Becoming Calder
Page 39

And then suddenly I was being slammed to the ground, the breath leaving my body as I hit pavement. I groaned, trying to get my bearings as someone yanked me up. Clive stood in front of me, breathing hard. He snapped cuffs on my wrists, a wild excited look in his eyes. "Little fighter, I like that," he said, laughing. Then he dragged me backward to the police car as Xander swore behind me, Kristi rushing to his side.
I swallowed, the terror rising inside of me.
Calder was being pushed inside the police car and I was pushed in behind him. Calder's eyes were wild as he tried to reach out and touch me with his cuffed hands. "Are you okay? Eden, are you okay?" He made a sound of rage as his eyes flew over me.
"I'm okay, Calder. I'm okay," I reassured him, even though my heart beat crazily in my chest and fear pumped through my veins.
Xander ran to the door of the car, but Clive held him back. "He doesn't want you," Clive said.
Calder leaned around me and called out to Xander. "I'll meet you . . ."
Xander walked away backward, his face a mask of shock and anger. "I know where, I know when," he said.
I didn't know what they'd arranged, but Calder nodded and sat back. "It's going to be okay. I promise you, we'll just leave the second we can. We have somewhere to go now, we have money."
I nodded next to him, incapable of forming words.
Clive and the other officer got in the car and pulled away from the curb. I looked through the back window as Kristi and Xander stood there, looks of shock on their faces as they both watched us drive away. It had all happened in less than five minutes. How? How had they found us so quickly?
I was numb, shocked, stunned. Clive looked over his shoulder and laughed mockingly. "Woo wee. Hector's gonna be happy to have you back, princess. I gotta say, he's lost it a little, but this should put things right again." He snickered.
He turned back around and I saw his eyes in the rearview mirror looking at Calder. "You made a bad call getting into this car with her," he said, his eyes shiny with cruel amusement. "In this case, chivalry was the wrong choice." And then he laughed mockingly.
Calder and I remained quiet, moving as close to each other as possible. My hands had grown cold and clammy and I was shaking.
I looked out the window as we drove down the highway and then eventually turned on to the dirt road leading to Acadia. Had we really walked all this way? Had Calder carried Xander on his back all the way down this very road? Tears pricked my eyes and I blinked to keep them back. We'd be making this walk again soon, my mind insisted. We'd be escaping again the second we could. And then we'd stay gone. We'd be smarter, safer. And I'd be eighteen in two weeks and then there'd be nothing Hector could do anyway. I straightened my spine and held my head up. Next to me, Calder studied me and a small smile tilted his lips. "That's my strong and brave Morning Glory," he said very, very quietly.
We pulled in to Acadia, the gravel crunching beneath the tires of the police cruiser, and my heart lurched out of my chest. It looked deserted. No one was in the fields, no one was tending the animals, and no one walked the paths. What was going on?
Clive came around and opened the door for us and I stepped out, the sound of Hector's voice surrounding me. I turned in a slow circle and saw it was only the loudspeakers, turned up to full volume, blasting through Acadia.
Clive pushed Calder roughly and he let go of my hand and stepped back, catching himself. A look of rage came into Calder's eyes as he eyed the gun at Clive's belt. Clive stood up taller, a cold amusement glinting in his eyes. "Try it, Water Bearer." He laughed, a sharp, high-pitched burst of sound.
"Hey, come on, Clive," the other officer said. "We delivered them. Let's get back to work."
Clive kept his eyes on Calder and spat on the ground next to him.
That's when I saw Hector, coming out of the house, Hailey next to him, running to keep up.
Hector's hair was long, the way he used to wear it when I was a little girl. But it wasn’t pulled back now. It was wild and stringy, and it made it more obvious how much hair he'd lost on the top of his head. He had lost a lot of weight and his cheeks were gaunt, hollow. And the look in his eyes . . . the look in his eyes as he got closer. It was just like the night I'd run . . . only . . . worse. Had that only been a couple days ago? Hector looked like he'd aged years since then.
Hailey looked like she'd been crying and when they both came to a standstill in front of us, she looked down and clasped her hands in front of her. The loud, recorded sermon filled the silence.
