Enduring Light (14 page)

Nal laughed. “Yes. We call the turtle Scroll.”

 
“A turtle named Scroll… only in Energo.” Liam chuckled.

“What does it say, Charlotte?” Calvin asked.

The words weren’t written in English or in any language I’d ever seen. “I’m not sure yet.” I closed my eyes to clear my head before touching the turtle again.

Complete darkness can only be vanquished with pure light. At the Source, light will prevail as a new one is born again.

“We need to go to Bellgard.” I knew it in every fiber of my body.

“We need to get into the most fortified city in all of Energo, which happens to be the mainstay of our enemy? Great.” Henry shook his head.

“We don’t have a choice.” I thought over the words, terrified by what they meant. It would be a long journey to Bellgard, but I was determined to take advantage of all the time I had with the people I loved. I only wished my family were with me.

Chapter Fifteen

Samantha

I slipped up. I let the circumstances weaken me, and I made a mistake. I was supposed to be awake while Kevin slept, but sleep took me.

Waking up suddenly, I glanced around the car. Everything appeared untouched. Hopefully, my mistake did not cost us more than the emotional toll it had on me. I needed to be more careful. We could not afford any other setbacks.

I had dreamt another dream—the same one—and once again, I didn’t see which man had used the blade. No matter who did the act, why would Monty, Emma’s brother, be part of a plan to kill her Gerard? Nothing about it made sense. The biggest question was
why
I was having the dream. At my core, I knew it was actually a memory, but that also made no sense. I would have had to have been so young. Why would I have been there?

 
I was not one to make more of myself than I should, but did my sudden remembrance of the event have some greater meaning? Being raised in Energo, I had been indoctrinated in the belief that the Source ultimately controlled everything. Did the Source somehow want me to witness that event to help us in our current situation? But then again, the dream didn’t help. I hadn’t figured it out in time. I was either too late, or its use was still before us.

I racked my brain, trying to understand. The likelihood of Monty being a traitor was slim. None of his other actions supported that theory. By all accounts, he had given up any semblance of a normal life to care for his sister’s children. I saw the way he was with Charlotte. He cared for her deeply. He also cared for Kevin, but in a different way that made sense considering their genders. I refused to believe I had missed my chance to serve the Source. There still had to be a way to use the dream to our advantage.

I rummaged through the bags until I found a sweater. The garment was made of a soft material the man at the store had called fleece. I would save the new coat for later.

I tried to open my door, but it wouldn’t budge. Kevin had only cleared the snow from his door, so mine was still coated in a heavy layer of ice and snow. If we were to leave, someone needed to clear the front window. The only way out was over Kevin, and there was not much space. That could not stop me. I kneeled and then put one leg over him. In order to reach the door, I had to straddle him. Sitting on his lap brought blood to my face as I remembered what we had been doing mere hours before. I never imagined I would do such a thing before uniting, but it had happened so naturally. Everything between Kevin and I seemed natural.

Just as I reached for the latch, his eyes fluttered open. “Samantha?”

“Hello.” I decided to make humor of the situation.

He gave me a lazy grin. “Either this is a nightmare or a really good dream.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. The question is whether you’re trying to kill me, or you’re about to take off your shirt.”

I punched him playfully on the arm. “I am actually trying to get out of the car to see if I can clear off the front window.”

He smiled. “Likely story.”
 

I pushed open the door and hopped down into the early morning light. The storm had moved on, and I took that as a good sign.

Kevin followed me out, and together, we cleared off the thick layer of snow. In the light of the morning, I could see the abandoned motel for the first time. The building looked far less appealing than I had imagined. I squinted as the bright sun reflected off the snow. My hands were half frozen when we got back inside the car. We’d left the engine running, and the heat felt good.

Kevin glanced at the dash. “I’m suddenly really glad Dad brought an extra container of gas. I wasn’t thinking when we sat with the car on for so long. At least I remembered to get out and check the exhaust pipe a few times. That would have been a pretty sad way to die.”

“Oh? You know how to add more gas?”

He smiled. “Yeah, I’ve got that difficult skill down.”

***

“Do you want to stop and eat?” Kevin yawned, stretching one arm out to the side.

We had been driving for hours. I would have offered to help, but I had never driven anything motorized. I turned the question back on him. “Are you hungry? We can stop if you are.”

“Where is this side of you coming from? You never worried about me.”

“I just feel useless right now.”

“Useless?”

I touched my seat. “What good am I doing sitting here?”

“You’re very useful. Keeping me company is as an important job as they come.”

“Your humor astounds me.”

He smiled. “I’m glad.”

Twenty minutes later, we reached the outskirts of a small town. The sign was covered in snow, so I did not see the name.
 

