The Luna

Fifteen

"There's a car about a mile up ahead," Malachi breaks the silence that had fallen over us as he ran. I don't know if it's because neither of us wanted to break the reverie that the darkness brings or if neither of us felt safe enough to speak until we knew we were out of the red zone.

A pink glow is sitting on the horizon, a warning that the sun is coming. A new day, a new chance and I'm hoping I made the right choice for that thought to even matter.

"Is it stolen?" my voice is low and honestly he can probably hear just how sleepy I'm feeling. Everything has caught up to me and I've been trying to fight off sleep for a while.

To be honest, I'm a little scared that I already am asleep. That I dreamt Malachi had come to help me and I'll wake up on the floor by my bed, waiting for the guards to wake me from breakfast.

"Why would - No, nevermind, it's not stolen," he says, looking at me carefully. I try to read what he's thinking, what he assumes has happened, but I'm afraid I don't really want to know.

I don't want to know how naive he sees me, how naive they all must have seen me. I had asked myself once what my mom would have thought of Caspian and the wolf people. But now I'm wondering what she would think of my choices regardless of their actions.

She would be disappointed. I had allowed myself to get swept up in the magic of at all. 

"Can I walk?" the feelings inside me are festering and I need an outlet for them. Maybe walking will help alleviate the pressure in my chest.

Malachi sets me down gently, carefully arranging the cloak to still cover my body. He doesn't try to usher me or move me any quicker than I can go. He simply keeps pace with me, occasionally turning his head this way and that as if checking that we're still in the clear.

"How far did we get from them?" I don't know why I'm whispering, but it seems like the right thing to do suddenly.

What if we didn't get as far from them as I thought? What if at any second, we hear their feet running after us? Maybe I should have continued to let him carry me - at least we were moving faster when he was.

I can barely see Malachi narrows his eyes, clearly thinking over his answer. His silence is not reassuring and just as I'm about to have a small freak out, a root comes up from the ground and trips me.

"Careful," Malachi warns, grabbing my arm and saving me from what would have been an embarrassing face plant.

My cheeks flame and I mumble some sort of apology. I keep my eyes trained on the ground, carefully watching for more roots that might want to help introduce me to the ground.

"Not far enough yet," he says so suddenly that I nearly forgot I had even asked a question. He turns to look at me, and his face pales when he sees my face, "No, no I mean, once we get to the car and out of these woods..." he takes a deep breath, his hands moving to the back of his head as he takes a deep breath.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Little Red," Malachi says softly after another deep breath, "But I don't want to scare you anymore than you already are either,"

"I'm a big girl. I just want to know what's going on. I don't like feeling so lost..." I trail off not really knowing what else I'm supposed to say.

I can't tell him that I'm not scared or that I can't be more scared because what if I can be? What if he still knows something that I don't know - which if I'm honest with myself, he probably does. He knows the wolves and knows what being a Luna means. I only have my assumptions.

"You look exhausted, you can sleep in the car," he gestures up ahead, and there nestled between some trees is a blacked-out SUV.

The sun is a little higher now, making it much easier for me to see but I don't see any type of good road. There does appear to be a path, but that looks like it would give Indiana Jones a run for his money. Still, if Malachi isn't concerned, then I won't be either.