Shadow Dancer Boxed Set

by Courtney Rene

  "That's not me," she said and finally a frown marred her lovely face. "Look, Leif, I am so happy you are here. I know you don't want to believe it, but I missed you. You were my friend and so much more for a long time. It was hard to just lose you like that. But…not everyone here feels that way. They don't know you like I do. I know you didn't mean to hurt me that day."

  "Sunny," I quickly jumped in, not wanting to go there. Not wanting the flashes of memory that always haunted me when I thought of that day. "I don't really care what anyone else thinks of me," I said and pointedly looked at Cinder. I wanted to hurt her as much as her reaction had just hurt me. "All I care about is what you think. If you trust me, that's enough."

  "I do trust you," she said. She came over and hugged me, half naked or not. It was such a Sunny move and one I once took for granted. Not anymore, though. I hugged her back, leaning into her curves.

  Without meaning to, I noted the differences between Sunny and Cinder. Sunny was small and curvy, whereas Cinder was tall and thin with subtle curves. Sunny was blond and light, and Cinder was dark and pink. Sunny had a full, bow shaped mouth. Cinder's was lush and wide. There were so many differences between them. Both were forbidden to me because of who I was. I squeezed Sunny a moment longer, then stepped away.

  "I'll see what I can do about the guards," Sunny said.

  I shook my head and replied, "Don't worry about it. I can handle it."

  A smile bloomed on her face once more. "Okay."

  "So, why did you want to leave?" she asked almost as an afterthought.

  Cinder perked up as well at Sunny's question, probably to see if I would tell her the same thing. I decided to be honest, for once. It was easier to keep track of honesty than it was of lies. "I decided to come here on a whim. I didn't exactly pack for the trip. I thought I would jump home and grab, at the least, a change of clothes. Unless that is, you don't mind me attending the wedding in my jeans and t-shirt."

  She laughed, like I'd hoped she would. "Truthfully, I'm so happy you came home, I wouldn't care if you attended without a stitch on at all, as long as you're there."

  "That can be arranged," I teased.

  She laid her hand on my bare forearm, and although I felt the warmth of her touch, it didn't sizzle with emotion like it once had. Once, long ago when she was mine to touch and hold. "Wait until tomorrow morning, all right? I'll go with you. It will be fun."

  I shook my head thinking of her reaction to my cave. "I'll wait until morning, but I don't need you to come. It will be quicker if I just pop over and back."

  "Oh," she said. Then I watched as Cinder's and Sunny's faces fell. "Okay."

  I knew what she and Cinder were both thinking, even though neither of them said it. They didn't think I would come back. Well then, I would surprise them both, because I was coming back for the wedding, but not for the reason they thought. I was coming back to make sure Sunny was protected from whatever danger there was out there waiting for her. I was going to prove to everyone that I was not the bad guy they wanted to believe I was.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Present

  Leif! The sight of his form, his evident strength, memories of our years together, memories of his kindness, his love, flood through my brain. What is he doing here? Why is he here? He's going to ruin everything! No! I won't let him. Wait, what is she doing? She's touching him. He's smiling! My skin is hot and my breath is too fast. They are going to hear me, but for once I don't care. No. She will not get him. He is mine! He was always supposed to be mine! She is not going to win. She can't have him. I won't let her have him. Even if it means death, she won't have him.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Eight Years Ago

  Eyes, big, huge blue eyes, with lashes as long as my arm stared up at me, from a face as clear as the night sky. Full red mouth, big cheeks, and one small tear slid down along it. "But I want to come with you, Leif."

  "You don't know how to shoot yet, Kat," I said as nicely as I could. She was about two years younger than I was, and had only been in the camp for a month or so.

  "Please don't leave me here alone," she pleaded.

  I sighed and turned to Gavin and Austin who were coming hunting with me. "Well?"

  "She'll scare away the game," Austin said.

  "No I won't, Austin," Kat hissed.

  "She can't hunt, Leif," Gavin said.

