Chapter Text
By the time Jinx woke up, day had turned into night and the room was casted in shadows. Her eyes fluttered open, a small noise escaping her lips as she gained back consciousness, but she could barely see anything at all.
Instinctively, her right hand curled into a fist, grabbing at the fabric of Ekko’s shirt before letting go once more.
Shit. Her neck hurt like a motherfucker.
Their legs were tangled together, a mess of limbs and hair and ruffled clothes, so close to one another they could pass for the same being if she squinted hard enough. Despite the intense pain on her neck and the almost unbearable heat Ekko’s body radiated, she didn’t want to move an inch. Somehow, during the throes of sleep, they had gotten even closer, the slope of her nose pressed firmly against his cheek, his arm no longer lightly resting over the small of her back but enveloping her torso entirely, like he was afraid she would run away.
As if she had anywhere to run away to.
Her hideout was once again a place filled with ghosts, Isha still presumed dead, Vi wanting nothing to do with her, the world outside plagued with robot zombies. Where else would she go? Where else could she go, if not here?
Plus, it wasn’t like she wanted to move. If she could never get up from this bed ever again, she would be perfectly happy with it.
Still, her neck did hurt. And sweat droplets accumulated on her back, making her suddenly way too aware of her body.
Jinx needed to get up, despite her brain and her heart loudly opposing this decision.
She took one last chance to nuzzle her nose into Ekko’s skin, enjoying the velvet-soft sensation it provided, the comfort. He was calm, and pliant, and gentle, and while she too enjoyed being around annoyed, harsh, impatient Ekko, she promptly made up her mind. This was definitely her favorite version of him.
Carefully, she unwrapped Ekko’s arm from her waist, slow enough to not wake the boy up. He was heavy, and Jinx was still in that weird trance between sleeping and being awake where somehow her strength was nonexistent, but she managed to do so without a hitch.
Rolling around to be on her back proved to be a much harder task, a colossal show of self-control Jinx didn’t even know she had. Once laying on top of the mattress instead of directly atop Ekko, she realized her neck hurt worlds more than she had initially thought. She desperately needed to stretch, but the bed was too small to do so without waking him up, and Ekko deserved some rest after everything she had put him through.
His words echoed in her brain then, the way he had looked so hurt, so desperate when she had tried to shoot herself. The way he had stopped her, too many times to count. The image of those monkeys rotating in circles inside the Z-Drive, a reminder that he cared enough to place her signature inside his greatest invention.
Now, looking back on it, she still was certain she would’ve gone through with it if he wasn’t there.
Losing Isha meant losing the last bit of herself, the last bit of hope she had for ever getting better. Shooting her brains out with her favorite weapon seemed like as good a way to go as any, a last gesture to honor her memory.
Ekko believed she was alive, or at least wanted to believe it, but even now she couldn’t be so sure.
She sat up on the bed, knees raising up until she could wrap her arms around them, an old habit.
Her head turned to the side, laying over her folded legs, knobby knees digging onto her cheek, her temple. Uncomfortable and hard and cold, the opposite of how Ekko’s body had felt against her own.
She looked at him now, her eyes growing accustomed to the darkness. Jinx hated how beautiful he looked even while asleep, how easy he made it look, how effortless. A pang in her chest, a dumb smile already forming on her lips.
Fuck, she was an idiot. World record stupidity, levels of foolishness never seen before in a human being.
She couldn’t help it, though. The giddiness, the quirk of her lips, the jittery feeling thrumming inside her every cell. It was the weirdest sensation in the world, unexplainable and confusing, but so very welcome.
Jinx didn’t get it, was certain no one would get the way her head worked, how she could be so ready to kill one second, so ready to die, and the very next she was laying in bed with her friend and feeling at peace. It wasn’t normal, she knew as much. Regular people didn’t get wild mood swings that impacted their every action, or voices in their heads, or Shimmer running wild inside their body. They would never get it, would never get her.
Ekko wouldn’t understand, either. But he was trying.
After everything she had done, he was still trying.
She needed to try, too. To understand him better, to help him more. Suddenly, that revelation was so clear, so bright she didn’t know how she could’ve missed it before.
Millimeter by millimeter, slow enough to miss the way she climbed over him and down until her bare feet touched the hardwood floor, she got up from the bed and decided she needed fresh air.
Jinx was careful to not make a single sound —not as she slipped on her boots, not as she walked over the door, not as she cracked it open and exited his room. Once it was safely locked behind her, she finally allowed herself to breathe. The chilly night air greeted her skin, temperature change not shocking, but big enough to give her goosebumps. Still, breathing the clean air was a nice feeling. No metals or chemicals lingering around here, the vegetation taking care of them.
She got close to the ledge, looking down at the empty Firelight hideout.
Not a soul was wandering around at this time, a few windows around her illuminated by candles from the inside, the only proof that she wasn’t completely alone.
Her eyes found the one branch Ekko had used to climb up earlier, but ultimately thought against going up to see the stars in favor of walking down the staircase, looking for something to do, something that could pique her interest.
She remembered the main layout. Third floor, Ekko’s room. Second floor, Heimerdinger’s old room, Ekko’s workshop. She tried to open the door for that last one, but it was firmly locked. Jinx continued her journey downstairs until she noticed a faint light coming from the room on the next floor.
First floor, war room.
Jinx didn’t bother with knocking, slim hand curling around the metallic door handle and pushing down, watching with curious eyes as it cliqued open and revealed the chamber.
It wasn’t too big, a little wider than Ekko’s room, and part of the inside wall was just the very tree trunk it was built on. Still, there was a blackboard, and a big table, and a couple of empty chairs illuminated by the flickering candle.
A shadow greeted her, at the very end of the room, a head turning over to look at her.
“Jinx,” the shadow spoke, voice lower than anything she could recognize.
“Mr. Bat Guy,” she nodded towards him.
The figure stood up straighter, walking over closer to the light source, and Jinx could tell she was right. This was Scar, Ekko’s best friend, the Firelights’ second in command, the bane of her existence in almost every fight she had against the rebels.
He looked exactly the same as she remembered, minus the mask. Broad shoulders, impossibly high, a perpetual scowl on his purple face.
At least it was a familiar face.
“What are you doing here?” Scar asked, big hands over the wooden table as he stared her down.
Never backing down from a challenge, Jinx raised her chin and matched his broody look. “I could ask the same question.”
“Where’s Ekko?”
A wicked smile took control of her features. “Sleeping. Or maybe dead, I couldn’t really tell if he had a pulse after I shot him.”
