Gravity: The Gravity Series #1

by A. B. Bloom

  "For what?" I gripped his hand tighter.

  "This." He stepped forward and my body moved with him. A second later we hit a blinding light—it made my eyes blink as they adjusted. A loud clatter and babble of voices filled the air. Exotic scents filled my nose, making my head spin as they intoxicated my senses. Heat pounded on the back of my neck and I realised the blinding light was the sun. It had felt like an age since I'd felt it warm like that—it made me realise how far the darkness had stretched. A mass of people surged around us and I realised we were standing on the sidelines of a market. Loud voices babbled and bartered. Money thrust from one hand to another. Dry spices burnt my nose and my skin slicked with sweat.

  "Where are we?" My eyes were on stalks. Surely we were on the moor with an intense darkness hangover over our heads only moments ago.

  "Marrakesh," he murmured low in my ear, his fingers weaved in tight with mine. I wondered if he knew he was still holding my hand. I was loathe to point it out, and break the contact, so I kept quiet and just absorbed every second of our skin touching, like a starved woman at a buffet.

  "Marrakesh?" I stuttered. "But weren't we just on the moor?" I turned and looked up at him. My close proximity gave me an elusive peak under his cap, and my breath was stolen from my lungs. He was so beautiful it hurt. Another reason we weren't meant to be together. I caught a flash of his violet eyes and remembered too late that he could read my mind.

  "Were we?"

  I stared at him open mouthed. "I don't know. Weren't we?"

  He offered an enigmatic smile, that slid out from under his cap, and my heart pulled in my chest, making me swallow. His violet light shone, illuminating him like a heavenly angel.

  "What do you fancy, street food? Leather goods? Spices?" He laughed and pulled me by the hand into the hub around us. This was a lighthearted side to Nick that I'd never had the opportunity to see before—it made my soul lift and fly. Our hands still joined and I wondered why he was being like this. I didn't want to question it though. I just wanted to enjoy it.

  We wove through the crowds. Brilliant coloured cottons and dazzling white swirled before my eyes. The chirp of caged birds chattered in the air, adding to intense hubbub around us.

  Some sparkling gems caught my eye as rustic silver with smooth stones flickered in the light. I pulled on Nick's hand so he'd slow down. The trinkets felt heavy in my fingers when I leant down and picked them up. I was attracted to the amethyst, although I knew it was only because the facets glinted with the colour of Nick's eyes and soul. A black cord dotted with unpolished flecks of stones jumped out at me, it ran though my hand like coarse sand. "They are pretty, aren't they?" I asked, turning to find him staring at me intently.

  "Yes." He released my hand so he could take the string and tie it around my wrist.

  An uncomfortable lump formed in my throat and I blink up at him. "Why are we here, Nick?"

  His fingers lingered on the gems against my skin. "Keep moving with me, Bron. We can't stay still too long." He grabbed my hand again and darted back into the crowd.

  "Are we under threat here?" I called over the babble of trading voices. His fingers gripped mine a little tighter. I followed the broad slope of his shoulders as we delved deeper into the market. Music filled the air, Arabic rhythms were beaten on drums. An image of what life would have been like if Nick was just an average guy at school rushed through my mind. They surged through my body with the beat of the drum. Would we have gone to prom and danced under the starry sky? He turned quicker than I was expecting. My body bumped into his which made me tingle with electricity. His hand reached for my face.

  "It would have been like this." He moved his mouth close to my ear and I closed my eyes in delight. When I opened them again we were stood alone under a dark sky. The Stars were where they always should have been—creating a dazzling curtain of diamonds suspended above our heads. Nick slid one arm around my back and pulled me in tight against him. I breathed in deeply, inhaling the lingering scent of heather and moor mingling with the spices from the market, clinging to his clothes. His nose skimmed my jaw and the blood in my veins started to bubble and boil. Gently, he swayed me, his lips humming a soft tune in my ear. My body fluctuated erratically between hot and cold as it worked out how to deal with the proximity he held me in.

  "Nick," I said, my voice tight and strained.

  "Shh." His lips brushed my ear lobe. "Let me enjoy this for one moment."

