United (The Guardians Book 2) (20 page)

Of course they all stopped walking at once. When sweet little Queenie snapped out instructions, it was time to pay attention.

“I recognize these flowers. Faeries use them in certain kinds of poisons. They usually use it on other faeries so I don't know if it will affect us, but we definitely shouldn't risk it. They're supposedly very deadly. We shouldn't breathe in the pollen.”

“We tread very carefully then,” Zay said. “And we don't stop moving until we're clear of them.”

Gable pouted grumpily. “I take it back.
Everything
here sucks.”

“Fucking faeries,” Hue agreed.

She nodded. “Fucking faeries.”

+++

The further into the rainforest they traveled, the thicker the spray of purple flowers became until all their energy was being spent on avoiding the things. It was a long time, well past nightfall, before they finally left them and were able to make camp – they had all agreed that sleeping amongst the deadly flowers was a decidedly bad idea.

“I am
beat
,” Nicky announced, flopping face down onto the leafy ground without a care. Gable couldn't blame him – it had been a long, long day. Every muscle was aching, her feet were numb and swollen and her body coated in at least ten layers of her own sweat and then another five of grime and dirt.

But despite all that, she would have kept going if not for the others. She was annoyed, disheartened that they'd have to wait another night. Although she'd known it would be unlikely, she'd been so hoping they'd have found the prison compound by now.

So lost in her own thoughts as she set up her one man tent for the night, she didn't even notice Cadby approach her from behind until he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “The energy trail is getting stronger,” he promised her, and she realized he must have overheard her discouraged thoughts. “We're getting closer to Sacha. So close.”

He smiled at her with all the genuine warmth he'd always directed her way. She knew then that he'd never let what had happened, what had been revealed earlier, get between them. It wouldn't ruin their friendship – neither of them would let it. On impulse, she threw her arms around his neck and held on tight, surprising both of them – she wasn't usually a hugger. She let him know silently how grateful she was not to lose him.

After a second, he returned the gesture with equal vigor, understanding her as he always did.

+++

That night the team ate their pitiful dinner in near silence, too exhausted to make idle conversation.

Nicky watched Gable through the flames of the fire, his eyes boring into her meaningfully. She'd been successful in avoiding him the whole day, but she worried he'd try to continue their earlier discussion now they'd settled down for the night. A part of her even suspected he'd try to sneak into her tent.

With this in mind, Gable made a decision as they all bid each other goodnight and disappeared into their tents. When Nicky vanished behind a tree to take a whiz, she crawled out of her tent and – avoiding Hue on first watch – unzipped Queenie's, intending to bunk with her for the night like a coward. It would be a tight fit, but she knew Queenie wouldn't complain. She was way too nice.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” came Zay's grumpy voice in the dark as she re-zipped the opening. She realized too late that she'd gotten the wrong tent. He flicked on a small torch and aimed it at her, his eyes blinking heavily with tiredness. “I was half asleep.”

Oops, her bad. She smiled widely. “I was coming to say hey, obviously. You know, because you're so awesome and stuff.”

“Get out.”

“Okay, fine. I'm avoiding Nicky.”

He lifted his head of curly blond hair from the jacket he'd been using as a pillow, thoroughly unimpressed with her drama. “Do you remember that brilliantly clever line I said two seconds ago? What was it again? Oh yeah, get out. Still stands.”

But it was too late for that. Nicky would return from his toilet break any second and she couldn't chance bumping into him. “Sorry,” she said, not sorry at all. “You'll just have to put up with me. Stop crying like a li'l baby girl bitch and move over, I'm staying whether you like it or not.”

He glared sullenly at her for a moment, clearly weighing up his options, until ultimately he decided he was just too tired to fight with her. Heaving a loud, over dramatic sigh, he shifted over as much as he could in the tiny space. “Fine, but no spooning.”

Trying not to grin
too
smugly, she made herself as comfortable as she could next to him and accepted half of the thin blanket he begrudgingly allowed her.

“You're pissing me off, you know that?” he announced quietly a while later.

