Guardians: The Girl (The Guardians Series, Book 1)(54)
The white heat travels everywhere making every part of me burn; from the inside of my eyelids to my toenails.
Finally, I land somewhere, hard. Rocks and debris land on top of me, entombing me. I’m not sure what did it—the blast itself, the rocks that land on top of me, or the fire dancing across my body—but darkness soon follows.
*****
Someone is calling out my name. I can’t tell who is speaking, but I know it’s more than one voice. I try to open my eyes but the light hurts, so I keep them shut.
“C’mon, read her wave.”
“I did. She’s alive.”
“Then why isn’t she moving?”
“Because a bomb just exploded in her face. Back off, man.”
“Read her wave again, Rio. Are you sure she’s alive?”
“Yes. But just because she’s alive doesn’t mean she’s okay.”
My head feels like it’s made of stone. The burning sensation has lessened but not gone away.
Given the strength I put into moving my body, you would think that I could get up. But no, it seems I have barely budged.
“Emmy, can you hear me?”
Come on, open your eyes, even if it hurts. They are so worried about you.
“Emmy, can you hear me? Emmy?”
Finally I convince my eyes to brave the harsh light. The first thing I see is a pair of deeply concerned eyes.
“Are you okay?” Miku asks near panic.
“Yeah,” I manage to say.
She hugs me tightly.
“I’m so glad you’re alive! If you were dead, I was going to kill you,” Miku says, filled with relief.
We actually made it out okay! Everyone lets out a sigh of relief—well, almost everyone.
“What the hell is your problem?” Marcus fires at me.
“Stop yelling.”
“You could have been killed, do you understand that? We can’t let anything happen to you.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. The mission wouldn’t survive,” I say flippantly.
“No, not the mission—me. I won’t survive if something happens to you. Why the hell are you torturing me?” He spits out with unrelenting rage.
From the corner of my eyes, I see Ameana’s body stiffen. But Marcus is too upset to care at the moment.
“If Rio didn’t get to you in time to shield you, do you know what would have happened?”
“Julian is our only lead. We couldn’t let him die. Wait, is he okay?” I ask as the twins help me into a sitting position.
“He’s fine,” Ameana says, motioning toward the man on the ground a few feet away.
Marcus has yet to take his wrath-filled eyes off of me.
“I told you not to go in that Cave. You will do as I say or so help me Omnis, you will stay inside a Holder for the rest of your life!”
Marcus and I are now staring at each other like gun slingers in a showdown. Rio wisely intervenes by questioning Julian.
“Look, we have just gone through a great deal of trouble to find you. So tell us, what do you know about the Triplex?”
Julian looks at Rio calmly.
“I know this: so long as the human girl is involved, you will not get one single clue from me.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN: FAR FROM THE TREE
Marcus moves with inhuman speed, picks Julian up off the floor, and smashes him into a tree. He holds Julian by the throat and looks at him with what I can only describe as wrath.
“Do not test me.”
Julian looks back at Marcus, unfazed.
“Tell me what you know,” Marcus rages again.
When Julian speaks his voice is strained and barely audible because Marcus is pressing on his windpipe.
“Can’t talk,” he says.
Marcus reluctantly loosens his grip. Julian gets away and straightens himself up.
“Let’s do this at the house. We shouldn’t be out on the road like this,” Miku suggests.
The flight back home is tense, to say the least. For one thing, Marcus makes Julian fly with him. And it seems that at any moment, Julian will be dropped to his death.
Once we get back to New York, the team flies straight to their home on the Upper West Side.
Once we land, Marcus throws Julian onto the floor of the roof and barks at him to talk.
“I am grateful that you got me out of that cave. But I will not help so long as Emerson is a part of this,” Julian says.
“What is your problem? I risked my life for you!” I remind him.
“Yeah, and something that should have been done by a Guardian. What’s the matter, Marcus, too scared to face a Chaser so you send in a fifteen-year-old human?”