  I didn't understand why it only had to be one moment. Then I remembered that he wasn't fated to be with me. But maybe that didn't matter? Maybe we could dodge destiny and carve something unique for ourselves? Without waiting for fate to hand us a deal that didn't we want. I lifted my lips to his face, the violet eyes pulsed down onto me and I felt all at once I was flying and drowning. Gravity pulling me down lower and lower, until it was just him and I in all existence. Warm air breezed against my skin and I closed my eyes. A brief brush of lips fluttered across my mouth and warm white flames threatened to engulf me as my soul caught alight. "I'm trying so hard to be honourable." His words brushed against my mouth.

  "Honourable to who?" I kept my eyes shut, worried that if I opened them the spell cast between us would break.

  He sighed and his breath fanned over my face. "Everyone. You. Me. Everyone."

  "Why?"

  "Because I'm greedy and selfish and this whole nightmare is my fault."

  I pulled away and this time I unwillingly opened my eyes. "Why?"

  In a flashing movement, he pulled the cap from his face. It was like being blinded by the sun. Violet eyes bored into me and he pulled me close. So close I could see the smooth planes of his skin, the high graceful arch of his cheek and the wide curve of his lips as he gathered me into his arms. His mouth closed on mine. Electric white flames shot through me, my toes and fingers clenching in delight. "Don't explode," he murmured against my mouth.

  "I'm trying." I whispered back, moving myself closer—as close was possible. My lips melded with his, soft and warm and the perfect fit. The flames dragged me in and the pull of gravity wound its iron chains around me, tethering me to him. He must be able to feel it, surely?

  When he pulled away I had to stop myself from crying. It hurt—a sharp stab of separation that made my insides turn out.

  He smiled, a sheepish curl of the lips. His hands rubbed along my arms. "See, I told you I was greedy and selfish."

  I looked into his eyes. "In all honesty you can be selfish and greedy whenever you want." He chuckled and smoothed a strand of my hair, tucking it behind my ear.

  With a slow shake of his head, he lifted his fingers under my chin, staring into my eyes. "You aren't mine, Bronte." His words fell like stones down an empty well. The well being my empty chest containing a heart that was struggling to beat.

  "Whose am I then?" I shifted away from his touch.

  He stared at a distant spot over my shoulder, the violets storming like a rolling sea. "Not mine. Not now, anyway."

  I spun away from him. The Stars overhead dazzled but I ignored their distracting beauty. "What is the point of it all then?" I demanded.

  He bent and picked up his cap, pulling it firmly down on his black hair. "I don't know. I know that I would die for you. It's been a challenge for me." His lips quirked. "Watching you grow up, but there has never been a moment when I wouldn't have sacrificed myself to save you."

  "And Connor? Doesn't he feel the same?" This was low, but I wanted to hurt him, he will killing me with his words. A brooding stormy sky turned in his violet eyes.

  "Maybe? You would have to ask him."

  I looked at our surroundings. The bandstand I knew was only a glamour. The music playing like we really were at a prom on a perfect night. Apart from none of this was real, not even what I felt for him. He wasn't meant for me.

  "I want to go back." I refused to make eye contact.

  His eyes sought mine and I held my breath, willing him to speak honestly. The next moment we were back in the mar
ketplace, people swarming around us like ants. "I want to go back to camp." I clarified.

  His lips turned down at the corners. I wanted to kiss them until they smiled, but I bolted the feeling deep inside myself before he could read it in my mind. "Five more minutes. Please?"

  "Why?"

  "Because I'm greedy and selfish remember, and I may never get this chance again."

  I relented, my body slacking and submitting with little effort to resist. "Five minutes."

  He grabbed my hand, setting back off into the crowd. We passed fruit stands and I watched as his hand darted and lifted golden, speckled fruit, stealing them away before anyone could notice. He wound us through the packed walkways until we were in the edge of the market. "Come up here." He pointed to some steps that climbed the outer wall of a stone building. I put my foot on the worn steps with no question in my mind. I followed him to a roof that overlooked the hub of activity below. From up here, the cries were more distant, but the scent of all things hedonistic and pleasurable was strong and evocative. It begged to be submerged in, allowing the senses to unravel under their power.

