by C. R. Pugh
I had given Ravyn the painkillers, but it was only a short-term solution to her woes. She had no idea that we would be able to track her wherever she went if she didn’t get that bullet taken out.
Grandfather expected me to have the power restored by sunset. Once the generator was running it would still take some time to get the security monitors back on track. I wouldn’t be able to drag my feet forever without my grandfather noticing.
Ravyn was running out of time.
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4
Ravyn
Early the next morning, a tingle of warning woke me up. Thorne and I dressed quickly, removed all traces that we had been camping by the stream, and followed the channel back to Linwood. I was certain it was soldiers hunting us this time. If it had been Yellow-eyed Sabers, they would have ambushed us during the night.
Thorne wanted to take it slow because of my knee, but I assured him that I would be fine, so he didn’t say another word about it. I popped two more pills and we took off at a jog.
We stopped only once to hunt for food since we hadn’t eaten in a while. By late that afternoon, the warning sensation in my tattoo had gone quiet again. With the sun setting behind us, we made it back to the village in the trees.
“You there!” a male voice shouted from one of the balconies. “Who are you?”
Thorne didn’t get a chance to call back. Pierce was already sliding down one of the ropes out of the trees and jogging toward us, the rest of the Warriors hot on his heels, anxious to see their commander. Pierce nodded to me and then pounded Thorne on the shoulder.
“No trouble?” Pierce asked Thorne.
Thorne peered down at me out of the corner of his eye. I glared back.
“None from the soldiers,” Thorne drawled.
Pierce snorted and shook his head.
My jaw clenched. We now had a mind-reader and someone who could eavesdrop from a distance. He had probably heard everything Thorne and I had screamed at each other yesterday. Pierce’s deadly glares on the hunt now made sense. While I had been travelling with Thorne and his Warriors, he’d overheard us talking about our suspicions.
Thorne planted his hands on his hips and glared at his Warriors. “Why are you all rushing out here?”
Archer gave me a quick nod in greeting and said, “Just making sure our fearless leader is back in one piece.”
Brock grinned at me sheepishly as he joined our group. Tallon followed behind him, carrying her bow and arrows over her shoulder. She had the same arrogant swagger as Thorne and it was easy to see how much she admired him. Tallon eyed me curiously as she brushed past me to greet her brother. With my animosity toward Thorne and my attempt to run off into the Valley alone, I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire group thought I had come unhinged.
“Things are more dangerous than before,” Brock pointed out. “We didn’t know how long it would take for you to return.”
Or if he would return at all, I thought miserably. The sting of guilt gripped my heart. If I hadn’t run away again, none of them would have had reason to worry.
“Ravyn!”
I whipped my head around at the sound of my name. Camellia was racing across the small clearing toward me. I stepped away from the Warriors and strode toward my sister. Her clothes were dirty, with blood spattered on them. Her silvery blonde hair was unkempt and falling out of her braid around her face, her expression a mixture of sorrow and relief.
Camellia threw herself into me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I stiffened on impact, but forced myself to relax into her embrace, putting my arms around her in return.
“I was so scared I’d never see you again,” she whimpered.
My throat tightened up. I wanted to ask about Mother and Father right away, but I knew it might upset her even more, so I kept my silence.
Camellia released me and eased out of my arms. She shifted from foot to foot and started wringing her hands nervously. “I wanted to come with them to help rescue you from the compound,” she said tentatively. “They wouldn’t let me.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Thorne and Pierce, who were surrounded by the other Warriors. If I’d been more observant, I would have seen the resemblance between the brothers sooner. Their different shades of hair likely kept people ignorant. Thorne’s hair was bright white and cropped fairly short, while Pierce’s was dark and hung down into his eyes and over his ears. Both had blue eyes, but not quite the same shade.
