by A. S. Oren
“That makes me so happy to hear. I’m glad I could give you something that you like.”
I cock my head to the side. “You didn’t give it to me though, Hansen did.” I point my thumb toward Maverick. It’s the truth, Paden wasn’t the one to physically give me the necklace.
Paden frowns at Maverick. “I was the one that ordered him to get it and give it to you.”
“Again, how romantic of you. I suppose I should be swooning at the thought that you ordered someone else to do the dirty work? Right.” A thought hits me about yesterday. “Were you also the one to lock me in that cave?”
His eyes go wide. “No. I wasn’t the one that did that to you, my love. I wouldn’t have ever done that to you.”
“Then who did order it?”
He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, I can’t tell you.”
I sigh. “Of course you can’t. Every time I take one step forward, I’m forced back four.”
He forcefully takes my hand. When I try to pull away, he holds on tighter. ‘I’m sorry, my love. I would tell you, but they are watching. Even through communication like this, it could be dangerous revealing the truth.’ I hear his voice inside my head. Just like the way the Ancient had spoken to me back in that classroom.
I swallow hard. The Watchers even watch the Royals? I nod, not knowing what else to do.
He releases his death grip on my hand, but keeps touching. His thumb moves in circles over my skin. A calm rushes through me.
“Will you please enjoy this meal now?” he asks, as he let’s go of my hand.
I nod. I look behind me, Kearn stands a few feet away. I can’t decipher the emotion in his bicolored eyes. He gives me a bow with his head. I’m so confused about what I should be feeling when it comes to him.
The Walk Back
A clock off in the distance chimes the hour, signaling the end of lunch. I look around the table. Magnus and Jacob are still silent. Only having said a hand full of words while we ate. Paden and Maverick talked the most.
“I really need to be getting back to the school. I have already missed half a day. I can’t have my grades falling.”
Paden pushes out his chair and stands. “Of course. I’ve kept you long enough.” I stand also and he takes my right hand. He presses a kiss to it. “I hope to have a meal with you again soon, my love.”
“I’m not your love. I don’t love you. Call me Avalon.”
“As you wish, Avalon."
I try not to think about Princess Bride. I've always wanted someone to say that to me, and it just had to be him, didn't it?
I guess having the most romantic line ever said in a book, said to me by a boy I actually like, is too much to ask for, huh? I give a nervous smile and pull my hand away from him. He really did do his research on me.
“Maverick and you,” he points to Kearn. “Take Avalon back to her rooms.”
I’m not surprised that he doesn’t want to take me himself. That would require work on his part. “I need two escorts?”
“Yes, you never know who’s lurking in the halls of Spearwood.”
“I’m pretty sure she can take care of herself,” says Maverick.
I think that’s the first real compliment he has ever given me.
“Just go with her and make sure she doesn’t run into anyone who could hurt her.”
I look to the two who haven’t talked. I give a wave. “Bye, it was nice to meet you.” They just look at me for a long second, before giving a nod of their heads. I can’t help but try and shake the feeling that they have been analyzing me this entire time.
I turn back to Paden. “Bye. Thank you for the lunch, I guess.”
“Of course, Avalon.”
“C’mon, let’s get you back to your rooms,” says Maverick, beckoning me to follow him. Kearn follows behind me, as we enter the homey atmosphere of the hall. This time he leads me down a smaller hallway and up a wide set of red carpeted stairs. I stumble on the last step from the top, a hand goes on my lower back to steady me. Kearn stopped me from falling down the stairs.
I look back at him, after righting myself. “Thank you.”
“Of course, Miss.” He always has a look in his eyes that I can’t decipher. What does it mean? I want to know. I want to ask him. I want to ask him why he betrayed me to the Royals. Is he working for them?
I shake my head and try to focus on where we are. We've made several turns down many long halls. I don't think I'll be able to find my way back to the Royal's tea area even if I wanted to. I don't know how the servants manage to navigate around this place. They have to have the brains of taxi drivers.
