by Dune, Kyra
With my sneakers on the correct feet, I set about trying to tie them. Now, you wouldn’t think tying your shoes in the dark would be all that hard, right? Your brain knows what to do and your fingers should naturally follow suit. Nope. I don’t know if it was the dark, or my nerves, or some combination of both, but I swear it took me five minutes of fumbling and muttering under my breath to get both of my shoes tied.
All the while I was listening to the sounds around me, so sure someone was going to sit up and ask me what I was doing. I had no lie prepared to answer them with. Luckily for me, I didn’t need one. I slipped out of the bedroom and into the living room without getting caught. There I paused for a couple of seconds to steady my breath and my nerves. It had been a straight shot from my cot to the door so I’d had no trouble. It was going to be a little trickier getting across the living room.
I thought I knew the layout of the furniture well enough not to run into anything, but I went slow anyway. Just in case. And I was doing fine too, until I kicked my left foot into the leg of the chair by the door.
The vibration rattled through my injured ankle and I bet you can guess how that felt. I said a word that would have landed me grounded for a month if my mother had ever heard it coming out of my mouth.
I can’t begin to describe how thankful I was when I finally made it out into the hall. I had to take a moment to squint through slit lids until my eyes got used to the light, and then I had no trouble getting on my way to where Zack would be waiting for me. So long as I didn’t run into anybody out for a late night walk.
Zack was where right where I expected him to be. He was even standing in the exact position I expected him to be standing in. I swear that boy had leaning and scowling down to an art form. No doubt due to all the practice.
“What’s wrong with your leg?” he asked.
“Training accident,” I said. “My ankle is banged up a little, not broken. No big deal.”
Zack studied my face a moment before pushing off from the wall. “Megara’s been coming down on you pretty heavy?”
I shrugged. “She’s training me for a war. Did you find us a couple of flashlights?"
"Yeah." He handed one to me.
"Good. Now come on, let’s go before someone catches us. My skulking skills aren’t as refined as yours.”
“I do not skulk.”
“Whatever.” I led the way to the room with the hidden panel in the ceiling. But all the way there I felt that eyes-on-my-back kind of crawly feeling along my spine. At the door, I turned and swept my flashlight along the empty hall.
“What?” Zack followed the light with his gaze.
“I thought I heard something.” Because that sounded less silly then saying I thought I felt something. “Did you?”
“No.”
I shook my head. If Zack didn’t think anything was off, then it wasn’t. “I guess it’s just my nerves working on me.”
“Sneaking around will do that to you.”
“No kidding.” I stepped into the room and used my power to slide the panel out of the way and let the ladder down. Then I stepped back to let Zack go first. Habit, I guess, since Jonah always took the lead.
“You first,” he said. “In case you slip on that bad ankle.”
He made good sense. I tucked the flashlight into my waistband and started up. That same old worry about getting stuck filled my mind, but added to it was the thought of getting stuck with Zack beneath me. I really would die if that happened, I was sure.
Of course, I didn’t get stuck. I climbed out through the hatch and took my flashlight in my hand again, it was the first time I’d been out there after dark. The trees hung thicker over the path than they did during the day.
Zack flashed his light around the immediate area. “This is not very secure.”
“It’s not like anybody goes wandering around this deep in the woods,” I said. “And the trapdoor would be kind of hard to find from inside the bunker.”
“Yeah. So how did Jonah find it?”
I opened my mouth only to find I couldn’t answer the question. It had never crossed my mind to wonder at that, let alone to ask Jonah about it. “Does it matter?”
“Maybe.” His light fell on the path. “This leads to where you train?”
“Yes.” I made a face at the back of his head as he walked away. The last thing I wanted to do was start wondering over how Jonah had managed to find the hidden panel in a dark and abandoned room when he had no good reason to even suspect it might be there. But now Zack had gotten me started thinking about it, I couldn’t possibly stop.
I followed him up the path, intending to demand to know just what he was thinking about Jonah and the secret exit, but then I stepped out from under the trees and all thoughts were swept right out of my head.
Moonlight filled the little clearing at the end of the path, turning the stream into liquid silver and rimming the tree leaves with frost. Such bright light it rendered our flashlights completely pointless.
As you well know, I’m not usually the poetic type, but it was all so beautiful. Not like real life at all. More like a painting, or some scene from a fairytale. I half expected to see a faun peering out at us from under a bush.
My lips spread in a silly grin and I didn’t even care. It felt as though I’d been lifted up out of the crazy, miserable mess my life had become and transported someplace magical. I wasn’t me anymore. I was a girl in a fantasy story.
It started to snow. Great, big, almost comical snowflakes. I laughed out loud and then clamped my hands over my mouth because the sound was so loud in the stillness. I couldn’t believe it was really snowing. It seemed it wasn’t cold enough for it. And then I realized it was only snowing on our side of the stream.
I turned to Zack and the look in his eyes stole my breath. I stepped closer. He put his arms around me and our lips met. It was only a brief kiss, but sometimes those are the best kind.
