Leaning forward, I prop myself up on one elbow and press my lips to his cheek. He rouses, and long golden-brown lashes flutter before his eyes open. For a split-second, his gaze is bleary. A lopsided smile forms, but slowly transforms into a wide grin. It overtakes his face and causes my heart to swell so that it feels two sizes too big for my chest.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he says in a gravelly voice. He arches his back slightly, stretching, then gently drags the knuckles on one hand down my cheek. His eyes never leave my face. “How’d you sleep?”
I contemplate withholding from him that for the first time in my life, my sleep was undisturbed by nightmares, by my fears and insecurities playing out before my very eyes, but love is not about holding back or self-preservation. It’s about being yourself and being honest. “It was the best night of sleep ever,” I reply.
His smile deepens and reaches his eyes. “Me, too.” He pulls me close and kisses me. “This, you being here with me, waking up with you like this, it’s like a dream come true.”
Warmth diffuses throughout my chest.
“I know I probably sound like an idiot to you.” He rolls his eyes and presses his lips together. “I’m not doing a very good job of expressing myself.”
“No, that’s not true. You are. And what you said, it’s exactly how I feel.” I plant a kiss on his forehead. “But we need to get up and get moving. June will be up any second now. I swear she’s programmed to wake with the sun. I don’t want her to see us like this and feel bad or anything.”
“I understand.” Sully smiles but it is tinged with the same regret I feel. Who knows when we’ll be able to exist as we are now? “I don’t have to like it, but I understand.” His words echo my sentiments exactly. He pulls me atop him. My hair falls like curtains on either side of our faces. He cups my face in his hands and says, “I love you, Avery. And if I die today, I’ll die happy, just knowing you love me too.”
My throat snaps shut, words lodged somewhere deep inside are trapped. I don’t want to think about Sully dying. Ever.
Apparently, my expression tells the story. Sully’s brow gathers. He immediately asks, “What’s wrong?”
Swallowing hard, I answer, my words reed-thin and breathless. “I don’t want to think about you dying,” I manage.
He rolls to his side, carefully placing me on my back. He looks directly into my eyes. “I’m so sorry. Death was not the point I was trying to drive home. All I meant to say is that I’m happy, right now here with you. Happier than I’ve ever been in fact.” He brushes a lock of hair off my forehead. “Knowing you feel for me the way I feel for you, that you love me, means I’m going to fight even harder to make sure I return from every battle.”
Unexpected tears stream from the corners of my eyes and spill into my hair. I nod. “So will I,” I say.
“I want to be with you, okay? And I will. I’ll be with you and June until you can’t stand the sight of me.” He chuckles.
“Never,” I assure him.
His expression turns serious instantly. “Good, I was hoping you’d say that.” His gaze locks on mine for several beats before he lowers his mouth to mine. His soft lips send a whisper of warmth across my skin. My scalp tightens. The fine hairs on my arms rise. My hands travel to the back of his head, my fingers tangling in the short hair there, as I deepen our kiss. Our kiss ends abruptly, however, with a loud banging from somewhere downstairs.
“What the heck was that?” I ask.
Our heads snap to the bedroom door.
“I don’t know, but you go to June and I’ll check it out.” Sully springs from the bed in just his T shirt pants and socks. He is across the room and out the door before I have time to protest. I follow him, stopping only to slip into my boots without tying them, and peek at June who is still asleep then I dash down the hallway and catch up with him as he’s descending the staircase.
“I’ll get it,” I say as I make my way to the door.
Sully hangs back and grabs a blade. I grab mine as well; we are both armed and ready on the off chance that this isn’t one of our people. Sully nods when my hand is poised above the doorknob. I turn it and pull the door toward me only to find Will. He looks troubled, pacing and agitated as I’ve never seen him. “Hey. What’s up? Is everything okay?”
“I need to talk to you about yesterday.” He doesn’t waste time exchanging pleasantries but cuts right to the chase. There are two guards standing next to him who must have relieved Mark during the night
“It’s okay guys.” I say to them, and they walk back to their post.
