“Wait, what did she do?” I ask.
Scrunching her nose, Olivia cocks her head to one side. “You don’t remember?”
I shake my head. “I was pretty out of it at the theater. I’m not even sure how I stayed on my feet. I only remember bits and pieces.”
“Molly threw two Sentinels into a wall with a huge blast of air. She must have hurt them pretty bad, because the two that ran after us into the garage were different people.” Olivia shakes her head.
“It’s up to you what we do with Molly. We could let you turn her visible and tell everyone she’s your sister and you both came to stay with us while you’re parents are out of the country, or we can keep her hidden. I honestly don’t know which one will be safer for her.”
I lean back against the pillows and pull Olivia to my chest. “Neither one will be safe.” I sigh and look over at my little sister. My hand drifts to her messy hair. “The Sentinels are going to know it’s me,” I say. “The scarred Sentinel knows I have Molly. If he doesn’t see her with us, it may make him more curious, more likely to take risks. If she’s out in plain sight, though, it will make her an easier target.”
“We’ll have to take her with us to school, either way,” Olivia says. “She won’t be safe staying at home with my mom.”
I shake my head. Leaving her in someone else’s care isn’t even an option. I will always protect her, but I know that promise really only goes as far as my birthday. What is going to happen to her once I leave? Olivia’s family won’t be able to see her. What if their only option is to give her over to a Caretaker family? I refuse to let it be Robin’s family.
“Mason,” Olivia says, breaking me out of my thoughts, “were you able to learn any more about how Escorts protect Aerlings when they’re together?”
My brow wrinkles. “What do you mean? We already know that you being with me helps to mask my Aerlingness, or whatever, from Sentinels.”
“I know, but what about other Escorts?” She bites at her bottom lip again. “Is it like seeing Aerlings? Does it only apply to an Escort’s own Aerling?”
“I’m not sure,” I say slowly. “Why do you ask?”
Olivia slowly sits up and crosses her legs on the bed. Sensing that this will be a serious discussion, I sit up as well. Olivia takes a deep breath before beginning. “I ask because, depending on the answer, Hayden may be able to help protect both you and Molly… because he’s an Escort, too.”
I’m too stunned to react for a moment. Hayden is an Escort? Has he known this whole time what was going on? Anger builds around me to the point of near-bursting. Did he know who I really was and still go after Olivia? My eyes dart over to his sleeping form, sprawled out across the other bed. I’m moving before I realize it.
“Mason, stop!” Olivia whispers harshly. She gestures at Molly, who became visible to Olivia when I knocked into her. I take Molly’s limp hand so she remains visible, just in case I try something stupid again. Olivia yanks me back down to sitting and crosses her arms over her chest.
“What are you doing?” she demands. “Hayden didn’t know what was really going on until the end. All he has done is help and protect me!”
The steel in Olivia’s voice surprises me so much, all the anger I had been harboring dissipates in a flash. Part of me wants to doubt what she’s saying and blame Hayden for the closeness he and Olivia obviously share. I hate imagining him being there for her, not only since I’ve been gone, but the months before that as well. What is the other option, though? That Olivia had no one?
The tension drains out of my body. “I’m sorry,” I mumble.
Olivia sighs. “Mason, look, I’m sorry I freaked out, but none of this has been Hayden’s fault.”
“I know,” I say, “it’s just that …”
Molly bolting up from the bed cuts off my words. Olivia and I both stare at her for a moment, waiting for… something. It comes in the form of Molly screaming. Shock slows my reaction for a moment. Hayden is jolted out of sleep and nearly falls off the bed. Olivia cringes at the screeching, but reaches for Molly. I finally snap out of it and grab Molly’s shoulders. I shake her gently, but she doesn’t stop screaming so I pull her into my arms and cradle her there until her screaming turns into quiet sobbing.
Hayden is crowded in next to Olivia a second later. He looks over at me for some kind of answer and I realize I must have made myself visible at some point. I keep it up for now as we all stare down at Molly. Slowly her crying begins to ebb. I gently push her chin up and wipe away her tears. It takes a while for her to finally open her eyes, but when she does, I smile down at her.
