32. Streaked in Gold
1818 Words
32
Streaked in Gold
“Jacob,” Emilia said again, trying to pull his hands from Rosalie’s wrists. But the faint light coming from Rosalie’s palm caught her eye―a golden streak that matched her own.
“He’ll come. He knows I’m here now,” Rosalie whispered, yanking her hand away from Jacob and cradling it to her chest.
“Who, Rosalie?” Emilia asked, fear surging in her chest. “Who knows you’re here?”
“Emile,” Rosalie whispered. “My sweet Emile.”
Emilia looked to Jacob. She could feel his panic joining her own.
“How fast will he be able to find her?” Jacob asked, moving to the window and looking outside.
“How fast could you find me?” Emilia rubbed her thumb across the mark on her own hand. How long did they have? Would it be hours or days before the Pendragon found them? “Jacob, go wait for the pizza.”
Jacob looked like he might argue for a moment before shaking his head and slipping back out into the snow. He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t have to hear this. The door clicked softly shut.
Emilia took a breath and turned to Rosalie. “I need you to help me, Rosalie,” she said quietly. “I want to keep all of us safe, but you have to talk to me.”
Rosalie nodded and staggered to the window to stare out at the snow-covered street.
“The mark,” Emilia said, “it wasn’t there before. When we were with the Siren, your hand was bare.”
Rosalie didn’t answer but started drawing shapes in the fog on the window that Emilia could not understand.
“Rosalie, I need to know.”
Rosalie showed no signs of having heard anything.
Emilia walked over and shut the curtains. “I need you to answer me. If he knows you’re here, we could be in danger. Emile could find us.”
“I never asked to be rescued.” Rosalie rounded on Emilia, loathing shining in her eyes. “I never asked to come back.”
“There was no mark when you were with the Siren,” Emilia pressed on. “Did Emile know you were there? Does he know we’re here?”
“He knows I’m back. His hand will shine as brightly as mine. The light will lead him to me.” For the first time, Rosalie seemed sincere, and frightened.
“When I ran away with him,” Rosalie said, pacing the room like a caged animal, “we bound ourselves. He promised to love me forever. We were going to stay in the woods away from humans. Safe. Always safe. And together. Never apart. But then, he came back with blood, all covered in blood. And I could feel it. I could feel how much he hated the people he killed. It felt hot in my stomach. He knew.”
Rosalie pulled at her curls. “He knew I hated it. I could smell the death on him, and he loved it. But there was something growing in me, so I ran. And I kept running. But he could feel me. He knew where I was. So I left my baby outside and ran away to the Siren so she could keep me safe. The Siren protected me. And you brought me back. You tore me away.”
Rosalie hunched in the corner of the room and slid down to the floor, resting her head on the wall.
“You went to the Siren to hide from your tethering?” Emilia knelt beside Rosalie. “The spell didn’t work while you were there?”
“One outside and one in,” Rosalie murmured. “She’ll keep you safe forever. That’s why she wanted the boy. To protect him from you.”
“I would never leave Jacob in a place like that.” Emilia’s voice shook. She could feel Jacob. He was waiting outside. He was afraid. Not for himself, but for her. What would it be like to not feel the pull in her chest? To be empty. Hollow.
Rosalie grasped Emilia’s face between her hands. “Then we go together. You and me. We’ll both jump. And my baby and I will live in peace together. Just the two of us. Think of it, baby. You’ll never have to feel him again. We could be free forever, both of us together.”
Emilia pulled away. She didn’t want to look into Rosalie’s face. It looked too much like her own.
“Don’t you want to be with your mother?” Rosalie asked. “Isn’t that why you came to find me? I can save you, little baby.” She reached for Emilia.
“I came to find you so I could stop LeFay.” Emilia stood and walked to the other side of the room, as far away from Rosalie as she could, trying to keep herself from yelling. “I don’t need a mother.”
Rosalie laughed again, curling up in a ball on the floor.
“Is he coming?” Emilia asked. “How far away is he?”
“He hasn’t decided yet.” Rosalie closed her eyes. “But he’ll come for me. Soon.”
Emilia pushed through the door and out into the freezing air, gulping it in and letting the cold burn her lungs. That was where the Pendragon had gotten the idea to tether her to Dexter. The Pendragon had been tethered himself. Where had he been when he felt the pull in his chest begin again? He would recognize the feeling now Rosalie was back even if he didn’t know where she had been. Emilia tried to think back. Had there been a mark on his hand when he held her captive in those caves? She couldn’t remember.
“Emi.” Jacob’s voice pulled her back out of the caves and into the snow. His forehead scrunched up in the center like it always did when he was worried. The pizza box in his hands steamed in the cold.
