Stay (10 page)

“Callie? Is something wrong?” He asked
again.

I could not seem to find my voice. Without
pulling my eyes from his, I reached into my shirt and pulled out a
long gold chain. On the end of it dangled an ancient gold coin. It
had a crescent moon with a god’s face stamped on one side, and a
horse over a rising sun on the other.

He pulled his eyes from mine and watched the
coin spinning as it dangled from my fingertips. He reached out,
caught it in his hand, and twisted the chain gently around his
fingers, and then he cupped my hand in his. He pulled me toward him
gently, and softly touched his lips to mine.

I held my eyes closed as I savored the gentle
warmth that was spreading from my lips throughout the rest of my
body. I felt that if I opened my eyes at that very moment, I would
be glowing.

He pulled away from me all too quickly as we
heard a sudden clambering on the tunnel floor below us.

“The queen is not going to be happy.” A voice
drifted up.

“We have searched every inch of this tunnel.
There is no sign of her. She probably fell into the water as she
tried to cross the river and washed away.” Another answered.

“Perhaps you are right. I doubt that she
could have made it past there. I just hope that is good enough for
the queen.”

I froze wide-eyed as I stared at Kailen. He
held one finger to his lips to remind me to keep quiet. There was a
brief moment of the sound of shuffling feet, and then all was quiet
again.

“Do you think that they are gone?” I
whispered.

“It sounds as if they are, but we should try
to keep still and as quiet as possible just to be sure.” He
answered.

I peered out into the darkness, nearly
holding my breath, but no more sounds came from the tunnel. I
looked back to Kailen to find him watching me intently. I allowed
myself to relax a little and gave him a soft smile.

He reached for me again and pulled me to him.
I turned so that my back was pressed against his chest. I could
feel his warm breath on my neck as he buried his face in my hair. I
had just had my first kiss. I was not sure how I felt about that. I
didn’t know what it could have meant. Kailen had never shown any
interest in me romantically until that moment, but now I was
nestled in his arms.

My mind kept going back to Brokk lying in the
tunnel. I should not have lost my temper like that, he did not
deserve it. Once again, the tears started to slide down my face. I
didn’t think that I had ever cried so much in my whole life as I
had in the last few weeks.

I had not known either of them for very long,
but already I found myself lost in confusion. I truly believed that
Brokk cared for me, and I was feeling almost ashamed that I was
here with Kailen but Brokk kind of fed me to the wolves. He handed
me over to Lilith without a thought. At least that is what it felt
like to me.

Kailen has done nothing but try to help me
from the minute that he met me. I had thought of him more as a
brother or a teacher than a potential boyfriend, but I let him kiss
me. I didn’t even try to resist. Actually, I kind of liked it.

“Callie,” he whispered softly in my ear
pulling me from my thoughts. “Tell me about the necklace.”

I rolled slightly so that I could look at
him, but not enough that I would break his embrace. I closed my
eyes and tried to picture that day.

“I remember being scared.” I started. “My
parents were very nervous. We were going on a trip and I could not
understand their anxiety.”

“I remember seeing the sunlight. I remember
how the warm rays touched my face as I looked up into the sky.” I
sat for a moment trying to picture that day. “I remember you
pressing the coin into my hand. I remember your smile and your
reassurance as I was loaded into a car. I remember watching you
standing on the street as the car pulled away.”

“You had red hair.” I said with a grin.

“Yes.” He said with a nod and slight
smile.

“I held this coin in my hand throughout our
entire journey.” I said. “My mother tried to get me to put it away
once we had made it to our new home. But I only held it tighter. I
told her that I could never let it go, so she had it made into a
necklace. I have rarely taken it off since.”

He kissed me gently on my forehead, and then
he moved to my lips. His tender kisses sent waves of emotion like I
have never felt rocking through my body. Brokk may have been who I
was supposed to be with, according to what I’ve heard anyway, but I
was beginning to think that I could definitely get used to Kailen.
It may not be so bad living as an outcast after all.

