Oaken

by Melody Robinette

  She took in the small window with the steel bars, the dirty floor, and the moss-covered wall. How anything grew here, she wasn’t sure. Autumn shuddered from cold and fear. It was at least fifteen degrees colder in here than it had been outside.

  She moved to stand, but soon realized that she was chained to the floor by thick, steel manacles. That’s just excellent, she thought, looking over her shoulder to see that someone had removed her bow and quiver full of arrows. She pulled at the chains desperately, accomplishing nothing before sighing in defeat and looking around the floor for something to aid her in breaking free.

  “You won’t be getting out of those anytime soon,” a cold voice said, followed by a mirthless laugh.

  Autumn’s head spun to the doorway to see a woman with gray-tinged skin standing there wearing an amused expression. Her long, black hair and haunting, violet eyes told Autumn precisely who she was.

  “Vyra,” Autumn spat before belting a jet of angry Song at her. Vyra smirked, folding her arms across her chest, waiting for her song to finish. Autumn stopped singing abruptly, her face full of confusion.

  “While I would love to listen to your disgustingly beautiful, little voice, I don’t particularly have the time.”

  “How—?”

  “This room has been enchanted to keep only its prisoners Powerless. Nice try, though.” She laughed again and Autumn shuddered at the sound.

  “So, you are working with warlocks,” Autumn said.

  Vyra arched a brow and smirked. “More or less.”

  Autumn shot her a glare, hatred overpowering fear. “You destroyed my family. You took my parents away from my brother and me. They had done nothing to you! They didn’t even live in the Underground and you still killed them. You’re a monster.”

  Vyra pointed at Autumn and something purple shot from her finger. Suddenly every nerve in Autumn’s body was on fire, her limbs shaking and convulsing involuntarily. Just as quickly as it came, the feeling was gone. She looked weakly up at Vyra, too stunned to speak.

  “Electricity,” Vyra stated simply. “Hurts, doesn’t it? Your parents are lucky I killed them the way I did. In their sleep. Very humane of me, really.”

  “Or very cowardly,” Autumn said in disgust. “You took everything from me that night. Everything.”

  “No. I would have taken everything had you and your brother been home. Unfortunately, by the time I did away with your parents, the potion I’d taken to repel all physical attacks had nearly worn off.”

  “Afraid you couldn’t take on two little teenage kids?” Autumn spat.

  Vyra ignored her. “It’s no matter. Now I can finish the job.”

  “What do you want with the Oaken family anyway? You have your Atrums and your Shadows and the fear of the creatures of the Underground.”

  A malicious smile spread across Vyra’s face. “Yes, well. It’s nothing personal, Sweetheart. Your family is simply in my way. Do you actually think I feel any remorse for killing your precious parents when I killed my own? Somehow they expected me to allow them to tell me what to do.” She laughed. “The Oaken family has been my main focus for years now. They’re the only thing standing in the way of me taking over the entire kingdom. Two Oaken down, three to go. Soon to be two.”

  Scooting back against the grimy wall, Autumn attempted to put as much distance between Vyra and herself as possible. “You can do what you want with me, but you will not touch my brother.”

  Vyra laughed heartily at this as she sauntered closer. “Your brother is on my island at this very minute, Love. It’s only a matter of time before one of my Atrums captures him as well. Your little Warrior Trial made this exceptionally easy for me. Disappointing, really. I was hoping for more of a challenge.”

  “How did you even know about the Warrior Trial?”

  Vyra strolled slowly through the small, frigid room, keeping her cold, violet eyes trained on her royal prisoner. Autumn’s own narrowed eyes followed Vyra as she made her way around the room.

  “Oh, I know everything about you and your little friends. Let’s see…” She steepled her hands and placed them under her chin in a thoughtful manner. “You have a sickening need to help people, whether you get anything out of it or not. You hate killing living things, but have no problem killing my precious Shadows. You’re an excellent fighter, and a skilled archer, but you’re much too trusting for your own good. You have a handsome little boyfriend, a castle guard I believe, which you’ve managed to keep secret from your beloved grandfather. Your twin brother is your best friend, and he’s rather protective of you. He’d be so terribly upset if he knew where you were at this very moment.”

