Cured (17 page)

Four slices of ham, two bread rolls, a
massive bowl of coleslaw and a mountain of mashed potatoes swimming
in gravy later, I lay on the floor of the ballroom groaning
uncomfortably. I had definitely overdone it with the feast. Felix
lay next to me, snoring lightly. Once the fullness subsided
slightly, I decided to walk around for a while, until my stomach
felt better. I paced one side of the ballroom, not wanting to go
near the others, examining the intricate detailing of the walls and
ceiling.

“
Beautiful
huh?” a
deep voice startled me and I
turned to find Theo’s deep brown eyes very close to my own. I let
out what I hoped was an irritated ‘humph’ and turned
away.

“
No, no,
no…”
He put a large hand on my shoulder
and roughly spun me back to face him, “You don’t get to be mad at
me, Avery.”

I loved it when he said my name. But I
managed to retain my frown and angry stare.

“
You’re the
one who...” h
e dropped his voice to a
barely audible whisper, “You’re the one who doesn’t belong
here.”

I was
confused. Why was he whispering? He didn’t need to whisper if he
had already told the others.

“
Wait.” I
interrupted him, “You haven’t told them about Felix and me being…
well… you know… human?”

“
No. Why
would I do that?” He appeared to be genuinely hurt by my
accusation.

“Well then why are they so angry at us?” I
asked.

Theo looked amused and shook his head,
causing his dark hair to fall over one eye. My heart fluttered a
bit. Oh god, what was wrong with me?

“
You’re at
the top of the leader board. You have the most points, followed by
Felix, and then Ellina and I are tied
for
third, then Axil and Cecilia have the least… um… well…
except…”

“Farrah?” I asked.

“
Avery…” Theo
started. Oh lord, the way he said my name... His husky voice made
everything sound like poetry. Get yourself together, Avery. I was
turning into one of those pathetic, flighty girls that I hated from
Olympia. Nicknames don’t mean anything. He probably just picked it
up from Felix. I was watching his mouth move when I realised I
hadn’t been listening to a word he said. I shook myself out of my
Theo trance and tuned into his voice.

“
Um… Farrah
didn’t… well… she didn’t quite…” he was mumbling.

“
Hold on.” I
couldn’t believe it. Surely Farrah hadn’t been killed. She was an
actual Prime. No way could Felix and I have survived, when Farrah,
who actually had the superpowers that these tasks were testing for,
had failed and died.

“
She… she
didn’t make it?” I asked
, scared to hear
his response.

Theo shook
his head. “The disease hit while she was still hunting the lion.
They both sorta hit her at the same time. It was too much. The
tasks weren’t designed to be easy, even for Primes, and taking on
both tasks at the same time… well…”

I nodded. A
mixture of guilt and sadness overwhelmed me. I was confused,
u
nsure what to think and my hands were
starting to shake from the shock of hearing that someone had been
killed. It could have been me. Should have been me. I was the
fraud.

“
Avery you
can’t keep doing this. A Prime died. She had powers. She was
superhuman, and she didn’t make it. There is no way you can survive
them all. You’re gonna run out of luck.”

“
Who says
it’s luck?” I bit back without thinking. Theo frowned and I
immediately scorned myself for being so rude. He was only trying to
look out for me. “Sorry.” I said. “I didn’t mean that. You are
right; we have been really lucky. But what choice do we have? Its
not like we can tell anyone that we are imposters now, it’s too
late, they’ll imprison us, or kill us…”

Theo nodded
and reached for my hand. Oh my… He squeezed my fingers and my heart
did the fluttery thing again. I swallowed, forcing myself to get a
grip.

“I could help you.” Theo said, and my heart
nearly stopped.

“Wh… what?”

“I mean… I actually am a Prime. So if you and
I work together, no one will even notice that it is me who is using
my powers instead of you. I will do your tasks as well as mine, and
no one will know.”

I searched
his face, but found no hint of a joke, or some sick prank, “Wait.
Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked him. “Last time we spoke,
and I told you about the non-Prime thing, you, er, didn’t take it
so well.”

