That boy really could sleep through anything.
Once I felt comfortable, I let go of the bed; surprised at how quickly I got back into the habit of moving around.
“Cresta, take it slow,” Echo warned, but I wasn’t interested in listening. Anything could have happened in the month that I had been out of commission- anything but one. The people around me had not seen fit to save Owen. If they had, he’d be here now; waiting by my bed for any sign that I might wake up. I knew that as well as I knew my own name.
Looking over at Casper; still sleeping peacefully, Echo’s words about him suddenly meant something very different to me.
He hasn’t left your side, not even for an instant.
“When he wakes up, tell him thank you,” I told Echo, looking over at my best friend in the entire world. “You know what, don’t tell him that,” I said, reconsidering. “I’ll tell him myself.”
“Where are you going?” Echo stood. “We still need to run some tests, make sure everything’s on the up and up.”
“And you can,” I said, making my way to the door. “I just need to get some air first.”
“Alright, I suppose,” Echo answered. He wanted to stop me, I could tell. But he could tell I wasn’t in the mood to be stopped. I grabbed a pair of sweatpants slung across the chair that seemed to be my size and ducked into the bathroom. A splash of water to my face and a much-needed tooth-brushing later, and I was standing outside.
It was here now, with a warm wind moving through the trees, that I could finally feel some evidence of what had happened to me. My skin prickled like it hadn’t felt the sun in some time. And the breeze moving through my hair sent cozy shivers up and down my back. It was quiet out here, the sort of quiet that could only exist inside the Hourglass; where nature had been stripped of animals and insects. It was strange to think that, just a few miles from here, armies of Breakers readied themselves to take my head off.
It was warmer than I remembered it being, which made sense since I had been out of commission for a month. Running fingers through my hair, I took a deep breath. The weight of everything that had happened started piling onto me like bricks being laid across my chest. Owen was gone. Flora was gone. The Breakers knew. Renner, Royce, and the rest were going to try to get me out of here, Echo said as much. And maybe that’s what I should have wanted. God knows I wasn’t safe within these walls, even if what Casper said was true, and the anchors that surrounded this cabin and its grounds kept me hidden. How long before the Council found a way around that and came for me? It was a miracle that it hadn’t already happened.
But, even though I should have wanted to run away and never look back (fight or flight instinct and all), all I could think about was Owen and what he said to me before I left. He made me promise not to come for him, to live the rest of my life without him and to try to be okay with that. He might as well of asked me rip my heart out and try to live without that. It would have been just as hard. No, I needed to find a way to get to him, to break him out of whatever hellish cell the Council almost surely had him rotting in, and take him wherever it was Renner and the rest were trying to take me.
“Cresta…” I recognized the Southern twang almost immediately. Royce stood in the distance, wearing a pair of jeans and a tight black t-shirt that made the muscles in his arms look big and defined. He had a knife in one hand and a bundle of wood slung across his back with a leather strap. His eyes- copper, not raven- widened when he saw me. “Echo told me you’d be awake any time now, but seeing you up and about is different, I suppose. How are ya, Sweetheart?”
“We need to find Owen,” I said instinctively.
Royce’s eyes steeled over, his jaw set, and he looked away from me. “Good to see you too,” he muttered. He adjusted the wood across his back and brushed past me, grazing my shoulder on the way. “Uncle Renner’s doing better, not that you asked.”
A spike of guilt hit me. Renner had gotten hurt badly saving me from the Council and its army, and I hadn’t even thought about him. “Look,” I sighed. “It’s not that-“
“No, you look Sweetheart.” Royce turned back to me. “I get that, at the moment, your mind is sort of messed up. You’ve got a lot going on. We all do, and I guess it makes sense that you wanna cling to what ya know. But there are a lot of people who gave up a lot of things to get you this far, and I ain’t talking about me. You miss your boyfriend. Can’t say I blame ya. Seemed like he had that whole ‘sensitive dude’ thing down pretty good. But he’s the Dragon, and even if he wasn’t, he’s lost to us. We’re already behind enemy lines here. There’s no way you’re gonna convince these people to jump back into the belly of the beast just ‘cause you miss your sworn enemy’s bad touch.”
