by Margs Murray
He needed honesty, and even though I knew I couldn’t trust him—or anyone — Greer had saved me more times than anyone, and he needed some truth. I turned away because my cheeks were about to go crimson. “This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this and it was on accident. I thought—no, I knew—that hunter would hurt you and it just sort of happened. I couldn’t watch you die. It came out of me from nowhere.”
Greer let out a giant sigh, and when I turned back to him, the worry and stress had dissolved from his face. “Your powers came through, so you could save me?”
“Yes.”
He grinned. “And there was no other time?”
“Well, in that way, but there is something else.”
Greer’s whole body tensed again. He closed his eyes and his voice was icy. “Yes?”
“I don’t even know for sure this is a thing but Claudette, she, um… I think she was trying to...I don’t know the word for it.”
“Can you describe it?”
“See, the first time I met Claudette, I disliked her. So, I hated the idea of having a meal with her. Well, anyway, at dinner she had me take off my sunglasses and like magic, I suddenly thought she was the greatest, sweetest, most amazing person ever, like I had been a fool for not liking her. We were best friends in my mind. And then… I don’t know, she said something I didn’t agree with and suddenly, I snapped out of it.”
“You broke through a fully trained Merric’s enamor?” Greer leaned in a little closer.
Our feet faced each other, an inch apart. “If that’s what it’s called, yes. She was so mad, she wanted to lose me in the Boston attack. I think she hoped someone would kill me, but one of my guards saved me first.”
“That can’t be right. You’re both Merric. Merric won’t hurt Merric. It’s one of the few rules the Merrics follow.”
“I think she wanted to get me hurt.” Then, I explained to Greer how she had pulled me away from the guards and dropped my hand on purpose. “No one in L’Autre Bête believed me either.”
“An untrained Merric shouldn’t be able to do that.”
“It’s a good thing I’m a Wilson.”
“Is there anything else?”
“No. Bollard planned to train me the next day, but I left with you,” I explained. I noticed then how close we were sitting together, and I sat back a little.
Relieved, Greer smiled like the weight of the world was off his back. “You never even learned the trances.”
“No. Bollard wanted me used to the whole princess thing first since, you know, I didn’t even know the royal thing existed.”
Greer smiled and pointed to his side of the tent. I realized he wanted to get in and we switched sides.
“This is the best thing I’ve heard in weeks,” he said, and he crawled under his blanket.
“Can I ask you something, Greer?” When he didn’t respond, I asked. “Since, you know, I was honest with you about things, could you please tell me why you took me? What do the Galvantry want from me?”
I definitely didn’t expect him to answer, so it surprised me when he said, “Some influential people wanted you away from the Merrics. They understand how dangerous you’d be if you stay with the Merrics.”
“What do they want from me? Because you never told me why you rescued me and at this point, it is important for me to know who I’m working with.”
Greer put his hands behind his head. “They want you to not be the worst thing to happen to America since the Merrics first came into power.”
“Is that all they want from me?”
He weighed his thoughts for a moment before finally answering. “No.”
There was the truth. More truth than he had given before.
“I refuse to use my powers, whatever they are, against people. I won’t—”
“That’s not what I meant. I want to spell it out for you. I want to tell you, but I can’t. You need to trust me a little.”
“So, you want me to go blindly into something again? Can’t you understand why I can’t do that?”
Greer turned towards me and went onto his elbow. “Yes, but we don’t have a choice. Can I ask you a question now? The night I came for you, why did you run with me? As soon as you saw me, why? You couldn’t even see my face.”
“Look, if this is to tell me off for trusting you too easily—”
Greer shook his head. “It’s not. I’m curious.”
Seeing what had happened to Lothaire was the truth, and my hand went to my necklace. I could tell him then and be totally honest and then gain an ally and not be so alone, but Greer had been right. I trusted too easily, and I wouldn’t anymore. I climbed down into my sleeping bag and went on my elbow to face him. “I don’t know. I knew I’d be better with you.”
He searched my face for a moment before he responded. “I could’ve wanted you dead, killed you before anyone knew anything about it.”
I thought for a second. “I don’t know, Greer. I knew nothing about you, but I guessed I’d rather take a chance with you than with Bollard and Claudette. I think it was worth the risk.” As I said it, Greer pulled his sleeping bag closer to his chin. “Did I make the right choice?” I asked and fought to see his eyes once more through the dark. He was so handsome. I blushed again and quickly turned away before he noticed.
“You didn’t make the easy choice.”
“Then I guess it was right. Easy choices are hardly ever the right ones; at least that is what my mom always says.”
Chapter 28
Bad Clouds
When I woke in the morning, the sun was already in the sky. I shot out of my sleeping bag. “Is the bird still attacking?” I could think of no other reason for us to still be in bed at that late hour.
Greer laughed and lightly placed his hand on my shoulder. “No, he moved on. We don’t have to leave right away. In fact, we’re probably safer waiting a few hours.”
“What?” I wiped the sleep from my eyes.