I saw Clive Richter and the other officer get in their police cruiser out of my peripheral vision, but didn't turn my head. The car started and drove off.
Hector took a deep breath and smiled. "I'm so pleased to have you back, my love," he said to me.
Hailey's eyes darted up to him, to me, and then back down. Three worker men I didn't know came out of the main lodge and stood behind Hector, looking at us with narrowed eyes.
"Hector, please," I said. "Let me go. Let us go. If you ever loved me please, just, let me go."
The pleasant look on Hector's face didn't change. "Let you go? Let you go?" He put his finger to his lips and stood there looking up at the sky for a full minute. Then his eyes filled with frigid anger. "SO THAT SATAN'S SPAWN HERE CAN POSSESS YOU?" He jerked his head over to Calder. "SO THAT THE REST OF US CAN ROT IN HELL FOR ETERNITY?"
I startled back as he screamed the words at me, and Calder made a move to come toward me, but the three worker men suddenly leaped forward and grabbed his arms. He looked back at them, shocked, and said, "What the hell are you guys doing? You know me. You know me!"
"We thought we did," the tallest man said. Oh gods in Elysium, I was in a nightmare. Please make this stop, I wanted to sob out.
"Take him to the cellar," Hector said, smoothing his hair back and standing up straighter.
Calder reared back and punched one of the men in his face, and the man reeled as the other two scuffled with Calder to get a good hold on his arms. I started crying, bringing my hands up to my mouth.
Suddenly Hector moved behind me and I was pulled roughly against his chest, confused, trying to understand what was happening.
"I'll slit her open," Hector said.
Everything stopped. I froze. Calder froze. The men holding him gripped him tightly and stopped moving, too. Hailey let out a sharp cry.
Hector held a knife to my throat, the blade already piercing my skin.
"There's power in her blood," Hector said. I cringed and cried out as he brought his face forward and licked the drop rolling down my throat. "If she refuses the foretelling, there are other ways to bring her with us to Elysium . . . even just a small, living part of her." Again, he licked a droplet of blood on my skin and I clenched my eyes shut.
"You're out of your damn mind," Calder said, his voice cracking.
Hector raised his head to stare at Calder. I felt his hot breath at my ear and smelled the stale stench of it. He pressed the knife to my skin again and I cried out.
"Okay, okay," Calder said, bringing his arms up to show his surrender. "I'll do whatever you want me to do. Just please, please don't hurt her." Calder's eyes were deep pools of fear as he watched Hector. I sucked back a sob.
The knife came away from my skin and I heard Hector suck in a deep breath of what seemed like satisfaction. "Take him to the cellar. Lock him up," he said.
Calder's eyes bored into mine as he nodded his head once. I nodded my head once back, too. It would be okay, he was telling me.
He went willingly with the three men, one of them now bleeding profusely from his face.
Hector let out a breath and smiled pleasantly. "Shall we go inside? Will you play for me, Eden?"
I opened my eyes wide when I caught Hailey's eye, but she looked away, walking behind Hector and me.
Later, after I'd played the piano for hours and was bent over the keys in exhaustion, Hector finally excused me, and I went quickly up to my room. As I started to climb the stairs, Hector grabbed my arm. I gasped and turned to him.
"The foretelling will come to pass, my love. Don't have delusions that it won't. And if you do anything to try and stop it, I'll kill him. Do you understand?"
I felt my eyes widen and fear swirled in my belly, and then he let go of me and I ran up the stairs.
I closed my door behind me and heard it lock on the other side. I looked across the room at the window. Heavy, metal bars had been installed. I was a prisoner in every sense of the word. I lay down on my bed and sobbed. Where there had been light and hope only hours before, now there was only darkness and despair.
**********
Over the next two weeks, I was rarely allowed to leave my room. Mother Miriam brought food to me, although there wasn't much. The fields weren't being tended, food was ripening and falling to the ground, uncollected. The animals were sick and hungry now, too. I could hear the goats bleating miserably outside whenever there was a pause in Hector's broadcast. I thought I would go insane. I had to shut my emotions down as best as I could, and live with the one thought that kept going through my head. We would get out of here . . . Somehow, some way. We would, at the very first opportunity.
