by Trisha Leigh
In this moment, as my body urges me to throw myself into Pax’s arms and give in, I miss Lucas so much I can’t breathe. There’s surely something really, really wrong with my head, not to mention the rest of me. Especially since Pax’s smile distracts me from what he just said, which should be far more interesting in the midst of our current discussion.
“What do you mean convince them we’re somewhere else?” I ask, trying to chase away the fog in my brain. “How—”
My confused and half-formed question is cut off by Wolf, who tenses like he did when the big brown cat appeared in the woods. The low, menacing growl threading the room is quiet, but throws me into a panic. His eyes are trained on the front door.
Pax gets to his knees. “Don’t move.”
He crawls over to the window, then peels back the tape at the bottom and raises his head enough to peer out the corner. Wolf goes with him, standing guard with his head and tail still pressing toward the ground. None of us make a move or a sound, and several minutes of silence threaten to shatter my trepidation into a million little shards. There must be someone or something out there for Wolf to react this way.
After my one-on-one time with the Others and then sleeping for the better part of an entire day, it’s not all that crazy to assume they’ve come for us. Just because they didn’t know exactly where we’re holed up doesn’t mean they can’t trace a path from Iowa to Portland and figure it out.
“Pax.”
He holds a hand up my direction, not tearing his eyes from the window.
I crawl to his side, trying to see around his big head. It doesn’t work, but he does grace me with an exasperated look. Wolf growls again.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. There’s a man in the trees, I think, but it’s hard to make out his face.”
“Move.” I shove him aside and look for myself. At the tree line, the figure largely hidden by a huge fir tree is indeed a man. A black jacket covers his head and torso, making it impossible to tell if he’s an Other. His legs aren’t visible. He could be a Warden, or he could be anyone at all. Except he’s in the Wilds.
The blanket falls back into place, blotting out the light from the full moon. Pax and I stare at each other for a few seconds, lost as to what to say.
“It could be an Other.”
“Well, it’s probably not a human,” Pax mutters, a determined set to his jaw.
“Maybe it’s Lucas. Or Deshi.” The hope in my voice rings false.
We don’t have enough information, but my gut says anyone lurking in the woods, staring at the cabin as though they know we’re in here, can’t be good. Lucas or Deshi would simply come inside if they’re looking for shelter or for the two of us, because they’d have nothing to fear.
My hands tighten into fists. “Pax, it’s an Other. We both know it. Now what are we going to do about it?”
Before he can answer, something slams into the front door. Wolf barks, a loud, warning sound, and scuttles backward as the ground trembles. Another look outside reveals the man has emerged from his hiding place and now stands directly in front of the ranger’s station. His hood slips back, exposing a thick crop of shining blond hair. His black and blue eyes nearly glow in the evening and the moonlight glints off his perfect features.
I know who he is. He’s Earth. Pamant. Deshi’s father.
His hands jerk toward our safe haven and the ground shudders again, harder this time. It rattles the walls, and dishes crash to the floor in the kitchen. In the few seconds I watch, too stunned to pull away, the ground outside yawns open, three or four two-foot-wide cracks reaching from his feet toward the front door. He takes a step back and the trees nearest the station rip from the ground and topple, slamming into the roof so hard it caves in on the side over the fire.
Wolf scuttles to my side, shivering from fear. He spins in circles, his frantic stress jangling my own increasing anxiety. Outside, at least twenty Wardens appear behind Pamant, staying clear of the raining destruction but ready to apprehend us when the damage forces us outside.
The world quakes again, knocking me off balance and into a wall.
“Pax, we have to get out of here!”
A determined look darkens his olive complexion and he stumbles toward the couch, falling twice as pieces of the floor jut up in new patterns. The whole cabin is breaking apart at the seams. He grabs our bags and stuffs as many blankets and pieces of clothing inside as he can manage. It’s not much, and tears fill my eyes at the thought of leaving everything we’ve accumulated behind, all the proof of our will to survive.
