Forbidden (The Seeker Saga, #2) (14 page)

Eve paused for a long, uncomfortable moment.  “I haven’t even had a chance to talk to them yet,” she admitted.  “But if I ask… I think so.”

“How soon?”

“Tonight,” she said solidly.  Her confidence had returned.  “We can go tonight.”

“I don’t think we have any other choice,” I said.

Eve sighed, nodded, and took my hand.  Together we started for the woods.  The downpour continued to slam into us.  My hair clung to my head. There wasn’t a single part of me that was still dry.  At least the trees would provide some shelter from the rain.  But would they protect us from the men garbed in black?

Chapter Eight – The Dark of Despair

It seemed like a long time before the rest of the girls arrived.  The sun inched closer and closer to the horizon in the interval.  While Eve and I waited, I found myself jumping at every sound around me.  Branches whipping overhead, the wind swooshing through the trees, squirrels running to find shelter – all the regular forest noises now held the promise of an undiscovered threat. 

Finally, we heard somebody making her way through the forest. I clutched at my crystal, ready to link to it, when I heard Ashley’s voice ring out.

“Eve?  Tracy?”

“We’re over here!” Eve cried back.

The other three girls approached.  I couldn’t see anything except the general shapes of their bodies through the dark.  Suddenly a light came on. I had to squeeze my eyes shut to protect them from the sensitivity.  I blinked a few times, and finally saw that Liz held a small electric lantern in her hands, like a miniature version of the one that Rob had in the caves.

“Is it true?” Madison asked worriedly.  “There were men in your room?”

“I don’t know who they were,” I answered. “But yes.  I don’t think any of us are safe here anymore.”

“No,” Liz replied.  “Definitely not.”

“I have some good news,” Eve announced suddenly.

The four of us answered as one.  “Yes?”

“I called in a favor from a guy I know.  He said he can get us off the island tonight.”

“So that’s it, then?” Madison muttered.  “We’re going?”

“It’s not like we have any choice!” Eve defended.  “And it wasn’t easy convincing him to take us in this weather—or on such short notice!”

“Who
is
the guy?” I wondered aloud.

Surprisingly, I thought I saw Eve’s cheeks turn red.  “Nobody,” she said quickly.  “Just someone I know.”  She cleared her throat, and addressed the three girls who had just joined us.  “Well?  What did you guys find about our professor?”  The conversation segue wasn’t smooth, but it worked well enough to focus us on something else.

“Not much,” Ashley said.  “Arthur Eliot’s a professor at Harvard.  We found a list of his research papers.  Most of them have something to do with geology.  But they’re all behind a pay wall, so we couldn’t access any of them.  Strangely, there was no mention of the one we found.”

“Do you still have it?” I asked Liz.

She inclined her head slightly.  “Safe under my jacket,” she said, “wrapped in a plastic bag against the rain.”

“Good,” I said. 

An animal howled in the distance, causing all of us to jump.  I could keep telling myself that nobody knew we were here, that we were safe in the woods, but no matter how much I repeated it and logically understood the rationale behind it, I just couldn’t make myself remain calm.  I took selfish solace in seeing the other girls act the same.

“So now what?” Madison asked.  “If we’re going tonight, we’ll need to pack—”

“Are you crazy?” Eve demanded.  “Did you not hear what Tracy just told you?  There were men in her room!  None of us can go back to the rooms now!”

“Sorry,” Madison said meekly.  “I didn’t mean—”

“That’s fine,” Liz said comfortingly, and shot a hard glance at Eve.  “You don’t need to scare her!  We’re all on edge here without you making it worse!”

“Making it…
worse
?” Eve repeated too softly.  “I’m the only reason,” she began, her voice rising, “that any of us even has a chance of getting off this damn island in one piece!”

“There’s no need to yell,” I said, trying to diffuse the situation, but nobody paid me any mind.  Instead, Liz rounded on Eve.

“Don’t get full of yourself,” she warned.  “We’re not off yet, and a lot can still go wrong.  We can’t go presuming things will all work out.  In fact, they probably
won’t
.  But, that doesn’t mean we have the freedom to scream at each other!” she finished with a yell, rendering her statement completely hollow.

Eve glared at Liz, and was about to say something when I stepped between them.  “Guys, we can’t afford to fight now.  If we do, we not only lose precious time, but we give our enemies an advantage.  We’re strongest when we’re
together
,” I stressed.  After a moment, Eve grunted and looked away.  Liz looked at me and nodded sourly.  “Now,” I said, feeling a small bit of pride at having diffused the situation, “we have to figure out what to do about Rob.”

To my utter dismay, that opened up a whole new can of worms.

“What does Rob have to do with any of this?” Ashley demanded.

“We have to tell him what’s going on,” I said.  “We can’t just leave him in the dark.”

“What do you mean,
tell him
?” Liz asked.

“About everything,” I said.  “About the crystals, and what we can do.  Who we are.  He has to know what our enemies know.”

“What are you talking about?” Ashley asked forcefully.  “We swore an oath.  We can’t tell anyone about the crystals, least of all
Rob
!”

“We can if we all decide to do it,” I said.

“No,” Liz shook her head.  “There’s no way we’re telling him about the crystals.”

“He doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Madison offered. 

“Nothing to do with it?” I questioned.  “He has everything to do with it!  He’s been down there in the caves the entire day watching
our
prisoner!”

“The less he knows,” Ashley said, “the better off he is.”

“How can that possibly be true?” I demanded.

“Tracy, he really
doesn’t
have anything to do with this,” Liz repeated.

“He saved me!” I countered.  “He has
everything
to do with it.”

“Oh, you just have your little crush on him,” Liz spat.

“I do not!” I defended vehemently.  I usually considered myself level-headed, but the random accusation set me off.  “Besides, it’s not like he belongs to you!”