I didn't know how Calder was and it filled me with stark terror. Were they feeding him? Was he okay? I vowed to be his strong morning glory. I vowed not to crumble.
On the afternoon of my eighteenth birthday, Hailey entered my room softly and laid a white dress at the end of my bed. Her eyes were filled with sorrow as she looked at me, sitting at my desk, staring out the window.
I ran to her and threw myself at her feet, hugging her legs and sobbing. Her hands stroked my hair. When I looked up at her, there were tears in her eyes.
"Please help us," I begged.
She shook her head. "There's nothing I can do. My boys.  I have four boys . . . he . . . he'll . . ." She cried softly for a minute.
I took a deep breath. "Calder. Do you know how he is?" I asked.
"He's alive," she said. "He's being fed and given water. I have no way of knowing more than that."
Tears coursed down my cheeks. "If I marry Hector today, we'll just leave tomorrow," I whispered.
Hailey shook her head. "He won't let you. He'll never let you leave before the foretelling comes to pass."
"The foretelling isn't coming to pass!" I yelled. Hailey startled and I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Hailey, but . . . you know that, right?"
She didn't answer me either way, just kept looking down at her hands.
"Hailey, if I marry Hector today . . . and the time comes when I can get Calder out, will you at the very least distract Hector?"
She stared at me for long moments, but then nodded her head. I breathed out a breath of relief. I'd come up with a plan. I'd get Calder out and we'd run, and this time, we wouldn't get caught.
Hailey stood up. "Get dressed. I'll be back to do your hair. Hector means to marry you in an hour."
Dread shot down my spine. "In an hour?" I asked. I began trembling all over. I felt as if I was going to be sick. An hour? How was I going to get through that?
"Yes, everyone is waiting at the Temple. Councilman Daniels has the legal authority to perform the ceremony." I looked away. I distrusted councilman Daniels almost as much as Clive Richter. I wondered if he was a policeman, too. Maybe they all were. I didn't understand any of it.
I let out a deep breath and straightened my spine. "I'll be ready."
Hailey nodded and turned to leave my room.
"Hailey?" She stopped and looked back at me. "Will you gather a few of the blue flowers that grow on a small bush on the west side of the field? I've always wanted to wear them in my hair on my wedding day."
Hailey looked confused, but nodded okay and closed the door behind her.
I fell down on my knees next to my bed. Oh dear God of Mercy, please help me, I prayed.
An hour later, I rode to the Temple in the carriage alongside Hector. He wore a suit of white, and I wore the long, flowing wedding gown someone had sewn for me. Morning glories adorned my hair. Pain gripped my heart.
We said our vows in the Temple in front of the Acadian people, Hector's eyes shining at me with some kind of fever. He looked like a madman. I tried not to make eye contact as I said the words I didn't mean. The gods know my heart, I thought. What did so-called vows mean if they weren't true?
I looked out to the audience and spotted Calder's parents. Their heads were bowed and they were praying reverently. They still believed.
When it was over, Hector turned to the people and raised his arms, his voice ringing out strong and sure, "My beloveds. This is a glorious day. Eden is now my lawful wife, in the eyes of the state and as witnessed by the gods. And we are all one step closer to fulfilling our true destiny." He beamed out at them, his eyes feverish, his smile wide. They all stared back at him, some looking happy, others looking stunned, troubled, and hungry. Several children were crying.
"A feast has been set up for you in the main dining hall. Please, eat. Rejoice. This is a day made for joy and celebration!"
Hector peered out at the crowd. "My beloveds, the flood draws near. The fruits of our sacrifice draw near. Cling to me, cling to your mother, Eden, cling to Acadia. Know we are holy now. Satan tempts you in all kinds of ways as our hardship grows, as the end draws near. But don't be tempted. Don't be forsaken. We are so close to paradise, my beloveds. Go now and celebrate."
He took my hand and led me up the aisle and back outside to the carriage where he grabbed the reins and started back to the main lodge.