Chapter 15: Daya Tells Kai the Truth About the Bracelet

The fire was small because Maren had decided it should be small, and nobody argued with Maren about fire anymore.

They'd been at the new camp for two days—a sheltered hollow on the north face of the ridge, pine-needled floor, natural windbreak on three sides, a sightline to the east that let you see the camera towers without being directly in their arc. Maren had selected it the same way she selected everything: without drama, without explanation, in a way that became obviously correct only after the fact. Kai had carried the logic of it around in his head for a while before he stopped trying to find the flaw and just accepted that she was better at this particular thing than he would ever be.

Daya had named it Camp Adequate, which Maren had not responded to and Kai had laughed at longer than it deserved.