Trinity Found: The Lost Daughter Of Angor Series - Book 1

by Settle Myer

  “What? No way. I totally do. Hello! I took Hyde down in Memphis!”

  “And then you passed out,” Reed says matter-of-factly.

  “I mean, I passed out when I healed Julian because I used a brand-new virtue for the first time.”

  Chad pats my shoulder. “Whatever makes you feel better, Trinity.”

  “I will mentally kick you in the nuts again, Chad!”

  Chad covers his balls, not taking any chances like that morning outside the command center in Nashville. He moves far away from me and hides behind Chanel, who enjoys every bit of his terror. Reed just nods at me approvingly.

  I sigh. “Anyway, how’s Shiloh? I’ve meant to check up on him.”

  “He’s getting released tonight. Skyler hasn’t left his side since we returned,” Chanel says. “You should go see them.”

  “I want to. I have to find my father first.” I scan the room as if he would materialize from thin air. I really dread confronting him about the kill plot on Julian’s mother. And I also want to plead my case about being there for Hyde’s sentencing. I’m the one who took him down. I deserve to see his face the moment the judge says life in prison. Or whatever the decision shall be.

  “I’m so glad I ran into you three,” I say, then give each of them one more hug. We all wave goodbye, and I take a deep breath. Okay, dad. We need to talk.

  After wandering the castle hallways for ten minutes and caving in to ask a worker where I could find my father, I arrive at the open door of his massive office. I swear it was as big as my entire apartment in Harlem. And we had a decent-sized apartment. Two bedrooms that fit Queen and King-sized beds. A living room packed with a couch, reclining chair, loveseat, and entertainment center. We even had a dining area. The Parks’ lucked out, purchasing the unit when the housing market was down, and prices were low.

  The walls of King Elijah’s glorious office are made up of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. The shelves are full of leather-bound literature that had to be centuries old. I spot a rolling ladder and fight the urge to hop on and start singing like Belle in Beauty and the Beast.

  My father paces at the bay windows overlooking a peaceful pond. A pen is tucked in one ear, and he motions his hands as he reads over the contents of a manila folder. He has yet to notice my presence in the room, so I clear my throat.

  He glances past the folder and smiles. “Trinity, everything okay?”

  I lower my head and twist my fingers while swooshing my foot along the lines of the black walnut wooden floor. “Um...”

  “Trinity, I'm getting an immense amount of anxiety from you right now. Don’t make me delve into your mind,” he says. It's the fatherliest thing he’s said to me since my return. And I kind of liked hearing that parental concern once again.

  “I want to be there for Hyde’s sentencing,” I blurt out.

  My father sighs and rubs his forehead with the back of his hand.

  “Before you say anything... You know I was the one to take him down. I was the one who faced him when everything inside me told me to run the other way. He wanted me dead, and I’m here, alive. Please. I deserve to be there to see his face the moment the judge sends him away for life.” I put my foot down and cross my arms because that will certainly add to my point. Right?

  There’s a low rumble from my dad before he finally speaks. “Okay. You can be there. But you will be by my side at all times. Do you hear me?”

  I jump up and down, then quickly compose myself. “Of course. Yes. Thank you.”

  I turn to leave, then stop and whip back around.

  “Now what,” my father muses.

  “When I was born,” I begin, cautiously. “And you searched for my anima mate... what would have happened if you’d found him? Would you have taken him away from his family? Killed the parents?”

  He scoffs. “Trinity, that’s absurd. I wouldn’t do such a thing!”

  I hold up my hands. “I was just thinking about it. If you wanted to keep me a secret, why would you even want to find my anima mate?”

  “Because Hyde discovered your birth time. Then his rebels hacked into the program that stores birth records,” my father explains. “If you had an anima mate, he would have been found. Hyde is sick. Who knows what he would have done with that information? Thankfully, there was no one.”

  A tinge of deception nips at my brain. It was quick, and I search my father’s thoughts, yet I'm once again met with a mental barricade. What I do know is that he’s lying to me.

