Chapter Twenty-Nine
AURELIA
Morning comes too soon.
I’m lured awake by the flap of a bird’s wings, and when I open my eyes, I see one flying around inside the cave.
It chirps emphatically and then swoops low over the slab before circling the back of the cave and then flying over to one of the stalagmites and perching on top with another chirp.
I’m still watching it and listening to the storm outside when I feel the hair on my nape rise.
This time I don’t question my instinct. I leap from the slab and whirl around in one move.
Bane is crouching on his haunches in the shadows, and the only part of him that moves is his eyes as he tracks my retreat. His forearms are resting on his strong thighs as if he’s been keeping vigil like that all night.
“Bane, what the fuck?”
“Mine awake.” Rising to his full height, he runs and leaps from the slab, landing right in front of me. I stumble back, fall, and land on my ass. Bane crouches again and then prowls forward on his hands until his body covers mine while I’m left trembling on the rocky cave floor. “Mine safe.”
“I would really like to t-talk to Zeke or Seth now.”
Bane makes a rough sound that sounds like frustration. “Mine scared.”
“Yes, Bane. You scare me.”
His frown deepens, but he looks tortured more than angry. “Safe with Bane.”
Realizing I’m getting nowhere with him, I suck in a resolving breath meant to give me courage and then I place my hand on his cheek.
“I don’t feel very safe right now,” I say as I caress the rough stubble gathering there.
“And that’s not your fault. It’s mine. I shouldn’t have left the cabin.
I know that now, so can you help me out? Please?”
Bane tilts his head closer, and I force myself not to make a sound even though he can probably hear my heart pounding.
For an insane moment I wonder if he’s going to kiss me, but then he stops just short of his split lip touching mine and then he inhales and a rumbling sound vibrates from his chest. “Not safe…at cabin. We stay.”
I don’t even realize my hand is moving until I feel the soft, damp strands of his dark hair slipping through my fingers.
It’s shorter now that Zeke is awake. Bane practically purrs when I dig the pads of my fingers into his scalp, but I pause when I feel something warm and more viscous than simple rain.
When I pull back my hand, I see red coating my fingers and I gasp.
Bane surprisingly lets me sit up, and even more surprisingly, lets me touch him as I practically crawl into his lap to inspect his head for the wound.
It’s impossible to forget that it’s Bane though, so when I feel his hands circle my waist, I suck in a fearful breath and force myself to keep going.
I let him explore me while I search his hair.
He seems particularly fascinated with my belly button as he pushes a thumb inside.
I finally find the source of the blood near the back of his skull, but I can’t see more than that, so I stand and limp over to the mouth of the cave.
My feet are fucked. I don’t think about it as I let the rain soak the hem of my shirt.
“Ah!” I yelp when I turn back to find Bane standing over me like a shadow. “Bane,” I say, exhaling his name wearily with a hand over my heart. “What are you doing?”
He’s frowning now, and oddly, it scares me less than the stillness. “Mine can’t leave.”
“I’m not leaving you.” I punctuate my promise by tentatively claiming his hand and walking him back over to the slab.
“I need you to sit down,” I say, and to my surprise, he lowers himself onto the slab without taking his gaze from me.
My teeth dig into my bottom lip as I move between his legs, and then I stretch a corner of my long loose shirt toward the cut on his head, dabbing away at the blood until I can see the wound.
Thankfully, the cut is small and isn’t serious.
But it is one more reason we need to get back to the cabin. We’re both injured, lost, and unarmed. Although, it just occurred to me that I might be the only one lost.
“Bane?” He doesn’t respond, but I know he’s listening. “Do you know where we are?” I let go of my now-bloodied shirt but keep my hand on his shoulder. His muscles are relaxed, telling me he’s not coiled to strike when I least expect it. I just wish I could convince my anxious mind of that.
“Safe.”
“Yes. But where is safe?”
“Cave.”
“Bane,” I force through gritted teeth.
“Mine?”
“Yes,” I say with a defeated sigh. “Yours.” At least until I figure out how to get back to Khalil and Thorin and wake Zeke up.
God, Thorin… I hope he’s okay. “If we’re going to stay here,” I say to Bane, who is watching me like he knows my thoughts betray him, “we need to find food. We need to hunt.”
