Revelations (The Elysium Chronicles)

by Souders, J. A.

  A throat clears and I blink heavy lids. I try to focus on Asher, who’s grinning up at us. He hands me the reins. “You might want to hang on to these, Princess. Horses have a way of knowing when their riders aren’t paying attention.”

  Blushing, I take them from him. “Thank you.”

  Gavin only continues his onslaught to my nerves and hormones by nuzzling my neck and running his rough fingers across my stomach. I have to force myself to concentrate on breathing and paying attention to the path ahead of us.

  “Stop!” My voice is hoarse and I have to clear my throat. “Stop.”

  Gavin chuckles but does as I ask. He crosses his arms across my waist and rests his forehead against the back of my head. It isn’t long before his breathing evens out and his body sags against me. I’m fairly certain he’s fallen asleep. It’s slightly uncomfortable, but I don’t dare wake him up. He needs the rest.

  By the time we finally stop to make camp for the night, my back hurts from leaning over the horse. When Gavin helps me down, my legs are stiff and patches of my skin feel raw from the leather saddle, so it’s hard to walk at first. I stumble my way over to where Asher is setting up camp.

  “All right, Evie?” Gavin asks. He sounds more rested than I’ve heard in days, especially considering he’d been sleeping on a moving horse in what had to be the most uncomfortable position ever.

  “Just tired … and sore.” I rub at the tightness in my arms.

  Asher smiles over, knowingly. “You’ll get used to that. Couple more days riding and you won’t be sore at all.”

  “Wonderful.” Just what I wanted, more pain.

  To take my mind off all that, I help Asher set up the tents—one for each of us. But still my back aches to the point that when we’re finished, I’m grateful the only thing left to do is wait for Gavin to come back from hunting for some fresh meat.

  I settle myself next to the campfire Asher is setting up. Asher keeps sneaking glances at me, and when he sits next to me, he asks, “How are you feeling?”

  “Still a little sore.” My stomach growls and I press a hand to it in an attempt to make it stop. “And hungry, I guess.”

  Asher laughs and scoots closer. “Me, too. Wonder what our famous hunter will bring back.”

  “Famous?” I give him a sidelong glance.

  “He’s the best in the village, Princess. Why do you think they always send him to go?”

  “I’d never thought of it before.” I trace patterns into the dirt. It’s true. Gavin is always off hunting.

  “That boy can catch anything.” Asher shakes his head. “But it’s not a job I’d want. Never being home … Only getting to see my family between trips…” He glances over at me as if he’s going to say more, but then turns back to look at the crackling fire.

  I can’t pretend that I don’t understand what he’s telling me. That life with Gavin is going to be difficult. When I’m not having issues anymore, Gavin is going to have to go back to a normal hunting regimen. Which means he could be gone for days at a time, and I’m going to spend a lot of time alone. And worried.

  But he’s the only thing I’ve got in this world. Or any world, really. I can’t remember what life is like without him.

  I miss being able to remember.

  Gavin’s given up so much of his life for me, and it doesn’t seem like that’s going to end any time soon. I know he can’t afford to sit around babysitting me forever, but I’m lost without him. It’s like I’ve lost myself somewhere along the way, and I don’t know what’s important to me, or what I want out of my life.

  Asher and I stare into the fire in silence while worry twists my stomach into knots.

  When Gavin finally comes back, he’s got some kind of fluffy, bloody thing in his hands, and he’s wearing a huge smile.

  “Caught a rabbit!” he says so excitedly that even though my stomach turns, I give him a smile back. Then bite my lip against the burning in my stomach and force myself to look away until Gavin’s got it cleaned and strung up on the spit he placed over the fire.

  He comes to sit next to me, the rabbit skin in his hands. “I’ll save this and take it back to Mom. She’ll have this whipped into a hat for you in no time.” He looks so proud of himself that I have to smile back at him and try to look as excited as he is about it.

  However, I don’t miss the look of amusement Asher gives Gavin. He catches my eye and shakes his head, then goes back to poking the fire with a stick.

