Retribution

Chapter Twenty Four

I couldn't deny the strange feeling of being alone as I cautiously walked down the road leading to the gates of Malara all by myself. I tried my absolute hardest to not look suspicious, scared and even on edge by the fact that I'm all by myself, a wanted person by the government to assist with the take down of Jaxon, with no help in case I were to get caught or get into trouble. My eyes were constantly darting around in front of me and I had a tense posture as I walked with the flow of pushy crowd through the main entrance to the capital city.

My actions for being in the city today are completely innocent. With Jaxon's reluctance I was allowed to come in alone to look at the new stalls and gather some food and necessary items for back at the camp so I wasn't stuck following Jaxon around to the stations today as I was yesterday. I had no plan or interest in heading anywhere towards the government building in case I was recognized or stirred any trouble that would ruin Jaxon's attack plans. Over my shoulder I have a white cloth bag with some money, a drink bottle and that was it. I was told I had to be able to protect myself with some type of weapon but I'd refused the dagger Jaxon attempted to give me straight to his face, even though I tucked into the waist band of my underwear I had the small army blade incase a situation did occur without Jaxon's knowledge.

Today was thankfully a cooler day, the suns hot rays hidden behind many clouds littered in the sky. The usual electric blue of the sky had been replaced with the soft white clouds that everybody was silently thankful for in providing us with a cool day in the streak of boiling hot summer days. It was still warm out however, most of the people I saw including myself still adorning only shorts and a singlet, potentially a short sleeved tee-shirt if they felt the cold more than others. My hair for once was pushed off my face and tied in a low pony tail at the bottom of my neck, the hair just not co-operating with me and frizzing at the ends making it look like a birds nest on top of my head (a resemblance Jaxon did not hesitate to point out and continually chuckle at until I found a hair tie to tie it up with).

A small gasp of air left my lungs as an elbow jammed into my side, an innocent act from being pushed around in the sea of people that tried to hurry into the city. I muttered under my breath a few fed up words from the accidental actions but let it slide, not even bothering to look up at the person who accidently nudged me.

'Olivia?' A cold thick hand gripped my shoulder and instantly I froze, my heart skipping a beat and lump rising in my throat. My eyes snapped up to find the person holding me and I let out a huge sigh of relief when my eyes found Bek, looking down on me with a grin.

'Jumpy much?' She laughed and I joined in though mine didn't sound genuine, instead it sounded relieved that it wasn't somebody else. 'How have you been?' She questioned me, eyes bright as she looked down on me from her advantage point. Through the beginning of our conversation, my back twisted awkwardly as I still walked forwards, trying to be polite and continue talking to her.

'I can't complain.' I said, biting my lip as a smile tried to make its way to my face from the memory of the past few days and how Jaxon and I both admitted our deepest feeling for each other. 'You?' I asked politely.

'Absolutely incredible.' She grinned back. 'Have you eaten breakfast? Let's go buy some bread and talk properly instead of in a sea of people.' She suggested, her contagious smile and positive attitude making it difficult t say no.

'Only for a bit.' I agreed. 'I have some stuff I need to buy.' She nodded her head in agreement, her thick body jumping giddily as she quickly told me the right way to walk to the most amazing bread stand. Not even a minute later the busy sea of people had thinned out significantly as we took a less crowded road to the stand to avoid any unesssicary pushing and shoving. The polite conversation was kept up until we finally arrived at the bread shot.