Theo dropped
my hand and looked at his feet, “I feel awful,” he explained. “I
found out you were human. A human in the middle of a lion infested
jungle. And I left you, totally vulnerable. In a really dangerous
situation. You could’ve died. You should’ve died. As soon as I lost
sight of you I regretted it, and I just kept imagining you on your
own, not to protect yourself. I thought you were dead.”

I nodded, but
Theo’s gaze was locked on the floor. “So why’d you leave me
then?”

“
I was hurt,
Avery. You lied to me. To everyone. But nothing excuses my actions.
I left you in danger. Considering what happened to Farrah… you…”
His voice petered out and I reached for his hand this time. I
squeezed reassuringly and used my other hand to tilt his chin until
our eyes met again.

“
I never
could've done the lion without you. And you left me with the kill.
You could have taken the mane and ran, but you didn’t. You let me
win that challenge. You should be ahead of me on the leader
board.”

Theo shook
his head. He wasn’t accepting it. “Please just let me help you. I
need to.” His expression was wracked with guilt, and his voice
pleading. I considered his proposal. It might be Felix and my only
chance of survival. But if he were found to be conspiring with us
he would be punished, maybe banished from Olympia, or maybe
worse.

“I can’t, Theo. We’ll get caught. If not
during the tests, then it’ll be at the final ceremony when I trip
up the stairs, or when I am living on Olympia and forget to act
like a Prime. This act can’t last forever.”

“
We can
figure all that out later. For now I need you to survive. Let me
help. Please, Avery. I need this as much as you do. And Felix.
Think about Felix. If you don’t let me help you two, you are
putting his life in danger too.”

His eyes were
begging but I still wasn’t sure. I thought about Felix. If I agreed
to Theo’s offer, I would be helping save my best friend. Finally I
nodded.

“
Fine. You
can help. But there is no way I am putting your life in danger. As
soon as things get bad, or anyone finds ou
t, we need a cover story. I am not dragging you down with
me.”

Theo let out
a breath and grinned
. He had stopped
listening as soon as I had agreed to his proposition. Then he took
my hand in a business-like manner and shook it formally. “It has
been a pleasure doing business with you, Miss Avery
Rose.”

I laughed and
dropped
into an exaggerated curtsey, “And
you, Mr Theodore.”

Our laughter was interrupted by a cough from
the other side of the room.

“Do you two wanna get a room or…” Axil droned
with a smug smirk on his face. Cecilia giggled and stroked Axil’s
facial stubble affectionately.

“
You’re one
to talk Axil,” c
ame a whisper that was
barely audible from where I stood.

Cecilia
turned her attention away from Axil and glared at
Ellina.

“
Excuse me?”
she piped up. “If you’ve got something to say about Ax, why don’t
you say it to his face?”

Ellina
wriggled uncomfortably and bowed her h
ead, cheeks red with colour. She was clearly regretting her
interjection.

I felt bad
for the girl. She had been standing up for me, after all. So I
cleared my throat and spoke up. “I’d imagine she would’ve loved to
say it to his face, Cecilia, but unfortunately your fat head is
blocking the way. Besides, if Axil were so offended by Ellina’s
comment, perhaps he should fight his own battles rather than
cowering behind you.”

Theo snorted with laughter beside me, and
Ellina lifted her gaze to meet my eye gratefully. I grinned back at
her whilst Cecilia and Axil sat speechless, mouths hanging open in
shock. I beckoned for Ellina to come and join us, and she quickly
stood and pushed her chair back, eager to get away from the
others.

The three of
us made our way silently over to the far corner of the room where
there was a lounge set up. Theo and I sat on a large navy sofa, and
Ellina opted for a plush burgundy beanbag on the floor.

“
Thanks for
that,” Ellina spoke first; nodding in the direction she had come
from.

I smiled,
“Any time. They deserved it.”

Theo chuckled and I jabbed him in the ribs,
“What’s so funny?”

He shook his
head at me, “You got pretty sassy for a while there, Avery. I was
waiting for you to hand me your earrings so that you could go kick
some ass.”

