Flight of Life (Essence Series #1) (34 page)

Breccan and Easton were fighting the
last two heathens, and Calloway interceded before Breccan was cut
by their blades. Calloway finished off the creature while Breccan
and Easton killed the last remaining Hara-Kir. Weston gripped her
throat as she watched the progression.

Their heavy breathing was amplified in
the small enclosure and they all stared at the corpses littered
across the floor as they caught their breath. The glowing orb was
still held in Calloway’s hand and it illuminated the room. Calloway
turned to Easton and looked at the gash in her arm. It was bleeding
profusely and needed to be covered. He grabbed a Hara-Kir’s cloak
from the ground and cut a chunk of material from the jacket then
wrapped it around her cut, applying pressure to the
wound.

“
Is anyone else injured?”
he asked.

“
I have a small cut but
I’ll survive,” Breccan whispered.

Calloway walked to Weston and examined
her throat. There were no bruises or markings on the skin. “Are you
okay?” he asked.

She stared at him for a long moment.
“Where did you get that?” she asked. She stared at the orb in his
hand then met his gaze.

Calloway didn’t answer. He wanted to
avoid this conversation but he didn’t have a choice—they would have
been killed if they didn’t have a light.

“
Calloway,” she
pressed.

“
I found it.”

“
Don’t lie to me,” she
said. She moved away from him and looked at the bodies on the
floor. “We need to hide the bodies—bury them.” Weston grabbed one
by the arm and dragged it outside and onto the lawn. The others
carried the remaining corpses to the field in the back of the
house. They found shovels that were mingled along with the rubble
and built a large hole in the ground. They rolled the bodies into
the crevasse and covered the corpses with a mound of
dirt.

Weston wiped her hands on her pants.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said.

They walked down the street back to
Breccan’s home in the distance. Calloway could tell how angry
Weston was just by looking at her tense frame. The Christmas lights
outside the houses twinkled in the night. The snowmen in the yard
waved at them with their electronic hands and the deer heads moved
up and down. Today was supposed to be a day away from his normal
life; one that Calloway could enjoy with his friends and family.
For once he didn’t want to be worried about the Hara-Kirs, school,
or money, but that day had been ruined. Now he was back to
reality.

Crumbled Walls

They returned to their seats by the
fireplace. Breccan cleaned Easton’s wound with alcohol then applied
pressure to the cut. Calloway watched his cousin attend to Easton
with tender care and knew Breccan really did care for her despite
their constant battles.

“
It’s going to be okay,”
Breccan whispered to her. He rubbed her shoulder and comforted
her.

Weston was staring at Calloway. He knew
how upset she was by the intensity of her look. Every emotion she
felt was reflected in her blue eyes, and Calloway could read her
thoughts and feelings when he stared directly at them. Even when
she was livid with anger she still looked perfect like a
painting.

“
What the hell is going
on, Calloway?” Weston asked.

He met her gaze. “I have no idea what
just happened. It was obviously a trap.”

“
Obviously,” she spat.
“What’s going on with
you
, Calloway?”

“
I don’t understand your
meaning.”

Weston eyes lit up in a blaze of anger.
“The Hara-Kirs enticed you into a trap but then they don’t lay a
finger on you. Not a single creature touched you, Calloway. When
you pulled the Hara-Kir off me he let you kill him. He didn’t fight
back at all.” She leaned closer to him and Calloway flinched at the
hostility in her voice. “And then you have a soul-trapping orb that
glows at your command, something I’ve never seen before. Obviously
you’ve been hiding a great deal of information and I want to know
why.” She grabbed his arm. “Now tell me.”

Easton looked at her sister. “We’re
just as clueless as you are,” she said. “The Hara-Kirs are drawn to
Calloway but they never hurt him. We’re still unsure why. Calloway
is just as clueless as we are, so you can stop yelling at
him.”

Weston looked at Calloway. “Where did
you get the orb?”

Calloway sighed. He didn’t want to
mention his father to Weston. Not because he didn’t trust her with
the information but because he was embarrassed that he didn’t know
anything about his own father. She would realize his dad never
cared for him. “It belonged to my father,” he said. He pulled the
picking knife from his pocket and placed it in front of her. “Along
with this.”

She grabbed the knife and studied the
blade. “What’s its purpose?”

“
It can unlock and lock
any door.”

She nodded. “And your father gave this
to you?”

“
I inherited it,” he said.
He didn’t want to mention the possibility that his father may still
be alive. It was too disturbing to discuss at this
moment.

“
And the orb as well?” she
asked.

Calloway nodded.

“
Can I see it?”

Calloway handed her the orb and she
squeezed it in her palm, but the light didn’t glow—it remained
dark. She stared at the ball for a long moment before she looked at
him. “How do you make it shine?”

“
Squeeze it,” he
said.

Weston clenched it again but nothing
happened. She handed it back to him. When Calloway squeezed the
orb, it lit the room with its glowing light and highlighted
Weston’s face.

“
Why does it only respond
to you?” she asked.

Calloway shrugged. “I was hoping you
knew.”

“
How did your father get
this?”

“
I have no idea,” he said
honestly. “I didn’t find them until after he died.”

“
These are soul trappers,”
she explained. “This is how the Hara-Kirs steal the essence from
humans. How could your father get one?”

“
He was fighting for our
cause,” Calloway said. “He probably took one from a dead
Hara-Kir.”

“
But this one is
different,” Weston said. “It only responds to you. The other orbs
we’ve come across do nothing of the sort.”

“
I don’t know,” Calloway
said. “I really don’t.”