  I saw Kat's face scrunch up. I knew what was coming, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. Kat sprung onto Gavin. Spitting and hissing and scratching like her namesake. "I can, too!" she screamed at all three of us.

  I tried for patience. I didn't have any. I grabbed Kat around her tiny waist and yanked her off a very angry and red-faced Gavin. I tossed her to the ground and pointed at her right in the face. "Stay there!" I snapped when she started to get up.

  She sat fully on the ground. Her lip started to tremble. Then the dams burst and big fat tears coursed down her face. "Why can't I go? I don't want to stay here alone," she wailed.

  I squatted down in front of her and said as gently as I could, "Kat, you just can't go yet. I will teach you to shoot and to hunt. Until then, you can't come. You'll scare away the animals. Then we won't have any food. You know this."

  Her lip began to tremble again, but she stifled back the tears. I knew it wasn't over yet, though. I was right, too. Kat stood up slowly, and yelled right in my face, "Fine! I didn't want to come with you jerks anyway. Just go then!"

  She spun around and raced off into the woods. Her sobbing cries echoed around us.

  "That went well," Gavin said.

  "Why'd you have to take her under your wing anyway?" Austin griped. "She's a girl and all she does is cry and yell to get her way."

  "Yeah, but we're all she's got," I said.

  "No we aren't, she has a father, at least. None of us do," Gavin said.

  "He's not a father that any of us would want. You know it's true," I said before they could argue further.

  Austin and Gavin shared a look. Gavin shrugged. Austin gave his patented cocky smile and that was the end of that. Letting the conversation drop as well, I said, "Come on then. Let's get out and find some food. I don't want to go to bed tonight with a starving gut. Again."

  ~ * ~

  "Ah, this is the life," Austin said. He leaned back against a wooden log, his arms resting against the back of his neck.

  I had an Acadian squirrel spitted over a fire. It still took me by surprise the size of the sucker. They were huge in Acadia. It was like hunting a small dog. I enjoyed the sound of the fat as it dripped off the animal into the flames, where it sizzled and popped. "Not sure this is the life I thought it was going to be," I said. I was musing out loud more than anything. I was surprised when I got a retort.

  "Yeah, it's not quite what I had in mind either, when I made the jump," Austin said.

  "What did you expect? Sunshine, rainbows, and candy?" Gavin asked.

  Austin got a bit defensive at that. I could tell by the way he sat up from his lazy position. His hands fell to his lap and fisted. "No, but I expected more than the same life I was living, just more people and less food."

  Austin, Gavin, and I never really talked much about our past. Gavin was born here, lived here; Acadian. His parents were killed in a raid, soon after they had come to live with the rebels. Austin was from Earth like me. He was an orphan due to fire. He was found living on the streets, almost the same way as I was, but by another tracker, named Trevor. He died the same year of nothing exciting, just a cold turned to pneumonia.

  Regardless of our beginnings, we were the same. None of us had any family left. None of us had anyone we could count on other than each other. Our life bonded us together more than anything else ever could. We were like brothers. I'd never had a real brother, but Gavin and Austin were as close as I would ever get.

  "At least it's warm here," I said. "New York can get cold as hell in the winter. Freeze to death if you aren't careful." A memory slid over my mind and I laughed out lou
d. It was more a choke of sound than carefree laughter, but it was laughter all the same.

  Gavin and Austin both looked at me in surprise. I didn't laugh very often apparently.

  "What?" Gavin asked.

  "I was just thinking about a time in deep winter. I was about eleven years old. I woke up at dawn, so cold and shivering and buried in snow up to my eyebrows. I was a real live snowman. I snuck into one of the activity centers to thaw out. It took me most the day of walking around to feel my feet again. No, I don't miss the cold."

  "I've never seen snow," Gavin said. "You guys talk about it all the time, but one day I want to see it. For real."

  I pulled off a leg from the squirrel and stuffed it deep into the coals of the fire. The move didn't go unnoticed by the others, but they chose to stay quiet about it, for the moment anyway. "You know, we could do that," I said.

