Sylvanus simply resumed his backwards lean, smiling pleasantly.
They went on for a long time talking about this. I listened
For the first time in a while Boran straightened forward and spoke. “To me, this seems the same as the land issue, we're not getting anywhere by talking about it. No one broke any direct laws. Let’s move on.”
Demian stared for a moment, then complied. “The group was of little consequence—” Sylvanus looked less smug at the words “—I have nothing else to bring forward.”
My spirits lifted. Sure, I had wanted to come to the meeting, and part of me was truly glad to have seen the political interactions . . . but being around Sylvanus, hidden or not, wasn’t really worth the knowledge gained.
I peeked at Jaden. He was still looking down, so I did the same.
“Of course, we have one more subject to go over,” said Thoran. His tone was controlled, but with the slightest hint of a sigh, as if he didn’t really want to discuss whatever was coming.
Demian nodded. “I assumed you would.”
Sylvanus' hands clapped flat onto the table, his first act in a while. “Oh, goody! Is this the part where we get to talk about me?”
Demian raised a hand to him.
Thoran's face hardened. “His behavior is in complete violation of the treaties. He's been in contact with dozens of humans. Our scouts have spotted him in the towns at least twice . . .” It seemed like Thoran was going to say more, but he stopped short.
Demian flicked a small pebble off of the tabletop. “Come now, Thoran, he's done all these things before . . . these are hardly the main issues.”
I had a hince then, and for the first time I saw emotion on Thoran's face.
“Or should I say, issue?”
I bit my lip down hard.
“Taking a girl from a town that close to our borders is inexcusable,” said Thoran.
As soon as he spoke the words Jaden’s eyes shot to me. He hadn't known, before now, that it was Sylvanus who first found me. Whatever his feelings were, I couldn't handle them here. . . .
I didn't look over. I put all my focus into ignoring him as Thoran continued.
“In any other case this would mean immediate dismissal from the council,” continued Thoran. “I demand the same for him.”
Demian was beginning to look bothered again. “He'll be punished appropriately, I assure you.”
Sylvanus chuckled.
Thoran leaned forward. “He has gone too far this time. More must be done!”
His voice was severe. I worried over Demian's reaction. The creature looked upset.
Sylvanus smirked happily again and leaned forward. “My dear Thoran, you seem to be getting all worked up over nothing. After all, the girl came of her own free will.”
My body started to shake.
“If you and the fat one hadn't come along and spoiled everything, well . . . who's to say she wouldn't have enjoyed what I had planned?”
Thoran's face went cold, everyone’s did.
My suck-it-up plan was failing fast.
I tried to tighten my fist, but instead it fell flat in drained defeat.
Then, suddenly a hand wrapped over mine, squeezing protectively. My breath sucked in, but I didn't look up, too afraid that I would meet his eyes again and lose all strength of will.
Below the men were silent. It was like the room below had been sapped of life.
“Besides,” started Sylvanus again, throwing a hand in the air, “I would have brought her back once I was finished with her . . . that's more than I can say for your boys.”
My eyes tightened, spilling tears. Jaden pulled my hand firmly, drawing my attention. I looked over unwillingly.
“Let's go,” he mouthed, then he tossed his head towards the tunnel.
I blinked my eyes shut again, then obeyed without a word.
~ ~ ~
Chapter 11
Incentive
AS SOON AS we reached the rock wall, he grabbed my arm and swung me around to face him.
“What happened with you and Sylvanus?” His eyes were fierce and there was no shred of tenderness in his voice.
My body shivered. “I—”
“Why didn’t you tell me?! I wouldn’t have— . . .” His face became pained and he looked away.
A moment later the harsh gaze was back on me, his grip tightening on my wrist.
“This is exactly why you shouldn’t be coming to places like this.”
I dropped my head.
“If you had just listened to me in the first place, none of that would have happened. I said I didn’t want you coming here, and I was right. Next time—”
That was it. I lost it. I put my hands up to my face, bursting into tears.
