say at least a twelve-hour hike if we move fast.”

“We’ve got to make it in eight,” I say. “Just in case we have the Flu. First symptoms will come fast, perhaps in three hours or so. Worse symptoms after six hours. The very worst at around eight hours. So we have to move fast.”

“What about water?” Tawni asks. Water will be a problem. We had to get rid of our contaminated canteens. We are already dehydrated.

“Any more blue dots on that map of yours?”

Tawni scans the page. “None in this section of the tunnel. There are blue dots all over the place in subchapter 30, but nothing between here and there.”

“We’re just going to have to suck it up. Can you make it?” I don’t know if I can, but I will do everything in my power. I don’t want to die without at least trying to find my mom.

“I don’t know,” Tawni answers honestly. I nod absently. “If I don’t make it, leave me and find your mom.”

“I won’t leave you,” I say.

Tawni opens her mouth, presumably to argue, but then snaps it shut and nods. She remembers who she’s dealing with. I’m not known for changing my mind.

“Let’s go,” I say, shouldering my pack.

Chapter Two

Tristan

“I’m just a guy,” I say.

“And barely even one at that,” Roc adds, smirking. Sometimes I wonder why he’s my best friend.

Mr. Rose shakes his head. “No, you’re more than that, Tristan, and you know it. You’re an idea.”

“Yes, and you’re betrothed to my sister,” Elsey chimes in eagerly.

I laugh, half because the notion of ideas and betrothals is ridiculous, and half because Adele’s ten-year-old sister is really growing on me. “I’ve just barely met your sister,” I say to Elsey.

“I saw the way you looked at each other. You’re practically engaged.”

I want to get off the subject because I feel embarrassed talking about Adele and me—whatever we are—in front of her father. Without looking him in the eye, I say, “What do you mean an idea?”

“Like sliced bread?” Roc asks unhelpfully. “Because I’d say sliced bread is a way better idea than Tristy here.”

Adele’s father chuckles and shakes his head again. “You two are worse than brothers.”

“You haven’t met my brother, Mr. Rose,” I say grimly, automatically reaching up and touching the area under my eye. The last time I saw my fifteen-year-old brother, Killen, he and his cronies beat me senseless. My eye is still black and swollen.

“It’s Ben.”

“Right…Ben,” I say, still feeling weird about calling Adele’s father by his first name.

“You’re more than just a guy because of who you are.” I raise a hand to object but Ben waves me off. “Hear me out. Just because you’re from up there”—he motions to the high rock ceiling above us—“doesn’t mean you are one of them. And that’s my whole point. Despite the fact that you’re the son of the President of the Tri-Realms, the chosen one, the next great leader of this world, you aren’t a tyrant. You don’t support your father’s politics, am I right?”

I nod slowly, trying to understand where he’s going with all this. “But that just makes me an enemy to the government. I’m a thorn in their side—a criminal who must be brought to justice. I’m sure my brother has already told my father what I’ve done. They’ll be hunting me with everything they’ve got.”

“We could dress you up like a woman and then they’d never find you,” Roc suggests. He’s being particularly unhelpful this morning.

Ben ignores Roc and says, “You’re thinking about this all wrong. You’re an idea, Tristan. The idea that someone from the Sun Realm could be on the side of the people in the Lower Realms; the idea that someone from within the highest government ranks is helping the Moon and Star Realms; the idea that injustice will not go unpunished. If we can get the moon dwellers to believe in that idea, maybe, just maybe, we can unite the people.”

I gotta hand it to this guy, he knows what to say to get the blood pumping. He is a born leader, and I’m just a guy. He should be the one leading a rebellion, not me. I’ll help, sure, but I don’t want to be the one. Ben is a big man, strong and capable. When I first met him—when Adele and I broke him out of prison—he looked haggard, his black hair and beard long and disheveled, his body strong but battered. After only just two days he is a new man. First he used my sword to trim his hair, cropping it medium length and getting it off his ears, and then to remove his beard, leaving a neat goatee as his only facial hair. Next, he got cleaned up in the subchapter 26 reservoir. When he was done, I barely recognized him, and probably wouldn’t have known him at all, if not for his piercing emerald-green eyes, the same eyes born by Adele.

“I don’t think I’m the right—”

“Yes—you are.”

I can tell he’s not going to back down, and the last thing I want is to argue with Adele’s father. “What do you want me to do?”

Ben smiles, as if he knew all along I’d listen to him. “For a start you need to meet with the Vice Presidents of the Moon Realm.”

“There are dozens of them.”

“We’ll start with one—one I know will listen. She’ll get the rest of them to one place for a meeting, and then you can work your magic.”

“I have no magic.”

“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”

I sigh. Before I left Adele, I told her I was willing to do whatever it takes to help her people, the moon dwellers. The time has come for me to keep that promise. “Okay,” I say.