Dodging through the trees and leaping over fallen logs and scattered stones, it quickly becomes evident that at least a dozen Ferals are on our tail. While it means the others will be able to get away, I didn't think through the escape plan for us. 

Dani shoots a Feral that gets too close for comfort and I fire at another one just in our path, though it's not enough to thin out the crowd that seems to multiply the longer we run, and the wounds the Banshee inflicted on my arm and leg are beginning to catch up with me.

We break through the clearing where the hunting cabin still lies dormant, the hole in the frozen pond I had fallen in barely beginning to freeze back over. Busting through the front door, I slam it shut behind us as Dani grabs the coat rack next to the door and pulls it down, blocking it from opening.

"I'll get the back door," she pants. "Cover the windows!"

Nodding, I quickly dart toward the front window of the cabin as Dani starts to shove the couch toward the back door, blocking it off. Grabbing the bookshelf next to the nearest window, I slowly drag it until it covers most of the glass, though a loud bang followed by a crack makes me jump as a Feral had face-planted directly into the pane.

I start to work on the next window as the cacophony of screams and indignant roars grow closer, but as I finish moving the second bookshelf, the window behind the first one breaks, and soon after, so does the one I'm at.

"Get upstairs!" Dani demands, shooting a Feral that manages to push its way through the broken window and around the bookshelf. I run for the stairs with Dani behind me, along with three other Ferals who manage to get in behind her. 

I pause at the top and fire an arrow into the throat of the one closest to her as she makes it to the top landing behind me and grabs the heavy bookshelf on the top and pulls. The wood creaks and groans in protest as I quickly help Dani pull the bookshelf onto its side and let it fall down the stairs, squashing the Feral's under it and caving the old wooden stairs in from the middle, blocking their way up and our way down.

As the other windows break behind the bookshelves and Ferals flood into the cabin to find the quarry they had chased in here Dani and I scramble away from the edge of the broken stairs, panting hard as we collapse on the ground at the foot of the bed.

"Well," I pant, glancing over at her. "At least we're out of reach."

"Yeah," she returns, sweeping her hair out of her face as she stares over the balcony edge at the dozen or so heads that mill about downstairs. "But we're trapped up here with only a window as a way out, and we have no idea if the others are okay, and you're bleeding again."

As if on cue, my arm aches as a sharp pain shoots up to my shoulder, and I glance down at the bloody sleeve of my bomber. "Yeah," I sigh, holding my arm. "We're in quite a pickle again, huh?"

Dani leans forward toward the stairs as a loud thud and an angry screech sounds below us as a Feral attempts to jump the gap to get to us, but to no avail. She quickly sits back again, scanning the loft for anything useful. Besides the bed, an old chest sits at the foot of it behind us, a desk to the side with a busted lamp, and a window covered by moth-eaten drapes.

Sitting up, I open the chest to dig inside, where stacks of linen, winter coats, and an old hunting rifle with a handful of rounds lay inside. I hand the gun to Dani, who inspects it with scrutiny, as I dig out winter jackets. They're a little too big on my shoulders, and the sleeves are a touch too long, but they seem to fit Dani just fine.

"At least it won't be the cold that kills us," she mutters, zipping it up.

"Yeah, well, we're not dying here," I tell her as I start to rip up some of the linens to make makeshift bandages. "As long as we stay quiet and out of sight for a while, they should lose interest and wander off."

Dani helps me wash out the cuts on my arm with a bottle of water, eyeing me skeptically. "And how long do you think that'll take?"

I shrug, hiding a wince of pain. "A few hours, maybe?"

She sighs as she wraps my arm, then gestures to my leg where the Banshee had grabbed me. "Let me see," she says.

"I'm fine-"

"Cass."

I blink at her, complying as I roll up my pant leg to reveal a nasty bruise wrapped around my calf from where it had grabbed. Dani hisses sympathetically, wincing.

"Well, it didn't break skin here," she notes, carefully rolling my pant leg down again as we sit in silence, the only sounds being the disgruntled noises of the Ferals below us.

As if the situation wasn't tense enough as it is, being trapped in a cabin full of Ferals, I realize that I'm trapped here Dani, who I had been actively avoiding for a week straight until now.

I must be cursed.

I tuck my chin to my chest and pull my knees up to hide my face, hugging them close as I attempt to think of something, anything to say to break the silence, but nothing comes out and I feel my shoulders tense.

"I'm sorry," Dani mutters, her voice catching me off guard as she breaks the silence for me. Carefully, I look up at her, most of my face still hidden by my knees. Her eyes flicker over to me as she sits cross-legged, but she quickly looks away, looking guilty as she picks at her hands in her lap, her head hung.

"What are you sorry for?" I venture, morbidly curious.

She sighs, wiping her mouth. "Please don't make me say it..."

I can't help the dry chuckle that escapes my mouth as I shake my head. "What, is my sister that bad of a kisser?"

It had been meant to tease her, but Dani winces at the remark, looking away from me again. "Please," she says. "Let me explain." Her eyes flick back to meet mine briefly before she takes a deep breath. "I didn't want that to happen," she rubs the back of her neck, once again picking at her hands. "When you left to get her water, she tried to get up to help, but then..." she wiped her mouth again. "She just fell. Well, she stumbled over the couch, then fell on me."

The scoff leaves my mouth before I can stop it. "That doesn't really make me feel better," I note. "It just reinforces the fact that my sister is a dumbass."

"I know," she sighs. "I know. When she fell on me, she just... wrapped herself around me before I could stop her, and then..." Again, she wipes her mouth as though she's trying to rid herself of a foul taste. "I never wanted that to happen, Cass. Please, believe me when I say that I did not, and do not, want to kiss your sister."

The way she looks at me, imploring, begging for me to believe her, breaks my heart. I know that Dani never meant for it to happen. Logically, I know that Dani has not expressed any romantic interest in Octavia, despite how often Octavia had chased her. Octavia was the one who kissed Dani, not the other way around, but the imagery still makes my heart ache.

"Cass..?" She leans into my vision, looking exhausted and stressed beyond belief, and it's hard not to be now.

Eventually, I sigh, my hand inching towards hers until they touch, and she tenses. "I'm not mad," I eventually say.

"Could have fooled me."

"I'm really not."

"So then... why?"

I swallow hard, realizing that I had dug myself into a hole with no escape. "It's just..." Struggling to get the words right, they end up spilling from my mouth in a tidal wave. "Tavia can be so frustrating, you know? When she wants something - or someone - bad enough, she never considers how her actions affect the people around her, and she just does whatever she wants." 

I pinch the bridge of my nose, fuming just at the thought. "I can't hardly trust her to do anything anymore because the moment she gets any sort of responsibility, she throws it away for some little fantasy world she's trying to live in." It takes every ounce of willpower I have to keep my voice from rising. "I love her, I really do, but she can be so inconsiderate sometimes, and she just does whatever she wants to, regardless of what I say. Sometimes I love her so much, I wanna hold her head under water until all the little bubbles stop popping."

Dani watches me throughout my rant, quiet and attentive, and when I finish, out of breath, she nudges my leg with her foot, her pinky slowly overlapping mine. "Well," she says eventually. "If it makes you feel any better, she really does suck at kissing."

I nearly snort out in laughter, and we both chuckle, the tenseness of the situation slowly evaporating. "I've heard a lot of that," I tell her. "Mostly from her hook-ups throughout college."

"So," she says slowly as I adjust my hand to gently hold hers. "Are we good?"

I sigh, leaning my head against her shoulder. "Yeah," I say. "We're good."

She tentatively leans her head against mine in return. "Good."