I shake it off, blinking back the tears and letting the anger heat me from the inside. Our lives are the proof that we’re going to survive, I remind myself.
As Pax returns to my side, a familiar, soul-tearing voice shouts from outside the window.
“We know you’re in there, son of Air, daughter of Fire. Come out and we promise not to harm you.” Chief’s words are smooth, calculated, but laden with so much hatred it drains the blood from my head. Before Pax and I can even form a thought, never mind a response, he continues. “If you won’t come out for yourselves, do think about your friend Deshi. And poor Cadi, the only benefactor you have left.”
His threat flips a switch in my head. I let Wolf get hurt. I pretended to be like everyone else while they disposed of Mrs. Morgan. I watched in silence while they tortured Ko until I wished they would kill him and end his misery.
It’s time I accepted my role in this world, in this fight.
In a heartbeat, with Pax’s protest barely registering, I’ve ripped the blanket off the window and shoved my hands out into the freezing cold night. Trees explode into balls of fire behind the Wardens, giving them no place to hide. Bile rises in my throat but I swallow it, setting the two Others on either side of the Prime’s son on fire until their shrieks of outrage and pain scar my soul.
The line breaks as Chief stumbles away from the Wardens and the rest search in vain for a place to hide. The display does little but buy us time because the fire doesn’t affect Pamant at all. In fact, the rumbling sound in the earth, as though a million wolves and bears and huge cats howl and screech together, clawing their way up to the surface, begins with renewed force.
This time it doesn’t stop.
Trees fall in the forest, crashes deafening and shaking my brain inside my skull. The furniture in the living room and in the unused bedroom crashes into the walls, and Pax slams sideways into a door frame and then onto the floor. Blood spurts from a gash above his eyebrow. Wolf slides across a newly sloped floor, crashing into the table at the end of the couch and yelping in pain.
“Pax! Let’s go!”
It’s like he can’t hear me. Maybe he can’t. Getting across the shuddering floor gets more difficult by the second as the quaking increases, flopping me this way, then that. Cuts open up in my knees and along my arms each time I fall and struggle forward, ignoring the pain. By the time I get to his side, Pax’s eyes are clearer and he’s trying to stand, holding on to the wall for support. The light fixture in the center of the room tears loose and smashes to the floor, missing Wolf by mere inches. More items hurtle from the walls and shelves; chunks of ceiling splatter on the floor.
The shaking stops, but by the time we move for the door three Wardens are in the room. One grabs Pax and drags him toward the back door. He’s not fighting. Instead, his body is completely limp and a dreamy look floats over his features. It’s the connection to the hive; he’s never experienced it until now.
Wolf launches himself at the second Warden, biting into his shoulder and ripping through clothing and flesh as the Other screams. The third advances on Wolf, grabbing him by the scruff and tossing him across the room. He hits the wall and slides down to the floor with a yelp, and the sight of the blood soaking his bandage again makes fury vibrate through my limbs.
The bitten Warden slumps on the floor, unconscious. I know from past experience that he won’t stay wounded for long, but for now
he’s not my problem. All of my rage over Wolf’s pain, at them trying to take Pax from me, too, flows into my palms. When I shove it forward, it hits the Warden who tossed my dog right in the face. The skin melts as he screams, clawing at his burning eyes, but all he does is set his arms on fire, too.
For the first time, it doesn’t make me sick to my stomach to watch someone in pain. It doesn’t make me happy, either, but I’m tired of the Others injuring people I love. Along with Pax, Wolf definitely qualifies as people.
He limps to my side, giving my hand a weak lick, and I rub between his ears.
Pax’s scream splinters the night, filled with enough agony to explode the stars in the sky. Wolf and I race to the back door, stopping dead in the threshold. A Warden holds Pax upright with an arm around his neck while the Prime’s son stares at him with wild, ecstatic pleasure on his face. Pax screams again, jerking against the pain I know is ripping through his head, as once again I stand by and watch. Blood trickles from Pax’s nose when he goes limp and Chief drops him into the dirt. I feel as though his blood drips from my heart as well.