We come to a dead end, a long oil painting of fruit hangs in front of us. I look confused at Maverick. “It’s a nice painting, Hansen, but I think you took a wrong turn somewhere.”
“Not everything is what it seems, Clementine.” The look he gives me, speaks volumes. It’s true, I would have never guessed he would be here, of all places.
He pushes the painting to the side, revealing a secret passage way. I lift an eyebrow. “Touché.”
We enter the dark passage, and my night vision kicks in. Kearn pulls the painting back into place and continues to follow us. “So you’re a Royal, right? How does a Royal end up in a place like Bellingham, Washington?” I touch the brick wall, as we walk.
“I was placed there to watch you. To make sure you stayed safe.”
“So you beat me up every day and made my life a living hell, to keep me safe? Excuse me while I call bullshit.”
Kearn gives a quiet cough, I know he laughed at my comment. Maverick turns around to look at me. “I know it won’t make up for anything, but know this, I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“Why am I sorry?”
“Yes, and why did you treat me that way? I never did anything to you, you singled me out, for no reason. You made every kid there hate me. Do you have any idea how lonely that was? How much I started to hate life?” Why did I just admit that to him?
He swallows hard. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“You’re right, sorry doesn’t cut it, let’s keep moving.”
He turns back around with a sigh and we continue to move. It feels like we’ve been walking forever. He stops. I nearly run into his backside. I still, then I hear it, the thing that made him stop, voices. Off in the distance, but not too far. We walk quieter toward the noise, the end of the passage meets us. A brick wall makes up the hidden door. Maverick places a finger to his lips. He places a hand on the wall in front of us. I watch, in amazement, the wall becomes transparent and I can see into the room beyond. I recognize it, it’s one of the rooms from the backwaters. In fact, it looks like the room Bullock teaches me in, the dent in the wall by the door is the same. Bullock stands in front of his teacher desk. Perlow, his lapdog, a robed figure and a woman stand in front of him. It looks to be an Ancient, but I can tell from here that it isn’t the one that I met the other day. This one gives off a different vibe. The woman has a ruby embedded in her forehead, her head is shaved bald.
“How has the girl made in progress?” asks the woman.
“She’s slow to learn the techniques, but she has a natural talent that shows through with her emotions,” says Bullock, he keeps his eyes on the ground.
“Has she shown one preference to an element over another?” The woman’s voice reminds me of a robot.
Bullock shakes his head. “No.”
“Make sure she chooses one, we can’t have her having control of all of them,” says Roseman.
Bullock nods. “Yes, sir.”
“Make sure she gets stronger, we need her in the coming war,” says the woman.
“Yes, my lord.”
War? What war?
“Turn around and remove your shirt, to receive your comeuppance,” says the woman.
Bullock swallows hard and he fidgets with his hands, before turning around and taking off his shirt. He reveals a back riddled with thick scars. My hand moves to cover my mouth. The robed figure raises its a
rm; the robe slides down, revealing dark orange scales and blood red talons. Perlow looks off to the wall and Roseman watches Bullock’s back. The talons come down across his back. Bullock doesn’t make a sound. His glasses fall off his face and onto the floor. The blood comes to the surface, it bubbles and falls down his back.
“For the sins of your father, may you not make the same mistakes. Pray that the Sun god blesses you,” says the woman.
Bullock turns back around, his face as white as a ghost. He goes to one knee and places his arm across his chest. “Thank you, my lord.”
Perlow and Roseman follow his example. The robed figure’s head turns to look at the wall we are behind. For a second I think they know we are hiding here. Without another word, the woman and the Ancient leave the room. Perlow kneels next to Bullock and places his hand on his shoulder. He flinches away from the touch. “Let’s get you to Dr. Quinn.”
Roseman stands. “Leave him, Perlow. He’ll be fine on his own. We have work to attend to.”
It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Roseman take control. He isn’t the lap dog I thought he was, is it all just an act?