Instead of rising to the fight, Scar simply gave a dismissive huff and pulled out some papers from a folder on the table, grabbing a pen as well before he sat down on a chair, his body making the furniture look comically small.
She approached him, reminding herself that she had grabbed no weapons and came in peace.
She didn’t say much, simply sitting in front of him and watching as he scribbled who-knows-what on his sheet of paper. After a while it grew boring, but she already knew he wasn’t a great conversationalist.
Jinx crossed her arms, plopping her head down on the table as she looked.
“Do you need something?”
“Can’t a girl just be bored?”
“A bored Jinx is dangerous,” he finally looked up from his work, regarding her with little more than disgust, a little less than neutrality. “A bored Jinx is the reason my comrades are dead.”
Again, not the best conversationalist, it was fine. He was right, either way. For how much Ekko insisted on the Firelights being open to accept her, to help her out, there were some grudges that couldn’t simply be forgotten.
“I’m unarmed.”
The man scoffed. “That hasn’t stopped you before.”
“Touché.”
He went back to his silence after that. It wasn’t uncomfortable, not overtly so at least, but she felt the animosity between them filling the room. He didn’t like her. He wouldn’t harm her, but he didn’t have to like her. Okay, Jinx didn’t exactly adore him either.
She remembered the many times she had punched him, kicked him, scratched him only to be found with a body hard as a rock and a passivity that let her know she did no damage. She remembered, too, the times she had gotten a good hit, shooting him over the metal place on his chest, catching him off-guard and throwing him out of his hoverboard. Heh. Good times.
“Ekko told me,” Scar said. When he caught sight of her confused expression, he continued. “About the little girl.”
Oh.
Isha. Her gaze lowered until it was fixed on the barren table, pupils following the shapes and swirls of the wood it was made from.
Ekko had told him. How much had he said? Did he mention her suicide attempt? The months she had spent looking for her? The way she was the sweetest, smartest kid in the world? The fact that she was most likely dead?
“I knew about it already, I was the one who told him about it when he came back.”
That made Jinx look up again, one eyebrow raised impossibly high. “You knew?”
One curt nod sufficed as his answer. Still, she needed more, her hands curled into fists, nails digging into her palms.
“How?”
“You made a ruckus about it.”
That much was true. She couldn’t even count how many people she had interrogated, how many of them she had killed after they gave her an unsatisfactory answer.
At first, she had tried finding Isha on her own. Two months and a half, just her looking into ruined houses, fighting Blesseds until she figured out their weaknesses, observing the streets in the dark for any sign of her girl. After it was proven futile, though, she took a more hands-on approach.
The Firelights hadn’t been her target, not yet. She was absolutely sure, despite how many people she had asked, how many people she had toyed with and tortured for information, none of them had ties to Ekko’s comrades. None of them had ever lived to tell the story either.
It dawned on her, then.
How they had even known where she would be when they took her captive, how they knew exactly when to attack, how to do so.
“You’ve been spying on me,” her tone was cold and unforgiving, a tiny spark of anger that could light the match of her fury, cause a fire so big this refuge wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Following you, yes.”
Jinx gave out a humorless laugh. “So you’re all just as creepy as your leader. Got it.”
“We were trying to find him.”
“And why would he have been with me? He hated me.”
Scar didn’t reply, simply giving her a deadpan stare, as if the answer was obvious. It wasn’t, not to Jinx.
Last thing everyone knew, they had tried to kill each other and almost succeeded at it. Last thing she knew, they were sworn enemies. She had no idea where he was because she simply hadn’t even wondered about it, too busy with her own shit to notice one more person who wanted to kill her was gone.
Plus, while everyone in Zaun seemed to get turned into brainless zombies, he was out there getting himself a girlfriend, building time machines and having a grand old time.
Jinx stayed quiet, biting the inside of her mouth as she looked into the Firelight’s inscrutable face for some kind of hint, a sign of what he meant. His serious expression didn’t let anything slip out.
Finally, he looked away from her pink eyes and back into his documents. “I was there.”
At her lack of a comment, he continued.
“The day of the rally.”
The first Blessed attack. The chaos that ensued in Zaun. The day Sevika and Isha had gone missing. He had been there, he had seen it, and he had lived to tell the story.
“Did you see her!? Isha!?” She promptly slammed her hands over the table, using the impulse to get up and look at him with an intensity that even she found scary.
Scar was there. He was there. He was probably the only person who could give her answers, who could at least confirm if Madam Margot had been right, who could tell her what in the world had happened to her baby, why Isha never came back home.
Jinx felt like an elastic band impossibly stretched out, nearing her limit with every passing second. She would either snap and break or go back to her original form. She wasn’t sure which she preferred.
Slowly, he nodded.
That made her sink down into her seat, tension slipping off of her body and leaving her a deflated balloon as her back found the backrest of her chair.
“What did you see?” Her throat felt raw, mouth dry as she forced the words out.
Did she even want to know?
Wasn’t the uncertainty better than confirmation of what she had lost? Wasn’t the useless hope a better fate than the despair? Would she break again if she knew? Would the truth be worse than what she had been told?
The image of tiny Isha, defending Sevika from a noxian soldier, them both falling on the ground next to each other, knowing Sevika would’ve wrapped her arms around the kid to protect her one last time.
Jinx needed to know, for them. For her family.
“Sevika was giving out a speech when it started,” Scar began recounting the events, cold eyes pinning her down, gauging at her reactions. “She was right about us needing to stand united, but people didn’t want to hear it from her. They all wanted you instead.”
The woman had told her the same thing many times before, trying to get her to make a public appearance, to be the symbol the zaunites so desperately wanted her to be. She didn’t understand, why her? Why, out of all the people in Zaun who were strong and capable and ready to become a hero, did they choose her. Sevika said it was because she was the only one with enough balls to take action. The truth was, her actions had little to do with courage. She was moved by rage, moved by despair, but not by bravery.
“The Jinxers had already started walking out when that little girl appeared, wearing your cloak, and the crowd went wild. I’ve fought you enough to know it wasn’t really you, but her trickery seemed to work on everyone else.”
“When the attack started, it was just enforcers and noxians,” Scar paused, as if trying to remember that day correctly, as if everything was merely a blur and he was trying to make sense of the situation. “No one wanted to give up. I don’t know if Sevika started the brawl, but she saved a lot of our people, threw herself in front of the ones who couldn’t fight. We never saw eye to eye, but she’s a brave warrior.”