“Is that Will?” Sully asks and appears beside me.
Will eyes rake over him from head to toe, and a flicker of rage flashes through his features. His eyes harden and his nostrils flare. He releases a strident laugh. “Oh, now I get it!” he exclaims as if he’s made some kind of connection. If he has, I’m failing to understand it. All I know is that his gaze, now outright hostile, volleys between Sully and me.
“Now you get what, Will? I don’t understand,” I say.
“Now I get what’s made you change so much. Or who, rather.” He glares at Sully then sneers and shakes his head. “It’s not like I didn’t know already, but seeing it with my own eyes,” he huffs arrogantly, “well, at least you can’t deny it.”
“Will, what the heck are you getting at? I never denied anything,” I say and feel my temper flare. Then suddenly, the connection Will made becomes clear. This is not how I wanted Will to find out. I wanted to tell him myself when the time was right. I turn and look at Sully. “Could you give us a minute?”
Sully looks at me as if I must be joking.
“I’ll be okay,” I whisper.
He shakes his head then slowly makes his way back to the bedroom. As soon as Sully is out of earshot, Will begins a tirade. “If you never wanted me anyway and wanted him the whole time, why did you have her killed, huh? What, you didn’t like the competition?” His words spray like acid and corrode everything in their wake.
“Competition?” My mind reels. “Who did I have killed? Will, what are you talking about?”
“Sarah,” he hisses. “You knew what would happen if you sent her out there on the battlefield! You knew she couldn’t defend herself, yet you sent her out! You sent her out there to die!”
His accusations blast against me like gunfire. I’m staggered. “Will, children fought. Your own brother was among them. Many of them lost their lives. You think she should have hid with the very young and very old? You think she should have hid like a coward?”
“Coward or not, at least she’d still be alive!” he shouts inches from my face.
Strengthening my tone, my hands ball into fists. I place them on my hips. “There is no place in this world for the weak. Whether you thought she was too special to fight, or too weak to fight makes no difference. She gave her life for an important cause. She was part of humanity’s—” I do not get to finish my sentence. Will erupts.
“Spare me the speech, Azlyn.” He spews the words like venom. “You’re not going to rally me and fill me with pride that an innocent girl lost her life fighting for something that may very well never happen!” He paces like a caged animal, jabbing both hands through his hair. “She would’ve been better off in the slave camp. At least she’d have been around humans like her and wouldn’t have died in the desert in a fight that wasn’t hers!”
“It was her fight! It’s all of ours! She needed—” I start but stop mid-sentence as a thought races through my mind.
Will watches me, puzzled.
I’m too preoccupied trying to process how I’m going to broach the idea that has come to light. “How many people would Sarah have been with at the camp?”
“What?” Will scrunches his features. “I don’t know, a lot I think. Why?” His tone is still antagonistic.
“How many is a lot?” I persist.
“Who cares? I’m not done talking about how you got Sarah killed!” he shouts and is completely unrecep
tive to my questions.
“We are done talking about it,” I drain any and all friendliness from my tone and say firmly. “Where’s Tom?”
“He’s with me. We’re staying there.” He points three houses down the road.
Pushing past him, I march out the front door and make my way toward the house he pointed to.
Frost coats the grass and icy vapors hover in the air like spectral beings. I wrap my arms around my waist, shivering, when footsteps echo behind me. I turn and expect to see Will, but find Sully there instead. “Wait up,” he calls out to me. “You okay?”
“No, not really,” I shock myself by answering so candidly. “Will just accused me of intentionally getting Sarah killed and thinks that because I’m with you, my whole outlook on things has changed.” The words tumble from me unexpectedly. Liberating and bittersweet simultaneously, I regret burdening Sully with my woes.
He wraps an arm around my shoulder and draws me near. He kisses my temple. “I’m here for you,” is all he says. And somehow his simple sentence makes all the difference in the world. I know he is beside me, in every way he can possibly be.
