Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details about an upcoming book. |
Crossed is the second book in the Matched trilogy. It follows Ky and Cassia as they escape the Society into the Carving, a barren canyon. They have the help of four new characters along the way: Vick, Eli, Indie, and Hunter.
- Eli
- Vick Roberts
- Hunter
- Indie Holt
Plot[]
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Summary[]
When Crossed starts, Ky, with help from Vick, is putting an Aberration's body into a river under orders from an Official. Since leaving the city, he has been waiting in a holding camp to be sent to the Outer Provinces to fight the enemy. In reality, the Aberrations are not used as soldiers; instead, they are supposed to be decoy villagers to attract the enemy's attention. Meanwhile, Cassia has been working in the Farmlands where her family has been sent, and the entire time that she has been there she has not forgotten about Ky.
Cassia has been working for three months in different camps, but all of them in the Tana Province. Her next assignment will be at Central, the biggest City, and she will be working in one of its sorting centers. While getting cleaned with the rest of the girls in her cabin, Cassia takes out a small pouch of memories, full of little messages from her family and other papers that are falling apart. When she takes out a small scrap of one of the Hundred Paintings, the girls crowd around her because the scrap of art is so rare where they are. Xander apparently gave it to Cassia the day they said goodbye, and it contains the painting Chasm of the Colorado by Thomas Moran. As soon as the girls finish looking at the art, the small paper falls to pieces and Cassia has to incinerate it. Aside from the painting, Cassia still has some other belongings that she keeps hidden: Ky's compass, the blue tablets Xander gave her, and her silver box from the Match Banquet. Since the first two are technically illegal, she buried them in a part of the camp where no one would find them. Along with keeping her possessions hidden, Cassia has to hide her status as a Citizen from the other girls because the others are mostly, if not all, Aberrations like Ky. Later, when messages are given to all the girls, Cassia receives one from her parents and Bram, but she is concerned because Xander has never missed sending her one before. These thoughts are interrupted when an official takes her to the Communication Hall. Thinking that she has to speak to the Official from the City, she is shocked when she sees Xander instead. It turns out that it is now the time period where Matches are allowed to have one-on-one meetings. Since Cassia no longer lives in the city, Xander was able to convince the officials to let him go to her. The two decide to go to the museum, and, since its late in the matching, they don't need to be accompanied by an official. While there, Cassia looks at a map hoping to learn more about how to get to Ky. The official who let them in tells her that the maps are out of date and she will need to ask him any questions she might have for updates. Cassia then remembers Ky saying he got the poem for her by trading something for it, and she makes a similar request to the official she is talking to. She offers up a few lines of the Tennyson poem, but the official says it is not worth a map of the Outer Provinces, especially since she does not have the original. She ends up giving up something else, and the Archivist gives her the map in return. When Xander and Cassia have to separate once again, she learns that he is still angry she gave him up for Ky, but she shows that she did not give up everything. When she opens her bag, Ky's compass is gone, but Xander's blue pills are still there. Back with Ky, he and Vick have been moved to the Outer Provinces with other men to be used as decoys in the war. The two have survived the longest, and they bury every single person that dies on their side. One day they get word that their group is moving and they are taken to an air ship holding replacements. Ky guesses that the Society must be running out of bodies, which is why these replacements are so young. When the airship lands, Ky realizes that he is home when he sees The Carving, a landmark from his childhood. Later, Ky tells Vick that he knows the area and they can make a run for it by heading through the canyons. When he states that Eli, a new replacement that reminds him of Bram, is coming with them, Vick is surprised because he doesn't think Eli could survive. When Cassia is back in her room and everyone is sleeping, she takes out the piece of paper the Archivist gives to her, but is surprised to see that it is not a map. Instead, the paper holds the story of the Pilot, and Cassia realizes that it means there is a rebellion somewhere. For a moment, she thinks about telling the rest of the girls, especially Indie, but she changes her mind and decides to destroy the evidence instead. After ripping it up, she washes it down the sink, but Indie hears the water running and finds her but not the paper. The next morning, officers come to retrieve random girls, and, when they stop in Cassia's, they ask for Indie and another girl. Indie, however, is not in her bunk, and Cassia sees her outside planning to run. When Cassia goes to hide her belongings, she notices that her silver box from the Banquet is missing. As the officers