Ellina
laughed and nodded, “I actually thought you were going to slap
Cecilia for a second there too!”

I laughed
too, “I have never hit anyone in my life! Wouldn’t have the
foggiest idea how to go about it! Especially since Cecilia is much
stronger than I…” my voice dwindled as I realized what I was
saying. Ellina didn’t know that I wasn’t a Prime, and I wasn’t
about to tell her. We didn’t need anyone else knowing our
secret.

“No way!” Ellina said. “You’re at the top of
the leader board Avery, you must be as strong as her!”

I turned to
Theo desperately, and he cleared his throat. “So, what do you guys
think our next challenge will be?”

I breathed a sigh of relief and made a mental
note to thank him later. I was going to have to watch what I was
saying.

We spent a good few hours chatting about the
tasks that lay ahead of us, and what we were going to do when the
challenges were over. Ellina wanted to rescue her little brother
from ever having to take the Cure. I had to spin a lie on the spot
about how my first action after the challenges would be to go hug
my non-existent dog. Theo cast his eyes down, and murmured that he
wanted to visit his father’s grave. My breath caught in my throat
as I remembered his father. He was always so kind and cheerful as
he worked on our gardens. Suddenly, without thinking I threw my
arms around Theo’s neck, my face leaned into his shoulder
apologetically as tears welled in my eyes.

At that moment, Felix cleared his throat from
behind us, and I quickly retracted my arms from Theo’s neck.

“Oh hey Fe.” I smiled meekly.

“Hey.” Felix looked at me quizzically.
“What’s going on over here?”

“Ah, we are just catching up, not much.” I
shrugged as Felix sat on my other side on the couch, causing Theo
and I to shuffle closer together.

“Catching up?” Felix asked. “Catching up on
what exactly? You guys barely know each other.”

I didn’t like
his tone, or the way that his eyes were glaring competitively at
Theo. “Actually Theo and I were friends back when-“

“
When we
worked together on the first task for a bit.” Theo interrupted and
spoke over me. I frowned, wondering why he didn’t want Felix to
know that we had been childhood playmates. But since he had saved
me from my slip-up before, I decided to let it go and ask him about
it later.

“
Yeah.
Nothing
brings two people closer than a
death defying experience, huh Theo?” I tried to keep my voice light
but saw suspicion flash in Felix’s eyes. Darn. That boy knew me too
well.

“Aaaaanyway.” Ellina spoke up, breaking the
awkward tension. “Where have you been Felix?”

Felix turned
to Ellina, who was blinking quite rapidly and had a pouty
expression plastered on her face. Hold on a second. I frowned and
examined her again. Was she…? She reached up and flipped her dark
hair off her shoulder, batting her eyelashes a little. She was! She
was flirting with Felix!

“
He has been
sleeping on the floor by the buffet like a lazy pig,” I snapped,
wanting to wipe the stupid expression from her face.

“
Okay, okay,
pipe down Ave,” Felix soothed, laying a hand on my shoulder. “No
need to get all nasty. Ell was just asking a friendly question.” He
looked at me, the twinkle had returned to his eye in full force. He
knew that Ellina was flirting, and was enjoying my jealous
reaction. I bit my tongue, but shrugged his hand off my
back.

Ellina was
blushing with joy, having received an original Felix-made nickname.
I frowned, immediately decided that I hated those two. After a
moment, Theo picked the conversation back up and again covered the
awkward tension. I smiled at him and wondered why I was even
jealous of Ellina and Felix. Felix was my best friend and nothing
more. I lent my head on my friend’s shoulder, letting him know we
were all good. After that, conversation flowed easily. We all
talked and laughed together about nothing in particular and soon it
felt like being with old friends. Felix and Theo were exerting
their manliness by talking about the Olympian Games, whilst Ellina
and I gossiped about my parents and the other families on Olympia.
Soon we were all yawning in-between sentences, tired from the past
challenges and overeating. I tucked my feet under Theo and nodded
off on Felix’s shoulder.