by Aral Bereux
‘Excuse me?’ she said.
‘You’re lazy,’ he said flatly. ‘You’re impulsive, reckless...’
Insolent, disobedient...
‘Get out of my head!’ she snapped.
Bas ignored her. He continued to poke in and out of her mind without apology, insulting her while he did it.
Music time. She sung inside her mind, devouring the sweet apple to the core as she walked, and thanking the Guild for their gift.
He stopped the uninvited attention before edging down a steep ledge one step at a time. She followed and stood at the top, watching him jump the rock ledges fashioned like a giant’s staircase.
She aimed the apple core in his direction. Sensing her move, his dark eyes swung around, daring her with a snarl. She lowered it down, threw it to the side, and followed instead.
‘Here will do,’ he said.
She jumped from the last embankment and into the clearing of soft grass beside him. Trees held their pink blossom above the deep green grass, swaying gently in the breeze, and thin strands of yellow weed poked through the cracks between round rocks scattered randomly. She admired the landscape for its natural beauty and color; he scrutinized it with black eyes for intruders who dared to approach. There wasn’t a life form for miles except the wild birds fluttering above in a nest, feeding their young and preparing for the evening ahead.
His eyes slipped into their hazel color and he knelt in the dewy grass, edging his knife blade from its handle. ‘Lay down. Promise I’ll heal you once I’m done.’
A High Priest’s word meant less than her Uncle Doug’s, she thought. Though she’d lay still for him on the cool grass, shielding her eyes from the last sunlight breaking through the branches, knowing he meant every word. From where she rested, the moon was a full white disc in the sky, and would be bright once the sun moved down. Bas looked, too; and the concern on his face creased his brow. The night, though warm, was well-lit for their travels, leaving them exposed.
His hand eased her singlet away and she felt his fingers running along her stomach, searching. His touch was purposeful and premeditated. The stars were breaking against the sky and she tried counting them for distraction as the press of his fingers continued across her soft skin. She dared not look, but she heard a mutter under his breath and she felt the point of his knife.
She cried out.
The birds in the blossom tree stopped their fluttering and tweeting and gazed beneath them to see the fuss. They blinked their black beady eyes and bounced between branches with curiosity as Bas deepened his cut into her waist.
‘I can’t do this if you’re moving,’ he muttered, and put a firm hand to her stomach.
Stars filled her vision, but not from the sky. She opened then wide and blinked. The birds were back to their young and the sun peeked from a cloud, dulling the moon in its glare, washing everything in a pretty orange haze.
The estate sprang into mind – her first horse-riding accident.
The horse had been wild, still yet to be broken in, but she’d opted to ride bareback the moment the handlers had left for the day. She’d been bucked, and she’d stayed in the field for hours in rain and sleet.
She screamed.
The knife pushed deeper, the cut against her side grew wider and tears rolled down her cheeks.
‘You sing as pretty as you do in your head?’ he asked gently. His knife tip edged under the solid chip. She didn’t reply. Everything inside her focused on being still.
Bas spoke softly about the estate where she’d spent her childhood. She listened to his story about the horse accident. He’d been the one to scoop her up and carry her back. She didn’t remember that part, not the scoop-up part. Didn’t remember him, or how wet and cold she had felt, or how blue he said her skin had looked. Only the arms and the chest she had huddled into. She didn’t remember the broken arm either. Surely it hadn’t been him who’d given her comfort on that miserable day. Surely.
She’d been so little then, and memories often failed to be reliable. She’d been told off; she remembered the humiliation. She remembered the pain in her toes in the hot bath and she remembered the strong arms wrapping around her.
‘You were lucky that day.’ His hand covered the wound and the pain surged through her body again. He was taking the cut away. ‘Could have been killed. Everyone was looking for you – even Cade came out that day and, man, he was so damn pissed.’
She didn’t remember.
He dragged the blade’s edge through the grass to clean the blood, studied it, did it again, and then put it away.