Chief turns toward me, a creepy, self-satisfied smile spreading his too-red lips. “I told you to come out and no one would get hurt. Now look what you’ve done.” His eyes travel over my shoulder into the station, and I know he’s wondering what happened to the Wardens he sent in to retrieve us.
I force down the loathing at playing his game. “Pax isn’t the only one who got hurt.”
“Yes, but whether or not the two of you retain our substantial healing abilities has not been tested. There is so much you could learn about yourselves if you would simply let us study you more closely. You might find you are more like us than these humans.” He spits out the last word as though the people he rules are nothing more than muck under his shiny boots. Something to be walked across and then scraped off.
“I am nothing like you. Neither is Pax, or Lucas.”
“You can say whatever pretty words you like, but saying something does not make it so.”
Movement catches my eye as Pax stirs, biting back a groan, and he slowly shifts his hands out from underneath him. Chief remains focused on me, so I move a few steps forward, Wolf at my side. His eyes turn wary at the sight of my animal, and I suspect their mind torture has no effect on the nonhumans of this planet. The Others might have many kinds of strength, but Wolf’s teeth likely still make him nervous. If he could see his Warden’s shoulder, they would for sure.
“Your animal is injured. You should really take better care of him.”
Heat starts in my middle, in the place he poked with the insult, the one that’s sensitive and guilt-ridden over the number of times Wolf has been hurt trying to protect us. I squash it for now; losing my temper doesn’t seem wise at the moment. I wonder a little about why the Prime’s son doesn’t fear me more, since the last time he hurt one of my friends I lit him on fire.
“I told you before, you will not surprise me again. I’m ready for your tricks.”
“Are you ready for mine?” Pax’s voice rasps out the threat, and then a spinning cloud surrounds our torturer.
The wind is like nothing I’ve ever witnessed, knocking me to my knees and threatening to blow me backward into the ranger’s station. Wolf hunkers low to the ground, crawling to my side on his belly. Two Wardens lose the battle and fly through the air, slamming into the ground several hundred yards away. Chief tries to fight his way toward Pax, but he is having trouble walking.
“Althea! Come here!” The howling wind swallows Pax’s words, only impressions reaching me through the swirling gale.
I crawl to him on my hands and knees. Wolf keeps pace on his stomach. When we get there, Pax reaches out and grabs my hand in one of his, the other still raised toward the sky, whipping the world into a shrieking whirlwind. A tree rips from its roots and flies above our heads, smashing into the forest.
“We have to travel. There’s too many of them, and I can’t hold this for very long.”
“But the last time Lucas and I did that we were separated!”
Already the storm is weakening. The Prime’s son and the Wardens stop trying to stay upright and struggle to move toward us instead. I avoid their gazes, guessing they need eye or physical contact to attack with their mind powers.
Fatigue drags Pax’s face down toward his chin, those telling purplish circles around his eyes saying the torture and drawing on so much power is taking a toll. I did what I could with fire earlier, but it barely slowed them down.
The ground explodes around us, opening a huge crevice a few yards away, yawning bigger by the second. One of the Wardens falls into it, screeching as he tumbles out of sight. The noise is deafening, the earth protesting being split apart.
All of a sudden I realize we forgot about Pamant.
The Element’s eyes flash, a disturbingly cold exterior blocking emotions that I don’t have time to decipher. I may not know how to feel about my mother, but this man terrifies me now more than ever. Pax is right. If we stay here, the planet will swallow us whole. Being apart is better than being dead.
I turn back to him and nod, crushing our hands together. With my free hand I pat the ground in between us. Wolf slithers into the tight space, his eyes frantic and frightened. Pax’s gaze is sad, resigned, and I know he doesn’t think Wolf will be able to go with us, but I have to at least try.
