Forever Breathing (Just Breathe #3)

by Heather Allen

  She shakes her head, “You didn’t tell me you could ‘travel’.”

  I shrug my shoulders, relieved and look around, convinced this guy couldn’t possibly be alone.

  “I didn’t think it was a big deal. You’re Erebus, can’t you ‘travel’?”

  She looks away almost disgusted and swims away from me. What the hell? Did I miss something?

  I watch as she takes her place beside Jenna as she rounds the corner. She whispers something to her. The look on Jenna’s face turns from calm, to concerned, and finally remains at angry. She finds me and gives me a death stare. I must have missed something…

  I glance around the room for more Lior but it is only us. More of our group enters from the inner caves. I can tell they are happy to be out. Many haven’t left since Roman attacked and my understanding is that it’s been months since the attack.

  I swim over to the front doors in the entryway. This is the tricky part, sneaking one hundred plus out into open water without the Lior finding out.

  I search the walls for other ways in and out but find this to be the only way. I swim over to Alody and ask, “Are these doors the only way in and out?”

  She is still glaring at me but she answers, “There’s a small entrance in my dad’s old room. It’s very small though, only one of us can fit at a time.”

  “That’s good enough. We have to get out and under cover in the open water in case there are Lior out there.”

  <

  She pulls Jenna in the other direction and gestures for twenty others to follow her. Somehow I am now on Alody’s bad side. How that happened, I haven’t a clue. Women are so hard to understand.

  I leave the entrance with two others, Jake and Andrew, right behind me. We swim out and look for more Lior. I am convinced this one Lior couldn’t be by himself. As soon as I round the cave to the right, I find how right I am. An arrow sails through the water and connects with my arm. The pain sears through me and I swim back behind the cover of the cave. I turn to Jake who is close and tell him to check the other entrance. He leaves and Andrew comes up surveying my arm.

  I wince, “Go ahead, pull it out. They’ll be around that corner any minute. I counted at least a dozen.”

  I brace myself as he pulls it out. Alody rounds the corner as it makes its exit and she’s instantly at my side.

  “Oh god, James, are you alright?”

  I smirk and answer with a strained voice, “I will be, just give me a minute.”

  She looks ahead and asks, “Are they out there?”

  “Yes, about a dozen, give or take.”

  She turns to the crowd slowly gathering behind us and tells them quietly, “We outnumber them. Be smart and head north as soon as you can. We’ll meet up.”

  Many of them nod. Some turn to pass the message on.

  Alody helps me up and glances at the wound in my arm, which is now nonexistent.

  She smiles, “You are really something else James Harding. How did this happen?”

  I look at her confused, “How did what happen?”

  “You and me, how did we happen?”

  I lean over and kiss her cheek as I pull an arrow out of her quiver.

  I hand It to her, gesturing for her to get ready, “You’ll need this. We are going straight through them around this corner.”

  I smirk down at her, “And if it is okay with your highness, stay close in case we need to make a quick getaway.”

  She squirms a little, knowing I am talking about ‘traveling’ but nods in response. For some reason this makes her uncomfortable. I’ll have to get to the bottom of this later.

  I round the corner with my spear up and ready. Now that I know I can “will’ it to where I want it to go, I’m a little more comfortable with it. Three Lior are still hovering in the water in front of us. I grab Alody’s hand and focus on the water behind them. This tactic worked before, trying again. We appear right behind the middle one. I pummel his side until he falls. As I turn around one of the others has an arm around Alody’s neck with her facing me. He is aiming a knife at her neck. I panic; this is not how things are supposed to happen. I drop my spear and lower my head letting him know I surrender. Then things are a complete blur. I look up as Alody is stabbing his hand with a knife of her own, temporarily releasing her. I grab her arm and focus on the entryway to the Erebus caves.

  Chapter 35

  Ever

  My recent mess up ended with me fainting again. There must be something seriously wrong with me. I turn everything off at the slightest threat. Why can’t I just keep it together to face my fears? I guess admission is the first step to recovery, right? Oh yeah, that’s substance abuse. Same thing…I’m abusing my ability to handle things.

