Emerge: The Captive: (Book 3)(56)

“Fine,” Quinn sighed in frustration. “I don’t know why. I promise, I have absolutely no idea … but I think their rally point is Allie.”

“What is it with that girl?” Livia muttered.

Quinn didn’t think Livia had put the pieces together yet, but she was a smart woman. She would figure it out, and when she did, she would want Allie more than ever.

“What are we doing, Liv?” Ryan asked.

“We’re going to pay a visit to Quinn’s hometown. Let’s go.”

~~~





CHAPTER

NINETEEN





Sasha: Meithari


The Chola Valley Temple


“Get dressed,” Jayesh said.

Sasha blinked in the early morning light. Her limbs felt heavy and her eyelids were like lead. The last months of heavy training kept her on the brink of exhaustion.

It’s not months. Not really. She was beginning to understand how the time screw worked here. She’d wake in the mornings to an identical dawn every day, followed by an identical, perfect sunset over the mother’s gardens every evening. She enjoyed her talks with the mother. But each day bled into the next so it started feeling like one really long, monotonous day on endless repeat. Her body felt the passage of time. It should be fall by now, but it was still the height of summer. That was a physical reassurance that her life back home wasn’t speeding along without her.

And they still hadn’t moved on from meithari yet. Despite the mother’s advice, Sasha found it difficult to give Jayesh her blind trust. She knew she needed to meet him halfway, but she had a visceral need to protect herself from his potential betrayal.

“What do you want from me, Jay?” She rolled over to stare at him where he stood in her doorway, dressed in his typical linen trousers and sleeveless tunic; his golden armbands glinting in the early light.

She rarely saw him outside of their daily training. Not since that day on the cliffs when she went off on him. That was months ago. Since then, he’d been methodical in her training, and never let their conversations drift away from the lessons. He withdrew from her almost completely for days at a time, barely speaking to her at all. And then other times, when he praised her progress or they laughed at some shared joke, she could almost swear they were becoming friends. Sasha feared they would never get through meithari and they would be stuck here forever.

“Just get dressed and meet me in the courtyard.”

“We going somewhere?” She hoped he wasn’t in the mood for more target practice. She was getting bored with spending so much time shooting at clay birds and grass bales. He’d made a point to make target practice part of her regular routine, but he rarely accompanied her and she hadn’t seen the beautiful sniper rifle since that first day.

“Yes. We’re taking the day off.” He glanced at her nervously.

“Why?” She sat up and looked at him like he had three heads. Jayesh didn’t believe in taking time off.

“Do you trust me?” He gave her a rare smile.

“No,” she said honestly.

“That’s why.” He nodded as if she’d confirmed something important. “Dress comfortably. We’ll be riding a long way.”

“Where?” she asked.

“It’s a surprise.” He winked and left her staring after him.

“Did he just smile?” Imogen asked as she came into Sasha’s room bearing a breakfast tray. It was their morning ritual to sit and talk over breakfast before they each left for training.

“He did. Freaky, right? It seems we’re taking the day off.”

“What’s going on with you two? Any progress?” Imogen asked. The dark circles under her eyes worried Sasha, but Gen refused to talk about her training with the mother.

“No. Not since I yelled at him.” Sasha crossed her arms over her chest.

“Well, maybe this is him trying to move past that?”

“It’s creepy,” Sasha said. “But I will do what I can to help us move forward.”

“The mother is expecting me or I would come with you. But quite frankly, you two have got to learn to communicate better, so this could be a good thing,” Imogen said.

“I still don’t trust him.”

“He is not a bad man, Sasha. He’s just a very hard man to know. Help him. It may not seem like it, but he is trying.”

“Maybe I’m a hard woman to know,” Sasha muttered.

She made her way to the courtyard, munching on the last of her buttered toast.

“Where are we going?” she asked, surprised to see it was just Jayesh waiting for her in the dusty courtyard and not the host of Chola monks who accompanied them wherever they went.

Jay stood waiting with a huge basket and canteen as they walked along the garden path to the eastern gates. “Do I need to explain what a surprise is?”

Sasha stopped suddenly when she heard the trumpet of an elephant. Her smile spread wide as she rushed through the gates.

“He’s beautiful!” She beamed at the enormous elephant waiting to take them wherever Jayesh had planned. “Hello, Kandula,” she murmured as the elephant sniffed her with his elaborately painted trunk. She traced the Vedic patterns along his trunk, reaching up to pat his face.