“I’m not boyfriend material,” Zack said, his voice as soft as the snow at our feet.
My hands were on his chest and I could feel how fast his heart was beating. It was right in tune with mine. “That’s a matter of opinion.”
“You really would be better off with Jonah.”
“Maybe. But I don’t want Jonah. I want you.” Pretty bold, I know. But the moment wouldn’t let me be anything less.
He brushed his thumb across my cheek. “You turned my world inside out.”
“Are you sorry you met me?”
“No. But I am sorry for what I’ve done to you. You could be back in Arizona. Safe.”
I shook my head. “If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else. And things could have turned out much worse.”
“It still could. If Megara has her way.”
And just like that, reality came crashing straight into my fantasy. Isn’t that the way it always goes? “I’m not giving in to Megara. I know all my friends are worried about that. Are you?”
Zack looked steadily into my eyes. “I think in most ways you’re stronger than any of them give you credit for. But you have a weakness. You want to fix the world. People like Megara were born to manipulate people like you.”
“Nobody is manipulating me,” I said. “What about you? Hannah said Megara has you battle training dragons for her. What is that about?”
“You,” he said. “If I didn’t agree to do this for her, she was going to kick me out of the bunker. I couldn’t leave you.”
I was too stunned to speak. I’d told him I wanted to know one way or the other, and I guess now I did. I slid my arms around his neck and this time I kissed him. We were so close and the heat between us was... intense.
When we pulled apart I wasn’t the only one who was a little breathless. “We better go back in. I need to get at least a few hours sleep tonight.”
A pinched line appeared between his eyes. “You aren’t going to train with an injured ankle?”
“Not with Megara. She told me to take a rest which w
as pretty shocking, actually. But I think I can handle training with Jonah. Will you stop making that face? I’m training with Jonah and I don’t want to hear anything about it, okay?”
“Just don’t trust him too far,” Zack said. “You don’t know what might be going on in his head..”
“Okay.” I guess once a guy decides to be jealous, a girl can’t convince him to be otherwise. “Let’s go back.”
Zack stayed with me all the way to my room. Risky, maybe, but just walking along holding his hand made me too happy to care. So happy I almost could have floated without even using my powers.
We kissed a brief goodbye at the door, and then he was gone. But I carried the tingle of his lips on mine and the memory of the warmth of his embrace with me to bed. It was the beginning of us. And with that thought in mind, I had no trouble falling asleep.
CHAPTER TEN
I actively avoided my friends after that little episode in the cafeteria. Used to be, I couldn’t tell a lie to save my life. And keep secrets from Brandy? Never. But I seemed to be getting better at it. I was glad she decided to stay, even though her continued loyalty filled me with guilt. I wanted to tell her about Zack. About how instead of going every afternoon to train with Megara over that next week, I was meeting up with him instead. If I thought she would have been cool about it, I would have. But I knew better.
Zack and I couldn’t do much, really. I mean, it wasn’t like we could go on a date or anything. We couldn’t even have lunch together because I didn’t want my friends to see me with him. Most of the time, I just hung out while he battle trained. It seemed safe enough.
“Concentrate, Dee.” He gave this poor water dragon a death glare. “You should have this down by now.”
I felt kind of sorry for her. He wasn’t rough physically, the way Megara was, but his words could cut like knives. I’d been on the receiving end of that a time or two, so I knew how it could hurt as much as a blow.
Dee, who was maybe a year or two older than Zack, licked her lips. “I’m trying.”
“Trying? You’re trying? You are not trying, or you would have it already.” He laid his hand on the back of her neck.
I knew he was tapping her powers. Standard battle training. He’d done it to me, but only once. Zack was of the opinion I was too unstable for that kind of training. But even though I knew what it was all about, seeing him touching another girl brought on this jealous feeling anyway. I guess it’s not only boys who get that way sometimes.
Dee had been trying, and failing, to use battle training on an air dragon named Frank. With Zack’s help she dropped him easy. He hit the floor with a dull thud, his lips faintly blue. Dee grinned with pleasure. Until she got a look at Zack’s face, that is. Then her smile slipped away. I could sympathize.
“Are you proud of yourself?” Zack asked. “Don’t be. You should be able to do that without my help. Get out of here. All of you. Training is done for the day.”
Dee helped Frank to his feet and they joined the other dragons in leaving. None of them said a word to Zack. I got the feeling they didn’t like him much. “Don’t you think you might have been a little harsh on her?” I asked, coming down from the bleachers where I’d been sitting. I can’t imagine what the military might have used the room for. It kind of looked like a high school basketball court.
“You think I enjoy this?” he asked. “You think I want to be here, training these dragons so they can maybe kill a few people before they die?”
To be honest, I really hadn’t thought he worried too much about other people’s lives. “You think they’re going to die?”
“Yeah. I do.” Zack rubbed a hand across his eyes. “If we don’t get away from here, we all might.”
I shook my head. “It’s safe here. Don’t you feel better knowing no one is hunting us down?”