‘One thing I know for sure,’ he said. ‘He would’ve initiated you then and there. The only thing keeping you safe from us that day was your age.’
She felt winded again as he helped her to stand.
‘You haven’t changed.’
Bas turned from her stare and started back toward the camp. She glanced down at her side, lifting the bloodied material to examine what wasn’t there, and when she lifted her head he was hauling himself over the last ledge jutting above her.
If age was all that kept me safe...
The urge to bolt in the opposite direction overwhelmed her.
‘Coming, or what?’ he called down to her.
The urge left her, the or what being less favorable to the warm fire and full belly. What he said didn’t matter; she’d escaped the final process that turned a norm into a watcher. Her head spun, she’d escaped the bullshit that followed the rituals. She still belonged to herself. That’s how she’d keep it. He wasn’t a High Priest anymore and the Council didn’t exist. It didn’t matter. What he said didn’t matter and she needed to forget about it.
And Caden isn’t my watcher!
Bastiaan looked over the treetops and the horizon from the highest ledge, and then down to her reaching up. The gaze chilled Julianna as she climbed to the ledge, declining his hand to help her.
‘I don’t remember you,’ she said coolly.
He raised his expression with a half-smile.
‘Or Caden, for that matter,’ she said. ‘But I do remember the Council, and that’s enough to know if you ever try to intimidate me with your old world bullshit again, I’ll put you in a grave myself.’ She pushed past him.
‘Sure.’ He hauled her arms back to overtake her step. Julianna’s path became difficult to navigate as the plant life closed protectively around him. ‘Oh, and Julianna...’
She looked away from a fern twining itself around her ankle.
‘That old world bullshit – the Council – it still survives – all of it, and you, my dear, are very much a part of it.’
The words drove ice through her veins. She kicked the baby fern away and stomped it. The green frond shied away in fret, from its attacker, curling in retreat to Mother Nature. Bas greeted his brother with a slap on his bare shoulder, and she continued to push through the landscape, turning the words over in her head and warily glancing at them with each step that brought her closer. Her insides churned at the thought of an initiation possibility.
She shook her head. I thought the Council was over...if it’s not...shit, oh shit, oh shit! Another frond died.
Caden discarded his half-eaten apple into the fire and glanced up. Julianna exchanged the cursory glance before he returned his attention to the fire. His belt still rested on the ground and his pants hung loosely around his waist as he bent over the fire to adjust a log with his bare hand. The log dropped into the center and the flames whisked around it, creating a swirl of embers that twinkled out into the breeze. He lightly slapped his hand against his pants to rid the dust and ash.
The pendant tightened against her throat, snapping away to travel into the fire, and she observed Bas lowering his hand.
‘Good,’ Caden said.
She shrugged, down to one syllable words now. Not you okay or how’d it go? Just good.
Sonofabitch told Caden what I said!
Caden shook his head while he narrowed his eyes down at her. The others still slept
.
‘We need to head east,’ Caden said.
Julianna pricked her head up. ‘Into the city?’
He nodded. ‘Taris won’t be expecting it.’
‘But when he finds out, he’ll embrace it. We’ll be walking right into his web. We need to retreat—’
Caden leaned in. ‘Are we having this discussion again?’ he asked. ‘Because I thought we had an understanding. We did have an understanding, right?’
She raised her hands in defeat. ‘Suits me. I get to go home, Commander.’ She sat heavily beside him.
He’s my freakin’ watcher!
Caden reached into the fire to move the log again. The flames licked around his arm but left no trail of a burn, and he showed no sign of recoiling. The log leaned where the air could move and the flames jumped in an anger aimed at her.
Daniel’s sleepy eyes studied them through it. Bas was careful to sit on other side of the fire, beside Devo. All eyes were on the pair. She surveyed the crowd and the prisoner woke from their rising tension, too.
‘If you have something to say, say it now or forever keep your mouth shut.’ Caden was staring.
And your mind!
