Chapter 18
His Unanswered-Question Graveyard
Noise returned first. Bits of it.
Chirps and twitters flickered into my consciousness until the heat interrupted. It wasn’t as bad as before, not quite as sticky. But I still needed to work my chest muscles to take a full breath.
With an inhale, the scent of black pepper and something green and sharp filled my lungs.
I was lying on something hard.
But my head was on something slightly softer. Thin fabric? A firm cushion?
I was…swaying. Lying down this time, but swaying.
The Tower!
I shot upright.
“Whoa, take it easy.”
Soren reached out for me, but I scrambled back in retreat.
My palms pressed into the wood planks under me as I dragged my ass backward as fast as I could until I couldn’t anymore. My back hit a raised plank, some kind of bench.
I was in a boat. A small rowboat? Actually, more like a massive carved-out log with a few seats added in.
And we were on water.
Soren and I.
Soren and I floating together in a log-boat under the moonlight. On Earth.
I whipped my head from side to side. He was the only other one in the boat. We were drifting down a river, rolling gently through a maze of lush green. It had gotten darker. Or the canopy above had thickened.
“How did we…? What happened to Veda?” My voice trembled along with my hands. “Where are you taking me?”
Soren’s laugh came as just a breath.
“I’m kidnapping you again.”
Why didn’t that scare me more?
He held an oar in one hand, its paddle hovering just above the surface of the water.
His other arm rested on a bent knee. He wore a black T-shirt—a size too small in my opinion.
Come to think of it, this was the first time I’d seen his bare arms. They were veiny and carved with muscle, and destroying my brain cells.
A wadded-up sweatshirt lay near his other knee. Was that what my head had been resting on?
I narrowed my eyes at him, letting my gaze flit around to scan the surroundings but watching him warily.
His frame dwarfed half the boat, so he wasn’t easy to miss.
“The Tower?” I wasn’t even sure what I was asking.
Was it true? Were we really outside The Tower? Was The Tower on Earth? Where the hell was it now?
Because I couldn’t see it even when I dared to turn away from him long enough to search behind me.
Soren shook his head, a hint of amusement lingering in the tilt of his mouth.
“I’m taking you to Chapel.”
“Chapel?”
I glanced over the edge again. The water rippled beneath us, and further off, it broke out into ringlets as little fish (I assumed) leapt to gobble up the insects from the glassy surface.
“Where’s Veda?” I stiffened. “Did you drug me?”
Soren cocked a brow and shook his head. I think he rolled his eyes, but it was hard to tell with the shifting shadows.
“Your imagination is…something else.”
I pursed my lips. Then another sting landed on my arm. I looked down to see a mosquito sucking the life out of me, too amazed by the fact that there was an actual insect on me to bother killing it.
Then a large hand swiped across my arm, and the bug flew off.
“You fainted,” Soren said quietly. Quiet enough for the creak of the boat on the water to compete. Or did it creak because he’d moved closer to me? “Veda went on ahead.”
I pulled my legs in and wrapped my arms around my knees, trying to ball myself up and consume less space in the boat.
The noises had been a blur, but now they grew more distinguishable: chirping and splashing and whistling wind.
There was another question he hadn’t answered, but I couldn’t remember because black, bird-like things swooped down to the surface of the water and then soared away again.
I shivered and stifled a yawn with the back of my hand as I twisted about and craned my neck, squinting into the darkness.
Having adjusted to the sights and sounds, I picked up on the scent of soil, leaves, and something musty mixed with a hint of something sweet—the smells of. ..Earth.
Back in The Tower, noticing scents occurred only with other people. I never would have been able to describe a place’s scent until now.
Now that I was outside The Tower.
I was outside The Tower.
Outside The Tower, on an unfamiliar planet, everything felt surreal and unknown.
Planet Earth.
Holy. Shit.
“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. You’ll be safe with me.”
I jumped slightly at the sound of his voice. The roughness of it yanked my attention back to my kidnapper once more.
Soren reclined against the bench seat behind him. He wasn’t looking at me anymore but out at the world around us.
He motioned with his free hand toward the crumpled sweater.
“You can lie down again if you want.”
I shook my head and pressed my mouth in a line as I used my hands to rub my arms. The air wasn’t cold, but all the hairs on my arms stood up, and I felt a shiver dance down my back.
It was the kind of chill you got after running a 10K and then suddenly stopping.
