“Ah, God!”
“Axel…”
He screams, and it breaks my heart. His body trembles, wings straining.
“It burns, Kendry! God, it burns!”
The trees come far too close far too soon. Axel’s gasping now, his breathing hard and labored. My own arm is limp, tucked between us, but its wetness is warm, unlike the rain. All I can think is how much I wish there was something I could do to help him.
Because the trees are no longer down there. They’re right here.
We’re crashing.
*
Cold.
Dark.
Can’t breathe.
Can’t scream.
My arm burns, the rest of me freezes.
I’m falling again.
Not falling. Drowning.
Drowning.
So cold.
I’ve lost Axel.
Axel’s face is so close I can feel his warm breath. His black eyes stare into mine, hungry. Like the night we spent on the roof of some barn outside Narrows, Virginia. The muscles of his jaw clench and unclench, but his eyes don’t waver.
His thumb traces the line of my jaw, and he moves a fraction closer. I can’t breathe, but I do, because I breathe him in. He smells like stone and earth and sky and adventure, musky and strong, and he makes my head spin.
His eyes flicker to my mouth, almost too fast to notice. My heart races.
His hand moves from my jaw back, until his strong fingers are tangled in my hair, pulling at the back of my neck. My hands trace the rough stone of his chest. He pulls me closer, his breath mingling with mine, tips of our noses touching, and all I want is two things. Just two things.
I want him to say my name, the way he did that first day I saw him. Like he’s tasting the word, rolling it around his mouth, on his tongue.
And I want him to kiss me. I want to feel the hardness of his mouth on mine, taste his stony skin. I want to climb into his kiss and never go back, and I can see in his eyes how much he wants it too.
Instead, I wake up.
The first thing I notice is how much I hurt.
The second thing is that I’m lying on top of Axel.
Third, that he’s not moving. But he is breathing. The hole in his shoulder is still there, but it’s not burning or melting like it was before. It still looks awful, though.
After that, everything comes at once.
My still-damp clothes. The cloudy, late afternoon sky. The quiet, unfamiliar woods, and the clearing we’re lying in. The large pond, a few steps away. The small house a few hundred feet away. My own wounded arm, that I still can’t feel. My fiercely pounding head.
And the horse grazing not far from us.
Wait. A horse?
It looks up, like it’s heard my thought.
Kelpie, actually.
Oh, I so don’t need this. “More things in Heaven and Earth, eh Horatio?” I ask with a wince.
The horse—kelpie—snorts, like it’s laughing. The Bard knew a thing or two.
I shake my head, and then wish I hadn’t. “Ugh. What happened?”
You fell out of the sky, and landed in my pond. I pulled you out.
Memory flashes past my eyes, memory of dark and cold and wet and falling. “So that’s what that was.”
Apparently. Judging by your wounds, I take it you and your friend had something to do with last night’s ruckus?
I nod. My arm throbs. “Yes, that was us. We decided someone needed to blow up the old munitions factory. Clearly a mistake, since someone else was using it.”
The kelpie snorts again. Yes, I’d noticed it had been active again. What have they been doing, that an invincible guardian can be injured so badly?
“Guardian? You mean Axel?” I look down at him, so still. I don’t like seeing him this way. It doesn’t seem right. The fingers of my good hand trail along his stone chest, careful not to touch his bad shoulder.
I mean the gargoyle, yes.
“What do you mean, a guardian?” I feel like an idiot, repeating everything the way I am. “I don’t understand.”
Gargoyles are guardians. They guard beings, places, special objects. They do not need to eat, they do not need sleep. They live forever, and are invincible. They are single-minded in their responsibilities. To see one so hurt, this is a dangerous thing. Whatever it is that could do this damage, it could spell the end for all the paras. The kelpie paused, and scratched a little at the ground. I find it very strange that one of his kind guards a human. Tell me, what is your name?
“Kendry,” I say, still trying to process everything he’s said. “Kendry Hartshorn.”
