by LJ Swallow
“Uh. You reckon she'd come quietly?”
“Uh,” mimics the man, standing near the window, “do you think dragging her unconscious body around wouldn't attract more attention?”
The man gives a short laugh. “Law enforcement guys dragging unconscious people into vans isn't exactly uncommon.”
I shift and attempt to sit but the floor shifts woozily. “What the hell is happening?”
“Is he here yet?” asks the man on the chair, ignoring me.
“Yeah, good luck when he finds out you knocked her out. Dickhead.”
“Am I allowed to speak now?” I snap.
“Go for your life, nobody will hear you.”
The door slams open again. “Why the hell is she on the floor?”
A figure crosses through the orange-lit dim and grabs the man by the shirt. “You treat her with respect.”
Head injuries cause hallucinations, because the muscular frame and familiar strong features belong to Mattias.
“Calm down, Ty. I don't do this shit normally. I don't know what to do.” The man pulls Mattias's hands away.
“Maybe if you'd told me what was happening, I would've come with you. You didn't need to knock me out.” I scowl at the man who's rewarded with another shove in the chest from Mattias.
“You asshole. You don't hurt Cora or you'll fucking regret it!”
“You should've done it yourself, then!” snarls the man in return.
“Apologise to her.”
I blink at the man arguing with Mattias, at the two men challenging each other. He lets people talk to him like this? The Mattias I know wouldn't.
The man turns his head to me. “Sorry,” he mutters.
“This is insane. Where am I?”
“Safe,” replies Mattias.
I snort. “You reckon?” To emphasise the point I rub the back of my head. “Who's he? And what is this? Your secret gang?”
The man barks a laugh and is shot a warning look from Mattias. He crouches down, and I wrap my arms around my knees as he studies me. Am I safe now? Or in a worse situation?
“You shouldn't have done this,” I say.
“I presumed you wanted me to help you.” Mattias pushes hair from my eyes.
“Not by whacking me over the head and kidnapping me!” I retort.
“Man, she's funny.”
“She's a curious girl,” says Mattias softly and pulls me to my feet. I stumble. “Move that crap off the sofa and let her lie down.”
“I don't want to lie down.”
The man in trouble pushes papers and plates onto the floor, and Mattias guides me over. “Sit, then.”
I do as he says and curl my legs beneath me, shivering. Mattias holds his hand out to the man on the chair. “Give me your jacket.”
“Mine? It's fucking freezing.”
“Stop whining. I don't have one to give her.”
Muttering, the man removes his dark jacket and hands it to Mattias. Mattias attempts to put the jacket across my lap but I grab it from his hands and cover myself. I glare at him for a few moments, and he frowns back.
“Leave us. I need to speak to Cora.” He sits next to me and I shift away.
The moment the door closes, I speak. “Why did you put me through this?”
“I'm sorry about the bang on the head and—”
“No! Not that. You left me with your psycho brother like you didn't give a shit! He said he was going to marry me!”
“Whoa. Thank you for helping me would be nice.”
I stare at my hands. “Every hour I spent there, the more I hated you for not coming for me.”
“I was, Cora. We were planning to help you, but you disappeared. Why didn't you wait?”
“Because I didn't think you cared. That I was dispensable.”
“Cora... No. He wouldn't have hurt you, not while I'm still alive. You're his bait.”
“I'm your bloody pawn, stuck in your battle with him!”
“You think I want this? To lose focus on what I'm doing because I can't stop obsessing about a girl.”
“There you go again, contradicting yourself.”
Mattias grasps my wrist and pulls me to him. “You know why I pushed you away? Because you didn't fit my plans.”
“Well, I apologise for that,” I snarl. “For interrupting your plans.”
He drags me closer, circling his arms around my waist and holding me in place. His actions are as contradictory as his words can be, and looking down at me is Ty, not Mattias. His expression is soft and open, not angry the way he was at the party.
