by Rachel Angel
I clenched my fists. So Kaz was right all along. Tempest did betray us. With Jordan.
“She set us up to fall in love with her, then break our hearts,” Kaz said.
“No,” Ori said. “That can’t be right. How could she when she only learned of us when she arrived at Kingsbury? She didn’t even know a thing about the Underground Fighting Network until she fought me.”
My head was reeling. Kaz saw Tempest willingly and apparently enjoying having sex with Jordan. My heart was shattered. She had moved on with Jordan and that local boy. My eyes filled with tears and I wanted to bawl my eyes out. “She really was over us. She had moved on to someone else. Jordan and Ricky of all people. I can’t believe it.”
Losing Tempest for good was worse than anything I had ever felt. Worse than being expelled. Worse than losing my music career.
“I believe she still loves us,” Ori said. “I think she was Jordan’s pawn. He used her pain to get us, to twist things around for himself. After all, guys, we were the ones who broke her heart first. We deserved her revenge. Even when it’s with someone we hate.”
Kaz stopped pacing and said, “I’ll get you reinstated as a student, Hunter. Don’t pack up your things yet. And Ori, we’ll clear your name of those false claims about you using substances to boost your fights. Tempest got back at us, I understand, and she’s had her revenge. Now it’s time for me to reclaim my kingdom. And our girl. But first…I need to know more about Jordan’s plans and how much our Tempest played in it.”
“As we speak,” I said, looking at several screens on my laptop, “Tempest is with Jordan in San Francisco.” I couldn’t help feeling pure jealousy as I thought about Tempest with another man, outside of K3.
Looking around me at the guys, they all had looks of pure jealousy on their faces. It was primal…men claiming their females or female in our case.
Ori spoke first, “So we can’t get to Tempest to talk to her in person at the moment.”
Kaz said, “But that blonde bastard she kept spending the night with…that commoner Rich something…”
“Ricky,” Ori said.
“Ricky,” Kaz continued. “He’s here on campus. Works in the kitchen.”
“What do you intend to do?” I asked.
“Let’s grab him and get him to tell us what he knows,” Kaz said.
“Okay,” Ori said. “Shouldn’t be too hard. He’s here on campus already. All we need to do is bring him here.”
Chapter 5
Tempest
I found the fastest airplane I could find to get from San Francisco to the island of Arcadia where Kingsbury Prep (aka Kingsbury Castle) was located. It wasn’t a regular commercial airplane, but a military one, which I had to pull strings for using my 3 Kings Technologies connections. What would have taken hours by regular commercial flight took only about two hours.
It gave me time beforehand to visit Lily and to catch up on everything.
“I’m sorry this visit is so short,” I told Lily, hugging her in Lily’s secret apartment at the 3 Kings Technologies headquarters. “I’ll be back soon, Lily. Before you know it, I’ll graduate from Kingsbury, and back in San Francisco to help run 3 Kings Technologies with you again. But tell me something that’s going on that you can’t tell me over the internet or the phone.”
“Well for starters,” Lily said, “I figured out why Mom and Dad needed those binders on top secret defense weapons and on designs for new planes and ships.”
“Didn’t we already figure that out?” I said. “I thought it was for the highest bidder on military grade new weapons?”
“There’s more,” Lily said. “It has to be significantly more for Mom and Dad to have risked their lives protecting it.”
“What is it?” I asked. “I don’t have much time to keep guessing so just tell me.”
“Mom and Dad not only had contracts with the US government, but look at this…” She pulled out another binder, which I had never seen before.
“Fighter ships with smart technologies. Brains in the airplanes, the ships, the vehicles…including a satellite,” I said, looking at the plans kept in the binder. Incredible. Mom and Dad were geniuses.”
“Duh, how else did you and me inherit the genius genes?” Lily said. “Two geniuses marrying each other and having kids together…one of us was bound to be a genius.” She did an exaggerated wink. “Guess it had to be me.”
I tugged at her side braids and said, “No doubt you’re the genius.”
She laughed. “I was just joking.”
“And I’m not,” I said. “You are a genius.”
“So Tempest, since you’re not just my big sister, but guardian…I’m doing so well in the homeschooling one-to-one school system, they want me to skip some grades.”
“It’s up to you, Lily,” I said. “You’re not only a genius but you’re mature, too. Most kids can’t handle what you do. Even some grownups.”
“I want to skip some grades then,” Lily said. “The sooner I finish with the regular school, I can get into college, then graduate studies.”
“Maybe you can skip high school all along and join me in college,” I joked.
“If I skip three grades I might be able to,” Lily said. “Wouldn’t that be great…us attending the same university so we can be together.”
“That would be so wonderful, Lily,” I said hugging her tightly. “I want to be together again. I wished I could make it back here all the time to be with you. I’ll try to, now that I’ve found a new way to fly.”
