The Genesis of Evangeline (The Lost Royals Saga Book 1)

by Rachel Jonas

  My gaze shifted left, to the dark-haired girl with her earbuds in hand as she panted, only now realizing the danger she’d been in a moment ago. Maybe realizing I had something to do with the fact that she was still breathing.

  I glanced down and looked myself over—no wounds, no blood, just… me. It didn’t make sense.

  Maddox finally climbed out from the front seat, wiping a trickle of blood from his nose. How was he injured, but I wasn’t?

  He assessed the damage before looking at me. Maybe acknowledging the fact that I, the guy who just stopped a vehicle with his body, didn’t have a single scratch. The only evidence I’d been involved at all, was a tear to the sleeve of my hoodie.

  His lips stammered a bit, but then words came out. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened… I just… Carrie was climbing into the backseat with me and her foot must have moved the gearshift and…” He paused, running shaky hands through his hair as he tried to explain, walking quickly to keep up with Chris, Lucas, and I. They were moving fast, thinking I needed medical attention, but I didn’t.

  Again, I took in all the bright beams of light focused on me and I felt trapped, exposed with no place to run. Easing my arm from Chris’s grasp, I backed away. I didn’t need a doctor, I just wanted to get out of there—away from people, away from their questioning stares.

  I just wanted to be alone.

  “Nick, I know you might think you’re okay, but… we have to get you to the hospital, man. You’re high on adrenaline right now, so you might not feel like anything’s wrong, but… you got hit by a freakin’ truck. There have to be broken bones, internal bleeding… something,” Chris called out behind me, but I didn’t turn to answer. I just ran.

  Hard.

  Fast.

  Faster than I ever had before.

  My body should have been mangled, but instead, I felt stronger than ever before; more alert, more focused. I could even see through the darkness with ease, which I attributed to what Chris said—the overdose of adrenaline—but… it felt like more than that.

  Racing through the woods, I barely even thought about my father’s warning. At the moment, I felt like I was invincible.

  Untouchable.

  Like whoever or whatever was lurking out here was anything but a threat.

  I made it to the gate and ignored the judgmental stares of drivers entering and exiting my neighborhood. Yeah, I was filthy, but that was the least of my worries. I ran the rest of the way home just like I had the four miles from the woods.

  It wasn’t lost on me that I wasn’t tired from running all that way, nor was I struggling for air. None of this made sense. The speed, the power and energy surging through my muscles.

  The second my foot touched the bottom step, my mother’s silhouette darkened the frosted glass of our front door. She snatched it open and the look of panic on her face meant either Chris or Lucas had already called to fill her in on the details of my evening.

  I really, really, wished they hadn’t done that.

  “Nick, we—”

  “I’m fine.” My words cut her off midsentence as I bypassed her at the threshold. I’d come up with some manufactured version of the truth to set her mind at ease once I came up with one, but right now, I couldn’t even explain it to myself.

  Slamming the bathroom door shut behind me after taking the steps two at a time, I started the shower with no intention of getting in. I simply needed time to think. I stood against the door—mind reeling, hands trembling.

  What the heck is wrong with me?

  —

  Chapter Five —

  Nick

  An offbeat bass drum… that’s what it sounded like. But the thump-thump, thump-thump was too familiar a rhythm not to recognize it.

  A heartbeat.

  Her heartbeat.

  I heard it the moment I walked outside the front door and found Evie waiting beside her porch; heard it now, louder than anything else. Every so often, it raced at the same time mine did—when I told her good morning, when my hand brushed hers by accident, when I told her I liked her hair. It was different today. Curly.

  I was me, but… more than me. There was no other way to explain it.

  My phone started blowing up late Saturday night and hadn’t stopped since. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Evie expecting me to walk her this morning, I wouldn’t have even bothered with school. All the text messages went unanswered, all the videos went unopened, because I knew what was on them: images of me, stopping a moving truck as it plowed downhill.

