Oaken (The Underground Series Book 1)

by Melody Robinette

  He felt that gravitational pull somewhere within the region of his chest.

  “I think I’m experiencing déjà vu,” she said.

  “Oh, you just wait,” Avery said and laughed as Autumn swung easily onto Knight’s back, something that still impressed him.

  It was much colder this time around than it had been the last time he took her to Fay Fairy Forest. Avery felt Autumn bury her face in his warm back and wrap her arms tightly around him to keep from shivering too badly. He smiled to himself.

  They soon landed roughly on the ground, immediately engulfed in warmth of the hundreds of thousands of fay fairies surrounding them.

  “I had a feeling this is where you were taking me,” Autumn said as Avery pulled her off of Knight’s back. He knew she could have managed to get down herself, of course, but he didn’t want to miss the chance of wrapping her in his arms. He watched as she closed her eyes and smiled as the fay light kissed her porcelain face.

  Avery pressed his lips to hers and she kissed him softly back, the ghost of her smile still lingering. Pulling slowly away, he looked into her hazel eyes, piercing them with his gaze. His lips turned up at the corners as he pulled a flawless red rose from out of his jacket. He could feel his fingers shaking and hoped she wouldn’t notice. Autumn’s eyes widened as she focused on the perfect flower and then flashed up to his. He took a breath and said the words he had been reciting over and over in his head for the past few days.

  “Autumn, I am so in love with you. I’ve never felt this way about anyone in my life, nor did I think that I ever could. You’re everything to me and I can’t imagine a world—Underground or otherwise—without you in it. Will you accept my rose?”

  AUTUMN looked at the rose in Avery’s hand, which was shaking slightly. Not long ago she had returned a rose to Victor, but this one seemed different. It had a warm glow about it. Its petals were a beautiful ruby red and its stem an emerald green, but this gift was far more precious than either of those stones. Reaching out, Autumn took the rose gently from him and pulled it to her chest, pressing it against her heart.

  “Of course,” she whispered, looking up at him through her lashes. His eyes sparkled at her words and he pulled her into a tight embrace. Autumn moved the rose so as not to crush it, though she knew that nothing could or would ever be able to damage this.

  They returned to Arbor Castle as the sun broke over the horizon. Everything about this night would forever be etched into her mind: the fay fairies dancing around them as she and Avery lay under the same tree where they’d shared their first kiss, the way he held her so tightly, as if he never wanted to let her go, the smell of the forest, the look in Avery’s eyes as she inhaled the sweet aroma of their rose. Their rose.

  Knight landed lightly on Autumn’s balcony and Avery turned to look at her over his shoulder. Leaning forward, she kissed him deeply before sliding off of Knight’s back.

  “Goodnight, Autumn.”

  “Good morning,” she corrected him. He turned to look at the orange and pink sky and laughed.

  “Good morning, then,” he said as Knight leapt off of her balcony and glided to the castle stables. Autumn sighed contentedly as she slipped into her room and turned to close her balcony doors.

  “Good morning, Autumn.”

  Autumn froze where she stood and slowly turned to see Luke and Crystal standing in her bedroom with their arms folded across their chests. Autumn’s mouth fell open at the sight of them.

  “Wh—what are you guys doing in here?” she said.

  Luke glanced at the rose in Autumn’s hand and raised an eyebrow at her. Crystal frowned at the rose. “I believe the question is: What were you doing out there?”

  “I was just—” Autumn began, but then stopped, not knowing what to say.

  “Nice rose you got there,” Luke spoke up.

  Autumn held it tightly in her hand, the thorns cutting into her skin.

  “I thought you said you returned Victor’s rose,” Crystal said.

  “I did,” Autumn muttered.

  “Then what are you doing with a new one? How else would you be in possession of a red rose?” Luke asked, feigning stupidity. Autumn glared at him and he continued speaking. “It couldn’t possibly be from a certain elf who you’ve been forbidden to see by your one and only grandfather, could it?”

  Autumn looked at him through narrowed eyes. “What if it is?”