As usual, when Royce went on one of his rants, there were about a million things I took issue with, but it seemed pointless to fight him on most of them. So I decided to focus on just one.
“I don’t need to convince them,” I said, walking toward him. “Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to. Renner’s hurt, I’m still not sure I can trust Dahlia, and I wouldn’t risk Casper. All I need is you and maybe Echo. We’ll get in and out quickly. They won’t even know we’re there.”
“And how are you gonna manage that?” His eyes narrowed at me.
“The same way I manage everything; with shade. I hid my presence from Dahlia twice. She had no idea I was there. If I can-”
“Are you listening to yourself, Sweetheart?” Royce scoffed. “You think ‘cause you fooled some two-bit school teacher who probably wasn’t even looking for ya, that you can take on the Council of Masons and every Breaker from here to kingdom come?” He shook his head hard. “Nope. Not gonna do it. Even if you were right, which you’re not, you need to keep as far away from the Dragon as humanly possible. He’s bad news, Sweetheart.”
“He’s not-“
“I ain’t fighting you!” Royce snapped. “I just ain’t going.” He gave me a quick nod and an infuriating smile, then started back toward the cabin.
“Then I’ll go by myself,” I muttered, trying not to sound weak.
Royce whipped back around, walking toward me in a manner that could only be described as swagger. “Is that right?” he asked, licking his lips. “See, I think you’re bluffing.”
“I’m not,” I lied.
“You and I both know that you wouldn’t last two days out there if I wasn’t alongside ya. Even if you managed to steer clear of the Council, there’s enough shade out there to send you vibrating off into another universe.” He traced my bare arm with his index finger lightly. I could feel the energy that had built up just by having him around drain out of me with sweet aching. “Our bodies,” he leaned in, whispering into my ear. “They react to each other. We fit together.” He leaned back, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Like it or not, you need me.” He gave me a wink. “You need me real bad.”
As quickly as he had turned toward me, he turned away. With his back facing me and walking back to the cabin, he said, “I know it’s not what you wanted to hear, but try not to take it too hard, Sweetheart.”
I stood there for a few minutes, feeling all impotent and sullen. I needed to find Owen, to save him. Sure, it was an awful idea. I knew that. Everything that Royce said was very true. But just because he was likely surrounded by a Breaker army that was salivating for my blood and I’d likely be caught and killed miles before I even made I to him, that didn’t mean I shouldn’t try.
That-that makes sense, right?
It didn’t matter. Owen had saved my life countless times. I loved him and, even if he himself wanted me to run far away and never think of him again, I wasn't about to abandon him like that. Saving Owen was the right thing to do, even if it was a fool’s journey. Still, Royce had a point. I was basically a walking shade sponge and, though the idea of it made my skin crawl, my body did react to him. It was like fate’s cruel joke; that I’d be tied physiologically to somebody as arrogant and all around distasteful as Royce. But the truth was all
the shade around here almost killed me, and if I couldn’t count on him to help me relieve the pressure, I’d likely explode before saving Owen even came up in conversation.
No, I was going to have to play along for a bit, pretend I agreed with everybody when they said I needed to let this go, and then somehow convince Royce to do the right thing.
Sighing, I marched back inside, still a bit wobbly on my feet. When I opened the cabin door, the scent of bacon, still on the stove, wafted toward me. The way my stomach reacted, all loud and primitive, would have embarrassed me if anyone had been there to hear it- or if I wasn’t so damn hungry.
As it was, I marched zombie-like toward the kitchen and the absolutely heavenly aroma. Turns out being comatose for a month makes you totally famished, because as I neared the kitchen, practically tasting the salty goodness on my lips, I forgot about all the other stuff that was weighing on me.