“Tempest,” Lily said. “Maybe we can design and produce new planes that are more amazing than that? We have the plans in that binder. I think Mom and Dad were planning on building those planes. They may have already.”
“They were on a business trip when they died. “Maybe it was where they had built a plant and they were already secretly manufacturing everything in those binders?”
“Possibly,” Lily said. “Just where would they put a plant like that?”
“A secret hideaway place no one would think of having a manufacturing plant at,” I said.
“Right. Sounds like either the desert, mountains, or an island,” Lily said.
“If there is one, we’ll find it,” I said. A text came through just then, and I gave Lily one last big hug before heading out.
“Oh, Tempest,” Lily said before I was completely out of earshot. “That other prince you started seeing, I found something on him. I’ll text you what I found later.”
I nodded and waved good-bye and headed down to the lobby of 3 Kings Technologies. It was good to be back in this building where Lily and I grew up playing and hanging out at our parents’ offices. They were so busy building their company, they brought us to work. So running the company felt natural, since we’ve been a part of the family business since we were toddlers. But now, having discovered we were not only just a technology company but one building weapons and innovative new modes of transportation, suddenly our little company was now on the radar of people and organizations that would do anything to have what we have…to know what we know.
I sent Lily a quick text telling her I loved her and to keep safe. As soon as I figure out what our parents had been building and where was it, I’d relocate Lily elsewhere.
Chapter 6
Ori
After our discussion at Kaz’s place, we decided we had to get a confession out of Ricky, to find out if he knew what Tempest had planned.
I hated having to investigate Tempest like this…going through a friend to get through to her. I also thought Ricky was a good guy. He had proven himself to be reliable and trustworthy that night of the Kingsbury Birthday Bash when he gathered over a hundred local townspeople to help act as security for the Bash after my own security team failed to show up.
We waited for him at the end of his cafeteria shift and found him walking along the trail towards the tram back into town.
“Hey Ricky,” I said. “How’s it going?”
He s
topped walking and looked over at me, Hunter, and Kaz, all standing together. “Hey,” he said. “Haven’t seen you guys in a while.”
“How’s Tempest?” I asked.
“Tempest?” Ricky asked. “I haven’t seen her in a while. Wouldn’t you guys know where she is?”
“We thought you would know since you’ve been hanging out with her a lot recently,” Kaz said, with a bit of an edge to his tone. He could barely retain his jealousy of the fact Tempest was now seeing and being fucked by this guy. The thought of that made my blood boil, too.
Ricky was just as big, tall, and athletic as the three of us. In the looks department, he was considered handsome too, especially in a blonde surfer way, which probably reminded Tempest of her home in California. Maybe that was why she got along so well with Ricky. Friends at first, but when we hurt her so badly…she found comfort in the arms of this horny bastard who wanted to be her friend with benefits. We all saw it a mile away.
Kaz was looking at Ricky up and down, sizing him up and probably wondering how the hell this guy could think he could compete against a bunch of princes.
“We need to ask you a few things,” Hunter said. “If you would come with us.”
“Yes,” Kaz took Ricky’s right arm, while Hunter took his left.
Ricky’s eyes flew wide open in alarm. He struggled to get out of Kaz and Hunter’s hold on him, shouting loudly, “Let go of me! Let go now!”
Other employees and staff of Kingsbury Prep were walking passed us on the trail to go down to town where they lived outside of Kingsbury.
They looked surprised and alarmed as they saw Kaz and Hunter dragging Ricky along, while Ricky struggled.
“Hey!” one of them said. “Why are you dragging Ricky away? What did he do?”
Another ran down the trail as fast as he could to town, shouting, “The royals have taken Ricky. They’re black enveloping a common staff member now!”
“They’re going after common people who work for them now!”
The shouts became louder and louder.
Down below in town, a gathering of people started making their way up the mountain.
“Stupid spoiled royal brats!”
“Think they can get away with anything just because they are royalty!”
“We pay taxes so high to support their lazy no-good asses!”
“How dare they mistreat Ricky Honeywell! The Honeywells have been the pillar of society long before there was an Academy!”
“All their stupid games they play must end!”
“Their brutal bullying and elitism must end!”
The crowd was getting larger and larger. I ran over to Kaz and Hunter. “Guys, let Ricky go. It looks like we just incited a mob.”
“What?” Kaz asked. “How could they?”
Someone threw a rock which nearly hit Kaz’s head. His eyes grew wide, and he dropped Ricky’s arm. “Come on, guys, this is getting dangerous.”
Another rock was thrown. This time it hit Ricky’s shoulder which made him fall into Hunter, knocking him down.