We walk together to the house Will gestured to and let ourselves in. Two men greet us at the door. I ask them where Tom is and they call out his name.
Within moments, Tom comes down the steps with Oliver and Riley in tow.
“Avery!” Riley squeals and rushes into my arms.
I hug her and then Oliver. But Oliver stiffens slightly and leans away from me. I realize he’s changed, that he’s grown up seemingly overnight. He isn’t the child he was when I met him just a short time ago. Losing his parents, and the world beyond the forest, has changed him. I release him and step away. I turn my attention to Tom.
“Tom, I hate to bring up a painful memory, and I’m truly sorry to make you think about the time you spent there, but I need to know about the slave camp you and your sister escaped from
An anguished look clouds his features. “Cassowary, what do you want to know about it?”
“This Cassowary, how many people were there?” I ask
His gaze lowers to the floor, unfocused and distant. “It was the only human training base on the planet as far as I know. As we told you when you found us, we supplied the people that got power restored to Kildare, the greatest Urthmen city in the world. We also put thousands of cars back on the road.”
“How many people?” I ask again.
“Thousands, tens of thousands maybe,” he replies without looking at me. “We were kept in cells, never released all at once.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “I can’t answer your question because I don’t really know the exact number. But it was a lot, that’s for sure. It’s where humans are trained then shipped to work for King Leon.”
Ignoring the sick pit Tom’s words evoke in my belly, I turn and look at Sully. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I believe I am. And I can’t think of a better way to grow our numbers.” His gaze is pinned to mine, and I swear I can practically see the thoughts whizzing through his brain in the same manner they whiz through mine.
I tear my attention from him and look to Tom. “How well guarded is the base?” I ask. “You and Sarah were able to break out, right?”
“We snuck out on a truck that was leaving.” Tom glances at me then his gaze returns to his feet. “There are far fewer guards than there are humans, but there are still a lot of guards. They worry about keeping humans from getting out. I don’t think they worry too much about anyone breaking in.”
“Breaking into what?” Sully asks the question burning on my lips.
“The city,” Tom answers with a shrug. “It’s surrounded by a huge wall to keep the humans inside.”
In my periphery, I see that Sully watches me. I turn to face him and he smiles. “So if we could take it over, not only would we increase our numbers, but we could also have a secure base,” he says, his gaze never wavering.
“That’s impossible,” Tom says with certainty that’s startling. “There’s no way we can take over Cassowary. It isn’t possible.” The conviction and confidence with which he speaks chafes me.
“Nothing is impossible,” I inform him determinedly. I hold his gaze for several moments then turn to face Sully again. He beams at me. “We need to get everyone assembled and start moving as soon as possible. We’ll follow the road back to where we found Tom and Sarah. We will find this city and we will overtake it.”
Sully looks as if he’s about to break out in a round of applause. “That’s my Avery,” he leans in and whispers before he places a light peck on my lips. Then louder, he says, “I’ll go get everyone up and ready to leave.”
“Thank you,” I close my eyes briefly and say.
I watch his agile stride as he dashes out the door and across the front lawn. Graceful and lithe, I marvel at his speed, at his strength. I’m grateful that he’s on my side, that he’ll be by my side from this day forward. With him beside me, we will conquer Cassowary, strengthen our human alliance and procure a secure base for our operations.
Sully’s body is backlit by golden light that glows against a pastel-blue sky as the sun hovers just above the horizon. Day broke not long ago, bathing the world around me in brilliant, vivid beams. Like the break of dawn, the future holds possibility for once, and the promise that I am loved by someone other than June.
Chapter 5
The moon, round and fat, shines brightly, bathing everything in its wake in harsh, stony light. Thick clouds crawl lazily, just a shade lighter than the deep, inky sky. Gone are the browns, greens and blues of daytime. They’ve been replaced by malevolent silhouettes and shadows. A shiver runs down my spine as I gaze out the window of the truck. A gust of wind howls, its mournful bay moaning through skeletal tree limbs that reach and stretch beseechingly toward unforgiving heavens. I can feel its frosty breath blow across my flesh, even though I’m protected inside the vehicle.