  I glance down at my fin and see that the water is still tinged pink so I am still bleeding. Just great, things couldn’t be any better. I focus on the rock covering my fin and try ‘willing’ it off of me. It shifts but doesn’t move. I try to sit up but my left arm is still attached to the slab of rock from the wall. I can barely move. Maybe this is it. Maybe I’ll bleed to death and never see the outside of this room. I can’t accept that though. I can’t accept that I will never see Jack’s beautiful blue eyes. I can’t accept that I’ll never feel his arms around me and his lips on mine.

  I glare at that stupid rock and focus so hard I think my eyeballs are going to pop out. It moves again but to the side pinning my fin further. I yelp at the pressure. I strain through the pain trying to get a good look at what I’ve done to myself and a solution comes to me…maybe if I shift my fin to legs…

  Chapter 36

  James

  We appear in the Erebus caves, just not the ones I was planning on. Alody swims away from me when we appear and glances around and back to me.

  She asks, her voice wavering, “James, where are we?”

  I grab her hand trying to smooth this over. ”Hey, it’s okay; these are the Erebus caves near Jaspen’s city.”

  She punches me in the arm and starts yelling at me, “What? You brought me all the way here? What about all of our people? They will be looking for us, and we should be traveling with them… This is why I hate it that you can ‘travel’, nothing ever good comes of it…”

  I bring her into an embrace with her fighting me the whole time. I run my hand gently through her hair and whisper to her ear, “Alody, It will be alright. I promise.”

  She shakes her head into my chest and answers, “No James, it won’t. They will go back and look for us. They can’t lose me too, wep just lost my dad.”

  Her words warm my heart. She cares about these people so much. I push her out to arm’s length and caress her cheek, “Will it make you feel better if I go back? I don’t think you should because you are safer here but I will go back and let them know we are here.”

  She looks up into my eyes as if she’s searching for something and nods slowly.

  I promise, “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere, just stay right here.”

  With that, I close my eyes and focus on the open water far from Alody’s home. The water changes around me and I open my eyes. Jenna is swimming straight at me and hovers back when she sees me. When she realizes who I am she swims straight at me and demands, “Where is Alody? Is she alright?”

  “Yes, Jenna, I took her home to my Erebus caves. I came back to let you know she is safe. Now I have to get back to speak with Jaspen.”

  She grabs my arm before I can move and looks deeply into my eyes, “You keep her safe. As if it were your life, you understand?”

  I smile, “Of course. I will protect her with my life.”

  She seems satisfied and lets my arm go. I close my eyes and focus on Alody in the Erebus cave entryway.

  As soon as I appear, I feel a hand close around my arm. I look over and see Eli’s face. He quickly takes his hand away, “James, I didn’t know it was you. We just had an intruder and with things heating up, you know…”

  I look away from him in search of Alody. She’s go
ne.

  I turn back to Eli, “There was a girl her…”

  He admits, “Yes, I just said we had an intruder. They took her to Jaspen.”

  I shake my head and swim out the door muttering, “Stupid, stupid…”

  As soon as I approach the castle, I decide to forego the formalities of the guards and ‘travel’ to the throne room. Alody is kneeling in front of Jaspen while he demands to know why she is here. If I could get away with killing him at that moment, I would but instead I swim over lifting Alody carefully by her arm, all the while glaring at Jaspen.

  “Ahhh James. What brings you here?”

  I ignore him and ask Alody, “Are you alright? Did they hurt you?”

  She shakes her head.

  I turn back to Jaspen, “You might want to check your facts before you start interrogating innocent girls.”

  He laughs, “I am guessing this one is with you as she tried to convince Eli?”

  “Yes, she is my promised.”

  Jaspen’s smile turns. He frowns and looks thoughtful, “It’s been quite a while since I’ve heard that word.”

  He looks at Alody,“And who might I ask are you, besides the girl James will spend eternity trying to please.”

