I take a step beside him and look up at the tree. I didn’t consider the possibility that my dad kept the tree alive, but I guess my mom could have, too.
Inhaling deeply, I sigh. “Jace, about Laurel,” I start, staring at the remains of Mr. Jameson’s house.
He shakes his head. “I don’t care.”
“But —”
“It was just sex. I didn’t care about Laurel — or any of those girls. I don’t — care. I’m sorry about whatever happened to her, but I don’t care. They treated me like a plaything, Mae. It’s not my fault or my problem.”
He starts to tie his hair up in a knot. I nod, dropping it. “I don’t blame you for not coming back.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Well, I thought you did, and I still don’t blame you. But I blame you for leaving. Or at least I did. We don’t abandon our friends.”
He looks at me. “I didn’t know how to be around Rhiannon without you, Mae. You’re my best friend —” he inhales deeply, looking away from me. “I didn’t want to be around her — everyone — without you there, okay? I couldn’t be expected to just accept that you were dead. I wasn’t gonna act like everything was okay, when it wasn’t. I left for selfish reasons. I know that — because if something happened to anyone else… If something happened to her? And I couldn’t protect her?" He shakes his head. "I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to know. Then I couldn’t blame myself. I wouldn’t be able to handle it again.”
He wipes his face forcefully with his hands and shakes his head again.
“What the hag did to me wasn’t your fault.”
“But I could have prevented it.”
“No, you couldn’t. We can look out for each other, but you don’t need to protect me.” It's like what Vihaan said about Nannu, to respect her decision for what she did. I couldn't have prevented it. He was right, it was her decision. “What I did was my choice, and I don’t regret it. Even if I wasn’t standing here now.”
“Well, I’m glad you are,” he says, and glances at me. His eyes are red.
“I am too.” I stick my bandaged hands into my pockets and turn to face him. “But if there’s a time when I don’t come back again, don’t turn your back on them. On her. Don’t leave.”
He nods, before narrowing his eyes on me. “What happened?” he asks. “What do you know?”
“I know the rest of the prophecy, the one that Lerra’s mom died trying to finish,” I say, staring at the dead apple tree. “Lerra and Rhiannon — threw a birthday party for me and we went back to Nevressea — anyway — Lerra touched my wrist and she finished it.”
He shifts his feet. “So? What is it?”
“Breaking the mirror destroys the reflection. Breaking the other, destroys the world.”
“So if Drarkodon kills you —”
“Aridete will be gone.”
“He won’t kill you.”
“Everyone keeps saying that, but Jace, look around. Look at what he’s capable of and he’s still trapped in the Underworld. Can you imagine what it’s gonna be like when he escapes? We still haven’t found David, creatures are coming out of the Underworld —”
“He won’t,” Jace just repeats. He nudges me with his elbow. “You and me,” he says, “we’ll figure this out.”
“Remember what I said about causing the problem?” I ask, “before we got on that train?”
“Why?” He narrows his eyes again. “What did you do?”
“I’m going to cause the end of Aridete. I know it. I’m gonna mess up.”
“Mae —” he starts, I don’t want to hear it.
“No, listen. When Nadia and I were trapped by ghouls, they said that the Reawakener was gonna break the Reaper out of his cage. My brother is the Reawakener. He’s gonna release him. And I don’t know how —” I rub my face with my hand — “but I saw Drarkodon torturing Apollo because he wouldn’t cooperate.”
He raises his eyebrows and chews on his bottom lip. “Well, it kinda sounds like we don’t have to worry about it then.”
“Jace, Drarkodon can’t kill him. He’ll just keep torturing him. I don’t want him to torture my brother. He’s dealt with enough.”
“So what are you saying?” he asks, picking up one of the burnt, shriveled apples. “You wanna save him or something? How the hell are we supposed to do that?”
I shrug, picking up an apple of my own. “His creatures are coming back on some voyage of the dead called the Midnight Strider. We could get on it?”