“Hopefully, we can find something open here.” He pulled off the larger road.

The streets in the town were worse, and finding parking was difficult with all of the snow. Kevin finally pulled into a spot someone had just left. “Let’s go get something to eat.” He turned off the car and got out.

I followed him. I may have downplayed my hunger in the car, but I was famished.

“Is this okay?” He gestured at a small building. “I don’t know if we’ll find anything else.”

“Sure.”

We walked in and took a seat in a booth in the corner. Descriptions of the meals available were on the table, but I was not quite sure what everything was.

“I’m getting pancakes,” Kevin said. “I bet you’d like them. They’re one of my favorite foods. You can get them with anything: fruit, chocolate chips, nuts, you name it.”

I remembered the yellow fruit that needed to be peeled. “Do they have the fruit I liked at the airport?”

“Bananas? Sure. That’s pretty typical for pancakes. You want those?”

I nodded. “As long as pancakes are as good as you claim.”

“They are.”

A woman came over, and Kevin ordered two coffees and two sets of banana pancakes. I did not voice it, but I wondered if he ordered bananas with his because of me. I liked thinking I may have impacted his decision.

I discovered right away that coffee in the lost world was just like what we had in Energo, only slightly more bitter. Most foods from my home had comparisons in the lost world. I wondered which of Energo’s foods pancakes were like.

Kevin pushed a small container toward me. “You can add cream or sugar.”

“Why would I do that?” I took another small sip.

“I don’t know. You were making a face. Some people like it better that way.”

“I just need to get used to the different taste.”

He smiled. “All right. I was just asking.”

Before long, two heaping plates were placed in front of us. I watched Kevin eat a bite of his first before cutting a piece of mine. The warm, soft dish was perfect. I especially loved the banana. I had expected the fruit on the side. The closest comparison in Energo was a type of pastry we usually reserved for special occasions.
 

Kevin nodded at my empty plate. “Glad you liked it.”

“I would eat that again.”

“Good to know.”

He paid the bill, and we walked back out to the car.

“This is our last stop before we set out on foot, is it not?”

“Yeah. We need to make up lost time. We’re supposed to meet Charlotte in two days.”

“Then I am glad we had pancakes. It will be good motivation to get out alive.”

“Is that a joke?” He held open my door. I wondered if that was the typical gesture of a man in the lost world. Maybe they were more polite than I assumed.

“Yes.”

“Nice. I like it.”

***

“Well, if we’re going to willingly walk into the Alaskan wilderness, at least we’re wearing the right stuff.” Kevin pulled on the hood of his coat.

“Hopefully, these clothes can really protect us down to twenty degrees below freezing as the tag says.” I was not positive if we measured temperature the same way, but I assumed the word freezing was universal. Twenty degrees below that was cold.
 

“I was thinking the same thing about the sleeping bags.”

I adjusted the fancy pack on my back. I had never seen such a thing before, but evidently it was also meant for cold weather. “You packed that old map of Monty’s right?”

“Yes.
 
We should be able to locate the gate to Kenset as soon as we find the Onyx.” Kevin took out a length of rope, attaching one end to him and the other to me. He had come a long way with the survival skills since we had first met. “We need to stay together. The storm’s let up, but it’s going to be rough.”

I nodded. “I understand.”

My new boots kept my feet warm and dry as we moved through the snow. The wind picked up the farther we moved from the car, and I was grateful for the surprisingly warm clothing. I had never seen materials that could be so warm even though they were thin.

Kevin took the lead, and I stayed close. We did our best to follow the coordinates, but as the storm picked up again, I did not know how far we could make it. My body ached, and the cold seemed to magnify my exhaustion. I followed Kevin almost blindly as the storm swirled around us.

Hours passed, and I could barely feel my limbs. The cold stung, and even the best clothing could not prevent the deep chill from penetrating my bones. For the first time, I started to doubt our mission. Could we really fight the cold long enough to find the Onyx? What if Kevin’s father was wrong about the location? We could not afford to wander around this terrain. We were already spending too much time in the elements.

My body fell forward, and I stopped just before I reached the edge of a deep crevice. Kevin was already halfway down. The only thing keeping him from falling farther was me, and I was barely able to hold his weight. My heart beat a mile a minute. I summoned every ounce of strength I had and pulled. At first, the effort was useless. Any movement up was followed by him slipping back down, but finally, his head peeked out from the white ground. His expression of pain and fear was all I needed to muster greater strength. I pulled again, and combined with the momentum of his own frantic efforts, we were able to pull the rest of his body up.

“You saved me.” The words spilled through his blue lips, and all I wanted to do was kiss him.