“Who is the leader?” another voice asked. I looked over to the man next to me, where the voice came from. He looked familiar; he had short blond hair and sea-blue eyes and looked only a few years older than me. I knew I'd seen him before, but I couldn't put my finger on where.
“Kieran Roderick,” my father said.
“That can’t be,” one of the ladies said, others agreeing with her.
I looked up at my father. He looked grim. They all knew this man. But how? How could they know the leader of this new army?
“How can you be sure it’s Kieran?” the man sitting next to me asked.
“We have Intel that has pointed to Kieran,” my father said. “Which now brings me to the next announcement. Obviously Kieran will want to break Lorburn apart and become its next Leader, which is why it is important to have my successor begin learning how to lead.”
My head perked up at that. I was the one who would inherit Lorburn when my father passed away. My father's face was carefully blank as I gazed up at him. His eyes moved around the room and locked on a pair in the front row: Tyler's. Looking back and forth between my father and Tyler, I put two and two together; blood drained from my face. But haven’t you always liked Tyler?
“My daughter Mia will be marrying Tyler Slattery. I have already talked to his family, and they all agree this will be the best for Lorburn,” my father continued, but I didn’t hear anything other than white noise. I should have been happy that he would pick Tyler, someone who I’d had a crush on for a very long time. If he had announced this yesterday, I would have been ecstatic. But I wasn’t happy. Maybe it was the fact that Tyler would rule Lorburn that made me unhappy. Or maybe it was the fact that my father gave me no warning before the meeting. Or maybe it was because I didn’t get to pick the person I would marry. But the only words that repeated in my head were He put you in harm’s way. As much as I liked Tyler, I couldn’t help but remember that Gregory was right: Tyler picked a fight with someone so much bigger than him, and I ended up getting in the way. Would he do the same thing if we were married? Would he put himself above me and always protect himself? I could hear people talking, but I couldn’t pinpoint actual words. I liked Tyler, but I couldn’t help but be worried about my future with him. Maybe we could grow to love each other. Maybe we can’t. I felt a soft tap on my shoulder. I looked over, my eyes connecting to my neighbor's.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
“How do I know you?” I should have answered him, but there was something so familiar about him. I knew him.
He smirked. “We met a few years ago. You were only thirteen or fourteen at the time, but you loved my scarf.”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to remember a scarf. I shook my head. Nothing popped up about a scarf. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember.”
Disappointment flashed in his eyes for only a second, but then his smirk grew. “That’s okay. I’m Alex.”
The name didn’t ring a bell. “Nice to meet you.”
“So, are you okay?”
I bit my lip and looked down at my lap. Was I okay? I wasn’t sure. I looked back up at him to find him studying me. I nodded my head. “Yeah.”
“Okay,” he said. He gave me one last glance, his gaze lingering on my bruised cheek, and then turned his attention up front. I turned forward, my eyes roaming the room until they connected to a very disgruntled pair of eyes: Mandy. She looked like she was ready to chop me up and feed me to the poor. I glanced away. She would definitely hate me forever, but I honestly didn’t care.
If there was an attack coming, like Agathy seemed to think there was, how could Tyler and I get married? I didn’t turn eighteen for a few more months. Because of the law, I couldn’t marry until I was at least eighteen. You usually have to wait until twenty, but under certain circumstances, it could be moved to eighteen. So was Agathy just really worried for something that might happen years from now? But if that was the case, why was she packing my stuff now?
“Mia?” Tyler’s voice broke through my thoughts. I looked up, some people started to leave while others chatted with each other.
“Hey,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say. Was he angry that we were matched together? Was he disappointed that he got me instead of Mandy?
“Can we go talk somewhere private?”
I looked over his shoulder to find my father watching us, a smug smile on his face. “Why don’t we go into the library? No one really goes in there.”
Tyler smiled. “That sounds great.”
I got up from my chair and exited the room without saying a word to my father. As I shut the door to the library, I took a deep breath and let it out. Turning from the door, I watched as Tyler walked from bookshelf to bookshelf, admiring the books.
“Your family has a lot of books,” he commented while he picked one up at random.
The last time I was in here was with Aileen, she had been looking for something, and I wondered if she had really hidden something in her long ago. “They’re really not my type,” I said.
“What kind do you like?” Tyler put the book down and sat in one of the deep brown leather armchairs while I stayed standing next to the door.
“The older kinds, from a different time period,” I said. “The ones about mysteries, fantasies, and romances.”
“Typical girl,” he said, smiling.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How do you figure?”
“All girls are into romances,” he said, crossing his arms.
“But I also like fantasies and mysteries. You know the books about solving murders or the books about fairies.”
He crinkled his brow. “Fairies? Murders?”
“Have you never been to the city’s library?”
He laughed a nice, soft laugh. “No, I haven’t.”
I wasn’t sure I understood what was funny about that. “Okay then.”
“Okay what?”
“Until you read one of those books, you can’t say I’m a typical girl.” I chewed on my lip.
He raised his hands in front of him. “Okay, okay.” His eyes raked over my face, his smile dropping. “I’m sorry about last night.”