  Autumn’s mouth hung open as Vyra spouted out so many personal and extremely accurate details that few people could possibly know about her. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

  “How did you—?”

  Vyra laughed again, clearly enjoying this. “I have a reliable source.”

  “You mean someone’s been spying on me?” Autumn asked in disbelief.

  “I suppose that would be an accurate statement. This particular elf has been rather beneficial to me. Capturing you would not have been possible without their help.”

  “Who?”

  “You will meet soon enough, let’s not be hasty,” she said, wagging her finger at Autumn. “Though, you’ve met before.”

  “We’ve met?”

  Vyra nodded and then laughed, saying, “Oh, this is fun.”

  Autumn glared at her in disgust.

  There was a noise from somewhere outside of the doorway. Vyra turned to look, and then faced Autumn, smirking. “Ah, here they are now. I believe it’s time you were re-introduced to my informant,” Vyra said, waving a hand at the doorway. “Autumn Oaken meet my brother, Victor Vaun.”

  Victor stepped inside the doorway and Autumn stared, wide-eyed, up at him.

  “Victor…Vaun ?”

  Victor looked narrowly down at Autumn and came to stand beside Vyra—his sister.

  “Yes, this is my adorable little brother,” Vyra said, clearly pleased with Autumn’s reaction.

  “Your brother,” Autumn said in disbelief. “I thought—I thought you killed your brother.”

  Vyra nodded. “Yes, that’s what I told everyone. You see, I realized that my dear baby brother was much more valuable to me alive than dead. So, I decided to keep him around.”

  Autumn glanced at Victor, who didn’t seem fazed by this in the least. Looking at him made her even more nauseated than she already was, so she turned back to Vyra, who continued on.

  “So, after I did away with our parents, I sent Victor to live in Arbor Falls to gain the trust of the residents of the kingdom. His main goal, though, was to become a Warrior. But he went and killed that little elf girl and screwed things up quite a bit.”

  Victor stirred slightly at this, but said nothing.

  “Killed…?” Autumn said trailing off and then realization struck her, causing her head to spin and stomach to churn. “Avabelle? Avery’s sister?”

  “Yes, her!” Vyra said, smacking herself dramatically in the head. “I always forget her name.”

  “You killed Avabelle?” Autumn said to Victor in disbelief. He didn’t make eye contact, but nodded unfeelingly.

  Autumn absentmindedly moved her hand to touch her own neck, but her hand was stopped by the manacles. “But Avery said the Shadow killed her.”

  “You silly girl,” Vyra said. “The Shadow was just a cover up. Victor strangled the poor girl and then called a Shadow to batter her body up a bit so the elves wouldn’t suspect him. Victor can control the Shadows. They were made with his blood, you know. And, as long as Victor is alive, they will continue to multiply, which is why he is so very special to me,” she said, gazing lovingly up at her brother.

  Autumn felt like she was going to be sick, but she swallowed the bile that rose in her throat to speak again. “Why would you kill Avabelle?”

  “Victor has a bit of an anger problem,” Vyra said, p
atting Victor fondly on the arm. “I believe you already know that, though,” she said, nodding at Autumn’s neck. “So nice of you not to tattle on him, by the way. Foolish perhaps, but still nice.”

  Autumn silently had to agree with her on this, trying not to think about how different things might have turned out if she had told someone about what Victor had done.

  “Yes, that little choking incident put a bit of a damper on our original plan,” Vyra said absently before turning to speak to Victor. “Though you weren’t actually supposed to date her, you idiot. I said to befriend her and her brother, not woo her.”

  “It was the only way,” Victor said through gritted teeth, as though it was a frequently repeated phrase.

  “Doubtful, but no matter. She’s here now and her brother will soon join her.”

  “What about the others,” Autumn said. “Where are they?”

  “My Atrums were instructed to kill the others. I’ve no use for them,” she said waving a hand dismissively.

