We began traveling over the bloody field back to the cave’s entrance, both of us moving slowly, but I couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder at the individual. “You’re positive it’s a he?”
“He approached once when I was younger, and then fled back to the mountains.” Leric paused, thoughtful. “He’s…silver.”
“Silver?”
“Yes.”
“How long has he been here?”
“Ever since I can remember.”
“He’s biding his time.”
“Yes.”
We went silent then, trekking through the bloody grounds.
I didn’t want to speak. Leric didn’t appear to, either.
My mind churning at the pure evilness there had been in the world, now gone. On this one day. Something which happened sometimes twice a week. Or more, Leric had stated. The depth of…darkness…that had existed within those now dead…earth shattering.
No, I couldn’t speak anymore. All I wanted was quiet. Peace and love and fucking sunshine quiet. Climbing the walls of the cave side-by-side with Leric, I concentrated on my task, the black rock slippery under my hands as it dug into them, slicing them…but it only helped fuel me on, the bite of pain a reminder I was still alive, any of my previous injuries healing rapidly on the battlefield, my use of powers making me heal quickly as the powerful being I was should.
Eventually, Leric shouted, “It’s us. Back away.”
I hadn’t even realized we were near the top, the area still pitch black except for our glowing eyes, our bodies glow dimmed by the blood we wore like gruesome paint. I lifted a hand from the darkness, and instantly felt grass under my palm as my wrist curled over the edge of the doorway, my fingers gripping down into the earth. When my head dipped out of the darkness, I squinted into the late afternoon light, realizing we had been gone for a very long time. Some of the Guardians had blood on them, the few we hadn’t taken down with us as we had fallen through the gateway between here and the Barren having tried and failed to get past them.
“Caro?” King Collins shouted from my right. “Caro?” I heard a shuffling sound as Leric and I continued dragging our tired bodies from the pits of what I would forever consider my own hell. “Let me through, dammit, or I will fucking hurt you!”
“I’m fine, King Collins,” I called loudly, but I knew it was a lie, my tone and voice, still dead.
“That’s a whopper if I ever heard one,” Queen Ruckler muttered lightly, also, off to my right, but her tone was like ice. “Jack, let’s give her a second.”
“She’s injured, goddammit!” King Collins growled. “No one bleeds that much and isn’t.”
“The majority of that isn’t her blood,” King Zeller stated, his voice cool and calm. “Just give her a moment.”
“They’ve been down there a long time, Jack.” Queen Cooper’s British accent didn’t grate on me as bad as it normally did as she continued. “Anyone would need a moment to recuperate after that long of a fight.”
“Thank you,” I muttered breathlessly, meaning it wholeheartedly, lifting and slamming the door shut, it turning back to black, instantly disappearing.
Leric and I flopped onto our backs onto the soft grass, breathing heavily of clean air, our exhausted bodies coated in dried blood, reeking of evil deaths.
He cursed quietly, staring up into the sky as I was, then muttered in my mind, “I’m going to pretend for now I don’t see him.” And, he shut his eyes. “I’ve had enough killing for one day.”
I stared up where Elder Merrick was sitting in the tree, but on a different limb now, one over—one that probably had a better view past the guards, eating a damn sandwich and sipping from a Coke calmly, gazing down on us mutely, face expressionless. I met his navy blue gaze with my own dead, cold one. Most would have flinched by what they saw in my gaze, turned and fled, or possibly just fainted. But, no. Not him. Instead, he only held my gaze evenly while taking a bored bite of his—what looked like—bologna sandwich. I blinked slowly, then started chuckling quietly, a completely inappropriate response for what I was going through right now, but it just seemed so damn serene watching him eat and drink casually while he held my death filled, tormented gaze.
“Hush.” Leric bumped my side with his slack hand, eyes still closed. “There’s birds singing in the distance.”
I huffed one more chuckle, watching how Elder Merrick lifted the can of Coke, taking a decent swig to wash down his large bite, and then I closed my eyes…and listened with Leric to the birds sing.
Eating dinner that night, I could tell others were trying overly hard to keep the conversations light. Airy. Free of any troubles. But all I really heard were their tones to give me this indication as I stared out a darkened window across from me, imagining it was sunny and I could see the picturesque landscape. My thoughts, and mind, were still in turmoil. Leric had recovered much faster than me, but I felt no shame for my longer recovery time. He had been doing this for a very long time.
I had not.
He continued to try to push his own tranquility down our bond, but I only barked at him through our personal line of communication to stop. This was something I needed to feel. It was something I needed to get used to. I needed to learn how to fucking deal with it without help, or else, I was screwed if he died before me, since this was a lifetime gig.
I didn’t even fear dying down there when I was ancient and decrepit because we had our powers, but I could seriously see myself going insane if I couldn’t get a grip on this, so many dark memories playing throughout my mind.
I breathed shallow, my hands beginning to tremble the barest bit, and I quickly placed them under the table on my lap where Isolde sat, curled up, damn near catatonic. “Fine,” I whispered in my mind, “Give me a hint.” Two…was better than one…sometimes, he had insisted. “How did you get through your first time?”
He took a long moment to reply where he sat next to Roselle, where I stared between them out the window. “Chess.” I saw him eat a bit of his roll from the corner of my eye. “I like playing chess. And I played it for two days straight worrying my mother to no end. But it kept my mind off it.”
I blinked slowly. “I don’t know how to play any games for…fun.” I hadn’t had a lot of that growing up. My “fun” games were ones of survival. “What else?”
“I’m going to remedy that injustice. Everyone should learn how to play chess.” His fingers tapped on the table. “But in the meantime…why don’t you and Sin ride the dirt bikes?”
My breath caught, my gaze flying to his silver ones. “Thank you.” I was instantly standing, tugging on Sin’s arm, holding Isolde in the other. “Let’s go for a ride.”
The table went quiet at my abrupt movement, and pronouncement, but Sin only wiped his mouth off calmly, placing his napkin on the table. “Sounds perfect, love.” He stood, taking my free hand in his strong familiar one, leading me down the long table and out of the room. And we went riding, even though I couldn’t concentrate well enough to drive one myself, so I sat on the back while Sin drove us on a hard, extended course, but…my mind lifted the barest bit in the evening breeze and bumps of the natural good fun.
Later that evening, I was in my favorite cozy Elemental living room curled up on the loveseat after managing to remember through the chaos of my settling mind from the bike ride that I adored the happy-happy, gushy black and white flicks. I couldn’t sleep, having attempted that, and snuck away from my room, managing to ditch my guards after going in a bathroom one way, and exiting through the other door. Sin was asleep, fully oblivious I had slipped away, and I nibbled on a fingernail, getting settled in when I heard the door open, close, and lock.
I didn’t bother looking. “Not now, Cain.”
“How easily my name rolls off your tongue when we’re alone,” he stated quietly, but his voice was still void as it had been all day. “How did you know it was me?”
“Forests before a rainfall,” I muttered, resting my head against the arm of the loveseat, hearing him move closer…only because he was walking heavily, as if he didn’t want to frighten me.