The Rýkr Duet

by M. E. Clayton

  “Of course, I don’t understand it because no one ever told me about it!” she yelled, finally letting go of that temper of hers. “I don’t understand any of this shit because this isn’t my world, even if I come from it! I don’t belong here! How can I live here if I don’t belong here?!”

  “That’s the thing, dear,” Mom replied calmly. “You no longer belong in Seaport, either.” Her face softened. “You no longer belong anywhere that isn’t with Easton. Easton’s your home now. Not Seaport. Not Rýkr. Nowhere is your home if you choose to make one without Easton.”

  “You’re lying,” Neve whispered.

  “An experiment, yes?”

  “Oh, yeah,” I spat at Dad. “By all means, let’s conduct another experiment.”

  He ignored my crap. “Why don’t the Livelys take the girls back to Seaport while the boys stay here and let us see what happens?”

  “Fine,” Neve snapped, making the decision for all of us.

  Dad smiled. “Fine.”

  Chapter 24

  Neve~

  “I can’t do this,” Avalon whimpered, her arms wrapped around her waist as if she were in physical pain. Hell, there was no doubt that she was.

  I knew I was.

  “This…this can’t be…” I muttered.

  We were two hours into our trip back to Seaport, and it was becoming more excruciating by the minute. When Astra had thrown down his little challenge, I had been all about it. Angry that he hadn’t come off as the monster I had painted him to be in my head, I’d been all about testing his truths. I had been so prepared to hate him that when he had explained that he’d simply been honoring our mother’s wishes…well, that had screwed me up big time. I’d been so angry, then suddenly, there’d been no one I could direct that anger at because his words had been so simply true.

  So, now we were heading back to Seaport, and I knew there was no way I could go through with this test. The pain was becoming unbearable, and I could see my sister was faring worse than I was.

  “I can feel his pain,” she said. “I don’t think this is all me. I can…I can feel Griffin’s distress and it’s killing me, Neve. I feel like I’m tearing his soul apart and it’s killing me.”

  “Dad, we need you to go back,” I practically cried out from the back seat. “We…we can’t do this.” The way Avalon described her pain was like a mirror to what I was feeling. Easton’s pain and anger were shredding me to pieces.

  “Are you girls okay?” he asked, looking in the rearview mirror as Mom turned around in her seat.

  I shook my head. “No,” I answered truthfully. “It gets worse the farther we drive away.”

  Tears gathered in Mom’s eyes. “It’ll be okay, honey. We’ll get you back to the boys.”

  At the next offramp, Dad took the exit and did a turnabout, taking us back to Rýkr, and Mrs. Keenstone’s words were like a sledgehammer in my brain. She said Easton was my home now, and that’s exactly what he was. It was probably the reason Easton had agreed to follow me anywhere. He’d known what being away from me would do to him now that we’ve connected.

  Avalon grabbed her phone from her purse, and I saw her hands shaking as she called Griffin. Not knowing if it would work, I pulled out my phone and called Easton. I couldn’t help but notice my hands were shaking also.

  He answered on the second ring. “Neve.”

  “We’re on our way back,” I rushed out.

  “Thank fuck,” he growled. “I’m dying here, baby. I…I feel like I’m being torn in fucking half.”

  I started crying. “It hurts.”

  “I know,” he said, softening his voice. “I know, baby. But…just hold on, okay?”

  “Easton, it hurts,” I repeated. I didn’t know what else to say.

  “Fuck,” he hissed. “Are you guys taking the same route we took this morning?”

  “Yeah…yeah, I think so.”

  “Okay…tell your Dad to meet us in Mercer,” he said. “I’ll have Severus drive us and we’ll meet you in the middle, okay?”

  “O…okay,” I whispered.

  “Griffin’s on the phone with Avalon,” he said. “We’ll both meet you there, okay?”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered achingly. “I didn’t know it would this bad. I didn’t-”

  “Shh, baby,” he said, cutting off my babbling. “It’ll be okay. I’ll see you soon.”

