The Fire and the Sky (Book 3 of the... - Chapter 59: Chapter 59

"Listen, I get why you're speeding but my life has flashed before my eyes at least three times since we left the motel."
"Then maybe you should close them."
"No, I don't think that will help." Jeremy shifted in the passenger seat, pulling his feet off the floor and tucking them under his lean body so he was sitting cross-legged.
May kept her eyes on the road as she shrugged. "I guess you'll just have to keep suffering. We've got to be getting close by now."
Jeremy pulled the map out from where he had it rolled and tucked beside his seat. He spread it awkwardly over his lap and surveyed it closely, drumming his lips with his fingertips as he did. "The good news is we're officially more than halfway."
"Ugh," May groaned. Jeremy didn't have to give her the bad news to know what it was. They had already been on the road for three hours. The idea of having to drive another three made her want to crawl out of her own skin. But given that there wasn't much to be done about it, she kept her complaints to herself — it wasn't like moaning about it would get them there any faster. "How long do you think it will take us to hike through the conservation lands?"
"Are you sure that's a question you want the answer to right now?"
Pursing her lips, May opted not to respond. Jeremy didn't answer her question either.
For a while, they drove on in silence, the only sound was that of the SUV's tires whirring across the pavement and the occasional shifting of Fargus, who had taken up residence at the base of the potted fern Jeremy had buckled into the back seat. May gazed passed her white knuckles on the steering wheel and down the seemingly endless stretch of highway, wondering what they would find on the other side. Eventually, when the silence and the wondering started to make her feel stir crazy, May searched her mind for something to fill the space between them.
"Have you ever been to the university before?" she asked.
"A couple of times. Once when I was a kid, pre-Grant, and then again when we struck the treaty with the Loyals."
"Huh." May frowned. "So you were never a student or anything like that?"
Jeremy shot her a glance out of the corner of his eye. "No, why?"
She shrugged a shoulder. "I was just curious. I never went to university or anything like that."
"Me neither." Jeremy huffed a quiet laugh. "It's probably for the best — I'm not sure where I'd fit academics into my busy schedule of just trying to stay alive."
"Just trying to stay alive..." May echoed. The sentiment made her think first of Em and whatever unknown horrors she was enduring at that very moment, and then of Gaten and what he had already endured at such a young age. She tilted her head, stretching her neck. "I hope Gaten's going to be okay."
"Me too," Jeremy said. "But knowing Connor and Rue, they'll make sure he has whatever he needs to get through this. They're great parents that way."
When May didn't reply, Jeremy shifted and cleared his throat. "I know you hate us, but I swear we're not bad people. We're just... I dunno. Desperate, I guess. And tired. Think of all the shit you've been though since we showed up, then imagine that same shit stretching on for years and years with no end in sight."
"This isn't a suffering contest, Jeremy — we've all had shitty lives."
Now it was Jeremy's turn to clam up. He folded his arms across his chest and resumed staring out the window. A twinge of guilt nibble at May and she swallowed her pride.
"I'm sorry. That was insensitive."
"Whatever."
May pursed her lips and steeled her patience. "I've been wondering... Does Gaten have any Wish abilities?"
"Dunno." Jeremy was still staring out the window. "He's still pretty young."
"What does that mean? Do we manifest them later in life?" She paused to consider her own past and discovered she couldn't remember a time when she didn't learn new things with uncanny ease.
"Not exactly. It's just the nature of some abilities. Some of them just won't become apparent until a kid is a bit older. I don't think anyone realized I had a perfect memory until I was old enough to read. But, then again, Gaten is the first of his kind — there's never been a kid born to another Wish before. It's all new ground where he's concerned."
This was interesting. It made May wonder what she'd want if she and Em were to somehow have a baby of their own — would she want the child to have some kind of innate ability like her? Or would she want them to have a fresh start without having to worry about what their bloodline might mean?
"Speaking of Wishes," she said, her mind already racing onto the next thought. "I've been wondering how you and the rest of WIND were able to track them down. It's not like the abilities themselves are foolproof ways of telling."
She could feel Jeremy looking at her now, and when she slid her eyes to his seat, she found him looking back at her warily. "Didn't Em ever talk to you about your marker?"
"My what now?"
"Your marker," he reached over and flicked one of her curls with his finger. "You and I have the same one."
It took a lot for May to keep her focus on the road. "What, our hair?"
"Don't sound so surprised," Jeremy said with a laugh. "Have you ever met anyone else with pink hair?"
"It's not pink!" May's mind was racing. She found herself back on the beach, meeting Em for the first time. She could still feel the heat of her flushed cheeks when Em called her hair cute. Had she had an inkling even then what May really was?
"Sure. What about mine? Did you think I got this shade of red from a salon?"
"Listen, I grew up on an isolated island. I assumed people were just more diverse on the mainland!"
Jeremy sat back and grinned. "Then there are Wishes like Connor and Priva who present through their eyes."
Their eyes. Of course! May had been drawn to Connor's vibrant green eyes and Priva's amethyst irises the first time she met them, but had never considered there might be a reason behind those unusual shades. In retrospect, she felt kind of silly for not thinking harder about it in the first place.