“If we leave now, we’ll be in Haverhill by eight. Much too early.” Greer looked dressed, but that was deceptive. I had noticed a few days ago that Greer had multiple pairs of the same black shirt and pants in his bag. He wore them at all times, with his black hat/mask in his pocket, always ready just in case. “We want to hit Haverhill at noon, so we don’t have to wait around.”
“Haverhill? What, is that like a town or something?” After the Diddles, I was more than happy to avoid all other people.
“Abandoned. We’re meeting with the Galvantry there.”
This was news to me. I guess I should have assumed we’d eventually have to join them, but I wasn’t expecting today to be the day. I thought about what this hiking would be like with more people. Other people talking to Greer, telling me to put on my sunglasses, other people making phone calls. Other people sleeping in our tent. That would be so crowded.
“Do we have to?” I asked.
“You need extra protection if you are to get up north.”
“North? We’re going north?” I swore we’d gone southeast yesterday.
He handed me a Cloverfield bar. The wrapper said cherry, but that was a lie. The flavor, as always, was chalk. I was getting awful sick of the bars. I unwrapped it and took a bite while Greer read the newspaper on his cubox.
“Congratulations; you’re no longer the headline. You’ve traded with the bottom half,” Greer said. I read the new headline that projected between us: Prince Tristan to Take French Throne. “They finally called off the search for King Lothaire.”
“They thought he was alive?” The news of Lothaire’s plane crash broke a few nights after I disappeared. The guilt of his death hung heavy around my neck. I moved the pendant around the chain out of habit. I didn’t want to think about it.
“Yes, they’d hoped. You met him, didn’t you?”
I nodded. Find the necklace, find the words. If I had never gone looking for it, the king would most surely still be alive.
“In fact, you are the last per
son to have met with him before his accident,” Greer said, eyeing me from under his eyebrows.
What did he know? Could he know what I saw? I hadn’t mentioned it to him. No one knew what I saw that night or how I got the necklace. Greer knew something about this, but nope. I couldn’t trust him or anyone with this one.
Greer continued. “You met him for lunch, if I’m not mistaken.”
He was referring to the lunch in Boston.
“Yes. I met him with Claudette.” I didn’t want to talk about it, so I rummaged through my bag, looking for a way out of this conversation.
“It’s too bad,” Greer said. “A shame and a loss for the world. Yes?”
Great. I didn’t want to talk about this at all. Finally, I found something that would make it impossible for me to speak and it was the coolest product ever: the teeth cleaner aptly named Plaque Be Gone, a mouthwash that doubled as toothpaste and wash. One swish and my breath stayed minty until bed.
“He was a rather good king as far as kings go.”
Ignoring Greer, I took a swig of the Plaque Be Gone and left the tent. The grass was still wet with dew, and light filtered through the trees. I spit out the Be Gone.
Greer came out with my sunglasses. “You should keep these on.”
I put them on, and Greer gave me a million-dollar smile. He was beautiful. Are men supposed to be beautiful? His face was striking. How many times had this guy saved my life? I’d lost count. I swore every time he saved me he got better looking. Today he was oozing in the ‘I keep saving your life’ afterglow.
I turned away. The fact that I found Greer attractive aggravated me. I wished I didn’t. It only made the situation more irritating.
Greer finished packing up his odds and ends. I sat back on my feet. I realized then that I was holding my necklace again; I didn’t even remember picking it up.
“You should put that necklace away,” Greer said.
“Why? You don’t think the Galvantry would steal it, do you?”
“It belonged to a dead man and yes, they would take it away.” So he knew this was Lothaire’s necklace.
The blood drained out of my face. “How did you know?”
Greer didn’t answer but from the way he peered up at me from under his eyebrows, I knew he knew something more about Lothaire and me besides the meeting at the restaurant. From the looks of him, it was a lot more. “What do you know? You’re not telling me something.”
“Oh, we are both keeping things from each other.” He pointed down the path. “After you.”
Up a small hill, we stopped for a quick rest. Greer had a phone call to make, so he left me on a fallen log. He assured me that no cassowaries, penguins, or owls were nearby.
When he left, I looked down the hill to the full forest and river below. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t a town or city in sight. I strained my eyes, hoping to see something in the distance. I saw nothing but trees and water.
Greer came back over.
“Are you ready?”
“Yeah. I thought you said we were close.”
“We are. Haverhill is right there.” He pointed down the hill from us.
“Where?” I saw nothing.
“You’ll see it soon enough.”
The road to Haverhill was nothing more than random chunks of asphalt strung together with long grasses.
We were practically in the middle of town before I saw it. Among the overgrown forest were homes, or at least what I assumed were once homes. It was hard to tell with the missing roofs, half-collapsed walls, and rusted-out cars. Haverhill wasn’t a place anymore. It was rubble. Whoever abandoned Haverhill had left a long time ago. Most of the walls were ready to break apart at any moment, and the barriers that remained had watermarks from repeated flooding.
“What happened here? Well, besides flooding.”
“Time, mainly. This happens when people abandon towns.”
Greer lead and I followed him. The town was even creepier when we reached the middle of the ruins. Broken benches, garbage cans, and asphalt littered the forest.