That much was true. Everyone in Zaun knew as much, understood just how powerful she was. She was a force to be reckoned with, a wrecking ball of pure strength and fierce loyalty. If anyone could fight against enforcers with their fancy tech weapons and noxian soldiers with their brute force, it was Sevika. It had to be her, the one person who fought back immediately, people joining her simply because they knew well enough that Sevika’s side always emerged victorious, simply because she gave them hope that maybe with her by their side they really could get out of this.
Her expression soured.
If there were people alive after that day, it was because Sevika didn’t back down. Because she alone was enough of a challenge to need at least six enforcers to stop her. Because she wouldn’t stop punching until every last person had made it out unharmed.
“The kid jumped in too. You seem to surround yourself with courageous hearts.”
Isha had joined the fight. At least, that much of Margot’s information was true.
Jinx felt an irrational anger, then. She wanted to jump over the table and grab at Scar’s neck, to cry and choke him out and scream why? Why hadn’t he done something to protect that innocent kid?
She didn’t. Her nails scratched at the armrests of her chair.
“I didn’t see much after that. Too many of our Firelights were lost in that fight, we were barely standing when the true chaos started.”
The Blessed, Jinx was sure this is where they came in.
“How did that happen?” her voice was barely a whisper, but the man picked up on it either way.
He blankly stared at her before replying. “An older man was apprehended. He had burn scars all over his face, and he screamed something. And then the first robot appeared, as if obeying orders. The enforcers holding him down were gone within seconds.”
“Behold, the Glorious Evolution. Those of us who are blessed will be spared, but every sinner must pay,” Jinx spoke softly, the words engraved in her mind as if she had been there that day.
That sentence was graffitied all over Zaun, the words that gave name to any sane person’s living nightmare, the title given to the zombies. A few people had begun to worship the monsters in the early stages of the conversion, paraded around amongst the corpses of the fallen, amongst the husks of dead Blessed, screamed at the top of their lungs how no one should fear being converted, that only sinners would get punished by god’s fury.
Jinx watched as each of them got ripped apart by the very same creatures they adored. After that, fear won over faith, but the name stuck.
Scar nodded. “He said that, and then he disappeared. We were all confused, even the soldiers, but then the first Blessed attacked everyone in sight. Before I knew it I was surrounded by them, my own friends turned into monsters.”
She held her breath, waiting for more, but there wasn’t anything else to say.
It was chaos, it was the end of the world, and everyone in that town square knew it.
There was no escape from the zombies, you could only hope to outrun them and get to live another hour. Some of them had been killed accidentally, the enforcers bullets hitting its blank —their brain, the only vulnerable spot— but many shot for the heart instead. She herself had taught Isha to always aim at the heart.
Jinx wondered if her advice was what doomed the girl, she could almost see her, trembling all over but resolve shining in her eyes as she took a gun and pointed, took slow breaths as she tried hitting the chest, exactly how Jinx had told her to do, just to be met with invulnerable metal.
“Did they die?”
“I carried a few people on my shoulders and got out of there,” his words came out slowly, tentative. “I saw Sevika doing the same in the opposite direction.”
Her head perked up at this, shoulders straightening as her eyes widened impossibly, making her look insane under the warm glow of the candle. “They got out?”
“I couldn’t see if it was the girl she was carrying, she had a few small bodies on her arms. But she got out,” Scar nodded solemnly, and she was sure then that he couldn’t have been lying.
She felt tears prickling on the corners of her eyes. Sevika could be alive, somewhere out there, maybe running the survivors’ camp down in the mines, maybe holed up in a dark corner somewhere, taking care of the most vulnerable. It made sense, it could be real.
Scar was stoic, and annoying, and boring, but she was certain he was truthful. Jinx could see it in his eyes, in the way that he looked at her, not with pity or fear but with respect.
It didn’t seem impossible anymore.
Sevika was the strongest person she knew, maybe even stronger than Vi with her new robotic arm. If anyone could make it out alive, it was her.
But then again, if she had needed to run, it could only mean the fight was bad. Probably worse than anything else she had ever seen. Sevika didn’t run, she fought until the end, fought until her last breath. Giving up had never been an option, and yet this time she had tried to escape.
The bloodbath had to be intense, horrifying, hopeless.
And still, if anyone could’ve made it out, it was her. Jinx was absolutely sure, she couldn’t have left Isha behind. That was her little girl as much as she was Jinx’s.
It wasn’t certain, there was no information on either of their whereabouts, Scar hadn’t seen enough to ease her worries, but it was something. Something more than the knowledge that they were both dead, forgotten or buried or turned into zombies themselves. There was hope.
It took titanic effort to not just break down right then and there, but she couldn’t let herself cry. Not in front of him, not in front of anyone. She wondered if Ekko knew about this, if this was the reason he seemed so keen on keeping up her search, or if it was merely a coincidence.
“Do you think they are alive?” Jinx found herself asking, the words escaping her mouth in a desperate tone, her eyes looking at the Firelight so intensely it had to be uncomfortable.
“I don’t know.”
The doubt was better than a negative. It was enough, more than enough. It meant she wasn’t crazy, she hadn’t been wasting time, she could still see her family again.
Her efforts hadn’t been in vain. At least, not yet.
She needed to get out there, to tell Ekko about this, to wake him up and grab his hand and throw them both into her search. Every second she wasted was another chance that they could be dead, another possibility that she got there too late.
The thought of him not wanting to join her stung. He had things to do, a community to look after, he couldn’t just pick up his things and leave the same way she could.
If it came to it, would she leave without him?
The answer was clear before she was even finished asking the question. Yes, she would.
There was nothing in the world that could stop her, nothing that could keep her from searching every street, every crevice, under every stone in search of Sevika, in search of Isha. Nothing more important than getting her little girl back, than to wrap her arms around her, and kiss the crown of her head and promise her she wouldn’t let them be separated ever again, promise her she would never have to spend another second alone as long as Jinx was alive.
Scar seemed to read her mind, his voice booming in the empty war room. “You’re not leaving now.”
“And who’s gonna stop me?” Jinx’s eyes turned murderous, venom in her tongue as she spat out the words.
As if the Firelights could keep her in place, as if she wouldn’t kill anyone who got in her way.
“Ekko,” he replied like it was the most obvious answer in the world.
A humorless laugh broke through her lips, a cackle so loud she was sure it could be heard from outside the four walls. “Yeah, right.”
“He has a plan in place to help you out,” Scar spoke, tensing up as if ready for a fight despite his calm tone. “We voted, we’re on board.”
