The Assassin's Shadow

Chapter 21

"Hey Elaine?" Ava suddenly spoke up and I twisted my head to look down at her.

"Yeah?"

"I don't like your hair blonde."

I blinked at her and then threw back my head, laughing.

"Me neither. It's freaky." Ky suddenly chimed in. I slapped his chest with my free arm and he caught my hand in his to stop me. I quickly pulled my hand away as if I had been burned and glared at him. He just gave me a little smirk and poked my side. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Ava.

"If you think I look weird as a blonde you should have seen me as a preppy teenager. Two words: pure torture."

Ava giggled. "That would have been priceless to see you as a cheerleader! I can't believe you didn't do homework the whole time you were there!"

"Is that weird for her?" Ky asked, though his voice told me he already knew the answer.

"Are you kidding? Elaine did all her homework the day she got it, along with her extra credit, and anything else that was remotely due in the future. She was obsessed."

I frowned. "Just because I liked getting good grades in school-"

"Oh please." Ava cut me off. "You had a panic attack that one time when you thought you got an A- on your Chemistry test. What did you get on it?"

"A hundred and ten percent." I muttered. "But I was right to be worried, I mean it was AP chem! It was a hard class!"

"Not when you are an obsessive nerd, apparently." Ky laughed.

"Shut up Ky." I told him, but it was half-hearted.

"Jake was really worried about you, by the way." Ava told me, studying my reaction. "I didn't realize you two were friends."

"He was in my history class. We only started talking a couple of days before I got kidnapped, but he was really nice to me."

"He helped me look for you when we first realized you were missing. I went to school looking for you and he was just getting out of football and I asked him if he'd seen you. When no one knew where you'd gone, he got all his friends to help us go out looking."

I blinked in surprise. "That's really sweet of him. I didn't know he cared that much to help."

Ava nodded. "But I told you, you just have to let people in and they would love you!"

"Yeah well, now you know the reason why I never had any friends." I shrugged.

"You know you could have told me at any time about your power. I wouldn't have thought any different of you, maybe I could have helped." Ava told me, looking at me with big, earnest eyes.

"I know." I told her guiltily. "But I was barely admitting to myself that I could do that. Telling you about it would have made it more real."

Ava nodded in understanding and gave me a small smile. "I missed you, it wasn't the same without you around to tell me to do my homework!"

I laughed. "I hope you at least got some homework done!"

Ava gave me a small, guilty shrug and her grin got bigger and I groaned at her. I was about to go off on her with a lecture but she quickly cut me off before I began, fully aware of where I was heading.

"So what's the story between you two?" she asked me, looking between me and Ky with that same mischievous grin.

"I already told you, he's part of the Resistance group that caught me when I escaped."

Ava rolled her eyes. "Well duh, I remember. But like what going on between you two?"

"Huh?" I asked her, completely confused.

"She wants to know if we're dating." Ky told me flatly.

"What?!" I choked. "Why would you think that?"

"You guys would make a really cute couple!" Ava told me innocently.

"Stop trying to set me up with people, Ava." I told her, rolling my eyes. This wasn't the first time she had told me this. "We're just friends."

"Yeah, I guess she's only interested in a certain guy from the Revolution." Ky muttered. I could tell I wasn't supposed to hear that but my eyes narrowed at his words.

"Excuse me?" I asked him in a deadly voice.

Ky looked over at me, his eyes widening slightly, before he shook his head and looked away. "Forget it."

I was about to demand an answer from him but a knock at the door saved him from my sudden anger and he jumped up to go answer it. He came upstairs a few minutes later carrying the pizza.

"Yum!" Ava instantly jumped up and ran over to grab a slice. I followed her at a less roadrunneresque pace.

Before I could jump back on Ky for his comment on Zach, however, Ava distracted me once again by deciding she wanted to watch a movie. Ky led her to the movies where she decided on 10 Things I Hate About You. We went back to the room and put the DVD in. By the time the paintballing scene had come around, Ava was fast asleep. 

Kyran and I turned off the DVD player and tried to follow her suit, but sleep didn't come to me as easily. Every time I started drifting off, I began to panic thinking that Ava had disappeared somehow. Finally sick of it, I stood up and went to splash water on my face. 

"What's the matter, can't sleep?" Ky whispered as I emerged from the bathroom.

I shook my head, but then realized he probably couldn't see the motion in the dark.

"No."

"What's keeping you up."

My lips twisted and I looked over at Ava's sleeping form. "The same thing that's kept me up for months."

"So worrying about your sister."

"Yeah, nothing new. Not even new to our current situation, I guess."

Ky sighed and stood up, dragging my by the hand and forcing me to lie down on the bed. 

"Go to sleep Elaine. You have never failed your sister in protecting her and you never will, not tonight and not in the future. We're safe, she's as safe as she can possibly be."

"Just because you say that doesn't make it true." I muttered uncomfortably.

"No, just because I say that doesn't. But your actions up until this point have proven that they are true. You're a healer, a protector, and above all else you are an amazing sister. Ava is very lucky to have you, but right now it's time to realize that you can't be a warrior at every moment of the day. Right now, it's time to sleep."

I sighed heavily at his words but closed my eyes. Soon I drifted off to the sound of three people's calm, even breathing.

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