by Jenn Vakey
Memories of another fight lit through my mind. One in a place much like this. On a path, surrounded by trees. But I wasn’t alone that time. Rhydian was at my side, fighting one Sentry while I took another. Meeting my eye with a look of pure exhilaration when we were the ones left standing. Then Linley was there, running toward us. Throwing herself into Rhydian’s arms.
I gasped, still not losing my rhythm. Taking advantage when he aimed a sloppy blow toward my head. I knocked his baton–because that was what it was called–away with one baston and showed him how to properly execute the move with the other. The reverberations of my strike to his skull echoed through my arm as he dropped to the ground.
My breaths were coming quickly when I turned around and saw Rhydian standing on the edge of the path watching me. There was that excitement again. The same one I had seen before. That I had remembered!
“There’s my girl,” he breathed out. His eyes scanned my face, so much emotion there. The kind that he always kept hidden when others were around. The part of him that was only for me. “How did that feel?”
My heart was racing so fast. There was just so much going on inside of me that I couldn’t even think about how to answer that. Instead, I let my body have control in the same way I had when the Sentry had appeared.
I walked toward him, his eyes never leaving mine. Questions in them he wasn’t asking. I didn’t slow. Reaching up, I hooked the baston in my right hand over his shoulders and used it to pull him down toward me. Then my lips were on his.
Rhydian reacted immediately. His hands gripped my waist and pulled my body flush against his as he opened his mouth to me. There was almost a desperation there as he took over the kiss, moving fast and hard. He wasn’t just kissing me back. He was consuming me. Claiming my mouth. Nipping at my lips.
It was amazing.
Then there was more. The sound of water. Him looking down at me as he pulled me out of the water until the pressure of his lips were on mine. His hands on my bare skin. Holding me close to him. Feeling like I was going to explode when he lifted me until my legs were wrapped around his waist.
I remembered never feeling so alive before.
A whimper escaped me. I wanted that again. I wanted to experience everything being with him did to me, everything he could make me feel. I wanted…
“Wow. Okay…” a voice drew out from somewhere outside of the little bubble we had been pulled into.
I pulled back, breaking the connection. Not that Rhydian let me go far. His grip stayed on my waist, his gaze locked onto me. Fire in his eyes. I could almost see everything he wanted to do to me in that moment, and it went far beyond kissing.
Turning to face the person who spoke, I saw Zaydan standing behind the controls of the hovercraft. I hadn’t even heard it approach. And he looked completely dumbfounded as his wide eyes shifted between the two of us.
“Did you remember something?” Rhydian asked, completely ignoring Zaydan. “Or was that just because you were excited you’re still a total badass?”
“I remembered fighting next to you,” I said, meeting his eye. I could still hardly believe it, but it had been there. It had felt so real. “We were on the path. Linley was there.”
The grin he gave me told me everything I needed to know. It had actually happened. This wasn’t just my mind making something up. I had remembered something. And not just that. I smiled. “I remembered kissing you in the river.”
“Wait, so this isn’t just a head trauma thing?” Zaydan interjected.
Rhydian grinned, still ignoring our third wheel. He moved one hand up and brushed the hair out of my face. This was the happiest I had seen him since I woke up in the clinic. It made me feel warm inside. I liked making him happy.
“I’m going to keep myself from suggesting more kissing if it’s bringing your memories back,” he said. He gave my hip one last squeeze with the hand still holding me before letting go. “Just know that it isn’t an easy thing to do.”
He leaned down and kissed my cheek, though, before moving past me toward where we had left the bags and picking them both up. Zaydan jumped down and moved toward him. The look on his face made me want to laugh.
“Close your mouth,” Rhydian said, letting him take one of the bags. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”
“Since when are you two a thing?” he asked.
I followed after them, glancing back at the Sentry still lying on the ground for a moment before crossing through the archway. He was still out. We’d had one person witness our exchange. We didn’t need another. Especially if it would mean him going back to Eden and telling Dex just what I was to Rhydian.
“Since a week after she got here,” Rhydian answered. He tossed his bag on, then reached to take the other back from Zaydan before popping out two of the seats for us. “I even had the big talk with Orson the night before we left for Eden, then someone here had to go and forget it all. So I would appreciate you keeping what you saw to yourself until I have my girl completely back and she’s ready to announce it.”
Zaydan gave a shocked nod as he climbed up and walked to the front to take the controls. He looked back out, motioning to the Sentry. “Did she do that?”
I smiled and joined them, dropping down into one of the seats. “Sure did. It was fun.”
