Chapter Seven - Lonely Souls Call to Each Other

Jack

LeAnne wore a green jumper, a jean jacket, and a pair of black boots. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail that was not doing a very good job of containing her curls. She had a backpack strapped to her back, and a map shoved in her pocket. Thankfully, she had given me some of her brother’s clothes in exchange for my tattered apparel. I wore waterproof pants with a breathable T-shirt and a cotton jacket. My shoes were a pair of lightweight hiking boots that were sturdy and comfortable. It wasn’t exactly what I would have selected for myself if I had been able to go shopping, but I was not really in a position to demand certain clothes. Besides, my battered Converse probably wouldn’t have held up so well walking miles through the woods.

We were ready. All day we had packed and watched. We had been very careful not to look suspicious. Whenever we were not preparing to leave, we made sure to be in very public locations. Regardless of how much cover we tried to provide for ourselves, by morning, everyone would know we had left. When they woke up to find that we were missing, there would be all kinds of theories as to where we’d gone. Hopefully, they wouldn’t guess the correct answer.

It didn’t matter all that much, though; LeAnne had made her choice. She had chosen her side even though it was the opposite of her family’s. In a strange way, I was thankful. I had wanted to convince her to leave, and now I had the perfect excuse. Not that I had pushed her to come with me. I would have gone to warn Lily with or without LeAnne; things had just worked out so smoothly. Well, smoothly in a disastrous sort of way. LeAnne had not looked back once; she didn’t even appear sad. Of course, it could have just been the stress of the whole thing. She was probably one of those people that, unlike me, worked best under pressure.

Evidently, she worked well when confused, too. There had been no need to discuss our kiss. We simply understood each other. Or at least I hoped we did. We hadn’t discussed it after it had happened, but there hadn’t been any awkwardness either. We had just flowed perfectly together as we made our plans. It was probably better this way; I honestly had no clue what I’d say if she asked me about our spontaneous moment.

Now we were crouching behind her house, attempting not to make any noise as we watched the hunting party prepare to leave. A large bonfire had been lit in the central gathering area. Women and children were saying goodbyes to their husbands, fathers, and brothers. Lana had just kissed Mitchell on the cheek. The only female going with them was Maggie; she had managed to convince her father that she would be more of a help than a hindrance. LeAnne had said her fake goodbyes already; she had claimed that she had an upset stomach and wanted to go to bed early.

It was obviously hard for LeAnne. She had to watch her family say a temporary goodbye when she knew she would never see them again. And if she did, it probably would not be under good circumstances. It had been awful to watch her hug her mother for what would most likely be the last time. It reminded me a bit of my own parents. I had no idea where they had gone, but I assumed they weren’t still in Oak Valley. I was fully aware that they had almost certainly disowned me after I had failed to accomplish my task of “painlessly and quietly” eliminating Lily. Even though I had accepted that I had made the right choice, it still stung. Thinking of my parents was like stabbing myself in the eye; it was painful and prevented me from seeing anything clearly.

Eventually, the hunting party left. They started into the woods, torches in hand. It reminded me a bit of an old-fashioned man-hunt. They would have looked a whole lot less like crazed killers if they had just used flashlights. Seriously, we weren’t in the fifteenth century.

As the women and children dispersed for bed, LeAnne and I set off into the night. We hiked for several hours through rough wilderness terrain. She handled it better than I had expected, but I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering that she had grown up without running water or electricity. When I was about to fall over from exhaustion, LeAnne took pity on me and declared that we would rest for the night. It was already well into the early hours of the morning, but I was grateful for any small amount of sleep I could manage to get.

I started a fire while LeAnne unpacked some of the food she had brought along with us. We sat together with my arm around her waist as we watched the fire burn and ate a collection of nuts, bread, and berries. She leaned her head against my shoulder. Her hair had become bushy and frizzy from our hike, and her legs were streaked with mud. Still, I couldn’t picture anyone else that I would have wanted to kiss more. I leaned down and pressed my lips against her forehead. She grinned as she dropped a few more blueberries into her mouth.

“So,” she began, “how do you know this Lily? Her name is Lily, right?”

I decided it was best to tell her the whole truth. I had learned from experience that lies were never a good way to start a relationship. Of course, I could hardly regret my past actions; they had brought me to her.

“We went to high school together. She was my best friend. I loved her, but, uh, she didn’t love me. She fell in love with a faerie named Rowan, and…well, the rest is pretty self-explanatory. My parents were watchers. They wanted me to kill her because they thought she was a human in a relationship with a faerie. I was going to; I even made a half-hearted attempt. But in the back of my mind, I knew my parents’ beliefs were wrong. So when I failed, I just took off. I’d been on my own for about a year when you found me.” I tried to make it all sound light, but there was really no way to downplay what I had told her.

“And do you still love her?” She asked the question as if she were trying to seem like she didn’t care about the answer. She hardly had to do that. She’d stolen my heart the moment her eyes had met mine.

I didn’t have to think about the answer for even a second. “No, I don’t.”

She looked up at me and smiled. “I’m glad.”

She sat up fully as she brought her lips to mine with more strength than I had imagined she possessed in her entire body. Her lips caressed mine as if we’d loved each other for years rather than days. As she leaned up toward me, I brought her up onto my lap and wrapped my arms around her waist. Anyone who underestimated her was doomed. But it was a rather easy thing to do; she spoke in small, quiet tones and never raised her voice. She was incredibly pretty, even though she didn’t try to be. Something about her bird’s nest hair and puppy eyes made her look like an angel lost on Earth. I imagined that she even underestimated herself.

We stayed awake for much longer than either of us had anticipated. We needed each other in the way that starving people needed food. We had been among people who weren’t capable of understanding us for so long that simply feeling the presence of someone who did was worth more than a thousand kisses. Not to say that our kisses weren’t fantastic, because they certainly were. But the reason they were so incredible had nothing to do with the physical aspect of it. Each kiss was so marvelous due to our emotional and mental connection. People so often underestimate the incredible value of emotional connection. Yes, physical attention was marvelous. But I would have lived my entire life without another kiss if it meant that I could experience real, raw love. And so we sat together until the sun rose in the sky. My arms remained wrapped around her as I watched the fire fade and thought to myself just how remarkably lucky I was.