“Hey, little sis, bad dreams?”
Her bottom lip quivers as she nods. “The Sentinels took me away from you.”
I press Molly to my chest, and promise, “I won’t let that happen.”
Molly’s smile is timid, but she tries her best. About that time, she realizes Olivia and Hayden are also staring at her. Her cheeks burn red with embarrassment. “Sorry,” she whispers.
Olivia reaches out and takes Molly’s hand with a smile. She pulls her out of my lap and gives her a hug while Molly holds onto one of my hands. “Don’t worry about it,” Olivia says. “I know all about nightmares.”
That makes Molly relax. Her eyes turn reluctantly to Hayden. It kind of irritates me that what he thinks would matter in the least to Molly, but I keep my mouth shut about it. I’m not about to risk offending Olivia again.
Hayden reaches over and tweaks Molly’s nose. “Thanks for the wakeup call,” he jokes. “I probably would have slept ‘til noon otherwise.”
Molly giggles, and again I have to suppress the urge to punch Hayden.
“Well,” Olivia says, “now that we’re all awake, we should probably head out. I’ll run downstairs and get everyone some breakfast. Molly, want to come with me?”
My grip on Molly’s hand tightens, something Olivia doesn’t miss. She puts her hand gently on my shoulder. “There is a Caretaker Officer right outside the door. Another one is in the lobby. We’ll be fine. I think Molly could use a little walk before we get in the car.”
“Please, Mason?” Molly begs. “I’ll be super careful like you taught me.”
I don’t want to let her go, but I know she’ll be alright in Olivia’s care. Besides, I think Hayden and I need to talk. “Alright, but stick close to Olivia, okay?”
Molly nods frantically. “I will!” She scampers off the bed and grabs Olivia’s hand before she can even react.
Olivia chuckles quietly. She leans in and kisses me before saying, “We’ll be back in a few minutes.” Her gaze darts over to Hayden before she pulls back. The message is clear. Apparently, she thinks we need to talk as well. I nod and let her slip away.
By the time I lumber out of bed—something that turns out to be more draining than I expected—Hayden has already gathered up the few belongings we had with us last night. He sighs as he tosses everything into Olivia’s backpack. He doesn’t look any more rested than Olivia. I barely even remember coming into the hotel, let alone getting up to our room. I must have passed out the second we got in here, but clearly Olivia and Hayden were up quite a while later.
“Hey, Hayden,” I finally say.
Hayden straightens. He looks over at me warily, not that I can blame him. “Yeah?”
“Listen, I just… I wanted to thank you,” I say, “you know, for last night, and for everything else. I know you’ve been looking out for Olivia since I’ve been gone.”
The edginess to Hayden’s posture from a minute ago eases away. “No problem. She needed my help, so I was there for her.”
“Why?” I ask. There is more sharpness to my voice than I meant to have, and Hayden definitely hears it. He doesn’t seem to take offense, though.
Hayden finishes tying his shoe before straightening and answering my question. “What you really want to know is whether I’ve been helping Olivia because I’m in love with her, or because you’re an Aerling, right?”
His words hit me square in the gut. “You’re in love with Olivia?”
Shrugging, Hayden says, “Yeah, but it doesn’t matter now that I know about you.”
“What?” I ask, still struggling to digest the fact that Hayden has more than a passing crush on my girlfriend.
“I’m assuming Olivia told you I’m an Escort.”
I nod.
“Did she tell you my Aerling died a few days after I met him, or that it almost killed me when he died?”
I shake my head feeling numb.
“We were both too tired last night to talk about everything, especially after Olivia came up with the plan to hide you in plain sight and we spent an hour on the phone with her dad getting everything arranged.” Hayden rubs his eyes. “I didn’t get a chance to tell Olivia that after my Aerling died, I wanted to know more about all of this. I didn’t find out much, but I found a way to get in contact with one of Levi’s Caretaker siblings a couple of months later and he told me a few things.”
