Cas nodded solemnly when Iris said she wasn’t really sure if their plan would work or not. It wasn’t the most encouraging response she could have given him, but she was right. The most they could do was hope that Ethan would take the bait and abandon his post by the gate to look for her. Anything beyond that was out of their control. Her next words caught him by surprise though.

As she confided in him that Maisie had given them her entire life’s savings, his eyes widened with shock. Apparently her friend had been even more generous than he’d thought. [color=#b97703]“Are you serious?”[/color] he gawked at her in disbelief. [color=#b97703]“Why would she do that? You’ll be coming back soon, and she doesn’t even know me…”[/color] He trailed off, furrowing his brows in a disconcerted manner. Even though Maisie had decided to volunteer the money of her own free will, he still felt guilty for taking it from her, especially when she obviously needed it more than he did. Knowing that the credits in Iris’s backpack were everything the other woman had owned, he was suddenly much more aware of their value. They would have to be careful about how they spent the money, so they wouldn’t waste even a single one.

[color=#b97703]“If I can find a way to do it, I’ll pay her back for everything and then some,”[/color] he promised Iris. It would be difficult to do, since he didn’t have any of Maisie’s banking information—if she even had an account open at a bank—but he was sure he could come up with a way to send money to her if he dug around a little. At the very least, he could try to figure out her address to mail an envelope to her by drone. A few thousand credits wouldn’t even scratch the surface of the Maydestone family fortune, so he intended to reimburse her for far more than the amount of money in Iris’s bag. After all, he owed Maisie for plenty more than just the cash she’d given them.

Keeping pace with Iris, Cas noticed her slow down when she rounded the corner before the gate. Her change in behavior raised a red flag in his mind, and he tensed, slowing down as well just before he peered around the side of the building to see what had caught her attention. At first, he saw nothing, but then he realized that it was the ‘nothing’ that had made her stop. There were no guards at the gate.

Assuming that meant Maisie’s text trick had worked, relief washed over him, and he took a step forward to hurry through the opening. However, Iris’s soft-spoken words made him falter. [color=#b97703]“What?”[/color] he turned to her concernedly. [color=#b97703]“Do you think something’s wrong?”[/color] Suddenly apprehensive about walking blindly into the open, he waited for her to make sure they weren’t heading straight for a trap before he followed her into the next district. Whatever it was that had made her anxious, it seemed to him like they were in the clear. At the very least, no one was jumping out of the shadows to stop them from moving on from Tongsen.

As they kept going, he subtly pressed a hand to his stomach, massaging the sore muscles. He had made leaps and bounds of progress in his recovery since the day before, but the worst of his bruises still throbbed off and on. Although it didn’t slow him down, the steady ache was becoming a nuisance the longer they walked. To distract himself from it, he risked lifting his head to look at the buildings around them.

Maisie hadn’t been kidding when she’d said Bel Bicis was in bad shape. [color=#b97703]“Geez,”[/color] he breathed as his eyes traveled over the ruined structures. The closest he’d ever been to a battlefield was the cinematic representations he’d seen in movies. Actually traversing a place that had been bombed and destroyed sent a shiver up his spine. He just hoped they wouldn’t come across any dead bodies, or he might be sick.

[color=#b97703]“How far do we need to go to get out of this place?”[/color] he asked quietly, keeping his voice down just in case there was anyone alive around to overhear.