Weston stared at him for a moment. “You
obviously do,” she said coldly. “The Hara-Kirs flock to you but do
not harm you. Now you have gifts from the Anti-Life that respond
only to your touch and your father somehow retrieved these items.
The meaning of these events may be unclear but there is no doubt
they are covered with malicious intent. Your father is a Hara-Kir
or works for their cause—and you are next. I was right not to trust
you.”

Calloway felt his heart fall as he
listened to her. Even though recent events suggested Calloway was
somehow connected to the Hara-Kirs, that didn’t mean he was in
league with them or even understood them. The assumption wounded
his soul. “Yes, you can,” he said quickly. “I have no idea what’s
going on. That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out. But I’m
committed to your cause, Weston. Please don’t doubt my
loyalty.”

“
Every orb we’ve come
across has been dark and lifeless because it only responds to the
Hara-Kir that possesses it. If this orb glows at your command,
you’re connected to the gift, probably because it was your
father’s.”

“
Are you suggesting that
Sven is a Hara-Kir?” Easton asked.

Weston didn’t remove her gaze from
Calloway. “Yes.”

“
That’s impossible,”
Easton said. “Calloway is human. A Hara-Kir can’t father a human
child. The idea is ludicrous, Weston.”

“
The other possibility is
that he traveled to the Anti-Life and retrieved the gifts. In
either case, he is a traitor,” Weston said.

“
You’re wrong,” Calloway
said. “He was fighting for our right to live—nothing else. My
father would do nothing less.”

“
How did he die?” Weston
asked.

“
He was mugged and
killed,” Calloway answered.

“
In Fresno?” she asked.
“That sounds like a bogus story.”

“
Don’t be rude,” Easton
snapped.

Weston turned to her sister. “I don’t
want you hanging around him anymore,” she said. “He can’t be
trusted. Stay away from him.”

Easton sat up and stared at her sister.
“No,” she said. “There’s nothing untrustworthy about him. You’re
just overreacting. If you really thought Calloway was dangerous or
untrustworthy you wouldn’t have returned to the house to begin
with. You wouldn’t be sitting so close to him. And if he was evil,
you would have noticed it sooner, Weston.

Weston stood up and stepped toward her
sister. “Open your eyes, Easton! The Hara-Kirs follow him and he
has Anti-Life gifts. His father was involved with their kind. All
the proof is right in front of you. He can’t be trusted, Easton.
He’ll kill you.”

The insult stung Calloway deeply. He
would never hurt any of his friends. He would rather die than let
harm come to someone he cared for. Since he’d spent so much time
with Weston, he assumed that she understood this—he was
wrong.

“
Shut up,” Easton snapped.
“Calloway would never do that. I trust him more than anyone—even
you. He’s my best friend. You aren’t thinking clearly. Even if
you’re right, and somehow Calloway’s father was involved with the
Anti-Life, that has nothing to do with Calloway. Are you going to
assume that he’s evil just because his father was? That’s prejudice
and discriminatory. Stop thinking in black and white, Weston.
Ignorance isn’t a good color on you.”

“
This is serious,” Weston
said. “You’re getting involved with something you have no knowledge
of. You have no idea what Calloway’s involvement is in
this.”

“
If you really thought
Calloway was a threat, you would just kill him, but I know you
won’t because you would have done it already. You just want to
avoid him because he might be associated with the Hara-Kirs, even
though he clearly isn’t.” Easton crossed her arms over her chest.
“So we just abandon him? Stay away from him because we’re unsure?”
Easton shook her head. “He’s just as confused as we are and he’s
trying to save the Life. He is no different from you and me. I
trust him with my life and will stand by him forever. Calloway is a
good person—the best I know—and I know where his heart is. I will
never stop talking to him or spending time with him. You’re wasting
your time.”

Weston sat down and sighed. She looked
at Calloway but he was staring at the floor, avoiding her gaze.
Calloway was lost in the dark, unsure which way was forward or
backward. He wanted to know what was going on with the Hara-Kirs
and he wanted to know about his father, but the revelation wouldn’t
change his beliefs. He was committed to protecting the Life and he
wouldn’t stop until it was saved.

“
I’m sorry, Calloway,”
Weston said. “It’s—just—hard for me to trust you. You’re a great
guy but my devotion is to the White Wing. This information,
although unfair and prejudice, changes everything. You will never
be accepted into our society because no one will look past these
facts. I’m sorry.”

“
Do you trust me?” he
asked. He met her gaze and stared at her for a moment. Their time
together had been brief but he felt connected to her in a special
way. He found it hard to believe that she didn’t feel it, too.
Calloway knew she trusted him—she should.

Weston was quiet for a moment. “I’m
sorry,” she whispered. “I can’t risk it.”

“
You can trust me,” he
said.

“
I know,” she said. “But I
can’t.” She turned to Easton. “I think it’s best if you stay away
from him.”

“
No,” Easton said. “I’ll
never do that.”

“
Not because Calloway will
hurt you, but because danger seems to follow him everywhere,”
Weston said.

“
That’s even better,”
Easton said. “We’ll be right in the fray.”

“
Easton—”

“
I’m not going to change
my mind. You may as well drop it.”

Weston sighed. “I hope you realize what
you’re doing.”

“
I do,” she said. “You’re
the one that doesn’t.”

The room fell silent and Calloway felt
the tension in the air. The holiday began with a joyous feeling and
now it spiraled into depression and darkness. The lack of belief in
him stung Calloway deeply. He admitted he was mixed up with forces
he didn’t understand and he was dangerous to be around, but
Weston’s abandonment wounded him. Since she was the leader of the
White Wing he understood why she had to be cautious, but her
outright refusal to trust him hurt. He proved his valor and worth
at every step of the way and he was being punished for something
out of his control—it wasn’t fair. It also hurt him that Weston
severed their relationship as quickly as it began. They were good
friends an hour ago and now they were mere
acquaintances.