Gone was the smooth talking southern charm. Gone was the brave--or stupid--belief that he was bullet proof. Jasper reminded Caden of someone who had finally realized that life could knock one down and now they feared to get back up again.
“Gena?” Caden called to the girl he had saved from the Werewolf.
She bounded up, no longer looking afraid. In fact, she was beaming ear to ear and came over to him eagerly.
“Thank you so much for what you did! I was a goner for sure if you hadn’t stepped in when you did,” Gena gushed.
“You’re more than welcome, but I actually called you over to tell everyone what you were able to do,” Caden told her with a smile.
“Oh! Right!” She beamed and turned to face the group. “In real life I have asthma. Like really bad asthma. I can’t walk very far let alone run. But you guys saw me sprint here.”
“You were like a blur,” Harvey said and there was a touch of admiration in his voice.
Gena bounced on her toes. “I know, right?! It was so awesome. Well, Caden explained to me that we don’t have bodies here. We don’t have our physical ailments so we don’t have those limitations any longer.”
“So…” Landry lifted an eyebrow, “you expect us to--”
“Fly up the mountain,” Caden finished for her. “Or at least jump high and grab hold of it.”
“But you got hurt by the Werewolf,” Landry said slowly as she pointed at the drying blood. “So if we fly or jump and fall--”
“We need to not fall.” Seeing everyone’s alarm, Caden quickly added, “Just to be safe, you know. Actually, I’m thinking that maybe only a few people attempt this or maybe… only me. And the rest of you stay here. I’m the only one who needs to talk to Raziel and--”
“Hell, no!” Jasper was practically shaking. “For all we know, you’ll go up there and leave us.”
“He came here to save us,” Landry argued.
“No, he didn’t. He told you he came here by accident. I’m not trusting him. If you all want to stay down here like trusting sheep then fine,” Jasper said. “But I’m going up.”
Caden stared at Jasper for long silent moments. “You know, I’ve always found that people suspect others of what they would do.”
Jasper glared at him.
Caden turned back to Landry. “So Jasper and I are going up.”
“And so am I, because I’m worried that Jasper is going to try and throw you down the mountain,” she said.
Caden opened and closed his mouth before finally saying, “You have a point.”
Harvey and Ross also chimed in that they, too, would go as their sister was going. Landry just shook her head and let out a huff.
“So concerned about me now after you involved me in a plot that nearly got me life in prison and did trap us in the Spirit Realm,” she said, but there was a faint smile on her lips as if she was glad for their caring.
“We’ve said we’re sorry, Landry!” Ross moped.
“She’s going to be mad for a long time,” Harvey sighed.
Landry leaned in and whispered, “This is such an improvement. No talk about how evil Shifters are and how we need to rise up. Since they admitted they wanted to be Shifters it’s like they can sort of see how big of assholes they’ve been.”
Caden quirked a smile. “Jasper doesn’t seem to have learned much though.”
“He’s been a poisonous little flower since we got here,” she snorted. “I should amend that. When we first got here, he was certain it was all a terrible mistake and that we’d be bonded with our Spirits soon. Then he became dejected as no one came and nothing happened. Then he raged at how he had been betrayed. But it actually seems to me that the Behemoth betrayed everybody. He wasn’t special.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Caden agreed. “It told some of the Faith that they would be able to bring more Spirits into the world, but I don’t think it mentioned they would all be enslaved to it or that the human souls would be kicked out of their bodies.”
“No offense to your mom, but I think some of those Faith people would have been fine with kicking the human souls out,” Landry told him and shuddered at the memory of her former conspirators.
“We’ll deal with all of them when we get back,” Caden assured her.