“I’m sixteen.”
“It is wrong to involve her. You will get her killed,” he says, ignoring me.
“Her name was the only clue given to find the location of the Triplex. We didn’t involve her, the council did,” Rio informs him.
“Yeah, that sounds like something those bastards would do.”
“I don’t like it either but we have no choice,” Marcus adds.
“Like hell you don’t. Put her in a Holder and keep her away from all this.”
“Why are you so interested in what happens to me?”
“Emmy, you could be seriously hurt.”
“I’ve already been seriously hurt.”
He barks his order at Marcus. “You were out of line to involve her. Emmy, go home.”
“No.”
“Go home, right now.”
“Just because you’re the original First Guardian, doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do.”
“I can tell you what to do because you’re my daughter.”
I don’t know what happened. I heard the words and by the time they had make sense, I already have my hands wrapped around his neck. The attack was so sudden that even the angels couldn’t stop me from getting to Julian.
They stand there for a moment in shock that I had attacked him. By the time they came back to their senses, I have already launched my fourth or fifth blow on him. He doesn’t fight back. He just tries to block me. The angels pull me off of him, kicking and screaming. I yell at him so loud I’m sure all of New York City heard me. I don’t care. He raped my mom. The original First Guardian raped my mother.
“Let me go,” I shout at the twins.
“You have to promise you won’t attack him again,” Rio says.
“I won’t, I’ll just kill him.”
“Emerson, calm down,” Jay says, looking into my eyes. He is about to convince me to remain calm.
“No,” Marcus says to him.
“Why?” he asks his leader.
“She’s entitled to her rage. We can’t take that from her.”
“So, just let her beat him up?” Rio asks.
“Let her go,” Marcus instructs.
They do as they are told.
I spit my words to Julian with venom. “You hurt her. She was a good person who never did anything to anyone and you destroyed her life. You come near me or my mother again and I will kill you.”
Julian doesn’t say anything. His silence enrages me even further.
A wave of disgust passes through me. Or what I thought was disgust. It turns out it’s nausea. I throw up everywhere. Everything I ate today is purged from me. Marcus holds my hair out of my face. Rio goes downstairs to get something.
Finally I have nothing left to throw up. Rio comes back; Marcus takes the water and towel from him. He wets the towel and wipes my face.
“It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay. He can’t hurt her now,” Marcus says.
“Maybe he’ll try to hurt her again. What’s to stop him?”
“Me.”
I burst into tears. He holds me. I mumble in his ear, “Get me out of here, please. I can’t stay here.” Moments later I am in his arms. He looks into my eyes and gently pulls my head to his chest and we fly away—away from Julian, away from the worst day of my life.
Marcus lands us on a mountain range that overlooks a stretch of trees.
He puts me down. I look around and nothing looks familiar.
“Where are we?”
“We’re on the Green Mountains, upstate.”
I look around again; everything is clear and beautiful.
“I come here when I need to think,” he says softly.
I can’t bring myself to answer. I don’t want to carry on a conversation. I want the last few days not to have happened.
It’s like Marcus could read my mind because he says, “You can’t undo it, Emmy. No matter how much you want to. And I’m truly sorry for that.”
I turn to tell him what I have never admitted to another living human being.
“Marcus, I’m a mistake. If I had never been born, her life would have been so much better.”
“That is not true. You’re the only good thing that came out of her experience.”
“You know what the worst part is?”
“What?”
“There is a part of me, a small stupid, crazy part of me, that has always wanted to know my father.”
“That’s understandable. It’s something you were denied in your life, and you have every right to fantasize about that.”
“My whole life is just one big mistake,” I cry. He comes closer and puts his arm around me. I pull away from his embrace.
“Please don’t comfort me.”
“Why?”
“I’m not yours to comfort.”
He is about to argue but then thinks better of it and flies away. I want to call him back. But I can’t. He’s not mine. The only thing that’s truly mine is this bottomless despair.