"I don't understand," she said. "How does it work? Why does it happen?"
"Beats me." Jeremy was still grinning. "All I know is every Wish we ever met has had a marker — usually it's an over-exaggerated coloring of a feature they've inherited from the parent who made the wish. For Connor, it was his mom. Priva's dad wished for her. I got my mom's hair."
So did I, apparently, May thought, thinking about Dawn's graying copper locks. As inconsequential as this new information was, she found it terribly fascinating. "What do you think it means that Gaten got Connor's eyes?"
Jeremy seemed to be losing his interest in the conversation. He laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back on them like a pillow.
"Could be anything. Maybe he's got some Wish powers, maybe it's just genetics. I guess we'll have to wait and see." He turned his face to her then, that impish smile of his returning. "You know, the moment I realized who Em was, you suddenly made a lot more sense to me."
This made May tense instantly. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"She might be a whole different person now but the girl clearly has a type." Grinning like a fool, Jeremy pointed from May to himself and back again. "Scrawny redheads."
After a beat of stunned silence, May leaned across Jeremy's lap and, keeping her left hand on the wheel, pretended to grab for the door handle with her right. "That's it, get out. You can walk the rest of the way."
Jeremy swatted her away with a snort of laughter, which in turn made her laugh too. Before long, the two of them were laughing so hard May worried she might have to pull over until the fit passed.
When at last May found she could take a breath without dissolving into a fresh round of giggles, she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and flashed Jeremy a smile. "I'm glad we're at this point."
"What point is that?"
"The point where we can... I don't know, where we can joke with each other. And talk about me being with Em without it making things weird."
"Oh, it's still weird."
May chewed her bottom lip. She wasn't sure what to say to that. Luckily for her, Jeremy caved first.
"I honestly thought she'd come back to herself with time," he admitted in a quiet voice. He kept his dark eyes fixed on the dashboard, away from May. "As if all she needed was time away from you to remember who she was and who we used to be. How's that for wishful thinking?"
"Is that why you came up with the plan for her to send me away?"
Jeremy huffed a small laugh. "You know it was."
"So... what changed then?"
"She did. And it wasn't until you were gone that I could finally see that. The more we talked, the stupider I felt. Em's her own person — not even the flashes of Audrey I see in her from time to time are enough to convince me otherwise. Eventually I realized I was chasing a ghost." He took a breath and leaned back, blinking out the passenger window so May couldn't see his eyes. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we weren't meant to be after all."
"I'm really sorry, Jeremy."
"Don't be. I guess this means I get to find a new destiny or whatever." He turned to look at her. His smile was sad. "It's revoltingly obvious that she found hers in you. I'm man enough to admit that she's in love with you in a way Audrey never was with me. I hope you don't take that for granted."
May rolled her eyes, trying to lighten the mood. "I mean, I am embarking on a dangerous rescue mission for her."
Jeremy didn't seem to have anything to say to that. The mood in the truck was tense with words still unspoken, and for May the silence was too much. She could feel the words bubbling to the surface and despite her best efforts, she couldn't keep them down.
"I proposed to her," she blurted, regretting it the moment she said it.
"What?" Jeremy lurched forward in his seat so quickly that the seat belt snapped into place. He strained against it as he stared at May with an incredulous expression. May held her breath, bracing for the delicate peace between them to come to an explosive end. Jeremy watched her, unblinking. "I sure hope she said yes."
Surprised, May laughed. "Sure you do."
"Of course I do. All I ever wanted was for Audrey to be happy. Now Audrey is Em, and I know without a doubt that she's happiest when she's with you."
May felt something unlike a fist unclenching its grip from around her lungs. She exhaled, grateful beyond her own belief at how genuine Jeremy's words were. She flashed him a smile.
"She said yes. But it was right before the Loyals showed up." Her fingers tightened on the wheel; an anxiety-induced reflex. "And now I can't stop worrying that we might not get the chance to go through with it."
"You will." Jeremy sounded so completely sure of himself that for a split second, May doubted her own concern. "We'll get her back together. Then we'll find that fucking wishing star." He paused and pulled a disgruntled face. "I wish we could take another run at your birth mom, but I guess that's off the table now. I don't think we could even get close to your dad if we found him now. Are you absolutely sure your mom didn't drop any hints when you were in there? Or maybe they left a clue for you that you've never noticed."
Despite the fact that she had mentally revisited every second of her conversation with Dawn, May scanned the memory again for good measure. "We had barely started talking about the star when the guards came in. As for clues, the only thing my birth parents left me was—"
She froze mid-sentence as the bottom of her stomach dropped.
"What?" Jeremy prodded. "What did they leave you?"
Already, May's mind was reeling with disbelief.
Her eyes dropped from the road. It was just a second, but it felt like an eternity as they fell to her hand. And there, glittering on her middle finger, was the ring.
The same ring she had been wearing most of her life.
The same ring she had used to ask Em to marry her.
Her mouth went dry.
"Holy shit."