  And now, thanks to social media, it was posted everywhere.

  School would feel more like a circus than anything today, I was sure. Kind of like home felt last night after my dad and brothers returned. They wanted a full recap of what went down and I didn’t feel like reliving it. While most of my classmates were impressed or intrigued now that the initial shock had worn off, I felt differently about it.

  I was terrified.

  Maybe because, for me, it was more than just stopping the truck. It was the sudden, inexplicable strength. It was being able to hear things I shouldn’t have been able to, things distant or subtle like… a pretty girl’s heart beating inside her chest as she walked beside me.

  I glanced over and watched Evie, but only for a few seconds. And in those few seconds, I noticed things about her I hadn’t last time—things my vision probably wasn’t sharp enough to spot before. Like the twinge of a gold hue just beneath the surface of her light-brown skin. Like how, when the wind blew through her hair, it brought her scent my way—an undercurrent of lavender and something else. I inhaled deeper, trying to distinguish it from the otherwise sweet smell.

  It was smoke. Not like the kind that lingers on someone’s clothes after having a cigarette, but actual… smoke.

  Normal people wouldn’t notice the things that now stood out to me. There was nothing impressive about not knowing what the heck was going on inside my body; nothing cool or interesting about having it change in ways I didn’t understand. I’d trade in the superhuman strength, hearing, sight, and speed for normal any day. I didn’t ask for this; didn’t ask to be anything but a regular guy.

  My mind was cloudy and I hated it. The haze was the reason I hadn’t said much to Evie yet, which made for an incredibly awkward hike to school. I wanted so bad to just be in this moment, to only be focused on her. However, my thoughts were split. Half wanting to use this time getting to know her, half being overwhelmed with everything that happened this weekend.

  I had a strong feeling that, whatever was going on with me, wasn’t a phase. It wouldn’t just… pass. It felt like, from here on out, my chances of just being a regular teenager were slim to none.

  A softly spoken, “Have a good weekend?” made me glance to my right where Evie gazed up, only having to tilt her head a little. Her long legs made it so she was closer to eye-level with me than most girls.

  But her question… about my weekend… it wasn’t as easy to answer as she may have thought.

  “It was… okay, I guess.” I quickly flipped the conversation back to her. Didn’t feel much like talking about myself. “How about yours?”

  She stared at the never-ending sidewalk beneath our feet as both hands clutched the straps of the bookbag over her shoulders. She took her time responding, kind of like I did, and it made me wonder if her weekend kind of sucked, too.

  I didn’t know much about her. Only that she lived next door, seemed a little more chill than the other girls at school, and she was beautiful. I mean, incredibly beautiful. We hadn’t shared anything about life at home, so there was no guessing what made her seem kind of sad now. But she definitely did seem sad.

  A vague, “It was okay,” that matched my own response, confirmed what I already suspected.

  I hated how this was going, our walk. It was supposed to be easy and fun, not depressing. More than anything this morning, I wanted to make her feel comfortable here in Seaton Falls; wanted this place to start feeling a little more lik
e home. Switching to a new school senior year, leaving your friends behind, couldn’t have been easy. So, for her, I pushed my other stuff aside, locking it away behind a heavy door in the back of my mind, giving her my full attention.

  “Some friends and I went to the reservoir Saturday. I started to invite you, but didn’t have your number. Nor did I think your parents would appreciate me showing up on your doorstep, asking if you wanted to join us last minute, so…”

  My voice trailed off as I shoved my hands in the pockets of my khakis.

  “Well… I can’t predict how my parents will feel about future, last-minute invitations, but—” The corners of her glossed lips turned upward. “I can at least keep you from having to walk all the way across the yard next time you want me to hang out.” She extended her hand toward me. “Can I see your phone?”

