They looked extremely alike. They were practically the same height, maybe only an inch difference, and both had the same black hair, only Rydan’s had a tint of red in the sunlight while Mycah’s tinted blue. Their faces were slightly different but still had similar angular features and matching masculine full lips.
“I’m not. And you know it,” Mycah seethed, clenching his own jaw and fists. And although he wasn’t speaking to me, I did know it. Right then and there, I felt the truth of his words to my very core. I thought a deep part of my subconscious always knew Mycah wasn’t human, but I just never could let myself dwell on it or focus on the distant thought. Like I couldn’t let myself believe it could possibly be true. But it was. Mycah was a Night Elf. And so was Rydan. Whatever the heck that meant...
“Your parents are Darren and Anna O’Malley?” Rydan asked skeptically. He wasn’t known for being gullible.
“No. They are not. And neither are they yours.” Mycah walked closer to us, but still kept his distance.
“I don’t believe you,” Rydan snarled, stepping back.
“I know what you keep tucked under your shirt.” Mycah pointed to Rydan’s silver necklace he always wore. Rydan looked down at his chest and then back up to Mycah with his eyebrows pulled together. “You see brother, I know, because I have one too.” Mycah pulled a silver skeleton key from his pocket and held it up in the air for Rydan to see.
I recognized it immediately. A long time ago Rydan showed me what he kept on his silver chain but usually stayed hidden under his shirt. It was a small antique-looking key made of silver, and inscribed on it was just his name—Rydan Cael. It was beautiful. He never said where he got it or what it meant to him. But, I also never asked.
Now I stared at the exact same key, only it wasn't on Rydan’s chain, it was sitting precariously between Mycah’s fingers.
Rydan quickly pulled the chain out from under his shirt and squeezed the small key. He still had his, and Mycah had one. I walked over to Mycah so I could get a better look.
“If I’m not mistaken, yours reads Rydan Cael on the side.” Mycah turned his key horizontally. “Mine reads Remycah Avel.”
“Where did you get that?” Rydan inquired with a small voice.
“My guardian Ender gave it to me. You and I were separated when you were just a baby, but that was left with you, like it rightly should have been. These keys belong to something extremely important to both you and me.”
Rydan didn’t make any attempts to move from the spot he planted his feet and stayed silent. He couldn’t take his eyes off that key Mycah held in his fingers.
“Rydan, brother, we have to go back. Now that I’ve found the way, we have to go home. They’ve been calling for us,” Mycah entreated, his clipped English accent enunciating each syllable. I felt dizzy and put a hand to my head in an effort to stop the spinning. I had to sit down again, worried that at any minute I would be sick and spiral out of control.
I couldn’t even imagine losing either of them, and especially not both of them. Go home? No…please…I felt the words in my mouth but was unable to speak.
And before anything else could be said or done, a whooshing sound shot through the air, and stuck in Mycah’s chest was a wooden arrow dripping with blood.
I grabbed the sides of my head and let out a tortured scream that I didn’t even recognize as my own and watched with horror as Mycah dropped to his knees.
“Rydan, kill him,” he beseeched his brother through choked breaths and a barely audible voice but with such intensity that Rydan immediately worked to obey.
Mycah fell over completely, grabbing at the arrow. It looked like it punctured exactly where his heart should be, and as I shook violently, I knew this was the end. Thoughts of my mother’s mangled body and me utterly helpless to do anything about it to take away her suffering flashed before my eyes.
Not again...No, please, not again.
Rydan ripped the arrow out from behind Mycah’s back, and it took all my strength not to pass out from the sickening sound of ripping flesh and the rusty smell of blood that wafted up my nose. He ran to the bow I didn’t notice he dropped before and shot at some spot in the forest I wasn’t able to see. And quite frankly, I couldn’t bring myself to care. I turned back to Mycah, wholly stricken with shock and anguish.
I fell over on top of his chest and clung to him with every ounce of strength I conjured up and sobbed uncontrollably. I didn’t care that he was a different species than me. I didn’t care that he was what I once thought was only a fictional character in only the wildest imaginations. He was Mycah. And I loved him.
His hot blood soaked my clothes and body. I could hear his heartbeat slowing down and fading away, fueling my utter sorrow. I never got to tell him how I felt about him. I never got to say how much my soul needed him, how much it was connected to him or how much he meant to me and completed me. How much my love for him consumed me.
I pulled him to my body, desperate to get close, as my streaming tears fell into his chest. I kissed his face, his neck, his hands, his eyes, and every spot in my immediate reach.
The words and intimate feelings I had desperately wanted to share with him only moments before now burned in my heart and back of my throat, never finding their release. Mycah would never hear me say those three little words.
After a second, I could no longer hear his heart beating or feel him breathing and immediately fell into a new wave of hysteria. He was gone.
“No, no, no,” I cried over and over, wailing in his chest and rocking back and forth with him held tightly against my body. Why was I so worthless? Why did I have to keep sitting idly by while my loved ones suffered right in front of me? The first love of my life, and now he was dead. I could never, ever feel love like this again.
