Chapter Seventeen
Despite the fact that sometimes I like to imagine I am the kind of person who gets up early and embraces the day, in practice I tend to embrace it best while I’m asleep.
But when I roll over and try to go back to sleep, I . . . can’t. I’m just too awake. Too aware that something changed yesterday, even if I can’t put my finger on what it was.
The loud snores periodically emanating from the other side of the room aren’t helping. As much as I’m hoping they might be Declan’s, there’s a note in them that’s remarkably similar to Jed’s masked owl call.
I unzip my bag and pull out a change of clothes as quietly as I can, but just as I’m about to zip it up again there’s a rustle of sheets, like someone is turning over. It’s almost enough to make me jump, although I have no idea why – it’s my own bag I’m going through this time.
Against my better judgement, I straighten, my eyes creeping over to Declan and Jed. Declan’s face is obscured by the ladder, and Jed . . . well, there’s something on Jed’s back.
Even after walking on it last night, my ankle feels a lot better. I creep a few steps closer to Jed, my heart beating fast. I’m not sure if it’s a trick of the light, but the hand-sized lump on his back looks a heck of a lot like a spider.
I’m halfway across the room when I realise that’s because it is a spider.
I freeze, trying to decide whether to somehow get the spider off Jed’s back or to leave it in peace and creep out of the cabin to get dressed.
I’m in the middle of reasoning with myself that Jed probably eats spiders for breakfast, when Declan speaks.
‘Are you watching Jed sleep?’
His voice is soft, deep and warm from sleep, and my pulse kicks into triple speed before my head catches up.
I look down to see him watching me, and for a beat it’s impossible to look away.
His hair is mussed, and he shifts slightly in bed, the blanket falling down his chest. My eyes dip automatically, and by the time I manage to swallow and to pull them back up to his face there’s a flash of heat in his green eyes that sends a bolt of warmth through my body, from my ears to my toes.
Something has shifted between us, and it’s almost as terrifying as the hairy thing on Jed’s back.
I swallow. ‘There’s a spider,’ I whisper to Declan out of the corner of my mouth. It’s entirely possible a full whisper might send the spider scampering up into Jed’s hair.
But I’m not accounting for Declan’s reaction, which is that in his hurry to pull his sheets off himself and dive out of bed, he bangs his head on the top bunk and then thumps his feet loudly against the floor.
Unbelievably, Jed still doesn’t wake up, and the spider moves to Jed’s underarm.
Declan stands beside me, turning to look at Jed’s back while apparently recovering his breath. Which I can very clearly see through the rise and fall of his chest, because he definitely isn’t wearing a shirt. I’m pretending not to notice.
‘What the hell was that?’ I ask him quietly instead.
‘I don’t like spiders,’ says Declan hoarsely.
‘You held a snake a few days ago,’ I say, because he did. He carried it into the clearing with Jed, and I swear the two of them were about a heartbeat from naming it.
‘Snakes are beautiful,’ says Declan. ‘Spiders have . . . legs.’
‘You don’t like legs?’
‘I like legs,’ he says, almost defensively. ‘I just think eight is too many.’ His eyes are fixed on Jed’s underarm. Then he sighs. ‘You have to flick it off.’
There’s a pause, and it takes my brain a second to catch up. ‘Sorry, what?’
‘Jed is terrified of spiders,’ says Declan.
‘ Jed is terrified of spiders?’ I say, raising my eyebrows at him.
Declan clears his throat and nods, and my fingers itch with the urge to touch his ruffled hair.
There’s something about the dim light and his hair and his obvious fear of spiders and the fact that he’s just woken up that make the whole situation weirdly intimate.
Get it together, Clarrie. I clear my throat.
‘You sure you’re not projecting?’ I ask him.
‘I definitely am,’ says Declan, his mouth kicking out at one side. ‘But we also talked about it. We decided that if there were any spiders to deal with it was going to have to be your job.’
How does that even come up?
‘We were talking about animals,’ says Declan, in response to the look I give him.