I see. His tone changes at those words, somehow more solemn. I am called Sellik. What may I do to help you, Kendry Hartshorn?
I don’t understand why he wants to help, or the change in his tone. But I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Or gift kelpie. Or whatever. “Is there another house near here, one with a smaller pond?”
Yes. There is one, about a half mile to the northwest. Is that where you were headed?
“I think so. We have friends there, some ghosts, a minotaur named Buc, one of the Tuatha Dé.” I rub my aching head. This conversation is becoming too much. “Brigid. That’s her name. Oh, and a pair of werewolves. And some humans.”
You travel in interesting circles, Kendry Hartshorn.
I give him a wincing smile. “Tell me about it.”
He looks at me, stepping closer to smell at us both. I will bring your friends. I don’t think either of you are in any shape to travel.
No, we’re not, I think, my head growing increasingly fuzzy. “Thank you, Sellik.”
He nods, and turns away. I lay my head back on Axel’s chest. Unconsciousness beckons, and I gladly follow.
*
Warmth is what finally brings me back. The warmth of a fire, and of clean, dry clothes. Instead of Axel’s hard body beneath me, there’s a soft blanket.
Where am I?
I push myself up to look around. Turns out I’m in a house, and the fire is in a fireplace. The room isn’t big, but it’s warm and dry. I also realize my arm, the one that got shot, only hurts a little. Somebody’s cleaned it up, and bandaged it. For that matter, somebody’s cleaned me. I’m too grateful to find it disturbing.
The room is pretty empty, which leaves me with no answers, so I decide to go looking for a few. Turns out I’m upstairs in the house by the pond, the one where we brought the Greenbriar refugees. So, obviously Sellik found the others, and they found us. When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I find that assumption is right, because they’re all there, talking.
Except Axel isn’t. I remember seeing his shoulder, dripping molten in the rain, and I shudder. I hope he’s all right.
“Kendry, hey.”
I turn to see Shelly walking towards me, Caleb at her back. “Hey. What’s going on?”
She hugs me. “I was so worried about you!” I’m too surprised to do anything more than hug her back. “How is your arm? When the kelpie led us back to the two of you, it was all bloody, and you were so pale, and shivering. The way you were draped across Axel, and neither of you moving, we thought you were both dead!”
I rub my arm as she lets me go. “It’s fine, actually. Doesn’t really hurt anymore.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard her say so many words all together before. “Where is Axel?”
She smiles, but it looks more nervous than before. “Um, yeah. Brigid fixed it up for you. She said to leave the poultice on.”
“Shelly…”
She sighs, dropping her eyes to the floor. “Buc’s outside. You’d better go talk to him.”
“Thanks,” I murmur, heading for the door. I’m getting the impression something is going on, and I don’t like it. I feel bad that I blew Shelly off, but when I turn to apologize, she and Caleb are deep in conversation. So I make a mental note to say something later. Outside, it’s dark. I feel like it hasn’t been light in forever. I’m even more worried for Axel, kn
owing he’s flesh now, and not stone. That hole in his shoulder was bad enough in stone. I shudder, thinking about it, terrified that’s what they’re not telling me.
Buc’s on the porch, knife in hand, carving something. I’ve only known him to do that when he’s annoyed, or has something on his mind.
“Good to see you up and about, Kendry.” His eyes don’t leave the wood in his hands. “How’s that arm?”
I rub it again. Can’t help it. “It’s good. Where’s Axel?”
Silence, except for the sound of a knife on wood.
Bugger. “Buc, what’s going on?”
He sighs. “He’s fine, Kendry. Let him be.”
“Fine? Buc, he had a hole melted in his shoulder! By the same bullet that hit me!”
“Kendry—”
“He was hurt. That kelpie, Sellik, he said gargoyles aren’t supposed to get hurt!”
“They were producing a special ammo, one that hurts paras more. That’s what they hit you and him with.”
“And you say he’s fine?”
