The Guardian (Callista Ryan Series) (21 page)

             
Serena shook her head. “Whatever,” she said. “The point is, I was right. She
isn’t
one of us, Emeric.”

             
Callie couldn’t see Alex’s face. His back was turned towards her as he stood between Serena and her. But she could see from where she sat that his fists were tightened, his forearms bulging with tendons. He said nothing to contradict Serena’s words. And that reminded Callie of something he had said that day at the pond:
Not even Emeric knows.
But that wasn’t the same as saying that
no one
knew. Callie realized that this theory, all of the harsh accusations and discoveries being spoken now, were nothing new to him.

             
He’d known all along.

             
But Emeric’s reaction was perhaps the most surprising of all. His mouth twisted into a sneer, his eyes narrowed to slits. “Disobedient child,” he said resentfully. “What have you done?” Only he wasn’t addressing Alex. His glare was rapt upon Serena.

             
Serena’s expression changed completely. The anger disappeared from her porcelain face, the blood draining from behind her skin. “What?” she asked, fear present where fury had been.

             
“I told you not to interfere!” he roared. Callie withdrew into the couch, hugging herself. The sight of Emeric at his most uninhibited was truly terrifying. He didn’t smash glass or pummel the nearest piece of furniture as lesser men did to express themselves; rather, he stood in one place, murder in his eyes, exuding all of the authority and power that he held. One got the impression that he could do anything, that no one and nothing was precious. He was a man possessed.

             
“Emeric, I—“

             
“Silence,” he ordered. “You leave me no choice any longer, Serena. I warned you several times. This was your last chance.”

             
“No,” she breathed, her eyes widening in sudden recognition of something Callie couldn’t understand. In haste, she went on, “No, wait, Emeric don’t do this—“

             
“You have until sundown to collect your belongings and leave this canopy,” Emeric said, his tone ringing with finality.

             
“Emeric, don’t,” Serena whispered, looking about as close to tears as she could.

             
“It is decided,” Emeric said coldly. “From this day forward, you are banished from this forest.”

             
Serena looked around frantically, floundering for something to say, seeming unable to breathe. Callie comprehended in a second what he must have meant.

             
“Wait,” Callie said, sitting up.

             
“Callie, don’t,” Alex growled, not even turning around. Emeric’s gaze was pulled to Callie’s face in barely concealed hatred.

             
“No, hang on a second,” she said. She tried to pull herself up, but couldn’t manage to balance with her leg held up at the angle it was. “Just…wait,” she stammered, awkwardly trying to prop her hands behind her.

             
A hand extended towards her. Callie looked up, and saw Alex looking at her without emotion. She knew that he didn’t want her to do what she was about to, though he helped her to sit upright anyways.

             
“Thanks,” she said. She took a deep breath. “It wasn’t her fault,” she went on, now that she could think straight. “And besides, it isn’t even true. I wasn’t saved by Alex. I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt that day, and the car flipped over, and I fell out of the window and landed….” But even as she spoke, she realized how ridiculous she sounded. Emeric looked down at her skeptically. Serena glared down at her with contempt. Callie looked to Alex for help in explaining it, but his face was still cold, empty.

             
Callie couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Alex couldn’t have saved her. And yet…. Another foggy recollection was rooted in her mind from their time at the pond. She remembered that he had told her there was nothing she could have done, and suddenly she realized something she hadn’t picked up on before: he had been there that day.

             
She gasped. A glimpse of guilt betrayed Alex’s stony expression, but it disappeared quickly. She continued to stare at him, the man whom she must have known for years but who suddenly seemed such a stranger. And yet, she couldn’t think about this now. It was too big. And she had something else to say before the moment was up.

             
She swallowed, shaking her head, recollecting her thoughts. “It isn’t her fault,” she began again, more evenly now. She looked up at Emeric. “This forest is her home. These people are her family. I would have done the same thing, if my family were in danger. You can’t blame her for trying to protect hers. And if you banish her now…then what am I fighting for, exactly?”

             
Emeric frowned. “Callista—“

             
“A family,” she said, holding up a hand, “can’t turn on each other like that. So if that’s not what you are, then I am only here to save traitors. And I won’t do that.”

             
“What are you saying?” Emeric asked, his words a silent threat.

             
Callie pinned him with a steady stare. She was astounded to find that she was so much less afraid of him now than she’d been just a week ago. She didn’t cower under his intimidation; she knew what he wanted, and she knew what he would do to get it.

             
“If you banish her, I won’t help you. You can lock me up here as long as you want. Hell, Maggie probably doesn’t remember who I am, anyways,” she bluffed. “But when it comes time for me to play my role in all this, I won’t do it. You can count me out.”

             
Emeric’s eyes were glittering. “We can force you to obey us, Callista,” he said, his voice like a low-burning fire. “Your unburdened life here is by no means a guarantee.”

             
“No, you can’t,” Callie said with a forced calm.

             
“Callie,” Alex warned, his voice low. She wondered in a distant part of her mind if he would turn on her by the time she was finished. She realized he would likely side with Emeric. But she knew what it felt like to be abandoned by one’s family. Her own had done so by accident, and she wouldn’t stand by and let someone endure the same heartache unnecessarily.

