Chapter 28 Emery
EMERY
Cameron tries to keep wrapping my leg and ignores my concern for him, but I set my hands on his shoulders.
“Cameron. Look at me.” My frustration bubbles through my words.
He pauses and lets his hands fall to his lap, furrowing his brows.
“I don’t care where I’m bleeding, Em.” His eyes finally meet mine, and every fiber of my being dips into the depths of his soul.
Blood flows from his scarred eye as if he’s crying.
I bring my hand to his cheek and brush my thumb through the stream of red.
He leans into my hand and shuts his eyes.
“I only care about where you’re hurt… Are you alright?
” he murmurs into my palm, pressing a soft kiss there.
He’s already stolen my life, now I fear he’s stolen my heart as well.
I lower myself to my knees and stare up into those dreary sage eyes I’ve come to yearn for. I try to lighten the mood. “I thought you said you were incapable of ca—” He leans forward and kisses the words from my mouth. Every thought I have melts into his soft embrace.
“Not a word of that.” He grins over my lips.
I raise a brow at him. “Not until you apologize.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry a thousand times over, okay?” he murmurs gently over my brow, pressing another kiss to my temple before staggering to his feet. He offers me his hand and I gratefully take it. He blinks a few times to try to clear blood from his eye but it keeps flowing.
“Here.” I use my glove to swipe as much away as I can before pressing a wad of gauze against it. “You’ll need to hold it there.” He obliges. I bite back the concern I want to express to him. It will have to wait until we get back to the bunker. We’re still working against time.
Cameron eyes my limp arm and firms his mouth. “I’ll have to set that before we start our ascension back up,” he says reluctantly. I knew it was coming. I’ve had to have my shoulder set before, and it never gets less awful.
I nod and look the other way, bringing my sleeve to my mouth to bite down on.
Cameron secures my arm in the position necessary.
“Ready?” he asks. I give him another sharp nod, and he pops it back into place without hesitation.
I groan into my sleeve and take a few deep breaths before facing him again.
“That fucking hurt.”
He grins sympathetically. “Well, if you didn’t go falling off a mountain.” He chuckles. “We should get going, we’re running short on time.”
My head is spinning and my entire body hurts. I don’t want to worry him more than he already is, so I do my best to walk by his side. He lets me use his arm for support as we slowly make our way to the incline.
I glance up the mountainside and my heart drops. It’s so steep that it’s a miracle we’re both walking. The green light of the beacon glows and flashes steadily against the dark sky.
“How much time do we have left?” I ask, limping and looking for my rifle.
It might even be broken if I fell on it at any point during my fall.
I press my palm to my forehead and sigh, everything is so fuzzy.
I remember going over the edge and then waking up to Cameron staring down at me and holding me tenderly.
My cheeks flush at the thought. I’m glad it’s cold out here and we’re covered in blood so that Cameron won’t notice.
He looks up at the sky as if he can tell the time by the stars. “I’d say an hour at the most. Can you climb?” His eyes draw back down to me and I firmly nod. A skeptical look dawns over his features, and he shakes his head with a smirk. “Come on, love, hop on.”
He lowers himself onto a knee. The gesture strikes my heart. Didn’t he proclaim at the end of the first trial that he’d never carry me like this? I smother a smile.
“I can do this,” I say lightly. He needs to keep his energy. I walk right by him.
Cameron catches my wrist, forcing my gaze back at him, and I find his eyes are nothing short of pleading.
I give in rather easily.
He carries me on his back as he zigzags on the least steep portions of the mountainside.
God, and I thought only Montana had big-ass mountains like this.
I take a deep breath and scent the pines mixed with Cameron’s earthy tones.
The fresh air mingles them together brilliantly.
It’s hard not to focus on his corded muscles moving between my thighs as he effortlessly carries me.
I rest my head on his shoulder and listen to his breaths. “Hey, Cam.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think what Nolan said about earning our cards out of the Dark Forces is true?” I trace a small circle on his vest.
He thinks for a moment. “Yeah, of course, why would he lie about that?”
Cameron’s been a part of the Dark Forces for so long and he’s not super motivated to be free of it, given that he’s so proud of being their lab rat, so I only nod at his trust in his superiors.
“It just seems odd that no one has earned them yet, that’s all.” I have an inkling that there’s more to it, but I’ll just have to wait until I’m actually on a squad before worrying too much about it. I might not even make it out of the trials.
