Alive (The Veiled World Book 1) (23 page)

Chapter 25

Amber

The mist turned to liquid as we spilled over the edge. Our hands became separated. The drop seemed to never end, until eventually I crashed into a body of water, twisting and turning beneath the surface until a hand wrapped around my wrist and yanked me up to my feet.

Gasping for breath, I found myself face to face with a sopping wet Jacob, his hair pasted down on his forehead. Without thinking I wrapped my arms around him, so grateful to be alive, but a deep, low scream sent us falling back as Axel landed in the water, only half a metre away from us.

“Thanks,” I said to Jacob. “For everything.”

“What are friends for?” he said, patting me on the back. And I knew then. I hadn’t disgusted him when I’d kissed him. He just didn’t see me in that way. He was my friend, and a good one at that.

I rushed to Axel’s side and helped him to his feet. His clothes were stuck to him like glue, his hair darker now that it was wet.

“I’m all right,” he said, and stepped back so that my hand dropped away from his waist.

Okay. So he was back to being cold. It seemed the only time I could get some kind of emotion from him was when we were facing certain death. Well, I wasn’t going to die just so I could get him to open up to me.

I put a hand to my eyes to shield them from the hot, harsh sun.

Endless dunes of golden sand stretched out in every direction.

“Desert sands,” said Axel, nodding as though he guessed this was going to happen.

“What does this mean?” I asked.

“I read about this. Or a version of this. Without water, most challengers die here.”

Noah, who’d been digging his hands in the golden sand and letting it run through his fingers, screamed and jumped back.

“Bones!”

A human skull peered out at us from the desert sands.

“What if we drink this stuff?” Jacob said, staring down at the glittering, rainbow coloured water.

Just looking at the sparkling liquid made my throat burn dry. I was thirsty. So thirsty I could have drained the pool of water we were standing in.

“It’s too much of a risk,” said Axel. “Especially after the River of Truth.”

“I’m not drinking anything,” said Reece, though when he looked at the water, he was already licking his lips.

“I’m so thirsty,” said Claire. “I’ll just take a sip.”

“No!” shouted Reuben. “We can’t drink it.”

“It’s healing water, heavenly,” came a familiar voice from over my shoulder.

“Bruce!” I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“You’re alive!”

He was. But his face was so sunken I could see the shape of his bones beneath his skin.

Kyle threw himself at Bruce and gave him a man hug.

“How? You had a gash on your head.”

Bruce pointed to his wrinkled temple, where the gash had been. “The water has healing properties. I’ve been drinking it for hours and I’m fine.”

Axel shook his head.

“No, Bruce. Maybe it’s not healing you. Maybe it’s—”

“The gash is gone. End of story,” said Reece before throwing himself into the water.

Claire hung back, watching to see what I was going to do.

“It’s not safe,” said Axel, fingering his dagger.

Noah slipped away from the group and sat by the water hole, scooping up the magical water in his hand and drinking it.

“This is like last night all over again,” Jacob said, shaking his head, his eyes dark.

Claire screamed and ran from Reece, who was trying to chase her into the water.

Reuben laughed, but then stopped when he saw Reece’s face.

I gasped.

“Your face, Reece. What the hell?”

Reece stopped running and felt his face. “What? What is it?”

I ran over and steered him by the arm back to the water’s edge.

“Bend over and look at your reflection.”

He did, but the rainbow surface blurred Reece’s face away.

“It doesn’t show his reflection because it doesn’t want people to see their reflections,” said Axel, dragging Reece away from the water’s edge.

“Here.” He flicked his dagger and showed Reece his reflection in the blade.

Reece put his fingers to his cheekbones and his forehead, where deep wrinkles had materialised.

“I’m fucking old!”

Noah, who was still hunched over, scooping water up to his lips, turned around.

A silent scream trapped in my throat.

“Noah…you’re…Noah, you’re old too!” screamed Claire.

“It’s a fountain of death,” said Axel.

He kicked at the dirt with his boot until the gleam of white bones, a rib cage, could be seen.

“People drink until they die.”

“What kind of a person dreams this up as his heaven?” said Claire, shaking her head.

“Someone who’s angry with the world. Someone who hated getting old.”

“Or maybe someone who never got to grow old,” said Axel.

I nodded. “Maybe.”

Something shrieked above us and we all watched as a flock of black birds circled above us.

“Vultures,” said Reuben grimly. “They’re getting ready to pick our bones clean.”

“Shut up,” said Reece, who was hiding his wrinkled face behind his hands.

Bruce started arguing with Axel.

“I’m not leaving the only water source we have,” said Bruce, his eyes wide and blood shot.

Someone tugged at my hand and I turned to find Jacob standing behind me. He lead me a few metres away from the others.

“I’m just going to say this once and once only.”

His dark brown eyes were pensive and deep as they held mine.

“I didn’t hate what you did to me. Last night.”

My body stiffened. I didn’t exactly want to talk about last night—ever again. But if it was important to Jacob, then I would tolerate it.

“It’s okay. I get it now. I was a jerk for drinking that stuff when you have such a hard time with your mum. I should have been a better friend.”

“No. I mean, when I said that you were beautiful. I meant it. I mean beautiful on the inside. I’ve always cared for you. But as a friend. Like a sister.”

