Chapter 29

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Chapter 29

               Blue and purple had always been fascinating and beautiful colors for me. Blue because, in general, blue represented the sky. The sky, for me, stood for a thing of freedom and strength. Purple, on the other hand, was just a color that always seemed to appeal to me.

               However, I never realized just how much those colors interested me until I watched Kanes' face turn from a light blue to a dark purple; in my state, it was a very appealing thing to watch. His hands gripped at my wrist, but with the loss of air, he was starting to lose helpful strength.

              "I'm going to ask one more time, and we'll stand here until you choke out a good answer. Where. Is. She." I had inserted my powerful voice into my conversations a lot lately, but I think it's safe to say I had never heard my tone so loud and powerful. It was a fire, kindled by fear and worry for Mallory. Every day of not seeing her, every time I woke from my brief sleep and she wasn't there, was slowly starting to kill me. It was like my endurance and patient was a long piece of string, one that was cut a bit each day she wasn't here.

     I was almost out of string.

     My fingers tightening lightly around his neck, Kane quickly - as quick as a choking man could - hawked up an answer. "I-In the w-woods..." he wheezed, his legs kicking out relentlessly.”T-two miles no-north of here!" his finally squeak was high and pitiful as I suddenly released him. Realization had donned on me and it wasn't pretty.

    "You were leading me right to them." I said in disgust, stepping back quickly. "A trap," I whispered more to myself a moment later. I realized now that I should have seen this all earlier. Zack and Kane had never been trustworthy before, why should I have expected anything different?

               As he laid flat on the ground, breathing heavily and coughing up a storm, I let my mind run free. If he was a traitor, I had every reason to believe Zack was as well. Quickly sending out a message to Ashen and Mary in warning, I stepped up to Kane. Gripping onto the front of his shirt, I hauled him to his feet, and then a few inches, and studied him.

               It was hard for me to think of this as the man I had once willingly called father. I hadn't been on the same page as him, or even in the same book, for a long while. And now, he had taken it too far.

              "Who's behind it? Who has Mallory?" I snarled in his face, watching with some deep satisfaction as he winced openly. Still, his face shaped into one of no feeling after.

           

  "You'll just have to find out, won't you?" I chucked him at his words, throwing him into the nearest tree with a loud growl. I stomped after him, hauling him back to his feet as he struggled to stabilize himself. He had obtained a bloody nose now and he wiped frantically, trying to stop the flow.

            "Yes, I will. And you're going to help me."

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                 "I don't understand why we're trusting them. They've proven that it's not a smart idea more than once." Ashen pointed out, leaping over a fallen log. I stepped over it drearily myself, mauling over his words but knowing there wasn't much I could do about it.

             "Because we don't know what we're getting into and we don't know what position Mallory is in. We can't just go in charging. What if whoever this is suspects as much and shots her on the spot?" I stopped quickly there, feeling something in my jump uncomfortably and fearfully at the thought. "I'm doing the best with what I have." I added as we trudged on through the forest.

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