Chapter 17

It felt like every muscle in her body went numb, a heat moved through her, and she wondered if it was from the shock. “It’s been that long?” She whispered it, more to herself than him. “Eighteen years.” She lifted her hands and put them over her face for a second while processing that. Dropping them, she leaned forward, “I was gone eighteen years?” She looked at the wall behind him and did the math quickly, “I’m twenty-six years old?” Sitting back, she shook her head. “I thought ten, maybe twelve. It was so hard to keep track without winter and snow.”

“You didn’t know how much time had passed?”

She shook her head and then shook it again. “No. It was so hard to tell.” She motioned up and down her body. “I mean, I knew I was maturing, but didn’t think it was that long.” She looked at the plate and wanted to eat more, only because you never knew when you were going to eat again, but her stomach was in knots right now, and she wasn’t sure if she could eat. Reaching over, she stacked the meat and then the other two items in neat piles and hoped that when she was taken out of this room, she could fit it in her hand. “I didn’t,” she looked at him and slowly shook her head, “I didn’t know it was that long. I really need to speak with the King, please. He needs to know.”

“Know what?” His voice was so quiet it was hard to hear him.

“What I’ve seen. What’s happening.”

“He knows our kind are being taken.”

She stared at him without seeing him. “Good.” She leaned forward again. “I know where they’re taken.” She frowned, “the girls. I-I don’t know about boys.”

“Where?”

“I need to tell the King.” She nodded. It had to be the king.

“Look, Journee, it’s me or them.” He pointed to the window.

She looked at the men, who seemed to be standing closer to the window now. She turned back to Asher. “How do I know I can trust you?” She looked at the men. “Or them.” Looking back at him, she put her hands in her lap. “I don’t even know where I am.” She was having trouble focusing on speaking. Eighteen years. How had that much time gone by? She’d missed it completely. Shaking her head, she pushed it from her mind. Later she’d have all the time in the world to cry about it.

“We all work for the Alliance.”

She looked back at him. “The shifter Alliance?”

He gave her a strange look and nodded. “Raymond,” he pointed to the window, “the big man out there? He’s head of the Alliance security.”

The Alliance, she’d heard her parents talk about it. When she had been on the island and told to stay away from the main camp, she hadn’t listened, and a few times over the years, those awful men spoke about the Alliance—and not in a good way. Which told her that if they wanted nothing to do with them, the Alliance was who she needed. She sat back and looked down at her hands for a moment. Eighteen years. How many of those had been spent getting back? Was the camp still there? She looked at him. “Have you closed down the camp?”

“Camp?”

She nodded. “One with women and girls. Have you found it? Am I too late?”

“We haven’t closed down any camp.”

“Okay.” She nodded and then blew out a breath. “I’m not too late.” Panic flooded her. She grabbed the bottle of water and took a quick drink. She hated thinking about it, but it had to be done this time. Putting the lid back on, she looked across the table at him, “that day,” the expression in his eyes changed immediately; he knew what day she meant. “I followed them. They had Emi and Lisa and so many others.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I still see my parents.” She opened them, “and yours,” she whispered. Sucking a breath through her nose, she blew it out slowly, trying not to let the emotions take over. “I followed them. It was hard to stay out of sight, so they couldn’t smell me.” She remembered how hard her heart had been beating that day. “I-I don’t know what I thought I was going to do, but I wanted to free my sister and the others.” She shook her head, “fantasy of a child, I suppose.” It took her a moment to get out of her head so she could tell him. “I snuck up behind the van when they were getting in it and balanced on the bumper and the,” she flicked her hand, “the thing for trailers.”

“Hitch.”

“Yes. I was so scared I would fall off, or someone would come behind them and see me.” She shook her head. “It was reckless, but I just—I couldn’t just stand there and let them take everyone away.”

Asher pulled the chair closer to the table and leaned on it, watching her.

“I almost fell off a few times, and then I thought, how was I going to not be seen when they stopped?” She put her hand on her chest, she could still feel that panic. “I could hear someone inside crying, and that helped me hang on.” She remembered how cold it had been. “When they stopped, I hid underneath it.” She huffed out a breath. “I don’t think I took a breath the whole time they were moving them. I was so afraid.”

“Where did they take them?”

She shook her head. “That was only the first part of the trip.” She picked up the water bottle and took another drink. Her mouth dried out thinking about it. “It was a small plane.” Her eyes widened. “I’m still shocked I did it. I watched and waited until they were all in it, and then I ran over and opened the little space the man had shoved some bags in. I crawled in.” It had been hard to breathe, and she could remember thinking that was it for her. She would die in there and never be seen again.

He looked upset.

