by Jess Bowen
Phoebe shook her head stubbornly, and Lucy sighed. “We can go at least another hour. I’m fine.”
Ethan could see Evan roll his eyes. “Phoebe, don’t be stupid. Would you rather go until you drop both of us? I’d rather not break every bone in my body. You’re already going above and beyond. Let’s not push it.”
Phoebe huffed heavily and elaborately. “Fine. Lucy, could you clear out the air a little bit so we can find a place to stop?”
Cynthia and Jared both shook their heads and smiled. Evan and Phoebe had the closest thing to a bother sister relationship out of all of them, and they watched out for one another the way only a brother and sister could.
“Sure thing,” Lucy said as she smiled too.
Ethan’s hair ruffled as the wind that Lucy caused to stir around them cleared out the smoke and ash. The sulfur smell vanished from the air, and Lucy’s wildflower scent replaced it. Ethan hadn’t even noticed until that moment that every one of them was covered in soot and ash. Lucy had been able to keep them breathing fresh air, but the ash and smoke had still managed to thoroughly cover all of them. If nothing else, it worked as more camouflage, so Ethan tried not to be too upset about it.
As the air around them cleared and his eyes were better able to penetrate the darkness, he saw that there wasn’t really anything to see. The mountains below them were barren and devoid of any moisture. In the valleys, he could see deep trenches where rivers might once have flowed, but the river beds were cracked and dry and littered with the bones of dead animals. Thankfully, he couldn’t see anything that resembled a human skeleton—at least not yet. He tried not to remind himself that it was only a matter of time.
Lucy was thinking along the same lines. Ethan wanted to reach over to her as her thoughts turned to fear and apprehension, but with the large wingspans of Shade and Sapphire, it was impossible to reach her. He couldn’t even think of any words to soothe her with. There was nothing soothing about the world around them, and there was nothing soothing about the danger they were in. There was no way to comfort her other than to hold her.
Hector apparently found what he was looking for as they passed another mountain peak. “Over there, on the east side of that mountain, that flat section there should work,” he said to Phoebe as he pointed.
Phoebe turned toward the east side of the mountain that Hector had indicated without arguing. It was an improvement.
Or she’s finally realized how tired she actually is, Lucy thought.
Ethan almost smiled at the sarcasm. She’ll never admit it, though. She’ll be stubborn until the day she dies.
Lucy winced. He’d meant it as an offhanded comment, and he had realized just a second too late that the topic of death was too sensitive to have even the most remote reference to it go unnoticed.
I’m sorry, Lucy. I didn’t mean it like that, Ethan thought in apology.
Lucy’s eyes were guarded; she was trying to hide her fear. Her hand stretched out in his direction, seeking reassurance, and pressure filled his chest as he longed to be close enough to least take her hand.
At the thought of danger, something started nagging at the back of Ethan’s mind. He felt like something very obvious was trying to make itself known, but for some reason he couldn’t figure out what it was. It was like a neon sign was floating in his mind, but the words were in a language he didn’t know.
The flat portion of the east side of the mountain seemed to come closer extremely fast. He hadn’t realized how quickly they had been moving until he saw the ground as it passed under them. The steady, slow beat of Shade’s wings was misleading. Within minutes of Hector spotting their resting place, they touched down.
As their feet hit the earth, Evan and Hector’s wings disappeared instantaneously. Phoebe stumbled but couldn’t seem to get rid of hers.
Shade’s claws and thick, padded paws hit the ground softly, and Ethan hastened to get off his back so the giant eagle could rest. Cynthia and Jared dismounted Beau and Pele and carefully avoided one another. Since they weren’t arguing, Ethan decided not to try to reconcile them at the moment.
He turned to help Lucy off of Sapphire. The knot in his chest loosened slightly as he helped her down and wrapped her securely in his arms. For the first time ever, she didn’t protest at his need to protect her and instead melted into his arms and leaned against him.
“I’m tired and hungry,” she said as she rested her head against the thick muscles of his chest.
