Ending ELE (ELE Series) (24 page)

Tony pulls me into his arms and begins swaying side to side.
“What did she say?” He gives me a funny look.

For once, the
lack of powers comes in handy here. We are just two normal teens in a relationship, not reading each other’s minds. Two teens that are soon to be married? My stomach does a funny flutter. “Oh nothing,” I answer, pressing my cheek into his chest as we sway to the music.

“
We’re finally safe,” Tony whispers in my ear.

“
Yes, I suppose we are,” I say quietly. Although, we won’t be completely safe until Blake is stopped. I decide not to bring that up. Why ruin this moment?

“
I love you, Willow.” Tony runs his fingers through my hair and pulls my hair back lightly so I’m looking up at him.

I giggle at the gesture but stop when I see the
smoldering look in his eyes. “I love you too, Tony.”

He kisses me.
Slow and sweet at first and then heavy and passionately. The mammoth moths in my stomach flutter heavily. I lean my forehead against his, hoping no one saw that.

“
Where do we go from here?” Tony asks, his voice husky and out of breath.

“
We kick bad guy butt!” Connor jumps out from nowhere. That or he had been standing there the whole time and we were too busy to pay attention.

“
They were having a moment.” Claire slaps his arm. He rebuttals by pulling her into his arms, dipping her, and giving her a hot kiss. He sets her back on her feet a moment later. She leans into him, trying to overcome the dizziness. Her cheeks are flushed.

I can
’t help but laugh. They are adorable.

We spend the rest of the party hanging out and trying not
to talk about the elephant in the room. For tonight, we are only teenagers with not a care in the world.

It
’s amazing how fast time passes when you’re having fun. Being in the company of all of my family and friends and knowing that they are safe and healthy is amazing. The past six weeks have passed by in a blur.

Training exercises, military classes
, and field missions keep our days busy. At night, we spend time around the new military tradition—the bonfire. It’s a good way to socialize and stay warm. The snow still continues but is starting to be scarcer as we move into the second week of February.

We
’ve had a few hot leads on Blake’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, he remains a step ahead of us each time we investigate the lead. Alec is trying to keep his frustration from showing but I know it’s not easy on him. I can tell he just wants to put this behind him and move on.

I look over at him walking towards the operation tent with Marya. I squeeze Tony
’s hand and give him a warm smile. The two of us have grown closer than even before. We’ve spent every night getting to know more about one another. We talk about our favorite movies and memories from our childhood. We even talk about my mom and his parents, about how their deaths have affected us. When we run out of things to say, we just sway to the music until our eyelids are too heavy to stay open. I share a bunk tent with Marya, Claire, and Candy. When I’m not sleeping, I’m with Tony though.

We walk into the operations tent and take a seat in one of the
fold-out chairs in their meeting room. At least fifty other soldiers join us today. We’ve been having these regular meetings to plan and strategize.

I try to fight off the nervous jitters I experience when Jon takes the stage. I know how this meeting will go. We will go over our attempts thus far, any known leads on Blake
’s location, and then he will ask for any suggestions. I haven’t told Tony, but today I plan to speak up—it’s time.

Jon begins the meeting and we all sit quietly to take everything in. Like it
’s been for the past week, we have no new leads. “I’m going to go ahead and open the floor for suggestions now.”

I timidly raise my hand. Tony looks over at me with surprise.

“Willow.” Jon points to me.

I slowly stand up from
my seat. I fiddle with a loose piece of thread on my sweater sleeve, trying to avoid focusing on all the eyes that peer in my direction. I haven’t discussed this idea with Tony yet and I have no idea what he will say. I think I’ve known for a while now what needs to be done. My vision showed me what would happen. Valentine’s day is two days away. Unfortunately, I didn’t see much past Tony’s proposal to know if this plan will succeed or not.

“
I propose...” I cringe at the use of the word propose. I clear my throat and start again. “I
suggest
that Tony and I set a trap for Blake and his men. They need to think that we are somewhere within their reach. We can lay the bait and hope they take it. They haven’t shown their faces in a while, but I doubt they can resist ignoring us if we are outside and vulnerable.”

Tony stands up at my side.
“Why didn’t you tell me this?” he asks in a hushed whisper.

“
I’m sorry; I didn’t want you to stop me,” I whisper back. I look forward at Jon, who is speaking with a few other higher ups in hushed tones. I assume they are contemplating my idea.

Tony whispers back
, “I wouldn’t have stopped you, Willow. I just would have liked to know.”

My heart jerks at the sound of hurt in his voice. I turn and look into his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Tony.”

“
You need to trust me,” he says back.

“
I do,” I whine, my face red with embarrassment. I know there must be several eyes still on us, even though they don’t outright stare. Anyone sitting close to us can still hear our whispered conversation.

Thankfully,
Jon is back up at the podium and interrupts our disagreement. “Are you aware of the risks to your safety, Ms. Mosby?”

I nod my head.
“Yes sir.”

“
We can have soldiers spread out through the area but there is no guarantee that they will be able to protect you,” Jon states again.

“
Yes, I understand.” I look over at Tony, who is gritting his teeth.

“
Where do you suppose we should lay this trap?” Jon asks.

“
My cabin,” Tony says. His body is rigid with tension as he looks forward at Jon.

“
Blake has already looked for you there once,” Jon counters.

