30. Hadriel
Chapter 30
When the alpha and his oblivious main squeeze were finished, Aurelia emerged with a red face, trying to look natural; Weston emerged like it was just another day and he did not care in the least that we’d all been sitting around with our thumbs up our asses, waiting for them. We’d all had lunch and they grabbed a quick bite before we settled back into formation and got under way.
They didn’t say a word about who’d come out the victor, but Aurelia didn’t take one of Granny’s products that night. It wasn’t until the next night that she finished her dinner, gave the alpha a poignant look, and headed toward the tent.
“What am I missing?” Unfortunately, I now sat with the alpha for dinner because she wanted to be near him, and I wanted to be near her. My friend was still ten times more interesting and fun than these yes-men. I loved her more than ever now that she’d basically told the alpha to fuck off. I was not a proud man and could admit I also used her as a shield. “What’s she doing?”
He didn’t comment. Face grim and manner resolute, it became clear that Aurelia had gotten her way. He followed her to the tent.
“Oh, this is a bad idea,” I mumbled to myself, shoving the rest of my dinner in my face and practically throwing my plate at Burt. “A wary wad idea,” I mumbled through a full mouth.
Gazes turned her way and then mine as I hurried after her.
“Tell me she’s not going to do another one.” Nova popped up. “Tell me he is not letting her do another one.”
But it was clear that she was. And he was.
“Hadriel, what is she thinking?” Nova followed me.
“Do I look like a headstrong-woman whisperer to you?” I hissed as I reached the tent. Aurelia was pulling out the various products still in her possession and the alpha was sitting on the cot, watching her quietly.
“Just in case tempers were running high yesterday...” I inched in slowly, the image of her lying on the ground in the mayor’s house—deathly pale, slipping away—haunted me. I don’t think I’d ever felt the panic and helplessness I’d felt when my newest friend and latest charge had barely clung to life. “In case maybe one of us is smitten and not thinking clearly around the other one of us...” The alpha’s stern look had me hesitating. “Are we absolutely sure that this is the best thing to do? Didn’t we rummage through all your half broken and very odd supplies yesterday evening, Aurelia? Didn’t we decide one or two would work well enough for you to analyze the waxy stuff we are now calling petrified troll snot?”
“You’re the only one calling it that.” She picked out the product she wanted and stuck her nail underneath the sticker holding the packaging together.
“Fine, but didn’t we decide that would work?”
“Yes. And it will.” She turned the item over again and studied the fluorescent yellow, pillow-shaped item. “Horrendous. Who is choosing these colors? I wouldn’t eat an actual piece of candy if it looked like this.”
“Right. Then maybe we should?—”
She chucked the thing into her mouth and I issued a high-pitched shriek I didn’t know I was capable of making.
“Fucking shit-warts, what the fuck, Aurelia?” I yelled at her.
“Careful how you speak to my—to her,” the alpha said in a growl that was not nearly as scary as Aurelia having just popped that thing into her mouth.
“Spit it out, my darling! This is crazy!” I nearly ran at her and tried to pry the thing out of her mouth. “Alpha, have some sense. Remember when you dug your fingers into her mouth and tried to pry out—damn it, she’s swallowing. Slap a cock, she’s swallowing! I’m so fucking distraught I can’t even joke about her swallowing!”
“Missed opportunity,” she said, packing away the rest of the products.
“A real fucking missed opportunity, yes. You know how angry it makes me when that happens. Okay, what should we do? How long do we have before we know if you’ll be okay or not?”
She gave me a long-suffering look. “Since when are you as overbearing as he is?” She hooked her thumb at the alpha.
“Since I’ve realized I have way more sense than you do, obviously.” My voice was too high and erratic. “This is dumb. I hate this.”
She rolled her eyes and made her way past me, finding a collection of people waiting outside the tent.
“Good gods,” she muttered, passing them.
“I feel like one of us doesn’t quite remember the near-fatal episode you had with those drugs.” I followed her.
“I took one the day before yesterday and no one was any wiser. It should be out of my system by now. I’ll be fine.”
“Should be? Should be out of your system by now? What if it isn’t?”
“That’s the golden question. We shall see.”
She sat down by the fire next to Tanix and said nothing else; she just watched the flames, and we all watched her. Everyone else hovered close, some worried, some curious, some probably wishing it would kick her into an early grave like they thought she deserved. The alpha settled at her other side, watching the flames with her, and I sat where I could see her face. Nova had the same idea, and I had to shoulder her out of the way.
“I’m better in a crisis,” Nova said to me quietly, both of us watching as Aurelia sat placidly. So far, she was showing no signs of anything happening.