  I pulled it out of my pocket quickly—maybe a little too quickly—bypassing the screen-lock before handing it over. Short, blue-polished fingernails moved quickly over the screen as she punched in her name and number. I smiled a bit to myself, unsure of whether she knew the color was against Seaton Prep’s strict dress code and didn’t care, or if she’d completely overlooked that section of the handbook. Either way, I had a feeling she wouldn’t change it, so I kept that bit of info to myself.

  “There,” she said with a laugh, handing my cell back as hers began to ring. She answered and hung up right away before keying my name into her contacts. “I called myself from yours, so we both have each other’s numbers,” she added. “…and you no longer have an excuse.”

  Those chocolate-colored irises of hers passed over me again and I knew, if I wasn’t careful around her, I could get lost in them very easily. Easier than I cared to admit.

  I made myself look away quickly, forcing my next statement out so there wouldn’t be a lull in conversation. “Have you ever been? To the reservoir, I mean.”

  Evie shook her head and her curls quivered with the movement. “No, not yet. Is it far?”

  We reached the exit of our neighborhood just as she asked and I pointed right. “It’s a few miles east.” School was in the opposite direction, nestled in the valley between two of our town’s many steep hills.

  “The waterfall at the dam is pretty cool, too,” I added. “It’s manmade, so it’s not quite as attractive as a natural one, but if you can learn to squint your eyes and ignore the concrete backdrop, you’d enjoy it,” I laughed.

  She did, too, and I felt incredibly brave all of a sudden, saying the next thing that popped into my head without hesitating.

  “You should let me take you sometime.”

  It hit me right after; I didn’t mention us going with a large group like it would’ve been if she tagged along this past weekend. The last thing I wanted to do was come on too strongly, make her feel like I had an angle, but before I could clarify…

  “I’d like that,” came from Evie’s mouth and I was glad she spoke before I could mess this up.

  Truth is, I wanted it to just be us, but didn’t know if it was too soon to suggest it.

  I fought a big, cheesy grin by biting down the side of my lip. “Cool. Maybe we’ll go this weekend if you’re not already tied up.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. I’ve got nothing to do. I’ll talk to my parents about it tonight.” That drumming inside her chest doubled in speed at the same time her cheeks tinted red.

  We continued our walk, side by side, close, but never touching. Our vision was limited due to a thick fog that had fallen overnight. Another severe thunderstorm had rolled through late in the evening, leaving behind a ton of moisture in the air. At least it wasn’t as hot as it was the day before. Lately, you couldn’t predict the weather from one half-hour to the next. It’d go from sweltering to frigid in the blink of an eye. The world just seemed… I don’t know… unsettled.

  On cue, Evie’s head whipped toward me. “Do you watch the news at all?”

  I nodded.

  “Then you heard about that sinkhole in the everglades?” she asked.

  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one thinking about how strange things felt lately.

  I dipped my chin again with a nod. “Yeah, seems like there’s a new one every week.”

  “It totally does. Makes anyone who doesn’t think global warming is an actual thing seem kind of naïve right about now,” she scoffed.

  Her eyes were wild with excitement and, for once, I didn’t feel like the oddball when it came to this topic. At home, everyone dismissed my observations when I called attention to what went on around us, making it seem like I was making a big deal out of nothing.

  But not Evie.

  Since she seemed to be interested in this stuff, too, I went ahead and shared a little more than I normally would have.

  “The news gives part of the story, but I keep up with a lot of blogs, too. Especially a local one called ‘Behind the Falls’.” I was careful to keep the nerd that lives inside me on a tight leash most of the time, I guess because people tended to pass me sideways glances whenever I talked in depth about anything other than football. However, when Evie’s eyes found mine again, waiting for me to continue, the uneasiness disappeared.

  “It’s written by some guy who goes by the name ChadTheUncensoredOne.”

  She smiled. “I’m Googling as we speak.” Her fingers moved like lightning as she searched for Chad’s blog.

  “According to him,” I went on, trying not to let it go to my head that she was actually listening to me. “…globally, we’ve experienced the most significant increase in natural disasters this year than we have in centuries.”