  Autumn felt her heart sink.

  No. They couldn’t be dead. They got out of it somehow. They had to.

  “You were right, Victor, she does value the wellbeing of others above her own. Foolish girl,” Vyra said, shaking her head in disapproval.

  Suddenly a short, husky Atrum came panting into the room. “Your Highness, the Oaken boy has made it to the roses, but we are unable to approach him. He came, knowing we were waiting for him and opened attack. There are others as well. I barely managed to get away.” His voice shook in fear.

  Vyra let out a frustrated shout and pointed her index finger at the quivering man. The purple streak of light hit him in the chest and he fell to the floor, convulsing. Autumn almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

  “Fools!” Vyra bellowed and then sighed heavily in frustration. “Must I do everything around here?” She turned abruptly to look at Autumn and then to Victor. “Victor, Darling, watch her for me. It would appear that my servants are incapable of even the simplest of tasks. Looks like you won’t be the first of the twins to die, Princess. Oh, goodie! I can bring your brother’s body here for you to get a little taste of what you have coming!” she said joyfully, clapping her hands together.

  Autumn’s heart temporarily stopped.

  AVERY and Luke pushed their pegasus to the limit towards the towering mass of rocks that was Vyra’s Lair.

  “Where do you think she is?” Luke asked.

  Avery hadn’t thought that far. “She could be anywhere,” he admitted, trying not to feel too hopeless.

  “Look for the tallest room in the highest tower, or the highest room in the tallest tower. Either one,” Luke called out over the wind howling in their ears.

  “What? Why?”

  “It’s what all the people in the fairytale books do!”

  Avery shrugged. It was worth a shot.

  “Not so fast,” a cackling voice called from below just before a jet of purple light struck their pegasus, immobilizing her wings, her body going rigid. They plummeted from the sky, crashing against a slope of rock, and rolling down amidst a landslide of rubble until they reached the bottom. Avery and Luke groaned as they sat up to see Vyra Vaun approaching them with an amused smile dancing on her cracked lips.

  “Fancy meeting you boys here,” she said with a sickening laugh. “So nice of you not to make me travel all that way to get you.”

  Luke cursed at her as he lunged forward. Vyra lazily held out single finger and a beam of purple streaked through the air, hitting Luke in the chest. He let out a strangled cry and collapsed to the ground, trembling and shuddering until Vyra released her Electricity.

  “You’re just as foolish as your sister,” she said, shaking her head sadly back and forth.

  Luke lay motionless on the ground and for a moment Avery was afraid he was no longer alive until he saw the dark storm cloud forming just behind Vyra.

  Avery had to stall.

  “What have you done to Autumn?” he shouted at her.

  Vyra moved her gaze from Luke and flashed Avery an amused grin. “Let me guess, you’re Autumn’s little lover boy. Victor’s arch-nemesis.”

  Avery temporarily forgot that he was supposed to be distracting Vyra because now he was the distracted one. “Victor? How do you—?”

  “Oh, right. I forgot your girlfriend is the only one who knows,” she said, tapping at her chin. “What the heck, I’ll be killing you soon anyway, right? But I’ve little reason to tell you this. You’ve always known what my brother truly is.”

  “Your brother…” Avery frowned before he understood what she was saying. “Victor’s your brother?”

  Vyra laughed madly, slapping her hands together like a mentally unwell person who’d been stuck in a white room for too long. “It’s even more fun the second time around!”

  The cogs in Avery’s mind kicked into high gear as everything started clicking into place. “He’s been spying on all of us, hasn’t he? That’s why you knew we would be here and why all of those Atrums and Shadows were waiting to ambush us.”

  “Aren’t you a little smarty!” Vyra said with a cackle. “It took your girlfriend much longer to—”

  Vyra’s words were cut off by a bolt of lightning shooting out of the full-blown storm cloud Luke had clandestinely conjured.

  “Bitch,” Luke growled.

