High Noon - Casey Bond Page 0,4

voice rose. He gestured angrily toward us and used the word Kangi again.

Hotah argued back. I wish I could understand them…

In the end, Kohana stormed away over the knoll, leaving Hotah behind. He flung his hands up and started back toward us, zig-zagging down the hill. When he got close, Hotah leveled a serious look at Enoch. “He wants to take her to the spring. If she won’t come willingly – now – he’ll tell the Chief about her. You know what he’ll do.”

“I thought he didn’t see her land?” Enoch argued.

“He didn’t, but he says he knows her face.”

“How would he know my face?” I whispered, staring at the spot near the summit where Kohana had just stood. “And how could he see me from way up there?”

“My brother has been blessed with keen eyesight,” Hotah complained.

Enoch scrubbed a hand down his face, exasperated. “Why doesn’t he just leave it alone?”

“I gather it would be bad if he told the Chief about me?” I ventured.

“Yes,” both men answered without elaborating.

“What is this ‘spring’ he’s talking about?”

“It’s a hot spring,” Enoch explained. “Kohana believes it has magical properties.”

“Does it?” I asked.

Hotah nodded in response. “It does for some who enter its waters, but not for all. I’ve swum in it plenty of times, but never saw anything special. My brother thinks you will hear from the Great Spirit. He wants you to tell him about the vision you see.”

“What if I’m like you and no vision comes?” I asked.

Hotah sighed. “He is adamant that you will receive one.”

“What if I don’t want to go to this spring?”

Hotah folded his hands over his chest. “He’ll tell the Chief about you. He thinks she’s like you, Enoch.”

I’m not a Nephilim. “I’m not like him,” I argued.

“No, but you aren’t like us, either. Something is different about you,” Hotah intuited.

I was more than them, but I wasn’t a ‘Kangi,’ and I’d never had any sort of vision before. Had I gotten back a lot of memories I’d rather keep tamped down? Sure. But a vision from the future was something else entirely. Unfortunately, Kohana strongly believed in them, thought he knew my face, and insisted I go to a magical spring to see a scene from the future unfold in my unconscious. Or would I be conscious of everything at the time? I wasn’t sure how it worked. If I needed to concoct a vision on the fly, would Kohana know I was lying? I completely sucked at lying.

“I think you should go,” Enoch said. “The decision is yours, of course. But Kohana has a sense about things.”

“How far away is the spring?” I asked.

“A short walk north,” Hotah replied, pointing in the direction we’d have to travel. The sunset had given way to night; a blanket of stars was being tucked over the land. I found Polaris and got my bearings.

What’s the worst that could happen if I go? At least I’ll get to bathe in a hot spring. There are far worse things to worry about. “Let’s go, then.”

Chapter Two

Eve

When Hotah said ‘a short walk’, he really meant miles. I didn’t complain, though, because I liked walking, loved holding Enoch’s hand and listening to him tell me about the land and Hotah’s tribe, and wasn’t particularly excited to catch up to the grumpy Kohana.

Then there were the moments that Enoch pulled me behind a tree to steal kisses, pinning me to the trunk and acting like no matter how long or how many times he captured my lips, it would never be enough.

Those moments were fleeting, but each one sent butterflies fluttering around my stomach. Each one chased reality away and let me pretend there was only him and me and that nothing else existed or mattered.

We would catch back up with his friends, and on what was happening in this time in between. But I longed for something out of reach, something impossible. I longed for this entire mess to be over so that I really could just be with him. So it really would just be him and me and everything else would melt away, because nothing was as significant as us.

Enoch hadn’t seen Titus or Abram since I landed, or before, and it had been months since he crossed paths with one of my clones. Though he was frank when he said the encounter didn’t end pleasantly for her. The chill in his voice sent a shiver up my spine.

Too soon, the stolen moments ended and a feeling