“Sure, because you’re all so fond of me.”
“I don’t think you realize how much what you did meant to us, Jinx.”
What had she done, aside from killing and maiming and hurting the little insect gang? Everyone knew as much, she could feel it even now, Scar looking at her calmly but with years of resentment and grief built up, feelings that could never be erased or painted over.
“The council, the Grey. You’re a hero.”
There it was again, that word that Sevika liked to use so much. None of her actions were heroic, she didn’t need to be seen as Zaun’s symbol, she didn’t want anyone’s appreciation.
“I’m a murderer.”
“In my eyes, yes. Not in theirs.”
“Why?”
He stayed silent for a few painstakingly long seconds, actually thinking about the answer. In the end, he shrugged before he spoke. “You give them hope.”
“Hope is not strong enough to keep anyone alive,” her voice was cracking now.
“It’s strong enough to make us try.”
Teeth gritted, this wasn’t what she wanted. She had never asked to be the beacon of hope, the symbol of Zaun. Why not the Firelights, who seemed to desire this so badly? Why not Sevika, who had actually put in the work? Why not Isha, who had tried harder than anyone else?
The Undercity was full of idiots, that had to be it. Stupid people who couldn’t even conjure up the thought of standing up on their own, who needed someone else to help them like a crutch. They didn’t deserve her hope. She didn’t deserve their support.
Ekko had said something similar before. Something about hope being a powerful weapon, something about people needing more than the basics to stay alive, something about dreams of a better future.
Jinx was over this pack of pacifist assholes.
“I’m out of here, and you can’t stop me,” she said, standing up with a scowl on her face.
“Not going to say goodbye to Ekko?”
A pang of guilt hit her chest like a bird hitting a window full speed. The look on Scar's face let on more than he said, let her know that he knew things about herself she hadn’t yet said out loud.
Her palms curled into fists, ready to strike if necessary. “None of your business.”
“You’re right,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. No arguing, no fighting, just plain acceptance and a knowing glint in his beady eyes.
She scoffed and pushed her chair to the side, making her way towards the door in big strides, her boots echoing against the wood below her soles.
So what if Jinx left? It wasn’t like the world would fall apart without her, it wasn’t like anyone in here needed her presence. Out there, there were two people who were waiting for her, two people who actually needed her.
The Firelights had blinded themselves with their peaceful community, their self-sufficient compound, and forgotten how life was outside this stupid greenhouse of a hideout. The world outside was brutal, and no matter how many times they circled the skies of Zaun with their little hoverboards they wouldn’t get it— their safety blanket covered their eyes and blinded them.
People like her couldn’t afford to waste time, to lay around and paint murals for their dead and make friendship bracelets and roll around in the grass and simply wait until the Blessed found a way in and killed them all. People like her had to fight tooth and nail for every second alive, every extra moment they could steal from the uncaring universe. She wouldn’t be a sitting duck for however long they planned to stay here, she had no loyalty to them, no loyalty to anyone but her family.
“We’re leaving for the mines in two days,” Scar spoke up behind her, his deep voice reaching her ears as if he was right next to her even while sitting far away. “Whether you’re coming or not. You have a better chance if you follow our plan, but suit yourself.”
Turning her head, she sent him a glare.
“The mines?”
“Yes.”
The survivors’ camp, Jinx was sure. Why they would go through this much effort to help her look for Isha and Sevika, she didn’t know. Still, she nodded, working through her rage to give the Firelight one last look.
Shadows casted over him, his face illuminated by the candle. He looked even more freakish than usual, his ginormous body accentuated with the low light and making him seem unreal. There was no anger in his eyes, no sadness, no feeling at all. He stared at her as if she was a blank slate, and he was trying to figure out what others saw in it.
“I’ll think about it,” she said, finally walking out the door and into the open air again.
It was still too late —or maybe too early, at this point—, and the whole place was eerie under the pale moonlight. Some of the Chem-Tech lightbulbs shone in bright green color near the main entrance, a single guard posted in front of it and looking confused at her, like he didn’t know if she was real or not.
Me too, big guy, Jinx thought to herself, and then made her way up the stairs once again.
She needed to leave, she knew this, knew she would regret it otherwise. And yet, with every step closer to Ekko’s room, her resolve crumbled like it had never been there to begin with.
It was time to say goodbye, at least for now.
She meant what she said to Scar, joining the Firelights for a mission wasn’t a bad idea. There was strength in numbers, more eyes who could search, more hands who could fight. Waiting two days, though, seemed like might as well leaving her loved ones to die.
Jinx stood before Ekko’s door, her feet shifting her weight, hand in the air for an uncomfortable amount of time.
He would probably be sleeping inside, sprawled over the bedsheets, mouth agape and face relaxed in such a way he would never let happen while awake. Little Man always had something to worry about, and if he didn’t then he would surely find something new to stress over.
She thought about his inviting arms, about his gentle words. The way he cared. The way his bed had shifted under both their weights, the smell of fabric softener, of pine trees, of gunpowder all mixed together.
Her hand dropped down limply to her side.
She was a coward. She was selfish. She was stupid, most of all.
Jinx turned around, her back sliding down the wooden door until her ass hit the floor unceremoniously, a slight pain on her tailbone. Her hands traveled up to her face, running up and rubbing at her eyes, the sigh escaping her mouth felt like her very own soul was leaving her body.
This was an easy decision. It was, it should be. She had made up her mind, settled on telling Ekko she was leaving once more— with or without him.
Her whole body believed this was for the best, she needed every chance she could get to find Isha. Jinx had a few days to rest, to cry her heart out, to smile until her cheeks hurt. A brief reprieve from the anguish of not knowing, a break from her soul-crushing loneliness.
The breeze caressed her skin and made a shiver run down her spine. Against her will, she thought of how much warmer Ekko’s bed would be.
Her head hung low between her shoulders, frame resembling a discarded ragdoll.
You’re wasting time, a voice in her head perked up, entirely too chirpy for the situation at hand.
She knew. Either way, she was letting the minutes go by in vain, not letting herself indulge but neither moving away. Stuck at a fork in the road, staring blankly at both ways without taking a step towards either.
Teeth found her bottom chapped bottom lip, biting hard enough to draw blood, not stopping until the copper taste filled her mouth and flooded her head.
They could be dead by now, a sing-song tone, loud and annoying. Or he could be worried.