  “Then we will be forced to tell Olympus,” Luke stated.

  Crystal nodded in agreement.

  “What?” Autumn exclaimed, her mouth dropping open.

  Then Luke and Crystal exchanged a glance and doubled over in hysterical laughter. Autumn stared at them, dumbstruck.

  “What the hell, you guys,” she said.

  “You should have seen your face,” Luke said, gasping for breath. Crystal wiped away tears of laughter.

  “I hate both of you,” Autumn grumbled.

  “No you don’t,” Crystal said, sitting on the canopy bed.

  “How did you find out?” Autumn asked.

  “I heard you two from my balcony earlier. I couldn’t sleep and I was just sitting out there when I heard Knight land on your balcony. Then I watched you two fly off,” Luke said.

  “Luke came and woke me up to tell me what he’d heard. So, we decided to wait for you here,” Crystal said smiling innocently.

  “So, you’re not mad?” Autumn asked Luke.

  “Nah. If anything, I’m proud,” Luke said. “It’s about time you started breaking the rules a bit.”

  “I don’t see why you didn’t tell us, though,” Crystal added.

  Autumn gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry. I just figured it would be easier to keep secret if it was just between Avery and me.”

  “Well, we both kind of suspected that something was going on between you two,” Luke said and Crystal nodded.

  “I thought you might,” Autumn admitted. “But I just wanted to wait until the right time to tell you.”

  “You mean now that you’re seeing only Avery and not Avery and Victor?” Luke smirked.

  Autumn sighed as she climbed onto her bed to explain in detail the whole story behind her little love triangle situation. Luke rolled his eyes as she told him why she’d stayed with Victor for so long.

  “So you could help him?” Luke said. “Come on, Rose. You need to stop with the ‘I must help everyone whether they ask for it or not’ mentality. Some people are just beyond help.”

  “That’s what Avery said about Victor,” Autumn said with a frown.

  “Avery’s right,” Crystal agreed.

  “I know,” Autumn said.

  “Don’t worry. You did what you could,” Luke said, taking in her downcast expression.

  “I know that too,” she said with a small smile. “Thanks, guys. I’m glad you know about everything now. I hate keeping secrets.” Her fingers absentmindedly grazed her neck.

  “Do you want to go down to breakfast?” Crystal asked.

  “I want to go to sl—sl—sleep,” Autumn said through a yawn.

  Luke and Crystal laughed and moved to leave.

  “Oh, don’t tell Avery that we know,” Luke said from her bedroom doorway. “We want to mess with him too.”

  Autumn smiled slyly and said, “I think I know how to accomplish that.”

  She met Luke and Crystal in the dining room for lunch and Avery joined them, looking quite tired. Crystal smiled into her napkin and Luke cleared his throat as Avery sat beside Autumn.

  “We missed you two at breakfast,” Luke said.

  Autumn pretended to look embarrassed, not making eye contact with Luke. “I was really tired from Warrior training yesterday,” she said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Avery said.

  Luke winked at her as Avery took a big gulp of cider. Autumn had to repress a laugh.

  “Oh, Autumn,” Luke said. “I forgot to tell you that Olympus wants to talk to us tonight.”

  “About what?” she asked, sounding serious
.

  “I’m not sure. The servant elf that told me said something about reviewing the castle rules or something,” he said, taking a bite of toast.

  Avery’s eyes widened as he shot her a sidelong glance. She gave him a nervous look.

  “Did you guys hear something weird last night?” Luke asked them.

  “Like what?” Avery said.

  “Like loud thumping noises,” Luke said.

  Avery coughed and Autumn said, “No, I didn’t hear anything like that.”

  “That’s weird,” Luke said, stroking his chin in apparent thought. “It was around midnight or so. I could’ve sworn I heard voices too.”

  “Voices?” Autumn said.

  “Yeah,” Luke said. “I think we should talk to Olympus about increasing security outside our branches. Anyone could get to them if they wanted to.”

  Avery frowned down at his plate and Autumn and Crystal exchanged humorous glances. Luke may have been an even better actor than Autumn.

