Dark Matter (16 page)

He had a reason for everything he did.
That was what worried me more than I wanted to admit.

A popping noise sounded to the side of
me. I’d heard that noise before. I immediately tensed then relaxed
when I smelled who it was. “Gibbit,” I cried, flinging myself at
the little creature. He took my hugs reasonably well considering
the company we were in. I wasn’t exactly sure why I was so happy to
see him, other than he had my book and he might have a permanent
solution to my little food problem. Being fae-nipped just sucked,
but I was determined to deal with it. I had packed a few things in
my bag that should last me quite a while, but I wasn’t sure how
long we would be on the island.

“
Hello, miss.”

“
We need to talk,” I
whispered in his ear.

He gave me a knowing grin when I lifted
my sleeve to expose the bracelet I was wearing. Heath was pretty
much staring at us now with an odd look on his face. It wasn’t
jealousy exactly. Maybe disbelief?

He walked over to us, stepping between
me and Gibbit. “Thank you for coming,” he said. He held out a pouch
toward Gibbit. “Did you bring the items I asked for?”

Gibbit smiled widely. It ate up the
majority of his face. “Of course, sir. When have I ever let you
down? I brung what you asked plus a few extra things I thought
might come in handy.”

Heath nodded, taking the bag off
Gibbit’s back.

“
We’d best be going,” said
Finn.

I had almost forgotten anyone else was
with us. I filed in behind Cassie and followed them to the edge of
the forest.

“
Everyone clear where we are
going?” asked Heath one last time. The group of men had incredulous
looks on their faces, and I didn’t blame them. I was the only one
that didn’t know what I was doing.

Heath reached for my hand. I suddenly
wished I wasn’t wearing gloves.

I had to get a grip. He was not in my
future, and I needed to stop thinking about him that way. When had
I even started?

His fingers squeezed mine, and I looked
up at him. “You sure you’re up to this? You might not like what you
see.”

I nodded, not able to find my
voice.

“
Visualize the beach. Exact
details are best. I will guide you if you stray.”

“
Thank you,” I said feeling
tears spring to my eyes.

He looked away sharply. “On my mark.
Three. Two. One.”

Blastoff was the only word that came to
mind. I closed my eyes and imagined the sound of the waves crashing
just a few feet away from me. I felt the breeze on my skin,
inhaling the scent of salt and something tangy. Was that
fish?

When I opened my eyes blue sky greeted
me. Sweat beaded on my forehead almost immediately. Heath gave a
squeeze to my fingers before he walked away.

Cassie was holding onto Gibbit’s hand
as if it were an anchor. I laughed and walked up to them. “Why
didn’t you come with Finn?”

She might as we have said duh from the
way she was looking at me. “He doesn’t have the ability to drift
with someone else.”

Gibbit had a power that Finn didn’t? I
stared trying my best to cover my shock. The little troll was full
of surprises. What else could he do?

Two of the men headed into the jungle.
I waited for the rest of the group to follow, but everyone just
stayed where they were, turning to Heath for his next
command.

“
We aren’t going with them?”
I finally asked when I figured no one else would.

“
In due course, Rayla.”
Heath gave me a small smile. “These things take time.”

Excitement and dread vied for dominance
inside me. I couldn’t keep myself from imagining what had happened
to Luke and Zach. Would they be coherent when we reached them?
Would they even recognize me?

The ocean called to me in spite of my
musings. I had never seen it in person before.

The water was the color of Luke’s eyes
near the beach but darkened toward the horizon reminding me of the
halo in Zach’s eyes. The waves rolled forward crashing into the
sand then retreated in an endless symphony of hypnotizing
sound.

I shrugged out of my coat and set it on
a large rock. I had no idea how long it would take those guys to
get back here, but I didn’t think it was that great of an idea for
me to shed my shoes to dip my toes into the water like I wanted
to.

Cassie came and stood beside me. “A
little bit different than Utah, isn’t it?”

“
It’s breathtaking.” I had
imagined myself in a place like this all my life, but now that I
was here, I realized how little a picture can compare to the real
thing. The sounds of the ocean mixed with the soft breeze just
can’t be synthesized.

Heath walked up behind us. He didn’t
get that close, but I was still attuned to his every movement. “Go
ahead,” he said with a little laugh in his voice. “I know you want
to.”

I turned toward him, surprised that he
was even talking to me, but he had already walked away. I wasn’t
about to waste what little time I had here frowning at his back. I
pulled my boots off and shed my socks. My pant legs were a bit hard
to get up my calves, but I managed with a little help from
Cassie.

The white sand was scorching hot under
my feet. I scurried over to the edge of the water faster than I
wanted to. I had planned on taking it in slow, savoring every
sensation for the newness it was. To my surprise, the water was
warm.

I stepped out farther, struggling
against the tow of the tide. The raw power of the ocean was
amazing. To think it was all controlled by the gravitational pull
of the sun and moon was a little awe inspiring. Cassie smiled at me
then went to find Finn. They started splashing and playing in the
water. I felt a brightness spread outward from my chest from just
seeing Cassie this happy. They were good together. Finn was so much
better to her than Chase would ever have been capable of. I doubted
that Cassie even remembered his name.

I wandered the beach for a while,
watching the surf crash into the sand. My stomach grumbled, making
me realize how hungry I was.

I spied Gibbit lounging under the
sparse shade of a palm tree and made a hasty track to his side. I
sat beside him and glanced at him. He was an odd little creature. A
chuckle escaped my lips when I realized that for some odd reason
his pale purple skin reminded me of cotton candy.

