United (The Guardians Book 2) (22 page)

“But you're not,” he continued sadly. He hooked a hand around the back of his neck and looked down at the ground, hiding the hurt. “Not mine, I mean. I guess I'm starting to get that. And I get that you're not Gabrielle too. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because you're just. . .you're just awesome, Gable. You're awesome just like this. And I'm fucking struggling here because I want. . .I want
you
, no matter who you are. Do you get that?”

She blinked hard and looked away, unable to take the earnest yet heartbroken expression on his face.

“Guards!” Ward's voice suddenly cut through the trees, startling them into action.

Gable was relieved at the disturbance in a sick kind of way. Punching someone in the face repeatedly was exactly what she needed.

+++

“That was bloody easy,” Zay commented, staring down at the two unconscious guards almost in disappointment. He liked a good fight, Gable had noticed. When he folded his arms across his chest his biceps strained. They weren't as big as Nicky's, but they were definitely defined.

“I punched one of them,” Queenie piped up excitedly. She seemed very pleased with herself. “My hand hurts. Ow.”

Gable glared at the guards. One of them had a nasty gash stretching across his forehead from where she'd clunked him on the head with the butt of her gun. To be fair, he'd started it by kicking her in the stomach with his stupid clown feet. She was pretty sure her aching ribs were going to be black and blue the next day.

The ground rumbled ever so slightly beneath their feet. They glanced in Ward's direction; he was looking clammy and pale.

“My bad,” he apologized. “Think I need to give my powers a break for a while. That last fight did me in. I'm really starting to hate the way this island is making me feel.”

The rumbling came to a gentle stop.

“Did you guys hear what the guards said when they caught sight of us?” Cadby asked warily.

Gable perked up, paying attention. She'd been too occupied with Nicky to have even noticed the guards arriving.

Ward nodded, reaching out a hand to grip Zay's shoulder to balance himself. He was shaky and unsteady. “They said they'd found us.”

“Like they weren't at all surprised to see us,” Queenie added. “In fact, it seemed like they were searching specifically for us.”

“Guess the element of surprise is lost,” Hue muttered.

Zay agreed, his expression grim. “They must know we're here, which means we can expect more guards. A lot more guards.”

The ground shook again, harder this time. Hard enough to knock them down onto their hands and knees. Ward hollered in pain, gripping his head between his hands just like Nicky had done on their first night. “There's something in my brain!” he cried like a madman over the noise. “Something is eating away at me!”

“It's just the island fucking with you!” Nicky tried to assure him. He attempted to crawl closer to Ward, but the ground gave an extra hard shake and he tumbled forwards. “It did the same thing to me too, remember?” he yelled from the ground.

A deafening crack echoed all around them. Nicky pushed up and hurled himself forward, barreling into Gable. They rolled over in a tangle of limbs. Behind them, a fallen tree crashed down right where Gable had been crouched just seconds before.

She'd broken his heart and Nicky was still risking his life for hers.

“Ward!” Cadby shouted. “You need to stop before someone gets hurt!”

“I can't!”

The world was shaking around her, but with solid determination, Gable untangled herself from Nicky and clambered to her feet. Her whole body felt like it was vibrating, and not in the fun way. She jolted forward, grasping at a low hanging branch for balance, before throwing herself down besides Ward. Cadby fell down next to them at the same time.

“Calm down,” Gable begged Ward.

“I can't. It feels like someone is scraping my brain out with a fork. It hurts so damn bad!”

“What do we do?” Gable called to Cadby.

“Ground him!” He wrapped a hand around Ward's wrist and Gable immediately understood. When she'd felt the effects of the island through Cadby the day before it had been like she was hurtling through the sky, all alone. Perhaps physical contact would bring Ward down.

She pulled his hand from his head and entwined her fingers through his, squeezing tight.

“Come on, buddy,” Cadby encouraged. “You're stronger than this. You can beat it.”

Slowly but surely, the shaking lessened into gentle tremors. Then they stopped completely.

Ward breathed in deep and heavy as the rainforest quietened around them once more. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “That kind of sucked.” He flopped down on his back, still holding Gable's hand.

