Concealed (Unbound, Book 4)

Chapter Two

I woke to birds chirping, forgetting for a moment where I was.

Slowly, my surroundings became clear as the fog of sleep reduced. I could feel the heat of Calin under my cheek and the rise and fall of his chest where my head rested, my arm wrapped around his waist. The exhaustion I'd felt the night before was still present in the stiffness of my joints, but it wasn't enough to pull my eyelids closed. As much as I enjoyed our proximity—it was the first night in a while that I hadn't had a dream, good or bad—I suddenly felt uncomfortable and had the sudden desire for space.

Rolling over, I felt a rock dig into my side from beneath the sleeping bag and almost yelped in pain. The soft breathing whistling at my ear confirmed that Calin was still asleep, so I leaned further away, biting my bottom lip. Finally, when the rock was no longer making a new groove into my ribs, I exhaled, pausing. When the ache no longer felt debilitating, I started to slip out from within our cocoon, sliding my body up so that I crawled out the opening at the top.

Calin moved and I paused halfway out of the sleeping bag, hoping that he wouldn't wake.

Holding my breath, I waited to the count of sixty until I started to move again.

I tried to keep my legs in as straight of a line as I could so that I wouldn't kick Calin in the face. In my efforts, I wound up forming a bridge between my hands and feet, crawling forward with my back arched and my bum in the air as I struggled to get away. The leaves scattering the ground filled my nose with must as my hands disrupted their placement. It began to tickle. After a few feet, I couldn't help it. I sneezed, falling over to my side as the action constricted my stomach muscles.

As I fell, I covered my face to muffle the sound as I sneezed two more times.

My eyes widened and I held my breath as I looked to Calin, relieved that the sound hadn't caused him to stir. At least I had a few minutes to go to the washroom in the privacy of the trees knowing that he couldn't hear me. Not to mention, I needed to figure out what happened yesterday meant. How was Duvessa going to react on Monday? I only had two sleeps to determine how to handle her. I also knew that, even as exhausted as I was, Maible wasn't going to wait forever for me to help her.

With a sigh, I got up, wishing I was too tired to think.

Remaining as quiet as I could, I went into the trees to go to the washroom and then returned, sitting on the logs to get my bag and grab some antiseptic gel. Somewhere in there, I knew I had gum to help with the morning breath and some water to clear away the dehydration of inhaling leaves and smoke from the bonfire all night. It was too bad that Calin had had the foresight to bring a sleeping bag but not amenities like toilet paper and toothbrushes or food. I looked at Calin and continued to dig in my bag, pausing as my hand crinkled paper.

Looking down, I pulled out the letter that I had found in my locker before going to WC-1 but hadn't read.

My eyes skimmed the message once the paper was unfolded and a slow smile drew my lips upward. Of course, it would be from Zach—in a round-a-bout way. I wondered, as I put the note back in my bag, if Islene had made the trip to the school so that she could drop it in my locker herself. All it said was to stop blocking Zachariah's attempts to communicate so that he could help me. I doubted she'd have given it to Calin, who knew that Zach had died with my mother.

That would have generated too many questions.

I, for one, wasn't prepared to answer them.

"You're up early."

I looked back to Calin, the smile growing as I took in his disheveled hair and groggy, I-need-five-more-hours of sleep growl. Obviously, he took his time coming to get me in the mornings since I had assumed that he was a much cheerier morning person. Still, it was a good look. I'd also expected that he worked on the hair he showed up to school with, but nope. It was totally natural. My grin grew wider.