Guardians: The Girl (The Guardians Series, Book 1)(38)
Hudson shoots another bolt of lightning. This time I am able to dodge it. I snatch the Runner before the bolt hits him. That kind of voltage would surely kill him. He tries to make a break for it, but I hold on to him.
Daver makes a last-ditch effort to snatch the Runner away, but Rio puts up his wings as shields. Daver can’t get past. Time is running out for us to get the Runner into the goalie. A Traveler angel, called a Counter, hangs in the air like a clock. He starts upright. By the time he is upside down we have just 10 seconds left to make a play.
The Counter made his final move; he was now fully upside down. The crowd started counting: ten…nine…eight. I see Jay out of the corner of my eye. I throw the Runner to him. The Runner was weak but still moving; a reaper, who is a rookie, would have killed him. But Jay knows how to hold a human without killing him.
The crowd continues to count: five…four…three… Jay throws the Runner into the goalie. Daver hurls his whole body to try and stop the Runner from landing. The Runner was just slightly out of his reach. And as the crowd shouts two…one… the Runner is in the goalie, alive and well. The crowd cheers. Everyone stands up. We fly around the field, hollering like fools.
*
The feelings of joy and euphoria last all the way back home. We talk about every moment of the game over and over again. How close Jay had come to being ejected from the game. How the Brawn Snap had been a very lucky guess by our team.
But the subject that kept coming up was Emmy’s stand-off with the ref. She doesn’t want to talk about it. She says she hates Runner Ball and it was stupid for us to put ourselves in danger like that.
Everyone asks her why she was so concerned that something would have happened to me. They ask if she thought I was hurt that easily. She says she would have gotten up to defend who ever had been hit with the bolt of lightning. They don’t really buy it. I think it was because she worked so hard to sound casual about the whole thing.
“I’ll take you home,” I say.
“No, Jay or Reese can do it,” she says.
That hurts a little. But I know it is part of her trying to grant my wish. Still, it isn’t easy to watch her choose other guys to take her home, even if they are my family.
When I land on the roof of the house, Miku is waiting for me.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“When are you gonna give her her wings back?”
“When she deserves them.”
“Is she being punished by the First Guardian or by her boyfriend?”
“Don’t you care about Emmy?”
“Of course I do.”
“Well, Meana almost killed her.”
“Please, Marcus. If Ameana meant to kill Emmy, she would have been dead. That girl’s aim is flawless. She was just mad.”
“That doesn’t give her the right to do what she did. She hurt someone, and she has to pay.”
“When do you pay for the hurt you’ve caused?”
We didn’t see Ameana for the rest of the weekend. Rio wouldn’t tell me what color she was radiating. He would only say that she wasn’t in danger. If she wanted to act like a child and disappear for days, then fine. I wasn’t going to spend my Triweekend looking for her.
The next day, we pick up Emmy and go Soul Diving. I explained all of the rules to her. She thought it sounded even worse than Runner Ball. She asked how we could be so stupid as to play with ours souls like that. The thing is, no one ever thinks that they are the one whose wings are gonna fail.
We take her to the top of Tamera Falls. We had to bring an oxygen tank for her. Rio had to stay wrapped around her most of the time because of the cold. As much as she claimed she hated Soul Diving, she couldn’t help but look when one of us would take a leap. She looked from between the spaces of her fingers, but she looked.
She held her breath until the angels flew back up and were safely on the mountain. There were twenty-something of us, including three Paras. I tell Emmy to make sure she keeps her eyes open to see them dive.
“Why?” she asks.
“They are amazing. It’s like they aren’t even falling,” I say.
“He’s right, Em. When they dive, it’s hot. Not as hot as what I can do, but it’s still kind of nice.” Jay says.
She took our advice and watched when the Paras flew. They don’t go two at a time—all three go together. They don’t care who wins or loses. They just dive because they like it. Competition means nothing to them. They consider that a baser instinct that only newer angels have.
