The Dark and Hollow Places - Carrie Ryan [37]
The tension between them almost crackles. They’re squared off, facing each other, and I brace myself.
“The Recruiters have her,” I tell Elias.
He stares at me a moment as if he doesn’t understand and then shoves a hand in his hair and wraps the other behind his neck. Such a painfully familiar gesture that my chest burns. He paces back toward the shadows of the room.
I follow, hovering behind him. “It happened yesterday.” I look back at Catcher for confirmation. After being knocked out and spending so much time in the darkness of the tunnels, I’m still confused about how much time has passed.
“The day before,” Catcher corrects me.
“I was on the bridge and saw it happen. They were both coming into the City and the dogs smelled his infection. The Recruiters had him, but she distracted them long enough for him to get away and they took her.”
Elias faces the wall at the back of the flat, his forehead pressed against it. I’m just about to lay my fingers on his shoulder—anything to try to comfort him—when he lashes out, swinging at the wall so hard his fist crashes through it.
Jolted, I shout his name and reach for his hand. Blood already trickles over his knuckles and smears along the cracked plaster. I’ve never seen Elias violent before, not like that. I’ve seen him fight Unconsecrated and fight to protect me but never violence just for the sake of it.
Something cold tightens inside me as I realize how much a person can change in three years.
“Elias.” I say his name the way I would to a wounded animal, trying to soothe. He looks up at me, the pain in his eyes deep. “We’ll find her,” I tell him, because I don’t know what else to say to make it better.
He takes a step toward me and then I’m in his arms, his hands pulling me tightly to him as if we can erase the time and distance of the past. “I missed you, Annah,” he says, his voice muffled against my hair.
I tilt my face into the crook of his neck. He is everything familiar and yet I can tell how our bodies have changed and grown. How we don’t fit quite like we used to.
“I missed you so much,” he adds, and all I can do is nod, because if I say anything my voice will crack and he’ll know I’m barely able to control the emotions building up in me.
Catcher clears his throat. He’s standing by the window looking out into the narrow alley between our building and the row over. “We should figure out what the next step is, because that Palisade wall won’t hold back the Mudo for long.”
I pull away from Elias, feeling suddenly out of place. The narrow room seems small and cramped with two large men in it. Elias looks around, his gaze lingering here and there, making me wonder what memories are playing out in his mind.
“So the Recruiters took Gabry when she crossed into the Neverlands?” he asks, and I nod.
“One of them said she’d be taken to the Sanctuary,” I add.
Elias kicks at the wall, growling with frustration.
“But aren’t you a Recruiter?” I ask him. “Can’t you just demand to see her?”
Elias takes a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t what I expected to happen. It’s just that if we go to the Sanctuary …” He pauses and looks at Catcher. “We’ll be trapped.”
I frown, confused. The Sanctuary is a smaller island out in the river, and because of its size and location it’s safer and easier to protect and defend. The Protectorate used to control it, and it’s where the most important people lived until the Rebellion, when the Recruiters infiltrated and took it over.
Only the most elite members of society have ever been allowed on that island, even now. “What do you mean, trapped?” I ask, the possibility of going someplace safe making my heart pound with hope. “Wouldn’t the Sanctuary be safer than the Dark City? We’d have a better chance there.”
Calmly and evenly, Elias says, “The only way we’d be able to get on that island is if we had something to trade.”
I look back and forth between Catcher and Elias. Something’s going on that I