  Before too long Gavin is dishing out the meat, and despite the fact that I really don’t want to eat it, I dig in. Gavin sits next to me, his hip pressed tightly against mine. No one talks during our meal. It isn’t uncomfortable like before, but I’m not stupid—I can still feel the tension between the two boys. Although I’m curious, I don’t ask. Gavin will talk to me about it when he’s ready.

  When we finish eating, Gavin gathers all the bones. Without saying a word to either Asher or myself, he walks into the woods. He’s gone for so long, I begin to get worried and start wondering if maybe I should go look for him. Just when I’ve made my mind up, he reappears.

  “I want to show you something,” he says, ignoring Asher. “Come on.” He smiles at me and holds out his hand. Without hesitation, I take it and let him lead me to the tree line.

  “Hey!” Asher calls. “Where are you two off to?”

  Gavin gives him a look. “If it was any of your business, I’d be taking you too.”

  Asher glares at him. “You better not be ditching me.”

  Gavin scowls. “Don’t tempt me.” Then he tugs on my hand and pulls me into the darkness of the woods.

  Even though it’s pitch dark in the trees now, Gavin navigates expertly through them. The woods are filled with strange sounds—a kind of chirping. The rustling of leaves in the trees. Closer to us on the ground, a strange sound that sounds like someone asking, “Who?”

  I’m sure I feel something slither over my shoe, but when I tell Gavin and ask him what it might be he just says, “Don’t worry about it. You don’t want to know.” Taking him at his word, I cling to his hand and follow, trying my best not to think of what could be around us.

  Eventually, we reach a break in the trees. He steps out into it, but I’m more hesitant. There’s something about this place. It’s solemn. Peaceful. I’m not sure I should disturb it. But Gavin pulls me out of the trees. Moonlight streams over him, giving him a ghostly appearance, and I shudder.

  “Come on. You don’t want to miss this.” He tugs me into the center of the circle, then drops down in the grass to lie on his back and look up into the sky, like we’re going to look at clouds again. Unsure, I lower to the ground next to him and look up. In this circle, for as far as the eye can see, there’s nothing but the blue-black of the sky and the silver of the stars.

  “Oh … wow,” I finally say when I can get my breath back. “That’s even prettier than the stars over the water.”

  “That’s because the light from the village mutes them. Here, there’s nothing to dim the sparkle. And each of them has a story,” he says. He points to some stars. “Like there, that’s Orion. He—”

  “Was a hunter. He was turned into a constellation when he died,” I finish for him, excitedly, almost giddy with the awareness that I actually know something.

  “Yep.” He sounds a little disappointed.

  I give him a sidelong glance and point up. “What’s that one?”

  Gavin

  I don’t know how long we lie there, staring at stars, me pointing out constellations I’m sure she already knows, but too soon, I push to my feet, then lean over and help Evie to hers.

  “Time to head back to camp. Asher is probably freaking out.” Under my breath, I mutter, “If we’re lucky, maybe a coyote ate him.”

  “Gavin,” Evie says, but there’s laughter in her voice.

  Sighing, I push through the underbrush, following the path we made earlier. Halfway there, I see a really pretty flower. It actually looks like two flowers
attached to one another. The bottom part has orange, spiky petals and the top part is white and looks almost like a rose. It seems to almost glow in the moonlight. Remembering back to the gardens Evie had in Elysium, I don’t think she’s ever seen one like this.

  I glance behind me, but she’s not paying attention to me. She’s watching the ground with a nervous expression. I’m sure she’s hoping to avoid whatever slithered across her foot earlier. Probably just a snake looking for his burrow. But her distraction is enough, and I pluck the flower from the ground and carefully keep it from her sight.

  It doesn’t take long before the sounds of a crackling fire and Asher’s grumbling find us and I push through into the little clearing with our tents.

  Asher jumps up quickly, panic on his face. When he sees it’s just us, the panic turns to relief, then anger. “Where the hell have you been? I was worried you got eaten by a bear or something.”

  I wave him away. “Bears haven’t been seen here in years.”