come to pick up the girls, Cassia slips into line undetected to take Indie's place, but then an officer comes with Indie who got caught. They arrive in the Outer Provinces and Cassia is nervous because they are about to be searched. Luckily, Indie offers to hide what she has if Cassia will do the same for her, and Cassia agrees but is surprised when she doesn't even notice the other girl slipping her hands into her pockets to take and return her possessions. Back with Ky and Vick, the latter has just received a communications from an officer that they are getting more replacements: girls. Moments later, there is an attack, and Ky and Vick take the opportunity to run away with Eli into the canyons. When Cassia arrives, she learns from one of the boys that Ky had run away during a battle. The three of them (Cassia, Indie, and the boy) make a plan to run away to the canyons together to try and find Ky. That night, the three of them sneak away and start running from the village. After a long run that leaves them all exhausted, they arrive at the canyons only for the boy to say that he is going another way. When Cassia gives him the pills that she promised, he is surprised to see them and refuses to take them. When he pushes Cassia away, the tablets fall to the ground and he changes his mind to take two pills before running away. When Ky and the others are in the canyons, he is surprised to see that there are no Anomalies yet. Another thing he notes is that their coats are still keeping them warm, and he wonders why the Society gave them something made of such good quality. When he cuts his open, he finds out exactly why: they are being tracked and studied through a tiny chip placed within the coat. The warming mechanism makes them want to keep the coats on, and then the chip records their pulse, hydration levels, and the moment they die. Because death is the only thing the Society hasn't conquered, they want to learn more about it. Ky gets rid of the chip in his and Vick's coat, but Eli decides to keep his. Indie and Cassia have been searching the canyon for Ky for almost an entire day and they have run out of rations, but then Cassia sees a plant that seems non-poisonous so they eat it. While resting, Indie reveals that her mother had made a boat out of an old tree and was discovered by the Officials when she tried running away. She lied to them and said she was glad they got her before she got too far, but then later told Indie and her father that she had meant to run away. Indie's mother was apparently going to search for the Rebellion, but she always meant to come back for her family. The Society found out and made Indie and her father take red tablets, but Indie was immune. Cassia then learns that Indie also has heard of the Pilot, and they decide to look for the Rising while searching for Ky. They then make a plan to scale the canyon walls the next day when it is light out. While the boys are going through the canyon, Ky reveals that the original Anomalies chose to be Anomalies when the Society first came into existence. The ones who live in the canyon call themselves farmers, but they are hostile against the Society. Ky believes that they will not be hurt because they do not look like Citizens or Officials. He also wants to trade information in exchange for maps and books from the Anomalies because he wants to try and reach one of the Border Provinces. His goal is to send a message to Cassia so she knows where he is, but he doesn't know that she was relocated after he was taken away. Ky and the other two finally reach the Anomaly township, but it is completely empty. After carving Cassia's name into a tree, Ky heads into a house and finds evidence that the people who lived there had left in a hurry. As they look around, Eli realizes that any maps must be hidden higher up where the water cannot reach, and they all head to the caves above the small settlement. They stock up on supplies after finding some food and then they enter a room full of papers where Vick finds a box of maps. After deciding to spend the night, Ky sees a flash of light below the caves and the group quickly leaves. not long after, Vick asks Ky about the poem he recites when they bury bodies, and they start talking about the Pilot after they reach another cave filled with paintings and carvings. After realizing that neither knows anything substantial about the rebellion, they go to sleep. Indie and Cassia start climbing as soon as there is enough light with Indie carrying most of Cassia's things since the latter is not used to climbing. As soon as they reach the top, they find a battlefield with blackened bodies, and Indie guesses that they have been around for maybe a week. Deciding it is too dangerous to stay around, they run away. Later, Cassia starts to feel sick and decides to take a blue tablet, but when she looks at the pack afterwards, she sees a piece of paper that contains a piece of Xander's Matching information. She realizes that Xander had given her pieces of himself that she had chosen to ignore for Ky, and she pops open all the tablet sections to read more. After, Cassia wanders around the canyon while Indie sleeps and she eventually stumbles upon the boy that had ran with them, but he had died while trying to enter a hidden door. Indie soon finds her and they decide to keep going, but Ky and the others have just made it out of the