“Like what?” I ask quietly. No doubt, it won’t be pleasant.
Hayden sits down on the edge of the bed. “The longer an Aerling and Escort are together, the more severe the physical reaction the Escort will have to the death of their Aerling.” A yawn breaks up Hayden’s words.
A sense of dread seeps into my bones. “What happened to Olivia last night when I almost died?”
“She nearly froze to death,” Hayden says. My disbelieving expression makes him shrug. “Don’t ask me to explain it, but she started crying at one point because it hurt so much and her tears literally froze on her cheeks. She felt like ice and there was nothing I could do to stop it.”
What little strength I had fails me and I sink down to the bed next to Hayden. “So, if I die, it’ll kill Olivia?”
“Look,” Hayden says, “I’m far from being an expert on all of this, so I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think she would have survived last night if you hadn’t.”
I nod slowly. “That’s why you’re willing to help her save me even though you’re in love with her.”
Hayden grimaces. “If my choices are watching her die or watching her leave with another guy,” Haden says, “well, the choices suck, but it’s an easy decision.”
Of course it is. If I was faced with the same options, I’d do exactly what he’s doing. The grudging respect Hayden earned after last night isn’t so hard to admit to now.
“I feel like I have to apologize for earlier,” Hayden says. “I wouldn’t normally try to steal another guy’s girlfriend, but you two weren’t actually dating, and at the time I thought you were a huge prick who’d ditched her for another girl. Plus, I suspected either you or her parents had been abusing her.”
“You don’t have to apologize.” I shake my head. “I’d have done the same thing if the situation were reversed.” I hold my hand out to Hayden. He hesitates a moment before taking it. I look at him squarely. “You’re a good guy, Hayden.”
He just shrugs. A moment later, he stands up and pulls the curtain back a few inches to look outside. I stand up as well and start shoving my feet back into my sneakers. A thought is wriggling around in my mind. I try to ignore it, but it refuses to go away.
“Hayden,” I say, “if something does happen to me …”
He holds up a hand. “You don’t even have to ask, Mason. I’ll do everything I can to protect her.”
“No,” I say. “I mean, of course I want you to protect her, but that’s not what I was going to ask.”
Hayden frowns. “What then?”
“If I die, and she survives… please take care of her.”
At this, Hayden claps me on the back. “Dude, that’s not a problem. I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter 26
One Phrase
(Mason)
The drive home from the hotel is hardly relaxing. Olivia and Hayden going over the details of the plan I’m really not sure about keeps me on edge. What other options do I have, though? It’s a long drive, to say the least, but as we walk in the front door of the only place I will ever truly call home, I know it’s going to be an even longer night.
As soon as Olivia pushes the front door open, her dad yanks her into his arms. I’ve never seen her dad cry before, but I barely have a moment to consider it before I am attacked by Evie and her mom. At some point, Hayden is clobbered with hugs as well. I find I don’t mind the thanks and attention everyone showers on him like I might have before we talked.
Hayden’s parents and his two younger brothers and little sister burst through the front door not long after. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do when Hayden’s brother Matt casually throws his arm around Evie’s shoulders. He even steals a quick peck on her cheek when all the adults are distracted. Molly, on the other hand, is instantly captivated by Hayden’s five year old sister, Lydia.
I feel absolutely overwhelmed as everyone starts talking over each other, babbling about the details of the plan and how to make it work. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder why Robin and her parents aren’t here since it sounded like they were integral to me going to school, but given that I really don’t want to see Robin’s parents, I don’t ask.
“Why don’t we go sit down?” Olivia whispers in my ear. I let her pull me along to the couch, Molly and Lydia stumbling after us out of necessity. It’s not nearly as much fun playing together if Molly lets go of my hand and disappears from Lydia’s view.