The kitchen was empty when I broached the doorway. Only bacon, still sizzling on the stove, was there to greet me. I started toward it, scanning the room for a plate and fork, and hoping that the food’s rightful owner didn’t arrive to stop me before I fed my face, but something stopped me short.
A shimmer, the slightest turn of light, rippled across my vision. If I had been anyone else in the world, I would have probably ignored it. Hell, if I had been me from a year ago, I would have ignored it. Who notices little, almost invisible ripples in the air? Somebody who knows what they really mean; that’s who.
I pulled myself to a stop, inching back into the doorway. That ripple was a telltale sign of shade. Somebody was trying to hide something, but what? I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. When I opened them, I could see the lies before me. The bacon was real, but it wasn’t cooking. It sat still packaged on the cold stove. I was more than a little disappointed when I realized I wouldn’t be able to eat it, and completely devastated when I found that, now that I could see past the shade, I could smell past it too. And, as a result, the heavenly scent had vanished.
Looking further through the shade, I saw that I wasn’t the only person in the room. Dahlia and Echo stood at a corner, turned toward each other, seemingly unaware that I was here or that I was peering past their illusion.
“Of course, it’s different now. You know why it’s different now!” Dahlia shouted. I wondered if it was harder to mask loud noises because, if it was, the octave her voice just reached made this illusion an Olympic level feat.
Echo looked even more tired than he had in Casper’s room as he answered her, fingers tapping wildly across the nearby counter top. “All I’m saying is; we need to take our time, really consider our options.”
Dahlia’s eyes widened at this. I knew that look. It was a ‘you’re gonna regret you ever tried to talk sense into me today, buddy’ look. Echo knew it too, because he lifted his hands, trying to calm her, but it was too late. “And what would those options be, pray tell? She’s awake now, Echo. There’s no more time to consider things. We can’t tread water anymore, not when she’s conscious and healing.”
They were talking about me. Of course, they were. What else did anybody talk about these days? I leaned in closer, bracing myself against the doorway with my right hand. I shouldn’t be eavesdropping like this, but I still didn’t completely trust Dahlia and I needed to know what she meant by treading water. Because, they were talking about me, and that made it sort of my business, right?
Pulling at an unnoticeable small amount of shade, I weaved an illusion for myself, making it impossible for them to know I was here. For all the crappy things being a Breaker had brought me, the power set was sort of cool.
“You’re afraid that, now that we can move her, they’re going to want to take her out of the Hourglass?” Echo asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“Of course not,” Dahlia answered with a diminutive wave of her hand. “Getting her out of the Hourglass was always the plan. I’m afraid of where they’re going to take her.” Dahlia walked closer to her husband. “Think about what’s going on here; this cabin, the Raven being placed covertly within the Hourglass, Renner showing back up.”
“It’s her mother,” Echo explained. “Renner told you Cresta’s mother orchestrated this to get her to safety.”
“Don’t be daft. You knew the Luna girl, Echo. Does this seem like the sort of thing she could put together? Does it seem like the sort of thing one person could do on their own, or even a small group- like Royce and Renner are claiming?” She shook her head. “They infiltrated the Hourglass. They got in somehow. How impossible should that be? And you’re telling me that Cresta’s mother and some ragtag group of Breaker accomplices- at least one of whom wasn’t even raised here and knows next to nothing of our ways, bypassed security measures that have kept our people safe for over a hundred years?”
Echo watched her for a long moment, seeming to consider everything she had said. “What’s your point here, Dahlia?”
“I think we’re being lied to,” she answered quickly. “I think there’s more going on here than we’re being led to believe.”
“Renner was your friend, your best friend, if I remember correctly,” Echo answered, his fingers still drumming wildly.
“That was a long time ago, and given how thoroughly he deceived me back then, I’m not sure I ever really knew him.” She ran fingers through her perfectly coiffed hair. “But that doesn’t matter, not when there are so many forces lining up. We’re dancing along the edge of a knife, Echo. One wrong move, just one, and everything that is, was, or ever might be will turn to ashes in our hands. We’ll be the generation responsible for the end of the world.”
