Chapter 29
“Of myself. For myself. I fear what this might mean for us.”
They ate quietly until there was nothing left but crumbs. Alexys did her best to ignore Nic’s existence despite the distinct lack of elbow room. She made a mental note to never sit on his left side again. The left-handed menace knocked into her arm every time she tried to take a bite.
When Opal was satisfied with the amount they’d eaten, she sat back in her seat and waved a hand at Alexys. “Go on, then,” she said. “Tell us how you survived.”
Alexys hesitated, but Opal’s pointed gaze told her she wasn’t going to budge.
So, Alexys told them everything. Tracking with the compass app (of course Nic chided her for not using a proper compass), stumbling upon Waylan, the horrible journey to his forgotten house and the way his eyes changed as he chased her through the woods.
When she got to the part where Silas saved her, she hesitated once more.
Mistaking her silence for the end of the story, Opal leaned back in her chair and said, “Well, I have to hand it to you, I’m impressed you made it back.
Few do.” She levelled Alexys with an apathetic stare.
“Your Warden, for example.” Alexys frowned.
She didn’t need the reminder that she’d effectively failed in her mission, been sidetracked by a seemingly innocent child, and ran like hell the first chance she had.
Nic cleared his throat beside her. He looked at Alexys with a mix of disbelief and, she suspected, frustration.
He suspected she was leaving something out.
She hadn’t found her way back to Opal’s all on her own, and he knew it.
Not with a ghost chasing her, no proper equipment and no sense of direction.
Nic didn’t know her very well, but he certainly knew her better than that.
Alexys waited for Nic to call her bluff, but he didn’t. Instead, he asked, “You went into those woods with nothing but your cell phone and a few Entity basics? You didn’t think, oh, I don’t know, to arm yourself with something you could use to defend yourself?”
“What’s it to you?” she snapped. “I didn’t have any other choice! I had to get out there and search for Elliot.”
“You did have a choice, but you chose to leave me behind.”
His words stung. Opal gave her a look, and heat bloomed across her cheeks.
“It’s hard to believe you managed without any help.” Nic sounded so doubtful it actually hurt her feelings. It would’ve been nice if he’d had at least a little faith in her. “And how on earth did you outrun a vengeful spirit in its own haunting grounds?”
Alexys thought to explain Silas’s intervention, but a painful chill crept up her fingers, and the words became trapped in her chest.
“I don’t recall seeing you out there,” Alexys retorted.
Nic paled. “Well …” he started.
“There was a small creek,” Alexys interjected.
She stretched her fingers under the table and tried to scrub the cold away against the rough denim of her jeans then shot Nic an icy glare.
God the man her made so angry! “He wasn’t able to cross it, so he eventually stopped chasing me.
By that point, I was so lost it took what was left of the daylight for me to find my way back. ”
Technically, not a lie.
Nic was a persistent thorn in her side, and she didn’t want to tell him about Silas.
It was bad enough he already knew that Elliot was missing, but it was another thing entirely to admit that a potentially dangerous creature (whatever he was, and he was something, Alexys just didn’t know what yet) like Silas was latched on to her.
Nic would report it, her case with Zach would be exposed, and she’d be firmly up shit creek without a paddle.
She’d probably be fired, and her whole life would be ripped out from under her.
“A grief-stricken Haint, ostensibly trapped in an endless loop of existence, suddenly decided you weren’t worth the chase. Didn’t even bother to find a way around the water?”
He looked to Opal for some sort of support, but the witch merely shrugged.
“Seen stranger things, boy.” She took the dishes to the sink and left Alexys alone under Nic’s scrutiny.
He glanced between Alexys, the kitchen window, and Opal. As his thoughts spun, she watched his eyebrows slowly begin to crease until she was convinced they were trying to merge into one very frustrated unibrow. When he met her gaze again, his eyes were full of accusation.
Trying to beat him to the punch, Alexys hissed, “Do you have something you want to share with the class?”
“I just don’t understand,” he said with a too-casual shrug.
“You have absolutely no field training. Surviving a malevolent spirit by simply running through the woods and crossing something too small to be considered a body of water? That isn’t enough to escape even the most banal of spirits.
