Always (46 page)

I didn’t see anything else except my hands on the end of that axe and Silango right behind me. I only had seconds, if even that.

With every ounce of strength I had in me, I swung myself, and the axe, around behind me. I didn’t stop turning until I was once again facing the half tree.

Everything was going in extreme slow motion. Every second seemed like an hour. My breath filled my lungs, making my chest rise. There were no sounds behind me. Had I missed? Shouldn’t it hurt by now? Why was he waiting?

My breath whooshed out of my lungs and my chest fell again. My eyes closed and then opened again. Still, I heard nothing behind me. There were no sounds of Silango’s breath, only my own as the air filled my lungs again.

Thump.

I took a step forward and turned around to see why Silango was just standing there. As soon as I got all the way around, his body–minus the head–crumpled to the ground. His head was already rolling towards my feet.

My eyes widened in shock and I jumped back. The tree prevented me from going too far, though. The severed head rolled several feet past me. I couldn’t tear my eyes from the gruesome sight.

Where there should have been blood, a thick black liquid oozed out. The smell was horrible, making me gag. The relief that I had thought I would feel was slow in coming.

I could only stare at those unblinking eyes in horror. I heard footsteps approaching from somewhere.

My hands shook violently, but they still held tight to the axe. What had I just done? Did I really just kill Silango?

“
Claudia?”

I heard his voice, but I knew I must be dreaming. Marcus was dead. He was burning up in that shed. I tore my eyes away from Silango to look up at the shed. It was still on fire.

“
Claudia?”

I heard his voice again; this time I looked up to where it was coming from. There he stood, barely three feet away, staring at me in shocked confusion.

“
How are you still alive?”

“
I heard Silango. He was coming after you. I wanted to stop him.” His response came out in short, jerky sentences. “It looks like you didn’t need my help.”

His eyes blinked rapidly as he tried to take in the scene at my feet. “I…um…” I didn’t know what to say to Marcus.

Was he angry that I had killed Silango? Was the bond broken, or would he try to put him back together? I looked around me, at the other warriors creeping out of the forest.

No one came forward like I expected them to. They all just stood back, in a state of shock. None of them would look at me; they all averted their eyes when I looked their way.

Marcus stayed rooted to the spot. He just kept staring at that head, his chest rising and falling in quick intervals. What had Rueben said? The head needed to be burned.

I pushed myself straighter and walked over to it. Determined to finish this once and for all, I scooped the head of Silango from the ground and threw it into the burning shed.

Now the bond would finally be broken. Marcus would be free of his prison and neither of us had to die. I sucked in a huge lung full of air and let it out slowly.

I couldn’t seem to leave that place. Something invisible held me there. One by one, the other warriors came to stand behind me. They made no move to save Silango, if that were even possible. One of them took the rest of the body and added it to the hungry flames. Then, we all stood there and watched it burn.

Chapter
Forty-Seven

The waves lapped eagerly at the shore. I sat on one of the large rocks and listened to the sun coming up. This had always been my favorite part of the day.

I sighed softly. This sunrise seemed so different than any other I had ever seen. Perhaps it was because the night had been so long.

Marcus found a flat rock and flung it out into the water. I could still see the smoke from the shed in the distance, but the flames had long since died out.

“
Are you okay?” Marcus asked again.

I nodded, still not able to give him a brave smile. His eyes were clear again, maybe even lighter than before. His step was by far lighter, and although he wasn’t laughing yet, I knew he would again. So would I.

Just not yet.

I was thankful to Silango for one thing at least; that Marcus hadn’t really stayed in the fire to be burned up. Once again, his need to protect me over-rode all other thoughts.

“
Claudia,” he sat beside me on the rock, but didn’t take my hand. “You will be okay.”

“
I will,” I assured him.

“
It’s strange.”

“
What’s strange?”

“
To think that Silango is dead.”

“
After all these years, he was finally defeated.”

“
By a girl.”

“
And a third generation,” I added.

“
You never gave up on me.” He looked down at his feet.

“
I never will.”

“
I know,” he nodded.

“
You left the axe there by the tree.”

“
I heard you and…Sylvia talking about it–about killing Silango.” I flinched, too, when he said her name. “Even though I didn’t want you to follow through, I wanted you to at least stand a chance if you decided to anyways.”

“
You shouldn’t have tried to kill yourself,” I scolded.

“
I thought it was the only way. I wanted you to be able to live, in safety. I knew you could never do that with me still alive.”

“
I wouldn’t have been able to do that with you dead, either. He would have just sent someone else.”

