FULL NOVELXO Chapter Eight: Marley
“I was almost caught!” Ava panicked, pacing around the small confinements of the cabin while Marley sat on the countertops in the kitchen. “My brother was asking questions, his mate was asking questions, so many questions.”
Sawyer leaned against the wall that lead into the bedroom. “What did you get?”
She bit her lip, trying to stay as far away from him as possible before moving her eyes to Marley. “He refused to tell me his name. All of those assassins are like that, even with their fake names but he did say that Red has a message.”
“Those cats said that their master’s name was Red,” Marley stated, her eyes frowning as she thought back. “But I never saw who this Red was.”
Ava grinned, the sudden smile made Marley uncomfortable but brushed it off as Ava being weird. “This Red is a female, all I could get was the letter ‘Z’ before he blocked his mind from me. Anyway, he told me to tell you this, ′The item you are looking for is just within your reach.′ I do not know what that means but he said that you would know.”
Marley’s frown deepened, in her mind, she had no idea but something in her gut was telling her to remember those words. “I don’t know, I don’t know what that is supposed to mean.”
“Oh,” Ava muttered, her lips pulling into a line before she grinned again. “That is okay, you will figure it out.”
Sawyer kicked himself off of the wall he was leaning against, his tall figure casting a shadow over Ava as she shrunk back and tried to hide closer to Marley. “How long do we have until your Alpha finds us?”
Ava looked down, shame covering her entire face as she avoid eye contact with the both of them. “Dawn.”
“Why did you not tell us this sooner?!” Marley shouted, she could almost feel her heart in her throat at the thought of being captured by some Alpha and what he could possibly do to them.
“I am sorry!” Ava cried. “I can only hide your scents for so long and dawn is all I can give the both of you.” She then turned around and opened one of the empty cabinets and pulled out a platter of fruits and meat. “Eat, the both of you. I will try and stall them the best that I can but this is all I can do for now.”
Marley watched the girl place the items of food on the counter before mumbling. “Thank you.”
Ava smiled and nodded her head, getting ready to leave before turning around at the door to look at Marley. “One more thing Marley, on the left side of your dress there is a pocket. Inside you will find a dagger.”
Marley looked down and touched her sides until she felt a lump under her skirtings. She knew nothing was on her person that whole morning besides her sword but as she found the pocket and pulled out the dagger, she yet again questioned Ava’s abilities and wanted to know how she does these things.
By the time she looked back up, the girl was gone and only the dark look of Sawyer watching her was left behind. She had questions, many questions but the growling of her stomach told her to wait as she picked up an apple and took a bite. The juices poured down her face as she squealed and tried to capture some of the liquid that was dripping down her face.
Sawyer chuckled, his deep voice breaking the silence of her delayed chewing. “Classy.”
“What! I didn’t know!”
He walked up to her a little closer than she was expecting before he took her apple and began to eat it with no trouble at all. She wanted to protest but her hunger was too much to bare as she dug into the chicken. Marley had not realised how long it had been since she had last eaten until she laid eyes on this food and she definitely was not going to go after Ava to find out how she magically made food appear.
“What else did your sister tell you?”
Marley looked up from her plate of food and raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“You were talking about your sister down at the beach, what else did she tell you?”
She thought about it for a bit, watching Sawyer as he was watching her. It was as if they were silently analyzing each other and she knew that he was waiting for a lie. “She is a few years older than me. Mackenzie is the smarter one out of all of us. The thicker one too but none of the males on our island cared about her weight, only the women. Anyway, she has a tendency to piss people off and have men fall for her so that led to her warning me about the boys of our village. She knew what our parents were like and even pointed out which one of our sibling’s parents was walking around pretending like they don’t have a kid. It wasn’t until the accident that she changed, she got angry and chooses to stay in the woods most of the time.”
Sawyer leant over on the counter. “What accident?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Just tell me!”
Marley pulled her lips into a thin line and sighed. “We went on a hike when we weren’t supposed to. Mack slipped and fell down a bank and hurt herself badly, she couldn’t walk. I ended up following behind her but I wasn’t injured, the only injury I got was a small prick by a thorn and our blood accidentally crossed. I had to carry her back and she was perfectly fine the next day.”
He sat back, she could see his brain working but his eyes built up an invisible wall that she could not break through. “Get some sleep, we leave before the sun comes up.”
“Wait!” She shouted, standing so that she could gain some more height. “What do you know?”
He shrugged, walking away from her and disappearing into the darkest part of the room without another word.
He was really starting to get on every last one of her nerves!