  She squares her shoulders and tells him, “My father was Derek Prince, leader of the Erebus. Roman, your brother killed him. My name is Alody Prince, leader of the Erebus by no Erebus baction of my own.”

  “Ahhh James, you have a feisty one here. What exactly brings you here?”

  I look over at Alody because this is all her. She is the leader and she should make the alliance with Jaspen. He just pissed me off royally so it’s best if it is her anyway.

  She speaks up, “My people are on their way here to help defend the city. We are about one hundred twenty strong.”

  Jaspen focuses on Alody and gets up putting his hand out, “AHH dear girl, it looks like we have some planning to do.”

  She looks over to me and I smirk letting her know I find this humorous but that Jaspen is safe. I know from past experience, Jaspen likes nothing more than to avoid getting his hands dirty. This alliance may work out well.

  As Alody and Jaspen are leaving the room the door behind me swings open with a freaked out Jack.

  He swims over to me frantic, “James, where is Ever? Have you seen her?”

  I frown not sure what he is talking about, “Jack, am I supposed to know where Ever is? The last time I saw her was on land with you. Wait, did you have another fight? Did she go back to the land?”

  He shakes his head and places his hands on his hips, “No, she went to get information from the city off of Peru. She was going to use Alex. She’s been gone for a couple of weeks.”

  “You mean she is in the city?”

  “Yes, and I’m afraid something has happened to her. I’ve had these… these visions…like I’m trying to find her but she’s not there.”

  He adds, “When I was in the caves after we first met, she came to me in her dreams, I think she might be doing the same again.”

  This is bad, very bad. Alex knew exactly why I was there, practically before I knew why I was there. I know he would never let anything happen to Ever but Roman is a different sort. Alex is no match for him.

  I look into his green eyes and tell him, “We will go, but first I have to let Alody know.”

  Chapter 37

  Ever

  Now I’ve done it, stuck even more, if that is possible. But maybe ‘willing’ my legs will be my saving grace. How does one take a deep breath of air while in the water, anticipating no air whatsoever? I will either succeed or drown to death.

  Here goes nothing. I take a deep breath, even though it is a sea breath and ‘will’ my legs. They appear instantly and at the same moment my lungs burn as if they are on fire. My legs break free of the rock. Disoriented, I start to focus on my arm still attached to the wall slab. My eyes become burry and I can’t think about what I wanted to do. Slowly my eyelids close. I fight to keep them open but they close involuntarily and I strain to breathe. My chest starts to cave and I’m about to let go when I hear Jack’s voice, “Ever, where are you?”

  He sounds so far away but I can’t answer him. This must be another dream. Maybe I’ll wake up soon. He yells out again but I think he’s going the other way. “Wait,” I want to yell out. “You’re going the wrong way. I’m here.” But no words leave my lips.

  “Ever, no don’t leave me, stay with me. James, get her back.”

  What is James doing here…

  Chapter 38

  James

  Talk about de’ja’vu, here I sit outside Ever’s door waiting once again for her to wake up. The last time I went to my gam-aw’s a few times, unable to sit still. This time though, I have Alody to ground me. I glance down at her sleeping form, rolled up against me. I have truly been found by this girl and I wasn’t aware that I was lost until I met her.

  Jack strolls out of the room where Ever is and I shift my weight.

  Alody is jarred awake and immediately asks, “How is she?”

  She beat me to it. See this girl is amazing. She doesn’t even know my sister, yet she asks about her like they’re best friends.

  He looks at me first and I know without any words, there’s been no change. When I brought her back here after Jack and I found her, Amber drained the water but we couldn’t wake her up. There was no open wound so I didn’t know how to use my blood to help heal her. We ended up resorting to prayer and hope.

  It’s now been three days and at least one of us has kept a vigil by her bunk, but still no change. She is breathing but she won’t wake up. We haven’t spoken about it but I know we all fear she won’t wake up at all or if she does, she won’t be our Ever. I don’t know how long she was in the water with her legs and no air. I dread having to go back home to land without her.