“It’s going to be okay, Summer. Trust me.”
Pax presses against Wolf’s right side, and I push against his left. Our arms go around him, around each other, and I let the storm of heat boiling in my stomach, in my heart go. Pax’s scent of apples and cinnamon tinged with smoldering autumn leaves fills my nose, burning my throat as it grows and slams into my cloying perfume of jasmine. Soon the wind surrounds only us and Wolf, who squirms against us in the moments before everything goes black.
CHAPTER 19.
It’s not like before, the traveling. Usually I don’t notice it’s happened until the crush of utter loneliness and heavy, empty blackness threaten to smudge me out of existence. This time I still feel too light, like a floating shadow or beam of light, but I am not alone. When my corporeal body gathers back around me, it’s not accompanied by any fear. The thump of my bones into the earth is also a surprise; I’ve never woken up in unfamiliar surroundings.
Sunlight greets me. It’s morning, as always, so at least a little bit of time’s been lost—maybe. I may not be afraid of not existing, but the question of where and when I am grabs my heart in a squeeze.
White snow, as far as the eye can see, falls from huge oak and maple trees as squirrels prance through their branches. The day is new, with filmy sunshine and the morning songs of birds filling the air. Their chatter is joined by a groan, and I roll my head toward the sound. Tears fill my eyes at the sight of Pax, still looking pained and exhausted, but he’s here. With me.
He offers a weak, slow smile at the stark relief I’m sure is on my face. “Hey, I told you to trust me.”
A noise jerks my attention from Pax, from the brilliant news that we’re alive and together. It’s the sound of a stick cracking beneath a footstep. We’re in the Wilds, so it’s not a human. Maybe an animal, but Pax and I are in no condition to fight a rabbit, never mind anything more threatening.
Wolf limps out from behind a boulder at the edge of a stream a few feet away. The sight of him clogs my throat and shoves me to my knees so I can bury my face in his musky, thick fur when he drops to his haunches next to us.
Blood drips from the sagging bandages around his body. The battle in the ranger’s station was too much for his barely healed wounds, and we didn’t get away with any provisions. Even though the winter here is colder than where we came from, I shrug out of my coat and remove my sweatshirt. I still have a T-shirt on, but the icy wind chills my skin in an instant.
I try ripping the sweatshirt, but my hands are shaking. It’s the cresting emotions racing through my bloodstream and lightening my brain. Love. Fear. Desperation. The mi
x overwhelms me until there’s no strength in my arms or anywhere else. Pax struggles into a seated position and takes the smoldering shirt from me without a word, rubbing it in the snow to extinguish the evidence of my lost control. While he rips it, I unwind the bloodied shreds from Wolf’s chest and leg, then clean the reopened wound with fresh snow. Pax covers the seeping gash again with expert fingers to finish our treatment.
Wolf studies us with an unamused gaze, as though he’s asking what the heck we’re going to do now that we’ve brought him here and bandaged him up again. I’d like to know the answer to that myself.
In fact, there are a couple of questions still outstanding.
“How did you know we’d stay together?” Somehow he knew; I know he did. It didn’t scare him the way it did me, the idea of being apart.
“I lied about where I got the bracelets. Ko made them. The guy who delivered them said if we wore them they would keep us together. At first, I hoped that meant Desh would get away with me when I traveled, but he didn’t.”
I wonder why Ko didn’t give any to Lucas and I. Maybe he had planned to but the Prime took him before he could do it. “Why did you lie?”
“I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
And he didn’t want to travel, my subconscious whispers. I should be mad that Pax lied about the bracelet, but I’m still too happy that they allowed us to escape together. The strange, not-quite-real beauty of the rainbow threads makes sense now. Ko must’ve made it with his spells or magic or whatever. Now that Pax has told the truth, I swear I can feel a different energy thrumming around the bones in my wrist.