She glanced around. Yeah, everyone was staring at them for sure, but she felt like crap. It’d hit her quickly, as quickly as the fever had returned. She didn’t feel like fighting, but she couldn’t let something like a potential initiation slip. Not for everything she’d been through to escape the life from the Family.
‘So, because you were pissed off at the world, you just had to make my life miserable, too?’ She stood. Caden stood with her, and before she knew it, Daniel and Bas were standing, too, with their arms outstretched, keeping them apart.
‘You’re frustrating. You know that?’ Caden said.
‘Take a walk, man, she’s geared for a fight,’ Daniel said.
Caden pushed Daniel aside to step into her space. ‘Let’s clear the air, shall we? I’m Council, I’m your watcher, and you’re defiant. Let’s call it what it is so we can move on.’
‘My defiance saved your sorry ass – and I don’t need a watcher.’ She rocked on her feet. Her head spun and his image blurred.
‘Your defiance almost had you killed last night.’ He stood a good foot higher. His finger pointed. ‘Who was saving whose sorry ass then?’ He turned to the small group of people left. ‘Keep going against my command, you’ll get yourself killed!’ Caden glared back at her. ‘And you’ll take everyone with you.’
She gritted her teeth and held her ground, even though everything spun around her. ‘Didn’t hear you complain last night when I took down the noc at the barricade.’
His hand clenched into a fist. ‘And, yes, you fucking need a watcher.’ He settled. ‘What’s wrong with you, anyway?’
The world hazed over in a thick grey, Bas steadied her and the last she remembered before she blacked out was Caden catching her as she fell.
* * * *
Her cheek pressed against his back. Her eyes squeezed shut against the speeds he pushed on the bike, rushing along the interstate and constantly checking over his shoulder for the chance of a drone following. The wind whipped at her body, and she soaked the cool feeling in as her fever raged. It pushed the comforting smell of his shirt into her face. The feel of him in her arms gave something to focus on over the long ride, but the overwhelming need to sleep slipped in. She felt his grasp on her hands around his waist while she dozed. The fever had invaded. She couldn’t fight it; she needed to sleep.
The bike slowed. Another bike rode beside them and the visor flipped open on the helmet. She returned his glance through hazy eyes and closed them again.
Her wrists slipped lower. She felt him and didn’t care. Like he’d care, like anyone cared. She felt a peculiar dullness in her mind and her hands let go to swing by her sides. Her mind wandered to the park with her father, holding her hand and pointing out the flowers along the path.
The bike slowed again.
Bas, need your help!
Huh, there’s no one here. Just Daddy and me on a walk. Leave us alone, damn it!
Julianna didn’t feel the bike stop, or hear the kickstand go twang! She didn’t feel the first slap to the face either, or Bas holding her in his lap so she wouldn’t face plant into the highway asphalt. She did feel Caden’s whisper, though, pulling her away from the park, away from the flowers and bright sky.
Away from Daddy...
Her eyes opened to the night sky and the hands holding her by the waist, pulling her against the solid chest behind her.
Caden crouched with a bottle in one hand, splashing water into his other and wetting her face with it as he rubbed his hand against her cheeks and forehead. His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. He wet her face again.
‘You okay?’ he asked.
Julianna lingered a little longer in his gaze before snapping back to his voice.
‘Have something to drink, sweetheart. Please.’
She refused the bottle and pushed it away. It almost dropped. She closed her eyes again, the park calling for her. Why wouldn’t they let her rest just for a moment?
Bas’s hands tightened as she slipped down again. More water splashed on her face and the bottle was angled against her lips, his hand close to catch any stray drops. He made her drink. She pulled away from the poison burning her throat and scratched at the hands holding her.
‘Penicillin?’
‘Everything was lost in the skirmish,’ Bas said.
Julianna opened her eyes again and outstretched her hand to touch Caden’s chest. He took her hand in his and held it. ‘Need to go back,’ she whispered.
Caden’s sympathetic nod irritated her. The need was overbearing, didn’t he understand? Her legs were heavy and the hands were reluctant in letting her escape. She heard him calling again, telling her to be careful.
