_________________________________

T h e   H o l l o w s   I n
O U R  F R E E D O M
_________________________________

A L E X I
(on a scale of one to POV change, how shook are you?)

I leaned into Jace, feeling myself slowly declining. Today was a hard day—especially because I almost died. But, you know, just a usual day at work otherwise.

"Lex?" I hummed in response. "Are you good?" Jace continued.

I nodded. "Oh yeah, real good." And then I tripped. Jace caught me far before I went pummelling to the ground, and that's when I realised that his reflexes had improved by a mile.

And then he called out for Elle. Romantic.

Elle fell behind, and she suddenly appeared before us, taking in my state. She halted us and used the time to press a hand to my shoulder, as if to comfort me slightly.

"Alright, guys! Here is good!" She called out to the others, who had continued to walk.

I could see that 'here' really wasn't good at all. It wasn't as covered as our previous camp had been, and it wasn't far away enough from the cliffs.

But I saw that look in Elle's eyes. It was kind of worried, kind of grave—it told me that she thought she had no other option.

The others reluctantly set up camp, though none of them seemed very tired, unlike me. Again, I did kind of almost die, so I guess there's a reason.

Elle instructed Jameson and Sky to cook as she sat me down, pulling out her first aid kit. She observed me once more before she looked over to Jace and gave him a kind smile.

"Can you give us some privacy?" She asked him, "and tell the others not to come down here?" She asked. I was too tired to look up at him, but I did see him walk away.

"Okay," Elle said, eyes tight with worry as she looked at me. "I'm going to undress you."

I chuckled. "You didn't need a first aid kit for that, Elle."

Elle shook her head, but I saw the small smile on her face. "You have a weird sense of humour, Lexi."

I think I thanked her, but I was too exhausted to know what I said. Soon enough, though, Elle had cleaned wounds and dressed them, before pulling my (now clean) clothes from the first day out of my bag and helping me dress. I must admit, the outfit was way better than the last.

When we were done, Elle guided me over to the first tent that was up, sat me outside and begun to set up inside for me.

"I've made you a suite." Elle said, appearing out of the tent.

"If you did that, you definitely need more credit than you get." I responded, watching her smile as she helped me up and into the tent.

"You okay?" She asked once I was settled.

I snuggled into my duvet. "I'm hungry." I told her, to which she rolled her eyes at in response. She left without actually informing me when dinner would be ready, which kind of hurt.

As the sun started to disappear—from what I could see from the tent—someone started to unzip the tent. I rolled over to see Sky appear with two plates and two sets of cutlery.

"I come bearing gifts."

Immediately, I was sat upright and waiting.

I licked my lips. "Don't you mean you come bearing heaven on a plate?"

Sky glanced down at the plates before snickering. "Jonah made these."

I scrunched up my nose. "Maybe purgatory on a plate, then."

Sky laughed, passing me my plate.

"Who decided to cook my favourite?" I asked, gobbling up a piece of toast.

Given that we had only prepared for one meal, we kind of had to deal with rations. Therefore, we were eating a brunch. I'm guessing our breakfast tomorrow would be little to none.

Sky laughed. "I'm not sure if that's meant to be a joke, but Jace kind of suggested that we do this—Elle was all up for some imaginative plan about how to feed us all with what we had left."

I nodded along, smiling slightly when she mentioned Jace.

Suddenly, she discarded her cutlery, leaving them on the side of her plate. I glanced over at her to see her staring at me. I smiled at her, which prompted her to begin talking.

"I am so glad you're alive, Lexi." Welp, so am I.

I offered her only a soft smile in response, sensing that she would continue.

"You have no idea how worried I was...the thought of–the thought of losing you..." I reached out to take hold of her hand, watching tears appear in her eyes.

Her eyes instantly met mine. "We were all so worried. Elle literally bolted—and, by the way, sometimes she seems as though she's your mother and not mine—" we both laughed at this. I mainly did because it was kind of true.

