The fear settles, the way it does when he says the true thing plainly, and I lean into him, and he wraps his arms around me, and for a moment we just sit there in the dark, healed, or healing.
"Okay," I say into his chest. "Okay. I believe you. And I'm glad you told her the truth. That was brave. Stupid, maybe, if you read her wrong, but brave." I pull back to look at him. "Do you trust her? Really? Because our whole plan is about to depend on her, and if you're wrong about her, if Cass sent her knowing exactly how you'd react, knowing you'd trust the trapped-girl act and hand her everything, then we've just given our enemy our entire strategy."
Evan is quiet, and I can see he's already turned this over, already sat with the risk.
"I don't fully trust her," he says honestly. "I can't. I
