Airel: The Discovering (Airel Saga Book Two)

Chapter II

WE GOT ON THE freeway. I didn’t begin to relax until after we were headed out of town and on our way to Sun Valley. I didn’t hear a single thing more from Kreios. I was still in awe and speechless about that whole thing.

The road was long and wide open out here, just desert. We flew on at a comfortable eighty-five, ten over the limit, which was as far as I wanted to push it. I was in my own world. I didn’t look at Kim the whole time, and it wasn’t until we had stopped for gas outside of Mountain Home, an Air Force town, that an opportunity presented itself.

She had just come back from a much-deserved break in the powder room while I searched the Yukon for a way to buy gas. Her voice was slow and shaky—not at all like her. “Are you going to talk to me?” She let the question fall to the ground, flat.

“Um, are you okay?” I asked, for the first time in my life feeling awkward around my total BFF.

“Fine, nothing’s broken. Now talk to me.”

I paused. “Kim … I can tell you some, but not all. It’s just too much to take in all at once.” I heard in my voice the exact same tone and attitude that Kale—Kreios—had used on me, and it burned my pride fiercely. I tried for the save: “Anyway, some things I just have to show you.”

She didn’t look like she was buying it.

I wondered how much I could tell her—would she reject me as a friend now that I was a proven freak? Not all human? I considered it. I didn’t think she would, but the thought of how important it was to keep this a secret, and with Kim’s big mouth, well … everything was in play. Never mind my feelings. Could I trust her to keep this under wraps?

“Airel, I won’t tell anyone. I swear on my life.”

What? You’re reading minds now too? I sighed. I found a card in the console, turned and swiped it in the reader, and started the pump. “The only way to tell you anything is to start from the beginning. Do you remember when I started getting sick?”

“Yeah, I asked if you were preggers.” She laughed.

This girl is resilient. “Classic…”

The rest poured out over the next few hours as we finished up, got in, and drove on. I told her everything—everything I knew up to that point.

I told her about the Book and the way it kept changing, like how I could read a story one day, and the next a new one would be in its place. I wanted to write in it so badly that a few times I almost had. I didn’t know what that might do, however, and I wasn’t sure if the Book would work that way.

Kim had put her hand to her mouth, shaking her head in protest. The way she received it was all amazement and joy, just like a child. She was more excited than I was, and wanted to see for herself how I could heal.

The cigarette lighter and my sizzling hand cured her of that particular curiosity, and she clapped in glee when my hand returned to its fair, milky color. She had already noticed my clear complexion, as well as the life in my hair. I wondered if my metamorphosis from what I was to what I was becoming would end soon, or if it would be ongoing. For how long?

It was difficult when I got to the point in the story where Michael’s total betrayal was realized. She had trouble believing that part. “Airel, for what it’s worth, I think he really did have feelings for you. Otherwise, why would he leave you that note? If you were just a … a mission … then he would have just gone, you know, without a second look.”

“Yeah, well … I don’t know how to trust anymore.” The truth was that I was vulnerable, and it wouldn’t take much either way. “I just want to hate him, to forget I ever met him. Is this pain worth the love I have for him, to know it was all a lie?” My heart was so broken, and with each memory I felt like it was just breaking all over again.

Why couldn’t I get past this? All I wanted was to move on and be done—it hurt far too much; I couldn’t make sense of it. I wanted him to disappear completely, as completely as he had betrayed me.

“I don’t know, Airel. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Why did he do it, Kim?” I was having trouble seeing the road for my tears. “Why did he try so hard? Why did he let me fall in love with him, knowing the whole time that he was baiting me into a trap? How sick is that? Why not at least just be a friend, and get close that way; why lead me on like this? Does he hate me that much?”

Kim didn’t have any answers, and neither did I.