Page 30 of Awakened Gifts
“Where is he? And where is Kellan?” Mom asks, looking at the door. “I assumed he wouldn’t be able to stay away from Aria the second we found her, and neither man seems to want to be around her.”
“Kellan is… pissed. Understandably so,” I murmur guiltily. “Jase needed to calm down after dealing with Fricks. He’s also pissed, but his reason is different. He’s mad that I’m giving my blood to Simone for infected testing. Mel told him to go play commander since he’s mostly neglected his duties after I went missing. I think she was just trying to keep him from combusting.”
Mom nods slowly, and Uncle Brazen drapes his arm around her shoulders.
“Do you want to clue him in on our hypothesis?” he asks me.
If I tell Jase, he’ll get all excited. Just like I am. But this is just some crazy theory my stepfather has. Nothing about it makes it true. In fact, it almost sounds too good to be true.
“I think we should keep it between us until we know for sure.”
They don’t seem to be thrilled with that, but everyone respectfully agrees with me. I don’t really know who deserves to know first—the counter I’m dismissing or the counter I’m stealing.
How did our world get so completely complicated and twisted?
***
ARIA
“No,” Jase says into the phone, his back turned as I silently enter the room. “The transfer won’t be necessary.”
I don’t even pay attention to the person on the other line as I watch him. He’s staring outside, his whole body tense, as though he’s going to snap in half at any moment.
“I don’t want him simply found. I want him found, beaten, fed blood, and brought to me so I can do to him what he has done to her,” he growls.
I’ve somehow managed to keep him out of my mind for this long, but he’s worrying me right now. I can feel it, which means his mismatched blues are in place, giving me insight into his soul.
It almost makes me sick to feel the myriad of emotions, but the fear has turned into anger, and it’s almost tangible right now. He’s still trying to wrap his mind around everything that has happened, but he’s on the verge of falling apart.
“No. He’s not to be killed. That right is reserved for me.” He has to be talking about Hedin, considering he’s the only one besides Alice who escaped.
He drops his phone to the table beside him, and he continues staring out the window.
“Simone is focusing on the emergent children for now,” I say softly. His shoulders jerk a little from the surprise that I’m in the room, but he doesn’t answer or turn around.
“Are you mad at me on my first day back?” I ask softly, and his shoulders sag in defeat as he turns to face me.
The tears in his eyes tell the story his emotions are trying to, and within a few, swift steps, he’s in front of me, pulling me by my waist and by the back of the neck until our lips collide. My hands immediately go to his soft, dark hair, and I pull him as close as physically possible, moving up to my tiptoes so that he doesn’t have to bend so low.
He breaks the kiss, and we both pant breathlessly while he holds onto me. “I thought you were gone,” he says through an emotional whisper that tears at my heart.
“I know. I’m sorry. I tried so hard to send you messages. I sent over ten different ones.”
He tilts his head, obviously finding that confusing. “I only got two. Both came just before Kellan went savage.”
That explains why it took them so long to find me. I guess it’s a good thing Kellan went savage, otherwise I’d be Alice’s chew toy.
Jase grimaces, and I curse myself. I must have somehow let the block down to my mind.
“I wish you’d stop trying to shut me out. I actually have to try to listen to you these days. I preferred it when all your thoughts were open to me. It sure as hell made everything easier. When are you going to tell Araya about Alice’s true identity?”
Shit.
Groaning, I go to sit down on the bed, and he follows me. He remains standing while I drop my head to my hands. “I guess you must have overheard that in my mind. I don’t know how to tell her or when to tell her. Mom has been through a lot. Since I’ve been back, everyone’s emotions are just toppling out of them, and it’s like I’m getting a double dose of everything I’m already feeling. She’s pretending to be strong right now, but she’s on the verge of breaking—I feel it. This… this just might be the straw to break the camel’s back.”
He starts to speak, when his phone rings. After muttering a few curses, he answers and turns his back, as though he’s afraid to let me see his facial expression.
“The Unaligned want a meeting, Commander,” a very formal man says.