Besides the town being rock piles and junk, I got a hard-to-shake eerie feeling being there. This place was dark, even in daylight. It was darker than the other parts of the woods, darker than a town should ever be. It was a quarter of noon, but the lighting made it more like after dusk. Something wasn’t right. The hairs on my arms stood up, and I stopped right in my tracks. I didn’t want to go any further.
And that was how I saw it, a blue light like mist, floating at the side of the road. While Greer walked on ahead, I went to investigate it. It was pretty, soft looking in a strange way. I raised my hand, not thinking. I wanted to see what it felt like. Was it like the clouds in my room in Boston or was this different? Warm? Cool? Wet or dry? Was it like that shadow I couldn’t catch?
My fingers were a centimeter from the mist when Greer’s hand clasped mine. “What part of touch nothing don’t you get?” His voice was harsh.
I turned to him. His mouth was a hard line, and this time the annoyed expression didn’t vanish.
“What is it?”
“It’s a trap. You touch it and you will be stuck here until the person who set this comes back to free you. If you have to ask what something is, don’t touch it because most of this world wants you dead.” His grip was harder than necessary. “Stop trusting everything.”
I wasn’t in danger of touching it anymore and I twisted my hand free from his.
We continued through town, passing a large lake as we made our way to the outskirts and to our destination, a mini version of a castle. It looked in perfect condition and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have guessed that people were still living there.
“So this is where we are meeting the Galvantry?” The great haters of all things Merric had chosen a castle as their meeting location. I could not have come up with a more unlikely place in my head.
“Yes.” Greer opened the front door.
Dust clung to the dark wood wainscoting and trim, but otherwise, the large room appeared as it must have before the town moved away. The door creaked shut behind me. I wanted to open it and run outside. The hairs on my neck stood straight up like I was being watched. “Does anyone live here?”
“No, the people abandoned it at the same time as the town,” Greer said.
I compared the shape of the town to the condition of this building, and there was something unexplained. Someone had to be living in this place. The upkeep was too maintained. “Why is this building in such good shape then? It had to have been a target for vandals or squatters or something.”
The first step creaked under the weight of Greer’s foot. His hand unsettled dust from the banister. “Old Man Mychak owned this. All these years later, no one wants in this place. Come on.”
“Why are we meeting the Galvantry upstairs? Isn’t there a place somewhere down here where we can talk?”
“No one cleaned out Mychak’s tech. I need to make a call.”
“A call? Like the calls you were making in the woods? All day?”
Greer turned around. “I have a life outside of rescuing you, a life that needs checking in on.”
Well, then. I leaned against the front door, still unmoved. I did not want to go in there. “So the Galvantry, do they know about this life?”
“My identity is kept secret. Only a select few know who I am.”
“Then how do you know you need to check into that life?”
Greer took another step. “Come on.”
My foot made the same creak on the step. “Hardly fair, you asking me to go into this creepy place without an explanation.”
“Fair is a child’s game made up by parents to keep their children from fighting, not real life.”
“So, you have siblings?” I said half-jokingly.
“Yes.” This admission was the most information I had on Greer.
“Ah, mystery solved. You’re the youngest child.” From the way he turned around in shock, I had guessed co
rrectly.
“Come on, this way.” He opened the door at the top of the stairs, not going in but waiting like a gentleman for me to go through. As I climbed the stairs, another uneasy feeling crept up on me. I didn’t want to go in there. “After you.”
I backed down a step. “I’ll wait outside for you.”
“Oh, no, not after you nearly trapped yourself this morning.” Greer stepped down and took my hand.
I didn’t expect him to hold my hand. It was so sudden and unexpected. I felt a blush rise in my neck and fill my cheeks. Instantly, I was warmer, safer, like whatever made me apprehensive was nothing as long as he held my hand.
“Come on,” he said.
His hand was warm. I followed him up the stairs. He waited by an open door. So much a gentleman. I took one step inside, and he let go of my hand and promptly shut and locked the door, leaving me alone in the strange room.
I pounded on the door. “Greer!”
“I’ll be back.”
“That’s not the point,” I said, but he was already gone.
So that was why he had been so nice. So much for believing things were improving. What a jerk! Oh, yuck. Who does that? It humiliated me. He could have just asked me to wait for him. He didn’t have to trick me. Why hold my hand though? The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. He must have thought I had a crush on him. That explained why he thought holding my hand would trick me into this room. Well, he had completely misread me. I did not have a crush on that jerk.
And I was locked away again.
Oh, I wanted to throw up or die. I wanted to die right there in the room because I was beyond embarrassed. Because I didn’t have a crush on Greer. No. Not at all. He assumed too much. I should have dropped his hand the second he took mine. That would have shown the smug jerk, because guess what? I didn’t like him.
Was he good-looking? Annoyingly so. Did he save me all the time? Yes, but so what?
I listened at the door, but I didn’t hear him.
I jiggled the handle one last time, knowing it was hopeless.
Defeated in so many ways, I sat on the bed, and the silky green comforter sent dust into the air. Out the window, a large gray cloud loomed in the sky. It would rain soon and judging by the size, it would be a severe storm. I slipped my sunglasses into my front pocket.
