Page 59 of Caelum

TWENTY-SIX

DRE

The gates were open.

Wide open.

We only ever entered and exited that bad boy when we were inducted into the school and when we graduated. They were locked at all other times.

It made me wonder if the fleet of helicopters had been friendly, but Eren swore they’d been McAllister colors, and considering Juliet was a grade A bitch, as well as a ductor that would make a Spanish Inquisitor shiver and shake in his shoes, I could believe it.

Somehow, Caelum had been compromised.

Our location, a secret we protected with our lives, had been revealed to our worst enemies, and rather than helping out those who’d suffer if another attack came, we were sneaking out at dawn.

I hated myself for it and knew Stefan and the others weren’t happy about it either. But we had to get out of here. Had to get Eve off this island.

What she’d done?

The lives she’d saved?

She’d never be on the receiving end of anything other than distrust and dislike. She’d saved Caelum, kept it intact, and yet, if the truth of her nature was revealed, she’d be nothing more than a commodity.

Shit, we’d be nothing more than a commodity either.

We’d reaped the miracle too, and I still didn’t know how. None of it made sense .

“Why are the gates open?” Reed snarled.

Of us all, Reed and I were the least affected by the drugs now we’d slept off the worst of it. I figured that was because of our Shifter souls, whereas the others had different talents. Nestor was evidently still weakened from his assault because he was out like a light.

“I don’t know,” I replied, “but it looks like Caelum has a traitor.” That was the only reason that justified the gates being open—someone had unlocked them, just as a flock of Ghouls were flying in while the rest of us were sleeping off a ‘high.’ Coincidence? Highly unlikely.

Reed’s mouth tightened, and I nodded at him, my irritation and his on the same page. The very fact we were leaving now made us look guilty, and I could only pray this shit didn’t fall back on us at a later stage. For the moment, there was nothing I could do other than carry on with our original plan, but it grated on me.

God, how it did.

I hauled Eve closer to me, while Reed did the same with Nestor. My brother wouldn’t appreciate Reed hauling him around, but Nestor was a heavy motherfucker, and as strong as I was, gouille s were just as heavy as Hell Hounds. It only fit that Reed hoisted him around.

When Reed crossed through the gates, there was no visible sign of reaction. Nor for Nestor either. No electrical zapping sounds as they were fried by the portal, which was the reason for Caelum’s existence in the first place.

Licking my lips, I headed through the portal, and even though I didn’t feel it myself, that didn’t mean I didn’t sense it secondhand.

Eve’s body felt as though it were charged with a lightning bolt. Against me, she stiffened so quickly and so rigidly, I almost dropped her. Clinging to her to spare her from a nasty and unnecessary fall to the ground, I dragged her across the threshold. It was a matter of taking two steps, and yet it felt like I had to run a ten-mile race.

By the time I made it to the other side, I was out of breath and panting. My Pack looked at me, but I shook my head. We could talk about this later after Reed guided us to a cave he knew where we were going to hide out until a boat came for us.

Though I was exhausted after being drugged and then going through the gate, I maintained the same pace as the others. We hauled ass to the other side of the island with only Nestor and Eve passed out.

Slipping down the cliff face was dangerous with our burdens, but Reed and I were limber, and we descended to the shoreline like the mountain goats we weren’t.

By the time we made it into the damp cave, the sun was rising. Samuel, upon awakening, had contacted his boat, and they were sending a smaller dinghy to come and grab us from the coordinates he sent just before he came and hid in the cave with us.

We had a long day ahead of us just hanging around in here, wondering what the fuck was happening back at Caelum, and if anyone had woken up yet to figure out what had gone down.

But Caelum wasn’t our priority anymore.

With our seven wishes granted, and her eight souls, Eve had just saved hundreds of lives.

That kind of power?

It was ripe for manipulation.

She needed us to protect her, to guard her against those who would want to use and abuse her gifts, and for the first time since I’d met her, I was ready for the task.

She’d brought my bear to me years ahead of schedule, and I’d yet to thank her for that. Truth was, it was nearly two weeks now since she’d done that, and I was still processing what had happened.

The bear was changing me. Shaping me into a better man. One who might, one day, deserve Eve as a Chosen.

The cave stank of dank water and seaweed. There was a sandy base so we could get slightly comfortable, but it wasn’t like sinking back onto our sofas in the common room as we ought to be doing right about now.

Everything had changed and only we were aware of it.

With Samuel having hauled his ass back inside now that the coordinates were with the captain of his ship, Frazer rasped, “What the fuck happened at the portal?”

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “It was like she got struck with a cattle prod.”

The six of us—Nestor was still out for the count—frowned down at the woman slumped in my arms. As we watched, I saw something begin to shimmer to life on her hand.

At first, I thought it was a play of light, a bug on her hand that the faint rays of the sun was making iridescent.

But then I saw it and my nostrils flared.

I grabbed her jacket and began hauling the sleeves down her arms, revealing branches loaded with leaves that swirled around and around: first, one hand, then up her forearm and along her bicep before it streamed over her chest, meeting at her collarbone, then taking off down her other arm. But where the ‘light’ coalesced on her torso, it burst out, wider and wider until a canopy was formed .

It was wrong when she was unconscious, but I grabbed her shirt and opened the buttons so we could see what was happening to her.

By the time her flesh was revealed to us, creamy mounds my hands itched to shape, they were covered by a tree.

“A fucking tree?” I rasped and saw everyone else looked just as confused.

The light pulsed for a handful of seconds, as though determined for us to remember it, and then it blinked out of existence. Her hands and arms, however, remained inked. As I peered down at them, I saw that each leaf was made up of a word. Tiny letters marked her in tongues , but I didn’t understand them, not a single word.

After that, most of us just fell silent. We didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on, and there was no point in even trying to gather our thoughts when we were on borrowed time.

Once we were on the boat, once Eve was away from Caelum, we’d be able to breathe easier, regroup, and then settle on our next step.

But until then, all we could do was breathe and try to strengthen up with some sleep, which is what we did.

When Samuel’s phone buzzed, I awoke and knew most of the Pack did too. Nestor was awake at last, but Eve wasn’t. She was still slumped in my arms, and even though I’d enjoyed the armful, and had been surprised one of the others hadn’t tried to take her from me, I would have preferred she be awake.

“Another forty minutes until sunset,” Samuel rasped as he stared down at the screen of his cell.

I peered out of the cave’s mouth and nodded my agreement with that. Purple and orange, pink and gold had morphed into one large patchwork quilt that was growing darker with every minute.

Clambering to my feet meant passing Eve over to Reed, who held her to him like she was a living, breathing teddy bear. I let him, was grateful for how long I’d got to hold her—a thought I’d never imagined crossing my mind before today—and straightened with a groan.

As the sun died, we headed outside. The purr of a dinghy made itself known to us, and as we stared out to sea, I saw a flick of a torch that guided our path.

Within ten minutes, we were on board, Eve was in Eren’s arms this time, and I had my back to my brothers as I gazed out into the distance.

Caelum was there, and the lights were blazing.

They were alive.

They were aware .

And they were a danger to us.

The haven, which had been inside that building, was no more—my life up until that point was no more.

I turned my back on the past, literally and figuratively, then twisted so I could look at Eve. She’d finally begun to stir, almost as though she knew the danger was a little less imminent and she was safe to awaken.

As her eyes flickered open, they snared mine like a hunter’s trap would snare a rabbit.

Behind me was the past, and right ahead of me?

The future.