But no, it had to be his memory playing tricks on him. He’d only been away from Caelum for a few months, after all—there was no way it had actually changed in his absence. But as he passed through various parts of the woods, he couldn’t help feeling that it was . . . less, somehow. Different from the images stored in his mind, the ones he’d gone over and over when he’d been lost in Los Angeles and aching for home.
Cedric was ruminating on this odd feeling once again, and wondering to himself whether now would be a good time to stop and make himself a quick meal, when he heard a noise up ahead. It sounded like . . . splashing. He walked carefully through dirt and fallen leaves, making his way toward what looked like a small stream. The silvery surface of the water peeked through the trees as he moved, and the sound of the stream grew louder.
But over the burble of the water, Cedric heard something else—voices.
He braced himself behind the trunk of a large tree and leaned out slightly. Through a web of branches, he saw two figures sitting side by side along the bank of the stream. Liv was filling a small bottle with water, and just inches away from her, Rafe washed his hands.
Rafe said something in a low voice Cedric couldn’t make out, and Liv laughed. She reached out and put one hand lightly on Rafe’s shoulder. Cedric bit the inside of his mouth, nearly drawing blood.
Cedric had spent the past few days wrapped up in regret over their argument, but Liv looked almost carefree sitting by that stream.
And Rafe had made her laugh.
The longer Cedric stood watching them, the more he felt like an unwanted intruder. And yet, he couldn’t think of a good way to announce his presence.
Then he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rising up, as though he were being watched. Cedric whipped his head around, staring into the dark spaces between the trees. Nothing looked back at him. But just as he turned his head toward the stream again, a huge form came flying out of the woods to his right.
It was a wrath, covered in leathers and holding two broadswords in its clawed hands. And it was headed right for Liv and Rafe.
Rafe jumped up to face the creature, but by the time he got to his feet, the wrath had already reached him. Liv screamed and fell backward, her hands grappling in the dirt for a weapon that wasn’t there. The wrath lifted the swords over its head. The blades formed a perfect X shape, and if they swung down, they’d meet again when slicing through Rafe’s neck.
Cedric plunged through the tree line with his own sword out. He slashed at the wrath’s shoulders, hoping to break his swing. The creature howled, his arms dropping slowly enough to give Rafe enough time to jump backward. Rafe landed in the stream with a splash, his eyes looking to Cedric with surprise.
They nodded at each other briefly before Rafe reached for the sword at his hip. The wrath turned on Cedric, swinging wildly with the sword in his right hand. Cedric blocked easily, but before he could make another move, the wrath swung out with his left arm.
Cedric just barely ducked in time. The wrath let out another tortured yell, and Cedric saw a sword tip protruding from its midsection. Rafe stood behind the wrath, and he pulled his sword, black with blood, out of the creature’s back.
But the wrath didn’t fall. It looked between Rafe and Cedric, calculating quickly. Then it jumped away from them and turned, running back into the woods.
“If it gets away and tells any others we are here—” Cedric started.
Rafe nodded before sprinting after the creature, whose blood left a dark trail over the dirt.
Cedric turned to Liv. “Are you okay?”
Her face was pale, but she nodded.
Cedric turned and ran after Rafe and the wrath. He caught up with them not two hundred yards away, under the trunk of a tall pine at the bank of the stream. The wrath only held one sword now, and it clashed violently against Rafe’s. As soon as Cedric jumped into the fray, he and Rafe quickly forced the wrath backward—its one sword was no match for their two.
It was Rafe who delivered the fatal blow, his silver blade slicing through the creature’s heart. It fell heavily to the ground, never to rise again.
Both young men stared down at the wrath, panting.
“We cannot leave it here for others to find,” Cedric said.
Rafe nodded. “I know of a place to hide it, not too far from here. I can drag it myself. You should stay with Liv, in case more appear.”
With that, he grabbed the creature by the shoulder and started hauling it off to the woods. Cedric wiped his sword off on some nearby leaves and made his way back to Liv. She stood on the bank of the river, her eyes staring wide at the smear of black blood on the ground at her feet.
As soon as he reached her, Cedric opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t find what to say. He wanted to yell at her for running away, but with the same breath he wanted to ask how she was doing.
Instead he said nothing, and they stood, looking at each other over the inches of space between them. Her eyes were impossible to read. Was she glad to see him? Or angry still? The seconds stretched onward, wrapping around them in a thickening silence.
And then she moved, closing the space between them in an instant and throwing her arms up around Cedric’s neck. His arms went around her quickly, naturally. He pressed the side of his chin against her hair without giving it a second thought. Her skin was warm in the sunlight, but her arms were shaking slightly—
“I thought we were going to die,” Liv finally said, her words coming out broken and raspy just inches from his ear. She gave a nervous laugh that tickled his skin, and Cedric gripped her tighter. “That wrath came out of nowhere, and we didn’t have time to . . . if you hadn’t jumped out when you did . . .”
“It’s all right. You are safe,” he murmured.
