“Do I not even get a hello?” Sophie said in irritation at my back.
I turned to glare over my shoulder at her. “Do I not even get an I'm sorry?” I asked in reply.
Sophie had the grace to look abashed. “I did what I had to do, and Maya left me anyway.”
“What?” I asked as I stood and stepped away from the now lifeless corpse.
“She was working for Aislin all along,” she explained. She didn't let her pain show in her expression, but I knew that she felt it none-the-less.
“Sorry to break it to you sweetheart,” James interrupted, “but so are we.”
Sophie glared at James for a moment, then turned to her brother. “Is this true?”
Alaric cringed. “I couldn't really argue with the decision.”
Sophie snorted at his answer, but seemed to accept it as well. “We need to move,” she instructed. “I could smell you from a mile away, and there will be more where these two came from.” She gestured to the two corpses on the asphalt.
“Plus,” I added, “we might want to run away from the corpses before someone calls the cops. We're not in the Salr anymore.”
For once everyone listened to me, and we made our way past the abandoned warehouse and into the alleyway behind it.
As we walked, Sophie and Alaric began whispering in a language I didn't recognize. I knew it was probably just so they could talk freely around James, but I didn't appreciate the exclusion. For all I knew, they were talking about running off and leaving James and I to find the charm on our own.
It hit me then that I'd been expecting Alaric to leave since he'd first found us. I'd expected at some point he'd decide that I simply wasn't worth the trouble, and he'd abandon me.
Yet, when we reached a busy street and hailed a cab, Sophie took the front seat, and James and Alaric each slid in on either side of me. When we reached the airport and boarded a plane with Diana, who met us there as planned, Alaric was still by my side. When I fell asleep on his shoulder during the long flight, I vaguely sensed him as he craned his neck to give me a kiss on the top of my head.
It was strange, because in that moment, while we were flying to another land, with danger at our backs, and plenty of more danger to face, for the first time in quite some time, I felt like I was going home.
Act Five
Chapter One
The sensation of the plane bouncing on the tarmac finally woke me. It had been a trying few weeks, and the extra sleep on the plane was a welcome reprieve. I didn't mind lying on Alaric's shoulder either.
I still wasn't quite sure how to feel about him. Okay, I knew exactly how I felt. I just wasn't sure what to do about it. As much as I wanted to ignore the fact that he'd misled me about many things, and had allowed my torture, those two facts still ate at me whenever I let my mind wander.
Forgiveness is one thing. I'm great at forgiveness. Being an empath means that I'm a seasoned pro at putting myself in the shoes of others. At some point I had managed to mostly forgive Alaric, but I couldn't forget what had happened, and I sure as hell couldn't trust him.
Betrayal is a funny thing. The sting of it often sticks with us longer than the thrill of love, the fire of hatred, or the emptiness of loss. Betrayal eats at us when we know we should be happy, and it overwhelms us when we're already sad.
I raised my head up from Alaric's shoulder as the plane came to a slow stop. He smiled down at me, unaware of my thoughts, and I couldn't help but smile in return. Despite everything, it felt good having Alaric by my side. It would have felt even better if we were on a plane to some romantic destination, but we weren't.
Although, I suppose Norway could be romantic, given the right circumstances. The pictures I'd seen were gorgeous and fairytale-esque, and I was traveling there with a handsome man, but I'm pretty sure romantic vacations aren't supposed to include being hunted by supernatural beings while looking for a charm that's guarded by the dead. Running for your life is a major mood killer.
We waited while the rows of people ahead of us stood and un-stowed their luggage in an excruciatingly slow fashion. As passengers began to filter out of the plane, James and Diana stood to take their places in line. James pulled Diana's luggage down from the storage compartment, even though he had none of his own.
In fact, he was still wearing the white tee-shirt he'd worn while he tortured me, just as I was still wearing a black dress with holes in it where he'd stabbed me. Luckily James had stolen me a long, black winter coat with faux fur trim around the hood. It hid my dress, but looked slightly out of place with my too-large hiking boots and thick winter socks.
Sophie waited in her seat across the isle for James and Diana to get out of the way. Her original seat had been next to the unwelcome pair, but she'd managed to flirt her way into a seat trade, leaving James to sit next to a man who could have easily taken up two seats on his own. The man in question was still asleep in his seat by the window.
Alaric woke the man with a gentle shake of his shoulder, then signaled for him to move, much to the chagrin of the people behind us who would now have to wait even longer.
By the time we all made it off the plane, I was thoroughly frazzled. It was a surreal feeling leaving the West coast a few hours after dark, to arrive in another country where night had already come again. I'd never traveled such a long distance. Heck, I'd never traveled much at all. Living as a recluse with meager monetary means had prevented me from seeing much of the world.
My next shock came after we went through security and emerged into the cold night air. My coat was warm by West coast standards, but it could not contend with the icy temperature of Oslo in late October. I clutched the meager protection closer to my body, but my bare legs still erupted in almost painful goosebumps.