Zay let out a long whistle, inspecting a bad graze on his elbow from falling against a tree. “Yeah.” He picked out a chunk of bark from his skin, wincing.

“Well. . .if they didn't know we were here before,” Queenie said, grasping Hue's arm as he helped her to her feet. “they sure as heck do now.”

Nicky shot her a wry smile. “No kidding.”

Their predictions about the guards had been right. Throughout the rest of the afternoon they encountered at least three times as many as they had the day before, always in pairs, always searching for them. The team fought some, but hid from most, waiting them out up in trees or concealed beneath bushes. It was a frustrating waste of time, but as Zay pointed out to an increasingly pissed off Gable, if they fought every set of guards they came across then eventually they would run out of luck. Eventually one of them would get seriously hurt, or worse.

Though it wasn't like they were without injuries that day. Cadby scraped his hands raw when he slipped coming down a tree, and during an unavoidable fight with a particularly beastly set of guards, Gable's left hand was stomped on and she broke two of her fingers.

“Does it hurt?” Zay asked her as he wrapped them up when they made camp that night. He didn't seem all that sympathetic.

Her fingers throbbed like the devil's ass, but Gable wasn't about to admit that. “Had worse.”

He snorted. “Sure. Like what?”

“There was that time I got smooshed by a car,” she threw out casually, like it wasn't something that haunted her every day. Zay looked down guiltily even though he hadn't been there at the time. Gable took pity on him. “One time Pablo had me hunt down this freshwater sprite who owed him a tooth-”

“A tooth?”

“Sprite teeth have insane magical properties. So this dude was hiding out in these caves all the way in Queensland by the time I found him. Bastard broke my arm and twisted my ankle before I managed to knock him out, then I had to drag myself back out those caves. Freaking nightmare.”

Zay nodded, impressed despite himself. He finished with her fingers. “I talked to Nicky earlier. Thanks for clearing things up. Guy's a hothead.”

She shrugged. When people were nice to her it just made her. . .uncomfortable. “My fault anyway.”

“Still, it probably would've made things easier for you if you hadn't told the truth. I appreciate it.”

Unable to help herself, because she wasn't about to turn into sweet little Queenie any time soon, she rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” Ruffling his blond curls, she hoisted herself up so she could join Queenie on dinner duty.

“We're almost out of crackers,” Queenie mentioned casually, though Gable could tell she was worried.

“It'll be fine,” she assured her. “We'll find the prison soon enough.”

“Fingers all better?”

“Sure.” Lie. Without pain medication, they'd probably be keeping her awake that night.

“We shoulda brought Fabian,” Nicky grumbled, rubbing a hand over his shoulders. If they were anything like Gable's, they'd be aching with strain and burning from the straps of their heavy packs. He was right, Fabian the healer would have been an awesome addition to the team.

“Too young,” Zay said around a mouthful of cracker, munching the hell out of it like it was the best meal he'd ever eaten. That was how they all felt after a successful day of not getting killed. “He's only sixteen.”

“Fifteen,” Gable corrected tiredly, flicking a twig into the low fire and watching it crackle. “He's headed to your Guardian School next year.”

“
Our
Guardian School,” Nicky coughed out, but she chose to ignore him.

“Huh,” Zay mused. “The Elders will like that. Don't think we've had a healer before. Maybe Dad'll persuade him to join the NYCGD.”

“Doubt it. Kid's got his heart set on adventure.”

“Haven't we all.”

Conversation was quiet and easy over the next hour. Though some of them had been complete strangers only days before, it felt like they had all known one another forever. It was probably the life and death of it all, Gable decided, as she lay back on the ground to watch the stars. The trees were less thick than when they'd last made camp so the multicolored stars were easily visible. There wasn't much about Lonh that Gable would miss once she was home, but the Zawavian stars were something she'd forever remember. So breathtaking, so beautiful, and like everything in the faerie realm, so
alive
. She counted one shooting star, two, three. It was as if they were dancing there up in the endless sky.

Absentmindedly, she rubbed a hand over her almost empty, aching stomach.

“You okay?” Queenie's face appeared over hers, blocking the night sky from her vision.

“Ate too much,” Gable joked. Honestly, the hunger didn't bother her. She'd gone for much longer with much less food back when she'd lived on the streets.

