“I was going to Georgetown. But after the paras, and the war… I needed someplace quiet. Greenbriar seemed perfect, when I found it. Mom would’ve approved. But this…” she trails off and is quiet for a few minutes.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is Ian would’ve approved. Of me helping. That’s why I’m here.”
She looks at me, her brown eyes almost begging for understanding, and I can’t help my smile. “Thanks.”
Shelly shrugs, and smiles back. “Us girls gotta stick together.”
*
We cross the New River before sunset, in what was left of a town called Narrows. It was a cute town, once. I remember visiting a few times, before. But it sits outside a gap in the mountains, and was sacrificed to strategy and war early on. It’s not the first time this place has seen fighting, either. It changed hands a few times back during the American Civil War. Then, Narrows survived occupation by two armies. There isn’t much left of it now. Makes it hard for me to look at, and see how close this war’s destruction has been to Greenbriar.
Right outside of town, there are abandoned farms nestled in the mountains. While Narrows itself doesn’t have a single whole building left standing, there are still a few in the outlying farms. Brigid points us to a large barn that looks like it’s still intact, and we head there for the night.
The barn turns out to be in pretty good shape. I dump my stuff inside, but even after having walked almost ten miles today, I’m restless. Not that I want to do more walking, but being inside around everyone is too much for me all of a sudden. Brigid is busy, Shelly and Thom are arguing about something. I need to get out. So I head back outside, looking for a place to watch the sunset, and hoping that will relax me.
I can feel Axel’s stare follow me out.
The broken fence line has a few intact places that make for a good seat. I watch, fingers beating out a quiet, half-remembered rhythm from my head, but otherwise surrounded by silence as the sun slips behind the trees. Sunlight filters through branches that are still full in our Indian summer. It’s beautiful, this country I’ve grown up in, green and flourishing even in the midst of war.
“Would you like a better view?”
I’ve been so caught up in the sunset that I didn’t hear him come up behind me. But then, it’s Axel, so even if I’d been trying, I might not have heard him. I turn to look, and he’s leaning next to me on a fence rail, head on his folded arms, wings cocked behind him.
“What do you mean?”
He nods forward. “The sunset. Would you like a better view?”
I want to ask him why he’s ignored me all day, until now. I’d like to ask about last night, and his transformation, and whatever it was that didn’t happen. But I just nod.
“Hop down.”
My feet only touch the ground for a moment. His stone arms sweep me up, wings snap open, and then with a push we’re airborne.
My eyes can’t help but trace the rough lines of his neck, like my hands can’t help but hold onto him.
My heart beats a handful of times before his wings beat twice.
He sets me down on the roof of the barn. It’s the gabled kind, so the slope is gentle, but I still sit in a rush. Axel is slower to follow.
“You’re right. Much better view,” I say, suddenly nervous. From here, the sun is just beginning to slide behind the mountains, turning the sky and everything around us a riot of orange and yellow and green. “My dad and I used to sit on our porch and watch the sunset in the summer.”
He doesn’t say anything, so I go back to watching the sun. It’s better than trying to figure out why he bothered to bring me up here. We watch together, bound in silence, as the sun sinks and the sky darkens, until one by one the stars come out. Below us, the occasional sound drifts up from our group.
“I’m sorry I left you yesterday. When the soldiers showed up.”
His words startle me even more than the quiet sound of them. His black eyes stare into me when I turn.
“I didn’t want them taking any special interest in you, and if I’d fought them off, they would’ve. It was better to let them take you, and wait.”
Trying to wrap my head around what he’s saying is like trying to stretch cold taffy. But I finally get it to work with me. “I...it’s fine, Axel. You came back.”
He looks at me, eyes as unreadable as ever. “Still. I’m sorry. That you thought I abandoned you.”
I shrug. “And it’s still fine. Why are you stone?”
I’m immediately embarrassed, but he smiles, and then looks up at the darkening sky. “Moon hasn’t risen yet. Should be up in a minute or two.”