“And look, it’ll be easier for you to get up and sprint for aid. Do we even have the syringe? Is the alpha secretly trying to kill her? I have so many concerns about this. Why do I have so many concerns about this? You’d think I’d be used to horrible risks and terrible decision-making.”
“Not when the risks don’t need to be taken,” Nova murmured.
We all watched quietly, intently, for what felt like an eternity. Her face didn’t so much as twitch, her body completely still.
Eventually she said, in a soft voice, “The sickness has come and passed.” She glanced up at us. The reflection of the fire in her eyes made them look particularly fierce. “It was a little bit worse than the last time, but only marginally. Not enough to cause alarm. The journey has started?—”
“She means the high,” I whispered. “That’s what she says when she is talking about the high.”
“This is the strongest hallucinogen I make, and I am going to let it run its course to see how the troll snot reacts. Will my change in heart rate or body temperature affect it? We shall see.”
“Are you doing this to prove a point?” Tanix asked when she fell silent again.
She didn’t answer for a moment. “I wouldn’t even know what point to prove. What point do you expect me to prove? The idea of points is a very strange one, don’t you think? I wonder if the creator of that word had some sort of hidden agenda. Whatever it was, it wasn’t dull.”
“Why are you sitting next to me, then?”
Aurelia sighed. “Because up until a moment ago, you were quiet and minding your own business. Clearly, I chose the wrong seat.” She breathed out slowly. “You’re altering my journey. I’m just going to run with it. Let’s see what sort of effect you’re having on my subconscious. Oops, there’s a dragon. I do not want to alarm anyone, but it is not pleased with this fire in front of us.”
“I feel slightly guilty for suddenly enjoying myself,” I murmured.
“You won’t enjoy yourself when that dragon stomps on your head to get at that fire. It is jealous as all hell. Of what, I have no idea. It’s just sticks, man! That fire is eating sticks. What, do you think the ground is outdoing you?” She chuckled, shaking her head. “It’s just sticks!”
It became oh-so-clear that Aurelia was not at all as buttoned up as she often seemed. I knew she had a wild streak, and now everyone else got to see it. Watching her navigate her various hallucinations ranked with some of the best entertainment I’d had. Nothing phased her. At one stage she instructed everyone to get low because we were about to be crushed under the weight of a very large tree.
“Not to worry, everyone,” she told us, motioning for us to bend low. “I’ve heard of these types of things happening before. Don’t let the crunch of your bones worry you. Just think like a lake and become liquid. When the tree rolls away, we’ll spring up like wild flowers!”
When I did her product again, it would be with her, there could be no question. I couldn’t wait to go on one of her journeys. It sounded so much better than mine had ever been—much more colorful and original. Her mind was obviously a very interesting place.
Once she finally started to wind down—hours later—only half of us were left, chatting and joking and having a glass of whiskey.
“I’m having some stomach cramps now.” She breathed out slowly, her hands on her stomach.
The alpha had stayed by her side the whole time, shadowing her as she did a variety of weird and wonderful things: a strange sort of dragon-fire dance to scare the invisible beast away; walking in circles without a word; standing on her head to see the world as gravity did not intend. For that, he’d held her feet. She hadn’t been able to do it on her own and she hadn’t been willing to stop trying. His expression had never changed, stoic and serious, even when she said some of the funniest shit I’d ever heard.
“Is it a problem?” he asked now, looping his arm around her when she leaned against him.
“Sometimes this can be a reaction to my product. I thought I’d fixed that, though. Very acidic.” She dropped her hand to his thigh and closed her eyes, her head against his shoulder. “I think it’s fine.”
“Were you sick any other time tonight?”
“Just in the beginning. I fell asleep before the end last time. Maybe it happened and I just didn’t wake up. I can see why someone would endure the sickness for the longer journeys. It’s but a moment and then you’re off. Do it enough, and the addiction sets in. We’ll see how I feel about that tomorrow. I’m wondering how often people have to journey before it gets to be a problem.”
With that, the night wound down, and people began wandering off to ready themselves for bed.
Aurelia didn’t sample any other product after that. Clearly, she and the alpha had established a compromise. Instead, she took to her weird little devices, trying to break down the troll snot to see what it was made of. I often sat with her when she did, listening to her chat about it and feeling miserably unintelligent. When that woman got going, she might as well have been talking another language. She had a fucking gift.
As the days passed and we got closer to the port, our path winding through the wilds, I started to wonder if Finley would ever get to meet her. If she’d ever see any of us again. It was obvious the enemy would be expecting us, and we knew they’d have a well-organized plan to break apart our pack and kidnap the gem in the middle. I knew they’d have no qualms about killing as many of us as they possibly could in the process.