Betrayals in Spring by Trisha Leigh Page A

the details. At the time I thought we’d have another chance to talk to her, another opportunity to ask questions and let it all sink in, but we didn’t.
    And when Lucas ran in to the Observatory Pod with Pax a few weeks ago, I believed he and I would never have to be apart again.
    I’m starting to realize that nothing is ever for sure, that a tomorrow will arrive or that it will look the way I expect it to. It’s best to live the current day for all it’s worth. In that regard, I regret not letting Lucas kiss me until my lips fell off the other evening no matter how unsure he seems or how scared the potential of no future makes me.
    A glance Pax’s way finds him staring at me, an indecipherable expression hanging on his olive complexion. I clear my throat, trailing my finger across the strange names and plucking bits of memories from my mind. “This is where Cadi said Lucas’s father met his mom—France. I can’t remember what she said about Deshi.”
    “What about my mom? Do you remember what Cadi said about where she met Vant?” Pax asks, fingers curling around the edges of the coffee table.
    I frown, squinting at the map. More of Cadi’s explanation returns from the recesses of my mind and helps me narrow down my search. If the Others sent the Elements to four quadrants, Deshi and Pax’s parents must be from opposite sides, far away from America and France.
    A moment later, the word Brazil sticks out and I poke my finger onto the paper. “There. Brazil, that’s what she said.”
    My heart climbs into my throat as I watch him stare at the place where his mother lived, where he might have grown up if things were different. The map tells us nothing about those separate places we might have grown up—what they smell like, if they’re hot or cold, whether mountains or endless plains stretch across the landscape. Cadi said people only live in America now. I wonder what’s left of all those other places, or if they’re simply untouched and abandoned.
    If we fail, no one will ever see them again. I want Pax to see Brazil, but for now, that I made him smile with that bit of knowledge will have to do.
    He looks up and sees me watching him, and what I’ve come to recognize as desire floods his bright eyes. Instead of immediately shoving it away, Pax’s way of dealing with it last winter, it wells up and overflows, drowning me in its strength. I can’t breathe; Pax’s chest rises and falls too rapidly in the quiet room. My feelings for Lucas don’t make me immune to a handsome boy staring at me like that.
    I jerk my gaze away. “I’m, um, going to see if I can find any more maps that might tell us where we are now.”
    Pax tugs on his hair with one hand and rubs Wolf’s belly, a quiet resignation falling around him that hurts my heart. “Okay. Too bad every map doesn’t come with a magic ‘You Are Here’ button, huh?”
    The humor falls flat, smothered by the unreleased tension crowding the space between us, and I escape as far as possible. In the back of the cabin is the den-type room Pax explored before, but he did too good of a job and I find nothing else. In a spare bedroom, though, I find a contraption on the desk that pulls my attention. It’s black and smooth, with buttons on the top and either end of the front covered with mesh. The back has a spot for batteries, but it’s empty.
    I push the buttons to see if anything will happen, and a door pops up on the top. Inside is a flat, silver disc with little lines, just like the one in Lucas’s note holder and like the one with Johnny Cash on the cover that Pax found earlier.
    “Cool!” I grab the thing by its handle and drag it back into the living room, where Pax is still poring over the wrinkled maps on the coffee table.
    He looks up when I pad into the room, my step quicker than when I left. Relief cools my heated cheeks and settles my stomach when nothing flickers in his eyes except interest at the item in my hand. “What’s that?”
    “I