My entire body is on fire, my shoulder throbs ruthlessly, and my leg is fucked. It’s going to take weeks for that gash to heal properly, and I don’t have that kind of time to heal. I’ll have to splint it when we get back and take a lot of pain meds.
I’m not numb like Cameron is. The third trial might be where it ends for me.
“Cam,” I murmur again.
He tilts his head against mine gently. “Em?”
“Thank you for coming for me.”
He only makes an acknowledging grunt, but he brushes his thumb over my ankle adoringly.
The rest of our squad isn’t at the summit where we last saw them, so we decide to press onward to the beacon. They couldn’t have gone anywhere else but there, surely. If they aren’t there by the time the trial is concluded, we’re goners.
I stare indifferently at the dead cadets at the top of the ridge. Their blood creates a small stream that drains toward the cliffside where I fell. Good riddance. I dismiss the fact that they were only trying to survive like we are.
Cameron was right; the Under Trials make you cold to the horrors around you. The things we’ll do just to take another breath are tragic.
I don’t want to die. I want to be free.
We limp together, and after five minutes we reach the green light. Three other squads are standing in their own separate groups. Only two or three of them are standing in each team, the remaining squadmates are dead and have been carried here.
I blow out a relieved breath when I spot Bree, Damian, and Bryce. They look just as relieved to see us.
“I swear to God you two are fucking immortal,” Damian mutters as he gives me a huge bear hug and clasps his hand on my back. Bree smiles sweetly at me and takes her turn, embracing me after I peel Damian off.
Cameron sets his face back to stone and keeps his arms firmly crossed, holding appearances, I figure.
Bryce nods at both of us. “Not many people fall off a mountain and are able to walk back up it.” He sounds genuinely happy that we’re here. I cast a glance at Cameron and see that he still looks full of doubt when it comes to our poison-loving comrade.
“You make it sound like it was easy,” I say flatly as I look over who the other survivors are.
Everyone has their masks pulled down and are chatting freely, ignoring the dead members at their feet like they were nothing.
Would I be the same way if I hadn’t befriended them?
I would like to think that I wouldn’t be.
The three of them have grown on me, and Cameron is literally an extension of me at this point.
Two large men speak in low whispers and only look our way when they notice me watching.
Wraith and Arnold. Why am I not surprised that those two, out of everyone, made it into the third trial?
They’re entirely covered in dried blood, and all their comrades are dead.
I recognize the giant lying still on the ground; he was fighting Cameron before I was sent tumbling down the hill.
The end of a combat handle is barely visible at the bottom of his jaw.
I’d wince at the sight, but I’m too impressed to let it affect me.
“I can’t believe they’re going to be in the third inning,” Bree jokes. I wonder if she played baseball in her life before this. She certainly has the calloused hands for it.
“I figured they’d be endgame,” Bryce retorts, shifting on his feet and rubbing debris from his glasses with the lining of his sleeve.
Cameron snorts. “What gave them away? Their efforts to keep their squadmates safe?” His tone is thick with sarcasm.
I take the moment for what it is, the five of us being the only full squad to make it to the end of the trial.
That has to count for something, doesn’t it?
It makes my chest swell with pride. Maybe being in the Dark Forces and on a squad won’t be so bad.
In a weird way, it feels more like home than my house ever did.
The sound of a Black Hawk drills through the sky toward us.
The beacon point is an elevated platform of stone and has plenty of space for it to land.
We wait patiently as it descends. I’m shocked that Wraith doesn’t try anything, but he’s probably just as exhausted as we are after a few days out in the forest.
Adams steps out of the helicopter and gives us all a good once-over.
We look like shit. We know. Get us the fuck out of here.
I credit my grumpy attitude to the wound in my calf and all the aching parts of my body from the fall.
I’m already dreading looking at myself in the mirror when we get back, but the hot shower will be well worth it.
“Congratulations, Cadets, you’ve made it to the final trial,” Adams says with a sinister grin as he continues to eye us.
There are probably a million insane thoughts flittering through that man’s head right now.
Does he come up with the trials, or are they predetermined?
He certainly has me questioning it. “Come on then, let’s get back to the bunker. ”
A few of the other squads look down at their dead teammates at their feet.
“Leave them, we’ll dispose of them,” the drill sergeant shouts over the helicopter blades.
The ride back to the bunker takes a quarter of the time it took to get here. The scent of iron fills the small space, even with all the airflow that the open door allows in. I stare down at my red hands and wonder how many people I’ll wash away in the next hour. I feel nothing.
As Cam said, it was me or them.