by X, Alice
“You can stop the car now,” Ava said firmly.
To her surprise, Thomas did just that. The moment he opened his door, Rozan did too and Ava followed suit. The three of them met in front of the car, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Ava glanced at the gun still gripped in Thomas’s hand.
“What’s your plan, Thomas?” Rozan demanded. “You’re going to run away with the witch? Is this your version of Romeo and Juliet? Because just in case you need reminding, they both ended up dead.”
Thomas looked her straight in the eye. “My plans are my business. Now turn in the opposite direction and start walking.”
“What?” Ava demanded in shock. “You’re letting her go?”
Thomas kept his eyes fixed on Rozan. “Yes.”
“Thomas,” Ava said fiercely. “What are you doing? If you let her go, she will go back and continue to destroy my kind. You, yourself, said she is the driving force behind the Orion Task Force. Without her they have no hope of winning this war.”
Thomas refused to meet her gaze. “What would you have me do?”
“Kill her,” she said.
Ava squeezed her eyes closed for a second, angry and shocked by her own brutal statement.
“I know… it’s harsh… but she is responsible for the deaths of thousands. And she will be responsible for countless more if we let her go back. Please, Thomas.”
His blue eyes were bright and were flecked with diamonds of light that glittered. His scar was strangely less prominent.
“You see what her kind is like, Thomas?” Rozan said in a voice that was suddenly silky, almost maternal. “Violence is in their blood. It comes from having that kind of power coursing through you. If it were not for these amulets hanging around our necks, she would have killed me a long time ago. She probably would have killed you as well.”
Ava bristled at her words. “Thomas, you know me. You know me. Don’t let her manipulate you. Don’t let them keep their hold on you. Don’t let her walk away.”
Ava could see the decision forming in his head, and she knew in the same moment that whatever it was, no one would be able to change his mind. Rozan seemed to sense this too. Her body became more alert, and her expression took on the thread of acceptance.
“Rozan,” Thomas said clearly. “Start walking.”
“Thomas, no.…” Ava cried.
“Stop it,” Thomas said with venom as he turned on her. “I may be a traitor, but there are still lines that I won’t cross. And I will not kill Rozan Talbot.”
Ava shook her head at him. “Then she will kill us all.”
The anger in Thomas’s eyes faded. It was replaced with a dull sadness that told Ava that he did not have the ability to do more than he had already done.
“Rozan,” Thomas said raising his voice. “Go.”
Rozan turned and ran. Ava felt moisture at the back of her eyes. “Thomas, you had a chance to end this war with one bullet.”
Thomas’s eyes clouded over. “Get in the rover.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Ava spat.
Thomas took a deep breath. “We need to get someplace safe. She will be back at headquarters soon, and they’ll send an army after us. You won’t be able to outrun them alone.”
“I can try,” Ava said defiantly.
Thomas shook his head in frustration. “If you want to split up, that’s fine, but we need to find a safe place first. Then we can decide on the next move.”
Ava bit her lip angrily and got back into the rover.
Chapter 19
They spent the journey in silence. Ava didn’t know where Thomas was heading; she didn’t even really know where they had just been. Her head was spinning in a thousand different directions. It didn’t seem to matter where she landed, the outcome was always the same. She was unable to dislodge the confusion that nestled in her gut.
“Are you ever going to talk to me?” Thomas asked finally as dusk settled over the town they were driving through.
Ava continued to look out her window in silence. It looked a lot like the little cul-de-sac where she had grown up. The thought made her sad. She could never go back to that life; all she saw now was a lifetime of fighting.
Her father had been trying to protect the family from this. This was the reason he had been so passionate about staying out of the war and keeping a low profile. Peace was as far from her reach as her father and brother were now.
“Ava?”
“You know what’s strange?” Ava said abruptly as though she had not heard Thomas speak. “Sometimes I feel as though I know you like the back of my hand. And then there are times when… I don’t understand you at all.”
“Well, then we’re on equal footing,” Thomas replied, “because I feel the same about you.”
Ava turned to look at him. “What exactly are you trying to say?
“When we first started talking— just random conversations that didn’t really mean anything— you know what I thought about you?”
“Enlighten me.”
“I thought, ‘This girl… this girl is kind.’ That was the predominant instinct I had about you.”
Ava turned her attention back to the road ahead of her. “I see. And, now you believe you were wrong about me— since I wanted Rozan dead.”
Thomas nodded. “I didn’t believe you were capable of that.”
Ava sighed in frustration. “Do you hear what you’re saying? You judge me because of this. But you’re a witch hunter. You kill men and women all the time.”
“No, we don’t,” Thomas said sharply.
“No?” Ava said in disbelief.
“We bring witches in so that we can restore balance to society. We don’t kill them.”
“My mother died,” Ava pointed out, her words growing slower with the weight of her emotion. “My mother died at the hands of one of your witch hunters— the one we met just before we pulled out of the compound, actually— Vince. He shot her in cold blood. She wasn’t even a witch.”
“I… that was an accident….”
“Don’t!” Ava almost screamed the words. “Do not justify what he did!”
