The Guardian (Callista Ryan Series) (18 page)

             
Shay entered the room, a towel wrapped around her head in a turban, her face flushed from the shower. “Callista, did I hear you say something?” she asked.

             
Callie drew a shuddery breath, trying to swallow. “N-no,” she muttered, because she hadn’t. But she didn’t tell Shay about Serena. She wasn’t sure she knew how to form the words. And anyways, right at that moment, the sound of bristling leaves came towards them. It was a sound that was becoming well-known to Callie, like that of a doorbell. It meant someone was about to arrive.

             
Emeric’s was the first face to break through the trees, and he flew into the house in a liquid motion. He was followed soon after by Alex. Shay disappeared again into the back room, and Callie closed her eyes, attempting to regain control.

             
“Good morning Callista,” Emeric said, walking towards her. Callie opened her eyes and made herself smile. Alex frowned in the background, apparently noticing that something was false about her expression, though he said nothing.

             
“Morning,” she said.

             
Emeric sat beside her on the couch, propping his elbows against his knees and pressing his fingertips into a temple. “Callista,” he began, his voice serious. “I thought of something last night. I would like to propose something to you.”

             
“Emeric,” Alex said, his voice threatening. Emeric held up a hand.

             
“She has the ability to say no, Alexander. I would just like to ask her if she’d be comfortable with it,” Emeric said.             

             
“Comfortable with what?” Callie asked.

             
“Well, it occurred to me last night that we don’t know if you have the ability to Perceive when it comes to Sirens. You see, Guardians cannot Perceive upon them, as Sirens were once one of us and thus our minds are too similar. However, as you have the ability to Perceive upon Guardians, an ability that we do not have ourselves, we naturally assumed that your abilities extended to Sirens, as well. But I realized that we have yet to test this theory,” Emeric explained.

             
Callie raised an eyebrow. “So how do we test it?” she asked.

             
“The best way, I believe, would be to fly you out to their island. Now, we cannot accompany you once you land onto the island, as they would sense our presence. However, if we place you upon it, and wait for you some distance away, we would be able to allow you to enter their territory and see if you can enter one of their memories. You would have to stay hidden, of course. If they knew that you were on their island, you would be in danger. But once you were able to ascertain one way or the other—“

             
“Emeric, I don’t like this,” Alex growled.

             
“Alexander, please, let her have a moment to consider it.”

             
“She has no idea what this entails.”

             
“I am trying to explain it,” Emeric reasoned. “Once you were able to decide whether or not you could Perceive, we would pick you up and take you back here. Now, understand, this is no small risk. Your life would be in danger every minute you spend on the island. But it would go a long way to deciding whether or not you would be useful in battle.”

             
Callie took a moment to think about that. “What if I couldn’t do it? What if we figured out, in doing this, that I would be useless in battle? If I’m just like you, and I can’t Perceive with Sirens, what would happen then?”

             
Emeric drew a deep breath, and replied, “We would take you home. You would no longer need to train with us, and we would restore you to your rightful place.”

             
Callie swallowed, Maggie’s face appearing in her mind again. “You mean, I could be home by
tonight
?” she asked quietly.

             
“Theoretically, yes,” Emeric replied.

             
“Emeric, you know how badly she wants this. Using it to manipulate her—“

             
“Silence, Alexander,” Emeric said unkindly.

             
“Wait,” Callie said, something not adding up. “How do you know I won’t lie? I mean, you know I want to be back with Maggie. How do you know I won’t just tell you that I failed, that I couldn’t do it?”

             
A smile that seemed born of forced patience appeared on Emeric’s mouth. “You know, the same thought occurred to me,” he said pleasantly. “But in the past week, I’ve come to know something about you, Callista. You have a profound empathy towards the people in your life, even those whom you have only known for a short while. It is what has allowed you to form such a strong and immediate bond with Alexander, and it is what has allowed you to befriend Shay. Attached as you now are to these people, you would not willingly put them in a position where they would be at risk. If you have the ability to help, you will.”

             
His words were fluid, like a sales pitch. Part of her saw right through him. But another part, the one which gave her pause, heard truth in his remark.

             
“Am I wrong?” he asked, still polite.

             
Callie knew Alex was right. Emeric was manipulating her. He wanted information, and he was using the means available to get it. But she didn’t care. It had been a week that Maggie had been alone in their parent’s house. A week since Callie had helped her to shoulder the ghosts that haunted it. If she could get back there tonight, she would try.

             
“I’ll do it,” she said.

             
“Callie,” Alex began.

             
“I warn you, Alexander,” Emeric growled, shifting his shoulders slightly to meet Alex’s eyes. Turning back to Callie, he said, “Very well. We will leave as soon as you are ready.”

             
“I’m ready,” she said, standing up. “Let’s go.”

             
Emeric regarded her somberly, and then nodded and stood. He lifted her in his arms and took a step to the door. Callie saw Alex take a step towards them, one arm reaching for her, as though he would drag her from Emeric’s arms and make her stay in that house.

             
“Callie, you don’t have to do this,” Alex said.

             
“I know,” she replied. “I want to.”

             
“Come along, Alexander,” Emeric said, walking towards the door.

             
Alex sighed, and his face was defeated, but as soon as Emeric was out the door, Alex was following them through the air.