Gable had just been in that hazy place between awake and sleeping, but the sound of his voice jolted her into awareness. She blinked slowly, surprised that he wasn't already asleep.

“Really?” she replied through a sleepy yawn. “That's nice.”

“I just mean, I'm trying really hard not to like you after everything. After we were enemies for so long, you know? But I can't help it.”

She grinned. “Just give in to it. I'm too lovable. It's a curse, really.”

“I said like, not love.”

“Give it time.”

“Well it's annoying! I'm trying to hold on to my righteous grudginess. Stop being cool and making it so hard.”

“Ha! You like me.”

“Whatever.” But she could hear the smile in his voice.

“Hey, what's your deal, anyway?” she asked nosily.

“My deal?”

“Yeah. Why aren't you a Tracker? Keeping seems too tame for you.”

He waved a frustrated hand in the air. “It's a long story. Starts with my mum and dad.”

“I'm listening.”

“Really? You want to know all about my past?”

“Sure. Might help me fall asleep,” she teased.

He rolled his head from side to side, cracking his neck. Gable glanced over at him. It was dark in there, but she could see the outline of his face and the shine of his eyes as he stared up at the top of the canvas like it held all the answers in the world. “Mum and dad met in Guardian School,” he started. “Fell in love right away, I guess. Mum was from Canada, he was from England, but they were both training to be Trackers. Dad says they were always competing to be best in the class – that's why he liked her so much, said she had fire.

“But they got careless. Mum got pregnant with me and never got the chance to graduate. She and Dad married and moved to England, then she stayed home with me while he Tracked. I suppose she was happy at first, but she got restless after a while. When I was seven, she reapplied to be Tracker. I didn't understand why I wasn't enough for her.” He shook his head, like he was annoyed at his seven year old self. “So mum and dad spent the next seven years taking turns Tracking while the other stayed home with me, but it was never the same. We were never really a family again. While he was home, Dad taught me to fight – he knew I wanted to be a Tracker just like them. Mum hated it; she wanted me completely sheltered from that life, the bloody hypocrite. But she didn't care enough to stop leaving. And then she was offered the job of Canadian Head Tracker-”

“That's like, the boss of all the Trackers in Canada, right?”

“Yeah. Dad and I begged her not to take it. We knew if she did, that'd be it, she'd never come home.”

“But she took it anyway?”

“Chose it over her marriage and her kid. Dad quit Tracking after that. He didn't want me to grow up with two absent parents, so he applied to be a Keeper instead. The Elders were pissed. He was one of the best Trackers and they didn't want him to quit.”

“
Oh
, so that's why they stuck him in New York City?”

He nodded. “Heading the NYC Guardian Division was a kind of punishment, though they didn't exactly
say
that.”

“So what about you?”

“I went to Guardian School when I was sixteen, set to be a Tracker. Worked my fucking hardest to be the best in my class. But then mum swoops in last minute and uses her power to take me off the Tracking course and switch me to Keeping. No one dared argue with her, not the head of sodding Canada. She said she was keeping me safe,” he spat. “That was the last time I spoke to her.”

“Yeesh.”

“Yeah.”

“But Ginger Daddy Elder said he'll consider you for Tracking if this mission goes well.”

“Exactly.” He sounded very smug. “Not much mum can do about that.”

“You won't mind leaving your dad behind?”

“Kids leave home all the time. I never wanted to be stuck Keeping, Dad knew that. I gave the NYCGD three of years of my life, not even counting the two years I lived there before going away to school. It's time to be out there, fighting.”

She kind of admired his passion. “Well, you're sure as hell out there now.”

“I sure am,” he replied contemplatively.

Gable yawned widely, dropping her forearm over her mouth in a lame attempt to stifle it.

“We should sleep,” he suggested. “Got another long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“Mm hmm.” She let her arm fall back down and it accidentally pressed against his. He edged away an inch, but in such small confines it didn't really help. Gable rolled her eyes. “You're still uncomfortable around me.”