Echo peered at his wife for a long moment, studying her up and down. “What are you suggesting we do, Dahlia? Have we really come this far and betrayed our people just to have you ask me to turn around and hand Cresta back to them?”
Dahlia’s icy blue eyes narrowed. I had no idea what she was going to say. Sure, I wanted to believe that, at this point, she would think enough of me to at least not want me dead anymore. But she was right; the world was at stake and, with each passing day, it seemed things spun more and more out of control. I braced myself when Dahlia opened her mouth to respond.
“I told you I was behind you in this, and I meant that,” she said, staring at her husband. “You might not believe that Cresta’s life is important to me, but you should believe that you are.” She walked closer, stopping short of laying hands on him. “They took our home. They took our daughter. They took our entire lives, and now I’m not even sure they had a reason.”
“Dahlia, I-”
“Wendy was with her, Echo.” It was the first time I had ever heard Dahlia say her daughter’s name; the name she picked for herself shortly before her death. “There had to be a reason for that. Our daughter wasn’t stupid. She sacrificed herself to save this girl, and I won’t let her death be for nothing.”
Echo smiled. It was a pained smile, but it was also a proud one. “So what do we do?”
“We keep our eyes open,” Dahlia replied. “Like it or not, Cresta is our responsibility now. Truthfully, she has been since the night she showed up on our doorstep. And until we can trust that Royce, Renner, and whoever else is involved in this have her best interests in mind, we can’t make any big moves.”
Echo shook his head. “So you don’t want us to get her out of the Hourglass? Fate’s hand, you’re confusing me.”
“Not until we know we can trust them.”
“They saved her life!” Echo answered loudly.
“To what end?” Dahlia replied, matching his tone. “Sure, I could understand a mother going to the ends of the earth for her daughter. Fate knows if I had the chance, I would have. But this isn’t just a mother. Trust me, this is much bigger. It’s an entire movement, and movements don’t spark out of a mother’s love alone. Whoever Cresta’s mother has backing her has their own motives, and I’m not comfortable leaving her with these people until I know what those motives are.”
Echo sighed loudly as his fingers slowed to a stop against the counter. “We don’t have that luxury. I checked Cresta’s vitals right before she woke up. Just because her condition is under control doesn’t mean it’s slowed at all. And the constant flow of energy isn’t good for her. Even with Royce around to siphon the excess shade from her body, she can’t stay here much longer.” I felt my hand burn against the wall, as if Echo’s words spurred my condition anew. “The Blood Moon rises in five days, Dahlia. We need to make our move then, because after that, we both know that Lorelei herself wouldn’t stand a chance of getting out of here.” Echo bridged the small gap between them and, unlike his wife, didn’t stop himself from scooping her up into a hug. “I know it’s been hard,” he said. “And I know that we don’t understand everything right now. But we have to believe that fate has a plan for us. Right now, Royce and Renner are our best shot at keeping Cresta safe. But I swear to you, the instant that changes, they’ll have to deal with me.”
She looked up at him, her eyes softening a bit. “Alright then,” she conceded.
“Cresta!” My name sounded throughout the kitchen. I snapped back around. Casper was standing there with a soda in one hand and a befuddled look on his face. I winced. Casper startling me had broken my concentration, which meant the shade illusion I was using to hide from Echo and Dahlia was gone; which meant they knew I was spying on them.
I was about to tear Casper a new one for screwing things up like that, but his reaction to seeing me put a stop to that. His eyes were wide and horrified. The soda in his hand fell to the ground, fizzing and bubbling over. With quivering lips, he muttered, “What the hell did you do?”
His eyes traveled to the wall beside me. With no idea what he meant, mine followed his gaze. My hand was bloody and shaking, still pressed against the wall. I gasped when I caught sight of what had happened. Somehow, while eavesdropping on Echo and Dahlia, I had unconsciously carved something into the wall…with my fingernails.
The Breakers Ultimatum (YA Urban Fantasy) (Fixed Points Book 3) Page 3
