Raelia (The Medoran Chronicles Book 2) (28 page)

She took it from him gratefully and swallowed it in one go. Her pain disappeared almost immediately and her muscles instantly relaxed. Jordan then pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her. He held her tight against his trembling body, causing Alex to realise just how much she must have worried him.

When he dropped his arms, he moved his hands to her shoulders and looked her sternly in the eyes. “You better not pull a stunt like that
ever
again.”

“I couldn’t just leave her, Jordan,” she said quietly. “I promised.”

He sighed and released her to run his hands through his hair. “I know. But you have no idea what it was like watching you out there. That was just… I don’t even know what to say! I’m supposed to be looking out for you. Dix will
kill
me when she finds out about this. And Bear will find a way to revive me only so he can kill me again. Either way, I’m a dead man. And rightly so.”

Alex couldn’t bring herself to feel annoyed by his overprotective nature, so she smiled reassuringly and said, “They won’t be able to kill you if they don’t find out. It can be our little secret.”

Jordan huffed out a disbelieving breath, but when she nudged him with her elbow he smiled back at her.

“Eugh. You two are so gag-worthy,” Skyla said. “How long have you been together, anyway?”

“Pipe down, Blondie,” Pipsqueak said, her expression dazed from the relaxant. “Love is a beautiful thing. I think they’re adorable.”

Alex looked at Jordan in mortification.

“That’s not a very nice face, sweetheart,” Jordan said jokingly as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He smirked at her when she shot him a disgruntled look and tried to struggle out of his grasp.

“We are
not
having this conversation,” Alex informed everyone. “But, for the record, Jordan is one of my best friends. Emphasis on
‘friend’
. I can’t believe that after what we’ve just gone through, you’re all wondering about something as unimportant as my love life!”

“So you
do
have a love life?” Skyla asked eagerly.

“Unbelievable,” Alex muttered, and she turned away from them and stalked over to where someone had placed her backpack. She pulled out her water bottle and took a swig, waiting for the conversation to move on before she joined them again.

“They’re just trying to ease the tension.”

Alex glowered sullenly at Kaiden when he knelt beside her and reached for his own water.

“I don’t see how asking about my relationship status helps,” she said. “And it’s none of their business, anyway.”

“It was only Skyla and Pip who asked,” Kaiden pointed out. “The former we know is an airhead, and the latter is currently as high as the clouds. Maybe give them a little leeway, considering.”

“I had no idea the spray would do that to her,” Alex admitted, her annoyance dissolving as the horror of the memory caught up to her. “She wouldn’t do anything. It was like she couldn’t hear me. I thought if I got her to calm down, she’d be able to move again. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You were incredible,” Kaiden said, holding her gaze. “What you did was amazing.”

“She
fell
because of what I did,” Alex said, remembering the terrifying moment when Pip dropped from the rope. “She could have died.”

Kaiden reached out to rest his hand on top of hers. “You caught her.”

“I was stupid.”

“You were
brave
.”

Looking into his serious eyes, she almost believed him. “We would’ve fallen if you hadn’t come to help,” she whispered.

“I don’t believe that. You would’ve found a way to get both of you safely across.”

Alex had no response for that, and she lowered her gaze to look at his hand still covering her own. He squeezed lightly and only let go at the sound of someone clearing their throat.

“We—Uh—We should probably get going,” said Tom, shuffling his feet and looking uncomfortable.

Alex watched as he hurried off to round up the others, and she turned to look at Kaiden questioningly. “What’s up with him?”

Kaiden bit back a smile and rose to his feet, helping her up with him. Despite his amused expression, he didn’t answer her question. Instead, he told her something else.

“We found Hunter’s next arrow while we were waiting for everyone to cross.”

“Fantastic,” Alex muttered. “Do we get to throw ourselves off another cliff?”

Kaiden glanced at her. “Don’t even joke about that.”

“Too early?”

“Definitely. And don’t get me started on your ‘hanging in there’ comment.”

She laughed lightly and ignored the playful glare he sent her. “I was quite proud of my wit at the time.”

He shook his head at her and she was denied a response when the rest of their classmates came over to collect their backpacks. Pipsqueak was humming quietly to herself and Alex felt a pang of concern.

“How long until she’s normal again?”

“Depends,” Tom answered. “Usually people sleep it off.”

“So, we have to wait until she wakes up tomorrow?” Alex clarified.

At Tom’s nod, Jordan dryly said what they were all thinking. “This should be fun.”

The sarcasm wasn’t lost on any of them. Well, except for Pipsqueak.

“Fun?” she asked, jumping into the conversation. “I love fun. What’re we gonna do that’s fun? Another race?”

“No, definitely not,” Kaiden said quickly.

“That’s not very fun at all,” Pipsqueak said with a pout.

“We need to move,” Declan intervened. “I reckon we only have another hour or so before it’s too dark to see.”

“Where’s the arrow?” Alex asked, looking around for Hunter’s sign.

“Over here,” Jordan said, leading the way along the edge of the ravine.

When they were all standing around the arrow—but keeping their distance from the edge of the mountain—Tom reached out to grab the paper. His brow furrowed in confusion as he read.

“What does it say?” Declan asked.

Tom held the paper out so they could all lean in and read it.

Time to swim. Don’t forget your raft.
And sweet dreams.

“What does that—”

The rest of Alex’s sentence was drowned out as the ground rumbled beneath them and an entire portion of it corroded under their feet, dissolving away into nothing…

… And they plummeted down into the ravine far, far below.

Fifteen

Their screams filled the air as they
fell faster and faster. Alex knew none of them would survive the fall, even if they managed to avoid hitting the rocks in the river below. They were too high for the impact not to kill them.

