by Megan Curd
He looked at me, startled, but then beamed as though he’d been crowned king. He clapped his hands, and the applause echoed across the thousands of books shelved in the library.
His jubilation scared me.
“Miss Pike, you are the very meaning of an elementalist! You have the capability to control the elements and manipulate them! Do you know how rare this is? How rare you are? Why, with training, you could very well be the one to bring us back to normalcy. If we could understand how you received your abilities, we could teach others to do what you just did.”
As he continued, I tuned him out until his voice was a mindless buzzing in my ear. The wine stained the floor like blood, and I wondered what I was really capable of. I felt my knees begin to give out. Everything around me began to spin, and the last thing I saw was Riggs’s triumphant face turn to horror as I passed out.
***
A hand waved in front of my face at the same time the noxious odor of smelling salts assailed my nostrils. I blinked and jerked my head away from the odor.
“Avery, you there?” Xander’s reassuring voice sounded in my ears. His fingers pressed gently against the inside of my wrist. “You had us worried.”
“Us meaning Riggs?” I muttered.
He chuckled. “And myself…and Jaxon, if I’m not mistaken. You’ve made a few friends here in your short time.”
I tried to sit up, but one of his broad hands held me down. “Lie there for a second, so you can acclimate again,” he instructed, in full doctor mode as he examined my pupils with a small flashlight. “That was a nasty fall.”
“Did Riggs tell you what happened?”
“I got the gist. Care to tell me about it, or would you rather not?”
“Oh, I’ll talk about it,” I said grumpily. “Riggs threatened to not give my parents their rations this month if I didn’t turn his wine into fire.”
One of his eyebrows disappeared into his bangs. “And so you passed out?”
“After turning the wine into fire, yes.”
Both of his eyebrows rose. “You don’t control elements. You own them; you change them.”
“So it seems.”
I lay there in silence, staring at the ceiling tiles for a long time before I realized I wasn’t in Xander’s office. I sat up before he could push me back down.
His eyes were wide. “What’s wrong?”
“Where are we?”
“My real medical ward. This is where I usually take care of students, but Jaxon took it upon himself to make my office a personal haunt, and now he brings you and Sari along as well.” His smile indicated he didn’t mind it.
“And now Legs,” I added.
“And now Legs. Speaking of which, would you come visit him tonight? He’s been asking about you today.”
It was good to know Legs was coherent again. “Sure. Would you mind if I brought Alice?”
Xander looked confused. “Alice?”
“My roommate.”
“Isn’t Sari your roommate?”
Before I could respond, Sari ran into the room, wide-eyed and winded. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t know you two were talking.”
Xander laughed and waved her embarrassment away. “Not to worry. We were just chatting.” He refocused on me, concern etched across his face. “How are you feeling?”
I shrugged, unsure how to answer. There were so many things running through my mind that I was far from fine, but medically speaking, I didn’t think I’d suffered anything life-threatening. “I’m good, thanks.”
“Well then, you’re free to leave.” He pointed at Sari. “Make sure she doesn’t sleep for more than two hours at a time tonight. I think she has a minor concussion.”
She nodded weakly, acting as though she’d seen a ghost. “I can manage that.”
Xander helped me off the pristine white sheets that covered the simple gurney. This place spared nothing; it was like being in a hospital.
I also noticed it appeared to be the same as the ward Riggs and I had passed not hours ago. The thought that Mom might have been poked and prodded in one of these rooms made me nauseated, and I swayed on the spot.
Sari gripped my forearm to steady me, her hands cold against my skin. “Let’s go. Thanks for taking care of her, Xander.”
He inclined his head, and his broad smile set my heart at ease. “My pleasure. Try not to pass out again.”
I nodded and turned to go. “Avery,” he called out. “If you use your abilities too much—push yourself beyond your limits—it could kill you.”