  We sat in silence. Our legs dangling over the edge of the building, as his long fingers peeled the fruit, revealing vibrant juicy seeds. "Here." He passed me a scoop of the fruit.

  "I'm not hungry." I sounded like a spoilt sulky child but I genuinely wasn't hungry. The prospect of eating food ever again turned my stomach.

  He shrugged and let the seeds fall to the ground. I stared at them, expecting them to turn to ash like the bitterness in my mouth. "I'm sorry about Connor and I fighting. That wasn't appropriate behaviour." He kept his face turned towards the horizon.

  "I hate this." I said.

  "Which bit exactly?" I could sense the sarcasm but I didn't understand it.

  "I hate the fact you tell me you will die for me, but I don't know how that's even possible. I hate the fact I know nothing about you at all, yet you've known me my entire life. And I really," I bit back a flustered sob. "I really hate the fact you kissed me and it felt so right even though I know it shouldn't."

  He didn't look at me but he picked my hand up in his. "I'm not behaving well. I'm sorry."

  "Is it because you aren't fated to me?"

  His fingers squeezed mine. "Who told you about that?"

  "Celeste."

  He sighed. "Not exactly."

  "Who are you fated to?" I wanted to die at the prospect of his answer but I needed to know. I wanted to know that there was someone else.

  His fingernail scratched along the loose dried paint of the wall. "It's not important."

  My stomach lurched. If he was fated to someone. Why was he kissing me then?

  I was sliding off the wall, ready to find my way back to camp when he spoke again. "Stars can only die one of two ways. We can have our energy stolen. The power we possess is a commodity that some want to harness. That's what the hunter did to the other half borns. He stole the limited power they possessed and they couldn't survive without it." His head turned towards mine before staring back into the distance.

  "And the other?"

  "A sun ray will kill us—they are rare, very rare, I haven't seen one in an age but I'm sure they still knock about. Especially now with the sky torn as it is."

  "Nick?"

  "Yes."

  "Why is the darkness still spreading?"

  He turned and I was met with the grim set of his mouth. The mouth which only a couple of minutes before had kissed me with a devouring passion. "I don't know. You are powerful, more so than the other half borns but there is something amiss."

  "Can I ask another question?" I asked. "If another half born had survived, would Connor have been fated to them?"

  He lifted his eyes and the violets read my face. "Yes."

  "So, he's not in love with me, as such?"

  He shrugged. "He could be. I guess he probably is. I don't know."

  Are you in love with me? I thought. I knew he could hear me but he didn't answer.

  "Can I ask another question?"

  He smiled. "So long as it's not about Connor."

  "Will it hurt when the hunter gets me?"

  His fingers reached and squeezed mine so tight I thought the bones would shatter. But then I remembered I wasn't weak anymore—I was full of an energy someone wanted to steal.

  "I won't ever let that happen."

  I spun and swung my legs off the wall. "How do I get back to camp?"

  He stood alongside me and a heavy expectancy filled the air. "It's just at the edge of the market."

  "Are we really in Marrakesh?" If we were, I couldn't believe I'd visited North Africa and not actually explored more. I would probably never get the chance again.

  "Did you think the camp would be on the moor in Yorkshire?"

  I laughed a little. "It is very glamorous."

  Nick laughed and for a moment, I forgot the events of the afternoon had bruised my heart. "Well it is, but Kesh is rather fond of Africa. He always comes here when he falls."

  "How many times . . .”

  He cut me off. "Another question?"

  "Last one. I promise."

  "Last one." A flicker of a smile flashed across his face.

  "How many times have you fallen?" I asked.

  From under the cap I witnessed a flare of violet flame and his unique energy flickered. "More times than I can count."

  "Oh. Why?"

  "It's gravity that pulls me here." He stared at me, but in truth, I didn't know what to say so I turned for the stairs leading me back to my destiny.

  I had one more question I was desperate to ask but terrified by the answer. How long would he exist for if I chose the day over night? Either way, I knew there could only be a goodbye for Nick and I.