“Nari, he’s dead,” I faintly heard Rydan’s voice, and as he tried to pull me away from Mycah’s lifeless body, I squeezed harder, refusing to let go. I wouldn’t leave him. I couldn’t leave him.
“Nari, look!” Rydan inhaled sharply, but I didn’t care. “What is that?!”
I had no interest in anything else and continued to ignore him. I didn’t care if it was an alien ship landing, ready to annihilate the planet. I welcomed death now, knowing life would never be the same for me anyway.
At the sound of a strong heart coming to life and beating wildly beneath me, I sucked in air and stopped breathing to listen. I slowly lifted my head off Mycah’s blood-soaked chest and was stunned by the glowing light that emanated from both Mycah’s body and my own.
And then my heart plunged into my stomach as I watched him slowly open his colorful blue eyes and stare back into mine.
Chapter Forty-Seven
~Naminé~
His fingers were interlocked with mine as we stood side by side overlooking Castle Edhel-N’dor.
Something had changed since we last met in our dreams. He suddenly seemed more aware of our surroundings and appeared to be in sheer amazement of the scenery around us. Every now and then he glanced at the castle glaring in the distance and then slowly shook his head, as if trying to decipher something.
I was startled, as all of a sudden I sensed a burst of strength coming from Calen, and seemingly out of nowhere I saw a beautiful deep red phoenix flying above, ready to swoop down near us. I clutched my racing heart and exclaimed, “Calen!” It felt amazing to lay my eyes on her once again, and oh how I loved to watch her fly. But how?
Suddenly, the strong hand in mine clenched tighter, and as I turned to him, his angelic eyes stared intently into mine.
“I…I heard you,” I heard him say. My eyes widened at the realization of his words. His words….
“You can hear me?” I asked softly. I could not comprehend what was happening.
“Yes, but how? I could never hear you before.” He turned to me with a smile and softly stroked my cheek.
“I honestly do not know.” I smiled back at him. His touch was warm and gentle, and I basked in his sweet gesture.
> Jarringly, without any warning at all, my head started to hurt, and I could sense Calen’s power diminishing. I could no longer see her. I felt the familiar pain in the left side of my temple…Oh no! Not now…
I turned at him with a look of utter horror as I felt myself slipping away from him. Somehow, it felt different this time. Something was wrong. I felt a sense of unease deep in my being.
As I started to see darkness creeping in the corners of my mind, the place that held us here, I reached toward him and held his hands tightly, and said…
“Rydan, please come home!”
Epilogue
“It was…a g…girl, Your Majesty. She…she healed him.” The servant cringed back, waiting for the violent and hateful reaction of his King upon failing their mission, yet again.
The false King snapped his head toward his lowly servant in disbelief. Surely, the fool was lying.
“Then how did you escape?” the King asked incredulously.
“I hid and waited for them to leave, Your Highness. I had him, he was dead. But…but…the girl…she healed him, right there! They then knew my position and I could not risk another shot.” The servant reluctantly looked into the eyes of his Master. “They were both there, Your Majesty. I felt it was most pertinent to relay what I witnessed to you.” The servant then bowed deeper until his nose touched the ground, praying for mercy. He recalled what his Master had said would happen if he failed. But he hadn’t failed.
The King’s expression grew dark and menacing. Both...together? How…accommodating, he thought with a malefic smile.
“Who was the girl, N’taurn?” the King said as he walked up to the prostrated, quivering servant.
“I…do not…know,” said N’taurn as he slowly looked up. “I have never beheld her before…Your Majesty.”
“Worry not, you fool. They will come to me now. Yes, it is most certain, indeed. They are much too close to not.” The false King let out a dark, sinister laugh as he clasped his hands together.
“This newfound Healer will most certainly be mine.”
Sweet Escape
(Sweet Series, Book Two)
by Bailey Ardisone
Copyright © 2013 Bailey Ardisone
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
www.BaileyArdisone.com
Cover art created by Bailey Ardisone
All rights reserved.
Editing services provided by:
Mallory Danielle
Rare Bird Editing
Elvish language sources: www.grey-company.org, www.bladesofanarion.net, and J.R.R. Tolkien.
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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting and supporting the hard work of this author.
To lovers of all things Tolkien, and anyone who loves an adventure - May this give you courage, because even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
And for my Mary - because you were my first.
Prologue
I quickly clasped a hand tightly over my mouth to hold in a scream. It was there; it happened, but I clamped my jaw closed so the sound couldn’t escape.
“What in the world just happened?” I breathed out, just a hair above an audible sound. I stared wide-eyed into Mycah’s ocean blue eyes. Those ocean blue eyes—that were very much alive—stared right back into mine.
Only his weren’t wide like mine. His weren’t bugging out of his head from utter shock, like I was positive mine must have been doing. He looked...like he knew exactly how that happened. Which I guessed he probably did. But I didn’t. I mean—he died. He was dead. Wasn’t he?