She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, but when her torso was suddenly yanked upwards, she shrieked and opened them again, and was astonished by what she was seeing.

Her classmates’ backpacks had each released a parachute, and those parachutes were easing them safely to the ground.

Alex let out an incredulous laugh, and she heard some of the others joining her.

“Everyone okay?” Declan yelled over the sound of the wind and the churning water below.

Alex couldn’t hear everyone’s responses clearly, but it looked like they were all fine. Pipsqueak in particular seemed to be having a grand old time.

As they sailed closer to the water below, Alex began to worry about what would come next.

“Declan!” she yelled. She had to call out twice more before he heard her.

“Yeah?” he yelled back.

“The raft! You have to inflate the raft!”

He couldn’t hear her over the noise, so she tried to mime it out for him. Her attempt failed miserably, so she spelled out the
word R-A-F-T in the air. After a few repeats, his eyes widened with realisation and he looked at the crashing rapids below them.

Since his backpack was acting as a parachute, Alex could see he was struggling to reach around and get the raft out. By his third attempt, she was nervously watching the river come closer and closer. When she was low enough to feel the spray on her face, she heard Declan’s victorious exclamation, but that was all she knew before her parachute unattached itself and she fell the remaining distance into the icy mountain river.

Submerged, Alex was tossed and turned as the current dragged her along, unable to draw breath as she was churned through the rapids. Just when she began to fear losing consciousness from oxygen deprivation, something yanked hard on her pack, and she was pulled roughly out of the water and over the side of the inflated raft. After coughing the river out of her lungs and inhaling some much needed air she was able to see that all her waterlogged classmates were already in the vessel, grasping onto the rope-handled sides.

“Can somebody please tell me what this nightmare has to do with Stealth and Subterfuge?” she asked through chattering teeth.

No one could answer her. They all held on for dear life as the raft moved them swiftly along the rapids.

After about half an hour of mind-numbing bumps and repeated body-soaking splashes, the river calmed and they slowed to a more comfortable pace.

“Everyone alive?” Tom asked, uttering the first words any of them had spoken since Alex’s outburst upon entering the raft.

Once they’d all acknowledged they were okay—relatively speaking—they decided to make the most of their situation and eat some dinner. The sun was disappearing behind the mountains surrounding them and very soon they would have no light left. That thought alone caused Alex to shiver, and the
chill left over from the icy water didn’t help her lack of warmth. She was
really
cold.

“Here, Alex,” Kaiden said, and when she turned his way, he blew some kind of glittery, gold dust into her face.

She sneezed twice before wrinkling her nose at him. “Why did you…?”

Alex paused mid-question when she felt the most pleasantly warm feeling rush around her body. An instant later, every part of her—including her hair, clothes and backpack—was completely dry.

Her mouth dropped open and Kaiden grinned at her. “My turn.”

He handed her a small metal tin filled with glittering dust that she recognised from her medical kit. She looked around and saw that everyone was using the powder in the same way, so she dropped some of it into her hand and, after hesitating only a moment, blew it into Kaiden’s face.

He closed his eyes as the warmth enveloped him, and just like Alex, a moment later he was dry.

“What
is
this stuff?” she asked, her voice full of wonder.

“Quick-Dry,” Kaiden answered. “You’ve never used it before?”

“Never,” Alex admitted as she handed the container back to him.

“That’s weird,” Kaiden said, but he left it at that, much to Alex’s relief.

The group ate their meagre dinner of camping rations in silence as they drifted along the river. By the time they’d finished eating there was almost no light left.

“How are we supposed to see the next arrow?” Skyla asked.

“I think we’ve had all the instructions we’re going to get for the day,” Declan said. “Hunter’s last note had ‘sweet dreams’ at the end. I’m guessing we’re supposed to sleep here.”

“As in,
here
?” Skyla gestured around them. “But we’re floating. What if I sleepwalk? I’ll end up in the river!”

They all stared at her, until Tom asked what they were all wondering. “Do you sleepwalk often?”

Skyla tilted her head in puzzlement. “Should I?”

Alex had to stifle a laugh at the baffled look on Skyla’s face.

“Well, no, hopefully you shouldn’t,” Tom said, looking around for help from the others.

“Then of course I don’t,” Skyla said. “Honestly, the questions you people ask!”

“But, you’re the one who said—” Tom began, but Alex interrupted his frustrated words.

“I think you’ll be fine, Skyla. We won’t let you fall into the river, whether you sleepwalk or not.”

“But I don’t sleepwalk,” Skyla said with genuine confusion.

Jordan wasn’t the only one who tried to turn his amusement into a half-convincing cough.

“I’m tired,” Pipsqueak broke in, changing the course of the conversation.

“Pip’s right,” Declan said. “I know it’s early, but we’ve all had an insane day. We should get some shut-eye, especially if tomorrow is anything like today.”

Alex agreed wholeheartedly. The events of the day had successfully spiked her adrenaline enough to keep her exhaustion at bay, but her week of limited sleep was crashing dow

The raft was large enough that they could all comfortably lie down even with its heavily inflated sides. Alex pulled her sleeping bag from her backpack and snuggled inside it, and she had only a few moments of consciousness left to say goodnight before she drifted off to sleep.

“Alex, wake up.”

Something was nudging her but she wasn’t ready to pull herself from her blissful slumber.

“Alex?”

“Maybe if I blow my morning breath in her face she’ll wake up?”

“Didn’t you see how exhausted she was last night, Blink? Just give her a moment.”

“No sweat, bro. Just a suggestion.”

Alex wanted to roll over to stop the annoying voices buzzing in her ears so she could go back to sleep. But they continued talking and her consciousness came slamming back when she remembered where she was. Her eyes snapped open and she sat up with a gasp—which turned into a painful moan when she smacked heads with Jordan.