  While Asher glowers at me, Evie slips past and weaves her way sleepily toward her tent. I stop her by placing my hand on my shoulder. “Wait. Evie. I found this for you.”

  She turns back around, confusion written on her face. I shove my hand forward, opening it, and show her the flower sitting in the palm of my hand.

  She smiles and reaches out to take it, but I ignore her hand, pushing her hair aside, then sliding the flower in behind her ear to hold her hair back. She touches the flower and beams up at me, and for a second I see the girl I met in Elysium instead of the shadow of her she’s become. Then the smile slides off her face and it’s almost like a veil lowers over her eyes. They go from sparkling with joy to dull and lifeless.

  She tilts her head, still looking at the flower, then plucks it from behind her ear. She pegs me with her eyes and I fight a shudder. “My flowers are not to be removed without my permission. Mother will be informed of this.”

  She skirts around me while all the hair on my body stands on end.

  Not again.

  She walks straight toward the woods, and I have to force my shaky legs to move forward. Just hearing her say “Mother” with that expression has made my muscles weak. But I have to stop her from wandering into the woods. Bears may not be an actual problem, but coyotes are. Along with snakes, bobcats, and panthers.

  As if to prove my point, the telltale scream of the panther punctuates the air. It sets my teeth on edge how eerily it sounds like a woman.

  “Uh … Evie?” Asher says, following me, following her.

  To my—albeit short-lived— relief, she drops to her knees just on this side of the woods. She’s muttering to herself, but it’s so quiet, I can’t make out more than a few words.

  “… Unbelievable … poor thing … never have I…”

  The entire time she’s mumbling, her hands are moving—she’s clenching one of her hands. Her other hand travels from in front of her, to beside her.

  “Sara,” she says without looking up. “These need to go to the Science Sector. Macie is expecting them.”

  Macie? My stomach sinks when she turns to look at us. What makes my chest even heavier is that I know when she looks at me, she isn’t seeing me. Her eyes are still dead and dull.

  She tilts her head to the side, looking around. “Where’s that foolish girl now?” she mutters. She focuses on me and for a second I think she actually sees me, but she only says, “Locate Sara Penderson. Tell her she is to report to me right away. These herbs need immediate transportation.” Then she turns back to the ground.

  It hits me then, what she’s doing, and it breaks my heart because I’m powerless to help her understand it’s not real.

  Asher meets my eyes over her head. “What is she doing?”

  “She’s tending her garden,” I say, my voice cracking.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Of all the creatures found in the Outlands, the vulture-hawks are the most dangerous. Created by scientists during the War to help clean up the massive quantities of carcasses left behind by war and natural disaster, their hawk-like traits quickly proved to be useful as an almost perfect weapon.

  —EXCERPT FROM HUNTER’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE DANGEROUS ANIMALS OF THE OUTLANDS

  Gavin

  I don’t know what to do. I feel as lost and terrified as I did when she ran into the ocean. She’s just sitting there, thinking she’s cutting flowers. I’m afraid to touch her. Afraid that’ll be the thing that breaks her completely.

  Asher kneels next to me. “What should we do?”

  “I don’t know,” I whisper.

  For almost ten minutes we sit next to her, both of us unsure what to do. The more we sit here, the more I’m worried she’s never going to come out of it.

  But all of a sudden she blinks, her eyes focusing on mine. “Gavin? Where…?” She looks around, confusion written plainly on her face. She peers down at her hands, covered in dirt, then back up at me. Her chin trembles and she lets out a long, low sigh and closes her eyes. “It happened again?”

  I touch her shoulder, but she jerks away, so I drop my hands and say, “Yes.”

  Her hands curl into the dirt. “I see.” She swallows. “I, uh, I don’t feel so well. I think I shall try to sleep now.” Her voice is hollow as she slowly pushes herself up from the ground, dirt and dead leaves clinging to her skin. I jump up to help her, but she pushes me away. I’m sure I see tears sparkling on her lashes. I watch, helpless, as she walks toward her tent and into it.

