Limping away with Felix nearby in case I trip over the gravel, I make my way to the RV I last saw him in when we first arrived at the rest stop, my irritation growing. 

"Are you okay, Cass?" Felix asks once we're out of earshot of our sister. 

"Peachy," I grunt, nearly slipping on some rocks. 

"You know it was an accident, right?" 

"It wasn't her fault," I iterate. 

"Then why-"

"It was mine for giving it to her and trusting she could do the one thing I asked her to." 

"That's not fair." 

"Isn't it?" I glare at my brother. "I ask her to do one thing, Felix. One. When the Widows attacked the camp on our first day here, I gave her the locket to hold on to then, too, and everything was fine. If anything happens to me, Octavia is the next oldest between us and should be responsible enough to finish this thing in my stead." 

"Why are you talking like you're expecting something to happen to you?" Felix snaps back. "You're our sister just as much as we're your siblings."

"Because I'm the oldest, Felix! It's my job to look after you two, and if I die, it's Octavia's job to look after you!"

"We're not kids anymore, Cass. We can pull our own weight, too." 

I shake my head, biting my tongue from saying something I couldn't take back. "If she wants to be treated like an adult, she has to start acting like one," I say slowly. "I've tried to teach her how to hunt, and she can't bring herself to shoot a rabbit because 'it's too cute.' That's fine because that's why I hunt for us. I've tried to teach her how to track, and she gets bored and distracted. That's fine because that's what I'm for. I put her in charge of navigation, and she loses the map."

"Is that why you're being so hard on her?" 

"I'm being hard on her because this isn't a fucking game. This is real life. Every day we're out here could be our last. We got lucky that when I ran into Dani and Josh in the woods, they weren't Widows or someone worse. I have her in charge of setting up camp because that's all I can trust her to do without losing something important." 

"Maybe if you stop acting like she's a kid and start trusting her with responsibilities, she'll see that you don't hate her so much." 

I stop, turning to face my brother, appalled. "I don't hate Octavia." 

"She doesn't see it that way," Felix presses. "I understand that you're just trying to keep us safe and get this mission over with so we can see Mom, but Octavia thinks that you don't trust her to keep herself alive." 

"Did she tell you that?" 

"That doesn't matter, Cass," Felix rolls his eyes. "I know you want to keep us out of harm's way, but it's like you said; this is the real world, and we're one wrong move from ending our life subscription. If Octavia thinks that you can't trust her to do something like hold on to the locket, how is she supposed to trust in herself to get something done?" 

"I-"

"How is she supposed to believe that we can finish this without one of us dying before we can even see the finish line?" 

His words hit hard enough that I take a stumble back, staring as tears form in the corners of his eyes. 

"How, Cass? How can we see ourselves finishing this insane race when you keep talking like you're going to drop dead at any given moment?" 

"Felix, I..." 

"You aren't the only one shouldering this responsibility, thanks to Uncle Tommy, Cass," Felix huffs, wiping his eyes. "He was our uncle, too." 

My crutch drops as I stumble forward to pull my brother into a hug, burying my face in his shirt before I start crying. "I know... I'm... I'm sorry, Felix..."

"We didn't even get to say goodbye to him," Felix sniffles, wiping his eyes again as he hugs me back. "He gave us this responsibility, not just you. You aren't the only one suffering, Cass." 

I hug my brother tighter as the clues of his silence click into place. All this time, I've been so wrapped up in trying to be a strong older sibling in order to protect them that I never realized how putting myself in harm's way for them was affecting them. I was so focused on the end goal that I never stopped to consider how they felt about everything. 

"I'm sorry..." 

Felix pulls back with a severe look on his face. "It's not just me you have to apologize to." 

"I know, I'll... I'll apologize to Tavia too once we get the locket back from Leon, okay? We'll take turns with who has to hold it from now on." 

Felix nods, his face softening at my promise as he wipes away his tears. Once the two of us are sure that we don't look like we've just had a touching heart-to-heart, we manage to track down Leon under one of the pavilions, talking with a group of scouts, and almost immediately, I spot the familiar locket around his neck. 

