Bolt

8

Bolt started walking, and the rest of the team followed. Elle returned to the back of the line, and Kara lingered next to him. He could feel the fire of her frustration, the lack of control scratching at her like an evasive itch.

Bolt allowed them to stop about an hour later to take a break. He moved over to a corner of the mountain to get some serene time to himself, but Kara followed, not entirely unpredictably.

“We have to talk,” she said.

She stood in front of him, her backpack removed. She crossed her arms and glanced up at him with a firm look.

Bolt thought she would be cute if she wasn’t so f*****g annoying.

Bolt nodded, opening up his hand to indicate she had the floor to air her grievances.

“You need to give me some information. Any kind,” she said. “You could easily just be tagging along for a chance at the jewel yourself, for all I know.”

Bolt shrugged again, knowing that it irked Kara to no end. A bit of guilt had set in at the thought that he was going to take the gem to give it to the General to ensure his freedom. But that would all come much later. First, they had to recover the artifact.

“I have a mission to complete,” he replied. “And a part of that mission is the fact that I cannot share certain information with you.”

Kara scolded him by raising her voice slightly. “This is my f*****g team. I’m responsible for them, not you. There’s no way I’m going to be able to trust you if you keep giving me this militaristic routine,” Kara said firmly.

Bolt turned from her, then reached into his pack. He took out a protein bar and began munching on it. When he didn’t say anything more, Kara placed her hands on her hips.

“Seriously?” she said. “You’re not going to give me anything?”

“I’m not going to repeat myself,” Bolt said. “You’re just going to have to take a chance on trusting me.”

Kara’s eyes filled with rage, making their blue hue dance. She sighed then turned away, making her way back to Elle and the group.

Bolt turned to face the side of the mountain, watching the open azure sky glisten with the light of the sun. The snow sparkled like little diamonds were scattered across it.

He didn’t like keeping information from Kara. She was a good leader, so it made sense that she was so tenacious about getting something from him. In another context, he felt like he could get to know her.

But he had to keep it together. That wasn’t why he was there. He was there to protect her and help her get the jewel. Then take it from her.

Bolt finished his bar, then returned to the group. Everyone stood when they saw him coming — well, everyone but Kara.

“We’ll walk for a bit longer, then find somewhere to stay for the night,” Bolt said.

He slipped his backpack on and began walking ahead. He listened for footsteps behind him, which began quickly. He tried to focus on the path ahead and not be distracted by the guilt of not informing Kara about his true nature.

For all he knew, Kara could hate shifters. Even though she was intelligent, and mostly reasonable, you truly never knew when someone was going to show their dark side. Some people’s bad sides come out as intense discrimination, and Bolt desperately did not want to deal with that.

They walked on for some time with only the sound of crunching snow acting as their score.

KARA

Kara continued to walk next to Bolt but tried to contain her rage as they moved along the path. It was driving her mad that he refused to give her any information. She was doing her best to remain reasonable, but he wasn’t being reasonable in response, which didn’t help things.

It was her f*****g expedition, so it would be her fault if anything happened to any of her team members. She had worked too hard to let some man come in and think he could take over.

Kara moved to the back of the line to give herself a break. She stood next to Elle, whose face was red and irritable.

“Are you doing okay?” Kara asked.

Elle shook her head.

“Honestly, I’m pretty pissed. This is a f****d-up way to figure out that your brother isn’t dead,” Elle replied.

Kara nodded. She could only imagine. “I’m sorry, Elle,” Kara said.

She reached her arm out and wrapped it around her friend’s shoulders. Elle leaned into her briefly as they walked.

When she lifted her head, Kara took the opportunity to ask a few questions.

“So what was all that blood about?” Kara inquired.

Elle frowned, recalling the event, then turned her face toward the ground.

“Oh, the blood on his face, you mean?” Elle said.

Kara nodded but sensed there was something her friend was keeping from her. Elle had always said that Kara was her mentor, so it was odd that she would hold off on any helpful information she had on her brother.

“Yeah, I don’t know what that was about,” Elle replied. “More crap for him not to tell us about, eh?”

Kara rolled her eyes, and the two women chuckled together. Kara decided to leave the topic for now — perhaps there was something between the siblings she had yet to discover.

Half an hour later, Bolt stopped the group entirely. He pointed to something on the side of the mountain, then cupped his hand to bellow.

“I think there’s a cave up ahead,” he said. “I’m going to check it out first. Stay here, everyone!”

Kara felt some relief as her feet had been killing her. But she wasn’t going to show any of that gratitude to Bolt. She stood with her team and reassured them as they waited for Bolt to survey the scene.