by Carla Thorne
I searched my dad’s face. “I don’t want food. Please tell me Gavin is locked up somewhere.”
“The doctor said you need to take your time and let your mind process what you remember.”
“Don’t do this, Dad. I know what I’m saying. I need the truth. What has been happening? Didn’t Char tell you?”
“I’ll tell you what I know if you’ll try and relax.”
I attempted to move my legs without much success. “I’m so stiff.”
“Stop moving. You need to wait for the nurse or the physical therapist. They’re going to work with you.”
“Gavin, Dad.”
“All right. What do you remember?”
“Gavin knocked me off course and down a closed trail. He tried to hurt me. We went off the side in the fight.” The pain of the memory jarred my head and heart as if I’d crashed into a wall of rough, snow-covered terrain all over again. “Jacob is dead.” Terror rose in my chest.
“OK, OK, OK… Breathe.”
“Stop,” my mom said. “She needs to take her time.”
“No! No time. I want to know what has happened.”
My dad dropped the rail on the bed and slid as close as he could. “Listen, Mary. Char told the same story. She was in much better shape than you when she was rescued. She told us everything, even how she found you and Gavin at the vending machines.” He paused. I knew my dad. He was trying not to explode. “But here’s the thing. The investigators can’t make the timeline fit. Gavin and Corey left with Erin’s mom not long after you would have seen Gavin on the slope. Between the conditions and the lift’s wait times, it’s almost impossible to see how Gavin would have been on the slope with you and then in the van with Corey a short time later.”
My world tilted and swirled in front of my eyes.
“Mary?”
“I’m all right.”
“No one knows what to make of it, especially since Gavin was not easily identifiable in his gear. No witness can positively confirm who drove you off course.”
“It was Gavin.”
“We believe that. We just don’t know how we can prove it.”
“The way he moved… It was Gavin.” My mind wandered to Jacob but refused to picture him on the ground with snow blowing around his powerful dying body. I pictured him the night on the deck. “The electrician. What about the electrician?”
“It wasn’t the electrician,” Mom said.
“I know. It was Gavin. But what about the electrician?”
She moved closer. “Arrested on his way back to Texas. He couldn’t have possibly been on the slopes.”
“I know. It was Gavin.” Agitation twisted in my gut.
Gavin had tried to kill me. Gavin had tried to kill Char. Gavin had killed Jacob.
I fought back that same scream and squeezed the blanket in my fingers until my arm burned where the IV poked my vein. “Jacob. His parents. Where are they?”
“Jacob’s parents chartered a plane and brought us all here together as soon as we heard of the accident. They’ve already taken Jacob’s body back to Texas. I know they’re in contact with the investigators, and they’ve hired their own private detective, but they’re very private people, Mary. They’re not saying much.”
I took that information and plastered it behind a wall in my head. I simply could not imagine their faces, their grief, their agony. I bit back the sorrow and put another stone in the wall until I could deal with it.
“Are Deacon, Ivy, and Scout OK?”
My mother managed a pinched smile. “Yes. They refused to leave Colorado until you woke up. Scout’s grandma and Deacon’s mom came up and they’re in a hotel nearby. Mr. Parrington stayed too.” She couldn’t hold her tears anymore and cried into her gray flannel shirt until my dad stuck tissues in her hand. “I’m just so glad you’re alive.”
Dad touched my cheek. “Your eyes are different.”
“My eyes?” I felt for my arm. “Where’s my bracelet?”
“Right here.” Mom dug in her purse. “It’s here, don’t worry.”
She secured it around my wrist and I held the angel-wing charm.
I closed my eyes. “I need to see my friends. Now, please.”
Chapter 45
Deacon
I buried my head under the covers in the hotel room and answered Char’s early-morning call.
I said hello and then we listened to each other breathe a while.
“Did you sleep?” she asked.
“Not really.”
“Me either. I don’t know if I’ll ever sleep again.”
“You get home OK?”
“Yeah. We had to stop on the way out one more time and talk to the police, but yeah. I’m home.”
“How’s the shoulder? And the knee?”
She sighed and things rustled. I imagined her as she stretched and tested her limbs.
“I’m sore, and this sling is getting old, but I’ll be fine. I see the ortho tomorrow to be sure. How are things there?”
“Still waiting to see Mary. Everyone says there’s no reason she’s not awake, then they turn around and say her body is processing the trauma and she should rest and will wake up when she’s ready.”
“Sorry, Deacon. I hoped by this morning you’d know more.”
“They said they might let us try and talk to her today if nothing new happens.”
“That’s good. She’ll wake up for you guys.”
“Why, Char? Why would she wake up to remember Jacob is gone?”
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”
“No. We’ve been over this. If anything, it’s my fault. If I hadn’t gotten myself hurt on another assignment, I would have been there to help you with yours.”
“But if you hadn’t given everything you had on the day of the fire, many lives would have been lost.”
“Why do any lives have to be lost? No matter how we look at this, it’s a tragic circle. Someone is dead. Our existence as Warriors means nothing.”
“I know how you feel now, but all I can say is, I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you, and sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes the Destroyer gets the edge. We can’t save them all.”
