Words of Love - By Hazel Hunter Page 0,39

on their sides, who were similarly decorated but without masks. Their enormous ear flares lay on exposed white bone. Then Jesse saw what lay at his feet.

There, near the first vertical panel was Frederico. He had fallen into a field of obsidian blades. They were enormous, some two feet in length, planted into the stone floor, only inches apart. There must have been hundreds, roughly leaf shaped, pointing upward. Their surgically sharp tips and edges had sliced cleanly through him.

“Oh god,” Jesse whispered into the silence.

The floor where he lay must have had a slight slope to it because his blood ran into two channels that then flowed toward the Red King, split apart at his feet, and then traveled past his torso to unite above his head.

“The Blood Gatherer,” Brett whispered. “He’s lived up to his name.”

Suddenly, she began to tremble. Before she knew what was happening, Brett had picked her up.

“Brett, what–”

“We’re going back to camp,” he said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

As Brett had carried her back to camp, Jesse hadn’t realized how utterly exhausted she was. Though she had protested at first, she’d quickly looped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. At some point her eyes had closed but as he laid her down on the mattress, she couldn’t help but remember Frederico and her eyes flew open.

She was laying on Brett’s bed and he was bent over her.

“I’m going to get the med kit,” he said, standing up.

“No,” she said, catching his hand. “Don’t go.”

He stopped and took her hand in both of his.

“I need to look at your foot,” he said quietly, rubbing her hand.

She tugged at him.

“Please,” she whispered. “Just stay here. Just…just hold me.”

She scooted to the side to make room, still holding on to him.

He seemed torn and she saw his eyes glance toward the tent flap but finally he climbed onto the bed and laid down facing her. She immediately curled into him, burying her face in his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. The intense emotions of the day washed over her as she closed her eyes tight–the fear and the pain, the total shock at the Red King. As the trembling began again, she quietly started to cry.

“I’m so sorry, Jesse,” Brett whispered into her ear as he drew her closer. “You’re safe now.” He rubbed her back. “I won’t ever let anyone hurt you again,” he whispered hoarsely. He kissed the top of her head. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” she managed to say. “It was the looters. It was them.”

He stopped rubbing her back.

“I’m sorry about the looters too but that’s not all I’m sorry about,” he said, quietly. He paused and she tried to stop crying. “I’m so sorry for what I said.”

Jesse blinked her eyes against his chest and then had to look up at him. He looked down at her and she felt his hand caress her cheek, wiping away the tears.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “You had to tell him where the Red King was.”

He smiled, a little sadly now.

“Not that,” he said. “I meant when I said…that we couldn’t be together. That was wrong.”

Wrong?

“When you left,” he said, his eyes drifting toward the tent fabric as though he were looking into the cavern. “I saw life without you. It was… It was…” He looked into her eyes, their faces close. “Empty.”

She remembered now when he’d told Frederico about the Red King. He’d said he was sorry then but not about the Red King. He’d tossed the blue jade tablet as though it’d been a brick. He hadn’t hesitated.

“I know how this must sound,” he said, with the sad smile again. “You’d have every right not to believe me. To never forgive me but–”

She kissed him–with tears still coming down her face and her lips trembling, she lightly kissed him. As though she’d stunned him, he didn’t move. She pressed her lips softly against his and slowly his eyes closed. Finally, he kissed her back–almost imperceptibly at first. His lips clung to hers, barely moving, lingering. And then, though she didn’t want him to, he drew back. She looked at his lips as they began to smile and she watched as the most impossible words came from them.

“I love you, Jesse,” he whispered.

She looked into his eyes, the one slightly red and puffy. He gazed at her intently as though he was trying to read every emotion–but there was only one.

“I love you, Brett,” she said. “I