I leaned back on my bed, fingering my lips. Is this real? Did all of that really happen?
Someone delicately cleared her throat.
I glanced down.
Jacinda’s eyes were open. She eyed me knowingly, but instead of saying anything smart, she stared at me, a content smile on her face.
Falling back against my pillow, I let the happiness and love I felt for Flint swim around inside of me. It shone as brightly within me as the rising sun.
CHAPTER NINE
18 years old
“Lena!” Flint whispered.
I bolted upright in bed. The room was dark, the cabin silent. I wasn’t sure if the voice I’d heard was real or a dream. I checked the clock by my bed. 3:07 am. Rubbing my eyes, I looked around. All of the girls were asleep, the room as quiet as death.
I was about to lay back down when Flint’s face appeared at my side. I almost screamed. Almost.
He grinned.
Muffling a laugh, I softly slugged him in the shoulder.
“Don’t do that!” I hissed, but I couldn’t keep the excitement from my voice. I loved when he surprised me at night, and lately, he was doing it more and more.
“Come on, babe. Full moon tonight.”
He swept the covers off of me and pulled me into his arms. The shirt I wore rode up my side as I slid down his body. His warm fingers easily encircled my waist. I shivered.
“Cold?”
I shook my head.
He smiled deeper, knowingly.
It was the third time this week he’d woken me to go outside. And despite the toll it took on my rest, I was excited every time he did. It was the only time we had privacy.
He lifted me into his arms, and we glided silently out of the room. Once at the back door, he put me down and handed me the pants and sweater he’d managed to grab on our way out. I threw them on. It wouldn’t be that cold. It was early spring.
“Do you think anyone knows we sneak out?” I asked.
He frowned and closed the door quietly behind us. “Hard to say. Conroy’s not exactly the oblivious type. You’d think he’d know after raising eight teenagers that things like this are bound to happen, whether he likes it or not.”
“But he never says anything.”
“Well, we’re not kids anymore.”
Flint pulled a GPS out of his pocket. I knew where we were going. It was the same place we went every time we sneaked out.
If it weren’t for these crazy, disorienting Hills, Flint would have picked me up and carried me at his speed. Then, we’d be there in no time, but since that wasn’t an option, I huffed by his side.
Flint studied the GPS intently. Despite it, we lost our way. We knew we were lost since the area looked unfamiliar.
“Let’s try and backtrack,” I said.
Luckily, some time later, we crested a familiar hill. I huffed out of breath while Flint, as usual, seemed immune to the steep landscape.
In the bright moonlight, the mouth to our cave appeared. It was a large, black hole. Smiling, Flint put the GPS away and whisked me up into his arms. A second later, he set me down at the cave’s entrance. He’d moved carefully. Only a slight bout of nausea rolled through me.
Our cave wasn’t overly deep, maybe twenty feet from mouth to back. When we’d first discovered it several summers ago, at that time we’d only been friends, there’d been littered animal remains and scattered rocks and leaves everywhere. It took some work, but we’d cleaned it up. Our human scent lingered when we left and helped keep critters from occupying the space.
Now, it was where we went to be alone.
Flint pulled out matches and lit the lantern we kept on one of the large rocks. From there, he moved to the candles before hunkering down to light the fire.
In the back, we had a few old blankets and pillows. I hauled out the bedding and arranged it while Flint pulled out another match. By the time we were done, a fire crackled and we had a cozy place to lie together and talk.
Flint pulled me down on a blanket and plumped a pillow for me. “I have something for you.”
I turned in his arms to face him. “You do?”
He smiled and pulled a box from his pocket before handing it to me. It was smooth and tied with a simple ribbon. “Happy birthday.”
“You remembered!” I smiled.
He chuckled. “Of course, I remembered.”
I opened the gift carefully, loving the smooth paper and satiny ribbon. He’d obviously spent time wrapping it. Inside was a small velvet box. My breath caught.
Flint’s eyes were dark. His expression was impossible to read, but he watched my every move.
Very slowly, I opened the lid. I gasped. A beautiful chain link bracelet with a heart shaped charm attached to it glinted in the firelight. I picked it up. Holding the charm up to the fire, I turned it over. There was an inscription.
Love you Forever.
My mouth opened then closed then opened. “Flint…how…”
He’d never given me anything like this. Usually, we made gifts for one another, with whatever items we could scrounge up in the wild or re-use from what we had in the cabin.
“I found it online at a jewelry store. I asked Conroy to buy it on the last supply trip he took. It seemed the least I could do on your eighteenth birthday.”
Tears pricked my eyes. I leaned up and kissed him on the mouth, pulling him tightly to me.
“I love it,” I whispered.
“Do you really?”
I smiled at the uncertainty in his voice. “Yes, I do. Help me put it on.”
He undid the clasp and looped it around my wrist. It fit perfectly, not too big, not too small. The small charm hung prettily from the chain. “It’s perfect.”
