Bo and the Beast (Book #1) (Completed)

51. Stronger

The world tilted to one side, lurching out from underneath her. "You left him there?" It was all she could think to say.

Everything felt numb. She talked, but her brain was far away in someplace green.

Dad shook his head. "We brought him back here, but we couldn't do anything to help him." He kept rubbing his hands together, his gaze darting, as if he was nervous about something. But Bo couldn't concentrate on her father's unusual behavior when the sky was crumbling on her.

Bo closed her eyes, resting her hands over them. Her imagination took over, seeing Adam suffering and left to die. Don't leave me behind, he'd said. And she'd done just that in the dreadful moment that he needed her most. He'd died without her, without anyone. An alien amongst humans, once again. Little difference than if he'd still been the Beast of Lyx, captured by the enemy.

Anger flared in the pit of her stomach at her dad, at the camp. How could they be so cruel? Yet, somewhere in the back of her mind she couldn't help but wonder if she would have let him die if she'd only just met him. She knew she would've. She might have been even crueler, leaving him for the wild wolves in the forest to finish off.

Tears ran freely down her face.

Dad rested a hand on her shoulder, letting her cry.

"The small supply tent. When you're ready." His hand lifted, and she was left alone to mourn.

---

The supply tent was small and dark, hidden in the back of the camp. Even so, Bo felt many pairs of eyes boring into her back as she shuffled toward it. Dad supported her on one side, and she leaned heavily on a crutch on the other. Her legs, still mostly useless and horrendously painful, dragged as she maneuvered her way toward the fabric entrance flap.

Dad stopped just a few feet short, guiding her hand to the stack of boxes that made a narrow sort of hallway right in front of the tent's entrance. Bo turned to look at him as she held her weight, her arms shaking.

"His body is in there," her dad said, strangely loud, as if he was hoping someone would overhear. Bo cocked an eyebrow. "Go on, Bo."

"What?" she asked.

"It's for you to go in alone," he said, taking a few steps back. His eyes flicked to Felicia, who looked as if she was going to follow Bo in. He shook his head at Felicia, and she frowned.

"Why?" Felicia asked.

"Just do as I say, Felicia, and stay out here," he said.

"I need you to help me walk-" Bo started to say, reaching for her dad's shoulder. But he stepped back again.

"No, Bo. You're to go in alone." He ran his hands down the sides of his legs, and Bo got the distinct feeling that he was hiding something. But she didn't argue any further. If he hated Adam so much that he would make her walk on her damaged legs into the tent, well... she couldn't find anything to say to that.

Taking a deep breath, Bo swallowed her pain and leaned into her crutch as she limped into the tent. She glanced back once to see her dad holding Felicia away from the tent, and guiding her away to where a small group from the camp was gathering to spectate from afar.

The gloom of the setting sun cast the interior of the tent in deep shadows, and Bo had to wait a moment before she could pick out the table in the center of the boxes and crates of supplies. Something lay across it, draped in tarp. As her eyes stayed locked on the form, she reached for a lamp and lit it.

The center of the tent came into view with the flickering orange flames, and Bo shuffled forward to look down on the dull skin of what could very well have been a human corpse. His skin was white, no trace of the blue she remembered. His eyes lay closed, hiding their earthy brown color, and the tarp draped over half his body hid his height. He could have been anyone at all.