Autumn bit her lip, not sure if this was a good thing or not. This meant she was actually beginning to accept her life here. And that couldn’t be good, could it?
“I suppose I am,” she confessed. “I’m just sort of, I don’t know, getting used to being here.”
“Not so bad, right?” Eris said with an encouraging smile.
“No, not too bad, really.”
“You and Mr. Lavigne seem to be getting along better now,” Eris said slyly.
Autumn laughed, shaking her head. “Yeah, I guess we are. If you knew me before, you wouldn’t be surprised. I can’t hate people for very long, if at all. I just can’t help but see the good in people—even the worst people. It’s a terrible quality, really.”
“I think it’s an amazing quality,” Eris said in a quiet voice. “You know, you’re the first elf who wasn’t an Atrum that has actually treated me like a person. The other elves assume that, just because I’m an Atrum, I’m a horrible, evil creature that deserves to die. But that’s not right at all. If they knew…” her voice started to tremble. “If they could see what I’ve been through in my life, they wouldn’t be so quick to judge me based on the quality of my blood.”
“I’m so sorry, Eris,” Autumn said, squeezing her hand. She was sorry. Not just in an empathetic way, but an apologetic way. Before coming to Alder Island, she had been one of those elves who could effortlessly kill an Atrum. In her mind, it had been okay because they were “bad” elves. That’s what she’d been taught. That’s what Warriors had been trained to do for decades. But, once again, the Underground had taught her that not everything is black and white. In fact, nothing was black and white. Atrums were elves too, and they could be good with pure hearts like Eris just as easily as the elves of the kingdom could be bad with diseased hearts of hate.
“Thank you, Autumn,” Eris said. “I truly do value your friendship. I hope it’s okay if I call you my friend. Because that’s how I see you.”
“It’s completely okay. I think of you as a friend as well.”
Eris habitually smoothed out one of the black cloth napkins with downturned eyes. “You and Mr. Lavigne are really all I have now.”
“Well, I can assure you,” Autumn said earnestly. “I’m not going anywhere.”
And she meant this. She couldn’t go back to Arbor Falls now. She couldn’t be a Warrior anymore. Not when it meant that she would have to kill more Atrums, who all had pasts and families and stories like Eris. Some of them were evil like Vyra, it was true, but not all of them. She knew this now.
Suddenly, her door swung open, revealing a rather excited-looking Victor, emerald eyes bright.
“Autumn,” he said without preamble. “I have to show you something,”
The two girls had both whipped around to look at him in surprise. Autumn’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. “Is everything—?”
“Just come with me,” he said with a beaming smile. “Sorry, Eris.”
Eris stood hurriedly. “Not a problem, Mr. Lavigne. I was just getting back to work.”
Autumn moved to Victor’s side, and he grasped her hand in his.
“Is everything okay?” she asked breathlessly as she attempted to match Victor’s long strides down the dark passageway. “You’re sort of freaking me out.”
“Everything is absolutely perfect. You know how I told you that I was able to bring Rion back to life after he passed away because his soul was still in his body?”
“Yeah…” Her heart was beating more quickly now—either from surprise, the brisk walking, or something else entirely, she wasn’t sure.
“Well, he’s not the only one I’ve tried this on. Most of the others were failed attempts, but after the Shadow Battle, I knew I had to try again. Because, of all the deaths I was responsible for, I knew this one would hurt you most of all.”
“What are you talking about?” Autumn asked, a nervous energy creeping through her body now.
“Well, it worked,” Victor continued. “It worked. He’s been out for months, and I thought I’d botched it, but he woke up this morning. He woke up, Autumn.”
“Who woke up, Victor?”
Victor didn’t answer as he stopped at a large iron door, sliding back the lock and pushing the door inwards. Autumn peered anxiously around him into the room. Her gaze landed on a shock of dark curls and shining blue eyes she’d thought had closed forever.
“Hey, Fall…”
The only comprehensible word she was able to manage was, “Forrest?”
Then she passed out.
35
Grave Diggers
AVERY stuffed the rose in his inside jacket pocket and ran—no, flew—out of Autumn’s branch and down the stairs. He had to tell Luke and Cyrstal. But, then again, no. They wouldn’t believe him. In fact, they’d think he was absolutely, positively out of his mind. He was pretty sure they thought this already. So, he wouldn’t tell them, just in case he was wrong about this. He couldn’t be wrong. It wasn’t an option.
Pausing at the base of the stairs, he contemplated where to go next. Of course. The castle tool room.
He had to find a shovel.
* * *
LUKE couldn’t sleep. This wasn’t the first night it had evaded him, though, and it surely wouldn’t be the last. During nights like these, he had taken to leaving the confines of his bedroom, careful not to wake a sleeping Crystal, who had accompanied him in his bed nearly every night since Autumn had died. They both needed the reassurance of a warm body beside them.
But when he couldn’t sleep—despite Crystal’s comforting presence—he would leave the castle and stroll in languid circles around the gardens in his pajamas, lingering in the section with the roses. It may have been girly, but he liked flowers, dammit. They were beautiful, and they smelled good. And roses reminded him of his sister. So, he would continue to walk amongst the flowers as long as this was true.
