"No. Sorry, no chance. I'd rather rot in the castle."
Nope, that's not me talking. It's Spencer. Apparently, there's something this girl can't do, and that's cross shaky bridges with rotted wood over giant pits of lava.
"Oh, quit complaining," I snap at her, marching over to the bridge and preparing to step onto it. "It's not even scary."
Glen raises an eyebrow at me, clearly thinking back to when he had to push me across this thing, but whatever. That was in the past.
The first plank I step on snaps in half, and I let out a squeal before I can stop myself, scrambling off of the bridge and practically into Glen's arms. Then I realize who I'm touching, and I jump away from him completely, trying to compose myself.
"And that's how it's done," Glen finishes dramatically, while Spencer giggles and "Mojo" proceeds to fly across the chasm without us. We're not seriously keeping that thing, are we?
"Shut up. Let's see you do it, then."
"Fine. I'll go first, to test things out, but Spencer, stay behind me the entire time. Ash, you can bring up the rear."
"It's cold."
I roll over beneath my blanket to look over at Spencer, raising an eyebrow. "Move closer to the fire."
Glen is already asleep a few feet away, completely exhausted after practically having to push Spencer and I back up that second cliff earlier today.
"I already did, and I don't want to get too close if I'm going to sleep. That's dangerous. And I'm uncomfortable enough as it is without being on fire. The ground's hard. I miss my bed." She clears her throat delicately. "And I'm hungry. I haven't eaten in like, three years."
I mumble a curse under my breath, then sit up and stomp over to her, plopping back down on the ground next to her and throwing my blanket over the both of us, so that now we have two. Spencer smiles at me, then snuggles up closer and nuzzles her face into my neck. I raise both eyebrows in surprise.
"Put your arms around me."
"Excuse me?" I reply incredulously. Who does this girl think she is?
"I'm cold."
Whatever. I obey her anyway, closing my eyes and trying to relax while she puffs out hot breaths against my neck. After a minute, she mumbles, "We fit together perfectly, you know."
I look down to where we're pressed together, and I have to admit that she's kind of right.
Glen has gone off to find extra food, since we're almost out, and Spencer and I have been ordered to stay by the fire until he gets back, so we do. I watch the sunrise while Spencer plays with Mojo. Seriously. She's playing with the bat, and it's playing with her. I repeat: nuts.
Eventually, she collapses next to me with a sigh, drawing her knees to her chest and leaning over to rest her head on my shoulder. I shoot her a disbelieving look, but she can't see it from her position. "You like watching the sun rise," she states quietly.
"Do not. I'm just doing it this morning because there's nothing else to do," I lie.
"No, you like it. And your favorite food is chocolate-covered strawberries, your favorite color is blue, and you're allergic to peanuts."
I open and close my mouth for a second, not sure what to say. "Um…that's creepy. How did you know all that?"
"I was told some stuff, before I was put to sleep. The sorceress who did it told me about my true love; what…well, I thought it was a he, but apparently not. So…what she was like. Those were just a few of the things she said."
"So it's really me, huh?" I ask, and I don't really know why that makes me feel so sad. Either way, she's going to have to die for Kyla and Aiden.
"Guess so," Spencer replies quietly.
"What else did she say about me?"
"Um…" Spencer's eyebrows furrow, and I can tell she's thinking back. "You're supposed to be two months older than me, I think. My birthday's December 4th."
Yup. I'm two months older, down to the very day. "October 4th is mine," I tell her, and part of me is hoping she'll think I'm lying. But she doesn't.
"I've been thinking…I really want to try this," she says tentatively, placing her hand over mine while they're both still on the ground. "Some people don't have a true love, and even if they do, most of them never find it. We did, and I think we should take advantage, even if things are a little…different than what I expected."
"What makes you think I even like you?" I ask a little harshly, and Spencer lifts her head, smiling at me hopefully.
"Because you snuggled with me all night long when I asked you to?"
In another situation, I would've taken the time to be surprised by the fact that she actually does have a sense of humor. "Spencer, you're, like…nothing to me. I don't believe in true love, whether you do or not. I only came and got you because Carmen told me to and my sister needs to get married."
"So you just want to be a princess?" Spencer blurts out a bit angrily, and I scoff, rolling my eyes.
"See? You don't know me." I stand up, storming away from her in the direction of the woods. I'd rather go find Glen than stay here with her.
"Well, I'm trying to get to know you," she tells me, standing up too and hurrying after me. We've just reached the woods when she grabs my arm and spins me around. "Look, I spent three years asleep, waiting for someone to come and sweep me off of my feet. Clearly, that's not going to happen, and I'm stuck with you, so we're going to have to make this work."