“So…it’s the moonlight.”
He shrugs. “Yes, but we don’t change if the sun is still up.”
“What about the New Moon?”
“Moon’s still there. So yes, then too.”
I’m still kind of startled we’re actually talking about this. “What’s it like?” Oh God, I can’t believe I asked him that.
“Well, the rock cracks and falls off, and I spend a good ten minutes bleeding on the floor and screaming in agony, and then I have flesh, and I’m good.”
It’s not until he smiles that I realize he’s joking. The look I give him must be priceless, because he starts laughing so hard I’m afraid he might roll off the roof. Serve him right, I think, shoving at him with both hands, but all I succeed in doing is nearly pushing myself off the roof. That, and making him laugh harder. At least he has the decency to reach out and keep me from falling.
“I’m sorry, Kendry. I couldn’t help it.”
“Jerk.”
He grins, and I do too.
“I don’t really know how to describe it. Have you ever rolled in the sand? Like at the beach?”
“Gritty and rough?”
“Hm, not really. Kind of intensely… I don’t know. Different, for a few seconds. And then normal again.”
He shrugs, and then gasps, because the moon chooses that moment to peek over the horizon. Rock turns to skin across him like a fiery line of embers, until it encompasses him, and my gargoyle friend is stone no more. His face reveals a moment of pain and pleasure so intense, and then it’s gone.
“Just like that,” I say, unable to keep the awe out of my voice.
“Just like that,” he whispers. His eyes are still unfathomable.
My fingers rub the fabric of his black shirt, and I’m unsure when I reached out to touch it. “Your clothes even change.”
He smiles again. “They do. A stone shirt would be really uncomfortable.”
I refuse to rise to the bait. “How do you manage a shirt, anyway? What with the wings and all.”
He leans in so fast I don’t have a chance to move. “Magic, that’s how.” And then his shirt is gone, and my fingers are touching his bare chest instead. I pull them away quickly.
“I guess it would have to be.”
Axel laughs, leaning back again. “Since my wings don’t really come off, yes.”
My eyes find his, and I can’t not ask. “Can I…?” I hesitate, then gesture at his wings.
Deep black eyes stare into mine, and then he shrugs, and turns, pulling his wings tight so he doesn’t knock me off the rooftop. The muscles of his back ripple as he moves. His wings grow between spine and shoulder blade, but they look so natural on him, pale skin blending into the darker, leathery skin of the wing. He shudders ever so slightly at my touch, but I can’t stop, can’t keep from touching him.
At first it’s lightly, with my fingertips, but soon I’m rubbing the strong, hard muscles of his shoulders and wings with both hands, caught up in the marvel of what he is, and how beautiful it is. How beautiful he is. The muscle moves beneath my hands, his soft skin trembling down his spine, across his shoulder blade, all along the base of his magnificent wings. Dragon wings. He is soft and hard and so, so beautiful.
It isn’t until my hand drifts down his back and towards his side that I realize he’s been holding his breath. He sucks it
in with a sharp intake, his hand grabbing mine. In the moment he turns, I catch his eyes. They overflow with longing and need and a desire so deep it burns me, because I can feel it, in his stare and in his hand clenched on mine, and in the heaving breaths he’s trying so hard to control. It lights me on fire.
And then it’s gone. Like a switch has been flipped. His eyes as unreadable as ever, black depths that match the usual black t-shirt that he’s wearing again. But I can’t shake that moment, or the heat that’s pooled in my core.
“You should get some sleep, Kendry.” He looks away, and his hand releases mine. “We’ve got a long day tomorrow.”
I stare, unable to form words. My mind is still stuck in that moment, frozen in desire like a deer in headlights. So it’s hard to let him hold me, when he flies me back down, and my murmured goodnights are unintelligible. Because really, all I want is to knock him over and jump his bones.
But as I’m walking away, my thoughts still spinning like a tornado, I swear I hear him say something. It sounds like, “He’d kill me.”