  “Well, for your information, Julian is my anima mate.” Anger fills my voice. “His mother forged the birth time on his certificate. Her virtue was sight, and she had a vision that the Royal Guard took Julian away then killed her. So, if the order to kill her wasn’t from you, who would it have been from?”

  “You’re talking about something that never happened.”

  That palpable deceit I felt earlier now overtaking my heart. It’s like a bad case of heartburn.

  “Dad?” I cry.

  “Yes, I would have ordered her death,” he responds quietly. “If we had found out Julian was your anima mate, we could not have taken chances to let the parents live. What if Hyde had discovered this information? He could have used them for leverage.”

  My eyes fill with tears. I scoff and turn on my heel to leave.

  “Trinity, wait!”

  I don’t stop. I close the door behind me as if that would amplify my anger. I mean, it couldn’t hurt. Now would have been the perfect time to have my mother by my side. She could hug me and comfort me, letting me know everything would be all right.

  Will it be?

  My body is exhausted. Either from my twenty-four-hour long nap, the anxiety of Hyde’s trial, or the fact that my soul mate hates my guts. All I want to do is go back to bed. I don’t care that I just woke up a few hours ago. Despite my urge to sleep away my troubles, I can’t let another minute pass without trying to clear things up with Julian. He is my anima mate, and I’m not letting this come between us.

  Chapter 17

  I stand at the end of the road leading to Julian’s home. The driver parks the car at the side of the road and leans against the side. Dallas gets out and stays close but gives me my space. They’re both entertained by my inner battle. Do I walk down the long driveway and confront Julian? Do I stay there and hope Julian comes to me? What if he yells at me again and uses his virtues to keep me away? Seeing that side of Julian was unnerving. I know everyone has dark moments in their life. Moments when their haunted souls escape, even if it’s just for a few seconds. That letter from Julian’s mother awakened his demons, and I had a huge target on my forehead. I should be running away, but now is when he needs me the most.

  The peaceful, bright sunny day keeps my nerves calm, yet my head feels as if it’s about to explode. Birds chirp beautiful songs that I longed to record and play back at night to put me to sleep. A light breeze fans across my face, and I close my eyes, inhaling the intoxicating scents of pine and virgin air. One thing Angor got right, no pollution. At least, not what I've seen.

  What do you want, Trinity?

  A voice pops into my head. It's Julian’s voice. I frantically scan my surroundings, my heart racing to find him. But he’s nowhere. How?

  Please, come talk to me.

  Silence from Julian stabs at my chest. I'm being tortured with his presence. Every part of me wants to hold him, kiss him, let him inside me both mentally and physically. Yet, all I'm getting from Julian is hostility and disgust. Is this the end of us? I thought the anima mate would be stronger.

  “The anima mate can be broken by betrayal and distrust,” Julian says, this time appearing from around a line of trees. He stands far away, at least twelve feet. He crosses his arms as if protecting himself from me.

  “I didn’t do anything. You have to know that.” Tears claim my voice.

  “Everything that’s gone wrong in my life is because of you. My father dying, my mother going into a depression after he was gone was all so you
could live.”

  “Do you wish I never existed?”

  Julian closes his eyes. His face contorts with pain, fear, and regret. I reach out to him mentally. I want to feel every emotion running through his veins. But he’s quick to wipe it all away and throw up shields. “I just wish you existed under different circumstances.”

  My heart drops to my feet. I can barely get out the next words. “What does that mean, Julian? That you no longer wish to be with me?”

  Julian’s jaw clenches. He drops his arms to his side, sighing with his entire body. “It means I need to figure some things out.”

  I shake my head in disbelief. I walk to Julian, expecting him to move away from me, but he doesn’t. I take his balled-up fist in my hand, unfurling it to weave my fingers with his. “I am your anima mate. I will wait for however long you need.”

  And, with that, I flood Julian’s mind with memories from the past week. The moment he walked into my hospital room and made the hairs on my arms stand on end. When he smiled at my stupid quips and pop culture references. The cupcake on our birthday and the kiss. The waterfall and the mural in Nashville. Me using my healing virtue to save him and the moment we completed the anima mate.