“
Yes, but he wouldn’t blame us for going back again,” Tony says.

“
The area is a good one with a lot of coverage for us to put men out there,” Michael interjects.

Jon seems to mull this over for a few moments,
and then says, “Okay. We’ll try this. At the first sign of danger, we are pulling you two out though.”

“
Understood,” I say quickly.

Tony only nods his head and says,
“Yes sir.” His hands are balled up into fists—the number one sign that he’s not happy about this.

Jon dismisses the meeting but calls for Tony and me to meet in the conference room in thirty minutes.

I walk out of the tent and into the cold February air. Tony walks passed me and glances over his shoulder, giving me a non-verbal command to follow him.

We walk down a row of tents to
an area just behind the cafeteria. He stops and spins around on me. “What do you think you were doing back there?” he asks. His eyes are intensity personified.

“
I had a vision. A while back. We were in your cabin on Valentine’s Day,” I tell him.

He looks surprised. Normally, we tend to have similar visions, but I can tell by his expression that this is news to him.
“Okay, but that doesn’t explain why you would offer yourself up as bait without discussing it with me. That is what the old Willow would do. I thought you grew out of that impulsive behavior.”

Ouch. His comment stings a bit, because it
’s true. “Yeah, well, the old Willow would have impulsively offered herself up as bait alone. The new Willow offered up her boyfriend and herself as bait this time.”

Something softens in Tony
’s hard gaze. A muscle twitches at the corner of his mouth.

I take the opportunity and close in on it, moving forward to wrap my arms around his middle. I look up at him, my face only inches from him.
“You know you want to laugh,” I whisper.

His face softens some more.
“I really just want to protect you, Willow. I want to shield you from all this. I want to do away with the bad guys and get on with our life.”

“
I know. We aren’t getting any closer to finding Blake though. I had to have had that vision for a reason, Tony.”
And not just to predict my proposal
, I think. “This could be why. We could finally end this.”

“
I am glad you are thinking in the
we
sense now. I just can’t help but worry,” Tony says. “Did you see us catch Blake? Were we safe?” Tony asks.

This is a moment where the easiest thing would be to lie. I could tell him
—
sure, we made it out just fine
. Then he could go into this mission feeling confident. That wouldn’t be a way to begin an engagement though. I mentally kick myself for continuing to fret over the proposal.
Business Willow, business
. I tell myself to focus. I need to be truthful with the man I love. “I didn’t see what happened after we were in your cabin. I woke up. Up until then, we were safe. I can’t tell you that I know how this will end, because I don’t.”

Tony chews on my words for a few seconds
, his gaze lost in thought. “Okay, fair enough.” He kisses the bridge of my nose. “If we’re going to be the bait, then we better get ourselves prepared.”

He takes my hand and together, now unified, we walk back to the conference room.

Jon, Michael, and a few other higher ups, go over our plans with us. We decide that the best thing would be to head out to Tony’s cabin tomorrow night. This gives us the rest of today and the first part of tomorrow to prepare. Tony’s cabin is a three-hour walk from here. With our powers, we could get there in thirty minutes. However, that would mean that we wouldn’t have adequate protection since many of the soldiers don’t have super powers.

When we conclude the meeting and head out of the tent, the sun has already descended behind the mountains. We go straight to the
cafeteria, where we are barraged with dozens of questions and concerns from our family and friends. In the end, we field all the questions and go off to bed, in hopes of getting a decent night’s sleep before our mission.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” my dad asks me when I’m preparing my stuff to go out. He hasn’t questioned my idea or decision yet, so it was only a matter of time.

“
Yes, Dad. I need to do this,” I tell him.

“
I know,” he sighs. “You are just like your mom in that way. Determined and not willing to allow anything to stand in her way.” He runs his hand over my curls. This time, his fingers don’t get stuck. He seems disappointed by that. Like that’s our thing.

“
I love you, Dad,” I tell him.

“
Love you too, baby.” He gives me a hug.

Sabby joins us, crushing our legs with his normal
five-year-old strength. “I wuv you, Wello.”

I lean down and kiss the top of
his head. “You too, bud.”

Tony
clears his throat when he comes up to the doorway of my dad’s tent. “Are you ready, Willow?”

I swallow my nervous anxiety.
“Yes, ready as I’ll ever be.”

“
Okay, the others are by the cafeteria hall. They want to wish you luck.” Tony tells me.

They are going to be part of the group that will be hiding around the perimeter of the cabin. I feel kind of bad that they will be sleeping outside while we are out of the elements.

“Bye Dad, bye Sabby.” I wave at them as I walk out of the tent. Tony doesn’t move to follow me. “Are you coming?” I ask.

“
I wanted to speak to your dad really quick if you don’t mind,” Tony says. “I’ll catch up to you in a few.”

I nod and head towards the cafeteria
. I laugh when I turn the corner and see Claire and Marya in camo gear with their faces painted to match. Alec and Connor turn the corner dressed in similar outfits. Connor’s face paint looks horrendous. I double over laughing.

“
He wouldn’t let me do his makeup!” Claire laughs along with me.

“
You should have let her,” Alec says, laughing as well.

It takes a few minutes for us to stop laughing at Connor
, who literally painted his face to look like a clown with rings around his eyes and a smile around his lips in dark green. It takes a lot for us to stop laughing at him. I have to hold onto my side because it hurts from the exertion.