I glance at the mouth of the cave and see that the rain has slowed, so I kneel in front of Bane who doesn’t move and pull up his mud-stained pant leg before retrieving the hunting knife sheathed inside his boot and stand again.
I’m not so good with knives yet, but I’m sure it’s on Thorin’s survival syllabus.
Would he be proud of me now? It’s been a day since the river and I’m still alive, though much of that is thanks to Bane.
Knife in hand, I ignore the pain from the bottoms of my bare feet as I walk over the damp rock and soil toward the cave entrance.
I don’t hear Bane follow, but I know he does.
What he doesn’t do is stop me when I step outside and into the rain. He just follows silently like a protective shadow while I make my way down the path. I don’t look back because I’m a coward.
The air outside is damp, unlike the cave, but not as much as it would have been if we were on the windward side of Maia.
Just like before, I find the gap in the mountain face and squeeze through it until I’m standing inside the dense forest, being soaked.
I stop to wait for Bane who has a harder time than I do since he’s larger and his shoulders are broader.
His bare chest and back are wedged between the walls as he scoots sideways.
When he’s finally free, the skin on his chest is scraped, the olive tones blooming red but Bane doesn’t seem to notice or give me the chance to fuss over him as he walks past me, taking the lead.
“If we’re safe here, why hasn’t Zeke woken up yet?” I ask Bane just because his silence makes me nervous. It’s impossible to tell what he’s thinking, and I want to know more than I want my next breath.
“I sleep, Mine leave.”
Fuck. So much for staying calm and waiting him out. Bane already knows that once he goes, I’ll take Zeke and head straight back to the cabin.
He’s cunning. I hadn’t expected that. Mostly because the others only ever warned me about how dangerous he is. They’ve never seen this side of him, but all it makes me wonder is, why me? What makes me different? Why doesn’t he want to kill me?
“Do you still want to hurt Khalil and Thorin?”
“Yes.”
Thorin once told me that Seth and Bane are how Zeke sorts and deals with his emotions. What if… My stomach sinks and I run forward to cut off Bane, grabbing his arms like a bitch with a death wish. “Does Zeke want to hurt Khalil and Thor?”
Bane’s eyes remain woefully blank, but he gives his emotions away in the flexing of his arm muscles trapped beneath my palm and the slight growl in his voice when he answers, “Everyone.”
Zeke wants to hurt everyone.
“Then why haven’t you killed me yet?” I challenge.
Bane’s expression darkens before he moves me out of the way and keeps going.
I don’t follow, and he doesn’t look back.
The rain has slowed to a drizzle, but I hardly notice it as I watch the drops fall into a puddle near my feet.
I can see my reflection inside and I don’t realize I’m falling to my knees to get a closer look until I feel the cold mud sinking between my fingers.
The first thing I notice isn’t the sticks and leaves stuck in my hair or the scrapes and bruises.
It’s the absence of fear in my eyes.
Of course, the image isn’t a perfect reflection, so it might just be all in my head, but I still remember vividly what it felt like after the plane crash when I was lost out here the first time.
I could barely eat whatever Tyler managed to find, could barely sleep, and feared death every second that Tyler pushed us to survive.
Right now, I’m just deeply annoyed that my boyfriend’s alternate identity dragged me off to some cave like we’re cosplaying in some raunchy horror. I need to figure him the fuck out, and I can’t do it kneeling in a goddamn puddle, so I rise.
Bane isn’t lurking like I expected when I look around, so I start off in the direction he disappeared, looking for sticks that I can use to make a snare as I go, but I don’t find him.
I do find a deer though, and it’s browsing for food like I am.
The doe’s head is bent as it sniffs at an acorn.
I reach for an arrow out of instinct only to remember that they were lost to the river.
All I have is Zeke’s knife, but I’d have to get close…
I keep my steps light. The wet ground helps to keep them silent. My position isn’t great since I’m in the doe’s direct line of sight. I’m also upwind, but the petrichor is heavy in the air, creating a scent mask. Still, if the doe lifts her head, I’m fucked.
I’m carefully reaching for Zeke’s knife when I see a shadow move beyond the deer.
My gaze flicks toward it to make sure it isn’t another predator creeping up on my kill, and I see Bane, still shirtless with his dark hair plastered to his head.
He’s stalking the doe too, but unlike me, his focus is intent on his prey while I can’t help but watch him and wonder…
What the hell is he doing?
I have Zeke’s knife. Bane has no weapon.