“You’ll keep your promise, right?” asks Bullock. “I teach the girl and will be integrated into the families again, I’ll no longer be an Outcast?”
Bullock is an Outcast? But the others made it sound like Outcast don’t survive here.
“Yes,” says Roseman.
Perlow stands, but still looks with worry down at Bullock. “Stay strong,” he says.
They both leave the room now. Bullock lets out a shaking breath and turns to use the desk to help him up. Blood runs still fresh down his back, and has seeped into the top of his slacks. He stumbles over to the wall on the right and puts both hands to it. I watch, with wide eyes, as a bed rises out of the floor. It’s a simple bed, like the white cots found in the infirmary. This is where he sleeps? Why doesn’t he have a dorm room with the other boys? He collapses onto the bed, lying on his stomach. I’m certain that he has fainted.
Second Awakening
“Open the wall,” I say. Maverick opens it.
I go to Bullock, a sweat has broken out over his body and his breathing comes out labored. He’s out cold. “We need to go, Clementine, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“Shut up.” I want to help him, but how? I don’t know the magic required to heal him. I swallow hard. I’ve used healing magic before on instinct with Mirren. I can do it now. I close my eyes and ask for guidance, to help me act on instinct.
Something tells me to look underneath the bed. I crouch down, sure enough, there’s a bottle of water. I grab it and stand, now what? I break the seal on the cap and pour the water into my hand. As it hits my palm, it forms a sphere. I stop when it’s the size of a baseball. I hold out the bottle and Kearn takes it from me. I don’t know how I’m doing this, but I’m not going to ask questions right now. I use my other hand to move it over the sphere, forcing the water to elongate but still keep a condensed shape. I take a breath in and hold it. I put my hands to his back and spread the water out over the freshly made gashes. The water hovers above his skin. I ease it into the cuts, he doesn’t move. At least I’m not causing him more pain.
Once the water fills the gashes to the top, it begins to take the form and solidify into scar tissue, closing and making the cuts look like they have been there for months. I let out the breath. He turns his head on his pillow and looks at me. “Avalon?”
I hold my fingers to my lips. “Shhh, you need your rest. Sleep.” I brush my fingers over his eyes, forcing them closed. He falls back into a sleep.
I turn back to Maverick and Kearn. Kearn doesn’t looked shocked at all, but Maverick certainly does. “How’d you do that? That’s a master water level healing technique.”
I shrug. “I followed my gut.”
I move towards the door. “I can find my way back to my room from here.”
“I’ll walk you there, Paden would be furious if I didn’t,” says Maverick, he opens the classroom door. I give Bullock one last look before I cross the threshold. A headache is starting to set in behind my eyes.
Kearn closes the door behind us. “How do you know Paden?” I ask, as we walk, trying to fill the dense silence.
“He’s my older brother.”
I stop walking. “You two are related?”
He stops also. “What? You don’t see the resemblance?”
“Not fully, I guess you guys have similar eyes.”
He gives a laugh. “Yeah. He looks more like our mom. I got more of dad’s looks.”
“Do you know how to get this off then?” I hold up my left hand, to show him the ring.
He frowns. “He put a stuck spell on it, didn’t he?”
I shrug. “He said it would only come off if I hated him, or when one of us dies.”
Maverick shakes his head. “I can’t help you. He infused the spell with his own blood. Only he can take it off.”
I sigh. “I figured you would say that.” It’s weird, being so casual with him. Back home, we would have been ripping each other’s throats out.
“This is weird,” he says.
“Us talking like normal people?”
“Yeah.”
“I know.”
The silence envelopes us again. Soon, we are standing outside my door. Enid isn’t with me, so I knock, hoping she’ll hear it. Not even two seconds later, the door is ripped open. Dante stands on the other side, worry etched into his face. He pulls me into his arms and hugs me. I frown and pat him on the back. “Dante, I can’t breathe.”
