Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Adeline
“It doesn’t get used anymore. Honestly, I should probably pull it down. You probably think we are savages, but we aren’t. We can be civilized,” Maverick says, coming up behind me.
I nod before hearing Eli’s angry voice.
“Addie!” he growls before marching over to me and grabbing my arm.
I notice a few people doing god knows what at this early hour. They stop and stare before ducking their heads and running off at his anger.
“Hey,” I tell him softly, wondering why he is so angry.
“Why are you out here?” he says, dragging me by my arm back toward the stone cottage. He is moving so fast that I have to jog to keep up with him.
“Eli, calm down. She was just using the bathroom,” Maverick says behind me as he follows after his son.
Eli turns sharply before ripping me behind him and growling viciously at his father.
“Stay out of it, old man. You know not to come near her. Don’t make me warn you again,” Eli warns him, and I feel a shiver run down my spine due to the pure rage pouring out of him. Maverick’s eyes dart to me. He goes to say something but then nods.
“You should probably go inside, Addie. It is still chilly out here anyway,” Maverick says to me, and Eli growls before tugging me after him.
Eli slams the door after him, shoving me back inside the house. The noise makes Emery jump up, alert, looking for danger before she relaxes, exhaling loudly.
“Oh, just you two,” she says, running her fingers through her short hair.
Eli pushes me toward the bedroom, and Emery looks at him funny.
“Everything okay, Addie?” she asks, looking at me in panic, making me look over my shoulder to see Eli’s canines are protruding. His claws slip from his fingertips.
“Get in the room,” Eli says, making my heart race at his tone.
I rush off to the room. Eli is following after me, the floorboards creaking under his feet. Cyrus walks into me as I open the door, his hands grabbing me before he knocks me backward. He lets me go, and I rush into the room. Eli smashes the door into the wall as he comes in after me.
“I told you, you weren’t to go anywhere without us, and I found you with the very person I specifically told you to stay away from,” Eli screams at me. His chest is rising and falling heavily.
Cyrus grabs his arm. “Calm down, Eli. What’s got into you?” Cyrus asks him, only Eli shoves him, making him stumble into the dresser before Cyrus grips his arm.
“No, get out. You hate this place. I get it, Eli. But don’t take it out on Addie,” Cyrus yells at him.
Eli growls, his body trembling, and I can see he is about to shift in his rage.
“Get out!” Cyrus tells him firmly before pushing him toward the door.
Eli glares at me before turning and walking out the door and slamming it. Cyrus lets out a breath before turning to look at me.
“He doesn’t mean it, Addie. This place just brings the worst out in him,” Cyrus says before grabbing the blanket and tossing it over my shoulders.
“But I didn’t do anything,” I tell him.
“You can’t wander off out here. This place is not like home, Addie. It is dangerous. Where did you go?” he asks.
“To the bathroom, and I looked around out the front on my way back in. Maverick was with me.”
Cyrus exhales. “He will calm down after a few days. This place has him on edge, just do things his way until then. Eli has no good memories of this place. It is hard for him knowing you are in the only place that scares him.”
I say nothing. I knew it would be different out here, but I didn’t think I would be on such a tight leash.
“You’re not a prisoner. Don’t think like that, Addie. He will calm down once he realizes nothing happens,” Cyrus says before hopping up. “Come on. You should eat.”
Walking into the living room, Emery stretches her arms above her head, yawning. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” she mutters.
“If you can call that a bed,” Cyrus replies, and she chuckles.
“Hey, could be worse. I will never forget the feel of a straw-stuffed mattress. It makes me itchy just thinking about it,” she says.
Cyrus chuckles before rummaging around in the tiny kitchen. “Yes, bloody itchy things, but hay was better than sleeping in the stables next to the pigs.”
“Argh, yes. Oh, how the times have changed.”
“Indeed,” Cyrus says, smiling at her.
“Would it kill your father to own a toaster?” Cyrus says, pulling out some weird-looking fork thing. “Can’t say I have used one of these in a while.”
“Dad made some bread while you were asleep. And jam.” Emery points to the end of the bench. “Always hated that thing.”
I look at her, wondering what she is talking about. She lifts her dress, revealing her thigh, the burn matching that of the thing Cyrus is holding.
“Used to be mom’s favorite branding iron,” Emery says before pulling her dress down.