I looked away from him and sat down against the door. “It’s not your fault.”
“Yes it is,” he said. “If I hadn’t pushed you into going, you would have never gotten hurt at that bar.”
“What?”
He brought his hand up and motioned toward my face. “I didn’t realize you were hit until I saw your face tonight. I’m sorry.”
I wanted to argue and tell him that it was my father, but what would have been the point? He probably wouldn’t have believed me. Plus, it was nice that he apologized. “It’s fine.”
“All of them are bunch of criminals.” He crossed his arms.
“Who?”
“The poor. They're all criminals, and I think they should all be punished to show an example.”
“They are not all criminals. There are some bad people there just like there are some bad people here.”
“Were you not in the room?” He pointed toward the door. “They have created an army to try and take over. How can that not be wrong?”
“I didn’t say it was right. All I said was that there are still some good people out there.”
“Like who?”
“Well, I—”
My words were cut off by a loud crash followed by screaming. I looked at Tyler, who had a look of panic slapped across his face. I stood up, creaked open the door, and peered out around it. Smoke was coming from down the hall, as people were running by and screaming. It wasn’t until I heard the guns go off that it dawned on me that this was what Agathy had been afraid of. Shutting the door, I turned around and faced a petrified looking Tyler.
“Something’s wrong,” I said. I had to clear my throat a couple of times. “I think we need to find a place to hide in here.”
“NO!” he said. “We need to get out of here.”
“And go where? Out there where
we can hear screaming and gunfire? I don’t think so.” I needed to find Agathy.
When I stepped closer toward Tyler, a loud blast went off behind me and I flew forward; my head slammed into the floor, my vision darkening out. Plaster from the wall behind me came fluttering down on top of me. My ears were ringing and I couldn’t hear anything but the ringing. My body ached, and I desperately wanted to get up and move, but something pinned my legs down. I coughed a couple of times to get the dust out of my mouth while my vision started to clear, but dark stars still floated about.
“Mia?” I heard Tyler yell out. I could hear him coughing. I tried to turn my head toward him, but something was on top of me.
“Help,” I coughed out. My ears were still ringing, but I was slowly starting to hear more and more: people were screaming and guns were going off. I tried to move, but my body wouldn’t budge. I wanted to scream out, but I didn’t want to get the wrong person.
“Oh my God,” I heard someone say. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Tyler said, “but I don’t think she is.” Must have been talking about me. How nice of him.
I felt a hand on my forehead. “Mia?”
“Agathy?” I could cry but decided against it. “I’m stuck.”
“Hold on, I’ll get it off of you.”
“What’s on me?”
“A bookcase,” she said.
Of course a bookcase would fall on me. It wasn’t like my body had enough bruises on it to begin with.
“Charlie, help me,” I heard Agathy yell. As the bookcase slowly made its way off of me, pain I hadn’t felt before began to swim throughout my body. When my legs were cleared, I slowly stood up, the black stars officially gone. I turned toward Tyler and my jaw dropped; he was still sitting in the damn chair with nothing on him. He could have helped me. The bastard.
“We need to go,” Agathy said. I looked toward her. She looked pale and frightened. I looked over her shoulder to Charlie, who mirrored Agathy. I nodded my head and followed them out the door.
“Hey! Where are you going?” I heard Tyler yell from the other room.
“Get somewhere safe,” Charlie yelled back to Tyler, not slowing down his stride.
I tried to keep up with Agathy and Charlie. I wanted to yell at them to slow down, but I knew I couldn’t. Every move I made caused me to wince in pain and by the time we were in the basement under the kitchen, I had bitten roughly into my lip to keep myself from yelling out; I could taste the metallic liquid of my blood dripping into my mouth. Agathy and Charlie were moving a large mahogany cupboard by the time I made it up to them.
“What are you guys doing?” I could hear the panic in my voice. Now wasn’t the time to start rearranging furniture.
“There is a secret passageway,” Agathy said. I looked at them dumbfounded, waiting for her to explain more, but she didn’t. I could hear people screaming and boots stomping above us. I started to squeeze my fist in and out. We needed to hide. After a few more frustrating minutes, Charlie and Agathy had the cupboard completely removed. A door was now in view, and Agathy opened it and peeked through.
She stuck her head back out. “Mia, I want you to follow this passage. Here's a flashlight.” She shoved a small metal flashlight into my hand. “You won’t have any other light than that. When you get to the very end, put your hood up and go to the Mounting Lion. It’s an inn about two blocks from the exit of the tunnel. You will take a left from the tunnel and keep straight. Don’t talk to anyone until you get to the inn. When you get there, ask for Alithea. She will help you from there.”
“Aren’t you coming with me?” I asked, my body starting to shake.
“No, I can’t.”
“Why not?” I didn’t want to leave her behind.
“I have to keep them from getting you.” She walked over to one of the darkened corners and went behind a large wooden box. When she came back around, she had my duffel bags, backpack, jacket, and purse. She walked over, handed me my jacket—which I put on—helped me put my backpack on, set the duffel bags on both of my shoulders, then finally slid my purse on. Agathy walked me to the entrance of the door and practically shoved me through. “Be safe.” Our eyes locked as she shut the door, the light going with it. I could hear the cupboard being shoved back into place.