Both Sari and I stood there silent at his dire warning, observing his gaze filled with concern. “You want to continue to practice, of course. Practicing will build your abilities like a muscle, but going overboard won’t result in a strained ligament. It could end in death. Be mindful of your limits.”
What was I supposed to say to something so heavy? Thanks for that little informational nugget. Would have been great to know that before I started trying to push myself.
I swallowed, but my throat felt as if it were full of cotton. “I’ll be careful,” I managed.
Xander seemed mollified because he shooed us out of the medical ward. “Go find some trouble, but don’t come back needing stitches, please!”
Sari pushed me out of the ward and into the blinding light of the corridor I’d walked with Riggs earlier. When we were through another set of metal doors, she jerked me to a stop, pressed me against the wall, and grabbed my right arm. She turned it over to expose the crook of my elbow and let out a sigh of relief as she let it fall to my side.
“I thought…” she leaned against the wall beside me and slid down to rest on the polished tile.
My stomach roiled. I knew what she must have thought happened. I brushed my fingertips against my still smooth inner arm. “He didn’t track me.”
Her head jerked up, her eyes wild with fright. “How’d you know about the trackers?”
“My mom.”
She jumped back up and grabbed both my hands. “How’d you know about your mom? It took me all day to dig for and unencrypt files I should have never even known were in the system.” She appeared to concentrate for a moment before speaking again. “Actually, I’m impressed with myself that I found them, and that’s saying something. I’m nosy as all get out and find everything. Everything. And these were so hidden, so locked away, that the security made Guantanamo Bay and Alacatraz look like little city jails.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Guantanamo Bay? It was a prison for the worst criminals. Alcatraz, too.”
“What are prisons?”
Sari threw her arms up in exasperation. “You’re missing the point. Bad people were locked away, never to be heard from again in those places. Sound familiar? The files of those people were locked up. These files should have been impossible to find,” she said, jutting out the palm of her hand to display half-sweated-away ink pen scrawls.
She paced back and forth like a caged animal and ran her hands through her hair. “Oh God, what am I going to do? What if Riggs finds out?”
I grabbed her shoulders and stopped her in mid-pace. “Finds out what?”
“Finds out I learned all his secrets. I mean, everyone has skeletons in their closets, but Riggs, damn, he’s got a whole Tyrannosaurus Rex in his. And Xander…well it’s like he popped out of nowhere before being here.” Sari glanced over her shoulder. “Look, we need to go to dinner. Afterward, I’ll explain everything.”
As we walked, I leaned into her. “Have you seen Alice today? Was she at lunch?”
“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her all day.” She frowned. “Do you think she’s okay? Does she usually skip lunch?”
I felt a creeping sense of unease. “No. In fact, she’s always on time.”
She scrunched her face in thought and took a seat in one of the crevices at the fountain’s outer wall. “Go back to the room and check on her, then. I’ll tell Riggs you were tired if he asks.”
�
��Will you get in trouble?”
Sari laughed. “I ended up here because I was constantly getting into trouble. It wouldn’t be farfetched for me to find myself in another predicament.”
“But I don’t want it to be because of me.”
“It won’t be. It’ll be because I’m taking care of my friends, and that’s all I have.”
I jolted at her words. I was her friend.
“Thank you,” I said, my voice thick. “You don’t know how much that means to me.”
“You’d do the same for me.”
“You got that right.”
“Get going. We don’t need Riggs showing up right now.” She hopped off her perch and started toward the commons, on the opposite side of the atrium.
I headed toward the dorms. In the waning daylight, the long shadows seemed more foreboding than usual. My mind raced a thousand miles an hour, and everything put me on edge.
A hand grasped my shoulder.
“Jesus!”
“Nope, Jaxon. Although, I can understand why you’d confuse the two of us.”
I clutched my chest and felt my heart threatening to pound its way out.
He didn’t show his usual conceited visage. His cheeks were flushed, giving him a much younger appearance. His head was turned downward, but his eyes held mine. “Can I borrow you?”