“You okay?” Sully asks in a low voice.
Pressed close to him as I am, wedged between him and June and with Tom on the other side of June, I’d prefer to keep my thoughts to myself rather than share them with the group. The standard answer would be “I’m fine” but I see no point in lying so I turn my head and whisper, “The moon, the night, I don’t know, everything looks creepy.”
“This world we live in is creepy—night or day. It doesn’t make a difference.” He steals a sidelong glance and sees that I’m not smiling. “Hey, I’m just kidding, you know.” I smile feebly. “Jeez, that was a charity smile if ever I saw one.” He scrubs the back of his head and ruffles the hair at his nape.
“He’s right, Avery,” June chimes in. Judging from her animated hand gestures and facial expressions, I thought she was deep in conversation with Tom. Apparently, I was wrong. “The world is creepy all the time, but you’re right too. At night, it gets even creepier. And that moon! Wow! It looks like it’s going to fall on us!”
“Yeah, and it makes everything look, so, I don’t know, washed out, or something,” Tom chimes in.
“Okay, okay. You guys win. The night is scary and the moon will plop on us any minute now,” Sully holds a hand up in surrender.
“Oh, and that was her I’m-trying-to-be-polite smile, by the way,” June adds for good measure.
Sully snaps and says, “I knew it!”
I shake my head and roll my eyes.
“And that’s the eye roll she does when she thinks you’re obnoxious.” A giggling fit ensues and I can’t help but smile—for real. June and Sully banter like brother and sister. I’m grateful for their rapport, especially since we’ve been on the road for three days straight. Exhaustion tempered with excitement is the general consensus of the emotions filling the cab. The combination has the potential to wreak havoc on relationships. We’ve been lucky thus far. No one has bickered yet. Perhaps it is the possibility of finding a home, a place where we could have a chance to properly defend ourselves if attacked, that’s keeping our sprits
buoyed. Or perhaps it is adrenaline born of knowing we are heading to the slave camp with an advantage—the element of surprise—that’s keeping moods level. I can’t say for sure which it is. Both keep my mind working.
The truck rumbles along over the paved stretch of roadway until Tom says, “Wait, slow down.”
Sully gradually slows the rig. And as he does, I realize we’re at the exact same spot we found Tom and Sarah weeks earlier.
I immediately twist in my seat and look at Tom to gauge his reaction. His long, narrow face looks haggard. His eyes are trained straight ahead, his mouth agape. I follow his line of vision.
Moonlight from overhead deepens the hollows of a gaunt and withered face. Sightless eyes are downcast in an expression of eternal melancholy. Arms are outspread and nailed at the center of both palms. Rivulets of rust-colored blood have dried and run off the bottom of another crudely placed billboard on the side of the road. The word “stray” is scrawled across a wasted torso. I gasp, my eyes traveling the length of what appears to be a male form, though it is hard to tell given the condition of the body. The flesh from his waist down looks as if it’s been picked off, leaving him with little more than the bones of his hips, legs, and one foot. The scene is beyond grisly, beyond macabre.
I want to scream, to cry out, but the only sound my throat produces is a weak whimper.
Pounding the steering wheel, Sully releases a string of curse words, some of which I’ve never heard. Regardless, the vehemence with which he spits them echoes my anger, my outrage. June has begun to cry, and Tom’s fist is pressed to his mouth, his gaze averted from the ghastly display before him.
I swallow hard; swallow back the bile burning up my throat. This right here, the sight of a human nailed to a sign and left to die, is why every Urthman must fall. None will be spared. This is what they do to humans. They torture. They kill. Mercy is not a word in their vocabulary. And where it concerns them, it will not exist in ours either.
The Rise of Azlyn (Book 4): Planet Urth, no. 4 Page 5