Taylor still wasn't awake when we arrived at the hospital but Baba promised us that it wouldn't be a long wait, though how she knew I couldn't guess.
I wondered vaguely whether he’d had any visitors whilst we were gone and hoped that he hadn't been aware if not.
"Taylor?" I asked, standing by his bedside and pushing his hair away from his eyes.
He really did need it cut. Coal sank into the chair behind me and Laurie, Hunter and Alicia lurked by the door, unsure what to do with themselves.
There was no response. An hour passed us by and Alicia paced back and forth so many times that I sent her, Laurie and Hunter to find us something decent to eat and drink.
Coal reached for my hand and pulled me towards him. I let him move me away from Taylor and turned to look down at him in the chair.
“What can I do?" he asked with a little frown.
“You're here, that's all I need." I sighed.
He stood up and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his chest. I breathed him in, pulling myself as close to him as I could.
"Okay then, I'm not going anywhere." He ran his fingers through my hair and I felt a shock of electricity shoot down my spine. I tilted my chin up and his lips press against mine, awakening the beast inside me which wanted to gorge herself on his flesh.
My body reacted instantly and I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me as my heartbeat accelerated.
“Maya?" Taylor's croaky voice pulled me back to reality with a jolt.
I pulled away from Coal and spun around. Coal's hands remained on my shoulders and I could feel the heat of him standing close behind me.
“You've been asleep for a while, just take it easy," I said, fluttering my hands uselessly towards him, suddenly unsure of how to act around my closest friend.
“What happened?" he croaked and his gaze narrowed slightly at Coal behind me.
I laughed nervously and stepped to his bedside again, causing Coal to release his grip on me.
"I don't know where to start." I smiled and felt a blush heat my cheeks.
"Go with the beginning," he said, so I did.
It took hours to tell him everything, the others reappeared as I was only just beginning. I got them to help me with the parts of the story that they knew better than me and by the end we were all smiling, laughing and eating and drinking the snacks.
Taylor didn't take long to slip straight back into his normal, easy going way, though he didn't seem to be warming to Coal as much as he was to Alicia. I hoped that that had more to do with her looks than it did with him having a problem with Coal. But I was beginning to realise it wasn't possible for anyone to dislike Hunter.
"And then we came rushing back here to see you when you woke up," I finished, strangely exhausted by the telling of our tale.
I was perched on Taylor's bed next to him. Alicia and Laurie were sitting on the end of it too, Coal had taken residence of the single chair again while Hunter lounged against the wall by the window.
"Trust you to fall on your ass out of a tree in the middle of a fight," Taylor said, ruffling my hair. I let him do it just that once.
“It wasn't intentional," I protested as everyone laughed at me again. It felt so natural to be there with all of them though and I bathed in the warmth of their friendship surrounding me.
“Well, I don't want to be left behind next time," Taylor announced.
"There's plenty more action to come," Coal said, frowning slightly but covering it so quickly that I may have been the only one to notice.
“I still can't believe your mom and dad are alive somewhere," Taylor said, nudging me.
"It's like everything the Guardians ever told us was lies," I said, feeling the happiness slipping away from me and the cold chill that the city now held in my heart taking over.
“We'll get them out. All of them," Alicia swore and I knew she meant it.
“The fact that you three know the city layout and how everything works and runs in there will really help us. It'll probably be the advantage we need to actually be able to get to them," Coal said, nodding in agreement.
“If you can contact the people inside then I just know that my mom and dad will help us too," Taylor added.
"It would be dangerous for them," I said, biting my lip.
“It's worth it, we have to take the Guardians down," Laurie said so viciously that we all looked at her with surprise. "They lied to me, they made me think I'd spent years training to protect the people of the city but they were just using me to help control them instead."
"I swear I'm going to make them pay," Taylor said suddenly.
“Me too," Laurie agreed.
"We're always in for a fight," Alicia said with a fierce smile. Coal nodded and Hunter smiled broadly.
“No matter what? Even if the rest of the rebellion stops? They might decide it's not worth the risk to try and release the prisoners," I said, finally admitting the thing that had been bothering me for days.
“No matter what, all of us won't stop until we get your parents out," Coal said, looking at everyone else as they all nodded in firm agreement.
"Okay. So when do we begin?" I asked, feeling a smile not unlike Alicia's spread across my face.