"Fuck off, princess," I order, shoving her away. "I don't want you."
"Well…I don't want you, either!" she shouts back, and I'm just about to start towards her when I feel a hand on my shoulder and hear Glen's voice in my ear.
"You weren't seriously about to attack the person we're supposed to be protecting, were you?" he mutters.
"Let's just get her to Carmen," I growl out, storming back towards the fire to collect our things.
We're back in the woods a couple days later, winding down the same path Glen and I have already traveled on, when we're ambushed once again. This time, there's five of them.
"Spencer! Ashley!" Glen shouts, already drawing his sword. "Get out of here! I'll come find you when this is over!"
Without further ado, I take off into the woods in a random direction, straying from the path with Spencer right behind me. Surprisingly, she's keeping up, but there is a third pair of footsteps a ways behind us. Someone's chasing us.
"Spencer, come on," I growl out, looking over my shoulder to see her falling behind. She opens her mouth to reply, then trips over a log and falls flat on her face.
Shit.
To my surprise, my first thought is just that she's a person and she needs saving. I'm not thinking about Kyla or Aiden as I turn around and dash back towards her, grabbing her hand and then pulling her up and tugging her behind the nearest tree. Whoever was chasing us wasn't close enough to see where we went, and I can only press Spencer up more tightly against the tree and hope we don't get spotted.
Rather large-sounding feet crunch leaves beneath them just a few feet away from us, and Spencer's eyes are wide and she's breathing heavily, so I quickly cover her mouth with my hand, giving her a pointed look that tells her she better shut up.
And then there's silence. This complete lack of noise that makes me think I've gone deaf for a second. And Spencer and I are standing here, waiting with baited breath, and hoping we haven't made any noise to make the guy following us think we might be nearby.
"…Is he gone?" Spencer whispers, and I am mentally cursing her stupidity as the large footsteps are immediately heading towards us.
Alright. Glen's not here, and Spencer sure as hell isn't going to do anything useful, so this is up to me. "Stand back," I command, snatching the closest heavy-looking stick off of the ground and gripping it with both hands. "And stay out of the way."
"Are you kidding?" Spencer asks, already tugging on my free hand. "You can't fight him!" She's gesturing towards the man that's just come into view now. He looks about six feet tall, is about five times my size, and when he smiles at us, I see that he only has one tooth.
"Watch me," I retort, pulling away from her.
"Hello, ladies," he says in this tone that makes me think he's convinced Spencer and I are two barmaids at the local tavern or something, and that we will somehow think he's attractive. My eyes are immediately drawn to the small hunting knife at his side. In this case, Spencer and I are the ones being hunted. The stick in my hand suddenly feels a little inadequate. "C'mon; you don't need to be scared," continues, taking a step towards us. I hear Spencer whimper from somewhere behind me. "I'm not gonna hurt you." Uh huh. That's convincing. Especially with the way he's already reaching for his knife. "Just give me anything valuable you might have, and I'll go."
His eyes slide from me to somewhere behind me, presumably to Spencer, and when I turn around, I see her staring at him reproachfully. Her hand is clutching at a small gold chain around her neck, and she doesn't look like she's giving it up anytime soon.
I turn back around quickly and take a swipe at the guy when he steps closer, and he laughs it off, stepping away and out of my stick's reach. "I think we both know you're not strong enough to beat me," he says, and before I can register that he's drawn his knife, he's heading straight towards me with it.
Oh, shit. I'm gonna die. Really, this time it's for real.
I swing my stick at him and hit him in the stomach, but he barely even seems affected. In fact, it's only made him angrier, and I have to step back quickly when he swipes at me with the knife. I feel a brief burning sensation around the upper part of my left arm, but I'm high on adrenaline and I hardly feel it.
I wrap both of my hands around the bottom of the stick, and then swing it up in an arc, aiming for between his legs. It connects, and he lets out a soft grunt as he keels over. I don't have time to marvel at my own luck, though. We have to get out of here, fast.
"Come on," I say to Spencer, grabbing her hand and pulling her along this time to make sure she doesn't trip again.
"Oh my God. Oh my God," she keeps repeating, and about ten seconds later, the rest of my brain catches up to what's going on with my body, and my left arm feels like it's on fucking fire. There's a cut across my upper arm when I look down, and while it could be worse, I'm not a very big fan of blood and just the sight of all of it makes me feel like passing out.
We're a good distance away from where we left that guy lying on the ground now, so I stop to lean against a tree, biting down on my lip and closing my eyes while I press my right hand to the cut. "Fuck."
