Jeb rolled his eyes at the way they’d tethered themselves to me to avoid expulsion, and then turned his back on us.
“Thanks, Jeb,” Kyle said.
“Shut the hell up, Kyle. Just keep your fat mouth shut. I’m dead serious about shooting you, you worthless maggot.”
There was a weak whimper from behind Kyle.
“Okay, Jeb. But could you save the death threats till we’re alone? She’s terrified enough. You remember how that kind of stuff freaks Wanda out.” Kyle smiled at me—I felt shock cross my face in reaction—and then he turned to the girl hiding behind him with the gentlest expression I’d ever seen on his face. “See, Sunny? This is Wanda, the one I told you about. She’ll help us—she won’t let anyone hurt you, just like me.”
The girl—or was she a woman? She was tiny, but there was a subtle curviness to her shape that suggested more maturity than her size—stared at me, her eyes huge with fright. Kyle put his arms around her waist, and she let him pull her into his side. She clung there, as if he were an anchor, her pillar of safety.
“Kyle’s right.” Never thought I’d say that. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. Your name is Sunny?” I asked softly.
The woman’s eyes flashed up to Kyle’s face.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to be afraid of Wanda. She’s just like you.” He turned to me. “Her real name is longer—something about ice.”
“Sunlight Passing Through the Ice,” she whispered to me.
I saw Jeb’s eyes brighten with his unquenchable curiosity.
“She doesn’t mind being called just Sunny, though. She said it was fine,” Kyle assured me.
Sunny nodded. Her eyes flickered from my face to Kyle’s and back again. The other men were totally silent and totally motionless. The little circle of calm soothed her a bit, I could see. She must have been able to feel the change in the atmosphere. There was no hostility toward her, none at all.
“I was a Bear, too, Sunny,” I told her, trying to make her feel just a little more comfortable. “They called me Lives in the Stars, then. Wanderer, here.”
“Lives in the Stars,” she whispered, her eyes somehow, impossibly, getting wider. “Rides the Beast.”
I suppressed a groan. “You lived in the second crystal city, I guess.”
“Yes. I heard the story so many times…”
“Did you like being a Bear, Sunny?” I asked quickly. I didn’t really want to get into my history right now. “Were you happy there?”
Her face crumpled at my questions; her eyes locked onto Kyle’s face and filled with tears.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized at once, looking to Kyle, too, for an explanation.
He patted her arm. “Don’t be afraid. You won’t be hurt. I promised.”
I could barely hear her answering whisper. “But I like it here. I want to stay.”
Her words brought a thick lump to my throat.
“I know, Sunny. I know.” Kyle put his hand on the back of her head and, in a gesture so tender it made my eyes smart, held her face against his chest.
Jeb cleared his throat, and Sunny started and cringed. It was easy to imagine the frayed state her nerves must be in. Souls were not designed to handle violence and terror.
I remembered long ago when Jared had interrogated me; he’d asked if I was like other souls. I was not, nor was the other soul they’d dealt with, my Seeker. Sunny, however, seemed to embody the essence of my gentle, timid species; we were powerful only in great numbers.
“Sorry, Sunny,” Jeb said. “Didn’t mean to scare you, there. Maybe we ought to get out of here, though.” His eyes swept around the cave, where a few people lingered by the exits, gawking at us. He stared hard at Reid and Lucina, and they ducked down the corridor toward the kitchen. “Probably ought to git along to Doc,” Jeb continued with a sigh, giving the frightened little woman a wistful glance. I guessed he was sad to be missing out on new stories.
“Right,” Kyle said. He kept his arm firmly around Sunny’s tiny waist and pulled her with him toward the southern tunnel.
I followed right behind, towing the others who still adhered to me.
Jeb paused, and we all stopped with him. He jabbed the butt of his gun into Jamie’s hip.
“Ain’t you got school, kid?”
“Aw, Uncle Jeb, please? Please? I don’t want to miss —”
“Get your behind to class.”
Jamie turned his hurt eyes on me, but Jeb was absolutely right. This was nothing I wanted Jamie to see. I shook my head at him.
“Could you get Trudy on your way?” I asked. “Doc needs her.”
Jamie’s shoulders slumped, and he pulled his hand out of mine. Jared’s slid down from my wrist to take its place.
“I miss everything,” Jamie moaned as he turned back the other way.
“Thanks, Jeb,” I whispered when Jamie was out of hearing.
“Yep.”
The long tunnel seemed blacker than before because I could feel the fear radiating from the woman ahead of me.