He lets go of me and looks me over. “Are you okay, Avalon? Are you hurt? What are you wearing?” Before I can answer, he notices Maverick. His face turns into a snarl. In two steps he’s in front of Maverick, before I can blink, he is punching him in the face and sending him to the ground.
“Dante!” I snap.
He doesn’t hear me. He jumps Maverick and gets ready to punch him again. Horace and Amr come shooting out of my rooms and grab Dante by the arms, they pull him off Maverick.
Maverick stands and wipes the blood off his lip. He ignores Dante and looks toward me. “I’ll see you around, Clementine.” I give a nod.
He turns and leaves. Kearn gives me a barely noticeable smile and bows, he leaves with Maverick.
I turn to look at Dante. “What did you do that for?”
He looks just as shocked as me, he pulls his arms out of the grasps of Horace and Amr. “I don’t know. I just felt so angry.”
“Why aren’t you guys in class? Your grades.”
“Our grades can suffer one absent day. We were worried about you,” says Amr.
“How long was I gone?”
“Less than a day,” says Horace.
“Well, come on in.” I beckon them into my living room and close the door behind them. Mirren is sitting on one of the loveseats, but Triton is nowhere to be found. “Where’s Triton?”
“He got called away. He’ll be around later,” says Horace, as he takes a seat next to Mirren.
I nod and pull one of the chairs from the breakfast bar over to the living room. I take a seat and sigh. Today has gone on forever. I kick off the heels, my feet feel like they are being stabbed in the soles.
“Why are you wearing that, and what did they do to your hair?” ask Mirren.
I look at him before I finger my straight locks. It feels so foreign. “Paden decided to give me a rich makeover, thought I would like it.”
“Did you?” asks Dante.
I give him a roll of my eyes. “No. He only thought I would like it because—” I stop myself. For some reason, I don’t want to tell them about the fact that Paden probably knows everything there is to know about me.
“Because?” asks Amr.
I shake my head. “Just that I would like it.”
“Did they hurt you?” asks Horace.
“No, I had lunch with them, that’s all.”
“What’s that on your finger?” asks Mirren.
<
br /> I look down at the serpent ring, once more I try to take it off. It doesn’t budge. “It looks like an engagement ring,” says Dante.
I nod. “He put a stuck spell on it. Hansen says he probably infused it with his blood. I can only take it off if I truly hate him, or one of us dies.”
“That bastard!” snaps Dante.
I nod. “Problem is, I don’t hate him. Not yet, at least.”
“So what happened to your other problem?” ask Amr. “These guys aren’t acting insane.”
I reach into the tiny pocket in my dress and pull out the small canister. “It’s suppressed as long as I take this, once a day for the next week. No more running from crazed boys.”
Both Dante and Horace become sheepish. “We’re sorry about that. I said some things that I wouldn’t say to you in a normal mindset,” says Dante.
He must be referring to the shower comment. My cheeks flush, as the memory comes back to the front of my mind, which then leads to a shower and him involved.
I shake my head. “It’s okay. I get that you guys weren’t in your normal minds. Listen, I’d like to call my father and take a nap before dinner. I’m exhausted.”
Amr nods and stands. “We’ll come get you for dinner later. Sleep well.” The others stand with him and they leave. A part of me is glad that it was so easy to get rid of them.
I walk to my bedroom, and flop down on the fluffy white bed. It’s softer than I imagined. Like a cloud. I look to my night stand. Enid’s card is sitting on it again.
“Enid.” I wonder if she’ll come to life.
On command the card flies through the air and transforms. “Yes, Avalon?”
“Please call my father.” I know I’m calling for the second time in one day, but I’m sure he won’t care. It’s nearly seven in the morning there. He should be up. I wonder how he’s feeling?
The dial tone rings throughout the room once, twice, four times. I frown. Finally, the line picks up.
“Finally, did I wake you?”
“Avalon?”
I frown, that’s not Edgar’s voice. “Yeah, who is this?”
“It’s Pete Marsh.”