“Voyage of the dead?” He frowns at me. “Mae, if you forgot, we’re still alive. Why can’t we just send the double G’s?”
“The what?”
“The ghost and the genie.”
“Because I have to go.” I rotate the apple in my hand. “He saw me. I don’t know how, but Apollo saw me, when I saw what Drarkodon was doing to him. I have to help. I can’t just do nothing knowing what I know.”
“Evil can only flourish when the good do nothing,” Jace says. He drops the apple back onto the ground. “When they sit idly, and allow the wicked to corrupt. When they turn a blind eye.” He glances at me.
“Poetic,” I say. But I already knew Jace was capable of such words. The way he first talked about Rhiannon. He sees the world differently, but I guess we all do. In our own ways.
“People say poetic things every day,” he tells me, “but unless they’re spoken by someone important, no one hears them. No one cares.”
“So you’re going to help me?”
“I know whose side I’m on,” he says. “And it’ll always be yours.” He chews on his bottom lip again. “I just hope my dad doesn’t figure out why I left. Especially if he finds out Rhiannon’s here.”
“Don’t they know what she did for you?”
“My dad doesn’t see it like that, and he doesn’t care. Worse, he’s the alpha of the pack. If he bites her, he can kill her.” He holds his index finger up. “Just one bite.”
“We’ll just have to go somewhere your family can’t find us then.”
“We’re wolves. They’ll sniff us out.”
“Maybe not,” a voice comes from behind us.
“Seriously, Miko?” Jace snarls.
She takes a step between us and wraps her arms around each of our necks.
“You guys can come home with me,” she says. “Everyone’s welcome where I live. They don’t question nothing about where you come from or what you are. As long as you’re kind, a team player and pull your own weight, you’re welcome there. I think you two will enjoy it.” She bumps her hip against Jace. “Plus you and the vampire…”
“I told you —” Jace starts as he picks up her arm from around his neck and drops it down at her side. “This is not —”
“Not a love story, yeah, yeah. Could’ve fooled me.” She looks at the apple tree and looks back at Jace. “I see your appetite hasn’t changed,” Miko says, pressing her hand against his stomach. “How do you stay in shape? How do you even get your stomach that hard?”
He brushes her hand away from his body. She turns to me as her arm slips from behind my neck. “Are you that hard?” Jace starts laughing so hard that he snorts. He turns away, covering his face with his arm. “What — oh — that’s not what I meant!”
She reaches to push against my stomach but I stop her.
“My stomach is squishy, don’t touch it.”
Miko shoves Jace, who continues to laugh.
“Stop laughing — stop being so immature — Jubilation!” she yells. I cross my arms over my stomach so she doesn’t try to poke me. I’m still fumbling with the apple. “We’ll leave in the morning,” she continues, ignoring Jace’s immaturity. “Now come on, before Nova scorches the food I brought.”
“You brought food?” I ask. My stomach growls.
“Of course,” she says, �
�I didn’t know how long it was gonna be till we found you and I wasn’t about to leave without any. You sound hungry.”
“Extremely,” I say.
“Well, come on. There’s plenty. And maybe we can hear some more embarrassing stories about Jubilation here.”
“You’re not allowed to call me that,” he says.
“Is anyone?” She wiggles her eyebrows and dashes ahead before he can say anything.
He rolls his eyes.
“Happy birthday, by the way. Twenty-one… Feeling old yet?” I look up at him.
He drapes his arm around the back of my neck.
“At least you’re an old man now too, and it’s about time. Though, at least we’re both younger than Rhiannon — and probably the ghost, and the genie. You know what, we’re probably the youngest ones here.”
“And your sister,” I say.
“And my sister,” he repeats, pulling his arm down. He crosses his arms and frowns. “That’s gonna be weird.”
“What?”
