Free Knowledge: The Fifth Division Saga: Book 1 by Kira Stüssy

driveway with Ash and Erion close behind.
    I released my breath, having held it for the majority of our escape. I spun to examine the house that held me captive moments before. Before me, a quaint farmhouse painted white with chipped blue trim. The sort of house you would see in a pretty painting of a rural farm. A dense forest encompassed it, providing plenty of privacy and shelter. Something tugged at the corners of my memory, but being unable to identify the nostalgia, I abruptly turned away from the farmhouse and back to my rescuers.
    If you could truly call them that.
    “That was too easy.” Erion murmured, analyzing the house as if to dissect it’s every riddle.
    But Ash waved off the notion, “Don’t fight it. When life gives you lemons, right?”
    “Do you even know the meaning of that phrase?”
    Ash mean waved the comment away and started towards the woods.
    The two boys walked ahead of me, their concern for my safety now, apparently, subsided. Ash, who wore a pair of slim fit black jeans, pulled a chocolate granola bar out of his back pocket and started to peel open the wrapper. That is, until Erion tried to snatch the snack out of his grasp with an angry remark, “Hey! That’s mine. You already ate yours.”
    Ash nimbly evaded Erion’s reach and chomped down on the bar, ripping off a huge bite and only leaving a small portion. His mouth full and still chewing, he snidely offered Erion the last little bit, a giant grin plastered on his face. Erion pushed his hand away with a look of disgust and rolled his eyes. “Grow up.”
    When Ash finally swallowed, he smiled tauntingly at his friend, “Maybe you should start packing your own snacks.”
    “Maybe you should stop being a pig.”
    “Oink.”
    I couldn’t help but snicker at the two of them, which earned me a raise of the eyebrows from Ash. I shrugged and looked ahead, “So, where are you two heroes taking me?”
    Erion, having forgotten about his granola bar failure, widened his eyes and looked to Ash with an expression of faux wonder, “Heroes? Did you hear that? She called us heroes!”
    Ash thrust his fist up in the air, “Hoorah! The fair maiden has deemed us worthy of her affections. ‘Tis the pinnacle of our career.”
    I blinked, “Uh, what?”
    “Sorry, we tend to get a bit carried away,” Ash lowered his arm and chuckled softly, “and to answer your question, we are taking you to the Courts.”
    “And where is that?”
    Erion sighed in annoyance, “You sure have a lot of questions, don’t you?”
    But Ash tilted his head curiously. His eyebrows scrunched and he peered at me, his eyes straining to look into my mind. After a moment he spoke, “Nostos, of course.”
    “Nostos?” The word itself felt heavy in my mouth, a short and almost guttural term that somehow sounded beautiful and unearthly. When I spoke the word, a warm feeling rushed through me, like the sun had come out and decided to shine its lovely warmth only on me. But as soon as the sensation washed over me, it ran away.
    He nodded slowly, gaze quickly going to Erion and then back to me. His dark eyes seemed to pierce my very soul, “You don’t know what Nostos is, do you?”
    “Of course she does.” Erion sputtered, but Ash’s expression remained questioning.
    Ash’s sharp eyes bore into me with such intensity that it took my breath away. Somehow, I found the ability to speak, “Should I know?”
    They both nodded.
    “They wouldn’t send us to retrieve a human, would they?” Erion asked Ash in a hushed tone as if I couldn’t hear him. Ash shook his head impatiently, as if Erion’s comment was absurd and a nuisance.
    “Human?” I laughed, “What else would I be?” They did not laugh. My stomach dropped. They were crazy, they had to be. But one quick glance at the wings that hovered above their shoulders informed me that perhaps I was the one going nuts; because the longer I stared at them, the more real they became.
    Ash’s eyes never left me, “You