The Exodus

by Ali Winters

  Kain snorted, breaking her train of thought. She looked at him through the mirror. He had a ridiculously wide smile.

  “What’s funny?” she asked, looking back to her reflection and wondering if she had toothpaste all over her face, or if she was brushing her teeth wrong.

  He shook his head. “Nothing,” he said through a mouth full of foam.

  She frowned. “Kain…”

  Kain rinsed his mouth out and dried his face. “I realized I was having a brush—with death.”

  Nivian quirked an eyebrow and rinsed her mouth.

  “Get it? Brushing our teeth—brush—brush with death. You’re de—”

  “Yeah, I get it.” Nivian shook her head and against her will, a smile formed. “You’re so weird,” she said with a chuckle.

  Kain gave her an obviously fake pout, the corner of his mouth twitching before he schooled his features. But the smile did not leave his eyes.

  “I’m heading to bed,” Nivian announced.

  “All right, I’ll be there shortly. I just want to shower first.”

  Nivian wandered over to the room and fell back onto the mattress. A sigh escaped her. She heard the water turn on in the bathroom and sat up.

  She reached into the pocket of her cloak folded on the nightstand next to the bed, and pulled out the watch that she’d been carrying for months now. She’d never returned it to Caspian after Silas had canceled the mark on Kain. It was like an intimate piece of him that she didn’t want to give to anyone else.

  There was no protocol for what to do with the watches of canceled marks, as she’d never heard of it happening before. Her fingers brushed over the gold filigree, caressing the design. It looked vaguely familiar. Squinting, she examined it closer and the swirls seemed to, almost, form an animal.

  “What’s that?” Kain asked from the doorway.

  She looked up to see him walking toward her as he rubbed his hair with a towel, wearing thin flannel pants… without a shirt.

  “Uhh,” she uttered, her mouth dry. “It’s a watch.”

  “Do you have a mark you didn’t tell us about? It’s not a Hunter is it?” Kain frowned.

  “Uh no, it’s not. I mean, it was…” Nivian looked down at her hands and grasped it tightly in her fist. “It was yours, from when Silas had you marked. I didn’t know what to do with it after, so I just kept it.”

  He stared wide-eyed at her when she met his gaze again.

  “There’s no power left in it. That vanished when the mark was canceled. It’s just a watch now,” she rushed to clarify.

  “Oh, why did you keep it?” Kain tossed his towel across the room to a nearby chair and moved to sit next to her.

  “It didn’t feel right to give it to anyone else.” She shrugged and shoved it back into the pocket of her cloak. “Like it would have been a betrayal if anyone else had it. I know that sounds stupid…”

  Kain cupped her cheek and scooted closer, his thigh touching hers. “It’s not stupid at all. I’m glad you still have it, I wouldn’t trust anyone else in this world with it—powers or no.” His expression was warm, as if he held a secret behind it. “Have you been carrying it around this whole time?”

  She nodded.

  He lifted his other hand and held her face in his hands, his eyes speaking more than she could understand. Kain’s gaze was heavy, trapping her within their rich, green depths. Lowering his chin, he gently placed his lips on hers.

  Nivian instantly melted into him, letting the heat course through her veins. When he pulled back, she found herself breathless. Her lashes fluttered open and she desperately wanted to close the space between them again.

  Pulling her close, he kissed her again. This time, a series of short sweet kisses, on her lips and cheeks before he rested his forehead against hers.

  “Nivian?” His voice was thick with want.

  “Yes?” Her eyes had closed again.

  “I care about you…”

  “I care about you too, Kain.” It felt so surreal to hear those words from him.

  “It’s more than just that though,” he continued.

  Nivian pulled back to look at him.

  “What are we Nivian?” he asked.

  Fisting her hands in her lap, Nivian bit her lip, not sure what to say. She didn’t want to define it, she didn’t even know if she could, she just wanted to be with him like this forever. Though she didn’t know why, she did get that it was important for him to know. It was hard to put a name to something she didn’t understand.