“My sister and my friends. It’s just never happened before. We moved around too much for me to have any friends outside of my family, and by the time I made any, I thought I didn’t have a family. Then when I found them, I thought I didn’t have friends…”
“You’ll always have both,” I say. “Besides, family isn’t always blood.”
“So I’m starting to see,” he says. I throw the apple to him once I’ve managed to ripen it. He catches it. His eyebrows pull together, staring at the apple before looking at me. “You —”
“I’ve learned a few tricks,” I tell him.
Everyone is out back, behind the caving house. I still remember sitting out there with Weylan before I left with Jace. The fence to the Woodlands is destroyed, but it looks a lot better than the Woodlands themselves. Jace has trouble looking away from it. He’s probably thinking about the forest spirit.
Nadia and Benny sit down beside me, while Nova and Miko sit beside Rhiannon, and Jace takes a seat beside his sister, all gathering around the fire Nova built.
Most of them are laughing, telling stories to each other as the day turns into night. Kina fits in easily with everyone, but I’m lost in thought. Thinking of my brother, thinking about the voyage of the dead.
‘The Midnight Strider?’
I look at Rhiannon, who’s moving food around in her chipped bowl. I glance at Jace, who averts his eyes. He was just looking at her too.
Stay out of my head, Rhiannon.
‘What do you want with that ship?’
It’s nothing.
She looks at me and I shake my head.
“Let’s play Never Have I Ever,” Nadia says, putting her bowl down beside her. I've heard of that game. Amelia played it often. Nadia digs into her pocket and pulls out a clear flask, filled with silvery blue liquid. “I’ll go first. Never have I ever —” she shoots a challenging look at Rhiannon, “ — kissed my enemy.”
Jace and Rhiannon both avert their gaze. Rhiannon is the first to reach for the flask and Benny starts making hooting noises.
“I knew it!” Nadia jumps up from her seat.
“I bet his body really heated up over that,” Nova smirked into his bowl.
“Did you enjoy it?” Nadia asks, pulling away the flask as Rhiannon tries to grab it.
“He was dying!”
“I saw the way you moved to touch him when you hurt him,” Nadia teases. “I knew there was something between you two.”
“There is nothing between us — Jubilation!” She looks at him for some kind of back up but he doesn’t offer any. Instead, he waves his fingers in the air, motioning for Nadia to pass him the flask. She tosses it to him.
He’s just about to press it to his lips.
“Only drink if you enjoyed it,” she adds quickly.
He doesn’t put it down. He hesitates, and drinks from it anyway. He wipes his mouth with the back of his wrist and gets up to hand it to Rhiannon.
“I mean, I was dying. Of course I enjoyed being healed.”
It’s subtle, but with the light of the fire, I can see Rhiannon’s expression falter.
I think Jace noticed too because he sat back down immediately and averted his eyes. Rhiannon takes a small sip, and hands it to Miko.
“Uhhhh,” she starts, waving the flask around while she thinks up something to say. “Never have I ever — gotten sexual with someone I wasn’t in love with.”
Jace groans. He tilts his head back, his eyes are closed, and he extends his arm out for the flask again. Kina smacks his arm. “Jace! We aren’t supposed to do that!”
Rhiannon fixes her dress against the rubble she’s seated upon. “Can we please do something else?”
“Truth or dare,” Nadia asks her.
Oh boy.
“Truth.”
“Do you like Jace?”
Rhiannon narrows her eyes. “Dare,” she says instead.
“Hey, you can’t just change it!” Miko says.
“Fine,” Nadia says and smirks. There’s challenge in her voice. I wonder what happened between the two of them. “I dare you to kiss him. Like you mean it.”
Rhiannon rolls her eyes. She stands, and straightens her dress again.
“Rhiannon,” Jace starts, “don’t listen to her. You don’t have to do anything she says.”
But Rhiannon doesn’t say anything.
Instead, she walks over to him, and she sits down on his lap. She crosses her legs and leans against his chest. Rhiannon reaches up and loosens the knot, releasing his hair to fall around his face. I glance at Kina, who is staring at the two of them in horror, while Miko, Nova, Benny, and Nadia all sit impatiently.
