doubling her pace.
“Where do you think she’s off to in such a hurry?” one of the men asked loudly.
“I don’t know, but it seems awfully suspicious. Maybe you should question her, Chet.” A fellow Guard member laughed.
Nell kept her face down, not wanting to invite any more unwanted attention, but it didn’t help. A meaty hand clamped down on her shoulder and having not seen it coming, she screamed in surprise.
“Ha-ha, how do you like that? This one squeals!” Chet said to his comrades. Their deep chorus of laughter echoed strangely down the hall.
Nell spun away from his grasp and started walking again, hoping that he had had his fun and would leave her alone. He grabbed her by the wrist and spun her around, but she didn’t scream again, not wanting to show fear.
“You do not turn your back on your superiors. It’s rude.
Don’t you agree?” he asked, still holding onto her wrist.
“I do agree,” she said quickly, trying to dissolve the situation.
“There you go, pup. That’s how I like it.” He squeezed her wrist until her bones cried out. He obviously wasn’t done playing. So she tried a different approach. Maybe he’d leave her alone if she stood up for herself. That’s what people said about bullies, right?
“Luckily, there aren’t any superiors around. So I don’t need to worry about turning my back on one,” she said, attempting to free her hand.
Chet was silenced, but his friends started laughing at him.
“She told you!” one cried out.
“Wow, smart-mouthed by a little girl.”
Chet’s face was red with anger, and he pulled her nearer him. “Aw, she ain’t so little.”
“Stop!” Nell screamed as he pulled her hair tie out.
He combed his fingers through her long blonde strands. She struggled against him, but he was too strong. She couldn’t move an inch. He began to run his hands down to her hips when a voice rang out.
“Get your hands off of her!” one of the Guard members shouted while stepping out of his place in line.
Nell looked up, her wide eyes streaming salty tears, and saw that he was one of the younger members of the Guard, although he was taller than most of them. His face was smooth and void of any imperfection, making him look younger than he probably was. The overhead lights shone off his golden hair, and Nell imagined a halo around his head.
“What did you say?” Chet asked, letting go of Nell and turning to face him.
“You heard me. Leave her alone. She is no business of ours,” he said in a strong authoritative voice.
Chet took a step closer to the young man, squaring his shoulders. “Listen, blondie, I don’t take orders from anyone. If you’re going to try and start something here you better be able to back it up because, I’m not afraid of a fight, especially if that fight is with some little baby-face teenager who hasn’t even gone through puberty.” Chet took another step toward him. “You feel me?”
Nell’s hopes deflated as she saw the wind go out of her would-be rescuers sails. His shoulders dropped, and his face looked unsure, even frightened. “Yeah, yeah. I feel you,” he said quietly. “Sorry, man. Dang, I don’t know what I was thinking,” he apologized as a smile spread across Chet’s face. “Here, man, no hard feelings, okay?” He offered his hand.
Chet shrugged and took it. As soon as Chet’s meaty hand was in his, the stranger spun him around, pulling his hand between his shoulder blades elbow high in the air.
The young man’s face was tight in anger as he kicked him in the back of the leg bringing him to his knees. He pulled Chet’s arm down further, throwing his shoulder out of its socket with a loud pop. Chet cried out in agony.
“How do you like being touched?” the angry stranger yelled.
Chet sobbed and the baby-faced boy threw him to the ground. “I don’t want to see you get up. You stay there!” he ordered. The fair-haired boy looked up to Nell, sky-blue eyes full of concern. “Are you all right?” he asked as he walked over to her.
Nell tried to speak, but was still so shaken she had to clear her throat multiple times before her voice sounded. “Yes, I’m fine,” she squeaked.
He looked at her for a second. “That didn’t sound very convincing. Here, let me walk you to your room. Is that okay?” he asked, making sure that she felt comfortable with him.
“Yes, that would be nice.”
He walked next to her down the hall, apparently oblivious to the angry glares that the other Guard members were giving him. She wished she could ignore their stares so easily, but it was so frightening to be surrounded by so many hateful faces. Nell looked up at the man walking next to her and felt better. He had a grin on his face that was contagious.
“My name is Armaan, by the way. What’s yours?” he asked.
She thought it was funny he could ask such a normal question given what had just happened. “Um, Nell,” she replied.
“So is Um your first name then, or should I call you Nell?” he teased.
“Nell is preferred to Um, but given what you just did for me, you can call me anything and I wouldn’t care.”
“Okay, I’ll call you ‘Anything’ if you really want me to. So, Anything, how long have you been at the Hovel?”
She laughed at the way his mind worked. She’d never met anyone like him. Most Healers were so serious. “I’m coming up on my fifth year. How about you?” she asked through a laugh.
“I’ll tell you what, Anything, I’ve been here almost seven years, but it feels like one hundred.”
He tried to say it with the same lightness he’d said everything else, but she heard the torment in his voice. His smile was in place, but she could see that it wasn’t his real one. Before she could study him further, he looked away.
“I’m sorry if what you did back there gets you into some trouble,” she said quietly so the Guard around them couldn’t hear.
“Oh, it’s all right. I’ve wanted to bring Chet some pain for a while. Heck, I should even be thanking you.” He turned to her and put a hand delicately on her shoulder. “Thank you,” he said with wholehearted sincerity.
“Um, you’re welcome…” Nell said unsure of what else to say.
She didn’t know how to act around him. She’d only known him for ten minutes, and already it was hard to keep up. He was like the ocean, constantly changing. His eyes even looked like the ocean. They were a deep bluish grey and seemed to hide a million secrets below their surface. She’d been taking in his every detail as they walked and felt conflicted. He was kind and attentive to her, making her laugh and cautiously searching her for signs of shock but through all of his kindness, she could still see darkness within him. She stopped in front of her room, and the expression on his face changed.
“Can I tell you something, Nell?” he asked, looking at her pleadingly.
“Sure.”
Armaan leaned down to her and put his mouth next to her ear. “Be here, outside of your door at midnight if you want to leave this place,” he whispered.
What did he mean? Where else could she go?
He was gone before she could ask him any of the questions running through her mind.
12
Amanda sat on the ground wrapped tightly in Cole’s thick cloak. The temperature was dropping fast, so he built a fire. She’d never sat around a campfire before, and it gave her the oddest feeling. The bright fingers of the fire lit their small circle and a few feet beyond. The flames stretched out and cast an orange hue across everything
