Page 127 of Juniper Unraveling

I pause my reading for a moment at a flash of all those skulls lined in Rhys’s room, before continuing on.

The journal lists measurements and terminology that I vaguely recall from my time spent in the lab with Papa. And when I reach the end of the notes, chicken scratch at the bottom of the page seizes my attention.

Anti-prion protein PrP ab623418

Isotype: IgG

Clonality: Polyclonal

The number is recognizable—the one tattooed on the back of Six’s head.

“He did find a cure,” I whisper as I stare down at the page.

Below the notes is a quote from the bible: So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just—Matthew 13:49.

“You’re Wren.” The familiar voice peels me from my reading, and I lift my gaze to Red, standing over me with a cigarette dangling from her fingertips. “That’s your name.”

“It is.”

Her chin dips toward her chest, lips pressed into a hard line, and she shakes her head. “I honestly thought he made you up. A side effect of all the … shit he went through. But here you are.”

I don’t say anything to her, but instead close the cover of the journal and tug my knees close to my chest.

“Rhys doesn’t talk about Calico, except for the girl who saved his life.” Her cheeks cave as she sucks the smoke into her mouth, before blowing it off to the side. Back in Szolen, Jessie sometimes smoked tobacco rolled in her own homemade hemp paper. The faint skunky scent on the air tells me they probably make their cigarettes the same way out here.

“I didn’t save his life.”

“Stop with the modesty. I’ve seen his scars. Heard his nightmares. We’ve all seen his moments of rage and anger. If you hadn’t found him, he wouldn’t be here, simple as that. He’d be part of that gray cloud of smoke that haunts the sky.” She swipes at her nose and sets her hand on her hip, flicking the ash. “I’m sorry for the punch. I just …. Rhys may be a scary bastard, but he’s protected all of us. Me, Tripp, Trinity.”

I’m guessing Trinity is one of the handful children running around the cavern. “Your daughter?”

She nods. “Legion raided our hive a few years back. Killed my little boy and girl in front of me.” Double-blinking and shifting her jaw is a poor attempt to fend off the tears welling in her eyes. “Left me for dead. That’s when the Ragers came, feeding off the bodies left behind. I managed to corner myself in the utility closet of an abandoned clinic. They were beating and rattling at the door, trying to get in. And then, after one of the longest nights of my life, the beating and rattling stopped, and the door opened to Rhys standing there. The Ragers wouldn’t come near him.” She looks out over the desert and back to me. “I’m not one to keep another woman in chains, but he told me not to let you leave. He specifically ordered me to watch you. And I figured … there had to be something about you. Something important ‘cause he ain’t never asked me to do that before.” She drops the cigarette to the ground and grinds her boot into it. “You could’ve run, but you didn’t. Thanks for what you did back there.”

“It’s okay. Leanna.”

“Lea.”

“Lea,” I echo, resting my elbows atop my bent knees. “Rigs said he has blackouts?”

“That’s what we call them. It’s when his eyes are open, but he ain’t there. Something takes over, and he just …” She shakes her head, brows pinched to a frown. “He’s not Rhys anymore. Those are the times I wonder if I’d be strong enough to kill him myself.”

“What happens in the blackouts?”

Her eyes level on me, with a grim darkness that sets my teeth on edge. “Ever see a man flayed alive?”

Swallowing a harsh gulp, I shake my head.

“I have.” She blinks hard and rolls her shoulders. “Rhys didn’t so much as flinch at the screams. And that’s how I knew something evil was inside of him.”

“So, Rigs brought me here as some kind of distraction for him?”

“I guess. I dunno.” She shakes her head, toeing a small hole in the dirt with her boot. “I don’t know what distracts a man like that. If we didn’t chain him, poor bastard would probably slice his own skin off.”

“Has he ever killed a woman?”

Lea shakes her head. “Not since I’ve been here. Damn near every woman here has offered herself to him. In these times, that’s quite a fortune falling at your feet.” A chuckle escapes her seconds before her lips tighten, and a small part of me wants to ask if she’s ever desired him that way, but I don’t. “A man who can walk among Ragers, even if he’s a little crazy and a whole lot scarred, is a man you respect. And that respect has made him a catch for any female out here on her own.” Tipping her head, she toys with a red bandana tied to her belt loop. “I think he must’ve been waiting for you, though.”

“What makes you say that?”