“No. Instead, you helped my plans, Cora. You opened my eyes to the fact I'm doing the right thing. One night, I met a lost, helpless girl who wanted her freedom and was prepared to risk everything. My heart fucking ached for you that evening.” He traces a finger along my cheek and touches my lips. “Since I met you, I've felt like I could take on the world—my brother—because here was a girl who held no power trying to do the same thing. I realised I have the power to make changes, and I'm letting people down if I don't.”
“But why hide all this from me? Lie to me?”
“Because it was safer.”
The frustration with Mattias ebbs, the need for him to help me matched with my desire for him to want me. I spent half my teen years planning to be one of “those kids” who disappear into the sector, and they’re never seen again. Now my life is in danger, and I'm no closer to finding control over my life.
“And now? Am I safe?”
“I'll keep you safe. I've told you that before. I can't believe you didn't trust me to come back for you. I didn't know Alaric was going to pull a stunt like that, and organising to get you out needed time. I couldn't exactly march in and take you. I'd be arrested by now. Probably dead.”
“Look.” I drag my sleeve up and hold my arm out.
Mattias peers at the faded rune. “You got my message in your book, then?”
“Your very confusing message. How did you know the runes would work for me?”
“I didn't, but thought it was worth a shot. If my blood is in yours, maybe some magic is too.” He traces the rune. “Cloaking. Did you use any others?
“No.”
Mattias holds my face in his palms. “Listen to me, Cora. Please don't do anything else on your own. I can protect you from him, but you have to trust I'll do that. We're stronger if we work together. All of us.”
I nod, caught in my pull to Mattias, the man I want to kiss and touch me, forget everything with him. There's no reason for me to want Mattias as badly as I do, but here and now, he represents something else. Not only the protective man passionate about whatever his goal is, but also somebody who recognised something in me he shares. But underlying the connection we made is an intense physical attraction, which could never be realised with him as a Hyland.
But is this man, Ty, one I can have?
Mattias strokes my face, fixing darkened eyes on my lips, and I shift against him, touching his face in return.
“You are one brave, amazing girl, Cora Karran.” He moves his mouth closer and my breath comes in short bursts against his mouth, aching for him to kiss me.
“And you are a confusing man, Ty Hyland.”
Ty doesn't correct me, and when his mouth closes over mine, I no longer fear he'll behave the way he threatened. The kiss holds a tenderness missing from every one we've shared before, his hands gently stroking the nape of my neck, setting tingles along my spine. I wrap my arms around his neck too, and the flame I attempted to quell with anger flickers to life, our kiss growing with urgency. The wound on my hand prickles as the heat spreads through my blood, and I push away the unease Mattias could already have poisoned me.
He breaks away, from the kiss and holds me close, tightly, as if I might disappear if he lets go. My struggle for breath intensifies.
“Where are we?”
He rests his chin on the top of my head. “On the edge.”
“In the sector? I'm happy to hide ou
t somewhere, you know that.” Ty shakes his head against mine. “Where?”
I pull away and take in the surroundings again. The only sound in the house is other voices downstairs, the usual traffic sound outside missing. My heart rate picks up. Thin curtains hang in the window and I pull one back. I'm two storeys high and can see further, across the nearby vacant land. Or I would be able to if darkness didn't enclose the world around with secrets.
“There’re no houses nearby. Are we in the Wastelands?” I whisper into the night. “You brought me here?”
“No, but we’re away from the city. This property is far enough from the road to see anybody coming, and there’s other ways out.”
“How many people are here?”
“Well, you met Paul and Andy.”
“Loosely speaking,” I mutter. “Great introduction.”
“Yeah, I’ll have words with them about that. I told them you probably wouldn’t believe them or co-operate, but that was too much.”
“Who else?”
“A couple of other guys who help out, and… some others. Not many.”
“Witches? Humans? Who? You can’t have just met these people, what’s happening?”