Her feet weren’t so forgiving, and one step sent her down again. Caden caught her.
‘Okay, sweetheart.’
She used his body to lean against. She looked up at him; he struggled for his own balance. Bas took her back and her eyes returned to the markings on his wrists. She fought him, just as she had when she was a kid, but the memory abandoned her the moment she reached for it. His voice echoed softly into the back of her mind, calming her and telling her gently to hush.
She stopped moving in his bear hug. ‘Swing a leg over,’ she heard him say. She was being lifted onto the bike. ‘You’re riding up front.’
‘Promise?’ What was she doing asking her watcher to promise things. She swayed again, but she was resting on her own bike, with the keys in the ignition, taunting her delusions. She had escaped far worse. She glanced over to Caden. He was watching; so was his brother. They weren’t enemies. She shook the thought loose. Her mind wandered again and the sweat rolled down her neck. She wanted the cool breeze back. Was it raining? She couldn’t tell.
‘We need to go. They’ll be here soon.’ She wasn’t sure if she spoke or thought the words, but both men nodded. Caden raised a leg to sit behind her, just as she had Katherine. She was sick, really sick. People only do this when someone is really sick. His hands took the handles, and she was within his grasp, balancing between his arms and chest.
The memory of Bas lifting her onto the bike never returned. Neither did the memory of Caden balancing her between his arms as they rode quickly to the front of the group, or the whispered truths about her father.
She had no recollection at all.
* * * *
Caden set her down in the blanket, cocooning her in its warmth, and crouched low to put the water to her lips again. She refused, her eyes half open, trying to focus on the hazy shapes of people staring and mumbling over her. She held out her hand and pushed the bottle gently away.
‘You have to drink something, J Rae, your fever’s back.’
She shook her head and rested. The softness under her head held his scent and she turned to nuzzle the material of his jacket. A waterfall crashed in the d
istance and the trees were thick above, but not enough to hide the blanket of stars.
‘We can’t move like this,’ Bas stated, and took the bottle from Caden’s hand to help coax Julianna. ‘Drink up, darlin’, just a little.’ He tipped the bottle and she choked on the water rolling down her burning throat. He forced her to have more. ‘Good. We’ll let you sleep now. Maybe tomorrow you’ll be feeling your belligerent self again.’
‘We’re a little too open here for my liking,’ Caden said. ‘They’ll find us here in twenty-four hours, tops.’
Daniel shot him a glance. ‘Look at her! She can’t run anymore! We have no army, we have no support from Isis. What exactly is it you want us to do?’
‘Finally find your balls, Danny?’ Caden smirked. ‘But you’re right, she’s sick and it’s our job to keep the Seer alive at any cost.’
‘She’s not just some Seer pawn in a war, Caden.’
‘She’s the Seer you’ve told us about?’ Devo’s words surprised everyone. ‘Does she even know who she is?’
Caden’s defeated look at his brother and the group silenced everyone. ‘So, Daniel, take first watch on the highway. Devo, I need you to sleep; be ready to take over Daniel’s watch in a few hours. Bas, you, too, man, get some sleep. I’ll watch Julianna.’
‘And when do you sleep, Cade – never?’ Bas threw an arm around Devo’s tiny shoulders to shelter her from the wind blowing up a storm. They were in the open, but for the scant trees hanging over them, offering no protection from the rain threatening to crash down.
‘My duty as her watcher is to see she survives this. Everyone has their orders. Go!’ He propped beside her, drawing the thin blanket closer to her chin. Bas shook his head as he walked deeper into the trees with Devo. Daniel took a rifle to reload it with what ammunition they had left before heading toward the highway on his bike.
‘Got your back, J Rae,’ he whispered and wet his hand with the water to stroke her hot face. Her heavy eyes closed. ‘You just need to hang in there so we can finish this damn war together. Once it’s done, I promise I’ll take you to meet your father.’