  “You still have guard duty three times a week, right Avery?” Luke asked.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I overheard Olympus talking with some elves about having to hire a new guard as soon as possible.”

  Avery swallowed heavily and stared with wide eyes at Luke. “Really?” he said.

  As a look of fear passed across Avery’s face, Autumn decided she had to stop this. Leaning over, she kissed him gently on the cheek. His eyes widened in surprise and his mouth dropped as he looked from Luke to Crystal, who were both wearing sly smirks.

  “What the—” he began and then his eyes narrowed as he took in Luke’s wide grin. “When did you find out,” Avery said dully. Luke, Crystal and Autumn burst out laughing.

  “Last night,” Crystal said.

  Avery turned to Autumn in question. “I didn’t tell them,” she said, raising her hands in defense.

  “I heard you two love birds last night on Autumn’s balcony,” Luke said.

  “I hate you guys,” Avery said, evoking another round of hysterical laughter.

  The Pact

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  “Get up, Oaken! Five days until the Warrior Trial! This is no time to give in to weakness!” Atticus shouted at Autumn after she had collapsed for the third time while attempting to fight off Jastin’s Power. Atticus had broken up the partners and paired each of them off with their biggest threats in the group. Jastin was the only other Initiate with a mental Power and was the only one who could easily defeat Autumn.

  “Again, Lambert!” Atticus commanded Jastin, who was clenching his jaw in irritation. He hated using his Power against anyone who didn’t deserve it. While Autumn couldn’t physically feel any pain, the emotional pain that his Power brought about was far more scarring.

  Jastin took a deep breath and Autumn braced herself for the wave of intense emotions that was about to hit her.

  Suddenly her vision blacked out again and she was standing outside of her house in Texas and seeing it surrounded by yellow crime scene tape, hearing the sound of police sirens, seeing the EMTs rolling the bodies of her parents out of her house, hearing her screams as the weight of what had happened crashed over her, being told to calm down by the unfeeling police woman.

  The vision changed, flashing to Autumn rocking back and forth in her bedroom in Ireland, a hollow feeling in her chest as she pressed a picture of her mom and dad against her heart, trying desperately to heal it.

  Flash to Luke breaking down in her arms on the anniversary of their parents’ deaths and Autumn had had enough.

  Opening her mouth, she shot a jet of angry Song at Jastin, causing the images to stop flashing through her mind. She collapsed onto the ground, chest heaving and hot tears falling down her face. She wiped them away, angrily.

  “Better,” Atticus said. “Now once more, but faster this time.”

  “No,” Luke said from a few feet away, glaring at Atticus.

  “It’s fine, Luke,” Autumn said in a tone of warning.

  “He’s right,” Avery said, approaching them looking furious and tortured all at once. “That’s enough.”

  Atticus looked wearily from Luke to Avery, thinking this through. “Very well. Autumn, pair up with Kyndel. Jastin, with Luke.”

  Luke frowned at this, but said nothing. “No, not Luke,” Autumn protested, knowing he would see the same horrible images that she had. Jastin looked miserably at the ground.

  “It’s okay, Rose. I can handle it,” Luke said.

  Autumn stared at him with a troubled expression and he looked resolutely back at her before she submitted and stalked over to Kyndel, who surprisingly didn’t make a rude comment about having to partner up with Autumn.

  “Let’s just get started,” Autumn said.

  Kyndel nodded silently, but didn’t disappear. Autumn waved a hand for Kyndel to go ahead, but she simply looked at her with an interested expression.

  “What are you doing?” Autumn asked, frustrated.

  “What do you see?” Kyndel asked quietly.

  Autumn frowned at this. “What?”

  “What do you see when Jastin uses his Power on you,” Kyndel clarified. Autumn took a deep breath and sighed before telling her exactly what she saw in a dull, monotonous tone. When she finished, Kyndel was looking at Autumn with wide eyes. “Oh,” she said.

  They stood there in silence for a bit before Autumn said, “What do you see?” Kyndel’s wide eyes turned angry.