  I hung up and Mom was looking back at us. “Is there anything I can do?”

  With Avalon off the phone, too, we both shook our heads. “No,” she answered. “Just get us to Mercer.”

  “I’m on it,” Dad said from the driver’s seat. “I promise.”

  Unable to do anything but endure the agony of our separation, Avalon curled herself up against the car door and just held on. I did the same, but my thoughts were racing around the pain my body was experiencing.

  My birth mother’s wish was for us to live normal lives and have an opportunity at something different, and no matter how much resentment I was still struggling with, Astra Keenstone had helped her make that happen. Even if his motives had morphed into something else later, he had respected my mother’s wishes, no matter how his sons had suffered for it.

  No matter how they had suffered for it.

  When I thought about all the times my parents had kissed our scratches, soothed our minds, or had held us when we’d been sick, I thought about how Calliope Keenstone hadn’t been able to comfort her children or make their pain go away. For over a year, the woman had been left to stand by and watch her children suffer, and I couldn’t imagine what that felt like for a mother.

  And just when they’d been able to get on with their lives, Easton and Griffin had been told about us, and Astra and Calliope had been left to endure their anger and resentment. I wasn’t sure I was ready to be reasonable where they were concerned, but maybe we hadn’t been the only victims in all this.

  It also hadn’t helped when Mom and Dad hadn’t immediately dismissed their accounts of what had happened and why. I knew viewing this from their perspective was vastly different from how we saw things, but I didn’t get the impression that Mom and Dad disliked Astra and Calliope as much as we had been prepared to.

  “I’m following Griffin home after I graduate,” Avalon announced.

  Mom turned back in her seat. “What?”

  “He has a plan for his life,” she choked out around her physical discomfort. “I don’t have any. Other than college, I have no concrete plan of what I want to do with my life.” Tears slid down her face and I wasn’t sure if it was from the pain or the announcement of finally coming to a decision. “I’m not going to ask Griffin to give up his plans for the plan I don’t even have.”

  Her words felt like a kick to the chest.

  Oh, God.

  Mom wasn’t bothering to pretend she wasn’t crying. “I just want you happy, honey. That’s all me and your father want for you girls.”

  “We love you, no matter what,” Dad added as he continued driving.

  “I’ll go to college if I find something I’m passionate about, but at the end of it all, I’m going to live in Rýkr with Griffin,” she continued. “I can’t bear this.”

  “We’ll support you, no matter what, Avalon,” Mom said. “And we’ll always be just four hours away.”

  With her decision made, Avalon curled into herself again, and didn’t say anything more. I knew her mind was on Griffin, and I envied how easy it was for her. Avalon’s always been selfless, though. Avalon has always had that way about her. She always chose happiness, and not just for herself. She chose it for those she loved and cared about, too.

  When I thought about my future, I knew I had wanted to do something with internet marketing, and it was a bitter pill to swallow when I realized I could do that from anywhere. Every college in the country offered computer science classes these days and it wouldn’t be hard to go to college close to home. I could buy four more years with Mom and Dad, but I knew I’d have to grow up eventually.


  The plan I had for my life was adaptable.

  Easton’s plan wasn’t.

  Either he followed in his father’s footsteps or he’d have to form another plan for his life. A new plan. And I knew he was willing to come up with one just to stay close to me.

  God, I was an asshole.

  Even if Astra and Calliope had turned out to be giant jerkoffs, making Easton suffer for their actions was not the right way to deal with this. Easton and Griffin have suffered enough. It wasn’t fair to make them pay for something they’d had no control over.

  “I’m going to follow Easton, too,” I announced.

  Mom’s head whipped around and even Dad leaned over to look at me through the rearview mirror. “What?”