It was amusing to him that only a few years ago, he had been a typical American teenager with the latest technology and coolest video games. He didn’t ever “go somewhere to think” back then, not even when his parents died. He would get on his computer, text some girls who were completely uninterested in him, or play a war video game to get his mind off of whatever was bothering him. And it worked…until he put the technology down.
In the Underground, he was forced to examine his problems with the help of nature and his friends. He'd found that this was actually a lot more helpful and fulfilling than any of that cold technology had ever been. Luke felt like he knew who he was now, when before he had never taken the time to even think much about it. Because who he was didn’t matter all that much back then, and now that he was king with all of these people depending on him it was nearly all that mattered. Being genuine and respectable and kind. For them. Like Autumn would have been. He figured the more he could be like her, the better.
Just as he was turning another corner around the rose bushes, he saw someone rushing out of the castle’s front doors. The moonlight illuminated their golden hair and bounced off of the long wooden and metal object in their hands.
What are they holding? A shovel? Wait. Is that—?
Then he realized who it was, and the cogs in his brain started to turn slowly at first, and then more quickly until they were positively whirring from the speed of his ominous thoughts.
Avery—plus a shovel—meant…
Oh shit.
* * *
AVERY’s heart had never beat so fast in his life. Not when he had first kissed Autumn, not when Vyra had taken him prisoner, not when he had been battling anyone or anything ever. If he hadn’t been entirely certain about his excellent physical health, he’d have been mildly concerned about having a heart attack at the moment.
Then he heard fast footsteps behind him and a familiar voice calling out, “Avery! Wait up!”
Damn it.
He considered evading him but knew Luke had probably already put two and two together, seeing as how he was car
rying a shovel and he was walking pretty rapidly in the direction of the Warrior Burial Grounds. He sighed and stopped his progress, which made his heart beat faster rather than slower. Every second Autumn was in that glass coffin was another second lost.
“Hey, man,” Luke said warily, clearly concerned with Avery’s sanity. “You okay?”
Avery clutched the shovel more tightly. “You aren’t going to stop me, Luke, so don’t bother trying.”
“Stop you from doing what exactly?” Luke asked, approaching him slowly now.
“You know what I’m going to do.”
“Avery, you have to give this up. She’s gone. Autumn is—”
“Alive. Autumn is alive,” Avery stated firmly.
Luke shook his head sadly. “I know it doesn’t feel like she’s actually gone. I don’t believe it myself sometimes. But—”
“No, Luke,” Avery interrupted. “This isn’t some delusion I’ve created in my mind. It’s the truth. The other day I was visiting her grave and—I can’t really explain it—but I felt Autumn’s presence. Then, earlier I had a dream about her. She was telling me to meet her in her branch and—”
Luke’s face had grown even more pitying if that was possible. “Do you understand how insane you sound right now, man? Seriously. I really think you need some help. Look, just give me the shovel and we can—”
“No, dammit! Look!” He pulled the red rose out of his jacket. It was still perfect and whole and unchanged.
“A rose? That’s, uh, really nice, but—”
“It’s Autumn’s red binding rose that I gave her. Binding roses are supposed to die if one of the two elves dies.”
“But…that rose is alive.”
Avery sighed in frustration at how long it was taking Luke to grasp what he was saying. “Yes. It’s alive.”
“But that means—
“It means that Autumn is still alive.”
A shadow of something resembling hope passed across Luke’s features. “That’s the same rose? Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Three seconds of silence passed as Luke processed this. Suddenly he turned around and started sprinting back to the castle.
“Where are you going?” Avery shouted after him.
“To get another shovel!” Luke called over his shoulder.
Luke stood upright, wiping sweat from his brow and cracking his back. “How many feet has this been?”
The two of them had been digging for a good two hours, and they still hadn’t reached the glass coffin.
“Four maybe?” Avery said, judging by his own height and the depth of the grave. Mounds of fresh dirt surrounded the hole on all sides.
“Damn. Why do they have to make graves this deep? It’s not like they’re going to go anywhere.” Avery gave Luke a judgmental look and Luke muttered, “Sorry, but it’s true.”
There was something incredibly eerie and wrong feeling about digging up a grave, even when one suspected that there may or may not be a person buried alive inside. Avery felt as though the animals perched in the trees and hidden in the bushes nearby were judging them.
Luke cracked his back a second time before clutching the shovel in his hands and recommencing digging. Avery had never stopped.
Another foot down.
Then another foot.
Crack.
Avery’s shovel connected with glass.
Luke cursed, his face going white. “I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t think I can do this.”
“I can,” Avery said, getting down on his hands and knees and swiping his hands across the surface of the crystalline casket, dislodging the remaining dirt.
He pressed his face to the glass, cupping his hands around his eyes and then sat back for a moment before picking up his shovel and slamming it down, shattering the casket into a thousand fragments.
“What the hell, Avery? What are you—” Luke shouted and then his sentence dropped off when he peered past him into the coffin. “Wait…what is that?”
Avery felt the blood drain from his face and settle in the region of his heart.