Jaden stopped talking and released my shoulders, it didn’t help much now that I’d started. I squeezed my eyes tightly and turned towards the wall.
After a few seconds of trying to calm myself down, Jaden’s voice came gently beside me. “Eve, I didn’t mean to—” he cut out suddenly, then grabbed the underside of my wrist, squeezing violently.
Something was wrong.
I tilted my head up a fraction and he tightened his grip once more.
“Don’t speak.”
My eyes narrowed and I turned the rest of the way around. What I saw made me bring my free hand up to stifle a scream.
Ten feet ahead of us, Sylvanus stood.
The sobbing in my chest was stilled instantly, replaced with a dead cold. His eyes were on us, those piercingly silver eyes, first grazing over me. His look was perusing, controlled. The smallest corner of his mouth pinched with pleasure. Then his gaze shifted to Jaden and all contentment fell.
My body shivered and I rocked back a step. Jaden’s fingers slid further down my palm, his face looked unbothered as Sylvanus reached us.
“Jaden,” the slick-haired creature hummed pleasantly. “It’s been a while. I was wondering why you weren’t at the meeting . . . we missed you.” He kept his eyes on Jaden.
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
Sylvanus waved a hand. “No matter . . . ,” then an unpleasant smile spread, “I can see you had much more interesting things to do.” His eyes moved down to Jaden’s hand.
My breath caught and I pulled my arm away immediately, hugging it around my body instead.
Jaden glanced over to me for a moment, I couldn’t meet his gaze, but when he looked back to Sylvanus his face was drawn. “Why don’t you beat it, Sylvanus.”
The creature frowned. “That’s not a very polite thing to say . . . Besides, there’s not really much you can do about it if I don’t, is there?”
I assumed he meant the no-violence policy. Ikovos had told me a bit about this before. Fighting here meant big trouble.
Jaden took in a slow breath.
“Anyways,” Sylvanus leaned his weight over to one leg, examining his fingernails casually, “don’t you want to hear how the meeting went?”
The question reminded me of Sylvanus’ final statements at the stone table. My body started to tremble again, I felt like falling over.
“I’ll find out later,” said Jaden.
Sylvanus cocked his head. “I don’t know, we covered some pretty sticky subjects,” his eyes drifted to me, “one in particular,” then back to Jaden. “Would you like to hear about it?”
“I don’t think so.”
Sylvanus frowned playfully. “Why not? . . . I think you might enjoy it.”
Jaden’s jaw tightened. “Some other time.”
Sylvanus pursed his lips. “Mmm, good idea. Might be a little . . . awkward with the present company.” His eyes moved over to me, then and he leaned closer. “You know, Evelyn, when I heard that you were staying with these boys, I pictured you and Jaden here hitting it off.”
I slid back against the rock.
With a knowing smirk he glanced over to Jaden “If you ever need some . . . let’s see, how do I put this? . . . Educated tips, just let me know.”
<
br /> Sylvanus smug grin started to expand just as my legs threatened to give out.
Neither got the chance.
As soon as Sylvanus’s eyes moved to me, Jaden’s fist went slamming into the creature’s face, knocking him back with enough force to land him on the ground.
I brought a hand up to my mouth and looked to Jaden. His eyes were hard on Sylvanus, body shaking with anger.
Sylvanus was already beginning to get up, beads of silver-ish blood dripping from his lip.
“You’ll pay for that, boy.”
Faster than my eyes could follow, he was up and crashing into Jaden. The unhindered boy started in just as viciously.
I moved back a couple steps as Sylvanus dodged another punch from Jaden, grabbing onto his arm and twisting it around instead. Jaden hit with the other hand then and they both fell onto the ground.
My heart was beating so fast it hurt. It increased even more when I saw that they were rolling closer to the edge ahead.
