Chapter 36: Kali

36

KALI

C racking my eyes open, I groan. The pain wracking my body is unfortunately all too familiar, but this time, thankfully, without the slash wounds.

My freshly healed wounds scream where they've been stretched and pulled. Newly knitted back together bones throb, and my weak muscles ache. I haven't moved outside the cabin in weeks. Even this morning, I found walking at anything faster than a slow shuffle difficult. So, a mad dash across the mountainside, fuelled by nothing more than fear, has sapped whatever tiny reserves I had.

I can barely turn my neck and groan out loud as I roll onto my side to face the wall. Hopefully, when I wake up next, my beast will have healed me some more.

No, not a wall. Rock. Smooth, grey rock.

Narrowing my eyes, I move my gaze to the ceiling. It's the same uneven surface. My thoughts are sluggish, slow to piece together what about this isn't right. The sheets are rough and smell damp. Not like mine, or even the ones in the hunting cabin.

Shifting to get a better look around the room, the mattress I'm on slides a few inches on the floor with me. Because it's not a mattress. It's a pile of blankets. On a floor that's nothing more than a flat slab of stone. Sitting up, my sluggish brain struggles to comprehend what I'm seeing.

My eyes move to the entrance where bright sunlight streams in. I gasp in disbelief. It's not a door, it's the mouth of a cave. All I can see is the sky. It would be beautiful if it weren't for the fact that I can't see anything else at all. No land. No trees. No mountains. We're that high up.

Where the hell are we?

"Griffin?" I croak, squeezing my eyes shut, when flashbacks of the attack earlier come flooding back. I killed someone in self-defence.

Tentatively, I peer down at my hands in the gloom, expecting them to still be dripping with blood. I can still feel the sensation of the blade slicing through his flesh. My heart pounds, and I start to sweat, the urge to throw up getting stronger the longer I think about it.

I'm going to jail. They're going to charge me with murder.

"Shh. Kali, it's okay." Griffin slides in beside me, wrapping an arm protectively around my shoulder and pulling me tightly against him.

Resting my cheek on his chest, I let the tears slide silently down my cheek.

Without saying a word, Griffin lifts his hand to my face and brushes my tears away with his thumb before tilting my face up and placing the lightest of kisses to my lips. His presence staves off the panic that was threatening to overwhelm me.

"Thank you," I whisper, pulling his hand into mine and tracing the numerous scrapes and cuts covering his bruised arm. His muscles twitch under my touch, goosebumps rising as my fingertips trail over his skin.

"Where's Ben? Is he safe?"

Griffin's grip on my tightens, and I snuggle into him, resting my hand on his chest to calm the beast I can feel raging inside of him. Mentioning another male beast, even one related to me by blood, has him on edge, but I need to know if Ben's okay. After a few deep breaths, his possessive anger subsides, and he relaxes enough to speak.

"He's fine. He lost them in the river and circled back to pick up our trail, but he can't find any signs that someone has followed us. Looks like they've gone home to lick their wounds."

This isn't over yet. They'll bide their time, bring in reinforcements, and eventually, they'll come for us again. Maybe not now, or out here, but eventually.

"We'll go and talk to Henry when we're back. Maybe he can warn them off." It's like Griffin has read my mind.

Henry can have a word with Jed, and tell him to leave me alone, but I doubt it will do any good. They're convinced that what they're doing is for the greater good. Jed probably thinks he'll be a hero when he prevents the prophecy from coming true. Martin will probably become a martyr for the cause.

Standing cautiously on weak legs, I hobble to the mouth of the cave where a stiff breeze whips around me, flicking strands of my blonde hair across my eyes.

The view is spectacular. If our situation wasn't so shitty, this would be a sight to behold. But right now, not knowing who or what is going on below, it feels claustrophobic. The drop to the bottom of the cliff is so steep, that one wrong step, and someone could easily fall to their death.

Hopefully, its precarious position means we don't have to worry about anyone sneaking in here.

"How did you get us up?" I can't figure out how Griffin would have carried me up here when it doesn't even seem doable on his own.

Griffin joins me on the ledge, fingers curling around my hip to ease me back from the edge. He shakes his head, following my nervous gaze to the bottom, where jagged rocks and dense forest await.

"Not up. Down." Griffin gently turns me by the shoulder and tips my head, so I'm looking up at the spot above us where he's pointing. We're practically at the top of the cliff. The drop down to the ledge we're standing on isn't huge, and the slope is much less severe.

Nodding, I can see how he could have made his way down with me in his arms, but it must have been tricky.

"How did you even know about this place?" Folding my arms across my chest, I protect my body from the biting wind. When we're inside the cave, it's warm and sheltered, but out here, the wind would cut you in two.

"John. It was on a map he left behind." Griffin's words are clipped. There's something else behind his answer that he's not being open about.

Pretending I don't know that he just fed me a half-truth, I rack my brains for any mention of a map or a cave in the discussions between Evan and Ben on where to search for him, or in the releases from Henry.

"A map? I didn't hear about any map." In the days and weeks that we spent out here searching for John, knowing there was a map that he left behind would have been helpful.

"It only just came to light."

Came to light. Not, I found it when I moved into the ranger's cabin, or Henry found it when they did another search of his car.

"This could be big. Does Ben know?"

Griffin frowns, and nods at the same time.

When he doesn't answer, I step closer and stare up at him, wide-eyed. "I've lived here, roamed these forests my whole life, and I never even knew this cave existed. And you're telling me John's map showed that this was here?"

Griffin nods again, eyes widening slightly as he realises where I'm going with this.

"I…" He rubs his temples, trying to remember. "I think so. My beast remembered it, not me. He just seemed to know where he was going." Griffin squeezes his eyes shut, trying to force the memories forward, a pained expression on his face. "I think John showed it to me on a map the first time he convinced me to come out here. He said if I needed to get away and clear my head, escape the turmoil he could sense inside me, this was the place."

Glancing over his shoulder, I look out over the treetops, deep in thought. We're missing something big here. Something important.

"Why would he not have shown us this place? Especially the boys. I don't remember hearing Ben or Evan talk about it. They covered every blade of grass in these mountains searching for him…"

I don't need to say it. They looked everywhere except here. Nobody looked here, because they didn't know it existed.

But why keep it secret?

The back of the cave slopes down further, a curved wall hiding how far back it goes. Curious as I am, now isn't the time to get lost caving in the pitch black. The main chamber is small, but who knows how far back the small tunnels might go.

"I don't know." Griffin looks at me with sympathy. "I wish I did. Maybe something will come back to me, but I can't concentrate right now with the beast inside me pushing to get out."

Closing his eyes, his fingers stroke up and down my arms, and he dips his head, sucking in a deep lungful of my scent to calm himself.

I stare all around me, trying to picture John. It's easy to imagine him hunkering down here during a storm. He would have loved it, sitting here sheltered from the rain, watching dark, heavy clouds blow past. Maybe even enjoying the show as lightning strikes below.

But what about this place made him keep it from us? John was usually an open book.

Glancing once again at the back of the cave, my brain fixates on this puzzle, rather than think about the awful predicament we're in. "There could be more than one cave. They could be connected," I murmur, thinking out loud. "Griffin, we have to tell Ben… what if…?"

A finger pressing against my lips silences me as Griffin's eyes flash in the gloom.

The hair stands up on the back of my neck, picking up on his rapid change in demeanour, as he turns his head, just an inch, his beast focusing on something, or someone else, moving out there.