“Do you hear yourself right now? We can’t save them all? Screw it. I’m out. Why would I do this if I can’t make a difference?”
“Wait, Deacon, I didn’t mean to sound so cold about it. I’m only trying to say there’s only so much we can do. Everyone has to use their abilities and work together. And the reason you have to do it is because you’re the one the Creator called to do it. No one else can do your work.”
“What good is work that doesn’t work?”
“But that’s the thing. It usually does work. This was just one of the very few times it didn’t.” Her voice thickened and she sniffed. “It should have worked. I had it... I don’t know what else to say…”
“Well thank you for not saying Mary should have listened to her Protector, at least. My friend is injured and won’t wake up. Kicking her when she’s down does not help me.”
“Oh Deacon, I promise I have no bad feelings toward Mary. I’m only in pain for all of us, and I’m concerned about Gavin still being out there.”
“Whatever.” The tone of my own voice irritated me. “Look, I’m not trying to be mean either. I’m tired and I’m upset.”
“I know. I’ll let you try to get back to sleep. It’s still early.”
“No point in that, but you can answer one question.”
“Anything.”
“When you walked up to me that first day, was it because you already knew something was going down? Were we already your assignment? And, if so, why didn’t you warn us? We would have listened.”
“No. I walked up to you because I was interested. I’ve never done that before—just walk up to a total stranger and ask for a phone and force my number into it. Sheesh. I can’t believe I did that.”
“I couldn’t believe it either.”
“I told you I didn’t even su
spect the threat until after the vending machine incident. Then it became clear that next day when we were headed back to the lodge.”
“And you didn’t tell me you were headed to a fight.”
“It wasn’t your fight, Deacon. It was my assignment.”
“My friend, my fight.”
Tension mounted across the line. As much as I wanted to go back to the epic two days we had together, I knew it wasn’t going to happen.
Maybe if she wasn’t in Arkansas.
More likely never after what had happened.
“All right, Arkansas. Thanks for answering my question,” I said. “I’ll keep you posted on Mary.”
“And I’ll let you know what I hear about the investigation, Texas.”
We listened to each other breathe again.
“Hey, Deacon, we both know who’s really responsible for Jacob.”
“Yeah. And we’re gonna get him.”
Scout’s voice interrupted a nightmare.
I didn’t know whether to be upset about the dream, grateful for the sleep—even though it was restless—or aggravated it was already over.
“Sorry,” he said. “I know you haven’t slept much, but there’s news.”
“I fell back asleep after talking to Char.”
“Mary’s awake. We need to get downstairs for breakfast and then we’re all going to the hospital. I’m jumping in the shower.”
In less than ninety minutes we were on our way. My legs felt like tree trunks as we walked toward her room. Hospital smells crept up my nose and choked me. Everyone smiled and tried to be nice, but all I saw was a sea of scrubs and sick people. I wanted my friend to run toward me down the hall.
I wanted to hear Jacob wasn’t dead and that he was somewhere nearby in a bed and about to wake up any minute.
“Deacon? You OK?”
If Ivy was asking, I must have looked pretty messed up. I put my arm around her. “Yeah. Just need to see Mary.”
“Me too.” She stopped and slumped against the wall near a waiting area.
My mom and Scout’s grandma went ahead. “We’ll check it out,” my mom said. “Take your time. We’re going to see if we can get Mary’s parents to get some food or something. They haven’t left her side for days, but they might now since you’re here to stay with her a while. I understand she’s doing well.”
I nodded.
Ivy didn’t budge from the wall. “I don’t know if I can do this. Her Protector is dead. His parents are somewhere reeling with grief.” She clutched at her heart as if the pain were truly hers. “I can’t imagine.”
Poor Ivy. She took everything on herself like a heavy quilt of other people’s patchwork pain. She wore it until she collapsed under the load. My mom had said she and Scout’s grandma took turns sitting with her and holding her in the hotel room as she cried for seven hours straight.
“Ivy, I know this is hard, but Mary needs us.”
She slashed a tear from under her eye. “I know.”
Scout stepped to her side and didn’t say a word. He just moved a chunk of wet hair from her cheek.
“I should have known about this,” she said. “But I heard nothing. I saw a freakin’ black cloud before a fire, but I got nothing to prevent this from happening? Was I not listening? Did I ignore something?”
“Not possible,” Scout said. “Your intuition is spot-on. If you didn’t know, you weren’t meant to.”
“Then what is the point of all this Warrior crap?”
“I’ve been asking myself the same thing,” I said. “Char and I talked this morning, and she tries to make sense of it, but there’s no making sense of this. She’s done this a long time and she says sometimes we don’t win the battle.”
Scout scoffed. “In other words, we can’t win em’ all.”
“Yeah, but I know she’s not cold or unsympathetic, and she’s kinda right. We didn’t win. We also didn’t help anyone here.”
“We can still help Mary,” Scout said. “You guys know I understand being the one left behind. She needs our support.”