  I send one final thought mentally from my brain to his.

  I would give my life for you.

  Then, I leave him standing in the middle of his dirt driveway.

  Hyde’s trial begins in ten minutes. I walk into the courtroom behind my father. The space is packed with people rocking designer dresses and suits and hair styled as if they were heading to the red carpet of an awards show or movie premiere. It reminds me eerily of Capitol fashion from The Hunger Games. All they needed were brighter outfits, outrageous hats, and caked-on makeup.

  “Trinity!” a familiar voice calls out. I scan the room until my eyes land up on the most handsome former crush a girl could have.

  “Shiloh!”

  He’s on the other side of the room, so I weave through the gallery seats, tripping over knees and trying not to step on feet. As I approach him, I see he’s wearing a light purple, long-sleeved dress shirt, and simple black dress pants. I'd only seen him dressed up like that a handful of times when he was doing press for his UFC fights a few years back.

  “Mi amiga!” Shiloh says, pulling me into a strong hug.

  I gently push him away and look him up and down. “How are you feeling?”

  “Amazing. Don’t you worry about me. My wound will be a scar this time next week.” Shiloh wipes away a single tear that I didn’t even realize escaped my right eye. He takes my arm and walks me along the side of the gallery seats. “What I want to know is how you’re loving Angor now that you’re back. And how’s Julian? Where is he?”

  My face drops. I try to cover my disappointment with a fake smile, but Shiloh doesn’t miss a thing.

  “What happened?”

  “We're taking a break. It’s a long story.”

  I'm thankful that Skyler walks up to us at that moment because I did not want to explain my romance worries to my former crush. Skyler beams the moment he spots me.

  “Your Grace!” He gives me a hug, possibly stronger than the one I got from Shiloh. After releasing me, he takes Shiloh’s hand. “I wanted to thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “You talked me down from a ledge after the blast in Memphis. I was about to lose my mind. It’s crazy. No matter how much I trained for battle, nothing could have prepared me for getting blown up and having a handsome hero save me.”

  He rubs Shiloh’s arm, and Shiloh blushes. Shiloh, shy? I would have never thought it could happen. That boy is smitten.

  “Anyways, I got overwhelmed, and I shouldn’t have.”

  We start walking along the rows of bench seats.

  “You have nothing to apologize about. You reacted justly to an intense situation. It means you’re human. Or Angorian.”

  We stop at the back row. Shiloh rubs my shoulder.

  “I’m glad we got to see you today. We should go out for drinks tonight.”

  “I would love that.”

  The two sit down. I give them a tiny wave before heading back over to the other side where my father stands, talking to Reed, Chanel, and Chad. Reed and Chad wear suits, and I have to say, they clean up nice. If I were looking through a fashion magazine, I'd surely find them on the pages. Reed’s short yet shaggy pitch-black hair is slicked back, and his muscles struggle to break free from the fabric of his outfit. Chad, while slimmer, still rocks his suit. He's giving me power-hungry businessman vibes. And Chanel has ditched her typical leather for a form-fitting wrap dress. I mean, it’s still black because that’s her go-to color, but she looks so sexy. Julian who?

  “I thought I said to stay by my side?” my father warns.

  I shrink into my shoulders. “Sorry.”

  Chanel puts her arm around me as if that could protect me from my father’s wrath. I expected more berating from him, but he’s already distracted, walking off to talk to a fat man wearing black suspenders and a white long-sleeved dress shirt.

  “So, I was thinking,” Chanel begins. “You should join the Royal Guard.”

  My mouth drops open. “Oh. Wow. Really?”

  “Hell, yeah, Chicka. With those powerful virtues? You'd be like, our secret weapon. Of course, now that Hyde is basically a dead man and the number of his rebel following dwindles every day, there may not even be any battles to fight for a while.”

  “But there are still rebels out there?”

  “Not many. They're slowly starting to turn themselves in, with no leader to follow,” Reed adds.