  “To quote Avalon, his plan is better than the plan I don’t have,” I told them. “He doesn’t deserve to lose everything he’s been preparing for his whole life just because I’m not ready to surrender. Easton and Griffin haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “But neither have you,” Mom pointed out.

  “I love him, Mom.”

  Her watery smile lit up her face. “That’s the reason I was hoping for, honey,” she said as Dad chuckled. “Love’s the only reason for anything worthwhile.”

  Avalon reached over, grabbed my hand, then squeezed. When I looked over at her, she was smiling. “I’m going to love having you near.”

  I smiled back because my family wasn’t going to be separated after all.

  Chapter 25

  Easton~

  Even though the pain was ebbing, me and Griffin were still a goddamn mess. With Severus leaning up against the car, we were parked at a highway rest stop in Mercer waiting on the girls. Griffin was pacing and I was gripping the rails separating the picturesque park from the restrooms.

  When Neve had picked up the gauntlet my father had thrown down, I had wanted to jump in and stop her, but I couldn’t. Still coming to terms with what we meant to one another, she was going to have to learn the hard way how this worked. Me and Griff had known what was going to happen, but the girls hadn’t. Still, it was worth the pain if it made the girls finally see what this was.

  This was forever.

  We were forever.

  “Thank God,” my brother rushed out, and I turned in time to see him racing towards Mr. Lively’s car as it pulled into an empty parking spot in front of the vending machines.

  My fingers gripped the railing enough to cause tingling sensations in my hands, but I didn’t move. Griffin and Avalon weren’t me and Neve. Griffin could run to Avalon because he knew he had her. I still wasn’t so sure. I knew better than to take Neve’s independence for granted.

  I stood to my full height as the backseat passenger car door opened and Neve stepped out. I watched as her head swiveled, scanning the area, looking for me. She spotted Severus first, but then her eyes quickly found mine, and when they did, I felt like I could breathe again.

  Then she started running.

  She started running towards me.

  When she was within a few feet of me, I opened my arms and braced myself for the impact. As soon as Neve arms were wrapped around my neck, my arms closed around her and I held on, pretty sure I was never going to let her go again.

  “I love you,” she sobbed, her face buried in my neck as I lifted her off the ground. “I love you, Easton. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize. I didn’t realize.”

  “Shh, baby,” I said, doing my best to soothe her. “It’s okay. You’re with me now. It’s okay.”

  Neve kept grappling to hang onto me, and if we hadn’t been in public, I’d be inside her right now. I’d be giving her all the reassurance she needed from me.

  I’d be giving her everything.

  After a few more seconds of smothering each other, I set her back down on her feet, and when she looked up at me, she looked like a goddamn wreck. Her makeup was everywhere, and her beautiful face was tearstained.

  But she still looked breathtaking.

  “It’s yours,” she blurted out, and I had no idea what she was talking about.

  “What is, baby?” I asked as I did my best to fix her face with my thumbs. “What’s mine?”

  “Me,” she answered tearfully. “My future. All of it. It’s yours, Easton.” She gifted me with the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen. “I’ll follow you anywhere. I’ll even follow you to Rýkr.”

  Her words were everything I’ve been wanting to hear, but not like this. Not while she was an emotional mess, having just endured what it feels like to be separated from me. I needed Neve with me, and I wanted her willingly, but not like this.

  “Baby, it’s not wise to make promises when you’re emotional. I don’t-”

  “I’m not giving you this because of what just happened,” she insisted. “I’m giving you this because it’s the right thing for us. Not for me, and not for you, but for us. It’s the right thing for us, Easton.”

  I slammed my lips down on hers and poured everything she meant to me into the kiss I was laying on her. Her hands wrapped around my wrists, and my hands held her face prisoner as I kissed the fuck out of her.

  Even though I knew she was an emotional mess, I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth anymore. I tried to be noble, and she didn’t let me, so that was that. If she wanted to follow me, then I’d let her. Still, that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to do everything I could to make sure her dreams came true, also. Whatever she wanted to do in life, I was going to support that and do whatever I could to make it happen. If she was willing to live in Rýkr after everything, then the least I could do was make sure that all her dreams came true, too.