  Vyra lay motionless, but Avery had a feeling she was still very much alive. He didn’t have time to worry about that, though, because a wave of Shadows and Atrums were now charging towards them.

  AUTUMN stared daggers at Victor, who kept his eyes averted.

  “You’re pathetic,” she spat at him. Victor’s jaw clenched as he continued to look away from her, his emerald eyes slowly growing black. “You’re a disgusting, pathetic, murderer. Avery trusted you!” He continued to glare at the floor. “Look at me you coward!”

  Victor’s eyes flashed to hers then, full of anger and something else she couldn’t identify. “I am many things, Autumn, but a coward is not one of them.”

  “You are the very definition of a coward, Victor Vaun.”

  “Do not presume you know me. I have done things that you could never even dream of. Things a coward could never do,” he said, looking away again.

  “Things only a coward could do,” she snarled.

  “You know nothing.”

  “I know enough,” she retorted, which was true. She knew enough about the boy before her, simply from what she’d witnessed and from what Vyra—his sister—had said to know that he was exactly what everyone said he was.

  An Atrum.

  That was all he would ever be, and she had been naïve enough to think otherwise.

  “Everyone was right about you,” Autumn said, voicing her thoughts. Victor remained silent. “Everyone but me.”

  Victor’s eyes narrowed as he glanced towards her, on the verge of lunging at her throat.

  His mouth opened to speak just as an arrow soared through the barred window, piercing through his chest, and spraying blood across the grimy floor.

  Aftermath

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Autumn gasped, looking wildly around. She spotted Avery and Luke hovering outside of the barred window looking like they’d been through a lot more than she had. Their faces were bruised, eyes blackened, lips swollen.

  “Luke! Avery!” Autumn said in disbelief, watching Avery effortlessly pull out the steel bars of the window and squeeze through. He rushed over to her and ripped the manacles off her wrists, pulling her into a tight hug. “How—What—?”

  “Later,” he said, pulling her to the small window. She looked out to see Luke sitting on a tired-looking pegasus waiting for them in midair. His face filled with relief when he saw her.

  Just then, the door to the cell slammed open and Avery pushed Autumn out of the small window onto the pegasus, simultaneously shooting an arrow over his shoulder. Autumn heard a screech and saw a flash of purple, which narrowly missed Avery as he jumped out of the window, landing on the pe
gasus behind Autumn.

  “Go!” Avery shouted.

  The winged horse immediately obeyed and soared over the rocky cliffs, dodging flashes of purple light.

  “Did you get her?” Autumn asked breathlessly after they had gotten far enough away from Vyra’s Lair.

  “I think I just got her leg,” Avery said.

  “Where are Crystal and the others?” she asked, worried to hear the answer.

  “They’re all safe,” Avery said giving Autumn the details of what happened in the clearing after she disappeared.

  “And Cera?” she asked.

  “Forrest brought her back with him,” Avery said in a reserved voice.

  The three of them were quiet for a moment. The pegasus soared over the Opacious Sea and Autumn let out a sigh of relief as she turned to see Vyra’s Lair slowly shrinking behind them.

  “I can’t believe you got away from Vyra,” Autumn said, thinking back on what Avery had told her. “She’s so much worse than I imagined.”

  “She’s batshit crazy, that’s what she is,” Luke said.

  A large group of elves was waiting for them as they landed. The rest of the Initiates surrounded the pegasus and pulled Autumn, Luke, and Avery into relieved hugs as they climbed off. Crystal burst into tears when she saw them and wrapped Autumn in a bone-crushing hug, refusing to let go for quite a while. Looking past her mane of platinum hair, Autumn noticed all five of the silver roses lying forgotten in a heap on the black sand.

  Atticus approached them, looking grave.

  “Victor!” Autumn shouted to him, unable at first to form a coherent sentence. The others whipped around to look behind Atticus, thinking she’d seen him, and then turned back to look at Autumn with puzzled faces. “Victor is Vyra’s brother. His name is Victor Vaun, not Lavigne.”

  Everyone looked at her with thunderstruck expressions. The blood drained from Atticus’s face.