Looking closer, I saw the arrogance they shared, standing with their feet slightly apart and arms crossed over their chests. Both had straight, aquiline noses and strong jawlines. Their winged brows drew down over their eyes, giving them both stern expressions when they spoke to each other. Not to mention, they were both tall and muscular; intimidating Warriors.
“I’m glad they didn’t let you go with them,” I said, turning back to her. “I would have pummeled them all if they had. We already had enough to worry about without you around.”
“I’m sorry about …” Camellia’s turquoise eyes pooled up with tears and I knew she was speaking of our parents. But why did she suddenly look so hurt? Was she grieving for our parents or was it something I said?
“There was nothing you could’ve done,” I assured her, swallowing back my own grief.
“But it was because of me!”
I shook my head and embraced her again. “No, it wasn’t. But I’m here now. I’m not leaving you again.”
A shout drew my attention back to the village.
“Ravyn!” a female voice shouted. A young woman climbed down from one of the treehouses. I recognized her thin arms and legs and her mousy brown hair.
“Laelynn,” I whispered. I grasped Camellia’s hand and dragged her further into the village. Laelynn caught me up in a fierce embrace. I tried not to stiffen this time, but I couldn’t help it. “I’m surprised you’re still here,” I murmured into her ear.
“Are you crazy?” Laelynn exclaimed. “We couldn’t leave without knowing you were alright.”
“You should have gotten far away from here.”
Laelynn shook her head. “Two of my brothers – Nash and Hagan – were injured in the last attack by those soldiers. We’ve been giving them time to heal before we drag them home.”
Thorne hadn’t mentioned anything about an attack or my sister being harmed. “The soldiers came back?”
Laelynn smiled sadly. “There’s a lot you don’t know.” She peered over my shoulder at the Warriors and then back toward her treehouse. I’d never seen Laelynn so fidgety.
“Laelynn, what is it?”
“Ravyn … I need to tell you something. Something important.” She gestured to the homes in the trees over her shoulder. “Why don’t we …”
Laelynn’s words faded away when Camellia’s hand tightened around my fingers. A mild wave of electricity passed through my body. A similar buzzing had run through me right after Elder Dagan had been killed at the Terran gate. At the time, I’d blamed it on the electric fence, and later, chalked it up to my imagination. This time, I was certain it was real.
I stared at Camellia with wide eyes. Could that weird sensation be coming from my sister? While Kieron’s mind had still been broken, he’d mentioned my sister might be altered. He’d been sent to fetch her and bring her back to General Wolfe. I pinched my lips together. If she was gifted, I didn’t want to question Camellia until we were alone. No one needed to know.
Camellia scowled at Kaelem and so did I. He hadn’t climbed out of the trees like his sister. He’d ambled out of the woods and jogged up behind Laelynn to greet us. A few leaves and pine needles poked out of his shoulder-length hair and his face and hands were dirty. Had he been sleeping on the ground?
Once he reached us, my stomach dropped in realization. Kaelem has known about Camellia all along. While we were hiding inside the Terran fences, he’d mentioned that Camellia was more like me than anyone knew. I thought he was talking about our pers
onalities at the time. Had he been hinting at her secret ability? Camellia must have been hiding it for a long time. I wondered when she’d discovered it. More importantly, had our parents known about it?
Between the two of us, my gift was still much more difficult to hide, but I was certain she must have had her close calls. Was that the reason she hadn’t allowed any males to court her within Terran? Was she afraid to let anyone touch her for fear that she would electrocute them? Had Kaelem alerted Wolfe to her gift when he betrayed us?
I narrowed my eyes as Kaelem approached us. He halted behind his sister, his eyes wary. The Warriors stopped chatting behind us. I felt their eyes on us, silently watching. Thorne stepped closer, hovering over my shoulder. I wasn’t sure if he was finally going to pound Kaelem into the dirt or if he was there to hold me back if I attempted to kill him.
Laelynn peered over her shoulder. The admonishing look she was giving Kaelem made me think she hadn’t been pleased with his choices either. It made me like Laelynn even more.