*
We’re up with the sun, and hiking again. Breakfast is eaten on the go, leftovers from last night’s foraging, courtesy of Thom. We cut through Pearisburg, and along as much of the roads as we can, since the terrain is difficult through most of southwestern Virginia. It’s a long day, made longer by too much time to think, too much time to worry about Mom. Or to remember the feel of Axel’s skin beneath my hands. Too much time to remember the look in his eyes and the catch in his breath, and the heat that surged through me.
Especially since he’s ignoring me again.
Except when he’s staring at me.
And the longer it goes on this way, the more I start overanalyzing every interaction we’ve had. Looks, touches. Things he’s said. I can’t stop feel rejected at the way he shut down last night, but even the memory of that look he gave me weakens my knees.
Shelly walks with me like she did yesterday, and I’m happy she doesn’t mind silence. But I do notice that her eyes occasionally flick from the route ahead, to the tawny and grey fur weaving between the trees around us.
She blushes when she sees I’ve noticed.
“Shelly…” She looks back up at me. “Are you sweet on Thom?”
She laughs, and it’s the most welcome sound I’ve heard in days. And then she shakes her head. “Not Thom, no.” Shelly glances into the woods ahead of us again, then back at me. “We… He and I, we share a reason for being on this trip.”
I stare at her for a minute, feeling like a selfish idiot. “Oh my God. His friend Caleb?”
Shelly nods shyly, and smiles at me.
We walk along in silence for a bit, before curiosity gets the better of me again. “So…how long have you and Caleb…?”
Shelly laughs and blushes. “We weren’t really. Together, I mean. We’ve been friends since I came to Greenbriar. Caleb was one of the first people to talk to me. But the two of us were hanging out when the soldiers came. Not doing anything, I swear,” she rushes to add, and I smile. “He was studying engineering in school when the Para Uprising happened. I was studying architecture. We just kind of hit it off. We’ve been getting together for months, talking about designs for all kinds of things. For when the war is over. Somebody has to think ahead.”
I wrap my arm around her waist. She’s got to be the most genuine person I’ve ever met.
“Anyway, when they shoved us in the school gym like that, and we didn’t know what would happen, we kind of…” she fades out with a shrug and a smile.
I laugh. “Kissing in the corner, huh?”
She blushes redder than the bandana she’s wearing, but her grin gets even wider, before it falls again.
“We’ll get him back, Shelly.”
She looks up and away, and like she’s trying to hide her tears. “I hope so.”
I pull her to a stop and give her a tight hug. “We will.” There’s a fierce determination in my voice that surprises me. “We’ll get them all back.” Because we have to.
She holds onto me, and I hold onto her, both of us terrified that I’m wrong, because I can’t really know that. And there’s far too good a chance that I am wrong, and we won’t ever see any of them again.
I can’t think about that. I can’t.
I sniff and pull away, needing to change the subject to something, anything else. “Caleb’s a good guy, you know. He and Thom always were.”
Shelly takes the bait on my deflection like a pro. “You grew up with them, didn’t you?”
I laugh. “Kind of. I mean, I did, but they were a few years ahead of me. Everybody knew them, though. They were the nice jocks, you know?”
“Nice jocks? We didn’t have those in my school. Not on the football team, anyway.”
“Yeah, well, small town. They were hilarious, too, and inseparable. Good as brothers. Always playing practical jokes on everyone. Like the time they filled all the cheerleaders’ lockers with fake snakes, and then stole the real ones from science lab so we’d all think they’d gotten out.”
“Oh my God!” she laughs, covering her mouth.
“Yeah, it was good,” I add with a grin. “But it was always harmless. And they were equal-opportunity pranksters.”
Shelly shakes her head. “That’s too funny.”
“Tell me about it. Things got a lot duller when they graduated.”
“I bet.” Shelly laughs. “What else did they do?”
I give her a conspiratorial look. “Well, there was this one time…”
*
We march all day, barely stopping for a breath. By sundown, the plant is in sight. And so are the soldiers.