I nodded, thinking about all those times when he’d come to my rescue.

“Thanks. I know that now.” I shook my head and groaned, recalling the kiss.

“Your friendship means more to me than a drunken kiss ever will.”

“Can you please erase that kiss from your memory? I’m trying to forget it ever happened.”

Jacob blushed and then smiled, his dimples deepening. “Okay. It wasn’t as bad as you thought.”

I turned away, embarrassed, and bumped straight into Axel.

“What’s going on?” I asked after I recovered from the impact of our chests colliding.

“We’re going to walk. The longer we stay here, the older everyone who’s tasted this water is going to get.”

“How do you explain Bruce’s gash, though?” said Jacob.

“I think the water accelerates the aging process, so it just accelerated the healing process as his skin aged.”

“Makes sense.”

Bruce was staring back at the water, looking like he might cry to leave it behind.

I came up behind him. “Bruce, come on. Remember your wife. Remember what we came here for.”

He stared down at the ring on his hand.

“It’s loose now. Now that I’ve lost weight.”

“You’ve aged, Bruce, that’s why.”

“Yeah, you don’t want to get to the Land of Resting Souls and be an old man to your beautiful wife,” said Noah.

“Look who’s talking, Grandpa,” said Reece, the skin around his eyes creasing up.

Bruce shook his head.

“Get me away from here, Amber. Get me away before I die.” Tears glistened in his eyes. “I need to be with my wife. I have to find her.”

“We will. We’ll all get our loved ones back. We’re together again and we’re nearly at the end. We can do this.”

Axel caught my eye, but quickly looked away, his expression one of guilt. He was hiding something. It was something to do with the Land of Resting Souls. I was certain.

I watched Axel closely while we walked away from the rainbow waterfall and headed into the desert. Noah was explaining the first
Mad Max
movie to him in detail, but I knew by the tension in his shoulders, and the stiffness of his gait, that he wasn’t listening. He was thinking about whatever it was that he was keeping from us.

Desert winds swirled sand at our feet.

“I’m so thirsty,” I said to no one in particular.

Axel immediately spun around, to the disappointment of Noah, and handed me his canteen.

“There are only a couple of drops left.”

I pushed it away, despite my mouth salivating at the idea of cool water running past my lips and down my throat.

“It’s yours, Axel, you have it.”

He sucked in a deep breath and stood in front of me, stopping me in my tracks.

“I want you to have it, Amber.” His eyes were intense and his hand holding the bottle was trembling. “Just take it, please.”

I took it, my fingers brushing over Axel’s as I did. A soft breath escaped his lips and he closed his eyes, as though my touch had affected him deeply.

My heart started hammering against my chest. I forgot about the water. All I wanted now was Axel.

I moved in close. But just as I was about to brush my lips against his, he opened his eyes again and pulled away.

I stiffened.

“Amber, I’m sorry, but I can’t do this to you. I can’t,” he said before turning around and swearing so loud the circling vultures took off and disappeared behind the shimmering sun.

Everyone stopped and turned to stare at us, but the thirst had weakened everybody’s steps and interest, so they turned back around and continued shuffling forward in the sand.

Fuck it.

I grabbed hold of Axel’s arm and spun him around.

“If you know something about all this, something important about the Land of Resting Souls, then now’s the time to tell.”

His eyes turned red and misted over, his jaw set, but he held my gaze.

“We’re risking our lives out here,” I said, provoking him to speak.

“I know that,” he said, his voice hoarse. He spun away from me and charged up a nearby sand dune.

“But you want to be here, whereas we were brought here against our will.”

“That’s dragon shit. Bella stayed behind. You could have too.”

I spun him around again. “Yeah, and I remember seeing you at Bella’s door the night before the Choosing Ceremony.”

Axel’s face showed surprise and I knew then what happened.

“You told Bella something. Something about the journey, something we’d face. Something that made her change her mind.”

He pushed past me. “Other than the fact we’ll probably all die and never return.”

I chased after him, panting and sweating, my thirst now tripling in intensity.

“No. I think it was something else. Why won’t you tell me, Axel?”

He stopped running but kept his head down, not wishing to meet my gaze, but I could see the redness of his face and the unshed tears in his eyes that he didn’t want me to see.

“Axel, please, just stop and tell me.”

His chest rose and fell with rapid breaths. He was hurting. Whatever it was that he didn’t want to tell me, it was breaking him apart inside.

I handed him his water back. He took it, but didn’t drink.

My hands itched to touch his, to tell him it was all right, that whatever it was, I’d understand. But I worried that if I pushed him too far, he’d break.

The others started calling out to us.

We looked up at the same time to see Bruce pointing to a huge castle, shimmering in the distance.

“Come on,” said Axel.

We caught up with the others and watched as two large moving rectangles faced each other at the front of the castle.

“Those are people!”

Balls of fire blasted from over the walls of the stone castle as the rectangles of people charged towards each other.

“It’s a battle,” said Noah, his voice high pitched, his wrinkled face lit up with excitement.

“We’ve just stumbled upon a war,” muttered Axel.

“An ancient war, by the looks of it,” said Bruce.

A horn blared and suddenly the fighting stopped.

Each human rectangle stood to attention.

Another horn sounded.