Buc sighs again. “He is. He’d just changed. If they’d hit him before, he’d have healed as soon as he changed. Instead, he didn’t heal until sundown. Thank God for small favors, too, because if they’d found out about that little bit of information, we’d be in it even worse.”
A weight I didn’t know I was carrying is gone with his words. “So if he’s okay, what’s with the tight lips and secrecy?”
“Look, Kendry.” He sets his carving aside, “there’s stuff going on here, stuff that’s vital to the paras. Let’s say that he and I don’t agree on what needs to happen, and how much you should know. Because it affects you, too.” He stands up, towering over me, bull eyes staring off into the night. “We had a bit of an argument, you might say. Axel’s off thinking things over.”
My turn to sigh. “I only want to talk to him, Buc.”
He chews on something, still looking into the night, and then drops his head. “He’s probably on top of the house. Boy likes his high places.”
Of course he does. I know that.
I nod. “Thanks.”
“Kendry,” he says as I’m walking away. I turn back. “Go easy on him.”
I nod again, confused, and walk back into the house.
*
Past the room I woke up in is another staircase, leading up. I take it, hoping there’s roof access somewhere there. It’s an older house, so I’m betting it does. And I’m right. The third floor is a full attic, with a catwalk out the far side. The height makes me a little nervous, but I’m rewarded by a dark winged shape hovering above me.
Black eyes find mine.
He doesn’t say anything, just helps me up onto the slanted roof. We sit there for a while, silent, while I try to figure out what I want to say. He stares out into the night.
“Buc said your shoulder is okay.” Lame, Kendry. At least it’s something to say.
He glances at it, then back at the trees. “Yeah, it is. We heal when we change.” His voice is softer, quieter than usual. I’m not sure why the difference.
“I…it was like melted rock, and just…I mean, it burned when it hit me, but it was so much worse for you, I…” I’m babbling, and I know it, so I force my mouth shut.
He turns, and takes my hand, putting it on his shoulder as his shirt does its disappearing trick. “See? Nothing but a scar.”
His hand falls away, but mine doesn’t. The skin of his chest and shoulder is soft and smooth, except for a light pucker where he was hurt. I rub my fingers across it, not believing this was the gaping hole I saw before.
His jaw tightens, and he flinches. My hand freezes. “Does it hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t,” he says, his hand coming up to capture mine again. “Kendry, I—”
“The kelpie, Sellik. He said you were my guardian,” I blurt out. I immediately wish I hadn’t.
He sighs, hand still holding mine. “He’s right.”
“I don’t understand.” I lean in, trying to see his eyes, but he turns away. And then he says the last thing I’d ever expect.
“Your father sent me to look after you.”
My hand tightens in his. “My father’s dead.” I’ve never mentioned it before, and he’s never asked.
His head whips around, and the dark eyes I’ve been looking for find me again. “No, he’s not. Why would you think that?”
I can’t move, and I can’t breathe. “He is. He died years ago. It was a hunting accident.” My hand is clenched so tight, I’d be afraid of breaking his hand if he were still stone.
“Kendry, he’s alive. He didn’t die. I don’t know why they told you that, maybe to protect you, but he’s very much alive.”
I can’t process it. “No.” That’s all my brain can think. “No. He has a grave. We buried him.”
“Kendry, it’s okay—”
“No!”
I push away from him. I can’t take this. Dad wouldn’t do this to me. He wouldn’t leave like that. He wouldn’t pretend to be dead. But I can’t tell Axel any of that, I can only say no, again and again.
Deny.
Deny, deny, deny.
It can’t be true.
“Kendry, stop—”
My world is spinning down around my ears, and I can’t do anything. I just keep pushing, trying to get away from it.
“Kendry!”
I realize too late that I’ve pushed too far. The roof is gone from under me, and there’s only the blackness.
Axel barrels into me, wings spread, and I’m no longer falling. For a fraction of a second, his arms are my world. I’m safe in them, and they are all I want.
Until we land.
“Are you alright?”
I shake my head, trying to shake out his words, and push away again.
“Kendry, wait,” he begs, trying to keep me there. But I can’t stay. I can’t.