“I’m not. I’m sorry,” Thomas said taking a deep breath. “I don’t deny what happened to your mother was terrible and unfair. It should never have happened at all. But that was one man who made a mistake. He didn’t follow protocol. We don’t kill.”
Ava shook her head. “You are still loyal to them.”
“I helped you escape,” Thomas pointed out. “I turned my back on everything— everything— because of you.”
“Why?” Ava asked sharply.
“Why?” Thomas asked shocked by the question.
“Yes, I want to know,” Ava insisted.
“I would have thought that was obvious,” Thomas said with disappointment.
Ava tried not to be affected by that. “You may claim it’s because you have feelings for me, but the fact is I can’t know that for sure, can I?”
Thomas looked dumfounded. “How can you doubt it?”
“Because you don’t trust me,” Ava said fiercely. “I can understand that this is hard for you. I can even understand why you couldn’t kill Rozan Talbot. But what I don’t understand is why you thought you had to keep the facility’s location a secret from me. The only logical explanation is that you don’t trust me.”
“And you trust me?” Thomas asked her coldly.
“I did,” Ava replied. “I trusted you to get me out of there, didn’t I?”
Thomas barked out a laugh that was devoid of humor. “We both know you didn’t have a choice. You trusted me because you had to. And when it comes down to it, that’s not real trust, is it?”
Ava shot back. “That’s a matter of opinion.”
Thomas laughed again. “You never told me about who your father was. Or who your uncle was.”
“I did tell you.”
“No, you didn’t,” Thomas shook his head. “You confirmed it once you were found out. But you never came to me
with that information before you were forced to.”
“I have a family to protect,” Ava replied.
Thomas shot a glance at her. “Is it so hard for you to believe that that is exactly what I am doing too?”
“They are not your family,” Ava said.
“They’re different from yours,” Thomas said coolly. “That doesn’t make them any less my family. They’re all I have. And I turned my back on them for you.”
“Or, maybe that’s what you want me to believe?” Ava said trying to hold back the venom in her voice.
“Excuse me?” Thomas said in confusion.
“Maybe you just want me to believe that you’ve chosen me over them. But perhaps this is all a farce.”
“To what end?”
“To get me to take you to the Akkadians,” Ava said hotly. “So that you can infiltrate their headquarters.”
Thomas veered left and came to a halt opposite a tired looking gas station. He turned in his seat to face Ava. There was fire in his eyes.
“Is that what you believe?”
“You didn’t trust me with the location of Orion headquarters. And you let Rozan Talbot go. I also know that you happen to be exceptionally talented at manipulating the witches you’re assigned to. How do I know this hasn’t just been a drawn-out manipulation?”
She saw the muscles in Thomas’s jaw jump for a moment, but he managed to keep calm.
“I suppose you don’t,” he replied sadly.
“In any case you’re wasting your time,” Ava told him. “I wasn’t lying when I told you that we had no contact with my uncle. I have no idea where Akkadian headquarters is.”
Thomas looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t say anything at all. He simply turned the key in the ignition and started driving again. He drove until they came to a long road that was flanked by valleys that dipped treacherously. He got out and Ava followed.
“What are you doing?” she asked as Thomas moved through the rover, putting things into a large rucksack.
“We can’t keep the rover,” Thomas replied distractedly. “It’s too easy to track.”
“You’re just going to leave it here?”
“We have to make it hard to find,” Thomas said.
He motioned for Ava to move back. Leaving the rucksack with her, he got back into the driver’s seat. For a moment she thought he was going to drive off without her. The engine roared to life and the rover moved forward in the direction of the valley below. Thomas jumped out of the rover just before it hurtled down the steep cliff and into a mass of shrubbery below.
Thomas walked back, picked up the rucksack and slung it over his back. He started walking in the direction they had just been.
“Shouldn’t we be going forward?” Ava asked as she followed behind him.
“We need to throw them off our scent,” Thomas replied. “We need to confuse them.”
They walked for a long time. Ava tried several times to flag down a passing driver, but no one seemed interested in picking up hitchhikers.
“Give it up,” Thomas said impatiently. “Everyone’s scared to run into a witch or a witch hunter. They’re not going to take the risk of picking us up. And I don’t blame them.”
After several hours they arrived at a dingy motel nestled in the middle of nowhere. Thomas went inside to get them a room, while Ava waited outside. She was exhausted. Her legs ached. There were tendrils of pain working up her spine, a lingering reminder of the torture that had been inflicted on her earlier that day.
The motel room was small and dark, but at least it looked reasonably clean. Ava collapsed onto one of the beds and felt relief spread through her limbs.
“Here,” Thomas said passing her cold sandwiches. “I picked up some food for us.”
Ava unwrapped one and started eating gratefully. Opposite her, Thomas lay down on the other bed and gave a deep sigh. She was starting to realize just how complicated everything was now. When it was the two of them in a dark little cell, things seemed… more possible.
“Thomas?”
“Yes?”
“I know that tomorrow we’re probably going to go our separate ways. I know we don’t really like each other much at the moment, but for tonight can we put aside our differences and call a truce?”