“Definitely,” Queenie carried on with the joke, a little smile puckering her lips. “I've been positively glutinous since arriving here. I'll have to diet when I get home or my clothes will burst right off.”

Gable closed her eyes as tiredness swamped her. “I doubt Kain would mind.”

“He wouldn't mind me getting fat?”

“He wouldn't mind your clothes bursting off,” she corrected.

“I don't understand.”

“You know, 'cause the guy's all hot under the collar for you.” Queenie was silent, and Gable winced before opening an eye. “On second thought, I'm pretty sure that's one of those things I wasn't supposed to say.”

Queenie stared back at her with wide eyes. “Are you saying Kain
likes
me? Like,
like like
likes me?”

“Uhm,” she replied helpfully.

“Smooth, Gable,” Zay said dryly across the flames, raising an amused eyebrow.

She tried to flip him off until she realized her fingers were all taped up, settling for a shrug instead. “Not my problem. I don't have to live with you guys so no awkward tension for me.”

Queenie's head was shooting back and forth as she watched them bicker. “Is she being serious? Kain really likes me?”

“Cat's out of the bag
no-ow
,” Nicky sang. Like Gable, he was laying comfortably on his back. Smoke curled out of the end of a cigarette held limply in his hand. Gable was pretty sure Charles had forbidden him from packing cigarettes, deeming them non-essential. Nicky had clearly decided to ignore him.

“YOU KNOW TOO?” Queenie yelled.

“And now so does everyone else on this fucking island. Jeez, calm down, woman. It's just a crush.”

“Really?”

He flicked his cigarette lazily. “Nope. He's madly in love with you. I was just trying to make you feel better.”

“Good job,” Ward quipped.

Queenie shook her head, looking dazed. “For how long?”

“Since the minute he met you,” Cadby answered. He lifted a shoulder apologetically when Queenie glared accusingly at him. “Sorry. Psychic. I know things.”

“I had no idea. . .”

Gable sat up on her elbows. “What's the deal? You don't like him back?”

“I. . .I don't know! I've never thought about him that way before. I mean, he's older than me, but that's okay. . .I guess.”

“He's kind of cute,” Gable added. “You know, with his. . .” Her words petered off as nothing came to mind. “. . .uh. . .bow-ties! Ha, bow-ties! Wait, no. Bow-ties are lame.”

“I like his bow-ties,” Queenie defended in a small voice.

“Great.” Gable flopped back down, quickly losing interest in the whole topic. “Then it's settled. We'll make sure you get home safe and sound so you and Kain can have freaky nerd sex in your creepy underground hideout. Hey, you can even tell him to keep his bow-tie on when he gets naked. Kinky.”

“Oh my God, Gable!”

Zay, Hue and Nicky let out a guffaw of laughter as Queenie blushed deeply.

+++

They were back on the beach, this time sprawled out across the sand so close to the water that Gable could feel the cool waves splashing against her toes.

“I think I'm forgetting how to breathe,” Sacha burst out next to her. His eyes were wide and he looked unbalanced. “Or maybe the air just doesn't want me anymore.”

He was actually breathing a lot, panting almost, so Gable knew it was all in his head. Obviously he'd been sucking extra hard on the crazy lollipop that day. She wondered if it was her fault, if their shared dreams were driving him mad.

“Do you remember that apartment we used to stay in?” she asked in a light voice, hoping to take his mind of his manic thoughts and bring him down from wherever he was heading. “The fancy ass place in Manhattan?”

Blinking, he glanced over at her. “I remember. Was that real? Sometimes I forget what was real and what wasn't. I'm starting to think you weren't real either, that I dreamed you up because I was lonely.”

Ignoring that last part, she sat up on one elbow, determined to break through to him. “It was real. Remember there was that rich guy who used to go out of town on business every couple months, and when he did, his maid would let us sleep in one of the spare rooms as long as we left it how we found it? She had such a huge crush on you.”

“I never had eyes for her.”

She tried to hide a smile. “No, you didn't.”

Something softened in Sacha's eyes. He didn't quite lose the crazy, but he remembered, and it lit him up from the inside. “The bed. It was the softest I've ever slept in.”