The Blood of Three

Chapter 38

"Riley!" Kyle ran toward me and brought me into a hug.

I softly chuckled and smiled from ear to ear. "I've never been so happy to see someone in my entire life," I told him.

He pulled away to look me in the eyes, but quickly pulled me right back into a hug. "You look like death," he informed me.

My smiled didn't dull. "How long have I been here?"

He sighed. "Almost a week. Everyone's been worried sick."

"What's been happening? How did you get here?"

"The fighting at the Safe Haven lasted a few hours before the monsters backed off. Every few days, a few monsters would attack, but there was nothing we couldn't handle. Terran and Aidan showed up a few times, looking for me and Dylan, but everyone helped us hide from them," he filled me in. "I was leaving a meeting with our parents when Drake caught me by surprise."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Why were you meeting with our parents?"

"To update them on you," he said. "We'd met a couple times and talked about the situation. Your dad didn't take it too well when I told him you went missing. Dylan saw you go unconscious and tried to follow you, but got caught up fighting monsters." He sighed and sat against the wall beside me.

I nodded. "I saw him up in a tree."

"Yeah, he was afraid you were dead." Kyle combed his fingers through his hair.

"Where is Dylan?" I asked. "Is he okay?"

"He's okay," he assured me with a nod. Kyle didn't name his location. We didn't want to send trouble straight to Dylan if someone were listening in on our conversation.

I was now so cold, I was trembling uncontrollably. "Come here," Kyle spoke softly. He wrapped his arm around me and I laid my head on his shoulder. He held his hand out in front of us before flames appeared on his palm, warming the air around us. I leaned against him for a long time in the silence of the dark cell and wandered in my thoughts for a while, trying to keep my mind off our current situation. "Why didn't you tell me that you recognized Drake when we met him at the hideout?" Kyle asked, breaking the silence.

I sighed, knowing that he would ask the question sooner or later. "I knew you guys would've asked me questions I wouldn't have been able to answer," I confessed with a shrug. "I couldn't remember where I had seen him; I just knew he looked familiar."

"We might've been able to put two and two together if you'd have told us, Riley," he lectured. "We could've figured out he was the faceless man in your dreams before all this." His tone was harsher than usual and reminded me of Hades. I hadn't seen this side of him before.

I looked down and fumbled with my fingers, worried he was upset with me. "I know. I'm sorry. I should've told you guys," I apologized.

He sighed. "Don't worry about it, but you have to remember that the three of us are in this together. If something is wrong or you figure something out, you need to inform the rest of us." His tone had lightened, but he still seemed upset with the whole thing. I couldn't blame him since the whole situation was stressful.

We sat there for a while longer in the silence, both worried about ourselves in this place and how we were going to take care of Terran. We kept our words to ourselves, not bothering to exchange our similar thoughts. Sooner or later, I began thinking about my mom.

They poisoned her. I had been so delirious. Did I really not get suspicious of the idea that her heart had just stopped? Questions bombarded my brain, affecting my ability to focus. Why didn't anyone notice the poison in her system? How did Terran get the poison in her system in the first place? A part of me didn't want to know the answers.