Jinx imagined him, waking up alone in the night, wondering if she had run away once more, thinking she rejected his help again. Or the opposite; not knowing she was about to flee, not even entertaining the possibility that she could be so uncaring, that after all he had done it still wasn’t enough to make her stay.
Minutes turned into hours as she sat there, the cold biting at her skin, but she was incapable of moving.
Getting up meant making a decision. Walking into that room meant saying goodbye, no matter what she chose.
She was so sure before. Why was she doubting herself now?
Jinx sat there until the first rays of sunlight appeared on the night sky, until the sun started to rise over the Firelight hideout’s walls, until her lip bled and her nail beds bled and her heart bled, slowly but surely and just as confused.
When the first early birds started coming out of their respective rooms —some noticing Jinx crouched form and looking curiously, others simply starting their routines— she finally stood up, her legs sore from holding the same position for so long.
She wasn’t sure of what truly scared her. The possibility of venturing out on her own and never coming back, or perhaps the very real probability of Ekko rejecting her cry for help outright, or maybe the idea that even if she did it, even if she walked away without looking back, she could come back empty handed. It paralyzed her, fear taking charge of all her muscles and nerve endings. Every move felt like a needle on her skin, and yet she softly placed her hand above the metal handle of the door and pushed herself inside.
Ekko was in the same exact position she had left him in, arms sprawled around in bed as he laid on his back. Unaware of her many questions. Unaware of her departure.
Waking him up seemed too cruel, the cherry on top of her betrayal-flavored ice cream.
Her feet led her on their own, quiet steps taking her closer to his desk. With light coming back into the room bit by bit, she could see the many drawings that adorned the furniture. Hung on the walls, displayed in small frames, filling up notebooks that were neatly organized and labeled by date.
Nimble fingers caressed one particular blueprint, an early design of his hoverboard. It looked different now, at least from what she could tell, but it was clear this first draft was important to him by the way it was nailed to the wall right above the wooden furniture.
She imagined a young Ekko trying to find a way to make his design more efficient, less fuel wasting, as fast as it could get. A tiny smile found its way to her lips.
Pink eyes scanned every single one of the pieces, different perspectives of the Firelight tree, one that she could recognize as Benzo’s shop, one of Scar and him that looked eerily similar to a picture even though it was clearly not. His eye for detail was impressive.
After she was done with the ones in plain sight, she moved on to the sketchbooks, grabbing the one with the most recent date.
Upon opening it, an unfinished sketch of the Bridge of Progress greeted her. Several more continued in the next few pages, until one was satisfactory enough for him and finished. Next there were a few drawings of leaves with strange markings on them —maybe he had just found them interesting. A few flips of the page later and a big circle was drawn once, twice, thrice, all of it following the pattern on the leaves, all of it deliriously detailed.
Jinx’s brows furrowed, looking at the shapes, almost twisting and turning with life of their own the more she stared.
Shaking her head, she continued further. Doodles here and there, a pair of eyes, a small hand holding a pen, a smiley face and then a sad one next to a scratched-out drawing, pages full of notes about info on the Blessed, sketches of their robotic parts and question marks all over. It felt like the picture of a crazy man’s rambles.
The next time she turned the page, she was met with a different kind of paper.
Folded neatly in half, grainier and whiter than the next of the notebook, hanging in there like a bookmark.
Giving a quick look at Ekko, who still slept peacefully, Jinx bit her lip and decided to open it. Just a quick look, just to see what laid inside. It was already bad enough that she was snooping through his things, what was one more page to add to the list?
Somehow, she recognized the paper the second her skin made contact with it. Impossible to miss, expensive like few things in Zaun were, nice and new and hers.
When had he stolen a page from her own notebook? She thought about it long and hard, and then remembered their conversation in her hideout, the one where he spent an awfully long time drawing something, and then asked if he could rip out the page and keep it. She had said yes, of course. She hadn’t thought much about it at that moment. How could she, when she felt like she was floating on the world’s fluffiest cloud, basking in the warmth of his company?
Jinx unfolded the page, eyes scanning it before she could process what was on the paper.
Oh.
The blue was unmistakable, long braids curling around a head until they formed a heart shape, easy smile on dark lips and eyes closed as if on the verge of falling into dreamland.
It was her.
It was impossible to miss, made obvious enough by the bridge of her nose, by her slightly furrowed eyebrows, by the collar of her usual top, by the care put into bringing every detail to life. And even if it wasn’t enough evidence, right there at the bottom of the page: handwritten letters spelling out her name. Underlined three times, for good measure.
Rustling bed sheets made her look up, the sight of Ekko turning around in bed.
She stayed eerily quiet, hoping he would just fall back into slumber, pupils following his every move, his every breath.
A big hand palmed around the side she had been laying on hours before, brows drawing closer even with his eyes closed when he couldn’t find her by her side. One eye open, a look at his empty right, and then his eyelids flew open and he sat up in one swift move, looking through the room until his gaze found her.
Ekko sighed, half-tired, half-relieved. “Hi,” he spoke before yawning, a lazy smile on his lips despite the obvious puffiness of his face.
She was taken aback for a second, the sight of him making her heart beat faster, and then stop all at once.
Jinx was still holding the paper in her hands. The proof of her snooping, the damning evidence of her nosiness. As quickly as she could, she hid it behind her back.
“Hi,” she said back, nervous smile trembling on her lips.
She hoped he would be too out of it to notice, but nothing went past him. He seemed to observe her every movement with the same intensity she did his, waiting for the second things would change and she would be unwanted, wishing it would never happen. Maybe he thought the same about her. Or maybe he was just keeping an eye on the lunatic with access to too many weapons.
It took him a few seconds, but finally he seemed to put the pieces together.
Her erratic behavior, the notebook open on his desk, her guilty posture— like a dog that had eaten its owner’s shoes while he was away.
“What did you see?” his voice sounded panicked, body frozen in the same way hers had been. Fear seeped through his expression, mouth agape and eyes wide. Fully awake now.
The question was off. Not what are you doing or why are you going through my things but what did you see?
Only someone with something to hide would ask something like that. There was something in his pile of drawings that she truly wasn’t supposed to find, something secret enough to be the first thing he thought about upon waking up.
“Nothing much.”
“Liar.”
“Why do you care?” Jinx spat out, too much venom behind it despite the fact that she was very obviously the one in the wrong.
“Those are my things,” he replied, voice still low and coated with sleep, his vocal cords trying to catch up with his mouth.
Her face soured. “I didn’t break anything. I didn’t steal, either.”
“I’m not saying you did, I’m asking what did you see?”