  Alody leans back into me and whispers, “It’s okay James, she’ll be okay.”

  I nod at her not sure anymore how things will turn out.

  “It’s my turn to tell you everything will be alright.” I shift my face to look down into those beautiful green eyes and gently kiss her, thanking her. Jack looks awful. I shift again sliding out from underneath Alody.

  “Hey, why don’t you go and take a break, we’ll stay with her in case she wakes up.”

  He pats me on the shoulder on his way out the door.

  Amber and I talked about things last night. She told me about their plans or moreover Jaspen’s plan to get information from Roman. How he really just used Ever to do his bidding once again. I think the whole plan can be classified as a fail. It makes me want to hurt him all the more, putting my sister in danger like that. And I can’t even imagine seeing Alex again. I think Jack and I are in agreement about him. We both would like nothing more than to teach him a lesson for not protecting Ever. Jack feels horrible for letting her go in the first place. My take on that is, this is Ever we’re talking about, when has anyone been able to stop her from doing what she sets her mind to?

  I head into the room with Alody in tow. I sit on the edge of the bunk and grab my sister’s hand. Alody situates herself in a chair across the room and dozes back to sleep. As I rub her hand, I remember the first time she told me about this place. I smile as I remember how I thought she finally went off the deep end. We were at the park down the road from our house. The same park our mom took us to so many times when we were younger. Ever would swing, so I would swing. When she moved on to the sandbox, I would immediately follow, then on to the slide. It didn’t matter where she went; I was at her heels constantly. I thought she was the coolest of course until we hit our teenage years and then we couldn’t stand each other.

  But the day she told me about the sea was the day our relationship changed again. It was as if I was following her around the playground again. She was cool again and I wanted nothing more than to be like her.

  I look down to her peaceful face and wish that I could just ‘will’ her to wake up. I move to the floor be
side the bunk never letting go of her hand. Finally, after a small while, conjuring up many scenarios that don’t end well, I fall asleep.

  ***

  I wake when my hand seems to move. I hold my breath as I realize what it could be and focus on where the movement is coming from. It moves again. I hop up momentarily letting Ever’s hand go. I grab it again and wait, holding my breath once again. There it was again. Just slight but a small squeeze, nonetheless.

  I look over at a still sleeping Alody and lean over my sister telling her quietly, “I’ll be right back.”

  I rush out of the room calling down the hall, “Jack, Amber, Jack, get in here.”

  Jack comes barreling down the hall followed closely by Amber.

  His voice is strained, “Is she…is she alright?”

  I nod, “Yes, come, you have to see.”

  I urge him to grab her hand and we wait. The three of us just standing there, staring and waiting. Finally after five minutes he exclaims, “There, she just squeezed my hand.”

  The look on his face is like he just won the lottery. When you are waiting as we are, you notice even the small things. Amber grabs her hand next and is rewarded with a small squeeze as well.

  Jack takes up his vigil by her side and whispers to her. She doesn’t wake. There is no other movement but that tiny reassuring squeeze, we’ll take it.

  Chapter 39

  Ever

  The last thing I remember is willing my legs to get out from under a giant rock that had fallen on my fin as a result of another stupid move. I remember my lungs burning and Jack’ƀs voice. He was looking for me but I couldn’t find him. Now I’m just so tired. I can’t open my eyes. I just want to sleep. But there is something else I have to do before I fall back to sleep. I have to…I can’t focus. What is wrong with me?

  Oh yeah, I have to let Jack know where I am. He’s been looking for so long. I try to speak but I can’t feel… I’m not sure if my mouth is moving to make the sounds I need it to make. So I try to lift my arm. Maybe if he sees my arm, he’ll be able to find me. I try but it won’t move. Then I remember that damn chain attached to it, no wonder it won’t move. Suddenly, I remember I have my legs, my lungs and I can’t breathe. Oh no, this is it, I’m never going to see Jack again. I can’t let that happen. I want to see him. I try to yell out to him again and then the darkness I was trying to keep away overtakes me…