“Stop it!” I yelled, moving closer. Neither did. Sylvanus was on top of Jaden now. I wanted to do something to help, but my body was shaking fiercely, I could barely tell what was going on.
They started to roll again. I screamed as they neared the edge, but they stopped short. This time Jaden was on top. He punched down on Sylvanus with his right fist, then raised his left to do the same.
Just then figures came around both sides, pulling the two bodies apart. They were so locked in combat, it took them a while to even notice.
When things had settled Sylvanus stood surrounded by a small group of Meoden.
Jaden was on the opposite side with the other men from the order. Thoran stood slightly in front of him.
“This is an outrage, Thoran! That boy attacked me without warning!” shouted Sylvanus. He was huffing considerably and his skin was coated with sweat and dirt. It was the same with Jaden. My breath held at the anger in the boy’s eyes.
Thoran looked at me then. His face was stern. I wanted to move closer to them, but I was frozen.
“Jaden, is this true?” asked Thoran.
Jaden eyes finally turned to the man, settling. “Yes. But he —”
Thoran raised a hand. The entire group of men behind him seemed to be a holding their breaths. “Take Evelyn and go back to the lodge.” His tone was placid. Jaden looked hard back at Sylvanus, then moved off immediately.
All eyes turned to me, then. When my own locked with Sylvanus’ he bit his lip into a cruel smile, an expression more grotesque than I’d seen from him yet.
I saw Jaden, who was nearing me, turn his head to follow my gaze to Sylvanus. Then he walked by, wrapping an arm around my waste and pulling me with him towards the bridge.
The dark creature looked displeased, then turned back to Thoran.
I couldn’t hear what was said after that, my legs were forced to move on. I could feel Jaden’s pulse beating solidly, but he kept his eyes hard and forward . . . he kept his arm hugged tight around me too. I didn’t resist the gesture, nor did I say anything.
When we had gone on like this for quite a while, passing the fork and beginning to see patches of lava, I felt a damp chill on the side of my arm. I looked down and twisted it around to see a red stain covering it. My eyes narrowed. I looked at Jaden’s side. It didn’t look like any blood was leaking through, but he was wearing dark leather, so I touched it to make sure.
“Agh—” He bent over immediately with a moan.
I turned my hand to see blood, then looked up to him. “Jaden.”
His expression returned to normal. “It’s fine.”
My eyes narrowed further and I lifted the top layer to look at the light cloth underneath. It was soaked through with dark red.
We were standing on the path amidst a pack of boulders, small pools of fire on either side. I pointed to one of the rocks. “Sit down.”
He didn’t look pleased. “I don’t need to—”
“Sit,” I repeated, eyeing him harder this time.
He stared at me then let out a sigh and went to sit on the rock.
I took a breath. Not so easy for me to boss Jaden around. Then I walked over and bent down to examine the wound better. . . .
It wasn’t going to work like this.
I rolled my eyes dramatically and cleared my throat. “Would you, ah . . .” he looked at me sideways “. . . you know,” I tugged up slightly at the base of my shirt.
He raised an eyebrow, leading me to think I would have to go into a more explicit explanation. But then he started to unbutton the over-shirt. Apparently he understood my request, he just thought my asking it was strange.
The concern for Jaden’s perception of me vanished as he pulled the cloth shirt over his head, groaning slightly again. I got on my knees to examine the cut closer.
It was under his arm towards his back, almost beneath his shoulder-blade. I looked around for something to clear the blood, but we had no water with us and there was hardly a hope of finding some anywhere else in the cave.
I absently noticed Jaden was looking down at me. Not scrutinizing so much as speculative.
“You should have told me about this sooner. We would have stopped.” I ripped off some material from my shirt, then started to pat it carefully around the wound.
“That’s exactly why I didn’t.”
I ignored him. There were four distinct marks causing the bleeding. I placed my fingers over them. My nails fit perfectly into the shape.
He winced in pain again.
“Sorry,” I said, then frowned. “He scratched you. . . .”
“Clawed ’s more like it.”