“I didn’t think I was going to live through it.” She clasped her hands together and squeezed them. “It was cold, I had trouble breathing, and when it landed, I thought we had crashed and almost didn’t get out before they opened it.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She hadn’t even realized there were tears in her eyes as the memories went through her mind. “Sorry.”

He gave his head a shake but didn’t say anything.

“They landed right near the water. It must have been a private spot because no one else was there.” She wiped both eyes so she could see him clearly. “They put my sister—all of them on a boat, and then they went for a run, I think. I saw them shift and run off.” She cleared her throat. “I waited to make sure, and I snuck to the boat and onto it. I didn’t want to get caught, so I was careful and tried to find the others.” She shook her head, “I could hear them, but there was a big lock, and I couldn’t get it open.” She took a ragged breath. “So, I found somewhere to hide and waited.”

“Where did they go with the boat?”

She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. It was a long trip. Or” —she frowned— “it felt like it to me.” She was still mad at herself. “I fell asleep in that small dark spot, and we were at an island when I woke up.” She adjusted her leg so she could lean forward and rest her hands on the table again. “There was nothing close at all. A few other islands, a city very far away.”

“You were on an island for the last eighteen years?”

She shook her head again. “No, I think it may have taken me at least a year to find my way back, probably more. I had no sense of season until I hit snow.” She took a deep breath and blew it out, “And I’ve seen two seasons of snow since I left.” She bit her lip for a moment. “It snowed not too long into my trip back, so I think it’s taken me a year, a little over, to get back. I think. I really don’t know.”

He sat there looking at her; so many things were going through his eyes that she couldn’t figure out any of them. She remembered her notebooks. “My notebook. I drew what I saw on the way back.” She bit her lip. “I did copy streets or signs, but after a few towns, I realized that every town has streets named the same and I didn’t know the name of where I was.” She rolled her eyes, “so I drew unusual things that would make where I was easier to figure out.” She leaned back.

“You drew landmarks as a map to the island?”

She nodded. “It’s not like I could call home and say come and get me.” She frowned. “My family was gone, and phone numbers weren’t important when I was that age, so I didn’t know any.”

He moved his head, and she was pretty sure if was in agreement with her.

The door opened, and the man with black hair walked in. “I’m Calum.” He set her notebooks on the table. “We’ve looked through these, but we’re going to need you to translate them.”

Journee leaned over and pulled the books closer. She opened the top one and looked down at the sketch. “This is the second book.” She closed it and moved it aside. “This first one has names on boats in it.” She flipped through a few pages. “The ones circled stopped at the island. The others anchored off it and came in with smaller boats.”

She glanced at him; he nodded but didn’t ask her any questions.

“Where’s your sister, Journee?”

She snapped her head back and looked at him. “I don’t know. They took her off the island, and I couldn’t follow that time.” She looked away and back down at the notebook. Rubbing her hand over the one sketch, she wiped a tear from her cheek with the other. “I didn’t even know they took her for a few days. I didn’t know she was on one of the boats leaving.”

“Are there boats there all the time?”

She shook her head and turned another page. “No. There’s no way off it when they aren’t there.”

“They?” Calum asked.

She moved just her eyes and looked up at him. “The men. Five of them always come there, and sometimes they bring others, but they don’t stay.” She looked at the sketch and remembered when she drew it. “Only the women and girls stay there.” She whispered it and then sucked in a breath and looked at him. “I will help with the pictures I drew and words I wrote, I just.” She took a shaky breath. “I’d like to go outside and breath some fresh air.” She looked at Asher, “I haven’t been inside this long since—before all that happened.”

“We can take you out for a bit.” Calum leaned down and pulled the notebooks out from under her hand. “I’ll go get Illias to scan these, so we can start searching.” He turned and left the room with her notebooks.

“Searching?” She looked back at Asher.

“For the island.” He said softly.

Journee blinked. “You’re going to go to the island?”

Asher nodded. “Oh yeah.” He almost looked happy for a moment. “I’ll go get the chair so you can go outside for a few minutes.” He stood up. “Thank you for telling me the truth.”

She looked up at him. “Why would I lie about where I was?”

“You’d be surprised. A lot has changed since you’ve been gone.” He paused by the door. “We still have more to talk about.” He looked at the window. “But that will have to wait for a bit.”

Journee didn’t know what he meant but nodded. Maybe he had news about the clan. Were any of her relatives still there? She hadn’t taken the time to find out. It had been so overwhelming when she got back there. Everything hit her at once, and then she was completely exhausted like she hadn’t rested the whole time she’d been gone. She looked at the crackers. She really hadn’t. “Eighteen years.” Picking up the crackers, she put them in her palm and then added the meat and cheese. They were going to the island to free those trapped on it. She bit her lip, she wasn’t sure how she was going to handle that, but she was going to be right there when they did.