Rhiannon runs her fingers along his jaw, while her other hand rests against his chest. She slowly leans forward, and presses her lips against his. Jace moves his hand to her waist, and grips the material of her dress. She runs her fingers through his hair, grasping it gently in her hand as she leans closer to him. Her fingers run against his jaw again, before she clutches his neck, forcing him to tilt his head back as she pushes her body against his. Jace leans forward just as Rhiannon breaks her lips away from his. When she stands, he grabs her wrist. The look in his eyes, is almost of longing.
“Someone enjoyed it.” Miko chuckles.
Jace lets go of her wrist, his face is reddening. Kina’s still staring at him.
“Are you blushing?” she asks.
“It’s the fire,” he claims.
I try not to laugh.
Rhiannon adjusts her dress again and sits back down between Nova and Miko. She crosses her legs again and fixes the hem of her dress. A small lip-closed smile peeks at the corner of her lips, but it disappears just as fast.
Looks like Jace isn’t the only one who enjoyed it.
She glares at me and I shrug, smirking into my cup as I take a sip of my water. Making comments like that will be fun. At least Jace can’t hear them. I don’t need more noogies.
I’m hoping we’ve grown out of that.
Chapter TEN
sleepless
I didn’t really sleep.
I couldn’t. Even though the campfire served as a temporary distraction — which was nice, even I had to admit — it didn’t change anything. Apollo is still getting tortured by Drarkodon. His creatures are infesting our lands again. I can’t remember what it was like when he was at his strongest. I was only a kid, and I think they were memories I chose to block out.
Whatever the reason, I have no recollection, but something was bad enough to get Alekoth, Beinyth, and Caliswen together to banish him, considering Beinyth hardly cooperates with anyone. It just might not be enough now.
Apollo wouldn’t have been kidnapped if I wasn’t always running off. If I wasn’t always forcing him to do things he didn’t want to do. I can make the excuse
of ‘I was a child and I didn’t know better’, but it’s a lie. I knew better, I just didn’t want to listen. I wanted to be a troublemaker.
I wanted my dad’s attention, and when I got it, I didn’t even realize I had it.
Still too consumed with myself, unable to see what was happening in the world around me. Unable to look up.
I don’t have that luxury anymore. I’m forced to look up.
David wouldn’t be dead. My brother would still be here. Nannu would still be alive.
And Zoirin…
I get up from the couch. Benny is sleeping on the cracked counter, he’s fading in and out from sight, coinciding with his breathing. Nova mastered changing back into a phoenix, and sat perched up on high wood, where no one could disturb him. Miko and Kina were sitting against one another, their heads knocked together like they talked till they fell asleep.
I slip through the rubble in the hallway, rocks and other debris fall with me but I’m lucky it doesn’t make much noise. My door is blocked off, it makes sense Nadia would want her privacy. I push through wooden boards hanging low in the hall to see if Jace is awake.
I peer into his room and see him sleeping on the floor by the window, which he seems to have boarded up. Rhiannon is curled up on his bed beneath the sheets.
I hear the door creak.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” A voice comes from behind me. I turn to see Nadia standing there. “I thought I heard someone out here.”
“What makes it weird?” I ask, looking back at my sleeping friends.
“They’re enemies, and they’re in love with each other.”
I turn away from the door and lean against the remains of the wall. “So — she —”
“She’s scared to, and full of denial, but —” Nadia nods. “She does. It’s there, she’s falling in love with him. I didn’t know she was actually going to kiss him in front of all of us though. I was half ready to tell them to get a room.” She walks past me and peers into the bedroom. “Though by the looks of it, they did, and yet didn’t bother to do anything. Boring.”
I grab her wrist and pull her into my room.
The Midnight Strider (The Chronomancer Chronicles Book 2) Page 10