by A. S. Oren
The one I hit tries to get back up and fly into the air, but his right wing has gone limp. The one he landed on doesn’t even bother to get up. He’s still alive. I bet he just knows that he met his match and doesn’t even want to try to fight me.
Yes. Twelve left. Jericho, their leader, fights Paden one on one. Maybe if I can knock him out, the others will go away. I fly around the others. If I wanted to, I could probably just run over them all like bowling pins, but I want to take him out first. He’s that one pin that can only be hit at the right angle to be knocked down.
He opens his mouth to breathe fire at Paden’s face. I lower my head, pointing my horns at his chest. I hit him. My horns go past his hard scales and straight into his flesh. He roars. Skewered on my horns, I throw him. He lands within the Orchard, destroying a few hundred apple trees. In the course of a few minutes, my entire childhood home and the surrounding acres have been reduced to nothing but ruins.
‘Good one,’ Paden’s voice says in my mind.
The other dragons hesitate, not sure what to do with their leader down. I give a snort; smoke billows from my nose. Good, they better leave us alone.
Before I can even land back on the ground, another roar fills the air. I look up; something gold crashes into me. I do a backwards somersault through the air, before righting myself. What the hell just hit me with enough force to knock me back? I focus my eyes on the new dragon and have to take a double take. It’s me. The other dragon is me. That’s not possible.
It breathes a fire flame in my direction. The flame licks at the underside of my belly, as I dodge most of it. It could’ve been a lot worse.
My mirror image rushes at me again. The horns hit me in the chest and rush me to the ground. The earth gives out from underneath me and their horns go deeper into my chest. I try to force a frost flame out and onto their head, but nothing comes out. I have no control over my breath.
They pull the horns out of me. My body follows them, before I land on back again. Blackness rushes in on my vision. No, I have to stay conscious; I can’t fail now.
Liar
I jolt awake with a gasp and grab at my chest. Cool air rushes into my lungs. I don’t like the sensation it brings, as if they’re too tight to allow the full amount of air in. White surrounds me. I’m sitting in a black leather chair. Something about this place seems so familiar. Where am I?
“Relax, Miss Roseman, your lung is still growing its tissue back.
Roseman? The click of high heels reaches me, as the person comes into my line of sight. Dr. Quinn greets me with a smile, his face clean shaven and his hair with extra curl to it. “That was one nasty sword wound, Miss Roseman. You should be more careful during sword class. As a healer I can do some pretty amazing things, but I’m no miracle worker.”
Does he still think my mind is warped from before? I can’t believe we lost the battle, and that I’m back in this Sun god forsaken room. How many times are they going to try and manipulate my mind? They can’t do anything to me while I have the protection rune of Algiz on my body. I look to my right wrist; the gold mark remains in place. I’m back in the Spearwood uniform.
Igraine! What happened to her? What have they done to the guys? They better be alive, or so help me I will rain hell down on this place and everyone who follows Roseman or my half-brother Aibek. “I’m not . . .”
“You’re not what Miss Roseman?” He emphasis the name and leans his head forward. What is he trying to get at?
“Have you completed the reverse and add process?” calls the voice of Roseman, before he comes around the corner. His eyes widen at seeing me awake. “Cookie! How are you feeling after that terrible accident in combat class?” Cookie? That’s new.
My eyes narrow. What the hell is he trying to pull over me now? I thought him trying to manipulate my memories the first time was so I and the guys would run off and Amr would take Triton to his parents, where they had Aibek imprisoned. What’s the point of having me brainwashed again? So he can think he has control?
I glance at Dr. Quinn. “You feel great now, right, Miss Roseman? I’m a genius at my job, after all.”
He wants Roseman to think that he brainwashed me again. Is he helping me, or himself? I stand. “Of course, Daddy,” I smile. “I feel great. All due to Dr. Quinn’s excellence.” Roseman holds out his arms for a hug. I try not to show my hesitation, as I go into his arms and he places a kiss on my head. My skin crawls. I pull away from him. “I should get going, I have a paper to write for History, and the boys said they would study with me.” Please tell me that worked.
He smiles and gives a nod. Reaching into his inner suit pocket, he pulls out the black card of a P.A. It unfolds to reveal Perlow.
“How may I be of service?” he asks.
“Take my daughter back to the main school.”
“Where are we anyway? This doesn’t look like an infirmary to me.” I hope my act of playing dumb passes his test.
“This is a special infirmary, only for the most important of people.” I give a grin and turn to Perlow. “I’m ready to go now.”
He gives a nod and walks out of the room. “Have fun with your paper,” Roseman calls, as I follow at Perlow’s side.
I have to figure out a way to tell him I’m not brainwashed. That I know about him. I wonder if he knows about how the rune on my wrist works. Do others have magical tattoos to prevent or make things happen? I didn’t know about them until she gave me one.
“I’m sorry you got hurt in combat class today. That doesn’t normally happen.”
I rub at my chest. The tightness in my lung lingers still. “Yeah, feels weird. It pierced me like a horn.” Please tell me he knows how I got hurt.
He glance at me and puts his hands behind his back. “Interesting choice of words.”
