The Ultimate Sacrifice, Talia Jager [novels to read .TXT] 📗
- Author: Talia Jager
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We walked and walked. The sun was now high in the sky; we had been walking for hours. “How long will we be traveling?” I asked, starting to worry.
“Couple of days,” she responded.
“Great.” I sighed.
“It will build up some endurance.”
I was sure it would. My body was aching. I was cold, yet sweaty, and getting hungry. But my mind kept thinking about what had happened and what was going to happen. I wondered what Mira was doing right now. Were Noe and Auralee helping her? Was Zane keeping his promise? Was he looking out for her? Mira deserved someone like him, as geeky as he was; he had shown devotion and intelligence these past couple weeks. He would be good for her. I hoped she would let him take care of her. Knowing Mira, she’d fight it for a while.
Poor Daxton was too new to the school to have developed a lot of friendships. He had Zane though; I hoped Zane would be a good friend to him. I wondered if Daxton could use his gift on himself. Maybe he could dream of a place where I was. I sighed. I shouldn’t think like that. Selfishly. I was still alive, and I didn’t want to think of him with anyone else.
Vala didn’t respond to any of my thoughts, which was good because it helped me forget that she could read minds. Finally, she slowed down. “We’ll rest up ahead.” A few minutes later, we entered a meadow. Vala sat on a rock and closed her eyes. I wasn’t sure if she was just resting or having a vision. I took off the backpack she had given me, grabbed out a sandwich I had made for lunch, and ate it in record time. Then I pulled out a canteen of water and took a few sips.
When she opened her eyes, I asked, “Is everything okay?”
She nodded. “Yes. Are you done eating?”
“Yes.”
“We should continue on.” She stood up.
Right. No resting here. Endurance is what I need. I pushed myself up and followed her across the meadow and onwards.
Chapter Fifteen
Mira
“You have to come out of this room some time!” Auralee yelled, pounding on the door. “You have to eat!”
I turned over and covered my head with a pillow, trying to ignore her. She only pounded harder. “Mira! It’s been a week.” I heard some voices outside the door. “Okay, Mira, if you don’t answer the door right now, we’re going to go to Eaton and have someone open it for us!”
“UGH!” I jumped up and threw the door open. “What do you want?!”
She shoved a sandwich at me. “Eat!”
It was a hot meatball sub, one of my favorites. The scent of the sub flowed into the room and made my mouth water. My stomach let out a low rumble. I had eaten in the past week, but it was just snacks I found around the room. I sighed, giving in, and took the food. Famished, I tore into it. “Happy?” I asked, my mouth full.
“Yes, thank you.”
“Was there something else?” I asked, when she didn’t leave.
“I want to see how you are.”
“How do you think I am?” I glanced at her shirt. My eyes filled with tears as I read it: Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget.
“I know it’s been rough. We’re all hurting.” She picked up the picture I had on the bed of Kassia and me. “I know you guys were best friends, but I miss her too.”
I felt a sliver of guilt. Her sympathetic eyes met mine. I knew how both Auralee and Noe felt about Kassia. “I know. She loved you guys too.” I hated—absolutely hated—talking about her in past tense.
“Everybody’s asking about you. You know she wouldn’t want you to be alone. She would want you to live your life. Do that for yourself or do it for her. Whatever you need to tell yourself, but live, Mira, live your life.”
Playing with my earring, I thought about what Kassia would want. I imagined her teasing me about moving on. She’d tell me that a week wasn’t enough time to grieve for her. She’d see me with some other girl and say how easy it was for me to replace her. But deep down, Kassia would know that wasn’t true. She would want me to live and move on. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to.
When I looked at Auralee though, I saw the same hurt in her eyes. She missed Kassia, but she was worried about me. She didn’t want to lose me too. “I’ll try.”
“Good. Come to class with me tomorrow?”
“Okay.” I gave in.
She smiled genuinely. “Thank you.”
That night, the tears poured down my cheeks again, and my head pounded from crying for so long. I hugged her pillow tight, trying to squeeze it into the gaping hole in my chest, hoping that it would help close it, if even just for a minute. Why? Why did she have to die? Why did she have to be the one? Why couldn’t it have been someone else’s best friend? She was a good person and didn’t deserve to die. She saved me. How did that translate into punishing her by death?
I didn’t know how I would ever get through this. How do you get over the death of the person closest to you? How do you even begin to heal from something like that? I ran my finger over the picture of us and whispered, “I miss you.”