They approach the edge and fall straight down in unison. It was so controlled, so graceful, that the others on the mountain start clapping. Minutes later, the Paras are back on the mountain. They look so put-together, like they had just gone for a walk down the street as opposed to jumping off the side of a mountain.
When it’s our turn, Emmy has a fit. She says it’s crazy and that we need to have our heads examined. She wouldn’t stop carrying on about how dangerous it is. Finally, Jay promises that he would jump only once. But she says she can’t bear to see what happens. He makes her close her eyes for real this time.
Then he and Daver stood next to each other. They were always going at it in some way: diving against each other, battling at Runner Ball, or trying to out-fly each other.
They jump. Emmy keeps her eyes closed. She keeps asking if it is over. Finally, Jay walks up to her.
“Girl, open your eyes,” he says.
“Are you in one piece?” she asks.
“One fine piece.”
“Did anyone die?”
“Nah,” he says. She opens her eyes.
“Who won?”
“What’s my name?” he boasts.
Just then, Reese comes up to us.
“Jay, this girl back here needs a reason to jump. Come show her your face,” he jokes.
“Hate’n. Just hate’n.”
“Can I jump?” Emmy asks.
“No,” I say flatly.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t bring anything to scrape your body off the side of the mountain with,” I say.
“I’m going,” Miku says as she lines up against a Traveler girl. They jump and Miku comes up at least a minute before the Traveler.
“Wow, Miku. You did great,” Emmy says.
“It’s a gift,” she says proudly.
“Are you talking to me again?” Emmy asks her friend.
“I never stopped talking to you, Emmy.”
“C’mon. For a while there I was as welcome as the plague.”
“You tried to steal my friend’s boyfriend. How should I be?”
“Yeah, I get it. But she tried to kill me.”
“Yeah, a little, I guess.”
“I understand if you’re too mad to be my friend anymore. But I miss you. I don’t have anyone to help me talk Marcus out of fixing me up.”
“Fix you up with who?”
“Henry.”
“The guy who has a name for every one of his body parts?”
“Yeah.” They both make a sound of displeasure and laugh. Apparently Henry was a bad idea in Miku’s mind as well.
After the first few times, Emmy felt better about us diving and was able to watch with her eyes open. Although, she still let out a little yelp when we reached the edge and fell over.
By the end of the night she is cheering us on. Most of us won our rounds except for Rio, whose mind seems to be on something else. He comes up to me and says that he saw onyx. Someone was climbing the mountain and wouldn’t make it.
“I could go get them,” he says.
“No, just let it be.”
“He’s only a few seconds away.”
“It’s not about the distance.”
“This is crap, Marcus. We can save him.”
“So, every time, Rio? We have to have this discussion every time?”
“It’s a matter of life and death and you don’t even have the time to talk it over? What, too busy with your love life to do anything else?”
“I’m tired of having the same argument with you over and over again. This is ridiculous! You can’t save a soul that was meant to die.”
“You know what’s ridiculous? You as a First Guardian,” he says sarcastically as he jumps off the mountain.
“I’ll go get him,” Jay says and takes off.
“I’m so sick of this crap. I don’t make the rules. Why can’t he understand that?”
“Why can’t he save just this one person?” Emmy asks.
“Because that is against the rules. And even if it wasn’t, it would never be just one person. Rio has to save everyone. That’s how he got here in the first damn place.”
Just then I look up and realize that Miku has been standing there.
“I’m sorry. I just meant—”
“Whatever, Marcus. You’re right. If my brother hadn’t tried to save me, he would still be alive.”
She takes off into the air.
Just then two angels land next us on the mountain. It was a guy with a girl in his arms— my girl.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her.
“This is Terrance. He’s a Traveler and he was kind enough to give me a ride,” she says pleasantly. Miku comes back at once when she realizes the angel on the Traveler’s back is her friend.
“Mimi, I thought you were gonna meet me back at home,” Miku says nervously. I turn and look at Emmy. I can tell she is scared but trying not to let it show. It can’t be easy knowing that your life is in danger every second that a certain someone is around.