We both finally managed to fall asleep at
some point during the night. It was the most peaceful sleep that I
could ever remember, wrapped there in his arms.

Chapter 10

I woke to the feel of Kailen softly tracing
his finger along my cheek. I smiled before I ever bothered to open
my eyes. I wanted to stay here like that forever.

I opened my eyes and he smiled back at me.
“Good morning,” he whispered softly.

“Hey.” I said. “Have you been awake for
long?”

“Just for a little while. I did not want to
disturb you. You looked so peaceful. I know that you have been
through a lot in the past few days. It was nice to see you with
your guard down.”

I just smiled sheepishly

“We better get moving. We have a lot of
ground to cover today.” He whispered encouragingly.

I groaned. “Do we have to?”

He nodded. “I wish that we didn’t, but
hopefully we will find a more permanent place soon.”

We set about packing up our little camp the
best that we could in the confined space. Kailen lowered himself to
the tunnel floor while I changed into a pair faded blues jeans and
an old grey t-shirt that was worn just enough to be soft and comfy.
I hurriedly tried to rake a comb through my tangled hair, but soon
gave up and tied it into a messy ponytail.

“Toss me the bags when you are ready, then I
will help you climb down.” Kailen called from below.

“Okay, I am ready.” I tossed him the packs,
and then I laid on my stomach as I swung my legs down from the
ledge. I was dangling by my arms when I felt Kailen grab hold of my
legs. He gently lowered me to the ground.

“Thanks.” I said as I brushed myself off.

We hefted our packs onto our backs and headed
further into the depths of the tunnel. Kailen’s hand somehow
managed to find mine and he held onto it, helping me over rocks and
debris for the rest of the day. It was nice. I have never had a
boyfriend, but I hoped that it would be something like that. I
can’t say for sure, but it just felt right.

I know that I felt something for Brokk, very
briefly of course, when I was with him. Maybe it was a familiarity
from some forgotten time, or maybe it was fear. It could have just
been that he was the first guy to treat me like a desirable woman.
However, the short time that I spent with Brokk seemed nothing like
the feeling that was blooming inside of me for Kailen.

I smiled to myself as I remembered that
tender first kiss. I could hardly imagine how much my life has
changed in such a short amount of time. Ten days ago, I was an
awkward high school senior that never even had a date. Today I was
a fairy princess, holding hands with a gorgeous guy.

I also went from a happy home to being
homeless and traipsing around what was basically a sewer. And I
really missed my parents. I could not believe that they were really
gone.

Kailen must have noticed my sudden gloom,
because he tugged me closer to him and put his arm around my
shoulders, hugging me tightly.

“You okay?” He sounded concerned.

“I think I am just a little homesick. I will
be okay.”

At least I hoped that I would be okay. My
world was changing faster than I could keep up with, and not even
in a good way. I could only hope that things could not possibly get
any worse for me than they were right then.

He looked at me for few moments more, then
brushed a stray piece of hair back from my face and tucked it
behind my ear.

“Things are going to get better, Callie. You
will see. Soon we will transform you into an amazing warrior who
will instill fear into anyone who dares to cross you. You will take
back what is yours and then you will live happily ever after with
the guy of your dreams. Just how a Fairy Tale should be.”

I could not help but to let out a giggle at
that. “What if I don’t want that? Not the part about the guy and
the happily ever after. But what if I don’t want to go back to
Petrona? What if I don’t want to be a queen?”

“Callie, you can not hide out forever.” He
shook his head as if he started to say something else but thought
better of it. “Let’s just take one day at a time. We can worry
about all of that later.”

“Okay, you are probably right. One day at a
time.”

The one thing that he was definitely right
about is that I couldn’t hide forever. I had to get out of the
tunnels and try to have some semblance of a life. I just did not
want to think about having to go back to the city and deal with
Lilith. Or Brokk. There had to be another way.