  “Let’s just get started,” she hissed, as if Autumn was the one who started all of this talk. Autumn raised her eyebrows at this, but decided to comply. She didn’t even think she wanted to know what Kyndel saw anyway. Probably a bad hair day or something.

  Atticus trained the Initiates harder than ever this week in preparation for the Warrior Trial. They all knew that he was trying to help them and that he didn’t want to lose any of them in this dangerous task, but they couldn’t help but feel a bit overworked.

  Luke had fared much better than Autumn when Jastin used his Power on him, but he was uncharacteristically silent all Monday evening.

  On Thursday Atticus brought in the new Tetra Warriors for the Initiates to fight against. A few of them were extremely intimidating and unsympathetic, though some were down to earth and friendly. They’d been in this exact position five years ago, and they had made it through their Warrior Trial alive. Autumn knew there was no way they were going to go easy on them today.

  For some reason Autumn always thought of the rest of the Warriors as much older, but she kept forgetting that the Tetra Warriors were only five years older than them, all around the age of 22 or 23. They looked at the Initiates as if they were a bunch of immature children, which some of them were.

  As Atticus introduced them, Autumn recognized Candi, the Warrior that she’d gone up against during the Warrior Test. She shot Autumn a malicious look, like she wanted to get even with her for breaking her nose. Well, Autumn beat her once. She could do it again.

  Lucky for Candi, though, Autumn was paired with someone else, a slender elf with platinum blonde hair named Eden. She sort of reminded Autumn of an older Crystal with her slight frame and long blonde hair, but Eden’s eyes were a mint green color and she was not quite as tall. Her power was Silence, which proved to be quite a problem for Autumn. As she opened her mouth to shoot a jet of Song at her, Eden immediately raised her hand and Autumn was unable to produce any sound.

  After being silenced for the fifth time, Autumn decided to give up on using her Power against the Warrior and charged forward to attack. Eden was not expecting this and tumbled to the ground as Autumn pounced on her, pinning her to the ground in a matter of seconds. Atticus gave her an approving nod and Autumn smiled in satisfaction as she let Eden go.

  “You’re quite a fighter,” Eden said, dusting herself off but looking impressed.

  Autumn smiled in recognition, attempting to look as if this wasn’t news to her, but secretly feeling quite pleased. They fought again, and Autumn managed to pin
her three out of five times. Their chests heaving, Autumn and Eden took a short break from attacking one another to watch the others.

  Avery was paired up with a big hulking Warrior with chocolate colored skin named Boone. He had a loud, jolly laugh and was a lot kinder than he looked. His Power was Earthquakes. Avery managed to reach him across the trembling ground and pinned him in seconds using his Strength.

  Luke was paired with Jack, who had the power of a Tornado, leaving a path of destruction everywhere he went. Luke was able to conjure a tornado as well, but it was not quite as powerful or destructive as Jack’s, so Luke struggled to overpower him.

  Crystal fought against Willow, a brunette with colorless eyes whose Power was the ability to morph into animals. Right now she was in the form of a penguin, wearing an expression that looked suspiciously like a sly grin. Crystal’s ice had no effect on Willow in this form. The Willow penguin slid lazily around on the random patches of ice.

  Kyndel was paired with Thaddeus, whose Power was the ability to slice through solid objects like a knife. Kyndel used her Power of Invisibility to avoid being hit. There were a number of slashes in the surrounding trees and rocks, where Thaddeus had missed her.

  Autumn watched with interest as Victor battled against a female Tetra called Nyx, whose power was Darkness. They were each trying to overpower the other, Darkness against Light. Autumn secretly hoped Victor would win simply because she thought light should always conquer darkness.

  Forrest was becoming increasingly frustrated with his pairing. Killian, a red headed Tetra, had the power of Persuasion and was confusing the many animals that Forrest had called to his aid. While Killian could not understand the animals, he was able to persuade them not to attack him. Forrest was not used to his animals listening to someone other than him and glared at Killian in frustration.