"You're bleeding!" Spencer gasps out, reaching for my hand and trying to pull it away.
"No shit," I say through gritted teeth, refusing to budge.
"Move your hand, Ash. You were touching that stick; mine are cleaner than yours."
I let her pull it away this time, swallowing hard when she places both of her hands over the cut and begins to apply pressure. I'm surprised Princess Spencer is actually willing to do something like this, but my ability to be sarcastic isn't exactly working at full capacity right now, so I just stand here and try not to show weakness while we wait for me to stop bleeding so much.
A few minutes later, I hear something ripping, and when I open my eyes again, some of Spencer's shirt is in her hand, and she's balling it up, then using it to lightly blot at my cut.
Okay, so maybe I need to reevaluate my opinion of her just a little. But that's it.
"If we don't get this taken care of, it'll get infected," Spencer states, tying the strip of shirt around my bicep a second later. "We need to get out of these woods and find help."
I let out a sigh, bending my knees and sliding down the tree until I'm sitting on the ground. After a moment, Spencer kneels next to me, watching me intently. "Are you okay?"
"Not really," I admit, wincing when I try to move my arm. The pain has settled to a dull throb, but it still hurts like hell. Even in my current state, though, I don't miss the way Spencer's hand finds mine and her thumb skims across the back of it comfortingly.
"Thank you for protecting me," she whispers, leaning in closer. Her lips leave a tingling sensation where they touch the skin of my cheek. "This necklace was my mom's before she died."
"Yeah, well…" I shrug, and then wince. "It's fine. It was nothing."
Spencer swallows hard, then nods, helping me up off of the ground. I keep my arm cradled to my chest, because that's really the only position that doesn't make the pain unbearable. "These woods have to end somewhere. We can meet up with Glen later, but first, we need to get you help before that gets infected."
Spencer and I wander through the woods aimlessly for the rest of the day, and just as it's getting dark outside, thunder booms overhead and little drops of rain start to splatter onto the ground around us.
"Oh, I hope Mojo's okay," is the first thing Spencer says in response to the rain. "He hates water."
"Okay, first of all, how do you even know that? And secondly, I'm more worried about us than I am that stupid bat."
"He's not stupid," Spencer argues, turning her head to glare at me, but then her eyes slide down to the bandaged arm I'm still sporting, and she looks a little guilty for yelling at me. But I'm not having any of it.
"Hey, just because I got hurt protecting you doesn't mean I want you treating me differently," I snap at her, trying to get her riled up again. Being nice to her won't get me anywhere when I'm leading her to her death. It'll just make things harder. "Keep hating me."
"I don't hate you," she retorts, crossing her arms and averting her gaze. "You hate me."
"So?" I don't hate her, but I'm not telling her that.
She looks a little hurt by my lack of a denial, then turns on her heel and continues trekking through the forest in the mud and rain.
"Hey!" I shout quickly, hurrying after her. "We have to stop for the night and find somewhere dry."
"Says who?" she snaps.
"Me. My arm hurts," I lie, because I know it's the only way to get her to stop willingly. "I need to rest."
It works. Spencer stops in her tracks and turns around, eyeing me warily, then states, "Some of these trees are big enough that we should be pretty dry under them."
Once we've found one, we huddle together under it, and I pretend that being this close to Spencer doesn't make me uncomfortable. My heart is totally not beating double-time and I don't tingle when her arm brushes mine or when our hands touch. Really.
Eventually, I scoot away from her a little bit, and Spencer looks over at me, confused. "Forgotten the lesson on body heat, already?" she asks with just a little bit of venom, and I glare at her.
"I just don't like being near you."
"Yeah, well…you aren't my favorite person in the world, either. I can't believe I ever wanted to try and be with you."
"You're annoying," I tell her curtly.
"Well…you're a bitch," Spencer spits out. I still don't see how the whole "pure soul" thing fits her.
"I should've never saved you from that tower."
"I wish you hadn't."
"No, I should've saved you from the tower, but then I shouldn't have protected you today. I should've let that guy take your mother's necklace." There. That's the most hurtful thing I can come up with. Because I really need her to hate me.
Spencer doesn't reply, and after about two minutes, I hear a loud sniff from her direction. I keep my jaw locked determinedly, refusing to say anything to her. I'll let her cry. I can do it.
Fuck.
"I'm sorry. That was…I didn't mean that. I'm glad I protected you." Spencer just sobs louder, and I slide back over to her, weakly adding, "Really. Please don't cry." I put a hand on her arm to try and comfort her, and she tenses immediately, but falls silent at the same time.