Kaz and I helped Hunter and Ricky up, grabbing their arms to begin our retreat. “Quick, back into the school!” I said.
Ricky winced as blood gushed out of a gash where he was struck. Kaz and Hunter hoisted him up between them and began running as fast as they could with me trailing behind.
“Leave me,” Ricky said. “It’ll help you run faster.”
“No, you’re hurt, and they’re acting too crazy,” Kaz said. “They’ll stone you to death too, thinking you’re one of us.”
A rock hit Hunter’s back, and he slumped over a bit before straightening out. “God that hurt like a son of a bitch!”
“Just around the corner, and we should be within the gates!” I said, helping Hunter by taking his shoulder and wrapping his arm around mine to boost him up.
I looked back, and my mouth fell opened. There were maybe a hundred or more people from town not too far behind us now, carrying weapons, including rocks, knives, axes, shovels, and whatever they could get their hands on.
I felt like a monster on the run from the village. Frankenstein. Dracula.
We finally made it to the gate where I quickly punched in the security code, and the gates opened. “Hurry!” I shouted. We stumbled our way in. “Close the gates quick!” I yelled at the guards standing by the gates. “Quick! We’re under attack!”
When we made it further in, we collapsed onto the grass. I had been hit a few times by the rocks, and it was stinging where I was struck on my back. Hunter had blood flowing from his shoulder and back. Ricky was bleeding from his shoulder and Kaz…had blood flowing from the top of his head.
His eyes were closed.
He fell unconscious.
“Kaz!” I shouted. “Wake up!”
Hunter shook Kaz too, but Kaz’s eyes remained closed.
“Quick, someone get a doctor!” I shouted.
Hunter had turned pale and was shaking Kaz. “Kaz, wake up. Wake up. Please be alright!”
“Damn it! Get a doctor now!” I ran to the administration building and banged on the door until someone opened it. “Emergency! There was an attack on Kingsbury and Kaz isn’t responding. He was hit in the head with a rock.”
Someone rushed out to see Kaz, and a few more ran out from behind him.
“You’re bleeding too,” someone said. “A lot. Massive cuts and gashes on your back. We need to stop the bleeding or you’ll have too much blood loss.”
I was taken into the nurse’s room and laid down on one of the beds. As soon as I hit the bed, my eyelids felt heavy, and I felt so warm.
“Get some blood, Type A! He’s lost a lot of blood,” I heard someone said before I drifted off.
Chapter 7
Kaz
The wind was blowing my mother’s long black hair against my face as she played in the sand next to me. She was laughing and giggling, as carefree as any island girl, enjoying a beautiful day at the beach.
A moment of distraction, and my mother and my nursemaid left me to wander down the beach by myself, my curious five-year-old legs eager to explore the vast openness of the clear blue water before me.
Up ahead of me was my older brother barely 7 years old, wading in the water in the middle of a blown up plastic penguin float. I wanted to follow him. I wanted to float in the water like him. Just like him. Just like Jordan, who I admired and thought was the best older brother anyone could have.
I wandered deeper into the water, trying to reach him and his penguin float. But my little legs were too short to walk up to him. I was drinking in water so salty I was coughing it out.
“Mama!” I cried out when a wave of water hit me and almost knocked me over.
“Kaz!” my mother’s voice panicked. “Where are you, Baby!”
“There he is!” my nursemaid shouted running into the water from the beach. “He’s near Prince Jordan.”
My mother ran into the water as a wave hit me and knocked me into the water where I sank beneath.
“Kaz!” I heard my mother’s voice drifted.
Then hands were on me, lifting me out of the water. I was sputtering water but I had trouble breathing.
“Quick, he needs resuscitation. CPR. Step aside,” a voice said.
Hands were pushing down on my stomach.
I cried out in my toddler voice, “Mama! Jordan!”
Then a gush of water flowed out of me, coughed up before I could breathe again.
My mother was crying. Then I heard my father’s voice. “There, there. He’s safe now. He must have wandered after Jordan.”
“He almost died,” my mother was crying. “I almost lost my sweet baby boy…”
“Jordan!” my father’s voice called out, stern and unforgiving. “How could you let your little brother go into the water after you? Didn’t you see him next to you? You are his big brother and you can’t even take care of him? He almost died because of you, Jordan. What kind of a brother are you?”
“T
here, dear, Kaz is fine now. Don’t blame Jordan,” my mother said. “He’s just a child.”
“Child or not. He is old enough to know better. He’s a prince. The eldest. I was already performing princely duties at his age. This is no excuse. There will never be an excuse for him.”
I sat up to see Jordan’s face streaked with tears, his mouth crumbled as he cried. “I didn’t know Kaz was in the water. I didn’t see him. The waves were so loud! I’m sorry, Father! I’m sorry!”