I had no desire to speak with Kaelem and I could only imagine how Camellia was feeling. We had both trusted him and his brothers. His betrayal had put us all in danger. If Kaelem hadn’t been such a coward in the compound, I might have been here to stop Kieron from killing my family.
Kaelem blanched. Was he listening to my thoughts or Camellia’s? From Camellia’s rigid stance, it was clear she didn’t want to stand here and try to make things right with Kaelem. Neither did I.
“You should get back into the treehouse. It’s too dangerous on the ground,” I said to Camellia.
Her eyes hardened. “Fine,” she snapped and strode away, back toward the heart of the village, and I followed.
Kaelem grasped my arm as I walked by him.
“Ravyn,” he pleaded.
I twisted out of his grasp and slammed my fist into his face. Kaelem cried out and stumbled backward from the impact. Camellia gasped. After giving me a fearful look, she spun on her heel and ran back to the treehouse. The Warriors simply glared at him in cold silence. No one moved or gave Kaelem any support – not even Laelynn.
It wasn’t my best hit, but if I’d been prepared or had put my full weight behind it, Kaelem would have seen it coming. He stared at me in astonishment while blood dripped from his nose down to his upper lip.
After one last scornful look, I turned and followed after Camellia.
***
Laelynn had given Camellia and me an abandoned treehouse close to her family’s home, high up in the sequoias. Camellia had made herself at home while I’d been gone. It was nearly identical to Laelynn’s, but smaller in size. Camellia had taken the larger of the two bedrooms. There was a mattress stuffed with straw or pine needles in the corner of the room that was wide enough for two people. I imagined a married couple would have slept here. I took the smaller room next to Camellia’s.
I wanted some peace and quiet, without Kaelem listening to my thoughts, but didn’t want to be too far from my sister. My mind had been whirling since the fight at the compound. Anger boiled inside me – at everyone, including myself.
Camellia seemed to understand and let me hide out in my room for a while. I could hear her rustling around out in the living room. It wasn’t until I heard her muffled voice speaking to someone that I finally came out of hiding. Laelynn was sitting down at the small dining table with my sister. When she spotted me, she gave me a small smile.
“What’s going on?” I asked, glancing back and forth between Laelynn and Camellia.
“We were talking about plans for tomorrow,” Laelynn answered.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “We can’t stay here for long. I’m surprised the soldiers aren’t here yet.”
Laelynn nodded. “We’ll be leaving soon.”
“How are Hagan and Nash?” I asked, taking a seat beside my sister.
“Recovering,” Laelynn replied, though she wasn’t enthusiastic. “They were lucky. Hagan’s wound was in the thigh and Nash took a bullet in the shoulder. They’ve been complaining about eating only broth, so I know they’ll be fine.”
We all chuckled, but Laelynn’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. Something is wrong.
Before I could ask, Camellia turned to me. “We were wondering … whether you’d want to go …” My sister seemed to choke on her words and her eyes began to get misty.
Laelynn finished her question. “If you wanted to go and see their grave? We picked out a beautiful spot.”
“It’s not dark yet?” Rising to my feet, I walked to the window. The sun sat low in the sky but light continued to spill through the sequoias.
“There’s enough sunlight left for a quick walk,” Laelynn promised. “Maybe an hour.”
“Alright, then,” I whispered.
Laelynn led us back down the rope ladders that had been built to get back to the ground. When we reached the bottom, Thorne and Pierce were waiting.
“What are you doing?” I snapped. “We don’t need escorts.”
Pierce narrowed his eyes and glared at me through the dark curls that hung down over his forehead. The muscle in Thorne’s jaw flexed but he kept silent. I regretted my words immediately, especially once I noticed the astonishment on my sister’s face. None of the Warriors would let us go out there alone, and it was Thorne’s nature to be protective.
