The Choosing

Chapter Fourteen

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I groaned as I pulled myself off of the cave floor. This cave certainly was not doing wonders for my back.

"Evie! Your up! You've been sleeping forever!"

I smiled at Nova and glanced at Cade, who was standing behind Nova. He gave me a concerned look and gave him a look back.

"Hey Nova, I have a challenge for you," Cade said.

I knew he was trying to get us alone to talk. About what, I wasn't quite sure.

"Really?" Nova asked her eyes lighting up.

"Yeah, I want you to climb that tree over there and tell me how many birds you see."

"Okay!" she shouted running off.

I shook my head at Cade, "What do you want to talk about?"

"It's just, I've thought about things, and I guess you could say I'm worried. How are we supposed to get out of here? I mean, we don't even know what past here. We don't know if anybody is alive. They have the whole world at their disposal!"

"Cade, we'll figure it out," I said reassuringly.

"But will it," he said dryly, "All my life I've been told things will be fine. Can you tell me something about anything here that  is fine?"

"You're right. It's not. And honestly, I'm not sure what we are going to do."

Cade hit his head against the back of the cave, "This doesn't even feel real."

Real. That word bounced around my head. Why did that stand out all of a sudden? It had almost nothing to do with what was going on. But at the same time, it felt like it had everything to do with what was happening.

"Cade, I'm sure how to describe this, but I feel like something is-uh-wrong. Like not the obvious things, but something different. Like, you said something about this not feeling real," Cade looked at me to continue, "It was like I had heard that before. Like something wasn't real."

His eyebrows furrowed as he was thinking. Eventually, he just pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around him and sighed. He held me so tight it felt like he was never going to let go. But I didn't know if I wanted him to.

He did though. Right on time and Nova ran in.

"I couldn't climb the tree, but I did see a froggy!"

I just laughed. Nothing about it was really funny, but I laughed, and so did Cade. It felt so good to laugh. Nova looked at us confused, but that just made us laugh harder.

"Oh! I also saw a guy. He looked at me and smiled. I told him he shouldn't be in those bushes because they had big pokey things."

Cade and I stopped laughing. Cade's jaw clenched and my heart dropped.

"You saw what?" Cade demanded.

"A guy. He asked about Evie-Weavie."

Nova smiled at me and I froze. I was going to die.

"What did you say, Nova?"

Cade's tone was fierce. Nova was a bit shaken by it, but Cade didn't seem to care.

"Cadie why are-"

Cade grabbed Nova by the shoulder, "What did you say?"

"I s-said that Ev- I said that Evie was here," Nova said through tears.

Her grip tightened and I was unfrozen.

"Cade stop!" I shouted yanking his arm back.

He let go of Nova his eyes wide, "Nova I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you I just, I'm sorry!"

I glared at Cade as I hugged a crying Nova.

"Eve, I'm sorry, but she gave up our spot! They could come here and kill you. Kill us!"

I took a deep breath, "Cade, I understand. But there was no reason for you to grab her like that."

"Shortie, there isn't time for this, we have to go."

I nodded, knowing he was right. We quickly grabbed things we might need and we were off.

We didn't know where we were going this time, and I think that made things ten times scarier.

Nova stuck to my side, and I didn't blame her. What cade had done was wrong, but I understood why he did it. I knew it was because he cared about me. That would be very touching if Nova was scared in the process. I'd have to talk to her about it later because right now, we only had each other to depend on.

Cade looked utterly sad and angry as he trudged on ahead of us. I knew why, but I didn't feel like talking about it at the moment. It was so much easier to avoid conflicts.

Thoughts intruded my mind and I pulled my fingernails down my left arm as hard as I could. Something flashed into my mind. Me, in a hospital bed. My parents, but different, and Nova.

I shook my head, "what the hell?"

"Are you good?" Cade asked concerned.

"Uh, yeah. Just a bit of what I told you earlier."

He nodded and continued to walk. Um, what? Did he not hear me? Where was his reaction? I shook my head and kept walking.

If I wasn't so mad at him, I'd say he looked good in the tight-fitting black shirt he wore. Why did he have to be so good-looking?

Soon enough I was carrying a sleeping Nova. I need to lift weights to keep up with her growing. The weight was slowly getting to me and I was slowing down.

"I'll take her." Cade offered.

I was hesitant, but I handed her over to him. He was stronger than me after all. I had pretty much forgiven him anyway. I knew it was a time of high emotion.

"I forgive you."

Cade breathed out in relief, "Oh thank God! I wasn't sure how much longer I could last not talking to you. I promise I'll never do anything like that again. Just the thought of them hurting you made me lose my mind."

I smiled back at him, 'I do have that effect on people.

My eyes flickered to his lips and down to his chest. Everything about him was perfect. His smile and his tousled jet black hair.

He laughed, "Well, I seem to have that effect on you. You like this shirt on me shortie?"

I bit down on my bottom lip hard.

"And if I say I don't?"

"Well, I guess I could show you what I look like without it."

The thought without a shirt on made me drool, but I'd never tell him that. His ego could use to be knocked down a few pegs. I guess you could say I knew what would do that pretty quick.

"Nah, I'm okay," I said nonchalantly, "I gotta say though, even though Alistair's a bit of a psychopath, he looked great shirtless."

Cade's eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched.

I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from laughing. He looked absolutely pissed.

"Oh, really?" he forced out.

I burst out laughing and he looked at me confused.

"You're very gullible, you know."

He gave me a smirk, "And pretty hot."

I smiled, "Sure. Whatever floats your boat."