Chapter 2
River
I was wandering.
Wandering was easy. It was fun, sometimes, but mostly it was easy. It got me away so I didn’t have to be around them, and sometimes I found some cool stuff.
I actually liked the new compound. The last one was so cold, I could see my breath even inside the cabin. That place had sucked, and thankfully she’d had enough, so he’d moved us.
I wasn’t sure where we were currently. The Pacific Northwest, maybe? I think we were still in the States at least. I hadn’t learned much about geography before I was snatched.
I froze, my eyes darting warily from side to side.
It was quiet. Birds still sang. Bugs still chirped.
I was safe this time, but I needed to be careful with those thoughts.
That could’ve been a disaster if I were closer to the compound.
For now, they thought I was completely under the spell.
I needed to keep it that way until I got bigger and could fight my way out.
I came to a meadow, and a small smile actually crossed my face when I saw some wildflowers. It wasn’t too cold for flowers, here.
I sat down on a log, still smiling like an idiot. These flowers were pretty. Light blue, dark blue. Three petals up, three petals down. I liked them. I ran my hands over the tops, smiling wider as a few bees buzzed around my palm.
This was…nice.
I actually felt…happy.
I picked a few flowers.
I’d never done that before. Flowers were for girls. Maybe–
No. I was not picking these for her.
These…were for me. I’d put them in a little cup in my room. Maybe then I could smile more. I smiled just at the idea. I hadn’t used my earth affinity in a long time. Maybe I could start by keeping these alive.
I walked back to the new compound, feeling lighter. Jones opened the front gate for me, nodding respectfully. He creeped me out, but the last time someone creeped me out, they’d disappeared, so I kept those thoughts to myself.
I was almost home when Landon came running up to me.
“Hey!” He grinned. “Your new place is huge! When can I come check it out?”
I chewed my thumb, looking at the new lodge.
It was pretty big. The last place had been way too small, and when I’d freaked out, he promised he’d get me my own space.
“I don’t know, the broad will probably be pretty crazy today. New place and all.”
Landon’s face fell. His mom was also crazy, so he understood my situation pretty well. Well, as well as a kid could, anyway. He understood a lot of things about me, actually. I was starting to think we’d be best friends even if he wasn’t the only other kid around here.
“That sucks, man.” Landon fell into step beside me, eyeing the flowers in my hands. “Irises? Where’d you find those?”
“Woods,” I said with a shrug. “I like ‘em.”
“Cute,” Landon said sarcastically, but he was still grinning. “Lana likes flowers. Blue is her favorite color.” He raised his eyebrows up and down, and it took everything in me not to make a face.
I did not like Lana. She was a few years younger than him and she followed us everywhere. It was annoying.
I didn’t reply, but Landon didn’t care. He went on blabbing like I wasn’t silent next to him. A while later, his psycho mom finally called him back, giving me a huge smile that didn’t fit her face.
I didn’t smile back, like always, then turned to go inside the new lodge. It was nice here. I had my own room with a bathroom attached. We even had a chef now, so I could order whatever I wanted to eat.
I’d just put my new flowers into a cup on my bathroom vanity when she showed up.
She didn’t knock, because there was no such thing as privacy for me. Everything had to be open and available to them.
My room. My bathroom. My closet. My thoughts.
She was alone, so I allowed myself to wonder if she’d always been this crazy, or if something had happened to make her this way.
“There you are,” she said brightly. “Where have you been, baby blue?”
I cringed at the nickname. It had always rubbed me the wrong way, though I wasn’t sure why. “I just went for a walk.” I stalked past her, breathing easier when I saw the flowers on the counter through the bathroom door.
Her smile was brittle, but she recovered quickly. “Find anything cool? You know, there’s bears in these woods. Isn’t that exciting?”
I blinked at her.
I didn’t care about bears. I wasn’t five.
“I’ll be leaving tomorrow,” she went on, and I barely contained my spike of excitement. She was always going on trips to I-didn’t-know-where to do I-didn’t-care-what. “I don’t know for how long,” she went on. “Maybe you and I can hang out when I get back. We can watch that movie you like.”
Oh, my God.
I’d watched this stupid movie with fast cars one time, and ever since then she thought that was the only movie I liked. I’d seen all ten movies at this point, because she never listened when I told her I didn’t care for them.
“Or we could do something else?” She sounded hopeful.
