When Copper Suns Fall (27 page)

Three more surged toward us from inside the
trees. He put them down as if he stood alone, a one-boy army with
an uppercut to die for. I watched with intrigue and a bit of
fear.

“Get up.” Desi yanked me up by the arm,
pulling me into a group of shrubs. The mist turned into a light
rain and the forest darkened under a moon hidden by clouds,
now.

“I won’t go back without him.” I wrenched my
arm free of Desi’s iron grip.

What will you do with your mega unreliable
powers, Prizeon? You’ll be killed. Or worse, you’ll be in his
way.

“Last thing he needs is to come out of that
and find you chewed up by sedwigs.” I considered drilling her on
exactly what she meant by “when he comes out of that.”

When I thought about it, Faris had never
talked about his special ability. Sure, he was a Caducean. But I
knew better. The meaning behind my knowledge scared me more than
what I had seen in his eyes. “Nina and Tobie will help Faris.
You’re coming with me. Don’t make me drag you by the hair.” I
smirked, and Desi scowled. Across the area, the other Caduceans
fought outcasts and their four-legged mutations filing out of the
trees.

Nina fought alongside Mabry. Tobie shot
arrows at the multiplying sedwigs. Desi tried to pull me back
toward the house, but I was focused on Faris. Leaving him made me
think of the day I walked out on Micah; I wish I had done more to
fight for his release. No. I wasn’t about to leave.

Sanakim blocked each one of Faris’s moves. He
was grinning and had a slightly crazed look on his face. They’d go
on forever if one didn’t either give up or beat the other.

Soon, enough of the sedwigs had fallen to
justify an outcast retreat. Sanakim glanced around at his fallen
comrades just before he ran off, Faris trailing behind him.

I had to do something.

“Watch out, Desi, there’s a sedwig,” I said,
pointing behind her. She spun around, knives poised to strike, and
I took off running behind Faris and Sanakim.

Heart racing, I ran through the forest,
following the path they had cleared. Fear of losing the only other
boy who shared equal space with Micah in my heart fueled my
strength. A warm rush of adrenaline soared through my body,
releasing my wings, giving me speed. I understood my feathery
wonders, now. They reacted to the joy I felt for Faris, the love I
held for Micah, and the hope shielding me with its arms, telling me
all will be okay.

That was, until I collided with a tree limb
and fell backward, bending my left wing. Pain waves surged through
my body. This wasn’t the time to be clumsy and stupid.

When I glanced up, a tar-covered guy stood
over me. Glowing under the moonlight, he stepped on my wing,
pinning me underneath him. It was Sanakim’s sidekick.

“You should just have given our marker back
the first time Sanakim asked for it.” He stomped on wing. I cried
out, pain waving through my back. He leaned down closer to my face.
“Did I hurt your pretty coppery wing? Don’t worry. I’ll make the
pain go away real quick for you.”

As he lifted what looked like a steel blade
the size of someone’s arm over his head, I felt the familiar
swirling inside my head; my power tried to break through. But the
blobs, or rather a single blob, flew into him from the side,
knocking him down before I could react. I sat up and stared.

The Beast was here in Chelby Rose’s
woods.

“How?” I was too scared to breathe as it
mauled the outcast, silencing his cries with a final sickening
crack. And then it turned to observe me with its strange eyes. Did
it maul Faris this way, to?

I’d lost both Faris and the outcast leader as
I ran behind them. “What did you do to Faris?” I yelled, surprising
myself with my bravery.

The Beast stalked toward me, real slow. We
stared each other down. But the eyes weren’t yellow-gold as they’d
been before.

This time they were silvery gray.

“Oh my…no.” I sucked my breath, covering my
mouth as my wings returned to whatever place they stayed hidden in.
My knees trembled, and I was sure I would throw up if it weren’t
for the shock coiled around my body, paralyzing me.

“Don’t be afraid,” its voice, Faris’s voice
said in my head.

The Beast—something like a cross between a
lion and a panther—and I had stared at each other a long time
before it snapped its head toward the sound of twigs cracking in
the woods beside us. Someone was coming. “Go. Get out of here.
They’ll see you,” I said, my voice cracking. The Beast lowered its
massive head, turned, and ran off in the opposite direction from
where I sat on the ground.