I turned on my flashlight and turned around. It smelled like rusted metal in here. I started walking forward, trying to keep the flashlight in front of me. My hand shook so bad it caused the light to bounce around. I was terrified. All I could think about was putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward. There would be time later to think about what might have happened to my parents.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been walking down here. I couldn’t hear any noises from up above, so I wasn’t sure if there was still a fight going on. As I walked, I tried to keep my mind from thinking about what might have happened to my parents and all those people in the house, and if Tyler had found a safe place to hide. Putting one foot in front of the other, I also didn't want to think of whether my parents had gotten out alive or if they’d been unlucky. Watching the light bounce off the walls, I couldn't help think of my current predicament: I didn’t know what would happen next and I didn’t know who Alithea was or how she was going to help me.
My feet shuffled across the dirt and grime on the floor; I was getting tired, and it didn’t help that the duffel bags were heavy. My shoulders and neck started to hurt from the strain, my legs begged me to stop walking, but I had to keep moving forward.
It was so dark in here that I had fallen five or six times. My feet kept hitting raised stones and I didn't have enough time to catch myself. The last time I fell, I banged up my left knee and it throbbed every time I walked. I just wanted to sit down and drink something, but I didn’t have anything to eat or drink. I considered stopping and going through the bags, but I figured once I stopped I’d have a hard time starting up again. Plus I figured everything in the bags were clothes; I mean, I did watch her pack them this morning.
My eyelids were getting heavy, and I was just about tempted to drop my body to the ground and sleep when a light appeared ahead of me: a small, circular light. Please, please, please let that be the exit. I pushed myself to keep moving, and it took me fifteen more minutes before I came to the source of the light. Light drizzled down from a metal gate above me; a ladder was attached to the wall and led up to the grate. I guessed I had to climb it. Great. I heaved myself up the ladder and pushed at the grate, my arms protesting. I looped one of my legs around one of the rings of the ladder so I wouldn’t fall, but the grate wouldn’t budge. I tried to keep the panic down that was starting to rise in my chest and moved up to the closest step and straddled it. I lifted my arms up and pushed with all my might. After five minutes of pushing, the grate finally lifted a tiny bit, and I used the rest of my strength to push it all the way over to the side. I grabbed on to the ladder and just stood there for a few minutes, catching my breath. Fresh air blew its way down and caressed my face, motivating me to move. Unhooking my leg, I grabbed the next ring, something sticky coating my hand and squirmed my way up the rest of the ladder. Snow covered the ground, so by the time I dragged my body out of the hole I was drenched. It was starting to get dark out, the sun starting to fall; I’d been down there longer than I thought. I picked myself up off the ground and looked around. I was in an alley.
It took me a few minutes of rest to remember the directions Agathy had given me when I remembered I slipped my hood up and started making my way toward the inn. People were milling about, so I pushed my hands in my pockets and kept my eyes down. A loud bang went off to my left, I jumped and chills danced violently down my spine. Spinning over, I could see smoke billowing around the walls. Screaming filled the air, and I couldn't tell if it was coming from the other side or if it was coming from this side. People started rushing by me, panic visible on their faces.
I picked up my pace along with them; I needed to get to that inn. One second I was walking,
and the next a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me up against the wall. The body covered mine, the head bending so close that I could see tiny white flakes in his green eyes.
“Are you still stalking me?” I blurted out.
Gregory narrowed his eyes at me. “No. I just happened to be here and watched you approach.”
Right. “I have to go.” I nodded my head to the side to indicate my leaving, but he wouldn’t move.
“It’s not safe for you here,” he said.
“It’s not safe for me there, either,” I said, pointing behind me. “I have to go.”
“Where are you going?”
“Why?”
He tightened his grip. “I can help.”
I tried getting my arm out of his grasp but failed. “I don’t need help.”
He laughed a humorless laugh. “Yes, you do. Do you even know where you’re going?”
“Yes, she gave me directions.”
“Who gave you directions?”
Crap. “Um…no one?”
Gregory rolled his eyes. “Is this what your maid had planned?”
Just as I was about to answer, another loud blast went off right behind us, throwing us to the ground. Gregory positioned himself on top of me to help shield me from the falling debris. I tried to ignore his huge body on me, but my cheeks flamed at the thought of how nice this would feel under different circumstances. Get it together, Mia. Get it together. You’re literally in a life-and-death situation, and all you can think about is how nice it would be to have his body on you?
“Are you okay?” he whispered in my ear, my body shivered in response.
I had to swallow a few times before I could answer. “Yeah.” I only hurt all over, and your added (gorgeous) weight isn’t helping.
I felt him nod his head, and then he slowly stood up. Just as I was getting up, I was swung into the air and onto my feet. I looked over at Gregory with a raised brow, but he just shrugged. I could have gotten up by myself; I would argue my point when we didn’t have to dodge guns and bombs.
“Where are you headed?” He dusted off his pants while he kept a lookout behind us.
The Divide (The Divide Series Book 1) Page 8