I stopped and gazed up at him, unable to keep the emotion from my face. He looked back, for once equally intent.
I wanted to ask him why he had gotten so upset, why he had attacked Sylvanus when he knew what would happen if he did . . . but I already knew the answers, as hard as it was to believe, I already knew . . .
“Thank you,” I whispered, then turned my head back quickly to my work.
He didn’t respond.
I finished my wrapping with a tight knot then leaned to stand up, scoffing slightly. “Well, wasn’t that cliché. Boy gets in fight for girl, then she fixes up his wound.” He pulled the under-shirt over his head. “. . . it’s like something out of a book.”
He smirked crookedly. “Nah.” Then stood up. “In a book the girl would have kissed the boy afterwards . . .” he was leaning close to me, inches from my face “. . . or vice versa.”
I gulped. He was looking at me in that especially stomach-tying way. I could just feel my legs forgetting how to hold my body up.
Then he smirked the slightest bit wider and turned around, starting off down the path casually.
I just stood there . . . unable to breathe. After a few seconds the air escaped my lungs and my eyebrows furrowed.
I am never wrapping a boys cut again.
We walked on without much talking. I was amazed at how much this wasn’t like Ikovos and I, with me and Jaden it seemed the more I was around him, the more uncertain I felt.
When we reached the lift, Kale and Luther were already there waiting. They decided to go back with us and spoke to Jaden about news regarding the borders near the watch-post all the way up the lift. I didn’t hear much, concentrating more of the whole ‘one-hundred-feet-over-lava’ thing and honestly quite spent from the last few hours. I did hear them mention something about a message from another dimension. I wondered if there were others who fought against the Meoden, allies to the order.
When we had reached the second lift, Kale and Luther were still speaking.
Jaden tapped my arm. “After dinner would you like to go over some studies?” He asked it so casually, but instantly excitement swirled up in my stomach, elation I could barely contain.
I just looked at him and nodded.
The corners of his mouth tipped slightly, much sweeter-looking than usual, as the elevator clicked into place. We were in the basement room of the lod
ge.
“You know your way back from here, right?”
I looked around then considered the route. “I’ll manage.”
He nodded and smiled. “I’ll see you after dinner then.”
I did the same, then took a few steps before glancing back. “Aren’t you eating?”
He looked grim for a moment then shook his head, lightening. “I think I’ll be busy with Master Thoran for a while.
My heart fell. “Oh. . . . If it helps, tell him I said it wasn’t your fault.”
I thought he might laugh at me for saying this, but instead the corners of his smile pinched wider. “Thanks. I will.”
I kept my gaze locked on for a second, I didn’t want to see the person he was being now disappear again . . . but any longer and he’d start thinking I was crazy.
I turned around and left the room.
*
As I walked through the halls, I was surprised at how not exhausted I was, most likely due to the prospect of magic training tonight. When I entered the cafeteria I got a surreal sort of feeling. I had been here about five hours prior, but so much had happened. The dark and terrifying creatures I had just visited simply didn’t fit in with this warm and open building . . . so safe here . . . With a pleasant sigh I walked over to the counter to greet Sophie.
It was late for dinner, nearing eight. Many of the boys had already cleared the room and the ones that were left were studying quietly.
Sophie was putting dishes into the cupboard as I approached.
“Hey, Sophie.”
She looked over and smiled. “I haven’t seen you in a while. Were you training with Holdan?”
I shook my head calmly, leaning forward onto the counter.
Her face perplexed. “Oh? What did you do then?”
My eyes narrowed slightly. “Well. . . .”
She focused more intently on me now. “Did you ever find Jaden?”
I nodded. “Yes. Thanks again for the directions.”
She smiled pleasantly, but here eyes still begged a question. I conceded.
“He told me he would take me along to the next Meoden meeting. That’s why I was looking for him, that’s where I was today.”
She looked surprised. “Oh. . . . Well, how did that go?
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