The next morning, I got up when the alarm went off. I had slept in Kassia’s bed again. I forced myself to get up and walk down to the bathroom. I took a shower and went back to my room to get dressed. It was unnaturally quiet getting ready for school, and when I went to put my make-up on, I broke down in tears again.
Kassia and I had always shared our make-up, picking on each other’s styles. How was I supposed to get through a day of classes when I couldn’t even put on make-up? Screaming, I threw the bag of cosmetics across the room.
“What happened?” Auralee pounded on the door. “Mira? Are you okay?”
I unlocked the door and let her in. She took one look and threw her arms around me. I sobbed on her shoulders for a few minutes. “I can’t do this.”
“You can. For her.” She cleaned up the make-up and handed me a tissue. After my tears dried, she said, “You don’t need any make-up. You’re beautiful without it. Let’s go eat some breakfast and get to class.” She tugged on my hand.
I didn’t budge. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to face anyone or answer their questions. There were so many things I didn’t want to do. I wanted to stay in our room…my room, and live in my memories, but Auralee was there, holding my hand. I took a deep breath and followed her to the dining hall.
I must have been quite a sight because everybody was staring and whispering. Still holding onto my hand, Auralee led me over to our table and pushed me into a sitting position. “I’m going to get food.”
Noe was already there and she nodded at Auralee. Turning back to me, she said, “Hey.”
“Hi.”
“I’m glad you’re here.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I wasn’t glad I was here. I didn’t know why anyone cared that I was here. Even “thanks” didn’t seem like a good response so I kept my mouth shut.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zane notice I was there. Oh God, not now. He hurried over. “Hi, Mira.”
“Hi.”
“I’ve been calling you.”
“I know.” I had been ignoring my phone, even turning it off to shut it up. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be with Zane, I just had a lot to process right now.
He looked a little sad. “I hope I didn’t bother you.”
“It was annoying at times,” I said, not thinking.
“Oh, sorry,” he muttered.
I sighed, scolding myself for being such a bitch. “It’s not you, Zane. I’m just having a very hard time.”
“I could help you.”
“What can you do?”
“I can be here for you,” he said, taking my hand, “if you let me.”
I tried to smile. I owed him that. “Thank you. I’ll try…”
He nodded. “Listen, I promised Kassia I’d take care of you. I fully intend to keep that promise. Not just because I made it, but also because I really like you.”
I remembered when I overheard her asking him to take care of me. She was the kind of person who would worry about something like that. I had been so mad at her, but when she climbed over the seat and hugged me, my anger quickly disappeared. I never could be mad at her for long.
Just then, Daxton approached us and plopped down at the table. It was the first time I had seen him since we got back. The normally happy guy I had come to know looked pale and sickly.
“He hasn’t been eating either,” Auralee said, shoving plates of food at us. “Now, both of you listen up. You need to eat. She wouldn’t want to know you weren’t taking care of yourselves. She would want you to be healthy and happy. Noe and I aren’t going to put up with this behavior anymore.”
Daxton and I glared at Auralee for a minute. “Fine,” I said, before Daxton gave in. “I’ll eat.” I grabbed an apple off the plate and bit into it.
Daxton took some toast and dramatically shoved it into his mouth. Noe spoke softly. “I talked to Eaton again. The new school training classes start today. Nobody knows about them yet. They’re calling everyone out to the fields at two o’clock.”
That raised some eyebrows. “Interesting. Any ideas what will be included?”
“Physical and weapons training were mentioned, but I don’t know the specifics,” she said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the girl that Kassia didn’t like, Arian, was staring at us. More specifically, she was staring at Daxton. I watched as she stood up and walked over. I’d be damned if I was going to let her get her claws into Daxton. He wanted to move on…fine, but not with her.
Suddenly, Auralee stood up and faced her. “Not going to happen, sweetheart. Turn around and walk away.”
Arian stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide. She spun around and went back to where she came from. I almost laughed. “I thought I was the compeller,” I said to Auralee.
She did laugh. “I didn’t like what was in her head.”
Daxton just stared at us. “I don’t want to be with her.”
“Good. We’re here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
He shook his head. “Whatever.”
I survived the looks and whispers in my morning classes. Nobody actually spoke to me, which I supposed was better. I didn’t know what to say to anyone. After lunch, we went to our other classes and sure enough, everyone was dismissed to the fields at two o’clock.
I stood with Noe, Auralee, Daxton, and Zane. Noe’s floral skirt was blowing in the wind. She had her arm around Auralee and was whispering something in her ear. I wondered what she was saying.
Mr. Eaton had a microphone, and he spoke to
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