The Sentinels (Book One)

Chapter 18

The sound of the creature dying in the crater continued as Nella took a seat on the floor across from Jax. The sound had turned to a gurgling cry in the darkness, and she realized it wasn't a threat to them anymore. But she could still hear it, wherever it was, and it made her jittery. What had happened to it to make it sound like that?

She turned around and peeked inside the tent to see if Tai was being disturbed in his sleep by the noise. But he was sound asleep, tucked up in his white fuzzy blanket, which was already lightly dusted with dirt. She turned back and was met by Jax's eyes, looking at her as if he was waiting for something. "What? Aren't you going to start explaining?"

"I don't know where to start," he said flatly. He clearly did not want to have this discussion. "I don't exactly know what you want, specifically. I know you want to know about the necklace and you want details about myself, right? Is that it? Will that make you happy?"

Nella nodded her head, feeling excitement inside her at the thought of knowing everything. A year and a half of being on their own, her and Tai, and now her mind was about to be filled with information and life.

Jax rolled his eyes and looked up at her, the blue glowing in the dark like the stone they would soon discuss. "Alright. This may change a lot of things, though it is the past. Do you want that?"

"I want to know."

"Okay. Actually," he said after thinking for a moment. "You should probably come sit over here for this." He patted the ground next to him.

Nella eyed the spot suspiciously and looked back up at him. Is what you're about to tell me really that bad? You told me the stone was safe...is it something else?

Nella crawled over and sat beside him, remembering to leave a foot of space between them. She still didn't feel comfortable being too close. Jax watched and waited quietly until she was comfortable, her blanket wrapped around her. She caught him looking and tilted her head. "What?"

"Nothing, just waiting."
"Oh, okay."
"Ready?"
"Mhmm."

Jax looked away and focused on the fire again. He took a deep breath, and she watched as she saw him grow deep in thought, his eyes intensified as if he was remembering. She felt herself get chills and her heart started to pound. She questioned herself. Do I really want to know?

"That stone," he started, "is not just some piece of jewelry that somebody got from a store or something. It was hand made, unique, there is only one, that one. I know because I recognize the shape of the stone, color, and the design in the delicate wire cage that holds it. My father had a friend who traveled with us for the first year after the Disaster. The necklace belonged to that man, Allen. He had handmade that wire cage."

Nella nodded her head, her mind suddenly flashing to the corpse in the lake, the roots tangled around the body and tightening around the broken ribcage from time. It clicked in her mind and she jumped. "So that was the man in the lake that I found," she gasped.

Jax nodded and side eyed her. "Mhhmm. That's why I asked you where you got it, because I knew that it was his. He was a friend of my father before the Disaster, and I remember as a kid admiring the stone, because he had crafted it. It's when I started to create my own things."

Nella kept her eyes in the sand, mind processing what he said, learning about his childhood a bit. Tonight are you going to tell me what happened to your family? "You acted funny way back when I asked you if you had siblings. Can I know what happened to them?"

Jax stiffened and her heart hurt when she saw what rushed across his face in intensified waves, along with what seemed like guilt. He didn't move, he held in the chaos and wouldn't let it out, trying to control it. "It's okay," she whispered to him fearfully, not knowing what else to say.