James and Sophie stepped ahead of the rest of us and began surveying our surroundings for danger. They looked like a pair of vengeful angels, illuminated by the halo of a streetlight. Sophie, with her dark, pin-straight hair and pale skin, and James with his golden hair and equally golden skin, both of them standing tall and ready to rip out the heart of whoever might attack us. Alaric, on the other hand, smiled and put an arm around me like he hadn't a care in the world. Diana tsked at us like we were all being silly children and went to the curb to hail a cab.
Diana was wearing what could only be referred to as a cape. The black fabric swirled around her small frame in the cold breeze like it had a life of its own. Though she was small and elderly, with perfect gray, granny-styled hair, I would never mistake her for anything less dangerous than she was.
She was the sister of Aislin, ruler of several clans, which made her old, and we're talking centuries, not decades. Though I was yet to see her do anything out-rightly scary, the threat was always there. She was twenty times scarier than James, and he'd stabbed me and tormented me for fun.
A cab pulled up and it became readily apparent that there were five of us, and only four available seats.
“We'll wait for the next one,” Alaric announced, referring to him, myself, and Sophie.
James smirked. “I don't think so. Madeline will come with us.”
My heart sped at the idea of being left alone in a cab with James and Diana, but Alaric stepped forward before I could move. “I'll go with you, and Maddy and Sophie will catch the next cab. You can kill me if they don't show up.”
My eyes widened, then I realized that Alaric was joking, sort of. With a curt nod, Diana climbed into the front seat of the cab while James put her suitcase in the trunk. Alaric gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, then slid into the backseat after James. I touched my cheek where he'd kissed me, feeling a mixture of annoyance and apprehension.
Diana rolled down her window to tell Sophie and me the address of the hotel, then suddenly we were left to wait for another cab by ourselves. It was the first time Sophie and I had been alone since she'd rejoined our party after leaving me to be tortured in her place. I crossed my arms and turned away from her, wishing I would have just gone with the
others, leaving her to catch a cab on her own. It wouldn't compare to her leaving me in the Salr to face punishment for her crimes, but it was a start.
She sighed dramatically at my back. “How long are you going to ignore me? Maya left me. I think I've paid for my actions.”
I looked over my shoulder at her. “So because someone betrayed your trust, it makes it okay that you betrayed mine?”
“I said I'm sorry,” she snapped, quickly losing patience.
I turned away from her again and mumbled, “Barely.”
Another cab pulled up to the curb and I turned and followed Sophie as she opened the back door and climbed in. The heat inside the cab was almost stifling, but felt good after standing on the chilly curb.
I would have been tempted to take my own cab, but one, I had already forgotten the address, and two, I had no money to pay the cab driver, so I was stuck with Sophie.
The driver barely even looked at us as Sophie told him where to go. I crossed my arms again and stayed silent as he drove the cab through a few round-abouts leading out of the airport, then onto the highway. I had no idea how far away the hotel was, but I hoped it was close. Sophie was staring at me intently, her face a pale oval in the darkness of the cab, and I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to maintain the silent treatment.
“You would have done the same,” she said eventually.
I looked into her dark eyes, so similar to her brother's, and could see that she really believed what she'd said.
“Not everyone is like you,” I replied sullenly.
“Look,” she sighed. “I said I was sorry. It's not something I say often, and I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it. What else do you want from me?”
Her emotions were intense enough at that moment that I could sense her frustration, and underneath it, guilt. She really did feel remorse over leaving me. It might not make up for the original act, but it was a start.
“Okay,” I replied.
She squinted her eyes at me. “Just . . . okay? Why don't you seem angry suddenly?”
I shrugged. “I know you regret leaving me. If I can forgive Alaric, I can forgive you . . . eventually.”
Sophie's eyes widened as realization dawned on her. “You empathed me! That's not fair.”
I cringed and gave her an apologetic look. “I can't really help it. Strong emotions leak through whether I want them to or not.”
Sophie snorted, then glanced at the driver as he swerved to the right and cut several people off so he could exit.
She turned back to me. “So you've forgiven my brother?”
I shook my head. “Not quite, but I'm getting there.”
She shook her head in return. “I don't know how you do that.”
“Do what?”
“Forgive so easily,” she explained. “If I were you, I'd have already tried to kill me, and Alaric would have been dead the moment I saw his face. Not that I'm not grateful that you're not attacking me . . . ”
I shrugged again. “It's the empath thing. Guilt is a very strong emotion. So is fear. It's hard to blindly judge someone when you can literally feel what they are feeling.”
It was Sophie's turn to cross her arms. “I am not afraid.”
I laughed. “Oh please, you're terrified, and you're sad.”
She glared at me as the cab pulled into the parking lot of a large, well-lit, resort-style hotel. “I don't think I like you very much.”
I grinned. “And here you were just begging for my forgiveness.”
“I was not begging!” she shouted as the cab came to a halt and I opened the door to step out into the cold.
I laughed as I walked across the asphalt toward the hotel, leaving Sophie to pay the cab fare. Torturing calm, cool, and collected Sophie with my empathic abilities was far more rewarding than snubbing her.
Alaric and James, who had been waiting outside the hotel lobby for us, came striding forward to meet me. The warmth I'd collected in the cab was quickly fading, and the expanses of surrounding darkness made me nervous. Anyone could be out there watching us, and we wouldn't even know. I looked at the hotel longingly as the men reached me.
