Chapter 506
My alarm scared the living crap out of me when it went off a few hours later. I fumbled for it, knocking my phone off of my nightstand, out of reach of my grappling fingers. I continued to reach for it as the obnoxious noise blared through my room until I realized that I could turn it off with my mind—which I did. The silence was almost as deafening as the melody from my alarm.
I had been dreaming, but I couldn’t remember exactly what it had been about. I tried to go back over it, to conjure the images in my mind, but they were slow coming. I just remembered the unsettling feeling of being underground, of being alive, but in a narrow opening, lying on my back, with dirt and tree roots millimeters from my face. I couldn’t remember how it was I’d gotten there or anything else that happened before I found myself in the cold earth, but I did remember how uncomfortable it had been to think of the weight of all that ground dangling above me.
The thoughts had me feeling like dirt and bugs were crawling all over my body. Even though I was still tired, I flew out of bed—literally—and went straight to the shower. I brushed my teeth and did my business while I waited a few minutes for the water to warm up, and in that time, my mind wandered back to the day before.
A rush of thoughts jumbled together, and it took me a moment to sort them out. Eliza and those creatures. Cadence—why hadn’t she contacted me yet? Where was Christian? Had he found Daunator during the night? Was he all right? Oh, yeah, and that other thing.
My boyfriend had dumped me.
I stuck my hand under the water streaming out of the shower head. It was still a little chilly, so I headed back into the bedroom to decide what I was going to wear. I didn’t really have anything planned. I could go to the gym if I wanted to. I could stay here. I could do whatever I wanted because no one would be asking me to do anything.
Okay, maybe my friends might. But I didn’t have to plan my every move around them like I did when I had a boyfriend. I wanted the idea to feel freeing, but it felt lonely instead. I tossed a pair of black leggings, a T-shirt, and my underclothes on the bed so they’d be there when I was done in the shower and headed back to the hopefully now-warm water, hoping the shower would make me feel better.
It didn’t. My mind went back in time to the last instance when a boy had made me feel like this. He hadn’t been my boyfriend. Honestly, I’ve never had one of those before Brandon. Liam White had hurt me, though. When he’d asked Lucy to homecoming even though he’d been my study partner for ages. I thought for sure he liked me as much as I liked him, but he didn’t. He was just using me to get to Lucy.
I giggled a little bit when I remembered how Brandon had confronted him at that party, but even though that was funny, it also made me sad. Because Brandon had been in love with me even then. Now, whether he loved me or not, I wasn’t sure. I thought he did. But if I didn’t do something to fix this situation quickly, he wouldn’t.
The shower wasn’t helping, so I turned it off as soon as my hair and the rest of me was clean. I dried off quickly and headed into the bedroom to get dressed. After I threw some makeup on and chugged down a protein shake, I decided I needed to check on Christian.
He hadn’t contacted me. Frustrated, I leaned back on the couch, hoping that didn’t mean he’d gotten himself into trouble. I still had nothing from Cadence either, but I did have a message from Eliza. As much as I don’t like her, I was curious to know how things had gone after she got back to her headquarters the night before. Did she heal from the wounds those creatures made? Did she have any luck figuring out what they were?
“Hey, Eliza. I just got your message. How are you?” I asked, praying she was free and would answer me quickly since no one else was.
“I’m okay. Our Healer took a look at my scratches and bites and said they were clearing up on their own. There’s just a few little marks now. So you don’t have any idea what those things are? I tried to get Christian but couldn’t.”
That was alarming. I thought he’d answer her, even if he wouldn’t respond to anyone else. But then, if his IAC was completely off to avoid Aaron, then maybe he just hadn’t seen her message yet. “I don’t know what they are, but it’s good to know they can’t affect you. I wonder if it’s the same for Hunters.”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, sounding a little let-down that I hadn’t somehow figured out their origin overnight, while I was sleeping. “You heard from Christian?”
“No, and I haven’t dropped in on him yet either. But I will.”
“Okay. Will you let me know if he’s all right?”
“Sure.” I didn’t ask why she suddenly cared about anyone else’s well-being. “Does Mila have any leads on where we can start looking to figure out what those things are?”
“No, she sent the video to Hannah, but Hannah didn’t know either. I was hoping Christian might. Since we can’t get Aaron, I can’t think of anyone else who might know.”
I could think of a couple of people. Ward had been around a long time and knew things others didn’t. There was Schmitz. Alex might.... No, never mind. “I can ask Heather if you don’t mind me talking to her about it.” Heather had seen all sorts of things during her time in the portal, and she could jump minds almost as easily as I could now. There was a chance she could pick up on something I hadn’t gotten yet.
“Yes, whoever you think can help,” Eliza confirmed.
“Okay. Let me check in on Christian and then I’ll see when Heather’s free. I want to talk to her in person about it.” It would be so hard for me to explain it to her without sitting down with her, but a check of the time let me know she was at training right now.
“Great,” Eliza said, sounding more chipper than I could appreciate that early in the morning. I could see why her personality alone would become irritating after a while. “Talk to you soon.” She flipped her IAC off and I added talking to Heather to my list of things I needed to do that day.