He bites on his lip. “I can't tell you that, but we are working on something that's going to change our world, not just the sector.” His eyes shine at the words, and I recognise him from the night he left. This is Ty. The man he wants to be.
“Now I'm here, you need to tell me.”
Ty wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me close. “Don't be angry with me, but I don't have time to explain everything right now.” I open my mouth to retort, and he places a finger on my lips. “I don't want to tell you half a story and not explain properly. People are waiting for me downstairs and I have to go.”
“That's unfair, Ty.”
“Just know you're safe here. You should sleep. When was the last time?”
The adrenaline keeps exhaustion at bay, but he's right. I haven't slept since I ran yesterday. “I guess...”
“Better we talk about everything tomorrow. And I promise I will tell you everything. You'll be safer up here. This way.”
Ty takes me up narrow stairs, to a room at the top of the house, the attic roof arching above us. A bed. A table. Books piled in the corner and clothes slung to one side. Functional.
“Your room? A little different to Hyland house.”
“Sleep. I have to go.”
The cold room loses more warmth as Ty walks away and I stare out at the starless sky. Voices travel through the floor from downstairs and outside, and I climb onto the bed and allow exhaustion to take over. Drifting into a world where sleep pulls me into nightmares, the ravagers aren't the worst things in my imagination.
19
I don't know where Ty slept, or if he slept at all, but when I wake with the sun, he isn't with me. I perch on the bed. Do I walk downstairs? Look for him? He is not avoiding telling me what the hell is happening.
Wheat fields surround the old farmhouse, the property boundary surrounded by a low barbed wire fence. The old stone building lies at the end of a short, rough track, and two vehicles are parked outside—a beaten up old land rover and a bumped and scratched white van.
A few hundred metres from the house is an equally dilapidated barn, one of the large double doors open. Weeds grow throughout, the untended garden beds beneath the house windows. If it weren’t for the vehicles, this place would look empty.
I stand arms deep in my pockets as the early morning sun struggles behind more rain clouds. Somebody crunches across the ground behind, and I turn to face Ty.
Dressed in a dark green jacket, unzipped across a plaid shirt and grey tee, and his long legs, hugged by jeans, end in heavy black boots. The tired lining his face is new too. Has he slept much in the days since he left? He mirrors me, hands in his pockets too, and I hate that my heart surges when I don’t know if he wants it.
“How did you sleep?” he asks.
“Badly. Where were you?”
His brow tugs lower. “Me? Busy. I wasn’t here, but you were safe. I had to check nobody knew we’d brought you here.”
“And?”
“Not yet.”
His comment interrupts the direction my questions headed: why didn’t you climb into my bed last night? “So you want me to leave?”
“What? Who said that?”
“You said ‘yet’. They could find me, and then you.”
Ty sighs and takes my arms, pulling me closer, but I keep my hands in my pockets. “You’re not going anywhere. I didn’t want you here, but now you are, I have a duty to protect you.”
I make a derisive sound in my throat. “Duty.”
“Why is that bad?”
I meet his blue eyes, wishing I could catch a glimpse of the warmth and truth from last night. “You know why. I want to be more than a duty.”
Ty rubs my arms. “There’s a lot happening right now. I care about you more than anyone for a long time, but I don’t have time for anything complicated.”
I pull my arms away and step back. “I thought you left Mattias behind. I thought Ty wanted me.”
“He does… I mean, I do, Cora. So fucking much, but what do you want me to do? Give you half of me or all of me?” I turn my back on him, and as I stare across the quiet emptiness, he wraps his arms around my waist and kisses my hair. “You’re bloody distracting Cora. It’s hard keeping my hands off you and out of my thoughts.”
“Then don’t,” I whisper. “Don’t pretend I’m nothing again. After everything you said last night.”
I turn and touch his face. “Why are you like this? You know how I care about you, what you mean to me, and even if a big part of it is wanting you physically, there’s more to us. There always was.”