“It’s a Shadow.”
“What?” Luke said in disbelief. “How did a Shadow—?”
“Take one guess.”
“I don’t…” Confusion and then realization lit Luke’s features before morphing into a look of rage.
Avery slammed his shovel down into the coffin, beheading the dead Shadow.
“Fucking Victor.”
36
How Do I Put This...
“Autumn? You okay?” a distant voice asked.
Her eyes fluttered open to see Victor and Forrest leaning over her. Apparently, she was now lying on the ground. “Wha—what happened?” she asked weakly.
“You sort of fainted,” Forrest answered with a laugh.
Autumn sat up feeling slightly dizzy. “Are you really Forrest? Or are you a Shadow made to look like Forrest? There was an Autumn Shadow too, but she’s buried now.”
Forrest shot Victor a confused glance.
“It’s really Forrest,” Victor answered, holding her up with one hand cradled beneath her head.
“But…I—I saw his body that day. I saw it.”
“The body you saw was a Shadow,” Victor said. “If you’ll move over to one of the chairs, I can explain.”
“Yeah, I should probably get back to bed before I die again,” Forrest remarked, and Autumn let out one of the first genuine laughs she’d had since being here and leaped forward, hugging Forrest around the neck, her laugh turning into a sob.
“He really should get back in bed,” Victor said gently, placing a hand on Autumn’s back.
She pulled away from Forrest and swiped at her streaming eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m just—I don’t know. I can’t believe this.”
“Me neither, actually,” Forrest said, climbing into bed. “Victor only filled me in on some minor things after I tried and failed to strangle him. I stopped when he told me that I’d died and he’d brought me back to life. Can’t really strangle the person who did that, I suppose, can I? Well, that, and he’s an all-powerful-Ellock and all.”
“Tried to strangle him?” Autumn laughed, glancing over at Victor, who wore an amused smirk.
“It’s true. He did. Try, that is.”
Autumn went to sit in one the cushioned chairs set up next to Forrest’s bed. “Okay,” she said, patting the seat next to her and looking at Victor, who was still standing several feet away. “Explain.”
Victor obliged, sitting in the chair beside Autumn and clearing his throat. “Well, as you know, I was there at the Shadow Battle. I tried to split my protection shield over each Quinn Warrior, but I was using up most of my energy to protect you, Autumn. So, when I lost sight of Forrest, my shield for him broke. And the more violent the Shadows became, the more shields broke, until yours, Luke’s, and Avery’s were the only ones intact.”
“You were shielding Avery too?” Forrest said in disbelief. “I thought you hated him.”
Victor shook his head. “I’ve never hated Avery. Envied him, yes. But never hated him.” Autumn’s eyebrows rose at this admission, surprised he’d finally acknowledged that he had coveted Avery. Victor cleared his throat again and continued. “As much as I wish I could have saved everyone during that battle, I knew I could only save one. When I was sure Crystal was going to live…I chose to save Forrest. I knew how much he meant to you, Autumn, and he had always been kind to me during my brief time as a Warrior.”
Forrest shook his head in disbelief, unfocused eyes staring at a spot across the room.
Victor continued. “So, I switched his body out with a Shadow I had transformed to look like him. As you know, this was not a difficult feat for me. Bringing Forrest back to life, however, was. I think I spent hours trying to restart your heart,” he said to Forrest. “I thought maybe I had waited too long to save you. But then, finally, it started to beat again. Faintly, but it was beating. You’ve been in this room since that battle,
recuperating, taking potions, and I’ve been delivering healing spells every day to make sure your body returned to its previous state. You will be rather weak for several months, but, as with Rion, you will eventually return to your lively self. Rion’s already up and walking the Bastion now.”
“Rion is alive too?” Forrest said in disbelief. Victor nodded, and Forrest’s face lifted and then darkened just as quickly. “Wait…Vyra isn’t alive, is she?”
Victor and Autumn laughed. “No,” they said in unison.
“Hey, you never know. I’m just sitting up in bed after having died and been brought back to life by the supposedly most evil elf—Ellock—of the Underground. Stranger things have happened.”
“That’s for sure,” Autumn agreed.
“So, when do we get to go home?” Forrest asked brightly, looking from Autumn to Victor and back to Autumn.
Her face fell.
“I think I’ll give you two a moment alone,” Victor said then, standing and giving Autumn a look that was both apologetic and thankful.
As he swept from the room, Autumn’s resolve broke, and she began to cry again, only, this time, they weren’t happy tears. She knew she couldn’t leave Victor. Not after this. She had to admit that she’d questioned his love for her. Even after everything, she had still questioned it, wondering if it was just another trick, another one of his games. She had still unconsciously doubted him.
Until now.
“Autumn?” Forrest said tentatively.
She placed a supportive hand on his arm and squeezed.
“We aren’t going back home, Forrest.”
37
Unexpected News
LUKE sent out an urgent message to all of the Warriors and Casters to meet on the Training Grounds as soon as possible. It was nearly dawn, and Luke and Avery waited in the center of the field. Luke stood soldier-still, and Avery paced around the grass, suddenly more animated than he had been in a long time.
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