He’s quiet for a couple of beats, which is ironically like nails on a chalkboard. “It’s part of the gig, C. But don’t worry. I won’t let them get you, even if they figure a way in.”
Part of the GIG? Being with me, his fricking Connection, is PART OF THE GIG? I don’t even know what to say to him, I’m so pissed off.
And hurt. I chuck a small rock from nearby as hard as I can, imagining it’s his head. Thanks to the Elders, though, I can’t even hear it hit the ground.
“Why are you so angry all of a sudden?” And the kicker is, he actually has the audacity to sound bewildered.
I pick up another rock and lob it towards him, glaring as fiercely as I can. He doesn’t bother dodging it because, even in anger, I aim it just a couple of inches away from his knees. And this only pisses me off more, knowing that he knows I wouldn’t hit him.
Maybe I ought to bean him just to prove a point. Leave a nice bruise on his leg, which will probably fade faster than the one he just delivered to my heart.
I’m a mission. That’s all I am to him: a stinking mission that’s part of the gig.
I let another rock fly; this time he does dodge my shot before leaping to his feet. “What the hell!?”
Something unwanted clogs my throat. “Since you have no phone, can you at least get through to Jonah? So somebody knows where the hell we are?”
He takes a couple of tentative steps towards where I’m sitting. “I already did while you were sleeping. He’s got a general idea of where we are, but he’s on a completely different plane right now. I’m not sure if . . .”
His pause tricks me into looking up at him. Bastard. “If?”
“Some of the Elders have tracked his group down, too.”
My mind has trouble unwrapping these words into something I can understand. “Meaning?”
“He’s in a similar situation, C. And although he knows about us, there’s not much he can do about it right now. Not until things are calm on his end.”
Can this day get any worse? “Are you saying he’s trapped in a cave, too?”
“Not a cave, no.”
I lurch to my feet. Worst-case scenario, here I come after all. “Where then?!”
It’s bad enough when he says, “Does it really matter, since there’s nothing we can do?” What makes it worse is how bloody calm he manages to sound while doing so. I very nearly blow a fuse.
My teeth grind together. “Tell me.”
A little bit of his edge comes out. “Fine. He’s in a dungeon.” When my eyes threaten to pop out of their sockets, he clarifies, “Not as a prisoner, mind you. It was the easiest place for the team to defend.”
Jonah. Is in. A DUNGEON. I’m just about to destroy the wall I’d so carefully reinforced hours before when Kellan blocks my path. “Calm down. There’s absolutely nothing you can do about Jonah right now.”
“Wanna bet? I can blast us out of here so we can go get—”
Kellan’s eyes unfocus as he cuts me off. “Quiet, will you? Jonah wants to tell you something.” Then he’s no longer really paying me much attention. He’s listening to his brother, instead. “Chloe . . . Please don’t worry about me right now . . . I’m okay, I swear . . . I’m far more worried about . . . what’s going on with you and my brother . . .there.” Kellan rolls his eyes, but continues, “Promise me you’ll stay safe. It’s hard enough . . . knowing that you’re under attack, but . . . it would ease my mind some if I knew you and Kellan were . . . not taking unnecessary risks.”
I stare at Kellan like he’s a Hydra. They’ve never communicated like this to me before. It’s unsettling, at the very least, to hear Jonah’s words delivered via Kellan’s voice.
“Fine,” I tell them both.
Kellan turns away and is silent for a long time, no doubt talking to his brother. The flashlight clicks over and over again. The fire in me extinguishes and is replaced with a sickening sense of dread: I’m in a cave, trapped. So is Kellan. Jonah is in a dungeon, trapped.
We are all trapped and under attack by beings that want us dead.
The Elders never let up. If I’d thought my nerves were raw before, that was nothing compared to the shreds I’m left with now.
I ask Kellan for perhaps the fiftieth time how long he thinks we’ve been in here. Once more, he patiently endures my question before estimating a proper answer.
Why this is annoying is beyond me. Or why it nearly enrages me when Caleb suggests asking him to keep track of time rather than Kellan, considering he’s actually not in the cave and in company of numerous time-telling devices.
If only Caleb was able to tell somebody where I am, or where Jonah is. But Consciences are never allowed to speak of their charges. Which is normally great, but now? Highly inconvenient.