Wings of the Walker - CoraLee June Page 0,131

briefly wondered how the guys were going to fit through the duct. Once outside, Jules placed a perfectly manicured finger to her peach lips and crouched low. It was dark out, and the air smelled of pinewoods with the hint of burning plastic. The static in the air made my hair frizz. We crawled towards a waiting transport cloaked in darkness about five hundred feet away.

Once the door slid open and we were safely inside, the empty transport took off. "Where is everyone?" I asked, but Jules stayed quiet. She studied the dash and adjusted the settings while inputing our destination. She furrowed her arched brow in seriousness and kept looking out the windows to ensure we weren't followed. Something wasn't right.

"Jules, what’s going on," I whispered while entertaining the notion of jumping out of the moving transport and escaping whatever Jules had up her sleeve. Where was Tallis? Where were the guys?

“Tallis is at a non-disclosed meeting point seventy miles outside of the Confederation of Dasos," Jules said quietly. She didn't meet my eyes as she gathered her hair into a messy bun on top of her head. Thick black tendrils fell in her eyes, and she brushed them away.

"Will the guys and Mia meet us there?" I asked. I felt eager to see them and devise a rescue mission for Maverick.

"No," Jules replied in a tight voice that made my stomach drop.

"They couldn't fit through the duct, Ashleigh. Anyone with half a brain could have inferred that. I can't believe you just thought we could magically rescue them; you're lucky you made it out of there alive,” Jules chided with a grin while picking at the black paint on her nails. “Tallis wanted Mia to stay behind; he said she had some fucked up code of honor shit to fulfill. Maverick promised me the job at the schoolhouse if I agreed to help, so here we are." Jules’ words crushed me. I had unknowingly left them all there. What sort of fate would meet them?

"We have to go back," I immediately urged.

"For once, I agree with you. I might not like them right now, but I don't want to see them die. Besides, I'm in no position to run a province, and if anything happened to Cyler or Maverick, I'd have to take over Dormas. But we can't go back today," Jules said with an air of selfishness and finality.

"Jules, certainly we can—" I began.

"We can’t get them, Ash!" she screamed. Her face slipped into a tidal wave of emotions. "They're stuck there until we can come up with a better plan! For some reason, Maverick made your safety a priority, and if I have any hopes of getting in their good graces again, I have to respect that. I hate this. I hate all of this," she cried out while punching the glass window, then rubbing her throbbing fist.

I froze in my seat and watched as each facet of Jules came into place. She was suffering, and I completely saw her as the woman she was—Broken.

"I just want my life back.” Jules shook with intensity as she resumed picking the paint off her nails. “Did Jacob tell you all that happened that day?” she asked, and I shook my head no. I had a general idea but that was it.

“When I turned fifteen, Cyler and Maverick sent me away to school in Galla. I went home for the summer. After being gone for eight months. Eight. Months. Jacob was the only one that greeted me at the train station.” She paused, and I briefly wondered why she was revealing this to me. "I've always loved Jacob, and when I saw that it was only him there, I thought, 'Surely this is it -- he loves me too.' " Jules let soft tears run down her face, and black makeup smeared along her cheeks and beneath her eyes. “I kissed him, but he pushed me away,” she choked out while touching her soft finger tips to her lips, as if remembering the sensation of Jacob. “Then I ran to the manor but was greeted with confused expressions. Maverick and Cy forgot that I was coming home. Forgot about me. ”

“Jules, I— "

“Don’t interrupt me.”

She stretched her legs out while adjusting her clothes. “They saw me crying, and when they asked what was wrong, I don’t know what came over me. It just slipped. I was so hurt by Jacob, and so mad at my family, that I blurted