She could feel what a good man he was, and she wished he could understand. “I don’t need them to save me. I can save myself,” she shouted.
Amanda felt Madgie’s presence upon them but still she couldn’t see the tall thin woman.
“S-B! Get out of here. Go, now!” Madgie’s voice commanded.
Amanda looked down and saw a figure crumpled on the floor and let out a cry. “Madgie!” She reached down to her friend. Cole was still with her, holding her tight.
“Amanda, make sure you have a good hold on her and grab the portal,” he said quietly.
She didn’t make a move to grab it, too shocked at the appearance of the classroom. It no longer held any resemblance to those she’d grown and studied in, it looked like a war zone. Flames hungrily licking their way across every surface, burning as much as the visceral hatred being directed at her.
“Now!” he urged.
Amanda slipped her hand around the warm speck of energy. Her heart flew to the back of her chest, and the hooded figures around them froze in place. Her fluttering heart ceased to beat when she saw the shimmering ball of energy that was inches from Cole’s sculpted face. He could have died. The thought of never again seeing his bright eyes shining down at her tore a hole in her chest. She never knew she needed to see his smile every day to be happy. Panic took her as she worried that they should have been taken somewhere by now. Then, there was an incredible pressure on her chest, and the air came rushing out of her lungs. As her feet flew off the floor, she caught a glimpse of a meaty hand around Madgie’s ankle.
“No!” Amanda yelled as her hand led the way into the space between here and there.
Smoke swirled in mocking circles where the prisoners and Carter had been.
“They’re gone?” Frey asked, unbelieving. The Ancients will be furious, he thought, letting out a psychotic shriek that rattled the Guard members around him. “How can they have gotten past all of us?” He turned to face the men he was addressing.
Out of all of the Healers who could have been causing this trouble, it had to be her!
Seeing her stunned face just before she’d been swept away took him back to a cold night two years ago… when she’d come back to the Hovel…
He wasn’t as high ranking then and still objectified to boring perimeter guard around the outside of the Hovel. He hated it, not just because it was boring, but also because Chicago was bitter cold in the winter. It wasn’t snowing. It felt too cold to snow. The air was still, and suspended in it were small bits of frost catching the streetlights and shining like glitter. He exhaled and watched as his cloud of breath stirred the shimmering ice in the air into a frenzy. Just as he was readying to turn, something or more accurately someone caught his eye. A small dark figure was walking toward the Hovel with weak but determined steps. He sensed that whoever approached was a Healer, not the regular human drifter he usually spotted on duty. The Hovel was located in a mostly industrial part of town and looked like nothing more than a well-kept factory from the outside. It was way past lock down, so whoever this was had broken the rules. Which allowed him to have some enjoyment at this tardy person’s expense. After all, it was his job to enforce the rules.
As the shivering person continued to approach, he realized it was a female Healer and a young one too. This was going to be fun. When the girl was twenty feet away, he called out to her in his most authoritative voice. “Halt!”
She turned her head up toward the noise. He gasped when he recognized her face. It was Amanda Cates, the girl who had caused so much trouble for the Ancients, the deserter who many Healers, including people close to him, were secretly obsessed with. She’d made a public choice to leave, and her choosing something other than what they’d told her stuck in their minds. Even though most were good at hiding it from everyone, he saw through their masks.
She stood as still as she could manage through the involuntary shivers that rocked her body. Her ragged breaths hung in clouds above her before disappearing into nothing. She was much skinnier than he remembered, but she was still remarkably beautiful. Her large blue eyes were as bright as his mind’s memory of her, though somehow filled with much more sadness. She wasn’t dressed for the weather at all, making him think her return was either a spur of the moment decision or one made out of desperation.
“It’s you.” he snapped. Maybe I should show her just how much she was missed, Frey mused.
Her eyes looked tired, which was good. He didn’t want her to put up too much of a fight and just getting here looked like it had taken all of the fight out of her. Maybe she won’t even scream. Other Guards were on duty, and nine out of ten would just join him in his games, but there were a few…
“What’s going on here?” a voice behind him asked.
Frey turned and saw Joseph, a Sergeant.
Dang it! he thought, knowing he’d just pulled the one out of ten who wouldn’t let him have fun.
Joseph took off his grey coat, fastened it around Amanda, and escorted her inside, never taking his eyes off Frey. He hated how Joseph looked at him as if he could read his mind.
She’d gotten away then, though she might not have known it, and she’d gotten away again.
A hand patted his shoulder comfortingly. “It is okay, son, the Ancients will find her and set her free.”
Frey turned to the kindly Healer who had followed the swarm of grey to help, not understanding that running away from these men was a wiser choice and put a sharp finger in his face. “This is your fault, Danimir!” he spat, his wide eyes crazed.
“I-I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean…” he stuttered. “Not as sorry as you will be.”
Amanda landed awkwardly on the ground, which was covered with tall grass and large rocks. She attempted to realign her senses. It was cool, and she tasted sweet, moist air on her tongue. Amanda opened her eyes to see rolling hills and valleys surrounded by jagged misty mountains. In the far distance, she could see steps of rice beds cut into the landscape. The uneven earth was blanketed in twisting cypress trees and walls of bamboo. Beautiful sheets of pink against the green hillsides told her that the plum blossoms were in bloom. Where was she, and more importantly, where were Cole and Madgie?
She tried to stand up but was too dizzy and fell back to the earth. “Cole! Madgie!” Amanda whispered, looking around desperately. She tried to stand once again and this time she succeeded. “Cole!” Amanda called out more loudly. Hearing something rustling behind her she turned around swiftly.
Cole was shaking his head, dark curls full of grass. He smiled, and her heart skipped a beat.
“Wow. We’re not dead. What are the chances?”
She smiled at him and then remembered Madgie. “Cole, is Madgie near you?”
He looked around and shook his head. “No, but we need to find her. I think she was stunned by one of their orbs. I don’t think it was one that Frey or Carter threw, which is lucky. Those crazy jerks meant to kill us,” he said as he stood up and moved to her side.
Cole reached over and picked up her hand. She looked down at the gesture, wondering how something so simple could make her feel so whole. It’s just a hand. His hand. Looking at their hands brought to mind another hand, and a shiver ran up her spine.
“Come on, let’s find Madgie before she gets angry,” he said, laughing.
She turned and studied the patch of ground she found herself in. She’d landed here, and Cole… She looked up and guessed that he’d landed about fifteen yards to her right. Amanda thought back to the room. Cole was on her right and Madgie was below her to the left. She looked to her left, into the setting sun, and saw a deep valley that had already fallen into shadow.