BATTLE SCARS: (Indigo Symbols Book II)

Chapter Twenty-One: Iced Over

REINA:
    "How are they?" He asked. I didn't hear the response but it must have been good because his shoulders relaxed. "Good, good, I'm proud of you sister. Free them all sister, free every damn Indigo you can, free them all." He paused. "Wherever you can Wenzi. Use the Plain if you must, but anywhere now." He paused. "No, we're still on the run. We're still figuring out the prophecy, still trying but once we do we'll find this darkest place." He paused again, his face showed anger, then he relaxed. "Don't insult me like that Wenzi, I'll live." There was four knocks on the hotel door, two quick, two separated by three seconds. Huntor froze, going silent as I rushed to open the door. "I have to go sister, code red." He said as he hung up. "Trouble." Sarah said, "Trouble in the lobby." Huntor said, "Reina get your pack, get dressed, we probably have ten minutes. Go." He swung his head back and his dreads flew behind him and his eye glowed with power. Instantly he was just, just ready, just ready without any dress up, without any issue. I grabbed my backpack and right there, stripped out of my sweats and tank.
    Sarah's eyebrows went flying up as she gaped at me. I pointed to Huntor and closed my right eye. Sarah smiled and nodded. I rushed, tugging on my jeans and shirt, then trying Huntor's swing of the head. But my wave of hair slapped me in the face and mouth and I spat out. "Enough playing Reina, we gotta go, now." He said. "Kiss my ass." I muttered. Then I slung my pack over my shoulders and said, "Let's go." Huntor nodded and marched out the door, his hand snagging mine. "Remember Reina, we're a couple, Sarah you're my adopted sister." 'Got it." Sarah snuggled to his other side and looked too innocent as we walked. I felt envious of Sarah, envious because she didn't have a problem in acting the roles Huntor put us in. This was the tenth hotel we've been stashed in, and in. Every hotel we always played some role, some trick. "This is how we stayed hidden before." He told me after the third. "We played roles so we could keep our true identities hidden." So now we'd leave, leave and find another. Or, we would be, if it weren't for the three Keepers coming towards us. Feeling revolted, I reached up on my toes and kissed his cheek, three quick pecks. My lips tingled as I pulled away and there was a small jump in my stomach. But i iced it over with rage, rage and anger, rage that felt good as it iced my blood, anger as it boiled in my heart. "You guys, no public displays of affection, seriously we needa get a move on." Sarah said, playing the annoyed younger sister. Huntor wrapped his arm tighter around my waist and, closing my eyes, I tilted my head in his direction as the Keepers walked by, my hair sliding off my shoulder and covering my face and hiding Sarah's in turn. Then they were passed us and we were in the elevator. Huntor's arm was taught, his muscles showing under his sleeves. The elevator lowered, floor four, floor three, floor two, we reached the first floor and I felt a jolt go through me.
    Not three, not five, but seven, eight, nine, ten Keepers were stationed in the lobby area. I pulled on his hand and said sweetly, "Hold on sweetheart, ten seconds, I gotta right my backpack." Huntor rolled his eye at the ceiling and said, "Come on my angel, we need to go. I swear you're a Hellion," I righted my pack over my shoulders, sliding my knives within easier reach. We began walking across the lobby and I felt every step like an Earthquake. My feet, now covered in shoes, were so sensitive I could feel every foot step, every tap across the polished tiles. "Hold it right there." Huntor's body was relaxed, but his arms were tensed. He looked around, as if confused. Two Keepers came over, I reached up, kissing his cheek twice, slow, soft. "Seriously Marie?" Sarah said, scowling in disgust. The two paused, as if realizing they were intruding, as if there was no point in coming over. They actually turned back and began walking away. I let out a prayer to my mother and I heard Sarah say, "Whew, that was close." Huntor tensed, as if Sarah's words triggered something and I saw the Keepers rech their little grouping and start talking. "Come on." Huntor tugged us along and I glanced back, and saw the two coming back for us. "Hey, you three." One called, "One with the dreads. You there." My stomach dropped as I knew who she was talking to. Huntor took a breath and said, "Marie, what is it now?" Following him, I said, "Seriously, so I have done what this time?" We were just loud enough that the two paused again. Then kept coming, "Look at us." Sarah swore under her breath as they reached us and Huntor asked, "Excuse me?" "Look at us. You're aware you must go through security before you just walk out. So, what are you waiting for."