Ty kisses me softly on the lips and draws away, stroking my hair. “Cora, it takes a long time for someone’s heart to warm up if all they’ve known is winter.”
I blink at his words, at the strangeness behind them. I never thought about his past, trapped in the glare of the present. In an unspoken way, he’s told me more about himself in one sentence than he ever has before.
“Come on, curious Cora, let me tell you a story.” Ty holds out his hand, and I curl my fingers around his. As we walk across the damp earth together, he looks to the sky. “You brought the sun with you.”
Ty might have a hardened heart, but he melted mine days ago.
I passed the chaotic kitchen and dining area this morning, the sink surrounded by dirty plates and bowls, and rubbish strewn across the counters. The slate-tiled floor is filthy and the only organised place is a long table covered in drawings and papers. A man sits on a mismatched chair, face as tired as Ty’s. Not the man from last night, although he’s human. Next to him, a taller man stands, arms across his chest. His short-styled dark hair and cleaner look contrast with the middle-aged man next to him. This guy looks around Ty’s age, and his presence screams witch.
“I didn’t think you worked with other witches,” I say. “I don’t recognise him from the Senate.”
The witch stares at me, then tips his head in my direction and flicks a look at my wrist. “Is this her? You never said she was a Scion. Not a good move.”
“Who are you?”
“Anton, and I stay in the background, as it were.”
“Does Alaric know you help Ty?” Stupid question, the man wouldn’t be standing with us now if he did.
“She asks a lot of questions, your damsel in distress,” says the human guy gruffly.
“I am not.” I straighten. “I’m here to help.”
“Uh huh.” He sweeps a gaze over me and scowls. The well-built man with muscles and height to match Ty jerks his head in my direction as he looks at Ty. “She’s a mistake.”
“She stays, Silas.”
“Fine,” he mutters. “How long for?”
“As long as she needs to.”
“The guys are uneasy.”
“Tough,” retorts Ty. �
��You wouldn't be here without my help.”
“And what about those who need to be here? Instead of some privileged girl. There are others we need to get out.”
Ignoring the conversation and the increasingly icy atmosphere, Ty wipes a hand across a paper sheet on the table. A map. “Have you marked the new area?” he asks.
“Jason and the guys came home late, you know that. They’ll update the maps later.”
“Anything?” asks Ty, looking up.
“Nah. Nobody. Nothing.”
Ty steps back. “Good to hear.”
I lean over and push hair behind my ears as I study the sketches. Beneath fresh drawings are faded lines, the paper yellowed beneath. Place names I don’t recognise and blank spaces around are shaded in red or blue, dates and numbers marked on. Maps of the Old World, updated.
“Have you been out there?” I ask. “Into the Wastelands? Is this what the map is?”
“She catches on quick,” snorts Silas. “Yeah, sweetheart, and we’re planning to move out there.”
“Are you mad? Why would you do that? That place is filled with ravagers.” I turn back to Mattias. “This isn't a plan, this is a death sentence. Is this what you do? I thought you were fuelling a rebellion in the Sector or something.”
“Ah, you did keep your word,” replies Anton. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“No, but I want to know everything about this, now, if I’m going to be involved.”
“Involved? Sweetheart, you’re not involved, you’re stuck. You can’t walk away now,” replies Anton.
“I don’t intend to.”
Ty’s eyes remain on the map, and he misses the look the witch gives me. I can’t leave because if I walk away with secrets, I won’t get far. As I always knew, either way, I’m dead.
“I need answers now, Ty. A lot of answers.”
He gestures to a chair and I sit. “It's time to take our world back from the ravagers.”
“How? That's impossible. Don't you think somebody would've tried before?”
“They did and failed, but we have the maps they made and their notes. Generations have explored this world outside, and as the time passed, the ravagers’ numbers have thinned. We're unsure why, but I suspect it's because their human food source doesn't exist anymore.”