Carving. They stop by a stream to fish and examine what each took from the caves. Vick had a few pamphlets, Ky had some poetry, and Eli had two books. While Eli sleeps, Vick reveals part of background and how he ended up in the Outer Provinces. It turns out that Cassia and Indie are not too far behind the other group, and they happen upon the settlement where Cassia sees her name carved on the tree. When Indie says they should rest and stock up, Cassia replies that they don't need to because they have water and the blue tablets. Indie is immediately concerned when she finds out Cassia took a tablet because the blue ones are poisonous. Later, Cassia ignores Indie's advice and takes another tablet. The next morning, Ky wakes up to the sound of machines and he realizes that there was an attack. When he runs down to the stream, he finds Vick lying dead on the ground. When he looks into the stream, he sees small spheres leaking toxins into the lake and he starts to take them out with Eli's help. After burying Vick, the two start to walk away but then Eli sees someone in the distance, and, when Ky turns around, he knows it is Cassia when he sees her point to the sky. Ky runs to her and they kiss before introducing their traveling companions. When Indie says that Cassia is sick, Ky decides that they will spend the night there and starts a fire. THe next day, Ky takes the microchip out of Cassia's coat, but Indie decides to keep hers like Eli did. They then decide to head back towards the settlement to try and salvage more books. After spending a night in the caves, the group heads down to the town and they see a small light in one of the houses again. It turns out to be a man who is carrying a dead girl. While burying her, he sings and it begins to rain again at the same time. When he puts her in the hole, he starts to mark her arms with something blue, and Ky decides that it is time to confront him. It turns out the man, Hunter, was burying his daughter, Sarah, but he agrees to meet with them the next day. The group then heads back to sleep, but Ky stays awake and Indie goes to talk to him. He recognizes that she is a survivor like him, but it turns out that she wants to know what Xander's secret is. Apparently one of the slips of paper Xander slipped to Cassia says that he has a secret to tell his Match when they meet again. Ky has no idea what the secret is and the two leave it at that, but later Ky reveals that he does know but does not want to tell Cassia. The next day, Hunter tells them he is headed to another canyon to a place called the Cavern. Cassia realizes that he must be talking about the hidden door where the other boy had died trying to get in. Apparently there is something in the cave that he thinks Cassia will be able to explain since she has been in the Society the longest. Once they head through a tunnel towards the Cavern, they reach a large cave filled with skulls and tubes. Cassia realizes that it is a preservation center containing tissue samples. When they look closer at the tubes, the two dates stamped them are too close together to be a birth date and a death date. It turns out that the Society takes samples from its Citizens even before they die for when they are brought back to life later--after the Society conquers death. Angry, Hunter breaks a tube and nothing happens, but a few seconds later a little red light starts to flash on top of the case he had opened. The group decides to run for it, but Hunter is still breaking the tubes. Ky tries to get him to leave with them, but, when he refuses, Ky gives him a rock to make the breaking easier. When the group gets back to the settlement, they decide to try and sort through the old papers to see if there is anything else they can take with them. Ky then reveals to Cassia that his uncle Patrick had taught him to sort. After he had been given his assignment as a food disposer, Patrick had traded an old writing to an Archivist for an old black scribe. He then taught Ky secretly even though he would never be a sorter. Ky later traded the scribe for the poem that he gave to Cassia. After hours of sorting, they decide to rest and Indie and Ky slip away. When he finds her, he sees her holding a miniport and he quickly knocks it out of her hand. It turns out that she had stole Cassia's microcard and had taken the miniport from the leader before they ran away. The real thing Indie wants to show Ky is a map that shows where the Rising is, and it turns out that she wants him to lead them there because she thinks that he is the Pilot. Part of Ky wants to like Indie because she is exactly like him, but he does not want to lose Cassia. As he hesitates to answer whether or not Cassia would choose him if she knew Xander's secret, Indie realizes what the secret is: Xander is part of the Rising. Ky remembers when Xander asked him if he had joined the rebellion and how surprised the latter had been when he had said no. After the memory ends, he tells Indie that she would not be happy after finding the rebellion and then burns the map. Back at the cave, Cassia is surprised to see that Hunter has made his way back to them. It turns out that he had wanted to leave with the other Anomalies, but he could not because Sarah was dying. He tells her that he can lead her to the rebellion, but they see that the map is missing and Cassia realizes that Indie is gone. When they run to the light in