“
Then, maybe it was just purely selfish.”

I looked back out at the rising sun. The rays glistened off the water like shards of glass. I had never been so close to the beach before. We were close enough to them in New York, but I had never felt a pull to go. Now I wondered why not. It was beautiful.

“
What do you think is going to happen now?” I asked quietly.

“
I don’t know.”

“
Will the warriors come for me still?”

“
No. I think they are relieved to be free as well. They owe you…so much.”

“
I only did it for me.”

He laughed once. “I don’t think you did.”

“
I did it so I could be with you.”

“
You thought I was dead.”

“
Then for revenge.”

“
Doesn’t sound like my Claudia.”

His Claudia? Marcus didn’t even know the woman I had become. I had learned a lot in the time we had been apart. I didn’t think I could go back to the same girl I was; I didn’t think I wanted to.

“
I want to stay in New York,” I told him.

“
In the city?”

“
I love the city. I have an apartment.”

“
A small apartment.”

“
I’m a small girl.”

He was quiet for a moment. I heard his feet sliding against the rock. He looked so sad. I wished I could hear what he was thinking. Surely the city wasn’t that bad.

“
Do you not want me with you?”

The question surprised me, not because he asked it, but because I didn’t know the answer to it. “I…uh…” I looked away from him. “You killed Sylvia.” I looked back when I didn’t hear a response. He was once again staring out at the water.

“
Something I can never fix.”

“
David will never forgive you.”

“
Will you?”

“
I love you,” I said sadly.

“
You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“
It’s um…everything.”

How many times had I declared my love to Marcus? So many times that I couldn’t begin to count them. Never once did I stop to think about what that really meant.

Love wasn’t something I could just turn on and off. No matter what he did, my heart never stopped loving him. I never really had a choice.

“
I love you, too.”

“
Do you, Marcus? Or do you just want to take care of me?”

“
Isn’t that a part of love?”

“
I can take care of myself, too.”

“
I can see that.”

“
I can hunt now. It’s so…different.”

“
I’m glad.” He smiled, but it didn’t go all the way to his eyes.

“
I’m not afraid anymore.”

“
You killed Silango.”

“
I know.”

I turned to look at him then. He was looking at me with his dark blue eyes shining with a hopeful love.

“
Can we stay in the city?”

“
If you want.”

I smiled and reached my hand out to him. He took it and pulled me down to where he sat, on a lower part of the rock. I fell safely into his side, finally starting to feel whole again.

“
I watched you,” he admitted with a shy smile.

“
The whole time?”

He pressed his lips together with a grin. “Yeah.”

“
So, you saw how mean Rueben was to me?”

He half chuckled with his hand close to his mouth. “He had to be.”

“
Did you tell him to be?”

“
No, I didn’t talk to him. I just watched.”

“
Why?”

“
I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“
I was so mad at you for not coming to get me.”

He took a deep breath. “It was the worst time of my life. I never want anything to separate us again.”

“
Nothing will. What possibly could?”

He smiled and pressed his face close to my neck. It tickled when he inhaled deeply. “I missed your smell.”

“
My smell?” I giggled and pushed his face away.

“
No way. I’ve had to live without you for too long. You’ll just have to endure me smelling you for a while.” He sniffed my hair, my shoulder, even my ear.

“
Marcus!” I tried to shove myself away from him, but he pulled me closer.

“
We have a lot of making up to do,” he murmured softly against my skin.

“
And we have a long, long time to do that.” I reminded him with a grin.

“
But first?” As always, he heard the thoughts that I didn’t say out loud.

“
I want to find Rueben and David.”

“
I’m sure that they are fine, my love.” His lips pressed against the soft skin of my neck, trying to distract me.

“
Rueben is my friend,” I insisted.

“
And my brother.”

“
Something was wrong with him before he left. He was in some sort of trouble.”

He sighed deeply and I suddenly realized he was hiding something from me. He knew where Rueben was and why he had disappeared. Why hadn’t he already told me?

“
I had a lot of other things on my mind,” he reminded me.

“
Where is he?”

“
I’m not sure where he is now, but I do know why he left.”

“
And?” I prompted when it seemed like he wasn’t going to elaborate.

“
Paris called me a few months ago. He said that he and Rueben had run into some trouble with Ryan.”

“
Ryan?”

“
Apparently, Ryan has relocated to the States and has gotten a rather big following.”

“
I haven’t heard anything about him.”

“
He’s causing a lot of problems.”

“
And Rueben thinks he has to take care of that?”

“
I don’t know all the details.”

“
Don’t hide things from me,” I warned.