He felt her slowly relax in his arms, and for a moment he couldn’t remember what they’d fought about. He hadn’t thought he’d ever get this close to her again. He had been so careful not to really look at her, not to even touch her since . . . well, he couldn’t remember that, either. His brain was a blank as her face moved under his, as her head tilted up . . .
“Liv—”
And her body stiffened. She pulled away and cleared her throat. The moment turned to awkwardness so quickly that for a moment Cedric wondered if he’d imagined her being so near him at all.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to . . .” Her face flushed, and she crossed her arms. She looked back up at him. “Not that I’m not grateful for the save, but . . . what are you doing here? Don’t you have a whole war to plan?”
Cedric sucked in a breath, stood up straighter. “I came for you.”
“For me? Why?”
He stared at her a moment. “I had to.”
She looked up at him then, as if surprised by his answer. She didn’t say anything, though, and once again the moment dragged on. He hastily added, “It was the right thing to do.”
She looked down, pursing her lips. “Right. Of course. I should have known . . . I am really sorry, Cedric, for taking off and just leaving a note behind. I mean, I was angry, but that’s no excuse. I didn’t mean for you to worry.”
Cedric shifted, his feet sinking slightly into the mud on the creek’s edge. He felt suddenly at a loss for something to say. How was it he could be more clearheaded when battling a giant wrath than when simply having a conversation with Liv?
“I am sorry, too. For the things I said. I did not mean—”
“I know.” Liv gave a small smile. “But now that you know I’m fine, are you going back? Or are you coming with us to the castle?”
“No, I must return to the men who are approaching the city behind me. But I intend to take you with me.”
Liv raised one eyebrow. “Oh, is that what you intend?”
“It is the reasonable course—”
“So once again, you’ve made this plan concerning me without thinking to consult me at all.”
Cedric shook his head, frustrated. “No, what I meant was—would you please
come back with me? It will be safer for you to stay behind battle lines and enter the castle once we’ve taken the city back—”
“We’ve had this exact discussion before.” Liv shook her head, a look of disgust crossing her face. “Everyone Malquin is holding prisoner could be used as leverage or even killed during the fight, and it’s like you don’t even care.”
“Do not be ridiculous. Of course I care,” Cedric said, growing angry again. How did every conversation with Liv go so far off course, and so quickly?
“Really. Then why doesn’t it make sense to sneak into the castle and free our families just before the war starts?”
“That . . .” Cedric started to argue back, before letting her words sink in. “That is your idea?”
“Yes.”
“That . . . is a good idea.”
Liv crossed her arms. “Yeah, I know.”
Cedric started to pace now, his mind whirring. His hand went to the walkie device at his side, but he didn’t want to reach out to Kat until he had a firmer grip on the plan starting to form in his mind.
“If we could coordinate it, and somehow sneak a small group into the castle to free the prisoners just before the battle begins, it might also cause enough of a distraction to lure some wraths away from the city gates before our forces strike. . . .” Cedric bit his lip as he paced. “Combining both of our plans could be the best chance we have to take back the city and keep our families from becoming casualties.”
Liv’s eyes glittered in the morning light. “We should go find Rafe, and fill him in on this—”
“Right. Rafe.” Cedric’s stomach tightened at the thought. But he tried to push his negative thoughts aside. Rafe was a strong fighter and strategist, and could be key to the success of this new plan. No matter how much he was able to make Liv laugh.
Liv looked around. “Where is he, anyway?”
“He went to dispose of the wrath’s body.”
“What if he ran into more of . . . them?” Liv’s eyes filled with worry, and she scanned the edge of the forest.
“We can follow his trail and meet up with him,” Cedric said, taking his sword from its sheath once again.
He gestured in the direction Rafe had gone, and they took off together, side by side. After walking quickly for a few minutes, Cedric saw the line of flattened grass and broken sticks ahead of him lead into the mouth of a cave.
“He took it in there?” Liv asked.
Cedric motioned for her to stay put, but of course she followed him anyway. They had to duck to get inside the cave, which was small enough that they could have reached out and touched the walls on either side at the same time. It extended backward into the ground past where Cedric could see. The whitish light from outside touched only the first few feet of the cave, and Cedric’s eyes were slow to adjust to the dimness.
Which is probably why he didn’t see the body until he tripped over it.
Cedric quickly righted himself and looked down at the figure at his feet. At first, all he could see was dark fabric and what looked like whitish hair. He didn’t recognize the face until he knelt down to get a closer look. The man’s dark eyes were open wide, directed at Cedric just as they had been at a small inn two hours outside of Los Angeles.
“Oh,” Liv said, as she recognized the grayed face of the professor. “Oh God.”
Cedric gently closed the professor’s eyes with two fingers and stood.
“Was . . . was it a wrath?”
Cedric shook his head. “His throat was slit cleanly, with a knife. That is not how wraths . . . do things.”
“How is he here? I just saw him last night.”
“What?”
Before Liv could answer, footsteps sounded out from the back of the cave. Cedric put a hand against Liv’s mouth and pressed her back against the dirt wall. But the figure that quickly emerged from the shadows wasn’t a wrath—but an out-of-breath Rafe.