All the exertion melted away, but your body temperature hadn’t had time to regulate quite yet, so your skin was hot, but your insides were frightfully chilly.
“So…I’m on Earth, right?” I asked with a timidity-soaked voice.
I eyed the sweater, but didn’t move for it. Instead, I widened my eyes to stop my eyelids from drooping.
Soren remained silent as he steered the small vessel toward a branch of water breaking away from the river.
A wide, boring water slide with a minuscule incline welcomed us.
Gravity pulled on our craft, and it was enough for him to drop the oar into the boat and let the current pull us wherever we were going.
I huffed at his silence and readjusted so that I could lean against the side of the boat and look out at the scenery instead of at him.
I must have cut my leg slipping on that bamboo ladder after all, because a sharp sting ripped through my shin and up my thigh.
I winced and breathed through clenched teeth.
“You’re bleeding,” Soren mumbled.
He leaned forward without warning and grabbed my leg to check the long, bloody red cut stretching from my knee to halfway down my calf. A thin trickle of the crimson liquid dripped from the lower tip of the wound, making it look even longer.
How did I not notice that?
I guess there’d been more important things to notice.
Soren reached over the side of the log and scooped up a handful of water. He closed in on me and retook my leg, tightening his grip when I squirmed.
“Hold still,” he warned with a scowl before tilting my knee inward and drizzling the water over the gash.
I hissed at the sting and jerked instinctively.
His hand pressed against the cut. His large fingers wrapped around my leg like it was a twig. Even though his touch was light, I reflexively pulled back, whether from pain or just my personality.
He looked up at me but said nothing.
I didn’t say anything either.
And time waited for both of us, thick and pensive.
When my tongue poked at the inside of my lips, I sucked it back in and looked anywhere but at him.
“Next time I see you licking your damn lips, I’m biting that tongue.”
Heat pooled in all the wrong places.
His hand moved away, and I only shifted my gaze to catch him in my peripheral vision. I watched as he grabbed the bottom hem of his T-shirt and stretched it to pat my leg dry.
I thanked whatever higher power there was that he kept his shirt on. My chest was already too tight.
But when he wrapped his hand around my ankle and lifted my leg, it knocked me off balance in so many ways. I caught myself with my hands before I could fall backward and shot him a glare as I yanked at his hold.
“I’m just trying to check if we need to wrap it or not,” he growled, gripping tight.
Goosebumps broke out across my skin. I pulled again, harder this time.
“It’s okay! I’m fine!”
He let go, but not without a scowl and a head shake.
“Why are you so stubborn?”
“I’m not stubborn,” I bit back. I craned my leg and examined the wound in the moonlight. It was long but thin. Barely a scratch, really. “What’s Chapel?” I asked again, still investigating my injury.
My yawn came too loud and clear when I rubbed my face with both hands.
“You’re tired,” Soren said, always avoiding answers. He shifted slowly so he was leaning back with his head on the edge of the boat, his legs stretching out beside me.
“I’m fine,” I mumbled, twisting to take in more of our surroundings instead of staring at his face. I sighed before finally asking for the umpteenth time. “Why can’t you just answer me? What’s Chapel?”
“It’s where I’m going to keep you safe.” He dipped his chin toward me. “You’ll train there.”
Then he let his head fall back again, eyes closed. With his nose jutting up toward the night sky like that, his jawline somehow sharpened.
I repeated his words in my head.
“It’s where I’m going to keep you safe.”
I focused on making sure my next breath came out steady. He still hadn’t really answered my question. That didn’t explain anything at all.
I looked out at the drifting scenery. I let my eyes close briefly. Then I couldn’t help myself.
“What do you mean by training?” I muttered.
No response.
I turned my head to the side and rested my cheek on my folded arms over my knees. The waves of my hair tickled my flesh as it spilled over my arms.
Soren was still as stone. Even though the boat was tiny, and his massive frame made it impossible for there to be too much space between us, it felt like he was in another universe.
How could he be so calm, considering how different the world was from what I once knew it to be?
What I thought it was just this morning?
A little louder, I asked, “Is that teleport-speed thing you do also a Charism?”
Silence.
“Ugh,” I sat up and shifted to face him. “What am I supposed to be doing as a Daughter of the Scepter?” A heavy blanket of lethargy wrapped around my voice now.
I thought maybe he’d fallen asleep, considering how long he took and how tired I felt.