Her body reacted before her brain could place a filter on her actions, the hand holding her drawing coming from behind her back and throwing the paper in his face. It didn’t work, page flying for a few centimeters before it slowly came down, landing softly on the floor in front of her, not a wrinkle on it.
It took Ekko a second to process what it was, the clogs in his head turning, she could almost see smoke coming out of his head as he kept thinking.
Finally, his face relaxed, expression relieved. And then horrified, scared, worried. In the end, his face landed on embarrassment. His eyes shied away from her face, looking at the discarded paper on the floor as if it had personally wronged him.
“I’m— You—” his left hand left the mattress and flew up to the nape of his hair, lips tightening into a fine straight line. “That one’s not good, you weren’t supposed to see it.”
One of her eyebrows flew up, questioning. “Are there other drawings of me out there?”
“...No.”
“Liar,” she said, her voice doing a poor imitation of his own. Still, close enough for him to get the gist.
Jinx needed to speed up the conversation, to get to saying what she wanted to say, to tell him goodbye, to ask if he wanted to leave with her, to get her heart crushed into tiny little pieces when he declined. It was for the best, but somehow her mouth wasn’t listening to her orders, and she was stuck there chatting away.
“I wonder if I’ll find more of these here,” her fingers reached over to the desk, over the open notebook filled with drawings and notes and scribbles. A traitorous smile made its way through her lips, mischievous as it often was.
Ekko seemed mortified by the possibility, scrambling to get up from bed and almost falling in the process, until he stood over with both his palms extended towards her— as if he was trying to calm down a wild beast.
Her smile only widened.
“Jinx, don’t.”
“What was that?” Her free hand cupped her ear, brows furrowed as she feigned ignorance. “Did someone say: Jinx, please feel free to look over Little Man’s precious drawings?”
“No.”
“Oh, well, thank you mysterious voice! Don’t mind if I do!”
The second she flipped to the next page, it was like a bomb was set off in the middle of the room. She could barely get a glimpse of something blue, so different from the usual graphite Ekko had used in other drawings, before suddenly she was pulled away by a strong hand around her upper arm. Moving by pure instinct and no rational thinking, she elbowed back, her feet struggling to keep their footing as she stumbled backwards. A hand turned into a fist, turning around as she punched and only narrowly missed his face.
Using her position, she reached up and held a fistful of Ekko’s hair, pulling down as he cursed. The grip on her arm loosened for only a second, but before she could push away his hand flew down to her wrist and twisted hard.
A pained sound escaped her lips, dramatic and loud as he used the moment of weakness to grab at her other hand, effectively stopping her from moving further.
Her smile came back on, face to face with him. “You can’t keep me trapped forever.”
“I can and I will.”
“Hm, let’s prove your hypothesis then,” white teeth flashed before her leg flew up, metal coated point of her shoe connecting directly with his shin and making his knees give up for an instant.
Jinx laughed, freeing one hand from his hold to cover her mouth, deliberately ignoring the way Ekko’s eyes shone with fury in favor of her own amusement.
“You little—” he didn’t get to finish before she shoved him, hands against his chest and taking the breath out of his lungs.
Ekko just stared at her between furrowed brows, having gained a few centimeters of distance, and then his eyes wandered back to the desk and his resolve was back on and stronger than ever.
She kind of saw it coming, the way he leaped over and his hands grabbed again at her thin arms, the way his hold was on the verge of bruising but not quite, the way he twisted again and made her scream a string of ouches. She fully saw it coming, and yet she didn’t dodge, letting him get his revenge as she cackled.
One of his hands wrapped around both her wrists behind her back and he used her incessant laughter against her, pushing her face first into the ground. His shove was strong enough to send her down, but Jinx’s knees absorbed the impact and let her upper body fall soft as a feather, cheek pressed against the cold wooden floor.
Through it all she kept giggling, her ribs knocking against the ground below her with the sheer force of it, until Ekko joined her —quieter, gentler— and he let go of her arms.
“Never let your guard down,” she quipped as she rolled on the floor, laying on her back and ready to jump up to her feet again.
“Say that to yourself,” he replied, a shit-eating grin on his face.
His expression halted her movements, soles already planted on the floor but frozen in place as she wondered what the hell he meant by that. Her eyes scanned him, and then she saw it, right there in Ekko’s hand, mocking her as he shook it around in the air.
His sketchbook.
Ekko must’ve stolen it from the desk while she was busy laughing, his free hand ready to reach out and snatch it so Jinx couldn’t get it first.
Her body plopped down on the floor once more, posture imitating a starfish as she caught her breath, her arms stretched out at her sides. “Cheater.”
“Like you wouldn’t have done the same.”
She would have, most definitely, done worse. Jinx decided to keep that part unsaid, lest he got any more ideas.
Her eyes were fixed on him as he opened a small drawer on the underside of his desk, placing the offending notebook inside and closing it back up. Jinx rolled her eyes until they went white. Pfft, as if a closed drawer could stop her. Ekko then took a bunch of keys out of the pocket of his jacket, still hanging carefully over his desk chair, and locked it.
Okay, that might actually be enough to stop her, Jinx could admit as much.
Releasing a frustrated groan, her head turned to the side to stop facing his too-happy face. Disgusting, awful, angering, vomit-inducing and oh-so-cute. Ew.
Her gaze fell on the white page still laying face down on the floor, just out of reach. If she just stretched her left arm the tiniest bit, if she could get a hold of it, it would mean Ekko would not have completely won. It meant his lopsided smile would disappear, and she would get the absolute delight of watching his face fall.
Quick fingers moved fast as lighting, index and ring pinching over the sheet of paper and bringing it closer until it hovered over her face.
“I think you messed up a bit with my eyebrows,” she teased through her winning smile.
Ekko scrambled to bend down and take the drawing from her, but her hands were quicker.
“Other than that it’s really good,” Jinx laughed. “Impressive, even.”
His attacks didn’t let down, pads of his fingers merely brushing the page before Jinx moved it just out of his reach, his knees bent as he tried to balance while moving.
A single tap of her feet was all it took.
She knocked her boot against his knee just as he extended his arm, his center of gravity destroyed. Almost in slow motion, she watched as his arms flailed uselessly in the air, and then he was falling headfirst into her. His palms found the floor before he crashed down completely, and her free hand shot out to hold his forehead just seconds before it hit her own.
Ekko looked up, a mix of angry and taken off guard, and she couldn’t help but cackle again, her eyes closing on their own as if it was the funniest thing in the whole wide world. At that moment, it might as well have been.