I shrugged, thinking about what I wanted to eat. Maybe a grilled cheese? We were close-ish to the beach. Maybe there was seafood here. I hadn’t had shrimp in a while.
“What– are those?!” She choked out suddenly, her voice high-pitched and shrill.
I spun around to find her green eyes locked onto the cup of flowers in the bathroom.
“I don’t know,” I lied, even though Landon had told me what they were called. “They’re pretty. I like them.”
She whirled around, her eyes wild. “Get rid of them,” she hissed.
My jaw dropped.
I didn’t own anything. I never had any boxes to unpack when we came to a new compound except my medicine, which was usually moved for me by the Healers. I had no personal items, no small little trinkets I could pack up when the time came to move again.
Those flowers were the first thing I ever decided to have for myself, and she wanted me to get rid of them?
Anger washed down my spine.
I was sick of this place. Sick of being told what to do. Sick of my medicine. Sick of every part of my life being controlled.
I raised my chin defiantly.
“No.”
I stared hard at the curtains hanging over my window.
I’d been awake for a few hours now, not trusting myself to go back to sleep out of fear that someone would see my dreams. Avery hadn’t gone into my mind while I slept in years, but his blatant distrust in me at the Palace had put me on edge, and if he saw me having nightmares of things that’d happened years ago…
I pulled the blanket over my head, hoping I would suffocate.
I didn’t.
I got up.
Reluctantly.
I stared at my face in the mirror, wondering if my blue eyes were actually dull or if I was just imagining it. Hard to know what was real or not real in this place. My dark hair was getting long, but I didn’t care. I finger-combed it until it seemed like I’d done something to it.
A dull throb at the back of my skull was bothering me, but as I stared at the bottle of pills on my counter, I decided…
I really didn’t want to take them. This wasn’t one of my migraines.
It’d been weeks since I’d had one, and I was only aware of that fact because I’d realized right before the gala that I’d been forgetting to take my meds, too.
But I hadn’t had a migraine. Why did I need to take this medicine every day?
Besides, the pain I felt right now was probably just my brain still trying to recover from exploding when I realized Skye was the fucking Phantom–
The speaker on the wall crackled, pulling me from my thoughts. “The Crusader has requested the presence of his Ward.” I glared at it in the mirror’s reflection, then breathed out slowly.
“Fine,” I muttered. “Where is he?”
“In the temple.”
My stomach dropped.
I hadn’t been to the new temple yet, but I knew where it was.
I made my way outside, glad that it was overcast enough to keep the sunlight from blinding me.
My hands itched more and more the closer I got to the temple, a simple brick building that was barely the size of a studio apartment.
There was only the one occupant, though, so it didn’t need to be any bigger.
I practiced my breathing as I approached the old door, borderline hyperventilating as I tried to force my mind to focus on something other than Skye being the fucking Phantom–
The door swung open, startling me and revealing Avery, looking harried. He was out of his usual suit, wearing a simple button-down and slacks, but he still didn’t look as put-together as usual.
Yeah. I’d probably look like shit if I’d just killed one of my best friends, too.
I focused on that. On the anger I felt for Alex’s death. On the guilt I felt for not helping him when he’d asked.
“River,” Avery breathed heavily. “Come in.”
I stepped inside, my skin crawling as the scent of burning candles filled my nose. I squinted into the darkness, my gaze falling to the tiny, pale figure in the corner.
“River, you’ve grown.”
She turned to face me. I stared into the cloudy blue eyes of the Seer, who was supposedly blind but weirdly knew what everyone and everything looked like. She was older than old, with stringy white hair and even whiter skin.
“Ah, you’re having headaches again.”
I scowled as Avery tensed behind me.
This was exactly why I never came to the temple.
At least I wasn’t thinking about…
“What do you want?” I muttered to Avery.
“I have some questions, and it’s time we get some real answers,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “The gala was a disaster. What happened?”
The Seer chuckled, then hunched over even further, dragging her creepy long nails through some candle wax.
“The future is never concrete.”
I snorted.
“That’s not what I need to hear right now,” Avery ground out. “Alex is gone. Why didn’t you tell me he was plotting against me?”
“It is not my purpose to tell you what you want to hear,” the Seer said, then sat back on her haunches. “As far as I knew, Alejandro wasn’t plotting against you. He must’ve made the decision after I saw you. Maybe in the moment. Did something happen?”