Chapter 296

The telling takes a while, but luckily the bowl of ice cream is big. I finish summarizing what happened to Jackson – what it felt like to fall out of this world, how I landed flat on my back in the other, what it looked like – that desolate space with the three looming moons – and the woman I saw by the trees. How the darkness in me rejoiced to be there.

When there’s a single bite of ice cream left, I sigh and hold out the bowl to Jackson, who takes it and scoops the last sweet spoonful into his mouth, clearly thinking over everything I said. I wait patiently, folded up in my towel, sitting primly on the closed toilet.

“And you think you…really went there?” he asks, looking at me seriously as he lets the bowl and the spoon hang at his side in his hand. “Not that you just went like…in your mind?”

“I think I was really there,” I say, nodding to him. “Not only did it knock the wind out of me when I…landed, or whatever. But they searched the whole plateau for me – they had my binoculars and the map, and those were right next to me before I fell through. They would have found me had I physically been there.”

“But you kept the gun?” he asks, his face scrunching as he puts the facts together.

I nod. “I was holding that tight. But the earpiece went with me, and it broke.”

Jackson exhales, looking to the side, puzzling it out even as he holds a hand out towards me, wanting me close. I take it and he pulls me to my feet and closer to him, pressing me warm against his bare chest. I rest my cheek against him with a sigh, loving him quite desperately in this little moment.

“What do you think it is?” I whisper.

“Do you want to know what I think now?” he asks. “Or…after the party, when we have more time to talk?”

“Now, please,” I murmur, letting my eyes drift shut. “And then more talking, after the party.”

“I think it’s your gift, Ari,” Jackson says, quite plainly. I look up at him, surprised. “The one the God of Darkness gave to you. Isn’t that what he said that day, in the room?”

My eyes go wide then as I remember it. “Come and find me when you are of need,” I whisper, shaking my head, wondering how I didn’t put this all together.

“And you wanted to go somewhere else, right?” Jackson whispers. “Needed to get out of there – asked for a path. And the gift…worked. He pulled you into his world.”

“His world?” I ask, looking up at him with wide eyes.

“The World of Darkness, territory of the God of Darkness?” Jackson waits for me to catch up with him. “Where there’s…three moons and it’s always night?”

My mouth falls open just a little bit. “What are you talking about?”

Jackson’s face bursts into a grin. “Ari, your grandmother is the Goddess – how do you know so little about religion?”

“I know stuff!” I growl, giving his chest a smack. “About like…Goddess stuff!”

He laughs, tugging me tight again, still shaking his head at me.

“Well how do you know so much?” I growl.

“Because we’ve been studying Atalaxia,” he says, smiling softly at me, “and they’re pretty serious about worshipping him. And…” he hesitates for a second and then shrugs. “The Community was…not a super religious place, but what I learned about religion was definitely about the God of Darkness – not the Goddess.”

“Plus one of his kids did give you a gift,” I say, twisting my mouth as I look up at my mate. “What are you, some sort of dark acolyte?”

“Not as much as you, with your little pilgrimage to the Dark Territory,” he says, giving me a smirk. But even though that comment would have sent me into a panic half an hour ago, I grin now, laughing up at him.

Jackson – he always makes it better. Makes me feel so safe.

“The good news, if I’m right about all of this,” he murmurs, petting my cheek with the back of his hand, “is that it’s your gift. You control it, I think. Can…go there and come back at will.”

I shudder a little. “I never want to go there again.”

“Don’t have to,” he says, smiling down at me. “Because you’re in control.”

I let out a long woosh of breath, letting my head fall for a second, thinking it through and checking in on that whirl of darkness at the center of me now. And as I remember what happened – wishing to go somewhere else, wishing to return – I realize that Jackson’s…right. At least about this part. That I’m not going to get sucked back there at random – that I’d have to call for it.

“Thanks,” I whisper, resting my forehead against him. “That does help.”

“Good,” he says, his arms loose around me, standing strong for my sake. We stay that way for awhile, just relaxing. “So, do you want to go to the party?” he asks, turning towards the door where we start to hear more voices.