Flint pulled me closer, a satisfied smile on his face.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and lifted my lips to his. The taste and smell of him made fire grow in my belly, licking and singeing my insides. I felt his need grow. As was becoming more prominent every day, the energy around him grew the deeper we kissed and the more we touched. My abilities had improved over the winter. I was getting better at feeling energy in everyone’s clouds. The feel of our energy surrounding us was intoxicating, like a heavy sphere that pulsed and grew with our desire.
Our movements quickly became frantic. Clothes were ripped off until we were naked and touched skin to skin. The fire crackled beside us. Its warmth, along with the searing heat coming from Flint, took any chill out of my exposed limbs.
“I want you so much,” he whispered in between kissing my neck and trailing hands down my back.
“Make me yours.”
He pulled back, his eyes dark. “Do you mean that?”
“Yes.”
Flint reached for his jeans and fished something from the pocket. A condom.
My eyes widened. “Where did you get that?”
“Conroy.”
A jumble of emotions fluttered through my stomach. Father’s rule was no sex until eighteen. He only provided birth control when we reached adulthood.
Now, I was eighteen.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. Very sure.”
He smiled and leaned down.
AFTERWARD, WE LAY together quietly by the fire. Shiny sweat glistened on our skin. I bunched the blanket around my chest and under my arms.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Flint asked.
I bit back a smile. He’d already asked me that a dozen times. “Yes, I’m fine.”
“I didn’t hurt you?”
“Not really.” It had hurt a little at first, but then it faded and all I’d wanted was him.
Flint’s frown deepened.
I giggled. His worry could be so endearing at times. “Trust me, I’ve never been happier. I’m so happy I feel like I could burst.”
The anxiety lining his face eased. He grunted and lay back down, pulling me closely to him.
His naked skin pressed against me under the blanket. His e
ntire body was so hard. I held the bracelet up, watching the metal catch the light. Love you Forever. I bit my lip to keep emotions from overwhelming me.
“Do you think we’ll ever be able to marry?” I swallowed. I hadn’t meant to ask that out loud.
Instead of looking shocked, Flint leaned up on his elbow. “Is getting married something you want?”
I shrugged and did my best to meet his gaze. “I dunno. To be honest, I’m not sure it’d be possible if we die out here. Laws have no meaning in our world.”
Flint frowned. “No, we may not have U.S. laws in our lives, but what is marriage really? Just two people deciding to bind themselves for life, declaring their commitment in front of witnesses. I don’t see why we couldn’t do that up here. It would have the same meaning minus the official paperwork.”
My heart thudded. I swallowed before replying, “So…that is something you want?”
“I thought that’d be obvious.”
“You mean you’ve actually thought about marrying me? Even though we’ve only been together six months?”
He shrugged. “Not officially marry I suppose, but stay together? Yes.” His voice dropped lower. “You’re it for me, Lena. There’s no one else I could ever want. My whole life it’s always been you. I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I chose that inscription for a reason.” He fingered the charm. “I’ll love you forever, you and only you.”
My stomach flipped. Flint had told me many times that he loved me but never quite like that. Never so definite. “You’re the only one I could ever love too. I could never be with anyone else.”
He pulled me to him. His lips found mine.
CHAPTER TEN
19 years old
Flint and I sat on the porch, the summertime sun shining down. He leaned closer to me. “Try harder, babe. You can do this.”
Switching my vision, Flint’s cloud appeared. The single orange color danced around his shoulders, but that was it. Nothing else.
“Keep trying…tell me when you see them.” His voice sounded distant even though he sat right beside me.
I concentrated harder, willing my vision to expand, to see more.
Sweat popped on my brow after a few minutes. A trickle slid past my ear.
“Keep trying…” He sounded yards away now.
Slowly, they came into focus.
Clouds appeared around all of the plants and animals, like fuzzy white cotton balls. “I can see them!”
I’d only recently been able to master the skill of seeing plant and animal clouds. Father had been working with me for the last two years on my more elusive abilities.
Concentrating, I tried to pull the clouds together from the small creatures and trees within the forest, but it was too much. The power was too great. Shifting my vision to the side, I focused on the small clouds around a patch of wildflowers. Carefully, I lifted that aura and joined it with the cloud from a single sapling.
Together, the wildflowers and sapling auras formed a small ball of energy. Sweat beaded along my upper lip as I carefully maneuvered the ball. Bringing it behind the rock that sat on the porch beside Flint and me, I pushed the energy ball into the rock with everything I had.
The rock skittered from the porch into the yard.
My breath rushed out of me. I snapped my vision back to normal. The clouds disappeared. “I did it!”
Flint grinned. “I knew you could do it. We should get something bigger, or see if you can–” His voice stopped when the screen door banged behind us.
Amber stepped onto the porch. “Do you smell that?”
“Smell what?” The glow from my victory still flowed through me. I practically bounced in excitement.
Amber jogged down the steps. She closed her eyes and inched toward the trees. A second later, her eyes flashed open. “The forest is on fire.”
My eyes widened. All thoughts of working on my energy balls disappeared. “What?”
Her brow furrowed. “I thought I smelled something this morning but wasn’t sure, but it’s grown stronger.”
Flint and I pushed to standing.
I put my hands on my hips. “What do you mean you smelled something but didn’t say anything?”
