Embers & Ice (Rouge) (11 page)

TWENTY-ONE

“There
she is!” called Zac and he waved her frantically over to his table. “The
Dragon!”

“Don’t
call me that,” said Hunter as she slid in beside Chantal, her plate full of
breakfast. Before Zach even blinked, Hunter was shoveling food into her mouth.

It
had been late last night when Hunter returned to the cell block. It was
strangely eerie, walking down the corridor on her own in the dark. Even more
eerie after what had happened with the guard in the bathroom. Hunter had
crawled into bed, and even though her body was exhausted, her mind was wide
awake. She didn’t sleep well at all, and it showed on her face that morning.
She could tell by Chantal’s grimace.

“But
you can breathe fire, right?” Zac pushed.

“Probably.
I’ve never tried it.”

“Why
the hell not?” he frowned. “It’d be the first thing I’d try.”

“That’s
because you’re a lunatic,” said Chantal. “How are you feeling Hunter? I mean
about the Orb and everything.”

Hunter’s
eyes roamed the breakfast hall and found that Will hadn’t come down yet. He was
usually last to arrive. There was a chance he might still be in surgery. Hunter
had been so busy trying to process her evening with Dr. Rosenthal – not to
mention struggled with the idea that Joshua wasn’t all psychotic-killer – that
she was surprised to dream of Will again that night. Of his sacrifice for her.
Of a small boy in a dark room talking to her as a child as they lay awake and
alone in the cold. Her heart softened at the very thought of him. It was
something she hadn’t felt since… since Eli.

“I’ll
be alright,” she finally said. “It was hard, but we got through it.”

“Hell
yeah, you did,” said Zac through his food. “And it was bad-
ass
. I was
almost sad Will knocked you out.”

“Thank
you for reminding me,” she winced, dabbing her fingers against her bruised jaw.
“Anyway, what has everyone else been saying about it?”

“Nothing
much. After Will knocked you out, he sort of…” Zac looked at Chantal for help
with words, but she avoided his eyes. “Well, he just looked at you for ages.
Then he… he picked up your head and… and he held it
really
carefully,
you know like someone holds a day-old baby, and he bent over and…” Zac’s voice
softened as he pretended to hold an invisible head in his hands, his eyelids
fluttering. Chantal dropped her fork, the sound snapping both of them out of
the intense moment.

“Oh
my God, Zac!”

“What?”
he exclaimed, staring at her crossly. “That’s what he did! It looked like he
was about to kiss you,” he said to Hunter, who found herself caught between a
breaking heart and extreme laughter.

“The
guards took him away, that’s all that happened,” Chantal blurted and went back
to playing with her food after shooting a sideways scowl at Zac.

“We
all went down to the common room after,” Zac continued. “Except Marcus and
Mosi. They went to the fitness room, as always.”

“What
are they
doing
in there?” .

“I
dunno, bumping ugglies?” Zac suggested.

“You’re
vile,” said Chantal.

“Fearne
disappeared. Jet and Mikayla got up to their usual snuggling, but they were
separated by the Men in White and sent to their cells. And us… well we sat down
for a game of chess with Benji and Ryo and couldn’t stop talking about the
fight. It was the most excitement we’ve had since Chevie’s escape.”

“What?”

Zac’s
eyes widened. “No one’s told you about that yet! Oh man, it’s the best story
ever!”

“Did
you say someone
escaped
?”

“Chevie
Pulicover – great name, huh?”

Hunter
glared in a way that said ‘Zac. Get on with it’.

“Okay
anyway, he was pretty much the coolest person you’ll ever meet – one of those
real indie types. Everyone loved him.”

“What
was his power?”

“Uh…”

“I’m
pretty sure he could fly,” said Chantal.

Zac
clicked his fingers. “That’s it! He could fly. So yeah, Chevie had been here
for only… two years, I think, before he decided he needed to get out. We all
thought he was joking. One morning at breakfast he said ‘guys… I’m going home
tonight.’ Yeah right,” Zac snorted.

“But
he wasn’t kidding, was he?”

“Nope.
The next morning, he was gone. Benji swore he saw him sneak out of his cell in
the middle of the night, and he wasn’t seen again.”

“His
time was nearly up,” said Chantal. “He’d already reached twenty-one. Gorgeous
guy, too.”

Hunter
stared at the both of them. “How long ago was this?”

“Mmm,
about three months I think?”

Chantal
nodded in agreement.

“So
this guy escapes–”

“Well
we don’t actually have proof that he did technically escape. He could have been
caught and locked up somewhere, or killed, or both.” Zac scooped food into his
mouth and pointed his fork at her. “But Dr. Wolfe was
really
pissy the
next day. And since then, they always have guards patrolling the corridors at
night. So we figured he got out.”

Hunter
felt elated, as if a balloon had blown up inside her stomach. If someone could
walk out just as easily as this Chevie guy, maybe it was possible for the rest
of them to escape as well.

“So
no one else has tried it?”

Zac
and Chantal exchanged glances.

“Hunter…
Chevie was a genius. I’m not kidding, his power might as well have been
intelligence. And he never told
anyone
about his escape plan. He just up
and left us.”

Thinking
of Joshua, Hunter looked down at her plate. “He didn’t come back for you,
obviously.”

“Well,”
Zac shrugged. “I never pinned Chevie for a dickhead. None of us did. But that’s
the way life goes, right?” They ate together silently. Hunter found herself
falling deep into her thoughts, running over possible escape plans, letting
herself dream of freedom as she so often did.

Fearne
walked by their table a few minutes later looking drained of all happiness. She
limped on one leg and swayed, as if intoxicated.

“Can
I ask you something?” Hunter bent her head closer and the two of them did the
same with eagerness. “Do you know anything about what Dr. Wolfe does to Fearne?
And not just the testing?”

