Page 24 of Soulmates

“Maddox is much closer to Lizzie more so than Carter, but Maddox and Carter have been paired up in classes their whole lives. And Maddox said that Carter started to say something during the challenge. Something about the school and did Maddox think…something. But they got interrupted by the final task. Maddox thinks Carter was hinting at the bigger picture Maddox has been researching. Carter is smart, and Lizzie is even smarter. It’d be good to hash some of this stuff out with other people.”

Santiago grimaced. “Ugh. But Lizzie Sommers? Why does it have to be her?”

“She’s not that bad.”

“She is exactly that bad.”

“Yeah, but coming out of that family, how could you be anything else?”

“Fair.” Santiago conceded.

Lizzie Sommers wasn’t all bad, but she definitely had a way of putting people on edge—and not just because she was a void. But she was smarter than most, and having her on their side could only help matters.

“Honestly,” Jake said, glancing at Maddox. “I think we’ll need all the help we can get.”

Chapter 18

Maddox slept the entire drive to their next stop, a run-down motel in Jackson, North Carolina. The scenery had changed significantly from Reinhold and he took a moment to remember that under most circumstances, he loved road trips if only to watch the flora shift. Here there were pine trees of all variety, along with maples and oaks still regaining their leaves. It was already getting warmer and more humid the farther south they traveled. It wasn’t uncomfortable yet, but Maddox imagined it would be in a day or two.

The motel took cash. No one would find them. And most likely, no one was looking yet. Hopefully, the measures against being found were effective enough, though picturing his mother’s terror at him going missing with no way to find him made his stomach clench.

Morose thoughts. Though, to be fair, he was generally ferociously moody upon being woken up.

Santiago went to the office to get two rooms for the night, asking for the second floor, the back of the hotel. They trained warriors for battle to include urban warfare of the magic variety, so he knew it was second nature for her to think of these things, and he was grateful.

Rooms secured, Jake and Santiago grabbed their bags, Jake snatching Maddox’s before he could get to it, earning a glare from Maddox, followed quickly by a shrug. Jake frowned down at him. But Maddox was too exhausted to parse out what was wrong. He’d slept uncomfortably in the car and was sore and so tried. All he wanted was to lie down on an actual bed, even if it was a terrible motel bed.

Santiago followed them into their room to perform the unbinding and rebinding that would allow them to get their shirts off. Once she determined them to be bound, she bid them good night, spelling the doorway and windows to keep them trapped inside, just in case. When she opened the door to leave, fireflies were lazily hovering, not seeming to be in any hurry to attach themselves to Jake, but still. It was disconcerting.

“I gotta say, guys, this is…”

“Yeah,” Jake answered.

That summed it up, so Maddox didn’t feel the need to expound.

Santiago gave them one last inscrutable look and left them to it.

They stood in silence in the below-average motel room. Two beds, a box TV with no cable on a dingy dresser, a few halfhearted landscape paintings, brown-and-orange floral wallpaper peeling in the corners, a rusty air-conditioning unit, a closet, and a door leading to the bathroom.

“Shower?” Jake asked.

“Okay.”

“Maddox, are you alright?”

“I think so. I’m just tired. And my body aches, probably from the exercise and the long car ride. Maybe I just need some sleep?”

Jake still looked worried and opened his mouth to speak, but Maddox cut him off. “Let’s just…” he said, gesturing at the bathroom.

“Yeah, okay.”

They grabbed their toiletry bags, probably packed by Santiago, and went into the tiny space. Maddox realized quickly this would not be as easy as their previous bathroom encounters since being bound together, and he was both nervous and horrified.

“Maddox? What is the matter?”

Maddox dazedly stared at the toilet before he turned to Jake. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Okay…we’ve done this multiple times and proven you can pee one-handed.”

---