"Leon," I greet, interrupting their meeting. "Mind if I talk to you for a moment?" 

Leon and his scouts pause, glancing at one another before looking curiously at me, though Leon has a slight smile on his face. 

"Alone," I iterate, glancing at his scouts. 

Leon dismisses them, and I dismiss my brother, taking a steadying breath as I think of a good excuse - or any believable excuse - to get the locket back. 

"Cassandra," Leon greets, gesturing for me to sit down at the park bench he and his scouts were gathered around. "I was hoping to talk to you." 

"What a coincidence," I deadpan, leaning against the table and propping my crutches beside me. "I believe you have something of mine, and I would like it back, please." 

He casts a knowing look my way, taking off the locket and running his fingers across its smooth surface. "Ah, yes, your sister mentioned that it was important to you, so when I saw that it had been misplaced during our evacuation, I figured I'd hold on to it for you until you got back." 

"Yeah, she mentioned that," I note, watching his expression as he examines the locket with vague interest. "Well, I'm back, and I would like to have the locket back." 

"You know, you should be much more careful with a trinket like this," Leon continues. "It looks rather scuffed up already, like someone tried to pry it open." 

I gulp, the memories of my siblings and I doing everything in our power to open the cursed thing to no avail. I'm sure since our acquisition of the stupid little thing, it's been shot, burnt, dropped, and crushed over a dozen times. "Well, it's a family heirloom," I lie. "Been in our family for god knows how long, and I'd like it back." 

His gaze is calculating as he examines my face, looking for the blatant lie that I hope my tired voice and flat face cover. Eventually, however, he relents, dangling the locket in front of me by the chain. I snatch it from him before he can pull it back, and he smiles innocently. 

"It must mean a lot to you," Leon says, retracting his hand, "that you'd give it to your sister as you go off to do such an important mission must mean you trust her a lot with it." 

My chest tightens at his words, both with guilt and dread, but I nod. "Thank you," I say, my voice tight. "It is important to us, and I do trust her." 

"I see," he muses, leaning against the picnic table opposite of me and watching me as though he knows something I don't. "Take good care of that little trinket, then, Cassandra. The world is a lot more dangerous than it was before; I'd hate to see you lose something so important." 

"Yeah," I mutter, putting the locket on and tucking it under my shirt. "I will." 

Hurrying without falling, I grab my crutches and hobble away back towards where my siblings are sitting on the picnic tables, Octavia stiffening as I approach. 

"Did you get it?" Octavia asks, hopeful. 

Without answering her, I glance around as I sit, take out the locket, and pick up a hefty rock, slamming it down on the locket, much to my sibling's surprise. 

"What the Hell, Cass?!" Octavia exclaims. 

Lifting the rock once more, I breathe a sigh of relief when I see that the only damage to the locket's surface is a small scuff from the rock itself. 

"What was that for?" Felix asks, bewildered. 

"Don't worry about it," I breathe, picking up the locket and handing it to Octavia. "Here," I say. "I want you to hold on to it for a while, okay?" 

"Wha - me? But, I'm the reason Leon had it in the first place..." 

"It's okay, Tavia," I soothe, smiling, though I'm sure they can see the stress on my face as clear as day. "It was just an accident. Just try to keep up with it a little more, okay? I'm sorry I snapped at you like that, what I said was wrong. I do trust you, and I do love you. And I do want you to hold on to the locket for the time being. However," I glare back at Leon, catching him watching us with a smirk. "Once the swelling in my ankle goes down, we're getting the Hell away from here." 

"Why?" Felix asks. "What did Leon say?" 

"Not a damn thing, but he said all I needed to hear." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Octavia asks, putting the locket on and tucking it into her shirt as she and Felix follow my gaze toward Leon, who now talks quietly with Dani and Josh under the pavilion.

"It means that Leon knows something about the locket, and something tells me he's not watching out for us out of the goodness of his heart."