    Huntor looked up, and I felt the world drop out from my shoe covered feet as he made eye contact with the Keeper. The other, who had his hand in his pocket, gasped and called, "IT'S HIM, WE'VE GOT HIM." "You thought." Huntor said, so softly I barely heard him. "Excuse me?" The woman imitated. "You thought." He said again, then acted. He pulled out a fidget spinner, already spinning, out of his pocket. The two stared at it as he casually held it, then dropped it. I knew what to expect as the spinner fell, tumbling over and over on itself, glowing faintly. But Huntor was already turning, already pulling Sarah and me towards the doors. Half a second later, the world exploded as the spinner landed on the tiles with three sharp clacks. Huntor threw us forward and landed on top of us as the spinner's explosion sent distruction over our heads. I planted my palms against the tiles and felt the soil under us. Using the confusion he caused, I ripped chunks through the tiles and created a wall between us and the Keepers. Huntor's body was gone and I pulled myself to my feet and saw Sarah up and her palms glistening with snow. Her eyes were glowing blue, just like Huntor's. I turned towards the doors, and stilled. There were Keepers, Keepers racing to the doors. "Reina." Huntor said, so quietly that only I and Sarah could hear him. I kicked my shoes off and with my feet, I tugged the socks off, then, planting my feet, seeing the Keepers, I shoved my left foot forward and circled it in a semi-circle.
    They yelled out as the concrete under them shifted and they were thrown off their feet. Huntor nodded to Sarah and she blasted through the doors, glass shattering and sparkling across the torn entrance and sidewalk like crystals. Sarah moved her palms through the air and snow began spinning around the Keepers as we ran through the broken doorway and into the parking lot. I shoved my right foot forward and yanked it up in a right angle. The world behind us shifted again as another wall was pulled into existence. Huntor arrowed for the hiding place where we kept the bike hidden. There was an explosion behind us and I turned to see the Keepers climbing through the hole they made in my wall. "SARAH." Huntor yelled. Sarah wove her fingers cleverly through the air, as if making a shape. A torrent of wind and snow instantly appeared, blasting in the Keeper's faces and pushing them back. Huntor threw one leg over the bike and he said, "Home." The bike was instantly awake and humming, as if it knew the danger. I jumped on behind him and said, "sarah." I kicked the ground and Sarah went flying through the air, launched by her very own canon. She landed gracefully behind me and Huntor tore through the lot and over the grassy enclosure before hitting open road.
    We spent days on the road after that, weaving through different states, leaving the comfort of Maryland, weaving through Delaware and Philadelphia and going under. We soon found ourselves in the middle of America, before we went further South, keeping a trail that lead to more unchartered territory. After a month, we found ourselves in, "I've never been to Florida before." Sarah said as we roamed through it's landscape. "And there's no Keepers here." She smiled and in the hot sun, it was warm and sparkled like gems. We camped in a hotel, and Huntor said, "Let's hope my ideas are true and they're concentrated in the Delmarva area." "And if they follow our trail?" Sarah had asked. "Then we run." He said. "We still don't have any idea where the darkest place is, or where to go next." That was four days ago, now, now I sat in our shared room, Huntor sitting at the desk, Sarah down in the pool-house. Huntor was typing fast, doing research no doubt. "What are the others doing, and where are they?" I asked. "Scattering just like we did." He said. 'I told them it might be safer, better to go underground and travel to the Southern states." His voice was quiet, not filled with any of his usual bravado or sharp wit. I sat up, my hair falling behind me. He was hunched over the laptop, listening to his screenreader, but I saw his profile. "What?" I asked. He didn't say anything. I rose slowly and walked over to him. "Huntor?" I put my hand on his shoulder. He tightened but didn't say anything. I felt something jump in my stomach again, felt it, and didn't ice it over, didn't let the usual response of iced rage pour over it. Feeling reckless and wild, I leaned over and whispered, "Tell me, please." My voice was strange as it left my lips. Huntor's whole body froze and I heard his breathing deepen. "Please." I said, allowing the jumps and flips in my stomach, the strange feelings it caused. I leaned closer, feeling my lips against his face, his cheek. "Huntor, tell—" He shoved his chair back and I felt my world shift as I stood fast to avoid getting hit by his shoulder. "Don't." He said harshly. "Don't ever do that again." Then the icy rage came. The flips and jumps in my stomach were frozen by the rage that snapped to attention. The anger that boiled in my heart. "What the hell?" I asked. "Why won't you tell me?" "Maybe perhaps there's nothing ot tell you. Maybe because there's nothing to fucking say to you." His words slapped me across the face, every words sending me further and further away from him. "Oh is that so?" I snapped back. "Nothing to fucking tell me? Well then why do you always have that look on your face huh? Why do you always seem to shrink away from Sarah and me huh?" I stalked closer, putting my face in his. "Why then, do you hide. from us, as if you're carrying the world on your shoulders. Well newsflash dickhead, you aren't." I wasn't sure where all this anger was coming from, where all the fury, the icy rage was coming from, but it felt good to let it out. He snarled and said, "Is that so bitch, is that so. Remember who started this, who started and sacrificed himself every time to keep it going." "Yeah the idiotic bastard standing in front of me, the bastard who couldn't trust his people to protect him when he needed it the most." I threw my fist into his stomach. He wasn't expecting it and it threw him back several feet. He sat hard on the bed and I saw pure rage explode across his face. Rage and surprise, as if he really wasn't expecting it.