Too many soldiers.
My good mood from earlier vanishes with the sunlight.
We stand across the river, staring at the overgrown proving grounds that surround the munitions plant. Whatever plan we might’ve had, it’s gone now.
“It looks like every human army on the east coast has converged on Radford.” Thom’s voice is laughing, but his face isn’t. His face is worried.
Shelly tilts her head. “Well, that does make blowing the place up a little difficult.”
“What are they all doing here?” And how am I supposed to get Mom out of that mess? How am I supposed to even find her?
“We’re still trying to find that out, Kendry.” Illyana’s voice comes a second before she does, her pale white light spilling over us. “What we know right now is that this plant used to manufacture medium and large arms. Artillery caliber and such. But it also did propellants and explosives. Big explosives. And they have it running again, which is why they took all the humans.”
Son of a bitch!
“Do you know what they’re working on? How long they’ve had the machinery up and running?” Brigid’s eyes burn bright. “What exactly are they making, and what is their goal?”
The ghost shrugs. “They appear to have been here for at least a few weeks. Long enough to clean the machines and get them working again. The plant had chemical capabilities, so they could be producing anything from tank ammunition to chemical grenades. We just don’t know yet.”
“I don’t like the sounds of that,” Thom says. I have to agree with him. “Have we got a way in?”
Illyana raises a ghostly eyebrow and waves her hand across the river. “There are nearly twenty thousand humans down there, most of them with guns. Unless you’ve learned how to stop bullets or become a ghost on demand, I haven’t got a clue how you can get past them.”
I sit down hard, all dreams of rescuing Mom going up in smoke. And the truth is, we have bigger problems, because whatever these guys are planning, it can’t be good for anyone.
“Kendry and I might be able to sneak in.”
Shelly’s voice is hesitant, but my head flies up at her suggestion.
Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?
“Absolutely not.” Axel’s reply is as hard as his skin in the quickly fading daylight.
“It c
ould work,” says Thom. “I could go with them.”
“No, you can’t.” Illyana isn’t as stern as Axel, but she’s certain. “They have some sort of perimeter alarm system rigged. I don’t know the details, but they’re paranoid. You won’t get in. Not without a serious distraction, and then you’d be better off all heading in and just getting it done.”
My eyes flicker to Brigid and Axel, who have been whispering. “Illyana, we need more information.”
“Yes. I’ll be back when I have it. You should stay put.”
They nod while I walk off, screaming inside.
*
Waiting feels interminable. It’s clear Brigid and Axel are worried about something, but they’re not sharing. Shelly goes with Thom to forage. I can tell she’s worried about Caleb. I’m stuck waiting, with nothing to do but stare at the trees and the river and the impossible. Not that I had a lot to do back in Greenbriar. No school anymore, no normal life. But at least there was work to keep me busy. Tending the garden, hunting, scavenging for useable materials. Failing that, I could read. Here, I get to cool my heels and think things I shouldn’t.
I could do it. I could sneak in.
“Don’t even think about it, Kendry.”
Damn his silent, sneaking self. “What, is mind reading one of your tricks, now?”
“It’s not mind reading when it’s written all over your face.”
Damn my easy-to-read face. “I don’t like waiting, Axel. I need to find her.”
His voice moves up to my side, and I can barely make him out in the darkness. “There’s bound to be some kind of alarm system, and if you sneak in there on your own, I can almost guarantee you’ll set it off. And they won’t care if you’re human. You know that. So the only thing you’ll accomplish is warning them we’re here.”
And damn his logic! “So what am I supposed to do? Twiddle my thumbs?”
“Wait and be patient.”
“For what? A miracle?” I know I shouldn’t lash out at him. I don’t want to. But I feel so helpless and so frustrated that I can’t help the bitterness and the sarcasm. Mom is so close, and I’m stuck here. I’m anxious and worried, and any target will do, and he’s making himself the perfect one.
ParaWars Uprising Page 4