  “Since the day I met you, I’ve felt this pull toward you. I don’t know what it is, or why it’s there, but I can’t stay away. Don’t you feel it too?”

  She did feel a pull, but wasn’t sure what it meant. Saying yes would make him smile; it would make him happy. But Nivian couldn’t bring herself to say the one simple word when she couldn’t grasp the full implications that it brought with it. Tension passed between them, thick and suffocating.

  “Damn it, Nivian. I tried to fight it—I tried and I failed. Those few days we didn’t talk, I didn’t contact you other than to deliver the T-screen. I thought you would have tried to contact me before then. It killed me to think you didn’t notice I was gone for days.”

  “I did notice, Kain,” she said softly.

  “But did it matter to you that I wasn’t around? Didn’t you wonder?”

  “Of course it did.”

  “I wanted to give you time and space. But I need to know I’m not alone in this.” Kain grasped her hands in his and held them against his chest. “Nivian, I love you.”

  The shock of his words left her stunned. She waited in the eternal silence that stretched out between them. Her tongue felt heavy and useless, her mind blank, save for those four words. Nivian, I love you…

  Love…

  Love?

  “Please tell me I’m not wasting my time, tell me if I should hold on to this or move on, but I need to know. Because as much as I love you, I’m not going to keep trying to convince you to feel the same if you never will.”

  What is love? There was nothing in her life she could draw on. Of course she knew the word, understood its basic meaning. She loved her friends. But the love he spoke of was different; it was different in the weight of the word, the tone, the meaning. In her heart, she wanted nothing more than to know for certain, to be able to tell him what he wanted to hear.

  “I love you and I need to know if you love me. I can’t spend my whole life in love with someone who’ll never love me back. It would be too painful. I’ve been in love with you forever and it kills me not to tell you every day, not to hear those words from your mouth. If you don’t love me, if you won’t… I need to know. Put me out of my misery.”

  She needed time, there was no way she could give him an answer until she could figure it out herself. Seeing his pain at her lack of answers twisted her gut. It wasn’t fair to him, but giving him an answer she wasn’t ready to give would be just as bad… or worse.

  “Kain…” she shook her head, “I don’t mean to hurt you, I just—”

  His face hardened and he pulled away. “Stop, please just stop. It’s getting late and I shouldn’t have brought it up. We can talk about it when this is over.” Dropping his legs off the edge of the bed, he scrubbed his face with his hands.

  Tears pricked at her eyes, blurring her vision. She was at a loss for words, so only nodded. Nothing she could say, or do, would make this right between them.

  “You can take the bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

  Nivian opened her mouth to protest but he was already walking away. His hand snatched the folded blanket at the foot of the bed as he walked out the door, not once looking back.

  Nivian woke to the sound an alarm clock.

  What a horrible way to wake up. She rolled over pulling a pillow over her head. A minute later, her eyes snapped open when it was shut off. Lifting the pillow, she saw Kain’s back as he walked into the bathroom. She opened her mouth but he’d closed the doo
r before she could speak.

  Frowning, she stood and smoothed her clothes. She’d fallen asleep on top of the covers, fully dressed after their fight. Nivian’s night had been filled with constant tossing and turning and now her body ached.

  She gathered her cloak, held it in her arms against her chest, and walked out to the kitchen. While she waited, she absentmindedly smoothed the wrinkles of her tank top.

  “Come on, we need to get to the hangar,” Kain said as he walked into the room pulling a jacket on. He grabbed the keys on the kitchen counter and walked to the door. The ride down in the elevator was silent. Nivian tried to think of something to break it, but everything seemed shallow and like an obvious attempt at avoiding the conversation they needed to finish. She wasn’t ready to finish it; she still didn’t know what to say.

  The drive there was just as quiet. Not even the radio was on to provide some semblance of normalcy. Things didn’t improve as they walked through the tunnels of Hunter Corp. Fortunately, Azira was waiting at the entrance to an offshoot halfway to the lab.

