The Tethering: The Complete Collection

16. Lilacs

16

Lilacs

The bus rides were long and boring. Jacob stared out the window, but Emilia kept scanning their fellow passengers.

“What are you looking for?” Jacob finally asked halfway through the second bus ride.

Emilia glanced around for a moment before whispering, “Last time we used mass transit, the Dragons tried to have us killed.”

“The Dragons don’t know where we are.” Jacob studied the crowd on the bus.

Emilia followed his gaze, but still she couldn't find anyone with a dragon tattoo wrapping from their cheek to their neck―the mark the Dragon warriors wore.

“How could they know we’re on this bus?” Jacob asked after a moment.

“Theoretically, they couldn’t,” Emilia murmured.

“Good.” Jacob sat back in his seat. “Besides, I don’t think the man from the airplane is in any state to come after us. Between you melting plastic in his ears, and me using him to get through the Dragons’ shield, I would be surprised if Laurent is even alive.”

“Laurent?” Emilia asked, feeling Jacob tense in the seat next to her.

“In the woods,” Jacob said, looking back out the window. “He was with two other men. One of them called him Laurent.”

“You think the Pendragon killed him?” Emilia whispered.

“Domina, the woman from the caves.”

The woman who tortured him. Emilia slipped her hand into Jacob's, holding on tightly.

“She said he was going to be punished. Since you got out…”

Emilia looked around, but the passengers close to them didn't appear to have noticed their talk of the Dragons. It seemed strange to speak of a magical war on a bus surrounded by humans.

“There’s no way the Pendragon would let him live,” Emilia whispered. “If you hadn’t gotten in, I wouldn’t have gotten out.” Emilia leaned against his shoulder. Jacob sighed. Emilia closed her eyes. She was exhausted. They were runaways, but in that moment, everything felt right.

When the bus finally arrived in Carlisle, it was nearly midnight. People sleeping on benches or curled up on the floor lay scattered around the station. They didn’t look homeless, just stuck. Stranded in a florescent-lit limbo.

“We should take turns keeping watch,” Jacob said, his gaze following a man who crept through the sleepers.

He didn’t touch anyone, but the way the man stared at every woman he passed made Emilia’s skin crawl.

“Or we could find a hotel.” Emilia pulled Jacob to the ticket counter where a woman sat reading a magazine and chewing gum.

“Hi,” Emilia said.

The woman looked up with a glare that implied Emilia had interrupted something truly important.

“Do you know where we could find a hotel?” Emilia asked.

The woman pointed across the street. Out the window a motel sign flickered feebly in the darkness.

“Only place nearby.” The woman grinned, smacked her gum, and turned back to her magazine.

“Great, thanks for your help.” Jacob dragged Emilia away and through the glass door.

Emilia looked up and down the street. Cars honked in the distance, their noise joining the shouts of the bar hoppers making their way through the night.

“Are you sure we should be staying here?” Jacob asked, stepping closer to Emilia. Having him close, his arm brushing against hers, made her feel safe. Even if there were sirens coming closer.

“We’ll be fine,” Emilia said, pulling away from Jacob and starting across the street.

“Hey, honey,” a voice called from down the street. A group of men lurched toward them, stumbling out of a bar. “Why don’t you come spend the night with a real man?”

“How about you back off,” Jacob shouted, rounding on the men.

Emilia felt Jacob’s anger rise in her own chest. She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the other side of the street.

“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll find you later,” the drunk called after her.

“Leave it,” Emilia said as she pushed the motel door open.

“If they knew what―”

“What we are? What you could do to them?” Emilia asked, trying not to smile. “Yes, I’m sure they would leave me alone. But we don’t need the attention of a street fight right now.”

“No fighting allowed here,” an old man grumbled from behind the desk. “We don’t want any more blood in our motel rooms.”

As she went to the desk, Emilia tried to keep herself from wondering why there had been any blood in the rooms, how much there had been, and how good a job they had done cleaning it up.

“Don’t worry,” Emilia said, giving her most winning smile, “there were just some people cat calling.”

The old man didn’t seem convinced.

“We’d like a room for the night,” Emilia said, still smiling.

“I’ll need some ID.” The man fished a pair of glasses from his pocket. “We don’t take under eighteen without a parent. And you pay for the whole night.”

“Sure.” Emilia slid her backpack off and set it on the floor, kneeling next to it.

Jacob crouched beside her and mouthed, “IDs?”