  She’s always reminded me of the dolls Ann Marie used to play with when we were younger. But now, like this, Evie reminds me more of my grandmother’s china dolls—the ones for show, not play. Fragile. Delicate. Where one wrong move—or a rogue baseball—would shatter them into a million pieces. I want to cradle her in my arms and hold her as close to me as I can. But I know better than to think she’ll let me.

  When I turn, Asher is staring at her with wide eyes and he’s almost as pale as she is.

  “Is she okay?” There’s a slight tremor to his voice and when he looks at me, I see fear that mirrors mine. I don’t want to see it. It only reminds me how powerless I am.

  The answer is obviously no, and I want to shout that at him, but I bite down on the anger. Instead, I shake my head. “I don’t know. I just don’t know,” I say, letting fear turn into anger. “Why don’t you go do something useful and get more wood for the fire?” I probably shouldn’t be angry with him right now. He really has done us a favor by convincing his father to let us go. Except now I owe him a favor. Again. And I’d promised myself I’d never owe him for anything again.

  Asher glares at me for a minute and I stare right back. Then he takes off into the trees. It isn’t hard to hear him crashing around. It’s a good thing we’ve already eaten; any game that was nearby is definitely gone now.

  After a few minutes, I go in to check on Evie. She’s asleep, so I sit on the ground by her head. When she calls my name out in her sleep, I lean down and whisper, “I’m here, Evie. I’m never going to leave you.” I touch a hand to her freezing cheek. “We’re going to find a solution to this. I promise.”

  I’m not sure if she hears me, but she seems soothed. My hand shakes when I pull it away. I don’t know what to do. We’re still days away from the city and I’m afraid she’s not going to make it that long. That she’ll have another episode and there’ll be nothing I can do to stop it.

  What started this, this time? I slip back out of the tent to sit next to the fire, thinking. She seemed like she was fine, a little tired, obviously, but she’d been laughing and joking with Asher while she helped him set up camp. She’d been just fine when we’d watched the stars. It could have been anything.

  Asher startles me when he tosses an armful of wood in a pile next to the fire. He doesn’t say anything to me, only glances at Evie’s tent, then heads back into the trees for more wood. After one more trip, he hunkers across from me. Silent, he pokes the fire with a stick, every once in a while tossing more wood onto it.
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br />   Afraid to fall asleep, I sit and fight to stay awake, but my eyes start to droop as I watch the dance of flames.

  “How long has she been like this?” Asher asks, startling me. He, too, is staring into the fire.

  I don’t know how much I should say, so I don’t say anything.

  He looks up and meets my eyes over the flames. “Come on, Gavin. What do you think I’m going to do to her? What do you think that information is going to do?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m not taking any chances. You’ve hurt the ones I love enough.”

  Asher throws his hands in the air. “Christ! You still haven’t let that go? That was years ago. We were kids! I didn’t even know what I was doing!”

  I look away from him. “It’s not about that.”

  “The hell it isn’t. Don’t think I don’t know why you didn’t want me to help you get to the city. Don’t think I don’t know you warned Evie away from me.”

  My head jerks back in his direction. “What did you expect, Asher? You betrayed me! My family! To please your daddy you betrayed mine. And for what? To prove that you weren’t one of us. Weren’t an Outlander like me.”

  “I didn’t know that was going to happen!” Asher shoves the stick into the fire. A log falls and splits in two with a loud crack, sending a shower of sparks flying into the air.

  Suddenly, Evie screams. It sounds like a name, but I can’t make it out. Asher and I run to her tent, and I crawl into it with her. There’s barely enough room for us; my head brushes the ceiling of the tent even sitting. Her eyes are open, but they’re glazed, and it’s obvious she isn’t awake. She claws at the bag, trying to force herself out.

  It’s gut-wrenching seeing her like this. I lean down and whisper in her ear like I’ve done so many nights before. “It’s okay. You’re fine, Evie. I’m right here and Mother’s long gone. Just rest now.” I pet her arm, trying to soothe her. After a few more minutes of coaxing, she finally sinks into another fitful sleep. The only comfort I have is she won’t remember anything in the morning.