             
As soon as they had left the canopy, and were passing over the beach, Callie felt as though she were leaving something behind. She looked over Emeric’s shoulder. Somehow, in the last few days, she had settled into that forest. It was odd to leave it now.

             
The journey was a long one. Mostly, the only thing to be seen was ocean. Callie was astounded at the miles and miles of ocean that they crossed, each one rippling and deep blue beneath them. Occasionally she would see the graceful leap of a dolphin, bobbing in and out of the water, or the back of an emerging whale, and be unable to help herself from smiling at the view. Other times, she would see the black triangle of a shark’s fin, and she would wrap her arms more tightly around Emeric’s neck.

             
It was hours before they saw land. But then, in the distance, Callie saw the pinpoint of green. As they drew nearer, Emeric slowed, and Callie saw an island begin to take shape before them.

             
“Is that it?” she asked.

             
“No. There are several islands in the approaching waters. But we cannot risk being seen. Alex will stay here, while I deposit you on the correct shore. Listen to me, Callista, for this is very important. You will land, and do all that you can to remain hidden. The island is much the same as our rainforest, and so you will have plenty of opportunity to remain out of sight. But you should hurry; the more quickly you are able to find and practice Perception upon a Siren, the safer you will be. When you are ready to be picked up, or when you feel as though you are in danger, you need only reemerge upon the beach. We will be able to see you, for it is nearly always deserted. Do you understand?” His sober grey eyes leveled her with a searching look.

             
She nodded, feeling fear twist her gut into a knot.

             
“Good. You will have to search a bit, but the Sirens should be together somewhere. They tend to remain in packs. Are you prepared?”

             
“Sure,” Callie said with a bravery she tried to feel.

             
“Alright,” Emeric said, and without another moment’s pause, he soared forward with nearly painful speed. Callie only had time to look back and see Alex’s pinched lips, his slightly widened eyes, before she was suddenly plummeting downwards.

             
She felt Emeric’s grip loosen, and then she was falling for the briefest moment, and then landing with a soft
thud
on the sand beneath her. She groaned, rolling onto her side. With a sharp glance to the sky, she saw him flying away, already so far that he was barely a freckle on the horizon.

             
She pushed herself up, onto her feet, and studied her surroundings. She stood on a beach made of pale sand, green water lapping against the shore. But the beach ended shortly, soon covered in dense vegetation. Trees rose up before her in a fearsome welcome. She swallowed, but knew she had to find shelter. The longer she stayed out in the open, the more likely she was to be found.

             
The forest was thicker here, the trees more densely packed into the tiny island. She tiptoed at first, careful not to break any branches underfoot. Her heart was pounding, and she was sure that she would be discovered every time she rounded a patch of bushes. Luckily, unlike the dark understory of the Guardian’s rainforest, the treetops were not so thick here that they blocked out all sunlight. The sunrays poured down, coating the forest floor, giving Callie a way to see her bearings.

             
After about twenty minutes of picking her way through the complicated groundwork, however, Callie realized that she had to move more quickly. She had gotten nowhere in the time that she’d been here, and the seconds were ticking by. She knew that the men would be worried by now; she needed to hurry.

             
She began to pay less attention to the twigs below foot, quickening her walk as she weaved between random trees. She wasn’t sure she was getting any closer, all she knew was that the more ground she covered, the more likely she was to find them soon.

             
It was another fifteen minutes of passing by tree after endless tree, each identical to the one before, of navigating through marshy dirt and prickly grass, ducking under branches and climbing atop dead trunks, before she heard anything. But when she did hear it, she froze.

             
It was barely a whisper, or so it sounded. When she carefully stepped closer, however, the murmurs grew louder. She hid behind one tree, and then another, drawing closer with each station, until she began to make out what was being said.

             
They weren’t speaking English. The words were spoken in some guttural language foreign to Callie, though she thought that she might have detected a German accent. They were yelling, or at least speaking emphatically as they argued. Callie peeked out from behind the tree, and saw at first only two of them.

             
They were beautiful, their hair long and loose around their backs. They sat on the ground, leaning against neighboring trees, picking pomegranate seeds out of the skins, the ruby juice running down their wrists. They wore various, vibrant colored dresses, different from the female Guardians’ dresses. These were made with halter tops, the cloth tied around the back of the neck, and reconnecting around the lower back, until the dress ended mid-thigh. One girl wore green, the other bright purple. They were motioning harshly at each other as they spoke, and Callie was about to try to Perceive, when she saw movement further on in the forest.

             
She gasped. There were
hundreds
of them. They were spread out across the forest floor, alternately standing and sitting and perching on tree branches. Each was dressed in a different color, each had shimmering, silver wings, making for a kaleidoscope effect. They spoke to each other without restraint, passionately expressing themselves with shouts and gestures and quick motions. Callie had never heard so many different languages in her life. It was like that story about the tower, everyone speaking in strange tongues.

             
She took a deep breath, attempting to focus. The chaos of this place was a bit overwhelming. She closed her eyes, tried to push all the excess action from her mind, and shifted her attention to one of the two nearest Sirens. She pictured the woman, her long brown hair pouring onto the ground beneath her, and allowed the fear that naturally took root inside of her from being in this place propel her into the woman’s mind.