Ethan kissed the top of her head. “I know. I’ll take care of everything,” he breathed into her hair.
“I know,” she sighed.
Evan and Hector were having some kind of trouble with Phoebe. Her glistening black wings were still firmly in place, and she seemed to be hyperventilating. Evan stood off to the side and looked lost. Phoebe’s eyes were wide, and as soon as she inhaled, her breath would rush out just as quickly.
“I can’t…get…rid…of them,” she gasped.
Evan’s brow creased with worry. “She’s freaking out! Maybe you should slap her,” he suggested.
Hector looked like he restrained himself from rolling his eyes with great difficulty. “Evan, don’t help.”
“Got it, sorry,” Evan answered sheepishly.
Hector grabbed Phoebe’s shoulders and forced her to look at him. “Phoebe, calm down. You can’t do anything until you calm down.”
Ethan tried to remember his basic health knowledge. “She needs more oxygen.”
Lucy pulled away from his chest and hurried forward a few steps and raised her hand. Phoebe’s hair started blowing in the whirl of pure oxygen that surrounded her. Slowly, she took in the oxygen and focused on Hector. Lucy stepped back to Ethan when Phoebe’s breathing had returned to normal.
“Now,” Hector said as Phoebe’s shoulders slumped and her face relaxed. “I know you’re tired, but just try to focus one more time to make the wings go away.”
Phoebe looked like she would rather do anything but use her powers again—like maybe punch Hector for even suggesting it—but she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. A minute later the black wings disappeared, and Phoebe’s knees gave out. Hector caught her and gently helped her sit down before he started issuing orders. Ethan didn’t argue because he didn’t have the first clue as to what to do.
“Evan, everyone will need water to drink and possibly to wash off with. Jared and Ethan, we need food and shelter and places to sleep. Lucy, continue with what you are doing.”
Cynthia scowled. “What am I here for? I’m obviously not needed,” she mumbled.
Jared turned and seemed like he was getting ready to argue with her again before he saw Ethan looking. Jared pressed his lips together in a thin line and turned back to what he was doing. He knelt down and placed his hands on the dusty, dry earth. “Evan, this ground is too dry. I need you to saturate it,” he said.
Phoebe’s head snapped up. “I can do it,” she said in what was meant to be an enthusiastic voice. But her exhaustion was beyond the point of being hidden.
“No, you can’t,” Evan said firmly. Phoebe scowled but didn’t object any further.
Evan knelt down and placed his hands on the ground as Hector scooped up Phoebe and moved her out of the way.
Jared looked up at Ethan. “You ready?” he asked.
“When you are,” Ethan replied as power tingled down his arms and rested in his hands, waiting to be called upon.
Jared glanced around again. “Okay, no one is close. Let’s do this.”
The ground around Evan immediately started growing darker as water seeped into it. Thick green grass erupted where the water saturated the ground. The grass looked as healthy as if it had been growing there for a while. As the water and the grass spread, the power trapped in Ethan’s hands escaped and four large trees started to grow at an accelerated rate. Each tree had a different fruit—apple, orange, peach, and pear—while low strawberry plants and vines full of grapes grew out of the ground and ripened within minutes.
They could have grown more food if they wanted, but fruit would be sufficient. Their nutritional needs were not an issue. The gnomes always made sure they received everything they needed, so a few days of an all-fruit diet wouldn’t deplete them of the other vitamins and proteins that they needed.
The whole process took only about five minutes. Evan even went one better and placed a spring of fresh water in between the apple and pear trees.
Ethan walked backward—out of the little slice of Eden—to look at it from a distance. His eyebrow rose without any direction from his brain at all.
“Yeah, that’s not conspicuous at all,” he commented.
The brilliant colors of their shelter contrasted harshly with the endless dull brown of the rest of the land that surrounded them. They might as well have placed a big flashing arrow at the top of the mountain; that might have been less obvious.
Hector sat Phoebe down in the grass beside the spring and instructed her to drink, grimacing when she said he wasn’t her mother. Then he came to stand beside Ethan to observe their resting place. Lucy wrapped her arms around Ethan’s waist and leaned against his chest once more.