Coal led me by the hand back into the forest. The cool morning mist still hung in the small spaces between tree roots. The trees themselves were alive with the sounds of birds singing to the new dawn. Shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy above us, highlighting patches of flowers in every thinkable colour which were opening their petals and drinking in the light.
We reached a thick swathe of vines which Coal swept aside, causing a cascade of pollen to swirl around us in a golden cloud.
Behind the vines was a beautiful pond, the water so still it could have been a pane of glass with big, white lilies floating blissfully in its centre. It was like something from a fairy tale. A little brown rabbit appeared and quickly drank his fill from the glistening water, ripples spreading out before him as he did so.
A tree with faint, silvery bark had fallen down next to the pond and gotten stuck against one of its neighbours, leaving a cave of roots half torn from the ground. They reached out like boney fingers, wrapped with gloves of ivy. The trunk of the tree created a sort of bridge above the water and Coal helped me to climb up onto it.
Half way across, directly above the rippling pond, the tree's trunk widened creating enough space for us to sit.
Coal pulled me down and he lay against the rough bark. I sat next to him and hung my feet over the edge.
"I found this place when I was looking for Blane. I like to think that maybe he got to spend that night here, at least that one night, hidden away," Coal said quietly.
"Sometimes, all I want is to hide from the world. Not to have to worry about all the things that need to be set right," I replied.
It had been three weeks since we'd gotten back from the bunker and nothing had changed. I was finding it harder and harder to just stay put.
"That's why I brought you here, I think it's easier to forget out here. To let go of a few of your worries, just for a little while." He smiled.
"Thank you."
A bird cried out his joy to the morning and was rewarded by another returning his song in the distance.
“Do you think we can do it?" I asked and he didn't need to ask what I was talking about.
"I think it would be wrong not to try." At least he didn't lie to me.
“I feel like it's impossible, but I agree we have to try. Or rather I have to." I looked sideways at him.
“I have to too," he said stubbornly.
“You don't. I don't even know if I should be asking you to," I sighed.
“You didn't ask, we offered."
“And if people are hurt? Or killed?" I tugged on a strand of my dark hair nervously.
“It would be because we were doing what we knew had to be done, what we felt was the right thing to do. Not because we felt we had to do it for anyone el
se's sake." He folded his arms and stared at me.
"But I feel like you are doing it for my sake."
"I would do it for you." He nodded.
“Does that make it right?"
"It's not the only reason I'm going to do it. It's the right thing to do with or without your parents needing our help. They aren't the only people that the city is holding captive. In a way, they're holding everyone within those walls hostage." He ran his fingertips along my arm softly.
“But is it worth your life? Or mine, or Alicia's, or anyone else's?" I held his gaze, hoping he had the answers I needed to hear.
"Yes." There was no doubt in his voice and I knew he was right.
"When?" I asked.
“Soon. But not now." He pulled me closer to him and ran his hand down the side of my face. I shivered and moved towards him, feeling the heat radiating from his body. My hair tumbled down around us, blocking out the world.
"No, not now." I smiled as he pressed his lips to mine and I forgot to breathe, or think, or feel anything other than him.
It was almost as though everything in the world was perfect. Almost.
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BOOKS BY SUSANNE VALENTI
THE AGE OF VAMPIRES SAGA (DYSTOPIAN FANTASY)
ETERNAL REIGN
ETERNAL SHADE
ETERNAL CURSE
ETERNAL VOW
ETERNAL NIGHT
ETERNAL STORM
ETERNAL LOVE
RUTHLESS BOYS OF THE ZODIAC (SET IN THE WORLD OF SOLARIA)
DARK FAE
SAVAGE FAE
VICIOUS FAE
BROKEN FAE
SUPERNATURAL BULLIES AND BEASTS (SET IN THE WORLD OF SOLARIA)
ZODIAC ACADEMY: ORIGINS OF AN ACADEMY BULLY (A PREQUEL NOVELLA TO THE SERIES)
ZODIAC ACADEMY: THE AWAKENING
ZODIAC ACADEMY: RUTHLESS FAE
ZODIAC ACADEMY: THE RECKONING
ZODIAC ACADEMY: SHADOW PRINCESS
Rebel Rising: A Dystopian Romance (Cage of Lies Book 1) Page 35