Emerge: The Captive: (Book 3)(39)
“My Com—” Sasha’s hands clenched into fists at her side. “…The boy I’ve grown up with and loved my entire life is a captive of the Coalition. He was taken from his family because of me.” Her tone was low and full of all the loathing she felt for Jayesh and his assumptions as well as for herself and her failures. “He is suffering because I wasn’t there for him. I was leaving for Atlanta. Before you came for me, I was going to go find him. I was going to help him escape, or at least be with him as a support. And then you showed up on my doorstep and now we are here and Quinn is still in Atlanta where no one can reach him.”
“What did you think you were going to accomplish by going there, Sasha?” The critical tone in his voice vanished, replaced by one bordering on kindness.
“The people who have him seem to attract people like me. Young and talented Immortals. I was going to walk through the front door of Sterling Tower and ask for help with my training. It was a good plan. I could have gotten close enough to help him. To help our family with the knowledge they need to free him.”
“It wouldn’t have worked,” he said softly.
“How do you know?” she fumed.
“Trust me. I know. You’d never reach him that way. Put it behind you and let your family take care of Quinn while you take care of yourself. I need you to have your head in this, Sasha. Fully in this … or we are going to fail.”
“Let’s just get back to training. I’m in the mood to punch things.”
“We will meditate first. Then we will have lunch and discuss my plan for your training. We will have time for kalari tomorrow.”
“We have to make the most of our time here, Jayesh. We should train and not let the days slip past us.”
“When I was here before, the best I was able to calculate, time passes at a rate of one day to every couple of hours outside. Sometimes, when we aren’t learning what we came here to learn—like now, because we are both sucking at the first lessons of meithari—it’s more like a week here is an hour at home. We have all the time in the world to get this done, Sasha. Somewhere along the way, we will become friends. It is the nature of this place. Follow me.” He stepped through the giant pillars and down the crumbling stone steps into the sweeping gardens below.
Sasha followed him down the steps, too irritated to truly appreciate the beauty of the temple gardens.
“Together or separate?” Jayesh asked.
“Let’s not push our luck on the first day. I’m going over here,” Sasha said, leaving Jayesh to find his own quiet corner to meditate.
Sasha stomped along the garden path, her blood pounding in her ears.
“Sasha?” Jayesh called behind her. “Just … give me time to find my footing. I wasn’t expecting any of this.”
“You think I was?” She winced at her sharp tone. “Perhaps we both need a good minute to ourselves.”
“Perhaps,” he agreed. “Come find me when you feel you have found the right frame of mind.”
Sasha walked along the dirt pathway to one of the many small alcoves. Short shrubs grew around a natural fountain where flowers floated in the breeze along the water’s surface. She knelt on the moss-covered cobblestone and focused her gaze on the flowers. Meditation was as much a part of her life as her daily training was, but for the first time in ages she couldn’t seem to ground herself in the moment.
She continued to stare at the flowers floating on the surface of the murky green water until all other thought left her. With a deep breath, she relaxed each part of her body, from her toes, all the way up to her neck and shoulders. Jayesh was the source of all her current stress and anxiety and she needed to learn to interact with him in a positive way. As long as they affected each other negatively, their training efforts would be futile.
With a last look at the beauty of the paradise around her, Sasha closed her eyes and began to breathe, focusing on the way the air filled her lungs and how her diaphragm moved with each breath. She felt the rise of her chest, the brief pause before exhaling. She counted on each exhale, clearing her mind of all negative energy.
The longer she focused on her breath, the more relaxed she became, until she even forgot to count her breaths. She was no longer aware of her tension or her anxiety. It was only Sasha and the air in her lungs. The point where her breath entered her body and exhalation a beat later.
When she opened her eyes again, she wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but she felt better. Still, she wasn’t ready to go back to Jayesh yet. She needed a moment to reflect on the source of her negative emotions. It was easy to blame him. But at the end of the day, Jayesh was just trying to do his job.
Sasha stood, ready to return for the remainder of their session. She had demanded Jayesh meet her halfway while her own feet were planted firmly in place. If she wanted to get back to her life, back to her family, and back to saving Quinn, she would have to take a step toward Jayesh.
As she walked through the garden, she had no sense of how long she’d meditated. It could have been hours or minutes. Judging by the rumbling of her stomach, it had been hours. The disoriented feeling of not knowing how much time had passed was alarming.
She found Jayesh back in the temple, moving through the kalari forms she would soon learn. She recognized some of the familiar movements from her Kung Fu training and hoped it would help speed things along.