Chapter 31 #2
I whisper Fredrich’s name, afraid he’s already too deep into his slumber to wake, but his responding harrumph lets me know I’ve caught him just in time.
“How did you know about the tea?”
He takes a deep breath as if he’s finding the energy to answer. “It’s an old Maile practice to give soldiers the tea when they return home from war.” I hear more than see him tilt his head in my direction. “Cold?”
“No.”
He huffs. “It’s just in your nature to lie, isn’t it?”
There’s no sense in complaining about something I can’t change. Unless … “Are you able to shield us from the cold?” I ask with a smidgen of hope.
I can hear the grin in his voice. “Unfortunately, I have a difficult time with shielding againt natural elements. The weather doesn’t inherently pose an imminent threat.”
Great.
I do my best to make peace with the long night ahead and my miserable existence and close my eyes.
Only for them to shoot wide open when Fredrich wraps an arm around my waist and drags me toward him.
I’m so taken aback that I freeze up. But then he rolls onto his other side, giving me his back, and while I want to refuse his offering, I’d be only hurting myself out of stubbornness.
Shuffling toward his heat, I remind myself once again that this is all temporary.
All suffering ends, one way or another.
The wind picks up, and though it sends a draft of wind through the gaps in the tent’s material, I’m grateful for the noise.
It drowns out everything, including my thoughts.
Soon enough, the cold doesn’t feel as punishing.
Almost invigorating, in fact. Kind of like jumping into the ocean during early spring, when the bite of the water offers a reprieve from the burning sun.
Come here.
I wipe the water from my eyes, spinning toward Kai’s voice. He’s over by the lone tree that stands on the outskirts of the grove, the one that we liked to climb as children. I recognize the memory; it’s from less than a year before we visited the Market.
A smile stretches across his face before he disappears under the water.
I swim the distance to the tree and duck underneath the surface to find the opening in the trunk, which was hollowed by a lightning strike.
When I resurface inside, Kai’s waiting for me, his hands braced on either side of the small space.
We’re close enough that I can feel his warmth despite the chilly water.
Can you imagine, he says, voice echoing up the tree’s hollow shaft. One more year and then we’re out of here.
No, I tell him honestly, but I so desperately hope for it to be true.
He reaches out, running a fingertip over my collarbone. We’ll find a way, he says, eyes following in the wake of his touch. Just promise me: that even if the prince is there waiting for you, you’ll find a way to take me with you.
I’m very skeptical about the idea of this “lost princess” he claims me to be.
The title doesn’t feel like it could belong to me.
Urchin, however, feels much more fitting, but I don’t bother arguing with him.
Regardless of my possible title or lack thereof, there must be a way to get on land once we’re at the Market.
We go together or not at all, I remind him. I can’t imagine a scenario where I’d ever leave my best friend behind.
Messer yells from above. Are you two coming up or what?
I roll my eyes. Both of my best friends.
Just a second, Kai yells back right before he kisses me.
My heart thunders in my ears as heat spreads through my veins.
I chase the feeling, wrapping my arms around his neck, using his shoulders as leverage to stay above water.
He’s always seeking reassurance, making me promise not to leave him behind, and I don’t know how he could ever believe I’d be capable of doing such a thing.
When he pulls away, the sensation of the kiss still hot on my lips, it’s no longer Kai I’m clinging to … but Acker.
His brows are slanted down in agitation. He’s influencing you, Jovie.
I push away from him as much as I’m able to in the small space, alarmed by his sudden appearance.
He was always using you, he says.
I dip under the water and swim back through the opening in the tree, out into the open ocean.
But when I come up for air, the water is no longer blue, but dark red.
The grove is gone, and I’m standing in a current that’s waist deep.
Lifting my hands, I realize they’re tied together with shackles, the rope threaded between is coated with droplets of blood that glisten like jewels.
When I look up from my bound hands, Acker is standing a ways away.
I’m stunned by the intensity of his gaze.
So much so, I instinctively take a step back, causing a red wake around me.
But as Acker’s eyes continue to hold my own, I realize it’s not anger reflecting back at me …
but fear. He begins to wade through the blood to get to me.
Bodies.
They’re everywhere, floating up from the depths of the viscous liquid, all of them in military garb.
Every insignia of every territory are present within the steadily emerging graveyard.
Bubbles appear right in front of me, a body becoming visible slowly, emerging with a curved saber lodged through the spine.
And as he bobs onto his back, the familiar bone-stricken face of a young man in a Maile uniform comes into view.
I stumble backward, falling, and the last thing I see is Acker’s terrified gaze as he struggles to push through the bodies, yelling something I can’t quite hear.
I scream when I go under, but it’s muffled by the dense blood.
The taste of copper fills my mouth as I struggle, helpless as I sink deeper and I realize … this is it.
This is the end of my suffering.
For a moment, everything goes quiet aside from the beating of my heart. A steady rhythm inside me. That is, until muffled voices penetrate through the viscous liquid.
Wake her!
“Wake her up!” Acker’s yells are muted. “Godsdamnit. Wake her!”
The scream trapped in my throat finally escapes the same moment I awake to Fredrich jerking me by the shoulders.
I suck in a desperate lungful of air as I sit up shakily.
Nausea burns in my throat. Everyone is awake and bleary-eyed as they look at me in the early morning light.
The last thing I need is to add to my humiliation by dry heaving.
“It’s okay,” Fredrich says, hands hovering over my shoulders. “You’re okay. It was just a dream.”
That’s putting it lightly.
I can’t stop my eyes from straying to Acker. Sitting with his knees bent, chest heaving as he cradles his face in his hands.
And, even still, he can’t bear to look at me.