Intended Series Collection: Books 1-6 by Abigail Grant (best summer books .txt) 📗

Chapter 11

I am woken up by Gavin's gentle voice. "You need some water, Aella. Please open your mouth and drink for me."

I try to open my eyes, but my body refuses to cooperate. I squeeze Gavin tighter against me to try and pull myself up, but I just end up holding him. I feel a warm finger glide along my bottom lip and my mouth opens instinctively. Cold water pours over my dry lips and I welcome it by drinking every last drop.

"Thank you," Gavin whispers to me and I am able to open my eyes enough to see his face only inches from mine. His eyes are closed tight as if he is in some sort of pain. I scan what I can see of him and don't see any visible injuries.

I blink against the new daylight and realize that I must've been asleep for a few hours if the sun is already rising.

My eyelids close again on their own and I drift back to sleep, too exhausted to stay awake.

***

When I am able to open my eyes again, it is midday, though the large trees block the sun rays from reaching my skin. I am laying on a thin blanket on the forest floor, but my head is resting on something warm.

I can hear Gavin's heart beating at a slow and steady rhythm under my head, so I push myself up as gently as I can, trying not to wake him. I watch his handsome face as he sleeps, and I lightly touch the rapidly growing fuzz on his strong chin.

I sit up and run dirty fingers through my hair, fighting against the impossible tangles but ultimately failing. I look over myself and notice that my cut arm is bandaged in gauze and tape, and my ankle has been wrapped tightly in an ace bandage. I can't help but smile at the thought of Gavin taking care of me as I slept, while also feeling a little mortified that he has had to see me in this condition.

Gavin stirs in his spot, so I turn back to him while he pushes himself up on his elbows next to me. He rubs his sleepy eyes and studies my face. My goodness, he is so cute.

His expression shows pain as he watches me.

Suddenly, I feel worried again. "Are you hurt?" I croak out, my voice barely above a whisper.

Gavin searches my eyes for a moment. A small smile tugs at the corners of his mouth but not enough to produce a dimple. "I'm not hurt. I heal a little faster than humans, so I will be perfectly fine."

"Why do you look like you're in pain then?" I ask.

"It physically hurts me to see you so broken." He sits all the way up and traces my bruised cheek with the back of his hand. "Every time I look at your cheek where that monster must've hit you, I curse myself for not being there to prevent it."

I take his hand in mine, not wanting him to focus on my ugly wounds. "Everything that happened doesn’t matter anymore. You saved me, Gavin...again." I force a small smile, showing him that I will be fine too.

He shakes his head at me and points a finger in my direction. "That was you, super star. You're really the one who saved me. First, with redirecting the knife and then creating that crazy dirt worm hole." He looks at me like I'm some enigma. "How did you do that stuff? And how did you even escape him in the first place?"

I shrug. "I actually didn't try to move the dirt. That was a pretty big surprise for us both. I guess I was just really scared that he was going to kill you and my Seer body kind of took over." I sigh, still feeling like it was all a dream. "I did try to use wind to move the knife though. I knew that I could manipulate air because that's how I escaped."

"What did you do? Where did he even take you?" Gavin asks.

"He took me to this old beautiful house in the woods. I don't know where it is or how we even got there in the first place." I look down at the ground, not wanting to tell him why I didn't know.

"What do you mean? How did you not know?" His voice is persistent. He wants answers.

I tuck my hair behind my ear. "He uh...kind of drugged me. He stuck some nasty pill in my mouth that made me really dizzy and drowsy." I look up at him and his face is murderous.

Gavin tightens his fists and closes his eyes but remains silent.

I give him an apologetic look and continue talking. I tell Gavin everything that has happened since I was taken. He hangs his head and sighs when I tell him that I don’t think Thrane touched me while I slept. He gets angrier as I talk though, especially when I tell him about Thrane busting my ankle, but aside from a few angry huffs, he stays quiet and lets me tell my story.

His golden eyes grow wide at my relay of busting the window and then scaling the brick wall. When I tell him how I could feel a tugging from inside my chest I stop, realizing that we haven't exactly talked about our connection before. "I don't really know what that was about, but I just knew I had to go that way. That I would find home," I finish, feeling shy all of a sudden.

Gavin watches me fiddle with my fingers and doesn't speak for a little while. I am grateful that he doesn't bring up the awkward situation that we are in. He reaches behind him and into a backpack that I didn't notice before. He pulls out a water bottle and hands it to me, along with a granola bar. My stomach growls