I linked arms with Camellia and followed Laelynn out to the stream, leaving Thorne and Pierce behind. My tattoo wasn’t tingling at the moment and the last rays of sun were still shining through the trees to light our way. Laelynn had been right – it had to be a short visit, but I needed to see them before we left this place forever.
They had dug the grave outside the village between two giant sequoias. Several ferns arched over the mound of dirt that marked the place my mother and father were now resting.
My throat thickened. I folded my arms over my chest and stared at the grave.
“How did it happen?” I whispered.
Laelynn shifted from one foot to the other and tucked her hair behind her ears. “After you and Kaelem showed up at the compound in my cell, those two soldiers that had been waiting for you threw me out the door and forced Kaelem and me to leave. They didn’t give us a choice.”
The two soldiers she spoke of were Kieron and the tracker. The tracker was dead. Thankfully, he would not be around to harass anyone again, but I shivered when I thought of all the soldiers Wolfe might have revived with that serum.
“Kaelem and I found our family and yours by the river,” Laelynn continued.
“That was where we had agreed to meet you afterward,” Camellia added. “Kaelem convinced us that there was nothing we could do but come back here. Father was furious. He threatened to go back to the compound and break you out himself.”
My heart wrenched painfully at the thought of my father being so protective of me.
“And the soldiers?” I asked them. “What happened when they attacked?”
“It’s difficult to remember everything from that day,” Laelynn said, shaking her head. “There was so much chaos.”
“We were up in the treehouse,” Camellia explained, her voice trembling. “I remember Father and Mother arguing about going back to the compound. Father had climbed down to the ground and Mother had followed after him, begging him not to run off alone. I went down after them to help Mother convince him to stay. We both knew that if there was any chance to save you we’d need some help. That was when the soldiers attacked.”
I pinched my eyes shut. Part of me didn’t want to hear anymore, but I needed to understand.
Camellia went on without a pause. “The dark soldier snuck up on us while the rest of them were fighting the other villagers. He shot Father first.”
I doubled over and put my hands on my knees, breathing deeply so I wouldn’t gag. Kieron had shot them in front of her. I should have let him die at the hands of those barbarians.
Liar. You couldn’t bring yourself to kill him when he had been Wolfe’s terrible mind-slave
.
“Mother stood in front of me, protecting me, but he …”
I raised myself back up and wrapped my arms around Camellia again. “I’m sorry,” I murmured into her ear. “That soldier wasn’t in his right mind.”
“I know,” said Camellia. “You told us they were brainwashed, that they only took orders.”
I released her and held her at arm’s length. Tears streamed down her face. “How did you get away from him?”
“Thorne found us,” she replied.
I recalled Thorne apologizing for not being there in time to save our parents. He must have seen Kieron dragging Camellia away and gone after them.
Laelynn drew closer and placed her hand on my shoulder. This small gesture took me back to the first day I’d met her. Things had been simpler. It had just been me on the run. There had been no one else to look after or feel responsible for.
“None of it was your fault,” Laelynn pointed out.
That’s still being determined, I thought bitterly.
I frowned and stared off into the forest that was growing darker by the minute. Something was nagging at me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it …
Then it hit me. I turned to Laelynn and asked, “And Wolfe did nothing to you? How did you get out of there without getting hurt?”
“They locked me in that room and left me there for days,” Laelynn answered. “I thought they’d forgotten about me until some guy in a long white coat came in with food for me.”
My brows knitted together in thought. Could it have been the scientist? He was the one who’d managed to rescue me a second time. I didn’t even know his name.
Laelynn bit her lip and shuffled her feet again. There was something else – something she wasn’t telling me. Why was she hesitating?
“Laelynn, what is it?”
“Ravyn, I -” She hesitated again.
“Laelynn!” a deep male voice called out from behind us.
We each jumped in surprise and turned to find one of the twins watching us through the trees.
“Everything is fine, Haldar,” Laelynn assured him.