Chasing the tesseract

Chapter 23

The smell of burning firewood slowly leaves the air as my head hits the hammock underneath me, my body giving in to the exhaustion. Lifting my sleeve up, I look down at the slightly faded mark from where Pietro grabbed me earlier, my wrist bruised and swollen. Pulling my sleeve back down, I roll onto my back and gaze at the stars up above as my mind wanders, the sound of distant snoring echoing through the forest. As the rising of my chest slows, my heavy eyelids slowly slide their way closed, my mind drifting into a sleep. 

"Abi?" whispers a voice in the back of my head causing my eyes to fly open again. My grip on the blade at my side tightens as my muscles tense up, ready to fight if I need to. "Are you awake?" whispers the voice again but this time I recognise it and my shoulders relax as I let go of the blade. 

"I am now." I reply, still communicating through my mind as I project my thoughts outwards into the forest and towards Stephen's voice. Rolling onto my side, I search the darkness for Stephen and find him leant against a tree on the far side of the opening, a small fire burning at his feet. 

"Oh sorry did I wake you?" he replies, a small smile creeping onto his face as he looks back up at me at the top of the hill. 

"No, I couldn't sleep." I reply, pulling myself into a sitting position as I rets my back against the tree behind me and continue to stare down at Stephen. His face is half submerged in darkness, the other half light up by the little light that comes off the fire, highlighting his eyes and cheekbones. 

"Neither could I." he agrees, lifting up a book that rests on his knee  and showing me it from a distance. It's the book I brought with me, the notebook. One of my favorite romance novels in the history of books. 

"I'm worried Stephen." I confess, my thoughts travelling to his in a twist as my mind jumbles together with a million questions. 

"I'm terrified." he agrees, looking away from my gaze for the first time tonight, his eyes drifting to the sleeping team as my gaze follows his. Once I've checked that every one of them is asleep, I stand up, hopping off my hammock and making my way towards Stephen's side. Sitting next to him, I bury my head in his shoulder, wrapping my arms around his chest as his wrap around my shoulders. "What's this?" he whispers, using his voice instead of his thoughts for the first time tonight. 

"If something goes wrong tomorrow and one of us doesn't come back." I whisper, my voice shaking slightly as I swallow hard. Every muscle in my body aches and the marks on my wrist sting as Stephen hand lifts mine to his lips, placing a kiss on my knuckles before lacing his fingers with mine. He gently rubs my back, his hand drawing circles in my jacket and sending shivers down my spine. 

"Nothing's going to go wrong Abi." he argues, tightening his grip on me as he squeezes my hand reassuringly only for it to send bursts of pain into my wrist. Grimacing slightly, I look away in the hope of hiding my pain from him. If he knows that Pietro hurt me then he'll kill him.  

"If it does, then this could be our last night together." I state, swallowing my pain and looking back up at Stephens blue-green eyes that gaze into mine. Smiling weakly, he places a hand on my cheek and wipes away a small tear that has formed in the corner of my eye. "I don't want to spend that away from you."

"I really don't want to leave you tomorrow." confesses Stephen as he rests his hand on my cheek, his eyes jumping from my eyes to my lips before returning to my eyes. "but we don't have a choice do we?" Shaking my head, I smile up at him through blurred vision. 

"Promise me you'll be careful." 

"I thought that you said promises are the sweetest lies." 

"Yours aren't."