She writhed on the floor ungraciously, more worm than human, and even as she felt Ekko steal the page from her hands she couldn’t stop.
Her stomach hurt, lungs burning from lack of air, but it was impossible to stop herself. Tears were starting to well up on the corner of her eyes, her mouth smiling so wide it stung.
Once she calmed down enough to open her eyes, she looked at Ekko’s still pissed off face and it all started once more, stronger than ever.
She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, trying to take deep breaths to stop the string of laughter.
“It’s not funny,” Ekko said, but the tilt in his tone betrayed him.
“It kind of is.”
He rolled his eyes, the corners of his lips going upwards as she struggled to keep her breathing in check. From this close, she could almost see the pores on his skin, the slight wrinkles in his nose, count his eyelashes if she wanted to. His arms were caging her in, but she didn’t feel threatened.
Just in case, just to show him who’s boss, her face got closer and she opened her mouth wide, taking a bite of nothing just millimeters away from his nose.
He looked confused for a second, and then his head shook side to side, locs falling over his face with the movement. He smiled, not cocky and knowing, but genuine. Sweet, even.
“I have to go,” Jinx blurted out.
Still looking directly into her pink eyes, Ekko smiled further. “Where are we going?”
“No, I’m serious.”
He retreated, placing a few extra centimeters of space in between their bodies, the curve of his mouth turning downwards as he stared at her face. “I don’t think I’m following.”
“I’m going to look for Isha and Sevika again,” at his disconcert, she continued. “Look, I talked with Scar, he told me about the day at the rally, he didn’t see them die. Margot could’ve been lying.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I was trying to convince you of just yesterday.”
“I know, but it— I don’t know, getting confirmation from someone, it felt like it could actually be real.”
Ekko was getting pissed off, judging by the way his nostrils flared and the furrow in his brow deepened with every instant, every word. “Feels real when Scar says so but not when I do?”
“He wasn’t lying, he doesn’t have any ulterior motives.”
The second he sat up, distance grew between them like the Pilt river. He was only a step away, but Jinx swore he was worlds apart, unreachable even after being pressed so close just a blink of an eye ago.
“Oh but I do?” his eyebrows flew up impossibly high, and Jinx could hear the beat of her heart drumming inside her cranium. “What are those ulterior motives, huh?”
“I don’t mean it like that!” She followed his movements and sat up too, her long braids falling at her back. “I mean he doesn’t care if I live or die, you could’ve been lying just to keep me around for longer.”
“You,” Ekko paused, taking a breath, “are unbelievable.”
She didn’t have the heart to reply, biting her lip instead.
It was true, in a way. Of course he could have lied when he had at least some skin in the game, of course he could’ve been saying shit to make her not want to press the trigger, it would be the logical thing to do! Ekko cared, Ekko wanted her alive, why not use any possible method to accomplish it?
So what if she had trusted Scar’s word? Ekko hadn’t been there, he hadn’t seen it —too busy having a grand old time with his girlfriend who-knows-where—, his word was nothing but empty reassurance. Sure, it was nice to hear him say he still had hope, but there was not a tangible way to prove it. She would’ve lied in his position. She would’ve done worse than just lie if she were him.
“Okay, so you want to leave, is that what you’re saying?”
Jinx nodded, immediately answered by a deep sigh and a hand covering his face on Ekko’s side.
“Fine. Fine, just get your things and go if you want. Whatever, why would I care? I’m just lying to you anyways, aren’t I?” His hands went up in the air in exasperation, falling back down over his folded knees.
“I’m not saying you were lying, I’m saying you could have lied!”
“Oh, and Scar can’t. ‘Cause it’s more likely that I am lying to you than to accept you don’t trust me.”
Her hands balled into fists, voice raising up in annoyance. Why wasn’t he getting it? Why couldn’t he understand? “I do trust you!”
“If you did, you would stay here and follow the plan, instead of venturing out on your own and getting killed.”
Jinx scoffed, a little offended.
Out of everyone in the world, she was probably the most apt to go out into the streets of Zaun, fight against however many Blesseds, and come out of it alive. She had done it already, countless times, day in and day out just for the slight chance to find Isha in one of her ventures, she could do it again.
“I have lived just fine for five months, I can manage without the Boy Savior saving me from zombies.”
“It’s not the Blessed that worry me,” his tone was different now, serious where it had been angry before, brown eyes losing the fire in them and being replaced by something else entirely —something she couldn’t place. Worry, perhaps? Care?
Still, it enraged her.
“What? Like I’m gonna kill myself first chance I get?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Isn’t it?” her words were venomous, but Jinx couldn’t care. “No, sure, keep an eye on the sicko, we wouldn’t want her to snap!”
“Jinx.”
“I have something to look forward to! You’re not the only one with people who need them, you’re not the only person with fucking responsibilities, I’m not a little kid.”
“Exactly! You’re not a child, so stop acting like one.”
Her mouth fell open in shock, barely processing Ekko’s voice as it mixed with the sudden buzzing in between her ears, her vision blurry.
It was insanity, the same Ekko who had held her, the same person who had picked up her pieces and tried to help her build something new, now almost unrecognizable.
She hated this, hated him, hated everything about this cookie-cutter place with their perfect people and their stupid hope and healing. Couldn’t he see that she would ruin it? Couldn’t he tell she was going to poison their little community, kill it from the inside?
“You can’t just up and disappear every time something upsets you,” he spoke again, looking at her like he didn’t recognize the girl he was seeing either. “You can’t just run away and leave everything behind, making people worry.”
“I don’t need your concern.”
“I won’t keep you here, but we’re still going forward with our plan. No one gets left behind, not Isha, not any other kid in Zaun. We’re going down in the mines, with or without you.”
Her lips fell closed, deep breaths as the world kept spinning around her, the only thing she could focus on being her own hands, fingers shaking.
The silence made things worse.
Even with the seeping anger, his voice grounded her. It was something real, no matter how hurtful, something she could trust to not be a product of her twisted mind. Once the quiet nothingness settled in, she couldn’t tell if he was truly there or not.
Teeth latched onto her bottom lip, trying to get the pain to ground her.
“I wanted you to leave with me,” she whispered, barely audible over the noise in her own head. “I wanted to ask you, but I knew you’d say no.”
“Jinx,” he spoke, sounding far away, like he was miles away instead of in the same room with her. “Look at me.”
She did, eyes unfocused, blinking a few times to try to stop the room from swirling.
