Storm

Chapter Twenty-Five

A hand grabbed my arm, forcing me to turn away from the one face I could never forget. At first, I thought it was Max. I almost let out a yelp when I saw concerned gray eyes.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Asten yell-whispered, obviously more than a little frustrated that I was dropping in on his mission. I almost wanted to tell him off, seeing as he'd been the one who'd ditched me for the mission without even telling me about it.

Max, who was still standing right beside me, holding my hand, just looked utterly confused. When he realized we were still locking fingers, he immediately slipped his hand away. I'd actually forgotten, but Asten didn't fail to notice.

I watched his eyebrows raise, and I blushed and shook my head furiously. God, just the thought of being with Max made me want to vomit. Nothing against Max...he was just soo not my type. If types even mattered in the apocalypse.

"Wait...are you? Is that...? Then who's....?" Max sputtered, pointing this way and that, looking a little too bewildered for just a normal formal gala conversation. I shoved his hand down, which had been left pointing towards Mace. No need to drag Mace's attention to us.

One thing I knew for sure is that we were all absolutely screwed if Mace even glimpsed one of our faces. He knew who we were and would alert every single guard in this place immediately.

"Care to answer my question?" Asten, asked. Despite his obvious frown and irritation with me, I couldn't help the little tingle of joy that shot through me as I realized he was actually here. At least one part of our plan was going right. Asten was okay. He was alive.

And he was here.

I nodded quickly, then pulled both Max and Asten towards a one-person restroom down a small hallway. Screw it, I thought, as I ripped the door open (after politely knocking) and locked the three of us inside. Fortunately, the restroom was more than big enough because of the Equator's massive wealth.

"Look...a lot happened. But you're mission here isn't safe anymore."

"Obviously, since you being here can completely destroy any hope I had of avoiding Mace."

"I didn't know he'd be here!"

"Well, I don't know what your plan was, but you just made this so much more dangerous for all of us!" Asten replied, still doing that whisper yell thing. Max just stood there quietly with his arms crossed, not taking either side in the argument, seeming a little intimidated by both of us. There was a fire in Asten's eyes that spoke of more than just anger at me interrupting his mission. He was worried, understandably.

I shook my head slowly, trying to clear it so I could get out one logical sentence that'd explain everything to him. I just wanted him to stop looking at me like I'd just destroyed his  favorite t-shirt.

"And who the hell is he?" Asten asked, shoving his thumb towards Max. I didn't know why he cared. It wasn't like Max and I were BFF's or anything.

"You probably recognize him because he was with us. He got us our ride out of the encampment."

Asten seemed to consider this for a second, a little of his anger dissipating. "Ride out of the camp....? Why?"

Thank god. This was exactly what I needed. To just explain everything as quickly as possible and have him go along with our plan. Then, there was a sharp knock on the door.

I panicked, looking at Asten and Max, who both seemed just as at a loss as I was. "Don't come in," I called out, meekly. Now, how the hell were we supposed to exit the bathroom without seeming very odd?

An idea came to me and I quickly peeked my head out the door at the lady waiting patiently on the other side. She looked nice and trusting enough. "Hi...uh, sorry. My friend is kind of sick in here. It may be better if you go find another bathroom...he might be taking a while."

Her eyes widened and she nodded in understanding. Then, she rushed away as if she didn't want to be any closer to someone who was vomiting.

I turned back to Asten and Max. "Look...I can't explain everything right now, but you have to trust me. You can't be here. It's not safe for you, and the people we were working for aren't all that we'd hoped they'd be."

I was, for the most part, right. Maybe the whole ditching us thing wasn't meant to harm us, but they'd still done it, right?

Asten's frown deepened as he stared at me with his arms still crossed. He looked torn. Like he wanted to trust me, but he also had no clue what the hell was going on. I understood.

Then, he suddenly let out a sigh and hugged me to my great surprise. I wasn't used to any signs of affection. Those had disappeared after I'd lost my family.

"I'm just happy you're not dead. And sorry I didn't tell you about all of this," he murmured, genuinely. I let go after a second and gave him a quick smile.

"Yeah, you too. We should get going." Max still stood there awkwardly, looking like he was trying to mind his own business. Asten eyed him again before holding out a hand to him.

"I'm Asten, by the way."

"Yeah, I know," Max replied, as if it were an obvious statement. I took in a deep breath, thinking about what we had to do next. Avoid Mace. Find wherever they were keeping January, Kyan, and Elijah, and get the hell out, preferably on some stolen vehicle.

Sounded relatively impossible.

"So, what now?" Asten asked, a lot more relaxed than he'd been at the beginning of our conversation.

I just smirked. "Now, we escape."