Chapter 170

Malachi

She found the message at noon, on the ridge above the trading post.

She went up every day at noon now. It had been her idea. Teague drove her down as far as the turn, and she climbed the last half mile on foot, through the trees, to a flat gray rock at the top where Liam had said the signal was, and stood on it with the phone held up in her hand like someone looking for rain. Most days there was nothing. Some days there was a message from Abby, short and careful, and she would read it three times and put the phone away and not say anything on the drive back.

That day I went with her. I don’t know why. Something in the air that morning. Ash had been restless since before dawn, pacing, lifting his head toward the north.

I stood at the bottom of the rock and watched her face while the phone found its two bars, and buzzed in her hand, and buzzed again.

She put it to her ear.

I watched her listen. I watched the color go out of her face,