So he does know. “Thanks. I’ve been working on better description for my English class.” I can’t let anything slip straight out. Everything needs to be code. After all, eyes are everywhere.
We’re almost to the elevator that will take us up to the main part of Spearwood. I need to hurry and communicate with him.
A faint red glow inside one makes me stop. The door is open. I haven’t seen an open door in this place yet. I take peek inside. A gigantic screen projects an image onto a far wall. Triton’s face hovers in the left corner, spinning in a 3D image. Underneath his head reads: P.A.M0209/102005
I frown. P.A.? That can’t stand for what I think it does. There’s no way. The M has to make it something else. My imagination has gotten the better of me, that’s all.
The door closes in my face. I look to Perlow. “That door should not have been opened. Please forget what you saw.”
Did he plan that? How could he have?
I smile and shrug. “I would never divulge any of Daddy’s secrets. Not even about you.” I need soap to wash my mouth out with.
“Thank you.”
We reach the elevator. They open with a quiet swish. Here’s my last chance to show him I’m an ally. We get in the elevator, and I wait for the doors to close before I put my plan into action. Dear Sun god, I hope this works.
I scratch at my wrist, pretending that it bothers me. “Do you think there are spiders around here? I think I got bit by something. I probably should’ve had Dr. Quinn look at it, but with all the chaos I forgot. What do you think?”
He leans over my wrist, before turning his head ever so slightly to look into my eyes. He’s close enough that I can make out the green ring around his blue eyes. He knows, I can tell.
“It’s nothing I would worry about. It should pass in a day or two. It’s not red or anything.”
“Good to know.”
The rest of the journey goes by in silence. He leads me to the dining hall for the Royals. I give him a curious look. “I assumed you would like to have lunch with your fiancé. Was I wrong?”
I grin. “No. Thank you for accompanying me, Mr. Perlow.”
He takes my hand in his and places a simple kiss on the
back. As he does so, something slips in-between my fingers. I hold onto it. “The pleasure’s all mine.”
He walks away. I discretely turn my hand over and drop what he gave me into my palm. It’s a chip for a P.A. I wonder if one of the guys will know how to access it at the Cabin. What information could be on it? I slip it into the front pocket of my polo shirt and button it closed.
Fake it
With Perlow gone, I stand in front of the doors leading to the dining hall where hopefully Paden and Maverick are. They should be there. He wouldn’t have brought me here if they weren’t. What if they’re brainwashed like Roseman thinks I am? I can’t sneak all of them out of here to see the Sea Witch. It would be beyond impossible to do a second time. Maybe this was Roseman’s plan: brainwash all of us, so he can have easier control and make us work for Aibek’s army.
I’ll have to act like the Avalon they created before. It won’t be easy, but at least I won’t have to live in the actual Avalon Roseman’s head.
I run my hand through my hair. It’s straight and clean. I really miss my curls. I give a nod to the servants that stand on either side of the double doors. They bow to me and push them open.
It’s not that different from the dining hall the regular students use, but it’s nowhere near as grand as the tea garden they took me to for lunch that one day, before everything flipped on its head.
Instead of having a color theme of creams and gold, royal blue and silvers decorate everything. One massive five tier chandelier hangs from the center of the vaulted ceiling. No headmasters of times past line the walls and the chairs look to be a thousand times more comfortable than the ones we get.
I travel up to the patio. I smile when I see both Maverick and Paden sitting at a table near the corner. With them are the two boys I had lunch with that one day. What were their names? Magnus and Jacob? Yeah, something tells me I’m right. I desperately want to run to Maverick and kiss him. I’ve missed him so much, and we haven’t had a chance to talk since everything happened. I can’t do that though. If I’m suddenly all over my to-be brother-in-law, while the walls are watching. I just hope he knows I’m doing this because I’m faking it; that I’m not actually brainwashed.
I step up behind Paden. His friends Magnus and Jacob watch me with their startling eyes. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I place my chin on his shoulder and give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Hey,” I say.
He stays relaxed in my arms. I frown. Either he’s a really good actor, or he has memories of me actually doing this. Even when my otherself kissed him in the Outcasts’ compound he stiffened up. He’s never been one that was used to physical contact. He barely hugged me when he first left for Spearwood. “Hey, babe. I thought you were going to eat with the others today?” He turns his head and places a quick kiss on my lips. I have to force myself not to jerk back in surprise. Did he really get brainwashed? I glance at Maverick. He stares at us with clenched fists. If he was brainwashed, he wouldn’t be jealous right now. Maybe Paden is just a good actor.
“I am, but I wanted to see if you guys wanted to have lunch with us and then we could go riding. It’s such a nice day, and we don’t have class.” Riding has always been code for the Cabin. That’s what we have to do in order it get to it.
He scrunches up his nose. “I don’t feel like riding a horse right now, and you know I don’t like to eat in the regular dining hall.”
That’s not the response I was expecting at all. “Okay, maybe some other time then.” I unwrap myself from around him. This can’t be happening. They actually got to him?
Paden takes a sip of water before saying, “Doubtful. You know I don’t care to be around your friends. They are all so civilian.”