  Chad, who sits in the row behind, leans forward in between me and Chanel. “We still have teams out there looking, not only here on Angor, but on earth. And there’s always the chance of sleeper cells. We could search for decades and still have a few emerge over the next few years.”

  I shudder at the thought. I knew I would never be allowed to roam Angor on my own. There would always be a bodyguard or two trailing me. I wondered if I could pick my own protectors. Dallas is cool and all, but he’s going to need a break every once in a while. And I wouldn’t want some grumpy older man tagging along while I'm shopping for outfits or exploring the woods. Or even going on a date to the movies. Ugh. Dates. Why did that even pop into my head? Julian and I are having a fight. We didn’t break up. I don’t think. I scan the courtroom, hoping I'd spot his beautiful, flawless face. He's not here. After all that’s happened, I suppose this is the last thing he needs adding to his stress. I close my eyes and reach my mind to find him. I get nothing. He must have found a way to turn it off. Is that even possible? Does my connection to him work like the find my phone feature? Can it be turned off when one person is mad and doesn’t want to be found? Panic drips into my veins. Something is wrong. An overwhelming dread lingers over my head.

  I’m seconds away from leaving to find Julian until an older woman with shoulder-length salt and pepper hair enters the room. She’s dressed in a silver suit with three black lines on one side. I'm surprised it’s the judge. I was expecting the black robe like on Earth. I suppose not everything is the same in the two worlds. She carries a fat manilla folder stuffed with piles of papers. She sets it down on the stand, which is elevated at the front of the room. Two security guards dressed in full-on riot gear and carrying massive machine guns stand on either side of her.

  Attendees slowly make their way to their seats. A silence has blanketed the room, and the tension slowly crawls down my neck. I’m able to throw up barriers to avoid the onslaught of emotions from overtaking me. I'd practiced that all night, knowing just how intense today would be.

  Once the judge is sat, Hyde is escorted into the room. He's surrounded by six Royal Guards, all wearing head to toe armor and holding those all-too-familiar futuristic guns I’d seen over the past week. Hyde’s hands are in shackles, and he wears a muzzle like Hannibal Lector, and I shiver, remembering how many nightmares that movie gave me when I snuck into the living
room as a kid to watch it on television one night. He glances over his shoulder and spots me sitting in between Chanel and my father. He snarls his teeth at me through the small opening of the muzzle before the chunky man standing next to him, the same man who was previously talking to my father, shakes his head no. He must be Hyde's lawyer.

  “To the attendees of today’s sentencing,” the judge begins. Her voice commands the room and gives me goosebumps. “Before us today is Hyde de Reux, son of the late King of Angor, Dominic de Reux, and Queen May. Brother of King Elijah. Hyde de Reux, due to the overwhelming evidence gathered over the past few days and frankly the past eighteen years, the courts of Angor are convicting you of murder, attempted murder, treason, and terrorism.”

  The judge pauses, and it’s so quiet at that very moment, I swear I hear the heartbeats of nearly every person in the room. I hold my breath, waiting on the judge’s next words.

  "Today, I am announcing that you will be sentenced to death.”

  The room erupts with cheers, and that breath I was holding slowly escapes my mouth. I feel Chanel’s hand clutch my knee, and she holds her chest with the other, overcome with relief. My father closes his eyes, and I sense satisfaction from him with a side of anguish. I dip into his head, surprised the barrier is gone. A memory flashes briefly of my father and uncle playing with toy swords in a park. I never had the chance to know Hyde as my uncle. I had absolutely no emotional connection to the psychopath, but he was my father’s brother. He grew up with him and was probably his best friend. I can’t even imagine having family, your own blood, turn on you like that.

  “Silence, please!” the judge says, raising her voice over the chaos. “Hyde, your execution date has been set for one week from today. Court is adjourned.”

  The judge is about to strike her gavel when the double doors at the back fly open. A team of Royal Guards shuffle in, and gasps fill the air in reaction to the unexpected court attendees. My father stands.

  “What is the reason for this interruption?” my father barks.

  “King Elijah, a word,” the lead man says, panic encompassing his voice.