“I’m Calloway,” the copper haired boy announces loudly, “but you can call me Cal.”
He sticks his hand out toward me. I stare at it, uncertain what he’s intending on doing with it, which seems to greatly amuse him. He bursts into laughter, a wild guffaw of the variety most often heard from children. The kind of laugh that has never learned to be self-conscious. In spite of everything, I have to work to keep myself from smiling back.
Calloway’s face is open, his gaze friendly and inviting in a way I have rarely seen directed at me. Apparently not every Dark Worlder is made of stone.
“Is it true you aren’t allowed to listen to music?” he asks with great interest.
I’ve never heard music, so I suppose it’s true. I see no harm in telling him so, though my voice box seems to have disappeared somewhere inside my stomach. I settle for nodding awkwardly.
Calloway looks delighted by this information. He furrows his brow and opens his mouth, no doubt to voice another inquiry, but the girl interrupts him.
“Enough, Cal,” she says forcibly, “she’s a person, not a science experiment.”
The sentiment is kind enough, but her eyes are vaguely threatening as they fall on me. She may think I’m a person, but she certainly doesn’t consider me a trustworthy one. She looks to the Dark Worlder, her dark eyes meeting his light ones. Something unspoken passes between them.
Calloway still grins at me, making me feel awkward and light at once.
The girl determinedly avoids my gaze, an impressive feat, as I’m unable to stop staring at her. She is clad in the most outrageous outfit I’ve ever seen, with ripped trousers so tight they appear painted on and a shirt that ends in a ragged hem far above her belly button. Black ink tendrils only a few shades darker than her skin circle around her hips and climb up her ribcage, disappearing under her cropped shirt. I tell myself to look away, but I’ve never been able to control my reactions in the face of curiosity. It’s always been like the pull of a magnet.
“She can’t stay,” she says to the pale-eyed man. Her voice is strong, edged with a power not used to being disobeyed, but he appears unbothered by her tone. Throughout the entire exchange, he’s remained still, leaning against a tree like he’s in charge of holding it up. His eyes have hardly wavered from me. I fidget once again underneath them, my skin tight. I may not be tied up, but somehow, I feel chained, nonetheless.
“I don’t want to stay,” I say quickly. If they aren’t all on onboard with whatever nefarious plans the man has concocted behind those icy eyes, perhaps I can turn the girl to my side. “I want to leave.”
The Dark Worlder’s eyes finally flick to the girl. Their absence is like being doused in freezing water and I shiver in relief.
“Look at her eyes. She’s the key, Max. We can’t turn back now.”
I spot my pack in a nearby pile of supplies and move toward it quickly. I don’t know what he means about my eyes or what I’m the key to, but I don’t care to find out. “Thank you,” I say, forcing myself to look him in the face. The heat of a wildfire rushes over me and my instincts roar to throw my hands up and shield myself, but I hold still. “For saving my life.”
The man only watches as I sling my pack over my shoulder. His body is set tightly, coiled and tense; a predator ready to pounce. His voice, however, is relaxed as he says, “Where exactly do you think you’re going, Lemming?”
Calloway has fallen silent, watching the exchange with trepidation. With something like regret. The girl, Max, is still, her jaw set in determination, and I understand her dissent was short lived. Whatever the man says, they will both abide by.
“I have somewhere I need to be,” I answer calmly, even though tremors of fear wrack my fingers. I clench my fist.
The side of the man’s mouth pulls into a wicked grin. “I’m afraid I have somewhere I need you to be as well.”
I take a step away from him toward the safety of the forest. If I can just make it to the cover of the trees, I can lose him. I’m small, practiced at becoming silent and invisible. Surely there is some place to disappear that his hulking frame cannot follow.
The thought feels hopeless before it’s complete. Max and Calloway stand between me and the woods. And even if they didn’t, I’ve seen the wildness in the Dark Worlder. I won’t last a minute against that tempestuous determination.
“I need to go. Please,” the desperation lining my voice is repugnant, but I cannot be above begging. For Easton, I will get on my knees and ravage my pride an infinite number of times.
“Why do you think I saved you?” the man asks, finally rising from his perch. He walks toward me slowly—as if he is ensnaring an animal. He towers over me, his head at least a foot above mine. His frame is lithe but solidly muscled and he moves with the terrifying grace of a feral cat.
I don’t answer him, only back away further. The undergrowth rustles behind me. Max and Calloway have moved closer, rounding me up as wolves do with their prey. Fear and anger billow through me.
“Did you think it was out of the goodness of my heart?” He is close enough now that I can see the sunlight glint in the blue of his pale eyes. His head is cocked, and a piece of raven hair falls over his forehead. The effect is almost boyish in nature, but there is nothing innocent about the way he looks at me.
“I’ll tell you something, Lemming, something that every other fool who’s ever met me knows but seems to have eluded you. Thereisno goodness in my heart. I was born into the Darkness, and I am the Darkness. There is no room for anything else in this soul of mine. I’ve come too far, torn apart too much of this terrible world, to give up now.”
Realization settles over me, cold as hoarfrost. I assumed the Boundary hunters were the ones who blew up the Boundary. But it wasn’t them. It washim. The man who saved me from slavery is the same one who blew a hole through a millennia of safety and put a man in the hospital. Terror sluices down my throat.
“It wasyou.You blew up the Boundary!”
He grins lazily, his chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm. “I saved you because I have need of you. And you will come with me, whether you wish to or not. Though it is up to you whether it will be of your own volition or if I need to tie you up.”
No.