“Ms. Moneybags has us staying at the most expensive hotel in the country,” Alaric explained jovially. He was still just dressed in his navy flannel and black jeans, but he didn't seem fazed by the cold.
“I wouldn't let Diana hear you calling her that,” James chided.
Sophie reached us, then breezed on by without a word, like a tall, dark, angry cloud.
Alaric watched his sister's back as he whispered. “You must tell me what you did to make her so angry.”
I shook my head as I wrapped my arms tightly around myself. “You wouldn't be able to pull it off. Now can we please go inside before I freeze to death?”
Before I could protest, Alaric scooped me up into his arms and started carrying me toward the hotel like a bride on her wedding day. With my height, no one had ever really carried me that way, now it was beginning to become a theme, first with James in the woods, and now with Alaric.
The building rose up in front of us as we neared, seeming to be around ten stories high, done in a crisp white that matched the surrounding patches of snow on the ground.
James shook his head and walked ahead of us after Sophie.
Alaric smiled down at me. “We have our own room,” he said with a waggle of his eyebrows.
I narrowed my eyes at him as he continued walking, carrying me effortlessly in his arms. “Why?” I asked suspiciously.
He shrugged, then hoisted me up to get a better grip under my arms. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say Diana is trying to play matchmaker, but I think she has much more nefarious plans in mind.”
“Well then shouldn't we be doing our best to not go along with them?” I argued as we neared the hotel lobby.
“Why would I argue with plans that benefit me?” he said happily as the automatic glass doors slid open in front of us.
Some of the tension seeped out of my body once the doors slid shut behind us. The bellhop waiting inside gave us a strange look, probably partially due to Alaric carrying me, and partially to us having no luggage. The young man shrugged his narrow shoulders and sighed, then led us to a row of elevators. James and Sophie had already gone up, leaving us to ride up with the bellhop alone.
“Put me down,” I whispered, feeling uncomfortable in the confines of the elevator.
Alaric pouted. “But I don't want to.”
I glared at him until he sighed and let me to my feet. I distanced myself, thinking that it was a really bad idea for us to share a room. Not only was Diana up to something, but I didn't fully trust myself. It had been impulsive to fall into bed with Alaric the first time, and I didn't want to be that stupid again. Yet, there was the nagging thought at the back of my mind of our lives being at risk. Normally it was wise to err on the side of caution, but was it really wise to make good life-choices when my life might not last much longer? Shouldn't I just enjoy being alive while I could?
Alaric could act like we weren't in danger all he liked, but I knew better. If Sophie was scared, it meant we were up a very smelly creek with no paddles, and plenty of holes in our boat. I'd seen first hand how Estus dealt with those who opposed him. If he found us and sent more of the Vaettir to capture us, we would all suffer very ugly ends.
The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open. Without a glance in our direction, the silent bellhop led us down an extravagantly decorated hall to our room. He used a key card on the door, then handed it to Alaric as we entered. The room was bigger than my old house, with a full sitting area, king-sized bed, and a kitchenette partially obscured from view by bar-style seating, all done in delicate gold and pale blues.
My eyes scanned the room, then came back to rest on the bed. They lingered there, then went back to the couch. It looked comfortable enough.
Alaric tipped the bellhop, then urged him out of the room. Once we were alone, Alaric walked past me to flop down on the
bed. He laid on his back with his arms behind his head, watching me as I took a closer look around the room.
“So what do you want to do?” he asked eventually, putting emphasis on the word do, to make it seem dirty.
I walked past one of the cushy chairs on either side of the couch to peek in the bathroom. “I think we're here to find the charm, so that's what I want to do.”
“Diana claims the location is very near, but she doesn't know exactly how near” he explained, “she needs time to pinpoint it, which means we have some time to kill.”
I glared at him. “Stop emphasizing random words to make them seem sexy.”
He grinned. “Is it working? Are my words . . . sexy?”
I shook my head and turned away from him.
In an instant he was up off the bed and at my side, moving a lock of my dark brown hair behind my shoulder to bare the side of my neck, grazing his fingers across my skin as he went.
“I take it your attitude means I'll be sleeping on the floor again,” he said softly.
I glanced at him, but didn't pull away. I had to audibly gulp before I could answer, “I'll take the couch this time. It's only fair since I had the bed at Diana's.”
He let my hair fall from his grasp, then took my hand into his grip instead. He kissed my knuckles one by one, then answered, “As you wish.”
I slowly pulled my hand away and looked at him suspiciously. “Why are you being so agreeable?”
He glanced into the large bathroom that boasted a full-size jacuzzi tub as well as a glass-walled shower. “I think I'll take a bath.”
I crossed my arms. “You didn't answer me.”
“I don't suppose you'd like to join me?” he asked, still not answering me.
“We don't have any clean clothes,” I commented. If he wasn't going to answer me, I wasn't going to answer him either.
Alaric shrugged and walked into the bathroom. “It's late. We'll buy you a whole new wardrobe in the morning.”
Collide and Seek: Act 4-5 (Bitter Ashes Book 2) Page 5