‘You could have eaten them,’ Elizabeth mumbles.
Liam gasps. No joke, gasps. And moves to shield his precious pigeons from her view. ‘They are not for eating.’
‘Everything's food when you're hungry enough,’ Luna points out before grimacing at Fauna, who twists her face. ‘Too soon?’
Fauna nods, ‘too soon.’
‘Enough pigeons, we’ll show you the sleeping options and get you all kitted out for the showers.’
All talk of pigeons abandoned at the mention of a shower, the girls make a beeline for the stairs, hot on my brother's heels as he leads our way down the mountain of steps.
I hold back at the end of the group, psyching myself up for the trudge back down. With a quick stretch of my lower back, I begin descending, but just as I take my first step, I feel his presence behind me. If I’m honest with myself, I’ve felt his presence since the moment we were reunited, and it’s never gone away since the moment he found me in that hallway.
Chapter thirteen
Liam
It’s like I’ve gone mad, madder than I ever was before when I was looking for her.
Now that I have her near me I can’t stay away. I can’t bear to not be within eyesight of her at all times. But there is this barrier between us now that wasn’t there when we first met. When I’d seen her in that abandoned building it was worlds apart from how we are acting now.
One glimpse of her and I’d known she would be mine, that she was perfect — that hasn’t changed. But her reaction to me has.
Isla was witty and bold when I first met her. She took the leap and I felt fully alive for the first time in my life when she did it.
Now, she wants nothing to do with me. And it fucking hurts.
I don’t know what I’ve done wrong but I’m willing to make it up to her one step at a time until I have my princess back in my arms.
Ruaridh had taken the group of them up to where they would be sleeping, a load of suites on the north stand of the stadium. It is where the majority of us stay at night with a few of our guard rooms scattered around the rest of the place for safety purposes. A location I’m ecstatic about because it’s the same floor that I’m on. And Ru, which is almost definitely why he put them there.
Mentally, I have been creating a checklist of everything that could be troubling my girl. Starting with the most likely.
Her being pregnant.
With my child.
In an apocalypse.
If I were her, I would be terrified of the what-ifs, and in this world, there are plenty when you are just looking out for yourself, never mind preparing to take care of a defenceless baby.
So it’s decided I will plan enough to take care of them both. That way I can at least try and lighten the load for her even if it is just a little bit. Because in life, no matter how strong someone is, sometimes they need someone to hold them up when the weight of their worries get too heavy.
For her, I will be that person. For Isla I will do anything.
Chapter fourteen
Isla
‘Ruaridh I swear if you don’t get te fuck I will set Luna on you.’
My pain in the hole of a brother has been clucking around Fauna and I like an overbearing mother hen. He’s not left us alone for one second since he got us both back to the stadium and after fending mainly for myself for over half a decade, it is too much for me to deal with.
‘You can’t use Luna like she’s a rabid dog,’ Fauna says as she fusses around the room we have been given to share with Elizabeth — who left the second it became clear that Ru was not going to give us a moment of privacy. She’s probably scouting dark places she can hide and terrifying heights to climb.
The Skulls have transformed what were used as suites in the stadium into bedrooms. This one is a nice space with blue carpets, a double bunkbed and a sofa bed at the other side of the box room. It has a cosy feel to it but despite their efforts in making it appear like a home, I know it’s not because it lacks one crucial thing. Anything that belongs to Fauna and I.
None of us girls have any belongings, not really anyway. Apart from the clothes on our skin and the packs on our backs, we have nothing. We are nomads.