  “And there are still a few more months to go,” Evie added. I loved that she didn’t think I was nuts for buying into this idea.

  “One of my friends back home is a conspiracy theorist by nature,” she shared with a grin. “I mean, you name it, she believes it—flat Earth, reptilians, chemtrails. The whole nine,” she added, waving her hand dismissively while I hung on her every word. “But anyway, she’s got this insane scrap book collection of all these strange newspaper clippings from all over the world. She buys most of them online, but that’s like… her thing.”

  “So, I imagine the weirdness going on around the world has made her collection quite a bit more colorful,” I smiled.

  “Oh, you have no idea,” she said with a nod, exaggerating the motion when she laughed. I liked the sound of it—light, easy.

  We stopped at the corner to let a car pass and then crossed the street. Through the thick fog, I could make out the many pitched rooflines of the buildings on Seaton Prep’s campus. We grew quiet for a moment, continuing to make our way down the steep hill. My thoughts were finally just set on her now, leaving behind the events of the weekend. While, yeah, I was sure it’d be short-lived because people at school likely knew everything; for now, I just wanted to be here.

  Evie was fascinating. Most girls I met who looked like her—girls who could get by just batting their eyes and smiling—didn’t usually have so much personality, weren’t so easy with a smile, but she wasn’t like that. She was cool and open.

  Open, but still somewhat guarded.

  The fact remained that I had no clue where she came from. Not really. I mean, yeah, I knew she lived in Chicago before here, but that was all I knew, and I can admit to being curious about what more there might be to discover.

  At the tall, wrought-iron gate surrounding the school, Evie hiked her bag up her shoulders. The motion brought my attention to the solemn look on her face. Gone was the lighthearted ghost of a smile she’d worn since I first laid eyes on her this morning.

  She hated it here.

  No, she hadn’t come out and said that, but I saw it. I imagined being the new kid was lonely anywhere, but even more so here; in a place where a person’s last name could make or break their future plans; in a place where the town’s founding families still remained—mine included.

  She lowered her gaze to her shoes as we took one of three walkways to the
front entrance. At the center of the courtyard, several of my teammates sat near the fountain, taking up space on the concrete bench surrounding it. I purposely didn’t make eye contact when Evie and I passed. The last thing I wanted was for one of them to get the bright idea to approach me about Saturday. Right now, for as long as I could, I wanted to pretend like none of that happened.

  The sound of echoing footsteps and muffled chatter met us the moment we crossed the threshold into the front foyer. An endless sea of dark blazers moved through the halls, adhering to the plastic, ‘Inside Voices Only’ signs posted in each corridor.

  Ours was nothing like high schools I’d seen on TV, where kids were kids—loud, rambunctious at times, breaking rules on occasion. We had to save all that for afterhours, when we could escape the heavy presence of Seaton Falls’ authority figures. Our parents all tried to keep tight leashes on us, but we managed to carve out our own means of rebellion. If we didn’t, we’d probably suffocate. In fact, it was my inability to follow the rules last year that resulted in my folks selling my car to some old guy in the neighborhood.

  We stopped in front of a locker with several sheets of white paper sticking out the bottom, papers that had clearly slid out halfway when Evie closed it last. My guess was that, on Friday, at the end of the day, she was in such a rush to get out of this place, she probably didn’t even notice. She didn’t reach for the lock to do her combination, but instead, stood facing me as the toe of her shoe dug into the freshly polished tile.

  If I didn’t say something fast this would become one of those dreaded, awkward moments and things had gone so well up until now.

  The question, “Should I save you a seat at lunch?” left my mouth in a kind of clumsy way, but it made her smile, so it was worth the embarrassment of her knowing how badly I wanted her to say yes.

  “Of course,” she said with nearly every tooth showing when she grinned big. However, right after, her eyes slammed shut when she remembered something.

  “Actually… can we raincheck that?” Her fingers went to her ear as she waited for my answer. She toyed with the diamond stud there—the one with three empty holes above it.