  “Hey guys! We’re over here today.” She waved them over and they followed silently. After a few moments that might as well have been a lifetime, Azira cleared her throat. “So, uh… did you two sleep well?”

  “As well as could be expected,” Kain answered.

  Azira glanced sideways at them, but didn’t comment.

  The path to the meeting room was faster than the one to the lab. Nivian looked around, noticing that there wasn’t much to it. A few bookshelves with what she assumed were reference books, and a round bin that held several rolled up maps. In the back of the room, Jack sat at a plain metal desk typing away on a computer, glancing up when they entered the room.

  “It’s about time you two got here. I sent Az out to see if you got lost.”

  “Sorry, my watch must be off,” Kain said, rubbing the back of his neck.

  Nivian took a seat at the large table in the center of the room, and folded and unfolded her hands. Azira joined her, setting several large books in front of them.

  “Is everything all right, Nivi?” she whispered so the two men couldn’t hear.

  Nivian nodded, but her gaze remained locked on Kain.

  “Well, if you ever want to talk about it, I’m available,” Azira offered.

  “Thank you,” Nivian whispered, not making eye contact.

  Azira just pat her arm, then stood. “If you boys are ready, I’d like to get this meeting going. If we can be out of here within the hour, that would be great. We have a lot to do and no idea where to begin.”

  Once everyone was settled, Jack emptied a black bag. “I brought a few things to make it easier for us.” Three communicator watches and three objects that looked like T-screens about the size of a palm clattered onto the table with a circular object about the size of a Reaper’s watch.

  Nivian eyed over the items and sat back, letting her eyes travel around the room while she tried to hide her disappointment in being left out.

  “Jack, there’s only three of each,” Azira pointed out.

  “I know,” he said as if she were missing something.

  Kain glanced at Nivian who was doing her best to ignore the fact that everyone’s attention was on her.

  “There are four of us,” Azira insisted.

  “There are three of us and a Reaper,” he said coolly.

  “Jack!” she snapped. “Nivian needs a T-port and Com-watch, too.”

  Nivian sank down in her chair wishing she could disappear. She’d never felt more out of place. It had been naive to think that just because he’d volunteered, that everything would be smooth.

  “We are supposed to be working as a team, if you can’t handle that then you don’t need to come. We need people who are willing to work together. We aren’t going to risk this mission over stupid misconceptions.”

  Jack ground his teeth and for a moment, Nivian thought that he was going to storm out. “Fine, I’m sorry. I’ll grab another set on our way out. It will only take a minute.”

  “Thank you,” Azira said then grabbed a book off the stack and started flipping through the pages.

  “It’s fine,” Nivian muttered. “I don’t need them, I can transport at any time as long as I have my cloak.”

  “No, it’s not fine. It doesn’t matter if you can, we are supposed to be a team, and I won’t have him acting like that.” Azira smiled kindly.

  “What’s this one?” Nivian asked, trying to break the tension as she pointed to the singular disk object.

  “That’s a locating compass; it seeks out the strongest vibrations of our type of energy.” Kain explained, but he didn’t look up at her.

  “So where do we start?” Jack asked.

  “The Isola Di Vita,” Nivian said matter-of-factly.

  Jack’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “It was Yeva’s Island,” she explained.

  “You never said anything about Yeva being involved,” he spoke sharply.

  “It’s okay, Jack.” Kain placed a stack of maps down on the table. “Nivian is right. It makes sense. It was the last place anyone saw Silas or Yeva. It should be the first place we look, then we can spread out from there if necessary.”

  “Well, we aren’t certain if she’s involved or not. There’s no way to tell. Not much could keep Silas from his duties, and he would never abandon them. So Yeva being involved is a possibility I don’t think we should rule out just yet,” Nivian added.

  She couldn’t help but notice that Kain had used her full name rather than the nickname he’d insisted on using since they officially met. The hurt he felt was palpable and she just wished there was an easy fix. She hated seeing him hurt.