“It looks worse than it is,” Hector said. “Anyone at the bottom can’t see it, and anyone in the air will be dead long before they can alert anyone. We’re fairly safe here.”
“You sound confident,” Ethan said.
Hector lightly punched Ethan’s arm and smiled. “This isn’t my first time, rookie.” He then walked away to help Phoebe get something to eat.
Do you think that’s really confidence or his inability to feel fear? Ethan asked Lucy.
She shrugged. Maybe a little of both. He knows what he’s doing. We have to trust him.
37. Easy
Lucy’s thoughts were becoming more and more muddled, and Ethan knew it was time for her to eat and sleep. He knelt down, scooped her into his arms, and carried her over to the soft grass where he sat her down and picked a variety of fruit for them both to eat. Shade and Sapphire settled under the apple tree and went to sleep as Beau and Pele flew up into the tree, tucked their heads under their wings, and also went to sleep.
The seven humans settled down into a loose circle as they ate. Phoebe hungrily devoured everything that was handed to her before she leaned over the spring, washed her face, and then curled into a ball to sleep. Hector made sure she was dead to the world before turning to the rest of them.
“Okay, we’re going to have to sleep in shifts. I didn’t mention it when Phoebe was awake because she would want to take a watch, and she really needs to sleep as long as she can. Now, I know everyone has been awake for a while, so I’ll take the first shift, and the rest of you can divide up.”
Ethan agreed with him about Phoebe, but there was no need for him to take a whole shift by himself. “I’m fine. I’ll take the shift with you. Evan and Jared can take the second shift, and the girls can take the last one.”
Hector smiled in appreciation, and everyone agreed to those terms. Evan, Jared, and Cynthia each found places to lie down, and within minutes they were sleeping. Hector took the perimeter to watch, and Ethan was instructed just to listen, so Lucy rested her head on his thigh, and he ran his fingers through her hair as she slept. He leaned back against a tree just as the bottommost edge of the red-orange sun rose over the horizon. With his vision being what it was, it was easy to forget that it was just as dark with or without the sun in the sky. The smoke in the immediate area was still mostly clear, but with Lucy asleep that would only last for so long.
As Lucy’s breathing evened out and she slipped into deep sleep, Ethan stretched his hearing out as far as it would go. The area around them was silent aside from hearts beating and slow, steady breathing. There was no sound on or around the mountain they occupied or the three surrounding it. Not the smallest breath of wind or even the faintest sound of insects reached Ethan’s ears.
This truly was a barren wasteland.
Nothing disturbed the small patch of paradise as the day passed and they each traded off shifts. It took Ethan a few minutes to orient himself when Lucy softly woke him after he’d rested so completely. The light hadn’t changed, but the orange orb was completely gone from the sky.
Lucy’s green eyes smiled down at him. “How are you feeling?”
Ethan sat up to stretch, and his joints popped. Sleeping while fully armed had not been the most comfortable, and his legs were a little sore from straddling Shade during the long flight, but he was fine other than that.
“I’m fine,” he replied.
“We’re going to eat, and then we’re taking off.”
Ethan got up onto his feet and pulled Lucy into his arms. “Did anything happen on your watch?”
Lucy’s arms connected around his waist. Not a thing, aside from watching Cynthia brood. I don’t know what’s going on with her.
Ethan searched out Cynthia. She was standing against one of the trees and staring out across the mountains. Her face was set in harsh lines, and she chewed through her apple a little more roughly than was necessary.
She does look angry about something. She can’t still be mad at Jared, can she? he asked.
I don’t know. She didn’t really say anything. I’m worried that something more is going on with her than that little bickering with Jared.
I’ll talk to Hector. He looked like he might have had some idea.
Lucy seemed satisfied with that answer. She gave him a handful of fruit, and he started eating as Shade and Sapphire woke up and stretched. Hector roused Phoebe a few minutes later, and Ethan could immediately tell that she was feeling a little better. Her eyes were still guarded and dulled—she was still dealing with the leftover pain from Dorian—but her color was back to normal and her movements were strong and precise. She accepted her food and even the news that she had been skipped over for watch duty with more grace than Ethan had been expecting.
