Chapter 12: Cael Kills Someone and Maren Watches

The water had risen three centimeters overnight.

Maren knew this because she had marked the east wall with her thumbnail before she slept — a small crescent in the plaster at the waterline's edge, the kind of mark that would mean nothing to a camera but everything to her arithmetic. When she woke at the first gray shift of light through the broken window, she checked it without getting up. Three centimeters. Slower than the 72nd Games. Faster than she wanted.

Cael was already awake. He was sitting near the door with his back against the wall and his eyes open and he had the quality of someone who had not actually slept, only held still in the dark. She did not comment on this. He did not offer it.