“Of course we’re going to support her,” Ivy said. “It’s the whole reason we have to support her that’s the problem. How did this happen? We’re the good guys, and Gavin is a murderer. An actual murderer, and no one can prove it. Our classmate caused another classmate’s death. What do we do with that?”
“You wait. You watch. You listen.” Mr. Parrington stepped around the wall that separated the coffee machine from bathrooms—and us. “You do your job… Warriors.”
My mouth dried up like a thousand cotton balls were stuffed inside. “Mr. P… You heard everything.”
Scout’s shoulders sagged as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. “But you already knew everything.”
“Yes.”
Ivy launched from the wall and slammed into his chest with both fists. “Then why didn’t you do something?” she screamed.
Mr. Parrington wrapped her in his arms as she wept. Scout peeled her away, and together, they put her in a chair.
People who’d paused to stare chalked it up to a dying patient and returned to their own problems.
“Listen carefully,” Mr. Parrington said and crouched in front of Ivy.
We all gathered around.
“I did not know this was going to happen. I am not a Warrior. I don’t have gifts like yours. Not even close. But I do work for the Creator, and I became aware very quickly that you four had been brought together at Stonehaven Academy for a reason. I believe that reason is to support Mary. She carries strong abilities that are important—and will be—far into the future.”
“And yet, she almost died,” Ivy snapped. “On our watch.”
“Hear what I’m saying. The Creator loves you and will sustain you in this time of grief.”
“I don’t feel very sustained,” Ivy said. “Our help didn’t show up. And where is this great Creator we work for? Why can’t we see him or her and ask for ourselves what the heck is up? All we have is your word that some supreme being loves us. How is anything that happened here love?”
“I don’t have all the answers, Ivy, but Mary will get well.”
“And a murderer goes free,” I said.
“No murderer really gets to be free,” Mr. P said.
Ivy looked like she could jump straight up out of the chair. “Really? Is that some kind of religious or exi…exist…”
“Existential,” Scout said and rubbed his temples.
“Yeah. That. Is that some kind of philosophical thing that’s supposed to help us? The murderer isn’t really free… Well, he is free. He’s at home in his own bed getting a good night’s sleep. And Jacob’s parents are…”
She couldn’t even finish in a puddle of new tears.
Mr. Parrington took the chair beside her as Scout grabbed a wad of napkins.
“All right,” Mr. P said. “We can’t do any more of this here. I’m going to say a couple more things and then I’m going to tell you all what to do, and you’re going to have to trust me.”
We didn’t acknowledge him either way.
“There is a Creator and there is a Destroyer. In my personal life and belief, the Creator is like my God. He loves me and he chose me to help people like you guys get your work done. You are special and you have abilities. Now. Again, in my world, the Destroyer is an evil being. One can’t exist without the other. For every good thing, there is a bad one, and there is always a choice. For whatever reason, you four have extraordinary and powerful gifts, and you get to use them on Earth and in a realm I can’t begin to understand. Mary is exceptionally gifted—you all are—and you were brought together to form a team with her. The Destroyer would like nothing more than to stop Mary, and he won’t give up.”
“We. Lost. Jacob.” Ivy emphasized every word with a painful punch.
“And you know what? Nothing like that will ever happen again because you lost Jacob. This is a lesson for you. Char is right. Not everyone can be saved. Bad things are going to happen, b
ut you guys need to keep going and I guarantee a murderer will not go free.”
He stood. “I know this is hard, but you guys are going to go see your friend, and you’re going to comfort each other and get through this tragedy. And then you’re going to fight again because that’s your job. You’re the only ones who can do what the Creator called you to do.” He turned to leave. “Go see your friend, and then we’re going to get you home.”
I stepped toward him. “You said you’re not a Warrior.”
“I’m not.”
Ivy wiped her nose. “Are you a Protector like Jacob?”
“No. I’m a Guardian.”
Chapter 46
Ivy
Guardian.
I stood in a haze and dried my eyes.
“Mr. Parrington is right. I have to stop all this bawling for my sake, and Mary’s, and do my job.”
Scout handed me a fresh napkin. “He didn’t say not to cry. Grieve however you need to, Ivy.”
“I will. But right now, I want to take care of Mary.”
“We all do.”
I headed down the hall with Scout and Deacon at my heels. “I think I get it now. Mr. Parrington being a Guardian makes sense. Trinity was a Guardian for me, remember? She had the big picture in mind. She stepped in when she needed to. She warned me and helped me, but she was able to fly under the radar in the realm—like between the two sides. Mr. Parrington does that. He watches everything and guards things. Like he runs interference for us.”
“Yes,” Scout said. “So, where a Protector seems to have a defending or shielding-type job for a specific person, a Guardian watches over all and looks for trouble. Like a watchman on a wall.”
“Or an early-warning system,” Deacon said.
I stopped at Mary’s door. “And then there are Warriors. Like tough-as-nails Char, Mary, and Deacon.”
Deacon shook his head as if he’d learned something new and it was too much. “And psychologically, emotionally, analytically, and logically gifted like you two. Honestly, how do you two contain the knowledge that constantly floats around in your brains? Especially you, Ivy, with all the visions and psychic stuff?”