Rhydian chuckled, settling in himself as Zaydan turned us around and started down the path. He took a different route than we had taken before. Likely to avoid driving past the group that would still be walking in. I was grateful. I doubted Rhydian would have wanted to be seen taking this back by them, which would have meant us getting off and walking with them. I didn't want to have to do that. I needed to get onto the training field. The faster, the better.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LEEYA
I resisted the urge to leave the guys to handle everything when we made it back into camp. Though I was practically itching with anticipation, I walked with Rhydian toward the clinic to talk to Noella.
We stood there as she looked through the bag, watching as she made happy little sounds at some of the things that were in it. It wasn’t just patches and pills, although that took up the majority of it. There were a couple boxes of the reusable washable gloves that we used. There was also a new scanner and laser scalpel. I heard her exclamations about a few other things, but my mind was already trying to escape at that point. After assuring us that she would make sure to check everything over in the lab, we made our exit.
“We need to get this other bag to Faida so she can make sure the clothes are washed and divvied out to everyone who needs them,” Rhydian said, bouncing the bag still in his hand a little.
I almost groaned.
“Do you need me for that?” I asked.
He looked down at me, shaking his head a little as he smiled. It wasn’t an answer. More an expression of amusement for my poorly hidden excitement.
“Go on,” he said. “Dallin’s on the training field.”
He didn’t bother to tell me not to wander around. He knew me well enough to know exactly where I was going. Though I would still be alone for the short walk across camp, he had seen firsthand that I could still protect myself when needed.
With a bounce in my step, I turned and did my best not to actually run toward the training field. When I passed through the yard, I saw that the group had made it back. They were all gathered outside of the dining hall with Orson and Jaron. He looked over at me as he talked to them, a look on his face that said he wasn’t pleased I was walking around without my guard, but he didn’t stop me. As all of his directions had come second hand through Rhydian, I doubt he would have scolded me even if he wasn’t in the middle of greeting all of the new arrivals. He would probably find Rhydian, though, and made sure he knew he wasn’t pleased.
I didn’t care. I was on a mission, and there wasn’t anything anyone was going to do to stop me.
Sure enough, Dallin was on the training field when I walked out. He stopped what he was doing with the man he
was training and watched me, but I ignored him. My focus was on the training dummy set up ahead.
I reached back and pulled my bastons out as I approached. There was no slowing. No thinking. The moment the dummy was in reach, my arms were moving.
It was like it had been with the Sentry at the archway. My body completely took over, striking it over and over. The burn in my hands from each blow only fueled me more. I hit harder, faster. It was so natural. I couldn’t believe I had ever been nervous about doing it. This was what I was meant to do. This was me.
People started to gather around the edge of the training field. I could hear them talking, could see them from my periphery, but I ignored them. I just kept pushing myself. Needing more. Never wanting to stop.
A whistle from just behind me pulled me out of the moment and made me turn. Rhydian. He was standing six feet away in an open area, a pair of bastons in his hands. That look of excitement I had seen on the path in his eyes again as he gave me a playful smile. “Do you remember how to soften your blows to actual body parts?”
“I can’t guarantee that,” I joked. I let my eyes move from him to the crowd. It wasn’t just a few people. Dallin was still there with the man he had been training, but their focus was entirely on me. At his other side were Lillith and Paxton. He was grinning, and she had a look somewhere between wonder and disbelief.
Then there was Orson and Gryffin, along with nearly all of the people from the dorm that usually ate together. It should have made me nervous to have so many people watching me. But I didn’t care at all as I walked toward Rhydian and took my stance.
“Let’s see what you’ve got,” Rhydian said. Then he advanced.
Fighting with Rhydian was both similar and so different than it had been with the Sentry. The way we moved together was almost like a dance. It was like I could tell what he was going to do before he did it. I blocked his attacks and countered with my own. Ducked and spun, striking back without pause. It became almost a game to try to hit something other than wood. And I didn’t even have to think about it when I did. My body reacted and pulled back each time to soften the blows.
At the sound of his laugh when I managed to hit his hip, my world exploded. My mind opened up and everything expanded. I was in his arms in that subway tunnel. Hearing him say that he missed me as his lips brushed against mine. Telling him in the lab that I wanted that house on the river with him. Sitting in the woods with him when I told him that I’d never pretended.
I remembered us coming together in the lab, knowing it was more than just our bodies. It was our hearts. And the way it felt to have Linley sleeping between us. The love that had been in his eyes.
Tears threatened my eyes, but I pushed them down. It was time for our dance to be over.
Twisting under his arm as it extended, I swept his leg with mine and sent him to the ground. People were cheering as I stood over Rhydian, but I had eyes only for him. He coughed out a laugh. There wasn’t even a touch of annoyance there about being beaten in front of everyone. There was only pride.