Cedric didn’t need to see Rafe’s face to know what had happened, but it helped to confirm his suspicions. After all, what were the odds that Rafe would attempt to hide a dead wrath in the exact same cave where another body was hidden?
“Why?” Liv choked out.
For a moment, Rafe looked caught, maybe even contrite, but that quickly melted away into defiance. He squared his shoulders. “This man was a murderer. Of children. You said so yourself. He would have slowed us down, or worse.”
“So you just . . .” Liv trailed off, her eyes wide and staring at the professor.
“I did what was right,” Rafe replied, his voice tight and defiant.
“If that was true, you wouldn’t have waited until I fell asleep.” Liv said, looking up at Rafe with eyes that seemed to blaze even in the darkness. “You wouldn’t have lied.”
“You do not understand how things work here—”
“You’re right, I don’t. And I don’t want to.”
Liv whirled and ran out of the cave. Rafe sighed and ran one hand over his forehead.
“Well, this is rather unfortunate. Why did you follow me here, anyway?”
“Liv was worried,” Cedric said, unable to keep the acid from his voice.
Rafe narrowed his eyes. “Do not tell me you are upset at this as well. You know what we do to murderers in Caelum, Cedric. He admitted his guilt to me, and he showed no remorse. This is what he deserved.”
Cedric said nothing, but turned to follow Liv from the cave, leaving Rafe behind with the professor’s body. He knew that, technically, Rafe was right. He had not broken any of Caelum’s laws, which decreed that anyone who killed another human be put to death. But that knowledge did not lessen the sick feeling in his stomach.
He found Liv not too far away, leaning back against a massive tree trunk with her head hanging down between her legs. She was taking big, shaking breaths.
“What are you doing?” Cedric asked, trying to make his voice as gentle as possible.
“Trying not to throw up.”
“Liv—”
“How could he do that?” Liv whipped her head up, her face red and blotchy. “Just slit a man’s throat and be so . . . so . . . cavalier? Just la-di-da, he deserved it.”
Cedric took a step closer to her. “Rafe . . . he is many things, but cavalier is not one of them. He does not act without forethought.”
Liv closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. “I just feel so . . . lost here. Every decision I make, who to trust and who to save, it always turns out wrong.”
“Believe me, I know how you feel.” Cedric wanted to reach out and touch her shoulder, or her hand. He looked down instead.
“The professor is dead,” Liv said. “I know he tried to kill me. Like, more than once. But still . . .”
Cedric closed his eyes and saw again the ashen body of the professor lying on the ground, the empty, unseeing eyes. “Still.”
Liv looked toward the cave and inhaled sharply. Rafe had emerged and was making his way to them.
“We have to keep him with us, don’t we?” Liv asked, her voice low.
Cedric sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was keep Rafe with them. Rafe had challenged his authority, tried to turn the villagers against him, taken off with Liv into a forest filled with monsters. But he was a skilled fighter, and he knew the most about what awaited them in Westing.
“Yes,” he finally said. “We need him.”
“Can you trust him?”
“I trust that he wants to free his parents. And right now, we need his help to do that.”
“I am touched at your confidence in me,” Rafe said, getting closer.
Liv glared at Rafe, but Cedric stepped toward him.
“We have the same goal, just as we always did. Are you willing to put everything else aside to work together? To save our families, and then the kingdom?”
Cedric stuck out his hand. Rafe eyed it for a moment before grabbing it in his own.
“To save our families, and the kingdom.”
“Well, let’s do it soon,
” Liv said, pushing herself up and off the tree trunk. “Because I am beyond ready to get out of this place. And never come back.”
Liv started walking back to the creek ahead of Cedric and Rafe without turning around to look at either of them. Cedric didn’t know if she’d been referring to the woods or to Caelum as a whole when she’d said “this place” in such a tone of disgust, but he suspected it was the latter.
It cut him deeper than he wanted to admit.
RISKY BUSINESS
“Well, at least all those zombie apocalypse movies got something right.”
Shannon peered through Joe’s windshield at the Ralphs grocery store across the parking lot. The area between the Jeep and the store’s front door was packed with cars, some parked haphazardly in spots, others left in aisles with their hazard lights on. The honking was endless. A line of people extended out of the doorway of the store, where a single police officer was desperately trying to keep order. Two women were fighting over a shopping cart on the sidewalk, and as one yanked on the handle, another dropped a canvas bagful of fruit. A single melon rolled away down the asphalt and disappeared beneath the front tires of a pickup truck.
“Shannon, this isn’t the apocalypse.” Joe said, keeping his eyes trained on the apartment building that butted up against the grocery store parking lot. “And there are no zombies.”
“Yet,” Shannon added. But despite Joe’s assurances, what was happening in Los Angeles sure felt like the end of the world. It seemed like half the city had already fled from the earthquakes and skyrocketing heat. Schools and government buildings were closed (so much for senior year). The National Guard were on the scene with the LAPD, but they couldn’t be everywhere at once.
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