“She’s tethered to the Pendragon.” Hot tears rolled down Emilia’s cheeks. “I thought that finding her would help. I thought she would be some strong person who would fight him, or at least help us find a way to fight him ourselves. But instead, we risked our lives trying to rescue a crazy person who didn’t want to be saved at all. And now she’s practically a beacon leading the Pendragon right to us. Even when Aunt Iz comes, he’ll still be able to feel her.” Emilia took a shuddering breath. “We can’t hide her.”
Jacob set the pizza box down on the railing and drew Emilia into his arms. “She may be able to help.”
“Help LeFay, not us.” She wrapped her arms around Jacob’s waist.
“She spent sixteen years with the Siren. Give her time. Maybe her mind will clear.”
“And what will she be able to tell us? What she wore to her tethering? How she was bound in the same room we were so we could be like them?” Emilia stopped short and gasped. She pulled away from Jacob, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s fine.” Jacob picked the box back up. “You were both forced into something you didn’t want.”
“She wasn’t forced into anything,” Emilia said quietly.
“Right.” Jacob nodded, reaching for the doorknob.
Emilia took his hand. “And I would never run away.” She placed her hand on Jacob’s cheek, tipping his face down to hers. Slowly, carefully, her lips brushed his.
Her heart leaped, but she fought the urge to deepen the kiss, pulling away to catch her breath instead. Her cheeks burned hot in the freezing air. Why did she have to blush now?
Jacob stared at her, his eyes wide.
“I meant what I told the Siren,” Emilia whispered. “I won’t leave you. Not ever. I don’t want to. I want to be with you.”
Jacob took a step closer. His bright blue eyes shone in the light of the lone street lamp. “Emilia,” he whispered, reaching toward her.
The blast of a car horn echoed from the street as a black car sped into the parking lot.
Emilia pushed Jacob behind her, waiting to see who got out of the car, expecting to see the tall, strong shadow of Stone. But instead, a mane of greying red hair emerged from the car, surrounding the furious face of Molly.
Jacob cursed only loudly enough for Emilia to hear. Molly stalked toward them, taking long strides. The mist of her breath floated into the air, making it look as though she were about to breathe fire. In her entire life, Emilia had never seen Molly this angry.
“Molly,” Jacob said, stepping forward to stand at Emilia’s side as the fuming woman reached them. “Before you get angry―”
“Too late,” Emilia whimpered.
“I want you to know I had a really good reason for asking Emilia to run away from the centaurs’ camp with me,” Jacob said.
“Don’t you lie to me.” Molly’s voice frothed with anger. “Don’t you try to cover up for her.” Molly pointed a trembling finger at Emilia. “And don’t either of you think Isadora will be letting you get away with any of it.”
“We aren’t trying to get away with anything,” Emilia said. “It’s a lot to explain, but Molly, we need help. We have to get home to Aunt Iz.”
“So now you care about home!” Molly shouted. “Now you remember you have family who worried themselves sick about you. Who did everything they could to find you, but for all we could tell, you had fallen off the edge of the earth.”
“That’s not far from the truth,” Jacob muttered.
“And Proteus was beside himself, too!”
The door of the motel room opened, and Rosalie stumbled out, tripping over herself and tumbling into Molly. She steadied herself, hanging on Molly’s coat, before pressing her finger to Molly’s lips.
“Hush, now,” Rosalie cooed. “My baby girl doesn’t like shouting. It will bring her daddy to come find us. And then we all fall down.”
Molly stared at Rosalie, her mouth hanging open.
“I found my mother,” Emilia said lamely. “She’s tethered to LeFay, and he might be on his way to kill us.”
“Oh for God’s sake,” Molly said, slapping Rosalie’s hand away as she tried to play with her greying red curls. “Just get in the car, all three of you.”
Emilia looked at Jacob. He shrugged and took Rosalie’s elbow, leading her to the car.
Jacob moved to put Rosalie in the front seat.
“No,” Molly said, taking Rosalie’s arm and pushing Jacob into the front seat. “I will not have any hanky panky in the back of this car. I don’t know what you’ve been doing for the last month, but it ends here.”
“Molly”―Emilia’s cheeks burned again―“it wasn’t like that.”
“I don’t care what you think it was like. Get in the car. We’re going home, and then Isadora will deal with the both of you.”
Emilia struggled with Rosalie, trying to get her into the car. “Rosalie, we’re taking you someplace good. Someplace where they’ll know how to keep us all safe.”
“Back to her?” Rosalie’s eyes widened.
“I’m going back to her, and she’ll help you, too,” Emilia said, wondering what would happen when Rosalie found out that her was Aunt Iz, a witch who was furious with Emilia and Jacob, instead of the Siren.
Rosalie climbed into the car and curled up on the floor behind Jacob’s seat.
“Good enough.” Jacob shrugged as Molly pulled away from the motel, turning the car toward home.
- Writer