  We walked back into camp, a conservative distance between us. Before we'd walked over the first of the guy ropes, a hand shot out and grabbed my jacket. I peeled a scream that tore through the air, ripping it in two.

  "Where have you been?" Connor thrust his face into my space, making me recoil and lose my footing. Nick's hand darted out and held me steady, but once I was straight, he quickly released me. I knew that our time in Marrakesh had been a one off. My chest gave a resounding thump.

  "Jeez." I frowned at Connor, who seemed even more intense than usual.

  His hands grabbed my face, his eyes searching mine. "I've been going out of my mind."

  "Why? You must have known Nick was coming to collect me from my house." His expression hardened at the mention of Nick's name but I couldn't bring myself to feel bad.

  "The town's on fire, Bronte. It's burning with rioters. We can't find Lauren. She's not at her house."

  I stared at him unblinkingly. "Sorry, what?"

  "The town, it's been set alight," he repeated. "We can't find Lauren. We've been keeping tabs on her and your mum but we've lost her."

  "But that can't be, Aaron gave her a lift home hours ago." A shudder ran through me. "Where's my mum?"

  "She's at home. Abel is watching her and she seems okay. Scared by the fires but okay."

  I breathed a sigh of relief. "We need to find Lauren."

  Connor released his hold on my face. As he pulled away, I noticed the freckle smattering he had across his cheekbones was completely symmetrical. I shook my head—this wasn't the time to be noticing freckle patterns. "You can't go anywhere. The hunter is here. It's his team that are starting the fires, the rebels are here and moving in." His eyes flickered to Nick, his gaze intent. "They are armed."

  "What? They can't be! I saw them walk by my window earlier. They were humans." I was shocked. This was all going to be over quicker than I thought.

  I turned to Nick, whose face had gone a deathly pale under the dark sky. "They were outside her house?" Nick asked him, his face aghast.

  Connor turned a sneer across his face. "Head in the game, hey, Nick."

  I launched myself between them before they could start anymore firework battles. "Stop it. We need to find Laur
en."

  "No," they both said at once. Nick softened his stance. "We need to keep you safe."

  "Connor!" A high-pitched call sounded across the camp. It was Celeste, at least I thought it was. "They are coming."

  Nick and Connor faced each other and footsteps thudded on the dried earth as Kesh darted into view. "Connor," he commanded. "Go with Celeste, try and lead them away." He turned to Nick. "Nick, you protect Bronte at all costs. She is still the key, no matter what, she is the key."

  My stomach lurched. What about Lauren? What about Nick? Were they expecting him to sacrifice himself for me? I wouldn't allow it—destiny or no destiny.

  "Shh." He signalled me with his hand, his thumb rose and pressed against my lips. "Listen to me at all times. Do you understand?"

  I nodded dumbly. His eyes glanced at the far side of the camp. "We will run to the blue tent. Okay?"

  I eyed the tent, it didn't seem too far. "Okay."

  "Whatever happens, you run. Is that clear?" His fingers weaved their way between mine. They gripped tight enough to make my skin slick with moisture. Nick turned to Connor and with his free hand, clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, Brother."

  Connor grinned, his teeth gleaming in the dark. "I know."

  I wanted to know what they were sorry for but I also wanted to run and hide. I wanted to find Lauren. I wanted none of this to be happening. I wanted to wake up in my bed and know nothing about Stars, nothing about hunters and nothing at all about the sky being torn in two.

  Connor grabbed my hand and the three of us made an oddly shaped triangle. "It will be okay." His blue eyes glinted like liquid onyx in the dark. "I can promise you it will be okay." It was probably the nicest thing he'd ever said and my resolve against him softened a fraction. "Okay. Go."

  Kesh and Connor flitted to one another's side, their faces turned towards the edge of the camp the hunter and his pack were angling for. Nick pulled me by the hand and we ran. As we made our way into the centre of the camp, a fire of golden sparks fell onto our heads. I waited for my clothes to catch alight but the embers were cool and dissolved to a grey dust upon landing.