She shrugged guiltily, her large doe eyes wide. “I didn’t think anything of it.”
I softened my tone. “Amber…fires are serious. Where do you think it is?”
She nodded in the direction she’d been walking. “That way, but the wind changes sometimes, so it comes and goes. It’s still far away. Sorry, I should have said something.”
I gave her a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay. Now we know.”
Flint’s expression conveyed nothing, but I was so in tuned to him, I noticed the slightest tightening of his jaw. “Where exactly do you think it is?”
“That way.” Amber pointed.
In a flash, Flint leaped from the steps to the porch’s roof. Another jump and he was on top of the cabin. I scrambled out to the yard, trying to get a better view of him as he surveyed above the trees. “Do you see anything?”
Flint frowned, shielding his eyes from the sun. “It would help if Mica got up here, but I think I see a very faint haze on the horizon. If that’s smoke, then the forest is definitely on fire, but it’s still miles from us. We should still tell Conroy.”
I gulped. In the fifteen years we’d lived in the cabin, we’d managed to survive the forest fires that had broken out in Colorado, but I knew we weren’t immune to them. It was our biggest vulnerability.
“I’ll get Mica first.” I dashed into the house and up the ladder.
Mica lay on her bottom bunk, legs bent. A half-read book sat propped in front of her. She glanced up when I walked into our room and did a double take when she saw my expression. “Everything okay?”
“Amber thinks there’s a fire, and Flint’s on the roof. He wants you to come up and tell him what you see.”
She dropped her book and sprang out of bed. We raced outside. Jacinda and everyone else were already standing outside when we returned, probably alerted that something was up from my panicked race into the house. Only Di and Father were missing.
“Has anyone told Father?” I asked.
“I’ll find him!” Amber rushed inside.
I hurried into the yard as Flint jumped back to the ground. He landed as gracefully as a cat, springing back up as if his joints were indestructible hinges.
He turned to Mica. “I need you on the roof. I’ll have to jump you up there.”
The grin on Mica’s face said exactly how she felt about that.
Flint reached down and picked her up. “Hold on.”
With a bend of his knees and a few quick jumps, the two of them stood on top of the cabin. Flint set Mica down and held onto her until she steadied.
“What do you see?” His voice carried down to us.
She turned toward the horizon, her gaze narrowing. Mica’s sight had improved considerably in the past few years. While Father had worked with me on gathering clouds and controlling that energy, he had worked with Mica on changing her eyes to mimic others. He’d also helped her improve her vision to allow it to zoom in and out when needed. My guess was that she had switched her vision to its highest zoom. Sometimes, on a clear day, she could see small objects over a mile away.
“Definitely a fire,” Mica said. “Looks to be burning over ten acres right now. It’s still small.”
“Do you think it’s moving toward us or away from us?” I called.
Mica shrugged. “Hard to say. If Flint and I check again tomorrow, I’ll have a better idea.”
A few hops later, she and Flint were back on the ground. Mica’s cheeks flushed pink. Excitement danced in her eyes.
I glanced at Jasper. He was glowering at Flint. Smiling, I tossed an arm around Mica’s shoulders. “Can be jarring, can’t it?”
She grinned. “I think my head’s still spinning, but that was fun. I wouldn’t mind doing it again!”
THAT EVENING, EVERYONE was pacin
g or standing at the windows with furrowed brows. Father was particularly quiet. He kept checking his computer. The internet didn’t have much coverage on the fire. It was still too small, but rangers thought it began from some hikers who’d illegally started a camp fire. They were still looking for suspects and had asked the public for tips.
It got worse over the next few days.
Each day, the fire grew. Despite fire crew’s attempts to contain it, it was coming our way. Father barely slept. At night, I heard him pacing the halls. Several times, when I got up to use the bathroom, the light was on in his study. Twice, I’d caught the sound of him on his phone, something he rarely used out here. Even though it communicated with other cell towers via satellite, it could still be traced.
On the fifth day, Father sat us down at the kitchen table. Exhaustion shone in his eyes.
“We may have to evacuate.”
The fire had grown within ten miles of us. Heavy smoke was now something we smelled daily. My heart clenched every time I thought about losing our home. I had no idea where we would live. It didn’t seem returning to society was an option. Father drummed into us on a regular basis that his outside contacts continually confirmed that O’Brien Pharmaceuticals was still looking for us.
Father finished by saying, “If things don’t turn around by tomorrow, we’ll be leaving. I’ve arranged for the chopper to arrive at eleven tomorrow night. Half of you will go in the first run, the other half in the second. We’ll all be evacuated by midnight.”
“Where will we go?” I asked.
“To one of my homes in Montana.”
“But surely we can do something!” Di said. “To put out the fire?”
“Like what?” Jet said. “Huff and puff until we blow it out? How the hell can we stop a forest fire?”
“What about the chickens?” Anxiety laced Amber’s words. Our chickens, which lived in the barn behind the house, depended on us.
Father frowned. “I’m sorry, but we’ll have to leave them behind. We’ll turn them loose, but they’ll be on their own to escape the fire.”
A horrified squeak escaped her.
Remembered Page 8