He sat up, turning his beady orange
eyes on me. “What can I help you with, my lady?”

“
Please call me
Rayla.”

An expression of doubt crossed his
features, but he nodded. “I’ve a suspicion that you want something
from me, Rayla.”

It was odd to hear my name spoken
normally by someone other than Cassie. I smiled at him. “Two
things: I need my book back and I have to get rid of my hunger
problem, if you know what I mean.”

He cringed slightly. He should feel
bad. He was the one that got me fae-nipped in the first place. “I’m
not sure I—”

“
Please, Gibbit! I’ve
brought you a few things.” I pulled my bracelet off. The garnet and
gold caught the sun as I handed it to him.

His expression melted into a puddle of
desire. He ran his fingers over the metal and closed his eyes as if
he was listening to soothing music. “Where did you get such an
exquisite piece?”

“
Yes, Rayla,” interrupted
Heath. “Exactly where did you happen upon such an unusual
bracelet?”

I stiffened at the sound of his voice.
He held his hand toward Gibbit who gazed up warily at
him.

I jumped to my feet. “This is none of
your business.”

He scowled at me. “You stealing
priceless artifacts from my kingdom is none of my
business?”

“
I didn’t steal it. It was
payment.”

“
Oh, yeah, for
what?”

“
Putting up with you for two
weeks!”

He snatched the bracelet from Gibbit’s
boxy fist, storming away. I caught up to him without much trouble.
“Give that back!”

“
No.”

“
You are such a…”

“
Jerk. Yeah, I know. Got it
the first time. The next time you think about stealing from my
people, you should consider one thing: Our prisons are impossible
to escape and come with a life sentence.”

“
That’s a funny thing for an
immortal to say.”

“
You wouldn’t think so if
you were in one.” He began walking away again, but I stopped him
with my hand on his shoulder.

“
Please, Heath. I need
it.”

He stood stiffly under my touch. “To
make a deal with the devil.”

I lowered my hand. “Gibbit’s hardly the
devil.”

He whirled around. “How would you know?
You’ve barely been on this planet long enough to be out of diapers.
Maybe I’m looking out for you.”

“
Why?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “If you
need to ask that question we have nothing further to say to each
other.” He bounded away from me at a pace I would have had to run
to keep up with.

I felt cold fingers encircle mine.
“Come, little lady. Forget about him. Let’s talk.”

I followed Gibbit into the jungle out
of sheer spite. He didn’t lead me too far in. I could still see
Cassie and Finn, but we were out of earshot. “So can you help
me?”

“
I will bring your book back
to you, no problem.”

“
What about—”

“
That might be more
difficult to solve. The fae only use that tactic for one reason: to
keep a person within the fae realms. If I helped you, I would make
enemies of too many people.”

I frowned at him. “But there is a way
to reverse this curse?”

He laughed. “My lady, being fae-nipped
might be uncomfortable, but it is hardly equal to a
curse.”

I cringed at that thought, realizing I
didn’t know much about the new world I had been thrust into. What
else could they do to me?

Gibbit studied my expression. “Not to
worry. You are too important to have anyone really harm
you.”

Good to know, but I didn’t think that
was really true. If he had seen some of the fae royalty look at me
with pure hate, he might rethink that statement. At least he still
had Lily’s journal. I had tried to put it in the back of my mind,
but there was still something nagging at me. Had I missed a crucial
piece of information simply because I hadn’t known what I was
looking for? “When can you get it to me?” I whispered in case Heath
had decided to play detective again.

“
It is in a safe place. I
will deliver it to you when you are back in Faeresia.”

I fought back a pout and nodded. He
could refuse me altogether if he wanted to. Heath had made it clear
he didn’t want Gibbit to be around me. I looked at the little troll
again trying to see evil in him. All I saw was someone trying to
survive under the circumstances he’d been handed. He was a
survivor. Who could blame him for it? I certainly wasn’t going
to.

A commotion started near the beach
yanking me away from my thoughts. I raced to where everyone was
huddled around something…no someone. I pushed my way between two of
Heath’s men and nearly threw up.

One of the guys from the scout party
was writhing on the sand clutching his ear. Blood oozed between his
fingers and down his arm. He was speaking so fast I had a hard time
keeping up. When Heath noticed me, he blanched, shooting a warning
glance at the man on the ground.

He changed dialects, and I couldn’t
understand anything he was saying now. I’d pieced together
something about dark matter and uncontained, but that didn’t make
any sense to me. What the heck was dark matter anyway? I remembered
hearing something about it on the Discovery Channel, but if I
remembered right, scientists didn’t exactly know what it
was.

Heath rattled off sharp commands and
the group dispersed leaving me standing across from him. Cassie was
bent over the injured man, holding his other hand. She told him it
would be okay, but from the look on Heath’s face, I doubted
it.

Heath stared at me with a look of pure
fear and uncertainty which made my heart beat faster in panic. He
skirted around the hump of a man that was still writhing in
apparent pain and pulled me off to a safe distance.

“
What happened to him?” I
asked, glancing back at the gruesome scene.

“
He was attacked by the
compound guards. He was fortunate. Everill didn’t make it
back.”

I shouldn’t have worried about the poor
guy. He was immortal for heaven’s sake. But the man crying out only
a few feet away from me in agony was too hard to ignore. “What is
going on Heath? I didn’t think you guys could be hurt like that.
Aren’t you supposed to have power to stop this sort of thing from
happening?”

“
We don’t have time to
discuss this now. We have to get you back to Faeresia. I should
have never brought you here.”

“
As if you had a
choice.”