  "Do what?" Gavin asked.

  "Go see the snow."

  "How?" Austin said, but I could see his mind was already working it out. "Do you think you could pull it off?"

  I shrugged. "Won't know until I try it."

  "Try what? What are you trying?" Gavin said getting annoyed at not understanding.

  I turned to Gavin and said, "You didn't get here the same way Austin and me did. I think I could take you to New York to see the snow. Just jump over from the shadows the same way I came here."

  "You know how to do that?" Gavin asked.

  "I know the idea of it. I've never done it before, except for when Isaac and Jodi brought me here, though."

  "You could ask them how," Austin said.

  It was Gavin and my turn to share a look. "Dude, I'm not going anywhere near Isaac right now. He's a prick since Jodi dumped him."

  "He deserved it," I said.

  "Deserved or not, I'm not asking him," Austin said. "You think Jodi would talk to us?"

  I didn't know. "She's different lately, too. She used to laugh a lot and smile. Now she's always sad. She spends a lot of time alone, too. What's up with that?"

  "I don't get girls," Gavin said.

  "Speaking of girls," I said and pulled out the hunk of meat I had shoved deep into the fire. "I'm going to go hunt down Kat. Make sure she eats something."

  Austin settled back into his lazy sprawl and said, "Yeah, figured as much."

  "Why you always worrying about that girl anyway?" Gavin said.

  "I don't know. We all need someone," I said. "Think about the trip over to Earth, though. I think we should give it a go." I didn't give them time to say anything else. I turned away and walked toward Kat's tent area that she shared with her father. I was saying a small prayer that her father wasn't there, and if he was, that he hadn't been drinking.

  He was hard enough to deal with sober, but he was a mean son of a bitch drunk. Where he found the alcohol was a good question. I thought about that a moment, then decided maybe it was a good time to find out.

  I ducked my head under the flap of her plastic tent. It was a decent tent. I should know, I'd helped her put it up. In fact, after people had seen my tent making skills, I'd been put to work on almost every tent now standing, aside from a select few that knew what they were doing on their own.

  "Kat, you in?" I whispered into the darkness.

  "What do you want?" she asked from deep within.

  The little hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Her voice sounded funny. "What's wrong," I demanded.

  "What do you care? You just left me here to go off and play with your friends," she said.

  "Come out," I said. "Right now."

  "I can't right now, Leif. Go home."

  "Don't make me come in there and drag you out," I said and I meant it.

  Kat knew it, too, as her voice rose with panic when she said, "Don't. I mean it."

  I sighed. "Have it your way then." I flipped up the flap of the tent and crawled toward her voice. She squealed in fear when I wrapped my hand around her small, almost too thin, arm and pulled her out where I could see her.

  Her face crumpled and real tears flooded her eyes and down her cheeks, her bruised and red cheeks. My eyes focused in on her swollen top lip. There was a split crusted in blood not far from the corner of her mouth.

  "You're hurting my arm," she whispered.

  I loosened my overly tight grip on her arm. I hadn't realized I'd clenched her so tight. Then I took in her upper arms, and there were bruises just starting to appear where someone had taken hold of her, or more likely shaken her.

  "Kat," I said.

  She immediately started to shake her head. "Don't, Leif. You can't make it any better. Probably just make it worse if you try to help. Please, don't."

  "I can't just let this go," I said.

  Kat took hold of my hand and led me into the shadows of the forest. The sun was almost all gone and night was falling fast. When we were just out of the eyeshot of the camp, she pulled me down to sit on the ground. Once I was sitting, she crawled into my arms and laid her head against my chest. "Tell me a story, Leif. Something happy."

  "Kat," I began, but she put her hand on my mouth.

  "Just for right now, okay?" she said. "Let it go." She settled back into my arms and said again, "Tell me a story."

  So I told her a story of a lost princess. About a girl with hair the color of the sun and how she was going to save our world and make it all better.