It appears her stubbornness and state of being are directly related, Lucy thought after Phoebe had only spent a few minutes complaining about watch duty and “sharing the burden” as she called it.
Apparently if we ever want to talk Phoebe into anything, we should just wait until she’s had a full night of sleep and a full breakfast, Ethan mused.
Lucy couldn’t help but chuckle, and everyone turned to look at her. Her cheeks flushed red under their accusatory looks. “Sorry,” she muttered. “Ethan was thinking something funny.”
Everyone stared at them for a second more before deciding it wasn’t important and turned back to what they were doing. The others were too used to their silent conversations to give it much thought. They were probably more shocked that Lucy had found something funny at a time like this.
The seven settled into their loose circle to discuss specifics before they left. Phoebe’s eyes and shoulders were still slumping slightly, and Evan quickly pulled out another small vial of blue liquid and handed it over to her. She took it gratefully and swallowed it. Within seconds, she was standing up straighter, and her eyes were wide and alert.
“Well, I don’t think there’s much to discuss. We’ll fly in the same formation as we did last night and everyone will have the same duties. Any questions?” Reinvigorated, Phoebe was taking charge again with a businesslike tone in her voice.
Cynthia stepped out of the shadow of the apple tree. “Yes, actually. What exactly is my job again?”
Warning bells went off in Lucy’s head. She couldn’t believe that Cynthia was baiting Phoebe’s anger. It wasn’t a smart thing to do.
Phoebe either didn’t notice or chose to ignore the bitterness in Cynthia’s tone. “Well, today we’ll need you to clear out the evidence we were here. In addition to that, you’re our first line of defense. Unless you had something else in mind?” Phoebe’s expression was calm and relaxed, but her eyes blazed white hot, causing Cynthia to break their eye contact and turn her gaze to the ground in shame.
“No, of course…of course…not, sorry,” Cynthia mumbled.
<
br /> Wow, I have got to figure out how she does that, Lucy thought in awe.
Phoebe never failed to impress. A gnawing sensation began at the edge of Ethan’s stomach again. She’s confident, and when she looks at you like that, she radiates power. Nobody messes with her after that.
Lucy examined him with clouded eyes but didn’t say anything in response to his inferiority complex. She had given up at trying to talk him out of it. The fire in Phoebe’s eyes dimmed as she turned away from Cynthia to look at the rest of them. “Good. Now, Cynthia is going to burn this down, and we’re going to leave.”
They made their way out of the small resting place—all except Cynthia—and stood back so she could destroy it. Phoebe turned her attention to Sapphire, and Ethan took the opportunity to have a quick, whispered conversation with Hector, who was standing beside him and Lucy.
“What’s going on with Cynthia? You looked like you were considering something last night,” Ethan whispered.
Cynthia stood in the middle of the little garden with her back to them and engulfed herself in flames.
“I don’t know. She seems irritated about something, and I doubt that something is Jared. Although, their little spat certainly fueled the fire—no pun intended,” he replied almost chuckling at the end.
Cynthia’s fire blazed and spread to the trees; they burned quickly, releasing more thick, black smoke into the air.
“Is it something we should worry about?”
Hector shrugged nonchalantly. “If she gets to the point where you or Phoebe can’t keep her contained, then I’ll worry about it. Until then, we have enough to concern ourselves with.”
The last of their little shelter disintegrated into ash, and Cynthia’s fire went out.
Well, I’m still going to worry about it, Lucy thought.
The rest of that night passed without incident and so did the next day as everyone slept. Ethan was amazed by Phoebe’s strength; she had shown no signs of weakness when they landed. Then again, when wasn’t Phoebe amazing? Ethan tried not to think about it too much. With every passing hour, that big neon sign in the back of his mind was getting brighter, but he still couldn’t figure out what it was saying. Something just didn’t feel right, and it was making his skin crawl.