Eventually, she raises her head to look at me, and we stare at each other for the longest time, before she finally asks, "Why are you like this?"
I'm confused. "Like what?"
"I can't figure out what you're thinking. One second you act like you might be considering at least being my friend, and the next you hate me. You go from snuggling with me and getting stabbed for me to yelling at me and acting like you don't even want to be near me. Why?"
Well, I certainly can't tell her the truth, because "I'm really kind of attracted to you for some weird reason even though I can't stand you and liking you wouldn't be a good idea anyway because I'm secretly about to get you killed" wouldn't exactly be received well, I'm guessing.
This true love stuff is complicated.
Spencer sighs when I don't respond, then reaches for the bandage on my arm and says, "Just let me take a look at this, then, and afterwards we'll go to sleep."
"Okay."
I try not to wince as she unwinds the bandage and my cut is exposed to the air. It doesn't help that it's still raining out and every now and then a drop of water will slide off of the tree leaves and land on me. And then the wind blows and makes me even colder and this just all really sucks right now.
"You should be okay for at least another day," Spencer surmises, reaching for her shirt. "But you need a fresh bandage."
I watch her silently as she rips another piece of the bottom of her shirt off and starts to wind it around my arm, and I can't help but ask, "Why do you keep doing that? We could always use my shirt, you know."
"Well, I wouldn't want to inconvenience you, would I?" she replies with just a hint of sarcasm, but when I'm about to scowl at her, I notice that she's smiling slightly even though her eyes are still on her hands, which are still on my arm. "Not more than I already have, anyway."
"'s no big deal," I mumble, letting my eyes slide from her hand to her face as Spencer finishes tying the bandage around my arm. Now I'm feeling guilty again.
"I guess you must be nicer than you seem, anyway," Spencer replies, and I wish that she'd move away a little bit now that she's done fixing my bandage, "if you're willing to do all this for your sister."
"I didn't really have a choice," I tell her, sighing. "My mom basically sent me out on a suicide mission. She probably doesn't even think I'll make it back alive."
"That's awful." Spencer chews on her bottom lip for a moment, then adds, "But I'm sure someone must care about you. Your sister-"
"Is too obsessed with marrying Aiden," I finish dryly. "And the same goes for him. I really don't have anyone. If I don't get back for some reason, the only reason people will miss me is because I was the only lead they had on getting my sister married to Aiden."
"I'm sure that's not true," she mutters. "Your sister probably loves more than she lets on. I bet Aiden does, too."
I shrug, continuing, "If I don't come back, they have to find a new solution. Nobody cares about me, really." It's never really bothered me, actually, except for when I get lonely occasionally. But I've already told Spencer more than I wanted to, and I'm done talking about it.
"I care about you," she says tentatively, reaching for my hand, and my gaze immediately shoots to where our fingers are now intertwined.
"You shouldn't," I warn, trying to will myself to pull my hand away, but I've never felt like this with anyone before and Spencer's hand is so soft and warm so I let her touch me for the time being.
"But I do," she says quietly, leaning in so close that I can see little flecks of dark blue in her eyes. "I don't want anything to do with you but for some reason I can't help but want to be near you all the time. I don't know whether to hate you or love you."
"Hate me," I stammer out, surprised by how bold she's being all of a sudden and by the dull throb that's suddenly making itself known between my legs. I've never been so turned on just by someone else's voice before, and it's almost out of nowhere. This is…shocking. "We shouldn't even be having this discussion, Spencer. I'm not…we aren't going to work."
"Why not?" she asks lowly, her eyes on my lips, and I manage to compose myself enough to pull away from her completely and scramble to my feet, hoping she can't see how flushed my cheeks are.
"Because we're just not, okay?" I tell her, already turning to go find somewhere I can go to get away from her. I need some Ashley time, because I can already tell this ache isn't going to go away on its own. "Stay here. I'll be back in a little while."
"Where are you going?" she questions, starting to stand up too, but I give her the most commanding look I can muster, and she immediately sits back down.
"It doesn't matter. Stay here," I repeat, turning on my heel and hurrying away, keeping track of which direction I'm moving in so that I can find Spencer easily when I need to.
After a minute or two of walking through the rain, I find a large tree and slip around it, resting my back against it and immediately shoving my hand down the front of my pants, groaning quietly. I close my eyes tightly and try not to think of Spencer, managing to convince myself that I'm only doing this because I've been away from home and therefore haven't had sex in over a week now.
When I get back to Spencer, she's fast asleep with her knees drawn to her chest and her head resting on top of them, snoring softly.
It's not cute.
Really.