  Kat sat in my arms, relaxed and easy. I could feel her heart beat against my arms where they rested against her. Her blue eyes stared up at me, intent on my face. She felt so fragile and thin. I remembered the meat back at her tent. I would have to be sure she got it and ate it. There was no one else to look after her. She seemed so alone at times. Yes, she had a father, but she would be better off without him. Yeah, we all needed someone, some of us more than others. Kat was one of those people.

  After the story, I thought she had fallen asleep until she asked, "What happened to all the animals?"

  "I don't know. I asked Isaac once why there were so few of them around, and he told me that they had started to dwindle almost as soon as the Queen went missing. Then the trees started to die out. I know the creeks are starting to dry up, as well. The beds are smaller and smaller every week. How long do we have until there is no water left?"

  "Why, though?" she insisted.

  "No one really knows, Kat."

  "Maybe the lost princess will fix it all. Maybe she's got powers to bring back the animals and the trees and the water. We have to find her."

  "Maybe," I said. "Maybe."

  We sat there a little bit longer before I took her back to her tent. I made her eat the cold bit of meat I'd brought for her. Then I left her to sleep the rest of the night. I went back to the fire and my friends, but I was thinking. An idea was forming.

  I sat down at the dwindling fire and stared into the orange and red flames. Gavin and Austin seemed to understand that I didn't want to talk. They continued to talk together softly without me.

  Finally, I said, "I think I know who to ask."

  Gavin and Austin stopped mid conversation. Gavin was the one to respond. "Ask what?"

  "How to jump from here to Earth," I said.

  "Who?" Austin asked.

  "Connor," I said, "Kat's dad."

  Gavin and Austin laughed. "You're crazy," Austin said. "He's not going to tell you shit."

  I felt a wide smile open on my face. "Oh, he'll tell me all right. You just wait and see if he doesn't."

  "I know he won't. He doesn't like anyone. Why would he want to help a kid like you?" Gavin asked.

  In reality, Gavin was right, but I was mad and I was determined. "I'm not going to give him a choice. If he doesn't tell me on his own, I'll make him tell me."

  "Why do you think he knows how to jump over realms?" Austin asked. He was willing to listen. Austin was always good at listening.

  "Where do you think he gets all the beer and whiskey? We don't make it here in Acadia. I've never seen anyone make any type of alcohol here. So where does he g
et it?"

  Austin sat back and stared at me. Realization dawned. Gavin was a little bit slower, but he finally caught on.

  I nodded once at them and said, "Yep, he jumps realms to get his fix. We got him, boys."

  ~ * ~

  I was laid out on my belly on the dusty ground just inside the woods. Gavin and Austin were next to me, inhaling the dry dirt as I was. About ten feet in front of us was Kat's tent, the one she shared with her father. We knew Kat had already left the tent for the day, as we had been watching it since sun up. Now all we needed was for Connor to wake up.

  That moment finally arrived when we saw ripples of movement in the plastic. The dark, balding head of Connor emerged first. Then his too thin, rail of a body followed.

  I whispered, "You guys ready to do this?"

  I didn't exactly give them time to wimp out on me. Instead, I jumped to my feet and raced to where Connor leaned sickly against a tree. Once I was in range, I pounced on him. He fell to the ground under me, where I sat upon his chest to make sure he stayed there.

  I hadn't needed to be quite so aggressive. The dude was green around the edges and evidently hung over and sick. Actually, that was a good thing. He would be easier to handle. Judging by the anxious looks and heavy breathing going on between Austin and Gavin, the easier the better. They didn't look like they would be much help if push came to shove.

  I made a mental note to work on that with them. Geez.

  "What do you boys want? I don't got nothing."

  I leaned over his face, but once I got a whiff of him, I realized my mistake and sat back up quickly. "I know you don't, but you do have something we want."

  "What?" Connor asked.

  I lowered my voice and said, "I want information. I want to know how you realm jump."

  Connor's concerned face grew confused for a moment, then a huge smile spread over it. "That's all? Boy, you should have just asked. There's no need to knock a fellow to the floor just for information."