“Thank you,” I manage to whisper, even as I stumble away.
I’m glad he doesn’t follow.
Morning finds me as confused as the night before. Sleep was a long time coming, and when I found it, it didn’t last. By sunrise I’m back outside, sitting by the small pond, watching the sun filter through the trees. It’s peaceful, which is nice. I haven’t had much peace since this thing started. It surprises me a little to notice the leaves have started to fall, something I realize partly because I hear Axel’s boots walking through them. I don’t say anything until he sits down next to me.
“He taught me everything, you know. How to hunt, to hike, camp. How to shoot.”
There’s a pause before he answers. “You were close.”
I nod, still looking out across the water. “I worshiped the ground he walked on. He was larger than life. He knew everything, could do anything, and I was such a Daddy’s girl. He and Mom were my world, and when I thought he was dead, I didn’t understand how the world could keep spinning. I don’t…I don’t know how to deal with the idea that he might be alive. Especially now I’ve lost Mom. Again.” My voice breaks at the end, as I realize I really have lost her now.
“I’m sorry, Kendry.”
I wave away his words, but they still hang in the air, like smoke. “It is what it is.” Which is true, but what I’m not saying is that I really want to curl up in his arms and cry. Except, he doesn’t seem to be offering, and I’m too chicken to ask. And with the news that my father is somehow impossibly alive, things somehow feel more awkward than ever between us.
So we sit for a while, watching the sun drift upwards through the trees. It’s quiet, and friendly, and in some ways reminds me of our clearing. Which makes me a little bit braver, again. Brave enough for a few words.
“I miss this.” I miss you, is what I really want to say. I miss our easy friendship.
“Miss what?” he asks.
“This. Sitting in the sun, talking. Or not talking. The clearing, and our lazy mornings. My free time with you, in between carving out a life and avoiding the war. Do you think we’ll ever
get that back again?”
He doesn’t answer, but his silence says a lot, and my little bit of brave runs away. I change the subject to something safer.
“Why do you wear boots? You’re stone, it’s not like you need the protection.”
He looks at me, and I look at his boots. Black Doc Martens, the classic kind. Slightly scuffed. They look good on him. Bad-boy class, like everything else he wears.
“I guess I just like them.” He shrugs. “They are cool boots, after all.”
“Very cool,” I answer with a weak smile.
“There it is.”
I look at him, questioning. His black eyes are smiling. A little sad, but smiling.
“Your smile. I haven’t seen it in a while.”
I blush and look away. It’s his turn to be brave, I suppose, but I’m suddenly terrified to let him go there. So I change the subject again. “I’m sorry about last night.”
“I’m the one who’s sorry, Kendry. I had no idea.”
I shake my head. “I… With all of this. I’m so lost, so confused. I have no idea what’s happened to Mom, apparently Dad isn’t dead like I thought… I don’t understand. He wouldn’t do that to me, Axel. He wouldn’t.” I’m staring at him now, begging him to believe me. Or maybe I’m begging myself to believe me, or the universe to tell me it isn’t true.
“I’m sure he was only trying to protect you. Both of you.”
I bark a laugh. “From what? He was—is?—the coolest dad ever, but he wasn’t anything special to anyone but Mom and me.”
His dark stone eyebrows furrow. “From what? Kendry, from exactly what happened. They were looking for your mom, specifically. The only reason you didn’t get snatched too is because they didn’t know about you.”
I shake my head again. “What do—” I break off, suddenly remembering something Cigar-face said. Tell me, Sandra, is she his? “They want to get to Dad.”
Axel nods, but I barely see it.
“Why? I don’t get it. He’s just Dad. He’s just a human, like Mom, like me. What do they want?”
He looks at me sadly. His hand reaches over to touch the bandage on my upper arm, thumb caressing it gently, fingertips grazing the skin below the cloth. And then he looks away, and something in me sinks, because I know what he says next, whatever it is, will change everything.
ParaWars Uprising Page 7