That did not just come out of his mouth. Now I know they got to him. Apparently he didn’t grow up with them like he did in my last brainwashed memories. A small part of me wishes I knew what he does. The story has changed, and I don’t have the manuscript.
“Oh, right. Of course. I’m going to go now. I made promises to them, and I really want to go riding today.”
“You are free to do as you please. I’m not your master.”
Definitely not the sweet and considerate version I remember being betrothed to.
I glance at the rest of the table. Magnus and Jacob stare at me with their unnerving eyes. Maverick chews his food, but doesn’t say anything. Perhaps what I saw a moment ago was a trick of my mind: hoping that he was jealous.
I reach the stairs of the patio when a hand tugs on my skirt. I turn to face them. Which pervert in here has the balls to do that?
Maverick stands there. He smiles. “I wouldn’t mind a good ride right about now.”
I smile back. He’s not brainwashed. Thank the Sun god. I have one sane ally and boyfriend. “Awesome, let’s go see if the others want to ride as well.”
Been Around, Apparently.
The long walk to the other dining hall stays quiet. There’s not much we can say without giving ourselves away. The servants open the doors for us. It only takes us a second to find them. Instead of sitting up in the loft, where they normally sit, they’re on the floor level right in front of the massive doors.
“Avalon!” Dante calls.
I rush over to their table. Maybe this means they’re fine. He only calls me Avalon when he’s being serious. “Hey,” I say. Horace and Amr sit at the table with him. Triton’s nowhere in sight and neither is Mirren or Bullock. We’ll have to hunt them down too, if they don’t think of me as a stranger. I wonder if Bullock is still giving me lessons.
I gasp, as Dante pulls me onto his lap and wraps his arms around my waist. What in the world does he think he’s doing? I look to Maverick, who has his fists clenched again. I hope he doesn’t try to pull something. Dante has memories we don’t, but why is he acting like this with me. I’m still betrothed to Paden, or else he wouldn’t have reacted to me earlier.
Now I know how the guys felt when I was acting like a mirror image of myself. His fingers brush my hair aside, and his warm lips meet the bare skin of my neck. It takes every ounce of control I have not to jump out of his arms. I have to go with the flow, or I’ll alert someone. A shiver runs down my spine, as his teeth scrape against my flesh. I swallow hard.
“Did you finish with saying hello to your fiancé for the day? Now you don’t have to see that tool again until tomorrow. Why did you bring his brother here?” He whispers in my ear, his hot breath traveling over my ear makes another shiver go down my spine. I never knew Dante could actually affect me like this.
“Um . . . we were wondering if you guys wanted to go riding with us. It’s such a nice day; it sounds like fun. We can invite Mirren and Bullock, too.”
He chuckles, and his grip around my waist tightens. “Fairly certain they both want your head on a pike, love. I wouldn’t go around asking them if they want to ride horses with you. After what you did to their faces? Yeah, not going to happen.”
Their faces? I never did anything to Bullock’s face. What does he think I did to him in this version? Talk about a Twilight Zone experience. “What about you guys? Do you want to go riding with us?” Maybe if I can get them to the Cabin, they’ll revert to their old ways, or it will have something there that will fix them. It didn’t for me, but they’ve been going there longer.
“Hanson’s your new boy toy, isn’t he? Using him to try and make the tool jealous, huh? He does look like fun. A ménage á trios would be hot.”
Heat travels all the way up from my toes into my face. What kind of girl am I in his mind? I’ve hardly Frenched kissed Maverick let alone do anything more than that! I manage to get out of his arms without making it seem too strange. “No, none of that will be happening. We’re honestly going to ride horses. Do you guys want to come with us or not?”
He stretches and pushes his long black hair out of his eyes. Their amber heat stare at me for a long second before he sighs. “We can’t. We,” he motions to Amr and Horace. “Have a project due of World Economics, a
nd it’s kicking our asses. Have to keep up our GPAs and all that shit.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later then. Good luck with your project.”
“Good luck with your new boy toy. I hope you decided to share soon.”
Cabin Bound
Maverick and I are out of the school and to the stable faster than if our behinds were on fire and forcing us along. Both of us know that we need to get down to the bottom of what’s going on. The protection of the Cabin will provide us with the privacy we need in order to discuss what’s going on, and how we can fix it.
The servant comes out with a brown horse with a white face. It’s not my MaryAnn. “I’m sorry to be a bother, but that’s not my horse.”
The servant frowns slightly. “This is the horse you brought with you when you entered the school, Miss. You do not own any other horse. His name is Cyrus.”
Why did they think it was necessary to give me a new horse? To test my reaction? I hope not, or else I failed miserably. “Oh, right. Of course. My mistake, not yours. Thank you.” I take the lead of the horse and the servant bows to me before leaving Maverick and I.
We look to each other. We’re almost in the clear. We just have to make it to the Cabin in one piece. “Do you need help getting on your horse? He’s bigger than your last one.”
I smile. I could probably get up on him myself, but the idea of Maverick helping is tempting. I wish we could be like a normal couple. We’re older now, we could really date, see the world. If we want to. “I could use some help.” I bite my lip.