Any experienced Warden could tell you that. ”
Alexys grabbed her napkin, balled it up in her fist, and threw it into Nic’s face.
Opal’s protests were drowned out by Nic’s shouts of offense, followed by her own uncontrollable tirade.
She had put up with so much from Nic, one insulting situation after another, but for him to infer that she was incompetent? That hit a nerve.
A final nerve.
The last biscuit from dinner was heaved from the comfort of its basket and into the furious face of her arch-nemesis.
Crumbs exploded across the kitchen table.
Alexys’s satisfaction was, however, short-lived.
Her triumphant smile barely had enough time to cross her lips before her lap was drenched with room-temperature tea.
The cloying smell of honey and milk merely added insult to injury, soaking into the fabric, mingling with dirt and sweat.
Nic looked at her with the oddest combination of mortification and amusement, an overturned, empty mug lying beside his damned left hand. “Oops?”
For a moment, Alexys thought her rage would finally boil over. She didn’t have the chance to find out.
Nic and Alexys were hefted out of their chairs by a firm grip on their ears.
“I have never in all my life seen such a pair of ungrateful, childish—No! You are children, and you’ll be treated like ’em until you learn yourself some proper manners!
” Opal dragged them from the kitchen and all but tossed them out onto the porch.
She wagged a crooked, angry finger at them, her face a twisted scowl.
“The pair of you need to sort yourselves out before I do it for you!”
She stormed back into the house and let the door slam shut behind her.
Alexys didn’t bother looking at Nic. She was embarrassed at her own behavior, especially as a guest in someone else’s home. She dusted herself off as best as she could and stalked off to one end of the porch. Her muscles protested as she sank down onto the weathered floor.
She really needed a shower.
Neither of them apologized. They sat at opposite ends in petulant silence.
Alexys pulled out her cell phone to check for service and sighed when there was still none to be found. She shoved the phone back into her pocket and stared out at the darkness, barely lit by moonlight.
After several tense moments, Nic said hesitantly, “I’m assuming you didn’t find any trace of Elliot then?”
She shook her head. A sort of resigned desperation settled over her.
It felt like worry for him was buzzing under her skin, begging her to go find him, but her track record was holding her back.
She really was out of her depth. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she shoved her hands against her eyes to hold them at bay.
“We can try again,” Nic said quietly. “You don’t have to give up hope.”
Alexys snorted. We. They weren’t doing anything of the sort. He was stupid enough to not go home, but that didn’t make him her responsibility or her problem. Even if, deep down, she did want him there; she did need his help. She wouldn’t admit it.
Nic sighed loudly. “I know you don’t want me here.”
“Understatement of the century,” she growled.
Why did this man have such an effect on her?
“There’s still every chance we can locate him.
” He joined her on the other side of the porch, a good foot of space between them.
“You have all the necessary information about Elliot and how Wardens operate. I have the information on what creatures might try to eat us and how to avoid an untimely demise. Let me help you so all three of us can return home in one piece.”
Alexys was too exhausted to argue. She rolled her eyes. “Ever the man of humility.”
“It’s a gift.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “One of many.”
Another silence lapsed between them while Alexys looked out at the woods.
It was hard to believe she’d been in there only hours earlier.
Now, the kudzu was covered in darkness, difficult to even discern.
Nic was right, of course. She was loath to admit it.
Letting him tag along meant full oversight.
He would share every detail in his report, including her ditching him in Charleston.
What would people make of it? But then again, what other hope did she have of both surviving the woods and finding Elliot in time?
Alexys rarely ever looked into the supernatural creatures her Wardens came across beyond the basic information she needed to assign the cases and complete paperwork.
She focused on the human side of the business almost exclusively and was happy to keep her attention there.
Unfortunately, as Nic was all too eager to point out, that left her virtually blind in the field.
Alexys looked over at Nic to find him already looking at her. His hair had pieces of biscuit in it, and his shirt was smeared with a bit of butter, but his eyes were earnest, and that almost made up for the smell of stale tea clinging to her skin.
She was about to put her faith in a man who had, not five minutes prior, gotten into an honest-to-God food fight with her. And yet, he was somehow her best option.
“Alright,” she said. “Let’s hear this brilliant plan of yours.”