 “Oh?” Liz asked dangerously. Immediately I sensed a poignant shift among the girls.  Had I inadvertently brought up a touchy subject?  Liz took an ominous step toward me.  She opened her mouth. Before she had a chance to say what she wanted, Eve, who had sat back quietly, decided now was the best time to voice her opinion.

“I think Tracy’s right,” she said simply.

“What?” Ashley and Liz demanded as one.

“Rob deserves to know.”  Eve had regained the composure she had lost.  “He’s earned our trust.”

“You’re…
agreeing
with Tracy?” Ashley said.  There was clear incredibility in her voice.

“Yes,” Eve said.  “Tracy’s the only one of us who has a level head on her shoulders.  She’s shown it throughout this entire mess.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s right,” Liz said.  She glanced at me, and I could tell whatever animosity had built up between us was dissipated.  “The secret can’t be let out,” she explained. “The more people know, the more dangerous things become.”

“Things are dangerous for him, too!” I said.

“I know,” Liz said.  “And that’s why we can’t tell him.  Not knowing can keep him safe.”  She put a hand on my shoulder.  “Trust me.  I care about him, too.  We all do.  But the less he knows, the safer he really is.”

“Besides,” Ashley said, “once we leave the island, he’ll still be here.  And, in the off chance that whoever knows about us connects us to him, he won’t have anything to tell them.  He really will be safer in ignorance.”

I looked at Eve, who shrugged. 
That
was some kind of twisted logic.  A small part of me agreed.  Another part, the more emotionally-driven and much louder part, vehemently disagreed.  Rob had a right to know what we were up against.  But I couldn’t go against the girls.

“So if we can’t agree to tell him about the crystals,” I said finally, “we can still tell him about the other men in my room.”

“That’s fine,” Liz said.  After a moment, Ashley and Madison murmured their agreement. 

“Then it’s beyond time we go do that,” Eve said.  “I don’t know about you, but I don’t like standing out here in the dark.  That lantern makes it even worse.  It’s like a beacon for anyone looking for us.”

“You’re right,” Liz agreed, and switched the lantern off.  It took a few moments for my eyes to readjust to the dark.  Thankfully, it wasn’t full night just yet, so a little of the forest remained visible.

We started toward the cave bunched together.  Everyone was hunched over, trying to protect herself from the rain, while at the same time keeping a wary eye on the surroundings.  I knew we couldn’t expect to find anyone out here. But, it never hurt to be cautious.

The rain had softened the forest floor, turning what used to be hard soil into dirty mud.  It made for slow going.  And, as I was the least experienced with this sort of terrain, I found myself lagging behind the girls.  As long as I could see them, though, I didn’t mind. 

Nobody said a word as we walked toward the cave.  We all had things on our minds. Sometimes, it was just best to ruminate on your thoughts.  The forest canopy in some places did a better job of shielding us from the rain than at others. A reprieve from the downpour was always welcome. 

I took a careless
step forward, not really paying attention to where I was going, and felt my foot sink deep into a pit
of mud.  The muck rushed around my calf, collapsing around my ankle and sliding into my boot.  The girls were ahead of me, and none had noticed my trouble.  I tried to pull my foot out, but the vacuum that had been created was too strong.  I knew I had to ease it out.  I opened my mouth to call for the girls to wait, when a loud rustle sounded behind me.

I spun on the spot, and at the same time let the surge of power flow through my crystal.  The blue light burst forth from my neck, coating the entire forest in the eerie glow.  Time stood still as my eyes searched the foliage for the source of the noise.  It didn’t take long for me to find it.  The sound had come from the shadow of a man.

I could feel my mind link to the surroundings.  The crystal was responding to me again, listening to me again, and giving me the precious feedback about everything around me.  I could feel the connections between the elements, feel the flow of power that ebbed and flowed through everything around me.  I could, for the first time since that life changing night in the caves,
manipulate
things around me.

The man was too far away for me to see him clearly.  Shadows hid his face.  But, I felt, at that very moment, an unusual malevolence resonating from him—a very threatening malevolence.

I felt the earth beneath my feet through the crystal.  I was linked to it, connected through the crystal. There was undeniable energy there.  Energy I could manipulate.  Energy I could use against the man.  I searched for a suitable portion of earth and found it.  Just in front of the man was an unstable rock formation.  I directed all the energy of the crystal at it.  Satisfied that it had been enough, I released my hold on the crystal, and let reality catch up to what I’d done.

An earsplitting roar thundered underground. The earth erupted at the man’s feet.  He had no chance.  His body was thrown into the air like a rag doll.  The man flew with mind-bending velocity, slamming heavily into the trunk of a tree.  He slid down and collapsed lifelessly at the bottom.  Behind me, one of the girls shrieked.

I realized I was breathing hard.  The crystal felt warm against my skin.  I saw a blur of motion at my side. I glanced over in time to realize it was Ashley running to the man.

“Wait!” Liz screamed, but Ashley was already beside him.  My mind was on overdrive.  I watched the surroundings for anybody else.  But I knew there was nobody there.  I would have felt them when I was linked to the crystal.

“Oh no!” Ashley started to say.  “Oh no, oh no, oh no!  No, no, no…!”

“What?” I said.  I fought to get my foot unstuck.  The other girls rushed to Ashley while I struggled.  Finally, I just pulled my foot out of the boot and ran over to them.  “What is it?”

“This!” Ashley exclaimed.  She held the man’s head up toward me.  Even in the low light, I recognized his features.  A sinking feeling blossomed in my stomach.  The man was not an enemy at all.  He was not dangerous at all.  He was Mr. Stannis, my science teacher.

“Oh, my God!” Madison cried out.  “Tracy, what did you do?”