“We’re going to be okay,” I said softly.
Rhydian stilled. I didn’t even think he was breathing as he stared up at me, searching. He looked almost afraid to be thinking what he was. Afraid to hope.
I smiled.
“Leeya?” he whispered.
“Miss me?”
Rhydian’s bastons were completely forgotten as he jumped up and wrapped his strong arms around me. “You’re really back?” he asked with his face pressed into my hair.
My own bastons clattered to the ground, and I pressed my hands flat against his back. Holding him just as tightly as he held me. It didn’t matter that everyone was around. I wouldn’t have cared if all of Eden was there to see this. The man I loved was holding me, and nothing had ever felt so good. “I remember everything.”
Rhydian stepped back and looked down at me. I could see everything in his eyes that he wasn’t saying. That he wouldn’t with the crowd of people I could feel moving toward us. But I knew. I knew how much I had worried him. How scared he had been. And I knew how much he loved me.
“Leeya!” Lillith squealed.
I turned just in time to catch her as she threw herself at me. I probably would have fallen over had Rhydian not placed his hand on my back. But I didn’t care. It was Lillith. My Lillith.
“I’ve missed you so much,” I told her. I closed my eyes against all of the emotion. I had thought so many times that I’d never see her again. “Not a day went by that I didn’t wish you were here.”
Her face was wet when she pulled back, but her smile warmed me from the inside. Then Dallin was there, pulling me into a hug of his own. Whispering how proud of me he was. How strong he thought I was.
Everyone took their turn telling me how glad they were I was okay after that. Rhydian stayed close, Gryffin at his side. His brother showing the same support to him that everyone else was with me.
And it all felt so amazing. I was home. I was with my family. All of them.
“You have to teach me how to fight like that,” Lillith said, holding one of the bastons I had dropped as she maintained her spot by my side.
I smiled.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
RHYDIAN
The world was perfect again. If I lived to be a hundred, I don’t know if anything would ever be able to come close to as amazing as the moment Leeya had spoken those words to me. Telling me the same thing I had told her in that same spot not even two weeks before. That we would be okay.
And now I knew we would be. I had my girl back. All of her.
The only thing that would make it better was if I could actually have the time alone that I wanted with her.
That just wasn’t going to happen right now.
Lillith was quick to whisk Leeya away after the celebration on the training field. She had looked back over her shoulder, but I gave her a nod to let her know I understood. As much as I wanted to have her to myself, the sisters needed their time together.
“Come on, man,” Gryffin said, slapping his hand on my shoulder. “Orson said all of the new people are gathered in the dining hall for food and rest while their housing arrangements are determined. They should see their princes.”
I didn’t point out that they had already seen me. My schedule had been cleared for the rest of the morning so I could work with Leeya on the training field. Now that she had her memories back and she was spending time with her sister, I didn’t really have anything else to do.
We weren’t the only people greeting the newcomers in the dining hall. Noella was moving from group to group, setting up her scheduled evaluations that were required for everyone. Evanly was in talking with the families with children. Introducing herself and answering questions. While we didn’t have a specific person in charge of the kids, it was generally understood that she was the go-to person there.
“How many houses are going to need to be put up so that every family has one?” Gryffin asked, looking out at the crowd.
“We had eight families come in today. That puts us at seventeen new ones. I also want to make sure Lamont has one for him and his girl.” I thought over the current housing situation. We had been pretty lucky so far. Some of our single men had offered to give up their houses for use until others could be built, and they were all staying together. It had prevented families from needing to share. But that wasn’t an option anymore. “We need six up as soon as possible to get everyone housed, then five more so we can move our guys back into their own homes. We’re not going to be able to avoid putting some families together anymore. Faida already mentioned having the older couple stay with her and her husband. I’ll ask around and see who’s willing to take in our two guys who came in alone today. Things will be tight, but we’ll make it work.”
It hadn’t even been a month since I told Leeya we would need to look into expanding camp. I just never thought it would happen at a rate that we wouldn’t be prepared for it.
“There was also
talk of needing a new schoolhouse,” Gryffin said, looking at the children in the room.
I nodded. With today’s count, we were now up to twenty-three children of school age. That was nearly three times what we had last month. Then there were all of the teenagers and people from the facility.
“We can accommodate the children in the main schoolhouse, but we’ll need a second one for the abilities training. Until the weather turns, we can do that outdoors for now. There are just too many people with different abilities to fit it all in when the kids are outside playing now.”
There was no question as to why Dex and the council were worried and looking for a way to get to us. There was discord in the city, and we now had the makings of an army.
