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gaze. “What I care about,” he said, standing again, “is that you’re honest with me.”
    The fire popped as the fat from the chicken dripped. I noticed that he didn’t answer my question. I narrowed my eyes, the smell of food clouding my ability to think. He stood there, unwavering.
    “Okay,” I said. “Honesty policy.”
    Adam didn’t smile. I bristled at his demeaning glare. “The policy works both ways. You totally care that I’m a girl. Have you ever met a female Firemaker before?”
    His eyes traveled from my feet to the top of my head. “You don’t look like a girl.”
    Again, he didn’t answer my question. I opened my mouth to tell him where to go, but he said, “Look, I’ll just say it. I need you to survive. Together, we might be able to charter a Council. I’m no saint, I’ll admit, but the last thing I want is to go back to Tarpulin.”
    “So that’s why you ran,” I said. “You recognized that sentry. He’s wearing—”
    “The Tarpulin seal, yeah. I know him. That’s Alex’s personal sentry, Felix Gillman. He’s my mentor—and my brother.”

 
    The silence stretched as I struggled to make sense of his words. “Mentor? As in…you were training to be a sentry? Isn’t there an Elemental school in Tarpulin?”
    “Not anymore,” Adam said, his voice flat. “Alex buried the Academy under a mountain a year ago. That’s why I left. All the schools in the southern regions have been destroyed. I’m only alive because Alex doesn’t know I’m Elemental. I’d been on the sentry track for twelve years.”
    My thoughts went straight to Cat and Isaiah. If the school in Tarpulin was buried, where had they been for the past year? Were they all right?
    “All the schools in the Southern region?” I asked.
    “Yup. I’ve been hopping from school to school, managing to escape before the flood or the earthquake. Crylon was the last school in the whole Union—and now it’s burned.”
    “I didn’t do it,” I said automatically.
    “I know. Felix did. How do you think he got here so fast? All the way from Tarpulin?”
    I didn’t know how far Tarpulin was, but I kept that to myself. “But he’s not Elemental.”
    “He can strike a match.”
    “But why?”
    He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “You don’t know much about Alex, do you?”
    Anger burned through my veins. And why did he keep calling the Supremist by his first name? Talk about disrespectful.
    “I didn’t get to attend Firemaker lessons. In case you haven’t figured it out, no one knew I was Elemental either. But I know who Supremist Pederson is. Everyone in the United Territories is afraid of him. He’s quick to punish the littlest offense.”
    “He’s also a girl,” Adam said, staring at me fully now.
    I couldn’t get enough air. My heart squeezed, squeezed. “Wh—What?”
    “Alex is a woman.” Adam enunciated each word carefully. “And she possesses all four Elements.”
    I stared at him as he peeled the blackened skin off the chicken. All four Elements? No one could control all four Elements—they couldn’t be learned, and Jarvis said they couldn’t be taken. “No way.”
    “Way, man…uh, I mean….” He stuffed some burnt chicken in his mouth so he wouldn’t have to finish that sentence.
    “I don’t believe you.” I couldn’t believe him. I mean, had she pretended to be a man her whole blazing life? Would I have to do that?
    “You can believe whatever you want. It’s the truth. I served her for six months. And girls have some…telling parts.” He passed me some meat, and the silence settled thick and heavy as we ate. But even ash tasted better with protein.
    “So if you know the Supreme Elemental is a woman, how come I didn’t know?”
    “You’re only told what your Councilman wants you to know.” He scanned my shorn hair. “Besides, she wears her hair like you and has a specially made vest to…cover herself. If you saw her in Crylon, she’d look like a man.”
    My fire