“Where do you get off running away like
that?” Desi said as she emerged through the trees, bending over to
catch her breath. I ignored her, couldn’t hear her even if I wanted
to. What had I just seen? “I told you Faris can handle himself. Now
get up, so we can head back.”

I was frozen as if I were a ghost trying to
move in someone else’s body. Mind numb, I stood, turned, and walked
in a daze as I trailed Desi back toward the house.

At Chelby Rose’s doorway, I turned to stare
toward the clearing where Faris and the others had fought. Silence
and distant thunder replaced the war cries. I scanned the trees for
movement. The quiet boosted my fears, and the darkness played
tricks on my eyes. His voice entered my mind even though I couldn’t
see him. Faris’s handsome face as I knew it, and Faris’s eyes on
the Beast, one and the same.

“I’m alright. Go inside with Desi,” his voice
said.

“Faris will be okay. He’s more warrior than
he lets on. I think his ego protects him more than anything else.”
Desi scoffed, swiped at the mud on her boots, and stomped on the
porch. She didn’t know his real secret. The word warrior wasn’t
even in his league.

“I know. He’s just fine,” I said.

“Seriously, how do you know that?”

“Because he told me, just now.” I turned and
went inside the house, leaving her on the doorstep.

Score three points for the underdog.

Chapter Twenty Two – Fallen

Could Faris be the Beast?

I had seen it, or rather a glimpse of it, the
anomaly in him. Still, the next morning I stood in the foyer and
waited for him, wondering as I hid my questions and fears behind a
forced smile.

Life could be a tricky road with sharp turns
and steep black cliffs. Father taught me that. The road I’d chosen
was turning into the worst one, ever.

Everybody was in the ballroom. Everybody
except Faris who didn’t return from the woods last night. I wasn’t
ready to face him. Didn’t want to believe what I’d seen, and I
couldn’t accept I’d fallen in love with someone I might have to
destroy.

I needed Jalen. Ever since we were little,
I’d been able to confide in him with things that bothered me.
Today, I needed him more than ever. Plus he had lots of explaining
to do. Now I was relieved he had broken through the safe house’s
barrier. As Nina, Mabry, and several other Caducean allies
discussed the Tainted, I searched for my lone Bermuda Three. I
snuck out the back door and headed into the gardens behind the
house.

The cool air was filled with a rainy smell. A
slight metallic odor lingered in it, reminding me of Mabry’s showy
entrance.

Chelby Rose’s backyard beat out Cornice’s
moss-covered grounds for the most overgrown landscape. A travertine
walkway curved throughout the huge gardens, a paradise lost in a
land of grime and hurricanes. On either side of the walkway stood
statues of cherubim and winged warriors. A few odd statues shaped
like creatures with snake heads and pointed faces stood among the
bushes in some of the corners.

I figured Jalen must’ve wandered into the
gardens. He loved nature the same as me, although he’d threatened
to pound me if I told anyone. Come to think, Jalen had talents for
lots of things.

After winding through a jumbled maze of angel
statues and evergreens, I found him in the center court. He jabbed
his fencing saber at the invisible thing hidden in the statue of a
dragon with a human face and wings like an angel. He was engrossed
in his make-believe dual, and I almost felt guilty for
interrupting.

After a while, he ended the fight, cursed
under his breath, and gazed over at me.

“Wow. You’re really good. Remember I’m your
friend, okay?” It was a strange statement. For the first time ever
I felt really awkward in Jalen’s presence.

Jalen dropped the saber and bounded over to
hug me. Pulling back, he glanced around my head. “You mean, there’s
no bodyguard around today? I guess he remembered your other
friends, huh?”

“I need to talk to you.”

He scoffed a bit, picking up his saber. “Even
after everything I kept to myself, the lies I told, you still wanna
talk to me?”

“Not lies. Half-truths. There’s a
difference,” I said. We shuffled through an awkward pause. “Why
didn’t you tell me?”

He smirked. “I could ask you the same
thing.”

“What do you mean?” My stomach flipped.
There was no way he knew about my abilities. Or did he? I wasn’t
about to find out because he avoided the question.