I watch Cyrus cuts the bread before putting it on the prongs. He then holds it over the fire, and I realize what it is for.
“Don’t you do this, Addie. The handle has fallen off. The metal gets quite hot,” Cyrus tells me, and I nod.
“We can head into town. There is a small town two hours’ run inland,” Emery tells him.
“Will see what Eli says. I don’t want to aggravate him. I doubt he will let me take Addie with me.” Cyrus blows on the bread when a piece catches fire. He turns it between his fingers.
“I will talk to Eli. Addie can stay with him. At least then we can grab some things and run back,” Emery tells him.
“Sounds like an idea. Will you be alright with Eli?” Cyrus asks, turning to look at me.
I nod, not that I have a choice, but I know he won’t hurt me, not intentionally at least.
The front door opens, and Eli walks in. He appears calmer when I realize he has blood on his hands.
“What happened?” Emery asks.
“Porter just running his mouth,” Eli tells her.
“I take it he won’t be back chatting again,” Emery says.
“Not if he wants to keep his tongue.”
Cyrus hands me the toasted bread with jam on it. I sniff it, never having eaten homemade bread before.
“Give the old man one thing. He makes the best bread,” Eli says, nodding to it.
I take a bite and find it tastes nice; it is thick. Even toasted, it is soft, the butter melting all through it with chunky bits of strawberry from the jam he’s made.
“When you’re done eating, I want to take you somewhere,” Eli says.
I nod when Emery turns to him, making her own toast.
“Cyrus and I are going to run into town to grab some things.”
Eli nods to her. “Be back before dark and grab a sat phone. We may be able to get reception out here. I am sure Addie wants to talk to her mother,” Eli tells them, and they both nod.
After breakfast, Cyrus and Emery get dressed and leave, leaving me alone with an on-edge Eli.
His behavior is almost manic; the slightest movement I make does not go unnoticed by him.
He is always watching like he is expecting someone to jump out any moment and assassinate me.
Maverick keeps his distance and doesn’t come into the house all day, nor do I leave except to go to the toilet.
Even then, Eli is waiting outside the door.
He is making me claustrophobic and suffocating me.
I want to leave the room. If I had known it was going to be like this, I would have taken my chances with Sam in the city.
I am literally twiddling my thumbs staring at the wall because there is nothing to do—no TV, no books, absolutely nothing, and it is driving me crazy with boredom.
Shifting on the bed, Eli’s eyes fly open from where he is sitting on the wooden chair by the door.
He looks at me before closing his eyes again and leaning his head against the wall.
Cyrus says I am not a prisoner, but I sure as hell feel like one, not only locked in a room, but he is guarding the door.
“Can we go for a walk or something?” I ask.
Eli sighs, sitting up and leaning his elbows on his knees. He says nothing, just runs his fingers through his hair. He has barely said anything all day.
“Didn’t you want to go somewhere this morning?” I ask him.
“Where do you want to go then?”
“Anywhere but this room. It’s been hours, Eli.”
“Come on then,” he says, holding his hand out to me, and I excitedly jump up.
I grab his hand, and he jerks me toward him, his other hand going to my hair as he makes me look up at him.
“You stay by my side,” he says, and I nod.
I will agree to anything if it means getting out of this dusty room. He kisses my forehead before pulling away and opening the door. He grabs a shirt and pulls it on. He then pulls a holstered knife with a strap on it; he lifts my pant leg up before tightening the strap and securing it.
“Just in case,” he says, pulling my pant leg down.
He kisses my thigh before standing up and grabbing my hand.
Walking outside, the sun is high in the sky, lighting up the village.
Being surrounded by trees keeps the place pretty shaded except at this time of the day when it is pretty high in the sky.
“Want to go swimming?” he asks me.
I look up at him. “I have no bathing suit.”
“You won’t need it,” he says before tugging me around the back of the house and toward the tree line.
I stop, and so does he, looking back at me.
“It’s not far. Do you want to go out or not?” he asks, and I look back at the house before nodding.
Surrounding the small village are grain fields.
I can see people working in them with baskets.
Eli continues to tug me along before we come across rows and rows of solar panels explaining how the pack gets power out there.
Just past the solar panels is the tree line, the dark, ominous forest that gives me the creeps.
It is the middle of the day and not a speck of sunlight penetrates through the high trees, leaving it just as dark of a day as it is at night.
However, I can see outlines of the trees instead of just darkness.