THE EPOCH CHRONICLES | ✔

thirty-six

"IT DOESN'T feel right ... just sitting here."

Amelia bit her lip as she tried to control her boredom, nerves making her feet jitter despite the pain every time her ankle jolted. Lale looked towards her, sympathy darkening his eyes.

"I know. But you're not going anywhere, with that ankle of yours."

"And you're not going anywhere either, with that rib of yours," she retorted, trying to cover up the quiet worry she had for her wounds. Despite Zoey's efforts after she, Lale and Bradley had rescued the recruits from their TimePods (which already felt like a lifetime ago, although it was only a few days) the bites from the Tanycolagreus were refusing to heal. The punctures across her foot wept with a clear liquid that she was almost certainly sure wasn't supposed to be coming out.

It was futile, though. Both doctors were with Ichabod, and he surely would've come for them anyway. They were on an uneven playing field, but thinking about Shaunia and Tina's mission, Amelia felt relief sink into her chest.

If what Tina hoped to do worked, then they would possibly be at an advantage.

Amelia had recovered her walking stick, and it lay beside her as she and Lale looked over the waterfall. The camp atop it was quiet with people either dozing or quietly recounting how their lives had changed in the last forty-eight hours.

The spray from the waterfall coated Amelia's face and bare arms with cold water, but it felt good. Stripped to her stained tank top, she'd almost been embarrassed by the state she!d been in. Her hair was a greasy mess; her face ridden with scratches and grime.

Lale played with a piece of leaf contemplatively, and the silence between them was easy. For once, Amelia's emotions were in check.

Even though Bradley was gone, and Luca and Zoey were on Ichabod's side, she was happy to sit alongside Lale and just sit. Even if it made her nervous and jittery, like Ichabod was about to burst from the bushes, she was thankful to finally catch a break.

"What do you think's gonna happen now?" Amelia's question betrayed her quiet concern. It had bubbled forth like magma from a deep, dark, buried pit in her gut. Lale looked up, his fringe shaggy in his eyes. She felt the compulsive need to brush it away, and reached out without thinking.

Maybe that's what she wanted. To not think. Not think about Zoey. Or Ichabod. Or anyone.

Lale was quiet as she gently pressed her fingers across his forehead and swept his dark hair across his temple. It wasn't much of an improvement, but Amelia met his grey eyes, which beamed down on her with an intensity that immediately wanted to make her recoil.

Zoey had looked at her with that intensity.

Could she deal with that? Thoughts pressured her mind, but one was the loudest, a roar that threatened to rattle her eardrums. Zoey isn't here. She might never be here again.

Lale caught her wrist before she could move away, and with that her last tendrils of doubt reluctantly backed into the darkened corners of her mind. She didn't break their eye contact, and her skin erupted in shivers where his thumb lightly rubbed against her pounding pulse.

She shut her watering eyes for a second, her breathing shaky. What what was happening ... was it real?

"Look at me." Lale's words were quiet, his tone gentle. His other hand brushed along her jawline, kinking her coiled hair behind her ear. She let him, and her lungs rattled with more than nerves. With a humming in her stomach, Amelia knew she wanted what was happening.