“I have people in line before you. I can pencil you in around midnight.”
He didn’t flinch. “Then midnight it is.”
“Are you kidding?”
“I never joke about midnight rendezvouses with fiery beauties.”
“You’re a torrent of sarcasm.”
“That’s vastly different than kidding. Kidding is frivolity, and I am not frivol. Is that even a word? If it isn’t, insert something else—serious…brooding, perhaps?” He turned to the side and stroked his chin. “Does this look brooding to you? Wait, don’t look. You’re over your five minute ogling allotment.”
“You do know that sarcasm is the refuge for a shallow mind, right?”
“Depth is irrelevant when you can’t find the lake, my dear.”
I opened and closed my mouth, unable to think of a comeback. He always one-upped me. One day I’d come up with something. I’d start writing comebacks down to practice for when the occasion arose. Because that’s not lame at all.
After floundering for a retort, I remembered I was supposed to be checking on Alice. I shook my head clear of the plague that was Jaxon. “I need to go.”
He leaned in and brushed a stray hair behind my ear. His fingers lingered on my neck. “That’s fine. Be ready at midnight.”
I pulled away from his touch but immediately found myself yearning for it. “And what do you want to do in the middle of the night?”
“Take advantage of your naivety and virtue, of course.”
I felt my mouth drop.
He laughed, his hands up in submission. “I want to talk, Avery. Talk. That’s all. Explain.”
“I don’t want or need your explanations.”
He leaned in, his soft lips tickling my ear. “All the same, you’re getting them. Midnight. You said it.”
I needed to get away from him before his intoxicating cologne made me forget all reason. I turned down the hall toward my room, away from his frustrating ability to make me lose all train of thought. “Whatever, Jaxon. Go to dinner,” I called back.
“You’re not?” Apparently, he was following me.
“Not hungry.”
“What a coincidence. I’m not either. Watching my figure and all. God knows I haven’t found a steam-powered treadmill in this place yet.”
I huffed in annoyance. He was infuriatingly persistent. I rummaged in my pockets for the key to my room and swiped it through the scanner with more force than needed.
“That card didn’t do anything to you.”
“But you did, and I don’t think you’ll fit through the scanner.”
“I didn’t tell you about your parents for your safety.”
The reader beeped, and the light turned green, but instead of going in my room and slamming the door in his frustratingly handsome face, I stood there and glared. “How is it any safer here if you withhold information?”
He reached around me and opened the door, then swept me up into his arms and crossed the threshold, a smile playing at the corners of his lips.
I knew I should have slammed the door in his face. I wrestled out of his embrace. “What is wrong with you?”
“My father’s been trying to figure that out since I arrived in this world.” Though his tone was casual, a tinge of anger laced his words. “Clue him in if you happen to stumble across the answer, will you?”
His self-deprecation made me uncomfortable. How could someone who acted so arrogant be so insecure? Maybe the two went hand in hand. I ignored his question and headed toward the bedroom.
“Alice? You here?” I called out. I neared the small hallway that linked our room with Sari’s. Running water echoed from the shower, and I cracked the door so I could be heard over the waterfall. “Alice? You okay? Sari said she hadn’t seen you today.”
Panic began to set in. It wasn’t like her to ignore me. I stepped into the bathroom to find the floor soaked with water. The carpet squelched under my feet as I walked toward the shower.
Small rivulets reminding me of teardrops zigzagged down the huge mirrors where steam once clung to the surface. Water cascaded down the small ledge adorned with river rocks outside the shower. I slid the door open, afraid of what I’d find.
The sight was worse than I could have imagined.
Alice sat crunched up in the corner, her arms wrapped around her knees as she rocked back and forth. A white towel was plastered to her body, soaked from the showerhead pounding water down on her small frame. Her body convulsed with alternating sobs and hiccups.
I got into the shower on my hands and knees. Ice-cold water drenched me as I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?”
