Page 66 of Into The Green

"Doyle," Jasper said, his tone a little harsh and I looked up to shoot him a look which he, of course, ignored. "Snap out of it. This isn't doing any of us any good right now. We need your head in this without the emotions. We need to know where the camp is exactly and where the weak spots are. We need to know where they keep the women."

"There's no way you're getting in and back out alive, Jasp."

"Risk I'm willing to take for Jade."

"Yeah," Doyle agreed, untangling from me and standing. "Yeah, I agree."

"So where are we going?"

"I was young, man. My sense of direction was a bit warped with my fear. All I know is that once I got out of the iron gates and hit the woods, it wasn't much further than maybe half an hour to the human realm."

"I have this," I said, drawing their attention to me as I reached inside one of the folds of the dressings on my ankle where the girl, Rose, had tucked the stone Baba Yaga had told me about that would help me find my way back to the human realm.

"What is that?" Doyle asked, brows knitted at the strange white-ish stone.

"I don't know exactly. Baba Yaga said it would light up when I am in the right path toward the human realm and black out when I'm not. We can try it, right?"

"Never thought I'd say this," Jasper said, looking amused, "but thank fuck for Baba Yaga."

FIFTEEN

Jasper

It was a full fucking day before we got to the camps. First, the stone wasn't meant to keep us near the human realm next to the camp, just any part of it. So we got turned around three times before we finally got into the right direction. We'd stopped to rest. Well, Cece rested. Doyle and Onyx kept watched while I went to barter for whatever the fuck I could find that might help us. I got a couple weapons, some protection stones, two small vials of poison. Really, it wasn't anything that could help.

We essentially had one of two choices. We could try to sneak in under the cover of night, go in swift and silent, find Jade, and try to get out before we got caught.

To say that plan was riddled with flaws was putting it lightly.

The second option was to wait for or create a distraction and hope that, amid the chaos, we could sneak in and out. Again, hopefully unseen.

So, yeah, both plans blew. Both pretty much assured we'd have our asses dragged in there as well. And by some strange twist of fate, the changeling, the girl no one knew about, had the best shot of getting out. She could throw up that burning shield around herself and Jade and run like hell. Doyle and I were most at risk. I couldn't stomach the idea of Doyle being dragged back into that life, but I was willing to sacrifice the both of us to get the girls safe. And, as traumatized as he was over his own childhood in the camps, I knew he would be willing to make that sacrifice as well. What they would endure would be far worse than what could happen to us.

Doyle and I sat awake, Cece sleeping between us, restless until I reached down and started sifting my hand through her hair.

"What happened here?" he asked, waving a hand at me and Cece.

"Not much," I said honestly. I found myself, as I was trudging through the Dark realm alone, thinking what might have happened if I had visited Jade more, if I hadn't been working so much, if I had met Cece before the shit hit the fan and threw both of our lives into chaos. Would she have hated me? I had peeked enough to know she was a particularly bitter form of betrayed from an ex, that she was bent on not dating anyone, that she was sick of men. But had I shown up, not in a shit mood and being a dick because my sister, the only person I truly loved in the world, was missing, would she have felt differently about me. Would something have happened there? Something a little less wrought with stress and pain and confusion. Back in the human realm where my powers were stunted, where I would only pick up on some vague waves of emotions, not quite such the invasive way I could look inside her in The Green.

I liked to think things might have happened. Naturally. Organically. But a larger part of me knew better. I knew I was always focused on other things, never the type to get serious about relationships. The only way something would have happened between us would have been if we were forced together by some...

"Oh, Jesus Christ," I groaned, slamming my head against the tree behind me that I had been wishing like fuck I could lean against for some support.

"What?"

"This was a fucking set-up."

"What was a set-up?"

"Think about it for a minute. Cece moves in with Jade. Jade would have picked up on Cece being more than what she appeared and the jasper as her protection stone thing. And fucking unakite was all over Cece's bedroom. Then one day, Jade is gone. She won't answer me. I start to worry and show up to find her new roommate is there. Then we are on this mission to find her, forced together day and night..."

Doyle made a sound that was between a laugh and a sigh. "How the hell are we just figuring this out now?"

"We were worried about Jade being missing, sure she was taken..."

"She was taken."

"Yeah, but not originally. Originally she just happened in here to force two people together. You know her. She gets nutty about setting people she thinks should be together up. That's what she does. But she was a lot more sheltered than I was as a kid. She hardly ever left our property unless she was with me. She knew so little about The Green. She had no idea how at risk she was."