"And...there was a moment where I thought I saw a similar kind of concern in Jace..." and suddenly, I lost her to her thoughts. But I didn't mind, because I had just been lost to my heart as it beat out of control in my chest.

Worry? Jace?

"It was...it was something weird." She said, eyebrows furrowed. "He was just so determined. But then you had Jonah, who you have known for way longer, just standing there, watching us all lose our minds."

I smiled and shrugged, "that's because he'd already had he's cigarette by that point."

Sky seemed to ignore me, which I didn't really blame her for. She shook it all off quickly, though. "Perhaps he's just overly empathetic, as a therapist, you know?"

I frowned, "so he felt what I felt? Boy, I hope he's okay." I joked, somehow finding humour out of practically anything at this point.

Sky shook her head as she laughed, seeming to dismiss the subject as I did. She soon left, taking our dirty plates with her, to go clean up and get ready for bed.

I wasn't alone for long, though; as I started to doze off, I heard someone unzip the tent.

This time when I rolled over to see who it was, it was Jace.

He smiled down at me. "I wanted to check how you were." He said, coming in and sitting himself down.

I sat up slowly, feeling my cheeks flush slightly. "I'm okay, thanks." I told him, drowning in his, as ever, beautiful eyes.

He nodded, seeming to want to leave the subject alone for now. I didn't really blame him.

"Okay, well, I'm going to go wash now." He announced, before getting onto his knees.

I whipped the duvet off me suddenly, making him frown over at me. "Can I come with you? I kinda need to release one of my organs." I explained, making him chuckle but nod.

He helped me out of the tent, and then carried both our bags to the nearest water source. Thankfully, it was actually a lot closer to our camp than the other one was.

Jace and I did all that we needed to do, using the river to cleanse, before promptly leaving. It was on the way back to our camp that I caught Jace looking down at me. I looked up, a smile on my face, only to find him staring down at my arms and hands. He was looking at my wounds.

"I'm sorry," he said, catching me looking at him. "I just...it's hard to see."

I kept walking, though didn't respond. After a while, I began to think what he would've said had I asked. So, when we were in our tent and in privacy, I quietly questioned him.

He suddenly grew grave. "Lex, you fell off a cliff. I watched you. I–I think it was my fault."

I did a double-take. "What?" I asked, emotion seeping through, making it hard for me to remain quiet.

Jace turned away and brushed his hair back with his fingers as his head fell. I suddenly felt the morale sink. "I was just trying to help you, but I think when I pulled that person off you, you fell at the impact."

My face fell. "No!" I said, immediately lurching forward, taking his face in my hands. "No." I watched him watch me, a new kind of shimmer in his eyes despite the low light in the tent.

"You saved me." I told him, eyes pouring into his.

"You fell. You almost died." I watched him continue to fire bullets at himself, feeling each of them run through me too.

"I thought I was doing it right. Really, I did. But I never had it right, because I'm not trained, because I'm not a Guardian. This plan was even my stupid idea, and look where it got–"

I slammed my lips into his.

To silence his worrying, I slammed my lips into his.

_________________________________

....

LACE SHIPPERS WHERE ARE YOU AT
OR JAXI

COME OUT COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE

-aight okay okay here I am

FABULOUS SONGS

Songs that played when I was writing this chapter (in order):
HeartLess - Madison Beer
like that - Bea Miller
Rival - Ruelle
Wanna Know - Sabrina Claudio
Thinking Bout You - Ariana Grande
Only Love Can Hurt Like This - Paloma Faith
Falling Away - Glades
Waiting - Aquilo
Hearts Without Chains - Ellie Goulding
Night Glo - Foxes
Make Up Your Mind - Florence + The Machine
Run - Leona Lewis

END OF FABULOUS SONGS

Date written:
30/04/18
01/05/18

___________
Next update: Wednesday (Her Life readers imma be here Tuesday!!)
___________

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE SPOILER:

Are we changing POVs again??

Sapphire wakes up earlier than 'normal'...in tears.

Jace defends Lexi in a battle of pride.

Sky is onto Jace and Lexi.