‘And you think that I can do it, despite the fact that I’m the kind of person who just stumbles around in the dark?’
The quote from the interview trips out again before I can stop it. After meeting Tessa and everything else that happened yesterday, my emotions feel too close to the surface.
The quote hovers in the air between us, and I keep my eyes fixed on the spider near Jed’s underarm. I can feel Declan’s gaze on me, and I’m half-expecting, half-hoping he just ignores it, like he did the other times.
‘I’m sorry,’ he says, and his voice is void of any sarcasm. ‘I didn’t think she was going to print that.’
Surprise grips my throat, and I look up to meet his eyes. He holds my gaze, unflinching.
‘But you said it.’ My voice is husky. For some reason, it’s not the printing of it that’s the worst part.
He doesn’t deny it, and I exhale slowly through my nose.
‘I regretted it as soon as it came out,’ says Declan. ‘The situation was . . . complicated. But it’s no excuse, and I’m sorry.’ He hesitates. ‘I’m sorry I accused you of leaking the information about the dedication too.’
‘You don’t think I did that any more?’
‘I’ve seen your face when you’re introduced as the bookseller,’ he says with the ghost of a smile.
I look at him then, and his eyes are fixed on me. The moment beats between us; the words that have haunted me, taken back by the man who said them.
‘Truce?’ whispers Declan.
I inhale, then nod. ‘Truce.’ I clear my throat before the air gets too tight. ‘You decided I would deal with the spiders?’
‘Theoretically,’ says Declan, like he’s relieved to be letting the moment drop as well.
He looks at Jed’s underarm, then at me again.
‘And practically I guess, now that we’re in this situation.
’ He runs a hand through his hair once more.
‘If you don’t like spiders, I guess we can try to work something out together. ’
Even in his whisper he somehow manages to sound genuine, determined and terrified. As though despite having just leapt from bed at the prospect of being close to a spider, he will still find a way to face it.
‘Move,’ I whisper at him, more grumpily than I need to.
‘You’re going to do it?’ he says, a lightning grin transforming his features in my direction for the first time.
‘Go away, Declan.’
He dutifully steps back – as far as he possibly can – but I can see a stupid boyish light in his eyes. I step closer to Jed.
Then I hold my fingers ready in a flick, grit my teeth and send the spider flying somewhere on the other side of the cabin.
Declan jumps and Jed wakes with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed.
‘I’m ready!’ yells Jed.
Then he registers my presence next to his bed. Frowns, as though that’s not the weirdest way he’s ever woken up.
‘Clarence?’
‘Spider,’ I explain to him, and he looks like he’s going to be sick. ‘I flicked it away,’ I tell him.
‘Excellent work.’ Jed nods decisively. ‘Thank you.’
‘I’m going to get dressed outside,’ I tell them both, grabbing Declan’s neatly folded T-shirt off the edge of his bed and throwing it to him. ‘Put a shirt on, Archer.’
As far as exit lines go, it’s a pretty good one, I think.
We’re ready to leave by 7 a.m., surrendering the cabin back to the snakes.
Declan and Jed have done such a thorough job cleaning that there’s no sign we were ever here, no indication that we called this place home for two days. I feel a strange pang of sadness at leaving.
It’s five hours in the car today, driving north to a town called Candon, which is a bit over halfway to the location of the next event – the event itself isn’t until tomorrow night.
Declan is in the driver’s seat, and it’s almost like he took a mental map of the potholes, because the trip out is a lot smoother than the trip in.
When we emerge from tree-lined roads onto the open highway it’s a bit of a shock to the system. I hadn’t realised that I’d grown accustomed to the green and the shade.
We’ve only been on the highway for ten minutes, though, when suddenly, Jed swerves off the road in front of us.
‘What—’ Declan swings the wheel to pull in behind him. We both watch as Jed leaps from the van and runs into the thick bush beside the road.
Declan doesn’t even hesitate. He unclicks his seat belt and pulls open his door.
‘Stay here,’ he says, then strides into the bushes after Jed.
Leaving me alone in the car.