“Okay,” he said with a nod.
Ava thought he was going to turn over and attempt to sleep, but he rose and crossed the small distance between them.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Since we’re having a truce, and since this is the last night we might spend together,” Thomas said softly, “this is the perfect time to kiss you.”
Ava’s breath caught. For a moment she considered turning him down. There was something in his fiery blue eyes that distracted her, and before she could sort through her muddled thoughts, he was sitting opposite her on the bed and his hands were in her hair.
The moment his lips touched hers, Ava came to the slightly troubling realization that she would not break away from him. It wasn’t that she couldn’t; she simply didn’t want to.
She relaxed into him slowly until she was sitting on his lap and her hands were gripping him as though he were her only remaining lifeline. As she slowly removed his shirt, Ava felt the cool metal of his amulet against her own chest. She shivered against it, but she pushed its image, and everything that came with it, from her mind.
Chapter 20
Ava woke up beside Thomas the next morning. He had angled his body away from her, but his hand reached out as though he were searching. Ava reached out wanting to caress him. She still felt the warmth of their shared passion during the night. Her heart lurched as reality struck her. Feeling chilly and more than a little confused, Ava slipped on her clothes and walked outside into the cold morning air.
Their truce was over; she could feel its last embers flickering around her, disappearing with the mist and leaving her alone and vulnerable. Now she had to face the decision before her and make it without flinching.
Ava walked down to the 7-Eleven beside the motel. Thoughts of parting from Thomas crashed into her mind. She struggled against the pain, reminding herself that she wasn’t sure if she could trust Thomas, and he certainly didn’t trust her. Repeating that in her head didn’t alleviate the crushing sadness she felt. I can’t leave him.
Ava was so distracted that she almost didn’t notice the short woman with bleached blonde hair looking at her suspiciously. The moment Ava looked up, the woman looked away. Ava felt her extremities grow colder. Ignoring the growling in her stomach, she turned as calmly as possible and walked back outside. A few moments later, she heard footsteps behind her.
Ava refused to turn and look behind her. She kept walking, without stopping at the motel. If the blonde woman was a witch hunter, she wasn’t about to risk Thomas’s safety by leading her straight to him.
“Excuse me, ma’am?” a high voice called behind her.
Ava didn’t stop walking.
“Ma’am?” the voice called again. “You dropped something.”
Ava knew she had nothing on her to drop in the first place. She darted right into the great expanse of trees. Ava wondered frantically how she was going to escape. She prayed that the blonde witch hunter didn’t have backup close by.
“Stop, or I’ll shoot!”
Ava came to a halt as her memory flew back to her past capture. She felt the nauseating sense of déjà vu, as she tried hard not to think about her mother’s body.
“Good, girl,” the blonde witch hunter said patronizingly. “You can turn around and face me now. Slowly”
Ava did as she was told. The woman was several inches shorter than she was, and she looked to be in her late twenties. Her face was stretched out into a bright smile. “I can’t believe that I will be the one to bring you in.”
“Who are you exactly?” Ava asked with distaste.
“I suppose you should know your captor’s name. It’s Candy.”
Ava rolled her eyes
.
“Something funny?” Candy asked aggressively.
“Nothing at all, Candy,” Ava said trying to control the sarcasm in her voice.
“You don’t have to tell me who you are,” she said, the smile returning to her face. “Of all the luck. I walked in there to get a snack, and I find you. It’s much better than a Twinkie, I’ll say that much. Is Thomas around?”
“We parted ways last night.”
“Liar.”
Ava shrugged. “Why would he stay with me?”
“He helped you escape, didn’t he?”
“He also knocked me unconscious and allowed Rozan Talbot to walk free,” Ava said calmly. “Trust me; he’s not on my side.”
“Yes, I heard,” Candy nodded. “It’s good to know he hasn’t completely lost his mind.”
“I see Talbot got back to headquarters alright then?”
“Disappointed?”
“Extremely,” Ava said honestly. “Does that mean there’s a bounty on my head?”
“There is,” Candy nodded. “And yours is substantially higher than Thomas’s. You should be proud.”
Ava tried to keep her expression straight. “There’s a bounty on Thomas too?”
“Of course,” Candy laughed. “He did betray us all. But don’t worry; he won’t suffer nearly as much as you will. He does have connections.”
“What are they going to do with me?” Ava asked.
“I don’t want to spoil the surprise,” Candy said with a wink. She came several steps closer until they were only a foot apart. “Now be a good girl and this will go so much easier.”
She kept her arm raised, with the gun pointed towards Ava, but she made the mistake of looking down at the waistband of her jeans to release the handcuffs hanging through her belt loop.
Ava moved without stopping to think. She knocked the gun out of Candy’s hand and tackled her to the ground. The gun landed a short distance from them. Candy tried desperately to reach it, but Ava threw a well-aimed punch. Candy screamed in pain. Ava rushed to her feet and grabbed the gun. She put the safety on and tucked it into the waistband of her jeans.
“You won’t get away. There are more witch hunters in the area,” Candy spat as she rose shakily from the ground. “And they’re all looking for you.”