She cried with new fervor as the water streamed down her matted hair. What this morning was a beautiful chignon was now a rat’s nest of bobby pins and a sodden bow. She looked up at me, and I saw that her careful application of blue eyeliner was streaked and intermingled with the mascara that slid down her soft cheeks. The smeared makeup made her appear bruised and battered. Her once beautiful brown eyes were bloodshot.
I pushed myself away in bewilderment, my mouth half open.
She hiccupped. “This isn’t a game, is it? We’re trapped here.”
“What are you talking about?” I said through shivers that wracked my body. I wrapped my arms under her and tried to lift her, but she refused my help. I shook her in an attempt to spur movement, but she didn’t stir at all; she simply sat there, her bloodshot eyes far away. “Alice!”
She jumped.
“What are you thinking, sitting in this cold water? Do you want to freeze to death?”
“It’d be better than being naïve,” she said so quietly I almost missed it. “I’ve always been the one watching out for you, Avery. Then we get here, and I ignore my own advice. We can’t trust anyone. I was stupid to think I could.”
My teeth chattered so hard, it was a battle for me to formulate a complete sentence. “What…are you…talking about?”
“They don’t need someone common here,” she said with sad eyes. “They don’t need me for anything more than research.”
“Research?”
I tugged her arm from its protective grasp on her knees and looked at the crook of her elbow.
There it was.
The red light flashed under a layer of skin with three small stitches. I wrapped my arms around her. “It’s okay. I promise we’ll get that thing out. Riggs won’t hurt you.”
“Riggs won’t hurt me,” she repeated into my ear as the frigid water crashed down on my back. Her body shivered underneath my embrace. For all I knew, she may have been talking to herself as much as to me.<
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“Jaxon, can you get in here?” I called, my voice cracking. I tried to lift her once more, and this time she swayed but carried her own weight.
Jaxon stood in the doorway, his eyes wide.
I motioned for him to come forward.
He swept her into his arms as he had me and wiped her hair out of her face. “It’s okay, Alice, we’ll take care of you.” He began to bark orders. “Get towels. Warm them up in the dryer and bring them to me. Get her some clothes. We need to get her body temperature up. Change her into something dry, and we’ll work on getting her back to good.”
I nodded numbly. My feet sank in the shaggy wet carpet as I heard him plod out of the soaked bathroom with him. I grabbed four fluffy towels and ran to the dryer in the utility room by the kitchen.
While those tumbled on low, I hunted for a pair of pajama pants for both Alice and me, along with two simple cotton t-shirts. A pile of sweaters she had tossed in the corner caught my eye, so I grabbed one of those as well, then went back to the dryer for the towels.
My arms full, I found that Jaxon had grabbed my massive down comforter and was holding her on the floor of our room, waiting for me. His strong arms were wrapped around her; his biceps flexed as he held her tightly. He rocked her as she leaned against his chest. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
When he looked my way, I gestured to the pile of clothes in my hand. Without needing an explanation, he untangled himself from the pink comforter. His soaked cashmere sweater clung to his chest. He whipped his dreadlocks back into the leather thong he wore on his wrist as he walked over to me. “She’s in shock. We need to get her to talk.”
“Should we take her to Xander?”
“I don’t know if we could get her there without being seen right now, and we don’t need anyone asking questions. She’s a mess.” He was right; she was still hiccupping and unable to speak coherently. Trying to get her through the atrium without being seen was too much to ask.
“Give me five minutes with her, okay?”
“You got it.”
I made my way over to her. “Hey sis, I’m here,” I said quietly as I began to extricate her from the comforter. Her convulsive shivers were subsiding, but her lips were still an unhealthy purple. I worked quickly to put dry clothes on her, but her limp limbs made it hard to maneuver the sleeves of her shirt, and putting on her pants was nearly impossible. I was tucking her under the sheets of her bed when Jaxon’s head peeked in the door once more. “Is she decent?”