“What
do you mean?” asked Chantal.

“Well…
last night I saw her down in the labs in this room with a few other scientists.
She didn’t have her brace around her head.” Their eyes narrowed, as if this was
news to them. “She was staring at this guy and he was… screaming. She was doing
something to him.”

“Sounds
nasty,” said Zac.

“Were
they testing her power?” suggested Chantal.

“Maybe
they were trying to see if she could make someone’s brain explode,” said Zac.

“Maybe.”

“So
anyway,” said Chantal, “we never got to hear why you two were even put in the
Orb so suddenly.”

Hunter
looked Chantal in the eye and wondered if the truth would scare her. Then
again, nothing in this place was ponies and ice-creams.

“One
of the guards tried to take advantage of me in the showers.” She watched
Chantal’s eyes darken and her small smile fall away. “Will pulled him off of me
just in time. They beat each other up and I tried to stop it, but I got knocked
out of the way and passed out. I woke up in the Orb.”

“Those
bastards,” said Zac.

“Will
saved you?” asked Chantal in a small voice. “What a hero.”

Hunter
frowned at her. The bite in those words made her wonder if Chantal had been
through exactly the same thing. She wouldn’t be surprised if last night wasn’t
the only attack on a girl in the bathroom.

“It’s
okay,” Hunter said directly to her. “Revenge is sweet.”

Chantal
muttered something so quietly, Hunter thought she’d imagined it. With that, she
slammed her tray down, whirled out of the bench and stalked away in a huff.

“Damn,
that girl always has serious mood swings,” said Zac.

Hunter
rolled her eyes. “You really can’t read girls, can you?”

Zac’s
mouth dropped as Hunter pushed her tray away and ran to catch up with Chantal.
“What did I say?”

Hunter
slipped through the door and bumped straight into Will. Her heart leapt in her
chest at the sight of his damp brown hair tucked behind his ears and that stoic
expression. She had to admit, despite his pale color and disfigured posture, he
was very well built and definitely the tortured, handsome type. But her relief
went beyond that. He had put his safety at risk when he pulled Jamison away
from her in the showers and how did she repay him? She burnt him alive and
punched him in the face.

“Will,
I need to-”

“Not
here,” he muttered.

A
guard brushed past him, knocking him in the shoulder and forcing him against
her. Hunter’s back hit the wall and they froze as the guard shot them a crooked
smile. Hunter’s eyes widened. She’d know that smile anywhere.

Jamison.

The
fire exploded within her. Hunter made a move to attack him, but Will whipped an
arm around her stomach and held her back. The guard chuckled, his eyes raking
her body with malicious thirst, and then he disappeared inside the breakfast
hall.

“What
are you doing?” Will hissed into her ear. His arm still held her tight, his
grip nearly bruising her. “Do you want to get us both put back in the Orb?”

Hunter
shoved him away. “What happens if he comes at me again while I’m in the shower,
huh? You won’t be there watching me all the time.”

Will
blushed, the color striking against his pale cheeks. He scratched the back of
his head shyly. “Look, can we talk about this later? I need to eat and the
corridor isn’t exactly the most private place.”

“But
where is-”

“Meet
me tonight in the boy’s bathroom straight after dinner. That’s when the staff
eat; there’s less security. And there’s never any guards.”

“Fine.”

Will
nodded and moved away. The moment he left, a sudden emptiness overcame her.
There was no denying that there was something stirring inside her for Will.
Even before the Orb, it felt like they already knew each other.

But
what about Eli? Had she already forgotten him? Was there so much going on in
ICE that it felt like a completely different world to her life in New York with
Joshua and Eli and school and reality? Even if she couldn’t escape, even if Eli
was dead, it was still too soon.

She
forgot about chasing after Chantal and hurried upstairs to her cell. She wanted
a shower, but she was afraid to even glance at the bathroom. Instead, she
slumped into her cell and sat down on the hard mattress. Tears and emotions
drained out of her body. She was tired and upset and angry and confused and
just wanted to go back to sleep and forget all of this and dream of a better
place.

Moments
later, there was a small knock on her cell door.

Fearne
stood behind the glass. She smiled warmly, and even though she didn’t really
want to, Hunter couldn’t help but invite the girl inside. It wasn’t the first
time Fearne had been there to comfort her. Having the ability to read minds
meant that Fearne knew a lot about Hunter’s life even after she told her
everything. She could always sense when her thoughts were not on the present,
but her cloudy past.

“You
still miss him, don’t you?” she asked as the door opened for her.

“It’s
easier being here than in New York, where I just… moped around. I’m distracted
in this place. But there are times…”

“When
you’re alone?”

“How
did you know?”

Fearne
sat back against the wall on the bed. “I can’t read thoughts directly. This–”
She pointed to the metal bar digging into her temples, “–stops me. But I can
sense things. It’s almost like a premonition. They don’t know how to stop it.”

“That’s
probably a good thing. At least you’re not completely powerless.” She held up
her wrist.

“You
were amazing in the Orb yesterday. The way you shielded Will from the acid
rain.” Her bright green eyes lit up. “Your power is very strong. Wait-” Her
words were cut and her happy gleam dissolved like smoke. She whipped out a hand
and pressed it against the center of Hunter’s chest. She froze, waiting,
watching the young girl as her eyes darted around in their sockets. It was
alarming, but oddly captivating. And yet Hunter knew the girl had sensed her
fire.

“It
controlled you once,” she said.

Hunter
bit her lip. That was one thing about her past Fearne did not know yet. But it
wouldn’t hurt to tell the young girl the truth – especially since she felt
better already just being with her. “Almost. When I first discovered what I
could do, I was fragile and didn’t know how to use it. I… I killed someone
trying to defend myself.”