“Mycah?” I questioned hesitantly. Yes, I knew he could heal people and all that, but I didn’t understand how he could have healed himself in that condition. Like when one was dead.
“Thank you,” he said with reverence that made my eyebrows pull together. I didn’t understand. Why was he thanking me?
Rydan suddenly bent down and grabbed Mycah, who I still couldn't believe was his long-lost brother, by fistfuls of his bloody, torn up shirt. “Tell me what is going on right this second,” he bit out with way too much menace, making me cringe.
“I will,” Mycah responded with a tightened jaw, matching Rydan’s glare. He stood up, completely back to normal, with no weak knees or shaky legs—nothing. Perfectly normal. I stayed sitting, unmoving, on the grass. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. I felt...drained.
“Did you kill him?” he asked Rydan quickly and earnestly, his English accent popping each word. I wanted to run to him. To relish in the fact that he was actually alive right now, but something was holding me in place. There was no movement from me. It was possible my brain had exploded.
“Umm...no. But I scared him off. I’m not just going to kill someone—are you crazy? Who was he? Why did he shoot a freakin’ arrow at you? No, scratch that. Why did he KILL you? Because that is seriously what just happened right now. He killed you. You were dead. Yet here you stand.” Rydan swept his eyes over Mycah, took a step closer, and then pulled my arm to drag me behind his body away from Mycah, putting himself in between us. But I was sitting down, so the pull had me falling to my side.
I didn’t care. I was too stunned. I still could not speak.
“I wasn’t dead. And we need to leave. Now.” Mycah clenched his fists and discreetly surveyed the area with his eyes—searching all around us for the killer without looking like that’s what he was doing. But I knew. I could tell. And all I could think was, so not like Jason Bourne. More like...Legolas. If I were capable of feeling any emotion other than relief and shock, I’d have laughed.
“I’m not going anywhere. What did you mean we have to go back? What did you mean they're calling us? Who are you? What are you? Because it looked to me that yes, you were indeed dead.” As Rydan’s questions became more intense, his body mimicked his emotions, and he stepped even closer to Mycah as his own fists clenched.
God, they were similar.
Too similar. It freaked me out.
“I can explain. I will explain. But first, we need to get to safety. It is imperative that we get to safety, Rydan. You do not understand,” Mycah whispered, but his voice was filled with force. With authority.
“I’m not moving from this spot until you answer me. How do we go back?” Rydan practically growled.
“Through the Ëlemmiire. Or the Weeping Willow, I mean. It is the last of our sacred gateways. But you do not understand. It will lead us into enemy territory.” As Mycah said those last words, his eyes flickered to mine for just a brief second. “That is why we need to leave and strategize first. We cannot possibly just go walking back into—What do you think you’re doing?!” Mycah grabbed Rydan by his arm when he started walking toward the huge, beautiful Weeping Willow tree. The one I used to feel safe under. The one I used to think of as my true home.
“I don’t believe a word you’re saying! Don’t you get that?! Get your sick hands off me!” Rydan wrenched his arm out of Mycah’s grip and kept walking to the tree.
“You’re an Isil’Elda, Rydan. You’re not human. Don’t you get that?” Mycah followed him. “A very important one, I might add. If you get yourself killed because of your own stupidity, I will be the one our mother blames!”
Rydan whirled around to face Mycah. I was pretty sure I saw steam billowing out of his ears. “A what?! Our moth...” He couldn’t get the word out. He shook his head, running a hand through his messy black hair. “What is wrong with you? Is this some kind
of psychotic joke?”
“Rydan, you can feel it’s true. I know you can. You have a gift. You know you’re different. Don’t you remember me?” Mycah suddenly stopped and looked to the ground, confusion passing over his expression. “Where’s Xavier? When did he leave you?”
“STOP! Just...stop!” Rydan roared and started circling the large trunk of the tree. The cold wind whipped through my hair, stinging my eyes and making me squint. The long, graceful branches pulled toward Rydan. It was a beautiful sight.
“You’re still so incredibly stubborn.” Mycah raked a hand through his own chaotic midnight blue locks, mirroring Rydan’s actions without even realizing it. “Didn’t you see her? Didn’t she try calling you?”
“Who?” Rydan instantly snapped around to face Mycah full on, his expression wild. He waited for Mycah’s answer.
“The Dream Weaver. I do not know her or her name. She’s the one who told me to come here. I’ve been looking for the Lassaira Ëlemmiire for the past eleven years, since our Kingdom’s portal was destroyed. And now I’ve finally found it. But I do not know how our uncle has been able to infiltrate—wait...he’s winning. He must be winning the war.” Mycah’s voice grew quiet and concerned, and again his eyes flashed to mine with pain. “We have to hurry. We have to go back. But not until we come up with a plan. If you and I are captured the moment we pass through, it would be the end for our people.”
“What did she look like?” Rydan spoke so softly I almost missed what he said. I couldn’t understand his expression. He looked crazed.
The Sweet Series Box Set: Books 1-4 Page 31