The Hidden Gemstone

Chapter: 21

Cody’s POV:

After dropping off Elijah and Zoe, I pulled over in front of Alex’s house. It was almost 1 AM now. A thin sheet of snow covered the streets and the cold wind that blew altered the direction of the snowflakes in the air. I would’ve felt cold if I hadn’t been summoning small flames in my clenched fist occasionally.

“Thanks for dropping me off,” Alex said as she unfastened her seatbelt. I looked at her and nodded. She didn’t get out immediately, but that didn’t bother me. For some reason, I wanted her to stay a little longer.

She seemed exhausted. Strands of her hair escaped her braid and fell over her face though she seemed unbothered by that. There were bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep. The cuts on her arms had stopped bleeding, scabs forming over them. They would likely heal overnight if her movements didn’t cause them to open up again.

Her expression seemed distant, her face hanging in a frown as she stared at the front steps of her porch. I knew she was thinking of facing her father and confronting him about what she saw in the woods, but she didn’t seem eager to do so.

“I know I’ve asked this question too many times, but seriously,” I said, looking at her intently, “are you okay?”

She opened her mouth to say something but then stopped and sighed. “I don’t know.”

I stared at her, thinking of the conversation we had on the way to Niagara Falls. Her words constantly rang in my mind. You have me.

She’d said it like she was making a promise and having her word made me strangely reassured about everything. It was like a boulder was lifted off my chest and that kind of ease wasn’t something I’d felt in… well, in forever.

In return, I wanted to be there for her.

“You can trust me, you know,” I told her. She looked at me, waiting for me to continue. “With everything. You’re not doing this alone, sunshine. You don’t have to carry all your worries alone either.”

She stared at me for a while before saying, “My mom said that to me. The day before she died.”

“Well,” I said, “your mother was a very wise person.”

She let out a soft chuckle. “That, she was.”

Replacing her frown with a smile felt like an oddly special achievement though I doubted it would last long. Not if she was going to confront her father about what she saw in the woods.

“Thanks, Cody,” she muttered and smiled at me before getting out of the Jeep. I watched as she walked to her front door and went inside after a moment’s hesitation.

The moment she disappeared behind that door, I felt a knot tighten inside my stomach, remembering what was next: going home.

I hadn’t faced my mom since our last conversation. When I returned home to shower, I didn’t see her around. At that moment, I felt relieved. Not so much now though. I knew I had to face her sooner or later and the thought didn’t exactly cheer me up.

Sighing, I started the Jeep and began to drive back home.

Home.

That wasn’t what it felt like. Thinking of home wasn’t supposed to give you the feeling of dread. It was supposed to lighten your mood and let your mind relax. It was supposed to make you feel like you belonged.

That place wasn’t home. Alex was.

I thought back to the day we met, the day she walked into that warehouse knowing nothing good could come of it. I’d seen her from the catwalk in the warehouse as she entered and dropped her bag. At first glance, I thought she was lost and had somehow wandered in there. But the moment the first of Ryan’s men dropped and charged at her, I knew she was anything but lost.