I know I should pay attention to what’s going on around me, but I’m too exhausted. Putting my arms around Olivia sounds like a much better plan right now. Thankfully, no one seems to care that we’ve disappeared. The chatter goes on without us until it finally begins to dies down. Lydia is not happy when her parents announce it’s time to go home. Molly isn’t happy either, but she’s ready to drop, so she doesn’t complain too much.
I’m a little surprised when Olivia stands up and walks over to Hayden before he leaves and throws her arms around him. I try to ignore the pang that goes through my heart, but it isn’t easy. She tells Hayden thank you for everything and I watch as he hugs her again. I stuff all of that away when he comes over to me and offers me his hand. I shake it firmly and add my thanks to Olivia’s.
“I guess I’ll see you both at school tomorrow,” he says.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I reply.
I was kind of hoping for a few days to prepare myself for this, but Olivia managed to get everything sorted out with the paperwork by taking pictures of me with her phone and sending them to Robin on the way home. Apparently, I’m now a fake citizen complete with a forged driver’s license and birth certificate.
Hayden nods, looking almost as nervous as I feel. “This is going to work,” he says before joining his family.
I look over at Olivia and take comfort in the confidence I see in her expression. I try to soak up some of her faith, but it isn’t easy.
“Is it bedtime?” Molly asks as she crawls into my lap.
“Definitely.”
Olivia’s mom sits down beside us and says to Molly. “Why don’t we get you settled in Mason’s room? Olivia said you didn’t get to bring anything with you, so Evie and I got you some clothes at the store and a new toothbrush. They’re upstairs.”
“I’ll help her get ready, Mom,” Olivia says.
With that, the three of us pull ourselves up off the couch and head upstairs. Molly only lets go of me long enough to change into her new pajamas. When I lay down in my own bed, it’s hard to describe the emotions that run through me. Molly snuggles up next to me and I pat her head. Both of Olivia’s parents come in to tell us goodnight before reluctantly heading off to their room. Evie makes an appearance a few minutes later.
“You guys need anything?” she asks.
When I say no, she hesitates in the doorway. After rushing me when I first arrived, her attention was stolen away by Matt. Now, she breaks down and rushes over to me. Her knees narrowly miss ramming into me as she throws herself against me. I ca
n feel tears being crushed between our faces as she attempts to strangle me with her hug.
“I’m so glad you’re home safe,” she cries. “I missed you so much!”
I realize I’m crying as well when she finally pulls back a bit. “I missed you, too. Not a single person pulled a prank on me while I was gone.”
Evie bursts into tearful laughter. She starts wiping tears away as she sits back. “Yeah, well, you just watch your back. I’ve got to make up for lost time.”
Chuckling, I soak up this moment. It’s painful to know this won’t be the last time I’m separated from Evie. “Tomorrow, I want to hear about Matt, and what happened to Aaron.”
A huge grin breaks out on Evie’s face. “Absolutely.”
She pushes off the bed then, but doesn’t leave yet. “I guess I should let you guys get some sleep.” She starts for the door, but turns back again with a sly smile. “You might want to scoot over, though.”
“Why?”
Evie laughs. “Olivia has spent more nights in your room than hers since you left, and somehow I doubt that’s going to change any time soon.”
She darts out the door after that, flipping off the bedroom light on the way. Molly is already on her way to a deep sleep. I, on the other hand, am suddenly more awake than I have been all day. I lie in bed, perfectly still, my eyes on the hallway. I make a silent wish that Evie is right, but every minute that ticks by causes me to doubt.
It seems like forever later before I hear the quiet shuffle of feet in the hallway. When Olivia appears in the doorway wearing pajama pants and a loose t-shirt, I can’t think of a time when she has looked more beautiful. She pauses in the doorway and bites her bottom lip.
“Are you awake?” she whispers.
My voice comes out sounding strangled as I say, “Yes.”
That is the end of the conversation. Olivia hurries across the room and immediately crawls into bed next to me. There is no attempt at anything more than curling into each other’s embrace. For tonight, being near each other is enough. My eyes close, and I feel safe for the first time in months.
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