The Los Angeles Lighthouse | ✔

Chapter 25: The Freaking Wish Ruins Everything

That gets his attention.

Ace springs to his feet, leaping over the fire, soles of his feet licking the flames. He plants his knee on my chest, fingers tightening around my cape to hold me close.

"You think that's what this about? You think that's the only reason I'm looking for him?!" He snaps, baring his teeth like a dog before biting of its master's hand. "I thought you out of all these pieces of faex would understand!"

This is good, I remind myself, it's easier to reason with Ace with emotions than Ace with none. But it truly is difficult to keep my cool with the rawness of his breath close enough to slap my cheek.

"Understand what?"

"That I care about him!"

My brain stutters for a moment. Ace? Caring about something other than his own success? He lets go of my cape, slumping to the ground, his back to the fire.

"The first time I saw Paxton. Everything in my head went quiet." His voice is slow, halting. It's rings of a certain vulnerability usually buried beneath his anger. "I'm not one for all this emotional faex like you and Quinton. But Pax deserves so much better than me. Better than any of us."

He draws his legs close. The flames behind him exaggerate his shadow, allowing its tendrils to crawl along the gravel, teasing the tip of my boots. Ace takes in a shaky breath and continues:

"Pax tilts himself towards other people like a rose tilts to the sun. I tilt like a knife right before it breaks skin."

He looks so... raw. Bare. Peeled of his armor, weapons forgotten in the dirt. He doesn't want white lies or false reassurance. He knows that everything will not be okay. Not unless we do anything about it.

"We will find them," I say, anyway. Not believing my own words

"How? Tell me, Marks. I'm all ears," his voice is snide with bitterness. "Where are they? Tell me one place we haven't looked."

A sinking feeling settles in my gut. "The cave."

The cave is nestled at the top of a cliff, easily eighteen meters off the ground. It's not terribly difficult to climb, seeing as I somehow managed to survive it. However I've only ever descended from the cliff's peak—not vise versa. Quin had been tasked with patrolling the treetops and cliff, easily reaching unfathomable heights due to his hawk form. But the last time I checked, neither Ace nor myself posses such an ability.

It takes an hour of failed attempts to finally give up. Night's cloak of darkness has long since swept over the sky, making it near impossible to find the right footholds and ledges make the climb.

We sleep at the base of the cliff, awoken on the seventh morning—the final day of the exam. After doing a quick sweep for Somnians for both our territories, we return to the cliff. It's like clockwork: one foot after the other, hands numb and bleached from holding the stone too tight, feet fumbling to find the right crevices sturdy enough to keep us from crashing to the jowls of the starving rocks below.

     The cave mouth is just how I render it: impenetrable blackness. With a silent, 'I'll-kill-you-if-you-don't-go-first' nod from Ace, I step inside and watch my shadow dissolve into the surrounding darkness.

I can't see or make out anything, so it is too my great surprise when I trip over a lump and land rear-first on the cave floor. Having no vision, my success is left to my hands of which reach out in front of me, searching for the cause of my fall. Fingers ball around something soft, threading threw my fingers like string. Like hair.