Emilia shook her head and pulled out her wallet. Tucked in behind the cash were two IDs―hers and one Dexter had left behind. Her stomach dropped as she looked at the picture. “Inmutatio nomino.” Dexter’s dark hair was replaced by Jacob’s blond. The skin darkened, and the picture became Jacob.

“Inmutatio numerus.” The dates on Emilia and Dexter’s IDs faded, and when the black ink blossomed back onto the cards, they were both twenty years old.

“Here you go.” Emilia stood and handed the IDs to the desk man. “And we’ll be paying cash for the room.”

The man grumbled to himself as he handed Emilia forms to sign, glaring at Jacob all the while.

Finally, he passed Emilia the electronic key. “Keep it clean,” he growled as they left the dingy lobby.

They climbed up the cracked cement slab staircase to a room on the second floor. As Emilia opened the door that had 221 written in black marker, the scent of cheap cleaner and stale smoke hit her in the face.

“It’s fine,” she said, trying to look like she hadn’t made a horrible mistake by bringing him here. “I can fix this.”

She went into the room, and Jacob followed, turning on the lights. The bulbs blinked for a moment before flickering on. The room was small and suffocating with one bed in the center. Everything in the room was a greyish-brown color, clearly chosen to hide filth.

“Wait,” Emilia said as Jacob went to set his bag on the ground. “Pestiola.” All of the surfaces in the room began to glow. “Ablutere.” Instantly, the carpet was lighter and the bureau shined. “Malundo.” A strange buzzing came from the direction of the bed as the sheets seemed to shift of their own accord. “Bellusavis.” With a sharp pop, the glow faded, and the room looked like a perfectly normal yet much cleaner version of itself.

Emilia took a deep breath. Fresh lilac. “That’s a bit better.” She turned to Jacob. He stared at her.

“So that’s how you do it.” Jacob’s brow wrinkled.

“Do what? Clean the room? Molly taught me cleaning spells forever ago.” Emilia tossed her bag onto the bed.

“That’s why you always smell like lilacs.” Jacob sat in the lone chair behind the door.

“I smell like lilacs?”

“Always,” Jacob answered, not looking at her.

Emilia’s cheeks flushed. Of course he would know her scent. He knew her better than anyone else.

Emilia started pulling things out of her bag. Toothbrush, clothes.

“How did you get his ID?” Jacob asked.

“It was in his room.”

“Sure,” Jacob said after a long moment.

Emilia could hear the hurt in his voice. Did he think she missed Dexter?

“When I smashed his room”―Emilia sat on the bed―“I found a bag. It had some cash and his ID. I don’t know why he had it. Maybe it was just Dexter being a jerk and keeping lots of money around because he could. Maybe he was going to run. I don’t know. But there was no point in leaving a few thousand dollars behind.”

“A few thousand?” Jacob asked, his eyes wide.

“In a leather satchel in his closet.” Emilia nodded. “I was going to burn it, but I didn’t want to look at it. Then when Iz sent us to the Green Mountain Preserve, and it was going to be the four of us on our own, it seemed stupid not to have a backup plan. So I packed it all.” Emilia looked at Jacob, willing him to understand she had kept the ID not for Dexter’s photo, but as a way out. A way out she and Jacob now needed.

“It was a good plan.” Jacob reached out and took Emilia’s hand. She felt the hum in her chest begin.

“I thought so, too.” She looked into Jacob’s eyes. So blue and so tired. “We should get some rest.” It seemed like days since she had lain in her bed in the tent across from Claire.

Jacob looked at Emilia and then at the bed. “I’ll take the chair.” He reached down to untie his shoes.

“Jacob, don’t be silly,” Emilia said, even as her cheeks flushed. “It’s a big bed, and we can share. Neither of us slept last night.”

“I’ll be fine in the chair,” Jacob said, taking more time than a person needed to untie his shoes.

“I’ll feel too guilty to sleep if you do that.” Emilia stood up, toothbrush in hand. At least the sink looked decent after her spell. “I promise I’ll even let you have some of the covers.”

By the time they were both ready for bed, Emilia could hardly breathe. Why was she panicking?

It’s only Jacob, she told herself. But the other, much softer voice in her mind answered, But he is the rest of your life. He is your comfort. He is your match.

When Jacob turned off the light, she moved as close to the edge of the bed as she could, digging her nails around the edge of the mattress. As she drifted into sleep, Emilia wondered what it would be like to sleep on the other side of the bed, where she could find comfort in his arms.