We had walked for at least another hour when
we finally started to hear a steady loud roar. Kailen looked at me
and then we both turned and started to run towards the sound. It
grew louder and louder as we approached. It was nearly
deafening.

There just ahead of us was an enormous river
right through the center of the earth. The water flowed rapidly
past us with tremendous force. It was at least thirty feet wide and
there was no way that I could imagine that we would ever be able to
get across it.

“We need to find a way around!” Kailen yelled
over the noise. “There has to be a way!”

He backed up and started to look around.
There appeared to be nothing but the shear rock walls of the
tunnel.

“Hello!” We barely heard calling across the
rumble of the river.

We stopped and looked at each other for a
moment, and then we heard it again. “Hello!”

Far on the other side of the river, I noticed
a man standing on the ledge waving his arms frantically over his
head.

“Look over there, Kailen.” I said
pointing.

“You have to climb to where the river
narrows!” The man yelled while pointing downstream.

Kailen leaned around the wall to look in the
direction that the man was pointing.

“The river narrows a good ways down. It looks
like we may be able to cross there, but we have to climb along the
ledge to get there.”

I peered around Kailen at the narrow ledge
that jutted out from the wall along the river’s edge. It was only
about six to ten inches wide and then it dropped off. The river was
at least ten feet down.

“No way!” I shook my head. “There has to be
another way.”

“It’s the only way that I can see to get
across. The river is much to fast too try to cross here. You can do
it Callie.” He encouraged. “I will be right behind you if anything
should happen.”

I watched him for a minute. “Okay, I trust
you.”

I trusted Kailen, but I did not trust myself.
I could be a bit clumsy sometimes and I had never done anything
like that before. The closest that I had been to something like
that was hopping across the streams in the mountains when I went on
vacation with my parents.

Kailen helped me around the wall and out onto
the ledge. I tried to keep a hold on the rocks that jutted out from
the wall as I slid my feet little by little toward a small bank
that was at least fifty yards away.

Once I was a few feet down, Kailen followed
me onto the ledge and eased his way along beside me. He repeated
little phrases of encouragement the whole while.

Halfway between the tunnel and the narrow
riverbank I landed my foot on a small accumulation of rocks. My
foot slipped out from under me and sent rocks spilling into the
rushing water below. I let out a short scream and clung to the wall
as I tried to regain my balance.

“Hang on, Callie.” Kailen said as he reached
for me.

I tried to hang on but I felt myself losing
my grip on the rocks and the next thing that I knew I was
falling.

I landed on my back into the frigid water and
sunk several feet under. I waved my arms frantically trying to pull
myself to the surface. The strong current propelled me along
underneath the water as I struggled to hold my breath for as long
as I could.

I could not believe that this was happening
to me. After all, that I had been through, how I could I die now?
Like this, under the water cold and alone?

I was nearly about to give in to my bodies
need to gasp for air when I felt something grip my waist and tug me
up and out of the water. I opened my eyes as I coughed and
sputtered, trying to pull as much air into my lungs as I could.

“You are going to be okay.” I heard.

That is the last thing that I remember. A
sleepy darkened fog settled over my mind and I could no longer hold
my eyes open. Slumber overcame me.

When I woke, I found myself lying on the damp
rocky ground. I could still hear the deadly roar of the river very
close by. My teeth chatter and I had goose bumps all along my arms.
My clothes were wet and clinging to my skin.

Then I remembered my fall. I opened my eyes
to see that my head was cradled in Kailen’s lap and that he was
speaking to someone just outside of my vision.

I tried to rise up to see what was going on,
but Kailen pushed me back down. He told me to rest as he stroked my
hair back from my face.

“I’m okay.” I tried again to rise up. “Just
really cold. What happened?”

“You fell into the water, and the current
carried you away from me before I could get to you. I thought that
I had lost you.” Kailen said with tears in his eyes. “I am so
sorry, Callie.” He pulled me up slightly and hung his head so that
cheek was resting against my neck.