Empowered (Unbound, Book 6)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"I can't believe there's been zero progress with Trevor." I groaned as I walked at Zach's side as we headed to the gazebo mid-morning. "We need progress or we'll never figure things out. I do not want to be stuck training 'just in case' forever."

"Relax. Just because he's our best lead doesn't mean he's our only one to follow."

"It's the easiest." I kicked the ground and, when Zach laughed, rolled my eyes.

Even though my body had screamed to go to bed when I'd gone to the gazebo last night, I hadn't been able to leave once I checked in with Calin and he responded. It felt amazing to talk without a filter. The happiness of that lingered and I'd checked in on Trevor from the room with the wall. It didn't help. Now, I felt even more exhausted from getting a teaser of a good nights' snooze, and it left me in a bad mood made worse because I had to wander to find Zach in the burial site. It was too hot to traipse around the building.

"Are you scared?" Zach asked.

"What? Of Trevor? No." I kicked the ground again, the toes of my white shoes staining green from the grass.

"What about in general?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. I never feel scared here. I guess we'll find out soon."

"You look tired."

"Because I am."

Zach continued beside me, staying silent from the front to the beginning of the path lined with statues. When we stepped back in the grass, he said, "Let's hope you slept enough for the spell to work. It helps protect you in addition to eradicating what wasn't natural."

"If Onyx growls and I feel fine, I'll assume it worked."

"It isn't a joke."

"No, but we need some levity. Constant gloom and doom will make me such a basket case. No book of spells will fix it."

When we reached the gazebo, the unknown feeling I couldn't identify multiplied until the kinetic energy it seemed to be made of caused my body to vibrate like a massage machine set on low. Just a slight vibration and zero shaking. On the upside, even though I felt like I could sleep standing up, it kept me awake.

"Are you ready?" Zach walked through the gazebo to stand on the ledge of the floor opposite of me. "Where are the dogs?"

"Likely running and chasing their tails. That's what they were up to last I saw."

"You should have her with you when we leave the Kingdom."

"Why? You are coming and Opal likes having a friend."

"She's trained to protect you."

"Well, I am not helpless. If the two of us can't take care of whatever your big bad villain does, Onyx isn't going to be able to help except to warn us." I shrugged. "Let her stay."

"You'll come get her when I leave?"

"Sure. If I don't, I'm sure you will bring her to me." I smiled wide and pulled out my phone to text Calin we were on our way back. Keeping it in my hand, I crossed my arms.

"We could stick around for a few hours and still be at Celestial Java for closing."

My phone buzzed in my hand. I unfolded my arms and looked at the notification. It was too long to read in full in a bubble, so I unlocked it, snort-laughing when I read Calin's response.

"What?"

I darted my eyes to Zach and back to my phone, using both hands to text out a response.

"Are you using social media or whatever?"