Shrugging an apology, he explained, “I suppose I spent so much time thinking one thing about you – you know, you're hot as hell but if it came down to it, I'd have totally shot you in the face – but things are different now and it's hard to get my head around sometimes. Now. . . Now I trust you.”

Gable remained silent as she digested his words. It should probably feel great, having so many good people put their trust in her, but it was just. . .wrong. It felt wrong. She was on this mission with them, sure. She was on their side right now, sure. But it didn't mean she always would be, even if she wanted to be. Those things she'd done with and for Pablo – he hadn't
forced
her. He hadn't held a knife to her throat or pointed a gun at her head or threatened the people she loved if she refused. He'd just asked her to do it, and she had. She'd been cold and dead inside and it had become second nature. So what if she felt differently now. She had something dark inside her, something bad and evil and he'd taught her that,
shown
her that. Maybe it had always been there, or maybe it had been born out of her desperation to find Sacha, but either way it didn't matter. Everyone thought Pablo's death had tamed her, but who the hell really knew? Perhaps there was a switch inside her that just needed to be flicked. What if they got to the compound only to find that Sacha was no longer alive? What would she turn into then?

“You shouldn't trust me,” she finally replied to Zay in a quiet voice. “I don't even trust myself.”

He said nothing. No words of agreement, no argument, no debate. Instead, like he was proving without words that she was wrong, he moved his hand next to hers. The backs of their knuckles brushed for a moment, before he reached out for her, linking two of her fingers with his.

+++

She must have fallen asleep at some point because when Gable next opened her eyes, she was laying back on the beach where they'd first began their journey. It seemed like she'd washed up there such a long time ago. Could it really only have been a day and a half?

Sacha lay next to her. His face was scruffier than she'd ever seen it, but it looked good on him, she decided. Or it would, if not for the tiredness and the torment practically etched into the face she knew so well. His obvious pain caused her agony. So much agony.

He was on his back, facing the night sky, though he was peering sideways at her. “You're awake.” He was so quiet that she almost didn't hear him, but that was another thing she knew like it was a part of her – his voice. She'd recognize it whether it was loud or soft or screaming or merely a whisper. It was the voice that had laughed at her, with her, because of her. The voice that had teased her, had calmed her, had loved her. The only voice she had trusted for so many years.

“Pretty sure I'm not,” she replied dryly, and he almost smiled. Almost.

Sitting up on one elbow, Gable leaned over him, oh so careful not to touch. The last time she had tried to touch him she'd woken up. He looked even worse than he had then. His eyes were so dull, so lifeless.

“Is this real?” he wanted to know.

She shrugged one shoulder. “I don't know. This island. . .” Glancing around her, she looked from
the gently rolling ocean to the colorful night sky to the dark, forbidding forest, searching for answers she knew she wouldn't find. “. . .it did something to Cadby's powers. He's here too, you see. I think he might have linked our minds somehow. It was only supposed to be the one time but. . .I'm not complaining.”
 

He looked at her then.
Really
looked at her. “I've missed you,” he croaked. “So bad. I think about you every minute of every day. I was worried I'd forget your face but you're just as beautiful as I remember.”

Fighting back tears, Gable cocked her head and stared into his eyes. His beautiful blue eyes, like the sky at noon. “I'm coming for you,” she promised, her voice cracking. “I'm coming, Sacha.”

He did smile this time, but it was a sad, forced one that didn't reach his eyes. “I wish I could still believe that. I used to tell myself that you were coming all the time, but now. . . That's probably why I'm dreaming of you. Maybe I'm finally letting you go.”

“This is real.”

“It's not. I could fool myself last time, but there's a leech nearby me now. This
can't
be real.”

She had no reply for that. If he really was with a leech then their shared dream shouldn't be happening, but it was. It was real. Cadby was
that
powerful.

Hot tears spilled, cooling on her cheeks in the night air. She wanted to protest, to somehow prove to
him that it was real, that she was real and she was coming, but he was so
broken
. Nothing she said would get through to him. “What have they done to you?” she begged in a whisper. A huge part of her didn't want to know, couldn't bear the thought of it, but she also
had
to know. Had to know what had made him this way, what had made him so empty.