“But they are,” he said. “They’re still out there. And they still want the same thing. You. Only this time when they come we’ll have nowhere to run. This place isn’t a sanctuary. It’s a tomb.”
A chill ran down my spine. “Wow. Thanks a lot. I really needed to hear that.”
“I call it like I see it.”
“You know what? You sound exactly like Brandy. Why do you always have to go to the darkest side of things?”
“Why do you want to pretend everything is rainbows and puppies?”
“So I don’t go crazy,” I said. “I can’t live in this dark hole you and Brandy are always down in. I won’t. I don’t know what her problem is, but being a tracker has clearly warped your mind.”
“It’s called living in reality. You might try it sometime.”
Heat rushed into my face. “And you might try not being a jerk. But I guess that would be too hard for you.” We’d managed to go a whole week without getting on each other's nerves, so I suppose we were due an argument. But it was so frustrating, going around and around in circles with him. Maybe all relationships were like this. How would I know? If they were, then it was a mystery to me how people ever stayed together.
“I’m out of here.” I stormed from the room. Somehow, even knowing Zack as well as I did, I still kind of hoped he would follow after me and try to make up. He didn’t.
I fumed all the way back to my room, my head filled up with all the nasty things I wished I’d said to him. Calling him a jerk didn’t seem nearly harsh enough.
Brandy was the only one around. She was sitting on the couch with a hard backed book opened on her lap. It was so normal, so like the way things used to be, I came this close to breaking right down and telling her everything. I opened my mouth and the words were right there, ready to spill out. Then she lifted her head and gave me this look.
“Do you know what today is?” Her tone suggested the answer had better be yes.
I blinked. My brain stumbled about a bit, but couldn’t find any answer to latch on to. “No. Why? Should I?”
Her sigh was heavy with disappointment. “It’s Curtis’ birthday. If you even care.”
Ouch. That stung. “Of course I care. I... I’ve had a lot on my mind and the days got away from me.” That sounded lame even to me and clearly Brandy wasn’t buying it. “Okay. Fine. I’m a horrible person. I forgot my cousin’s birthday. Where is he?”
“He took his camcorder and left awhile ago. I don’t know where he went. I don’t know where anyone goes these days.”
Something in the tone of her voice made me stop and look at her. I mean really look, like I hadn’t in a long time. When you’re around someone every single day, you stop seeing them. You know what I mean? I think that’s why people are always surprised when someone close to them does something terrible. They say it came right out of the blue. I don’t think so. I think the warning signs are there, we just don’t see them.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Brandy dropped her gaze back to the book. “I’m fine.” She fiddled with the buttons on her shirt. A shirt which hung much too loosely from her frame. Brandy had always been supermodel thin, but not in that hollowed out kind of way. She didn’t look exactly anorexic right then either, but I definitely saw bones protruding where no bones had protruded before.
“You are not fine.” I walked over to the couch. “Are you sick? You look sick.”
“I’m not sick. I...” She shook her head in that I-have-no-words kind of way. And if you’ve been paying any attention at all, then you should know speechless was not a word typically associated with Brandy LeVine.
Something was definitely wrong here and I felt like the worst kind of person for not noticing right away. “What’s going on? You know you can talk to me about anything.”
“Can I?” The words hit me almost as hard as the cold accusation in her eyes. “The last time I tried talking to you, you blew up in my face.”
I winced. “I know. And I’m sorry. It was a bad day, not that it’s any excuse. But I promise to listen better this time.” I sat down beside her.
“You seem happy,” she said. “I’m glad f
or that. You’re where you belong, I suppose. You, Derek, Stephanie, Hannah, you’re all where you belong. And even Curtis seems to fit in as well as if he too were a... a dragon. But where does that leave me? I’ve tried to understand. I’ve asked all the questions. I know it’s all real. But it still makes no sense to me. This world we’ve fallen into makes no sense. It’s not logical.” Her voice cracked.
“Brandy, I...” But the knot in my throat was too tight for me to say any of the unhelpful things people usually say in a situation like this. I put my arms around her and hugged her. She felt so brittle I was almost afraid if I squeezed too hard she might shatter.
For a minute I didn’t know whether or not she was going to hug me back. And then she did, laying her head on my shoulder and letting out this horrible tired kind of sigh. In her own way, Brandy had been through as much since this all started as I had. Maybe more. And it was breaking her. My rock. I’d had a glimpse of that a time or two, but I refused to believe it. I always thought she could bounce right back from anything. To realize I was wrong shook me to my core.
Smart, sharp tongued Brandy LeVine was not going to crumble away to nothing because of me. I couldn’t let that happen. “You should go home.” Saying those words was like tearing a hole in my own heart.
Even though I hadn’t spent much time with her since coming to the bunker, I took a certain comfort from knowing she was there. My rock in a world gone mad. But to make her stay for no reason but to make me feel better would have been to take myself to new heights of selfishness.
“How would Megara feel about that?” she asked, her voice muffled against my shirt.