             
“You can’t,” Callie went on. “You have no way of witnessing my memories, even if I
did
Perceive with them. Which I won’t. Right?”

She looked back and forth between all of them. “I mean, I’m just guessing,” she went on. “But it seems like, if you
could
Perceive on me, you’d have done it by now, instead of asking so many questions. So here’s my deal.” She leaned forward, hoping to show Emeric her eyes, hoping he’d see that she wasn’t in the habit of making false promises. “Either Serena stays, or I go.”

             
Emeric gritted his teeth, his nostrils flaring, his eyes wild. “Alex,” he hissed, his voice nothing but a low rumble. “Get her out of here.”

             
Without warning, Alex’s arms had wrapped around Callie in a vice-like grip, and she was wrenched from the couch unceremoniously. She flinched as her nerve endings were shot through with the pain of movement, and then felt him gentle a little. But then they were peeling through the air with angry speed, and when Callie looked back at the house, all she saw was Emeric, his head hung, his posture defeated.

Chapter Twelve

Retelling

              Callie studied hi
s
face as he flew, noticing how some strange mixture of disappointment and fear and irritation had mangled his features into something nearly unrecognizable. She knew that he was upset, and so she didn’t try to speak. But looking at him now, it was like she was seeing someone new, someone she had never met before. She didn’t know what to make of what Serena had said, but something told her that it had changed everything between them.

             
When they landed, Callie could have laughed at the location. She stepped down from his arms onto the stone ledge outside of the cave, and smirked at him.

             
“This is becoming our spot, I guess,” she said.

             
Alex barely looked at her before he turned and stalked away, into the shadowy confines of the cave. She sighed, knowing better than to follow him. He had some thinking to do; so did she. He would come back out when he was ready.

             
She sat down on the rock, swinging her legs over the side. It was funny to think how afraid of heights some people were. She had been living on sticks and boards, suspended in the air, for days now, and that particular fear had yet to strike. Maybe it was delayed by all the other worries she’d had lately.

             
Callie lifted her head and saw the pink clouds drifting slowly across the sky, cotton puffs in vague circles, lifted above all the rest of it. Things had always seemed more peaceful up there. When she’d been a kid, she’d thought that one day, when she was older, when it was time for her to leave the world behind, she would be lifted up to those clouds. And then when her parents had died, that was always where she’d pictured them, sitting on top of the horizon, looking down at her and Maggie. Maybe that was why she’d always put on a brave face, why she had downplayed Maggie’s problem for so long. She didn’t want them to worry.

             
It was another minute or two before Alex finally emerged. Wordlessly, he sat down beside her on the ledge and watched the heavens with her. She slipped her hand on top of his, and felt him relax beneath her touch. In the silence that grew between them, there was understanding. They still had to discuss what had transpired this morning; but they were no longer strangers.

             
Turning to him, she asked, “Are you angry?”

             
“No,” he mumbled, though he didn’t meet her eyes.

             
“Liar,” she whispered. He didn’t disagree. They remained still, and she waited for him to want to tell her. It didn’t take long.

             
He turned the weight of his regard on her, and said, “You shouldn’t have saved her.”

             
“Alex, this is her home,” Callie said. “I know a thing or two about being forced to leave home.”

             
He winced under the reminder, but didn’t back down. Callie inched closer to him, and leaned her head against his warm, bare shoulder, watching the way the sunlight bounced off of the river below, erupting from the current like nodding diamonds.

             
“Tell me why,” she said. “Why don’t you want her here?”

             
“She tried to kill you,” he said, an underlying savagery in his voice. “She has been angling towards your death ever since your arrival.” Callie saw that the thought upset him. Despite his distress, however, Callie bit her lip to hide a smile. It didn’t work, and she suddenly found herself laughing. She felt Alex shift beneath her head, and looked up at him.

             
Through her laughter, she said, “I’m sorry. Oh, man, I’m sorry.” She could barely catch her breath now. “It’s just…people keep telling me I’m not immortal. But how many near-death experiences does it take for you all to figure out that I
am
?”

             
He frowned, though when tears sprung to her eyes and she began clutching her sides for support, she found that he was chuckling, too.

             
“I can’t believe how many times I’ve been sure that I’d die this week,” she gasped.

             
He rolled his eyes, and lifted an arm. She ducked beneath it, and he settled it across her shoulders. She nestled into his chest, her laughter beginning to subside, though her smile remained. She gazed across the ravine and took in the beauty around her. The noonday sun illuminated everything, warmed her skin. A certain, happy peace stole over her, and she sighed. His heart beat thickly beneath her cheek, and she began to breathe in its rhythm.

             
“Is it true?” she asked quietly. “What Serena said, about you being there the day of the accident…saving me. It’s impossible, isn’t it?”

             
He was silent for a long moment. She drew back her head, looking for the answer in his face. He searched her expression silently, his brown gaze flitting back and forth between her eyes. And then he took a deep breath.

             
“No,” he said. “It’s not impossible.”

             
She swallowed, the shock of his reply dulled slightly because, somehow, she thought she might have already known. “But the EMTs,” she started. “They told me—“