Storm Season (26 page)

T
HE
forests outside Shaleton were dark and lush, thicker than any Jasper had seen before. The one near Brightam’s Ford was old and big, but it had been thinned by the storms and had as many saplings as towering trees. It had amazed Jasper when he’d first moved out from Crittendon, as most of the forests near the west coast had been logged and tamed, but it was nothing compared to this. Here, evergreens outnumbered the deciduous trees ten to one, and the thick vegetation made the road dark even when the sun was at its zenith.

The stories about the crazy things that happened in Shaleton were often accompanied by mentions of the forest, and driving through it, Jasper understood why. He’d scoffed before, thinking that forests were places of life, not terror or madness, but as he peered through the windshield at the battered wooden sign that read,
Shaleton, 50 miles,
he actually shivered.

You feel it too?
Tobias scooted closer, pressing himself against Jasper’s side.
There’s something here. Something bad.

Jasper wasn’t sure what he felt, but the forest looked far darker and more forbidding than the heavy vegetation should account for. “Maybe.” It didn’t matter if he really did, or if it was his imagination or Tobias’s fear that was causing the dread in the pit of his stomach. It still made it hard to keep his foot on the gas pedal.

Tobias flashed a wan smile that did little for Jasper’s nerves.
It’s not far, right? We won’t be here for long?

“An hour, probably, if that sign was right,” Jasper said, slowing the truck a little as the road got rougher. This close to the coast, with the thick vegetation all around, the road was bumpy and broken, so he couldn’t maintain the speed he’d kept for the past five days. The roads been the best around Briars Grove, the sprawling town where they’d turned from south to east, but even an hour ago, before they’d gotten truly into the forest, the road had been passable. This was chancy.

Good.

That was a matter of opinion. Jasper wasn’t looking forward to reaching their destination any more than he was looking forward to driving through the dark forest, but he hadn’t come this far to give up. “Yeah. If the weather holds, it shouldn’t be too bad.”

Tobias nodded, seemingly content, though his expression was wary and his posture remained tense. The further they got into the forest, the wider his eyes got and the straighter he sat. Five miles in, he was perched on the edge of the seat, and at ten, he gasped, squeezing Jasper’s arm tight enough to bruise.
Jasper! I think—

Whatever he was about to say was lost as the truck shuddered and groaned, bouncing them apart as it jerked to a stop, with smoke spewing out from under the hood. Jasper slammed his palm against the steering wheel, hissing at the sharp pain as he watched the smoke continue to billow out from the front of the truck. “Hailstones!”

Can you fix it?
Tobias caught his bottom lip between his teeth and looked around worriedly. He was practically radiating tension, his whole body taut as he scooted across the bench seat toward Jasper again.

“I don’t know,” Jasper lied, sliding out of the car and heading around to the hood. He knew even before he opened it that whatever was smoking was something he couldn’t fix without a secure shop, several parts, and tools that he didn’t keep in the truck, but Tobias would question him if he didn’t at least look.

The ball of smoke that floated up to the tree tops when Jasper opened the hood confirmed his suspicions, as did the broken belt. That alone would be enough to strand them, as he didn’t have a spare, but it wouldn’t cause the smoke he was seeing. “Sleet,” he murmured, grabbing a flashlight from the seat before lying down on the ground and pulling himself beneath the truck. It was hard to see, even with the flashlight, but when he finally saw the damage, his fears were confirmed.

“I can’t fix it,” he said after he scooted out from under the truck. “A belt’s broken, and the radiator is busted.”

Tobias frowned as he gave Jasper a hand and helped him to his feet.
So what do we do?
He looked back up the road, which was empty and had been for days. They’d only seen one other car outside of the towns since leaving Briars Grove, and only two besides the van following them before that.
We can’t stay here. It’s going to storm.

“Walk, I guess.” That wasn’t a much better option, but Jasper didn’t know what else to do. If they stayed in the truck, they’d be vulnerable, exposed to the storm through the glass. Walking, at least, they’d be able to look for a place to shelter for the night, one that might afford them slightly more protection than a truck that looked like it was about to catch fire or might be swept away if the road got washed out.