  “Then why not search elsewhere?” Jack asked. “Silas trapped her in the mountain once, why don’t we look there first?”

  “Jack, what’s the problem?” Kain asked. “Why are you upset?”

  “I’m not. I just think we shouldn’t be narrow minded about where to look.”

  “Right now, it’s our best lead. His energy was felt in that direction—”

  Jack’s face had gone sheet white. “You can trace each other’s energies?”

  “Not really, a few Reapers can. But either way, I was told to start there, and I think it’s a good idea. We only have a limited time to find him. And with Silas and Yeva’s history, I wouldn’t put anything past them. Even if she’s not involved, I still think it’s the best starting point for us. We can go to the mountain after if we don’t find anything.”

  Jack watched her for a moment before giving her a quick nod and sorting through the pile of maps looking for something specific.

  Within the hour, they had their plan set. They would comb the island starting at the landing area and working their way through to the cave, looking for a sign of either ancient. They’d agreed that since Silas was last seen taking Yeva away, that there was a good possibility they were together now.

  “All right,” Azira stood and clapped her hands together. “We all meet at the entrance in one hour. That should give us time to pack.”

  “Nivian,” Jack asked. “May I speak to you for a moment?”

  Azira and Kain both looked at each other and then at Nivian with a curious glance. Nivian shrugged. She wasn’t certain what it was about any more than they were.

  “Sure,” she said.

  Azira gathered her things and walked out with Kain following close behind. She frowned, he would usually wait for her, but this time he didn’t even hesitate.

  “I’m sorry about how I’ve been acting,” Jack started once they were alone. “I’ve been a jerk and there’s no excuse. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “Of course,” Nivian said smiling. He made her a little uneasy, but it was most likely because she didn’t know him well enough yet. She stood, readying herself to leave.

  “Wait,” Jack called. “Don’t forget your com-watch and T-port.”

  “But, I thought…”

  “Don’t worry a
bout it, I need to stop by the lab anyway, I’ll grab mine when I’m there.”

  “Thank you,” she said, picking them up off the table. She hesitated a moment, but turned and rushed out the door to catch up with Kain, only to bump into him instead.

  “Kain, I thought you left.”

  “I promised to protect you.” The words were what she’d expected from him, but the tone was flat and emotionless.

  Nivian swallowed a lump that formed in her throat. She wasn’t sure if she was touched or hurt. Was he only waiting because of a promise he made?

  Without another word, Kain turned and walked down the corridor. She waited a beat before following behind.

  TWENTY-THREE

  SILAS

  SILAS SAT PERFECTLY still, cross-legged on the packed dirt floor directly under the dais that held the Sands of Time. The area he had to roam around in wasn’t even big enough for him to lie down and stretch out. So he had alternated between sitting and standing for the past several weeks. A shield of energy from the sacred sands penetrated the earth giving Yeva the perfect place to keep him. She could pass freely through the light, but he was a creature of night, unable to pass through the barrier of her powers.

  The room was shrouded in shadows and darkness, only the light of his prison walls allowed him to see anything, though it did not extend to the full size of the room, creating a feeling of a void stretching out to eternity.

  He’d foolishly thought the Sands a myth. But not only did they stop him from passing through, they stopped his energy from being visible to Caspian and all Reapers’ energies from reaching him.

  Yeva came once every few days to speak with him. Every time, it was the same conversation. Both making demands of the other, neither giving in.

  In the beginning, Silas had tried to pass through the shield but to no avail. It had succeeded in draining his powers forcing him to sit uncomfortably on the ground. It had been during that time he’d seen a small waver in the energy.

  When he’d recovered his strength, he felt it out, exploring its power. The area had been weak. Day by day, Silas widened the crack. It was slow work, but it was his only chance of getting out. He’d been missing for weeks and Caspian would be looking for him by now. A few days ago, he managed to feel his second in command. It was brief and took all of his concentration.