one of the houses, they see Ky burning the map. Cassia manages to save most of the map but feels betrayed that Ky would burn it without telling her. She realizes that Ky knows Xander's secret, but he says that it is not his secret to tell, just like how Xander did not tell Cassia Ky's secret about being an Aberration. As they start fighting over how both of them had taken away the other's right to choose, Ky finally reveals that he will never join the Rising, even for her. While Ky and Hunter are rigging the cave with explosive so that it looks like a landslide has blocked it, Indie reveals to Cassia that she stole her minicard and returns it to her so she can see Xander's information. When Cassia starts playing the card, she realizes that Indie has fallen in love with Xander and then she realizes that she herself loves both Xander and Ky. When the others leave, Cassia is tempted to take a red tablet that she finds in her bag, but then her Grandfather's request to never take a tablet echoes in her head and she changes her mind. When the group gathers again, Ky has brought a boat from the cave, but it can only fit two. Eli pulls Ky aside and reveals that he had taken a tube from the Cavern and he gives it to the latter who then puts it in his pocket. Ky then goes back up to trigger the explosions and the group runs into a small cave with the boat. While in the cave waiting for the rain to stop, Hunter tells his story about how he went to find the Rising once but came back because Catherine, his wife, could not leave. Catherine's mother Anna was the leader of the Anomalies and Catherine was next in line to be leader, but then she died giving birth to Sarah. After everyone goes to sleep, Ky is still awake and he decides to paint. He thinks about all the things he could have told Cassia and how he needs to tell her the truth even though he doesn't want to admit it to himself. The next day, the group heads toward the stream and they finally have to separate. Only two can go in the boat, and the others have to follow the stream to the Rising on foot. Ky tells Cassia to sort them, and she decides that Eli and Indie will go in the boat. Eli decides that he wants to cross the plain with Hunter instead and they start running together away from the others. When Indie asks what Ky plans on doing, he finally decides that he will go with Indie and Cassia to find the Rising. When they go to kiss each other, Cassia pulls back and reveals that she had taken her grandfather's tissue sample from the cave. Ky then reveals that Eli had done the same, but he had taken Vick's sample. Cassia then asks that he tell her something about himself, and he finally reveals that he never tried to carry his parents away after they died. He tells her that he saw their bodies and ran away, but she holds him and comforts him instead of being disgusted like he thought she would be. Indie and Cassia then leave on the boat while Ky heads down the stream on foot. They nearly get caught by a plane when on the river but they hide the boat and themselves by some bushes before continuing on. At the end of the stream, they reach a lake instead of the ocean and a boat spots them. Indie tells Cassia to raise her hands so that they see they are unarmed, and when someone asks them who they are looking for Indie doesn't hesitate to respond that they are looking for the Rising. It turns out that they are correct in their guess and the people on the boat take them to their camp to the rest of the Rising. The two girls get clean and then have to meet with Officers that ask them questions about themselves. She is honest and says that she is a Citizen, and then she explains that she found out about the Rising through a poem and came to find them with Indie and Ky. Cassia is then told that they will access her Society data to find out where to put her and she is placed in a little room to wait. When the door opens, the Officer tells her that she is being placed in the Society to serve the Rising. Meanwhile, Ky has also reached the Rising's camp and has to go through the same interrogation. At the end, he is told that he is assigned to be an air-ship pilot and will be sent to the Camas Province to train. He then finds Indie who tells him that Cassia was sent back to the Society to Central where Xander is. Indie does not know where her assignment will be but she lets him know that Cassia did not want to leave without seeing him and that she said she loves him. After Ky leaves Indie, he sorts through the people in the camp until he finds someone who fits what he needs: a former Archivist. He tells the man that he has old papers hidden near the camp and that he needs him to get them to Cassia in Central. In return, the Archivist can pick a paper from the pile for himself. Before Ky leaves, he receives a message that Cassia made it to Central safely and that the papers would get sent to her soon. |
Memorable Quotes[]
- Good-byes are like this. You can't always mark them well at the moment of separation--no matter how deep they cut. - p. 335 (Ky Markham)
Trivia[]
- The cover color of this book is ,blue which represents the blue tablet.
- Of the tablets that everyone receives, the blue tablet is the first you recieve, at age 10.
- The blue tablet is said to give you nutrients if you have water for a few days, but really is just a trigger for the Cerulean virus which is revealed in Reached.