“Do you?” I ask, grinning up at him, sort of surprised to see Jackson wanting to go to a social occasion.

“Oh, I’m happy to stay in here,” he says, giving me a broad grin. “Alone with you. We can turn the water back on, or get in the tub…”

I grin up at him, shaking my head. “Don’t tempt me, McClintock. Next time I get you naked in the shower and I’m not all traumatized from falling into an alternate realm ruled by darkness, I am going to take advantage of the situation.”

“That’s my girl,” he growls, dipping his head to give me a fierce kiss that he breaks far too soon. “But come on – we should go out there,” he says, giving me a smart smack on the ass that makes me yelp in surprise and then laugh. “The others are going to want to see that you’re okay, and then they’re going to want to celebrate you.”

“Celebrate me?” I ask, standing a little straighter, liking this idea very much.

“Yeah, Ariel,” Jackson says, smiling at me and looking…far too gorgeous as he does it, all damp and half-naked and kind. “I don’t know the final tallies but…I think you may have won today.”

“But we all won,” I say, turning my head to the side, not understanding.

“Our team won,” he says, giving me a wink and reaching for his pile of clean clothes. “But there were individual tallies too. Don’t you want to know how your performance stood up to everyone else?”

My competitive streak flares in me and I immediately dart for my clothes. “Hell yes I want to know!”

I get dressed faster than I ever have in my life, Jackson laughing warm beside me.

“Did I get it?” I gasp, stumbling out of the bathroom and still buttoning the top button of my shirt. “Did I win!?”

Jesse beams at me from his spot on the couch with Daphne at his side. Her own face breaks into a smile when she sees me, her hands anxiously clasped in her lap. “Results aren’t in yet,” Jesse says, the relief to see that I’m back to my usual self clear in the crinkle of his eyes. “They’re –“

But Rafe storms over to us, blocking Jesse’s sightline and taking me by the shoulders. “Are you fucking all right?”

“I’m fine!” I say, smiling up into his face. “I promise, I’m sorry –“

He groans, pulling me to him and wrapping me in a tight hug. “You had me so worried, Ariel,” he murmurs, rocking me back and forth. “You were like, shell-shocked the whole ride home, I was scared you had a mental break –“

“I just needed a minute,” I assure him, patting my brother on the back. “I’ll explain it all later.” I pull back a bit, sending a glance towards the door, not wanting to bring more attention to what happened than necessary.

Rafe sighs and nods to me before shifting his gaze to Jackson. “Seriously, she’s good?”

Jackson opens his mouth to confirm that I am but before he can I give Rafe a hearty smack on the chest. “I just told you I was,” I growl. “You don’t need to confirm it with a man to know it’s right.”

Then I pull away from him, wanting to go say hello to Daphne. Behind me, I hear Jackson murmur something to Rafe about strawberry ice cream being the right medicine, but I roll my eyes and ignore them, plopping down next to my friend and giving her a big hug.

“Congratulations!” she says, hugging me back with a laugh. “I heard you played a big role in the victory today.”

“Yes, I’m very murderous,” I say with a happy sigh, letting her go and leaning across her to give Jesse a hug too. “Hello, I missed you! How was your day, did you kill anyone?”

“No one, isn’t that a bummer?” he says, shaking his head at me as I frown and take my seat again. “By the time I got to Wright’s camp it was a wasteland – everyone was gone.”

“What?” I ask, completely baffled. “What on earth happened?”

Jesse gives a hearty shrug but then the door opens and three people stumble in, laughing, just as the dumbwaiter bell rings.

“Results are in!” Ben calls, waving a couple of sheets of paper over his head and laughing as he beams around the room at us, Luca and Tony coming in after.

“Let me see!” I gasp, jumping up and dashing for him. “Who came in tops!?”

“Let’s just say it was a Games that favored the dark horses,” Ben says, laughing and grinning as he hands me a sheet.

I grab it and gasp because the name at the top of the list –

It’s not mine.

And it’s certainly no one I expected.

“Tony!?” I breathe, whipping my head up to gape at him.