𝘼𝙐𝘿𝘼𝘾𝙄𝙊𝙐𝙎 » 𝙟𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 ✓ [1]

XII

CHAPTER TWELVE
WITH OR WITHOUT YOU

Dusk had kissed the sky goodnight by the time we'd made it to the other side of Nublar. Owen had been silent for the entire ride, with Claire twisting around in the passenger's seat every ten minutes as if to make sure that Zach and Gray were still alive, still in disbelief that they'd been returned to her in one piece. I considered whether I should tell her of Zara, but the pain of it was too disheveled. Too detached from reality to know if it was something I'd witnessed.

If this entire day was even real.

Alex, on the other hand, stared out the window, avoiding eye contact with all of us, but especially me. I thought about reaching for his hand at one point, but he must have sensed I was going to do so, because he shoved them under his knees and kept them there for the entire ride. He seemed too frigid to be exhausted. I couldn't tell if something was bothering him, and it bothered me.

Gray had a strong clutch on my arm for the entire ride, even when he'd nestled his head on my shoulder and dozed off to sleep. I'd tried to ignore Claire gazing at me in the review mirror, but nothing more pressing than the pain in my back. Now that I had a spare slot of peace in my brain, I'd filled it with the constant stinging and dulling ache of the scratch running across my shoulder blades. I leant forward, avoiding smothering it as much as I could. Airing out the pain of it was somehow the least of my worries.

Of course I couldn't stop thinking about Delta. It was a hopeless thing, being sat in the car, today's all-for-nothing efforts receding out of me. All that walking and sweating and tumbling and things I wished I hadn't stumbled across; irrecoverably glued to my mind. I could picture her bolted into her muzzle with Hoskins and his Ingen crew taunting and teasing her. Dangling equipment and pieces of bait in front of her and her siblings. Talking over the final details of whatever the hell they'd planned. It unnerved my stomach profoundly, which is why I couldn't believe how undisturbed Owen looked as he drove. Usually proudly wearing a frown or look of disgust in the looming presence of my Uncle, he looked as if he was leisurely driving us around the park.