  When I finally broke off the kiss, I dropped my forehead on hers. “I love you, Neve,” I told her. “I love you, baby.”

  She nodded. “That can’t ever happen again, Easton,” she whispered breathlessly. “I don’t ever want to feel that ever again.”

  “You won’t,” I promised her. “I’ll always be near.”

  Neve nodded again. “I want to go to college, but I’ll come back here with you afterwards.”

  I could work with that. “Rýkr has a university in town,” I told her. “It’s not popular, or famous, or anything like that, but it’s legitimate and you can earn an honest degree there.”

  “Okay, just…let me think about it,” she replied. “I have no problem doing that, but I’d like to see what else we can do.”

  There was no way I was going to deny this girl anything. “Of course,” I immediately agreed. “Besides, you still have months to decide. We still got to get you through graduation.”

  “Is everything okay over here?” I looked up and Mr. Lively was standing a few feet away.

  “It is now, sir,” I replied.

  “What happens now?” he asked. “Avalon as made it clear she’s onboard with whatever you guys want to do.”

  I looked down at Neve. “It’s up to her.”

  Neve walked over to her Dad and it was hard for me to let her. I was still reeling from her being away from me, but I wasn’t going to pull her back. I was still very aware of how hard and confusing this must be for the Livelys.

  Neve hugged her father. “I think we should stay the weekend in Rýkr” she told him, surprising me. “We still have a lot to talk about, and I still have some questions for Mr. and Mrs. Keenstone.”

  Mr. Lively wrapped his arms around his daughter and kissed the top of her head. “Sounds like a plan,” he replied. “We’ve got the hotel rooms reserved through Monday, though we’ll be checking out tomorrow evening.”

  Neve looked up at her father and smiled. “Thanks, Dad.”

  He smiled back at her. “No need to thank me, honey. We meant what we told you girls in the car. All we want is for you to be happy.”

  “I know,” she said right before she gave him another hug.

  When she finally let him go, I watched as he went to join his wife and Severus, no doubt ready to get a move on. It was going to be a long week
end, but that was okay. As long as I ended up with Neve in the end, I didn’t mind.

  “How long before you’ll marry me?”

  She whirled around and looked at me in shock. “What?”

  “Well, we’ve established that you want to go to college and that we’ll be moving to Rýkr when the time comes, but we haven’t discussed marriage,” I pointed out, leaving out the plans my father was already making.

  “We’re only eighteen, Easton.”

  “And we’d be married by now if you had grown up in Rýkr,” I reminded her. “And it’s not like divorce is an option for us. What’s the problem?”

  Her brows shot up. “Do you always have to be a jerk just when things are going well?”

  I smirked as my arm shot out to pull her to me. When her body hit my chest, I said, “When it comes to getting what I want, yeah.”

  “You already have me, Easton,” she huffed.

  “Then marry me, Neve,” I tossed back.

  “That’s not fair,” she replied, “I’m still getting used to all this, no matter what’s been decided.”

  “Next summer then,” I suggested, offering up a compromise. “We’ll get married after you graduate. By then, things should have settled down some.”

  Just then, my brother and Avalon began approaching, and as soon as they stood in front of us, Avalon smiled and announced, “We’re getting married next month.” My chest kicked. “We still need to talk to Mom and Dad about it, but…I’m sure.”

  “Goddamn it, Avalon,” Neve grumbled, making me laugh.

  “She’s making me wait until next summer,” I informed them.

  “Dude, that sucks,” my brother said unhelpfully.

  I pulled Neve into my arms. “Yeah, it does,” I chuckled. “But she did just hand over her entire life to me.” I shrugged. “It’s the least I can do.”

  “Jerk,” Neve muttered in my chest and I started laughing.