We won’t make it before the storm starts,
Tobias pointed out, though he didn’t try to stop Jasper when he opened the back and started pulling things out of the various bags he’d packed them in. They’d stocked up on a lot in Briars Grove, unsure how the trip to Shaleton was going to go and what they’d find when they got there, and over the last few days, the things Jasper had bought had spread out in the back of the truck.

“I know.” Jasper sighed, digging through the back of the truck, trying to figure out everything they’d need to bring. “We’ll find somewhere to hide. There have to be safe places animals use.”

Tobias looked around, his expression dubious, before he started helping Jasper with the bags.
Big enough for us?

“Probably.” Jasper wasn’t fully versed on the common fauna of this forest, but there had to be some larger animals around that needed shelter from the storms. Vegetation this lush would attract animals, and the animals would need to find shelter from the storms. It couldn’t be that hard to find.

T
WO
hours later, when the first drops of rain started to fall, Jasper was starting to question his decision. The thick canopy above kept the worst of the drops off at first, but as he looked up through the few gaps, he knew it wouldn’t stay that way for long. They needed to find shelter, and quickly.

Tobias clearly felt the same way. He clutched Jasper’s hand tighter, crowded close despite the rough terrain and the packs they’d slung over their shoulders, and looked around with wide eyes as the first drops began to hit them.
We need to stop.

“I know.” Jasper sucked in a deep breath, trying to hold in his irritation. He knew they needed to find a place to stop, had
known
they needed to find a place to stop since they abandoned the car. He didn’t need Tobias to remind him. “I’m looking.”

Tobias flashed a small smile.
Sorry. I know you are. I just—

“I know,” Jasper said again, softer this time. He didn’t like the idea of being caught out in the storm at all, and his experience was limited to that fleeting glimpse in Crittendon and their brief encounters after leaving Brightam’s Hollow. Knowing that Tobias had actually been caught in one, Jasper couldn’t blame him for the sudden spike of fear he felt every time the rain began to fall. He took another deep breath, blew it out, and focused again on peering into the trees. “We’ll find somewhere. Just keep looking.”

There had to be places for the animals to hide, but try as he might, Jasper couldn’t find them. The forest appeared to be a solid mass of trees, none of them hollow. All the animals they might have been able to follow to safety were long-hidden, protected from the oncoming weather they surely sensed long before Jasper or Tobias did.

I am looking,
Tobias groused.
There’s just nothing to see. There’s nowhere to hide.

“Then we’ll do the best we can.” There was a particularly close group of trees off to the left and Jasper guided Tobias toward them, figuring they could at least block the worst of the weather by hiding in the circle of their trunks. It was far from perfect, but it was certainly better than standing in the middle of the forest with no protection at all. “Come on.”

Tobias followed with his head ducked against the rain falling through the forest canopy and his hand still curled around Jasper’s, but at the last minute he stopped, jerking Jasper to a halt.
Over there,
he said, pointing toward another bunch of trees off to the right. It was farther away than the one where they were heading, and not as closely grouped, so Jasper had dismissed them in favor of the other group. Now that they were closer, though, he could see that one of the trees toward the back of the clump had a dark spot in the side of it and his hopes began to lift.

Immediately, he changed course, tugging Tobias behind him as he stumbled toward the trees. The canopy was too thick for there to be much underbrush in this part of the forest so late in the year—it would grow early in the dry season and gradually die out as the holes left in the canopy by the storms healed—but the ground was uneven and littered with fallen branches and leaves. Jasper’s instinct was to run, but he refrained, knowing he’d fall, or Tobias would, and then they’d never make it to Shaleton.

The search felt like it took forever. The rain pounded against their skin. It ripped leaves from the trees and sent them fluttering down to stick uncomfortably to the two men wherever they struck. Eventually, they got close enough to the tree to see that it was indeed hollow, and Jasper felt the weight that had been pressing on his shoulders since they’d left the truck lift a little. “Good catch,” he said, picking up the pace slightly now that he could see they were heading toward potential safety. It looked big enough that if it was empty, they’d both be able to huddle inside.