“I’ve always been able to do things real
easy. Stuff like picking a lock with my mind, or mastering the
blade in a few weeks.” He made a three-move motion with his saber
the way a professional would do. “Like you, I saw people, and uh,
things that weren’t people in my dreams. You know what I thought?
Because my father was caught drinking that old alcoholic stuff that
he had screwed me up. Then a couple of weeks ago, Lexa told me you
stopped drinking the ale-meds. I thought you might’ve been on to
something. I stopped taking the morning dose first. Then I tried
skipping the nighttime one a few times. Now I can do this.” He
moved away from me, to the snake statue, over to the patio door and
back to me in a few seconds. “Damn.” He sliced his finger on his
blade. Blood oozed out of the slit skin. I took his finger, closing
my jacket sleeve over it.

“You just said a forbidden word,” I said,
remembering how good it felt when I experienced my first taste of
the banned language.

“I sure did. I think it comes with the
territory of being medicine free,” he said. Our eyes met. More
secrets. They wouldn’t ever end, now. I started this cycle the day
I forgot to take my ale-med. Micah always said bad things were in
the ale-meds. What he meant was things to lessen chromo gifts were
in them.

Lexa had listened to me. I was happy and sad
and relieved all together. I thought about the scroll’s warning and
quieted the voice, the one that kept me from reading Leezra’s words
to Nina. Jalen needed to know, to understand his birth wasn’t a
mistake. I knew the feeling well and vowed to help him. “You still
could’ve told me. I know things that can help us both.” I pushed
down on the wound. He winced.

“You think I can trust you like that,
huh?”

“At some point, you have to know you can,
well, have a little faith in people,” I said.

He pulled his hand away. “Mm-kay. I trusted
you last night. What I said, that was real. But you still left with
Toulan. You’ve fallen for him, haven’t you?”

His words stung. When did life get so
complicated? “You have my attention now, and my trust. We’re in
this together, aren’t we?” I touched his cheek, avoided his
question. He closed his eyes, placing a hand over mine.

“He’ll hurt you. You know that, right?” I
knew the time to move my hand had passed, but I kept it there. He
was my dark knight. I could tell him anything.

But then, a memory clouded over his face in
my eyes. Jalen was crouching in the forest behind Cornice, the same
forest lining the coastline where Faris and I had hidden for a
week. The place where I’d practiced flying. Did Jalen see that too?
The scene faded.

“You followed us to the ocean,” I said,
relieved he wasn’t talking about Faris’s real secret, the one I’d
just learned last night.

“Only the one time when the two of you was,
you know...” His voice trailed off. He meant the kiss we
shared.

“You followed Faris to this house, didn’t
you?”

“Being fast has its benefits,” he said.

A throat cleared. I jerked my hand away from
Jalen’s face.

“Faris,” I said, feeling guilty although I
didn’t know why. He was the one who disappeared all night.

An awkward moment passed. Jalen broke it
first, this time. “The governor is pretty intense, huh?”

“She’s being protective. That’s her way. Get
used to it.” He was using the four-word sentences again.
Wonderful.

“Hey man, you
used
to be her best
champion. Don’t get all gassed up at me because somebody tied your
ponytail too tight.” Jalen shuffled his feet and stomped, a weird
move only he knew how to do just before he puffed up at someone,
which usually ended in a fight. Faris stepped closer to him. His
chest heaved, jaw line tensed. I cringed at the unavoidable moment,
temper versus rage.

Jalen pointed at me. “She’s my responsibility
too. You need to get used to that.”

“Somebody who hides in trees thinks he’s
ready to protect?” Faris said.

“That’s because somebody thinks you’re not
right for his friend,” Jalen said.

Great. They’ll go to it now for sure. Deny it
all you want, but this lovely moment is your fault, Prizeon.

Faris stalked forward. Jalen didn’t back
down. I stepped between them, using myself as the human barrier
just before I remembered Jalen still held the saber.

“Guys, please. You two are stressing me
out,” I said, turning to Faris. “We need to talk, and you know
why.”

“Don’t have a clue,” Faris said with a blank
expression, as if he truly didn’t know I’d found out about his
secret.

One that could get us both killed if anyone
ever found out.