“You don’t have to leave this place,” his voice was softer than before. Talking to a cornered animal, trying to get it to calm down. “Listen, you’re not abandoning anyone by waiting a few days. We can just calm down, rest, and go out with the rest of the team two days from now.”
“You don’t get it,” her head shook, bangs getting in her face. “She needs me. They need me. No one else in the world needs me, but they do.”
She thought about golden eyes, mechanical arms, bubbling laughter and warm meals and warmer hugs. She thought about Violet, gone in the blink of an eye and then never the same. She thought about Vander, Claggor, Mylo, who had never needed her even when she had tried to be useful, who had crumbled under her curse. She thought about Silco, kind but cold hands, fingers threading her hair, shared burdens.
Everyone who had loved her hadn’t needed her, everyone who had needed her was gone.
“I need you too.”
“You don’t,” she said, exasperated. “I could leave and your life would still be the same, you’d be here with your friends and your family and your treehouse. You’d be just fine.”
“See, you just make up your mind on these things without even asking what other people feel,” Ekko replied, changing positions to sit down cross legged on the floor. “Have you ever considered that I might want you close? That I looked for you because I wanted to? That I’m not doing anything out of pity, but because I care about you?”
Slowly, her eyes left his face and her gaze was fixed on the familiar sight of her hands once again. She shook her head once more.
“Can you please stop viewing me as this… this moral highness, and see that I’m human too?”
She bit the inside of her cheek, a sting behind her eyes she was entirely too familiar with— the weight of unshed tears.
“I just think,” Jinx paused, unsure of what her next words would be even as she was already opening her mouth to speak. “I think you’d be better without me.”
“That’s not for you to decide, Jinx.”
She knew that already, knew she had no say in who or what he wanted in his life, even if it involved herself. And yet, she couldn’t stop feeling like a mother telling her child what they were doing was wrong, giving advice that went on deaf ears just to scream I told you so later on.
At her silence, Ekko sighed, one hand running through his white hair. “You have to at least give me the chance to prove it to you. Give yourself the chance to experience it, too.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“There’s not a manual for it, you kind of have to go with what you’re feeling,” she could sense the intensity of Ekko’s eyes on her even without looking back, her shoulders slumped as she listened. “What are you feeling right now?”
Again, she wasn’t sure. Was that an option? Confusion. Was that what Ekko wanted to hear?
She tried to find the answer, to look deep inside her brain and dig for a word that might be correct, for an explanation to offer him. The only thing she could come up with was guilt.
That ugly feeling was eating at her soul like maggots, dictating her every step, guiding her into twisted paths and piling up until it felt like she was more guilt than person, like the air she was breathing was poison and her every word was wrong and she could only get deeper in her well of regret.
Here she was, her feet cemented to the floor and having to choose, knowing either way she would feel guilty, knowing every step of the way would be worse than the last.
Her pink eyes looked up just to see his own already staring in wait.
Jinx couldn’t say it, a knot in her throat keeping any words from coming out. She was bad at expressing herself, bad at letting out the words, bad at talking when it was actually needed.
She couldn’t tell him how deathly scared she was, how terrifying it was to know one way or another she would be turning her back on something she wanted.
Before she knew it, she was leaping forward, hands on the ground and giving her an impulse. Jinx saw Ekko’s eyebrows furrow, his hands flying up to cover his face as if she was going to punch him. Maybe she was. It was like someone had taken control of her body and was puppeteering it around the room, pushing her from behind directly towards him, a gravitational pull, an elastic band being stretched and then let go.
Her arms wrapped around his middle as her face crashed into his chest.
She wrapped them around his ribs, under his arms, and after a few seconds she felt the weight of his own embracing her back.
There was a sort of clarity his touch provided, like putting on glasses for the first time and realizing the world wasn’t as blurry as it once had seemed. Like something real and alive and breathing was between her hands and for once she didn’t want to crush it.
“Do you really want to go?” Ekko asked, right next to her ear. “I won’t stop you if it’s what you want to do.”
“It feels like the right thing to do,” her voice was muffled, mouth pressed over his white t-shirt. Jinx didn’t care. “Like otherwise I’m leaving her for good.”
“You’re not, though. You’re waiting only two days, resting a little bit, eating well, and then going out with us to find her.”
“I know.”
Hands fisted at the fabric of his shirt, as if she was afraid he would let go. As if she wasn’t the one trying to leave in the first place. Her eyelids fell closed, hiding from the world around her like a kid under a blanket.
“Life doesn’t have to be hard, you know?” He brought her closer as he spoke. “I mean, it’s hard and it sucks, but you don’t have to make it harder for yourself. You kinda have to accept the good things when they come and be grateful they’re here at all.”
Tears burned inside her skull once more, waiting in vain to be released. “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t know why I keep doing it.”
“I’m gonna ask you again: do you want to leave?”
A shaky breath escaped her lips, truth heavy on her tongue.
“No.”
No, I want to stay in this room forever.
I want to stay with you until you grow tired of me, until you don’t ever want to see me anymore, until the world grows quiet and peaceful and getting out isn’t so scary anymore.
One of his hands travelled up to her hair, beckoning her eyes to open and her chin to look up at his face. When she did, she found nothing but pure honesty in those eyes.
“Then stay.”
“What if she’s dead by the time we get there?” Jinx’s bottom lip quivered as she spoke.
“I thought you weren’t a hero,” Ekko smiled, a sad little thing, barely there. “If she’s survived months on her own, a few days will be a piece of cake.”
There was some truth in his words, some rationale behind them. And yet, waiting felt like torture, like a worse fate than loneliness, like an unfulfilled promise. But leaving Ekko was like peeling off her skin and walking out with exposed nerves, something that would do more harm than good.
“Two days, so we have time to prepare her room.”
“You’d let her stay?”
“We don’t turn anyone down. Everyone who wants to stay here is welcome to do so, for as long as they want to,” he licked his lips before continuing. “That includes you.”
She gulped down, the invitation weighing on her mind. What it would mean to have Isha here, surrounded by other kids her age, what it would mean to be here herself, to maybe share the same bed as Ekko again, to curl up next to Isha at night and tell stories and watch her play in the branches, to ease up Sevika’s frustrations at the useless defensive stance of the hideout.
“Two days?”
“Yes.”
“You promise?”
He nodded. “I promise, just enough time to gather resources and plan for any survivors who might want to come back with us. No one gets left behind.”
Jinx hid her face on his shirt once again, and she nodded back.
“Okay. For now.”