When they reached it, Jasper placed his free hand on the tree and leaned down, cautiously peering inside. All he saw was black, a deeper darkness than the gloom of the twilight forest that hid anything that might be inside. “Sleet.”

Tobias’s hand immediately moved to his shoulder when Jasper dropped it, and Tobias leaned in, frowning as Jasper dug in the bag he’d let slip from his back.
What are you doing? We need to get in there!

“We need to make sure it’s empty, first,” Jasper replied. He pulled out the flashlight he’d been looking for and pointed it at the ground before turning it on. The beam cut through the gloom and darkness, illuminating the leaves and sticks on the forest floor and casting a haze into the hollow of the tree.

In that light, Jasper still couldn’t see anything, so he risked angling the light toward the tree a little more, let the edge of the beam land inside the hollow, then slowly moved it around until he could see the entire thing. The hollow was small, but empty, and though it would be an uncomfortable place to spend the night, it looked as though he and Tobias would just fit. “Go on,” he said, gesturing with the light for Tobias to crawl in first. “If we huddle in the back and put our bags in front of us, we should be safe from the worst of it.”

Tobias didn’t hesitate, his hand slipping from Jasper’s shoulder as he scurried inside. He pressed his body against the back of the tree and drew his legs in to his chest, leaving just enough room for Jasper to wriggle his way inside and twist around until he was seated in a similar position, his body touching Tobias’s from shoulder to hip. Without speaking, they piled their bags in front of the entrance, Jasper’s bigger one on the bottom and Tobias’s smaller one on top, and shifted around as they tried to find the most comfortable position possible. The bags blocked all but the very top of the opening, but they left no room to stretch out at all.

Tobias sighed as he let his head fall back against the tree wall.
We’re not going to be able to move in the morning.

Jasper laughed, the sound echoing up through the hollow of the tree. He’d never asked Tobias’s actual age, or cared after figuring out that he wasn’t the boy he’d first seemed to be, but he guessed that Tobias was in his late twenties. Jasper was fast approaching forty, and if Tobias thought that his bones were going to ache, Jasper could only imagine how much pain he would be in. “It could be worse.”

I know.
Tobias shifted and rested his head on Jasper’s shoulder.
Thanks.

Jasper had turned off the light as soon as they’d had the bags arranged, but he could sense Tobias’s smile. “For what?” he asked in a whisper, wishing for the first time he could communicate the same way Tobias did. The sounds of the rain and wind hitting the tree were eerie yet beautiful, and it felt almost profane to disrupt them with his voice because he wasn’t sure Tobias was actively scanning his thoughts. After asking him just to think, Tobias had explained that he could pick up on people’s thoughts, but unless those thoughts were accompanied by strong emotion, he had to actively look for them.

Coming with me.
Tobias let out a soft sigh and relaxed against Jasper.
Helping me. You didn’t have to.

“I wanted to.” Jasper kissed the top of Tobias’s head and let himself relax as much as he possibly could in the confined space. If there had been room, he would have wrapped his arm around Tobias’s shoulders, but there wasn’t, so he settled for finding his hand in the dark and lacing their fingers together. “I couldn’t just let you try to travel alone.”

Still
. Tobias squeezed Jasper’s hand.
Almost everyone at home told me I should just give up on Sam, especially once we figured out that she was across the mountains. We don’t ever cross them, and the idea was too much for everyone else, I guess.
He sighed softly.
I thought I could do it by myself, but obviously I was wrong.

“I’m happy to help,” Jasper said, and though he’d meant it more as a platitude than anything else, he was surprised to find that it was true. The trip had been stressful and at times terrifying, but looking back on it and comparing it to his life before he met Tobias, Jasper realized he hadn’t felt so passionate about anyone or anything in a long time, and that was all thanks to Tobias.

Really?
Tobias grinned, his cheek moving against Jasper’s shoulder as a wave of warmth and awe washed over him.