The Heir: A YA Fantasy Romance (The Heir Series: Book 1)

by Kayla Eshbaugh

  It was around noon then, and driving inland made it hotter than it was on the coast. I waited as the packs were loaded, and Shad helped me into mine.

  “What exactly is the plan? I mean, when we find him, will he be in a cell of some sort—and guarded? Are we supposed to fight these people, or what?” I asked, looking from Shad to Mary, and then to Keil.

  “Let me introduce you to Keil, one of the ancient warriors of Terra.” Shad pointed to Keil.

  “What does that mean?” I asked, my eyes large in surprise. Keil brought an axe out of the car, or well, what looked like an axe to me. It had what looked like ink etched into its handle. He also held a shield, and a sword was on his hip. “So, Keil is going to fight a whole group of evil, Terra-people?”

  “Corrupt,” Mary added “We call these people The Corrupt. The ancient warriors of Terra also have a gift,” Mary started to explain. “They can defeat any foe as long as it is in the name of truth and honor.”

  “Seriously, if we had this secret weapon this entire time, why were we running away? Just sick Keil on them.”

  Keil chuckled.

  “While he has a gift, it is also not all powerful. Like I said, he has to be fighting for a direct cause and for the good of Terra, for the ancients, or for their line,” Mary explained.

  “Emma, you are for the good of Terra. Getting you back and on your rightful throne as princess of the first kingdom should be enough for my gift to work. We need Ryker because you need Ryker,” Keil assured me.

  “Okay.”

  Do not worry, Emma, Keil is very skilled,Shad’s voice sounded within me. I looked to him and smiled.

  “Okay, so let’s do this. Ryker needs us.” Keil started walking up a trail, and we all followed behind the ancient warrior.

  “WE HAVE BEEN HIKING for hours. How much longer, Keil?” I wiped the sweat off of my forehead as I stopped. We had been walking for days, it seemed—only the truth of it, was, that it had actually just been three hours. The forests were dense and thick, and the thing about the air was that it stuck to your skin.

  “Tired, Princess?” Keil stood beside me, slowing down his pace to walk with me. I had been hanging in the back for over an hour. But his use of the term, “princess,” reminded me of Ryker and his teasing about knights and princes. I tried to push the memory away, to shut it behind a locked door in my brain. It wasn’t useful here, in this forest, on this mission. I need conversation. I need distraction.

  “When are we going to stop?” I huffed, my feet and body aching. Mary and Shad were like robots, never stopping, always walking on and on.

  “Are we close?” I called out.

  “Are you tired?”

  “Shad, I want to sleep forever after this.”

  He laughed. Keil and I reached Shad and Mary, who stood, taking a quick water break. I crumpled down beside Shad and sat on a wet log, but could have cared less at that moment. My feet and legs rejoiced at their much needed break.

  “Can we please camp here for the night? I am not sure I can keep this up.”

  “But you said that the last time we stopped,” Keil returned with a smirk. I knew that there were bigger problems; I knew that. Ryker was missing after all, and yes, of course, I remembered that. But, I didn’t want to focus on that. I wanted to complain about my sore legs and the heat and how I wanted that hike from Hell to end—Right now!

  “Emma, we are very close,” Mary added, sitting beside me, putting her arm around me.

  “I know, I know. I am sorry.” I shook my head and felt the shame wash over me. I should not have complained about that hike when my best friend was probably being tortured at that very moment. No matter if it distracted me, I shouldn’t. I did try very hard not to dwell on that though, and that, in and of itself, made it easier for me to keep up the facade that I was only a teenager, and that I was only on a hike in the wilderness, on a vacation. But the truth was I wasn’t a normal teenage girl. I wasn’t even a normal human. I was from another planet, and I was an heir to a throne. I was also being hunted by a prince who wanted to steal my soul and use it for evil. So this façade I was creating of being a teenager, having a temper tantrum on a hike—It wasn’t exactly working; my life was way too complicated for that. Stop pretending to be someone you are not, Emma.

  I sat there on that wet log next to Shad and thought about Ryker. I could not help but think about the last conversation I had with him, over and over again.

  “Emma, you need to let that go. Ryker knows you did not understand everything. I doubt he holds anything against you.” One good thing from our connection was that Shad always knew just how I felt without me having to explain myself.

  “But it was our last conversation, and what happens if that is the last thing we ever talked about?” I let a tear fall then, and wiped it away quickly.

  “I understand, but I know Ryker, and he will do anything in his power to make it back to protect you. He is awfully stubborn, you know.” He winked at me. I was so grateful to have Shad, Mary, and Keil—so grateful that I was not alone.

  “Okay—break is over. We need to keep moving and make camp before nightfall.”

  I got up, not groaning this time. I praised myself in my head for that small amount of self-control. I could not focus on the physical pains anymore. I had let myself think about Ryker, and where he might possibly be, at that moment. As I did, tears dripped down my face in rivulets for hours as we walked. I couldn’t imagine a life without Ryker, without my best friend, my only friend for so long.

  Finally, we reached the small clearing that Keil had marked on the map as a good place to make camp for the night. We had one more hike for a few hours the next day, and that would bring us within a mile from the mouth of the cave, the cave that held Ryker.

  “So we need to reach the next campsite by ten tomorrow morning. We need to be packed and ready to go by six-thirty at the latest,” Keil explained as he set his hiking backpack down near a log. “Then I will leave the camp and walk the mile to the mouth of the cave and see what I can find out—see if there are any people watching out for us. I will come back and report my findings, and then we will make a plan.”

  “What if someone catches you? Shouldn’t we have a plan if you do not come back within like an hour or so?” I asked, setting my backpack down where Keil discarded his.

  “I think that is a good idea,” Mary agreed, looking to Keil.

  “If I do not come back in an hour, Mary will come looking for me.”

  The thought of Mary being alone out there made me sick.

  “We need Shad to stay with Emma and keep her safe.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I gulped. Mary took my arm.

  “All will be well. You will see. The good that is within us is stronger than any horror we will face,” Mary added.

  I knew Mary was only trying to comfort me, but I didn’t think anything she or anyone else said could make me feel less afraid.

  “Let us make camp then,” Keil said, unzipping his backpack.

  I had camped a lot in my life. My parents took me often. We went, however, to campsites with showers and bathrooms and running water. I had thought we roughed it then, but that was nothing compared to the camping we were then doing. Our toilet was a tree, and our shower was any flowing water we came across. Mary pulled our tent out of her pack and laid it out in a small opening near the tree line. I walked over to her and helped her put it up. Ryker and Keil wasted no time doing the same.

  “I’m going to look for firewood,” I said, walking into the trees once we had finished setting up the tent.

  “Stay in sight, please,” Mary called to me.

  I waved back at her.

  “I will accompany her,” Shad called back to Keil and Mary. They both nodded and started taking food out of their packs to prepare for dinner.

  “Are you okay, Emma?” Shad asked, jogging up to me. He reached for my hand, tangling our fingers together the way I loved. Electric heat rose in my chest, and our melodies foun
d each other. Then I remembered another boy who used to hold my hand with sandy blond hair and blue-grey eyes, and I felt sadness—Ryker. I will not cry, I will not cry.

  “I—just tell me we will find him, Shad,” I begged, stopping to pick up a stick.

  “I promise you, I will find him—for you.” He touched my cheek as I stood up. “There is nothing, Emma, I would not do for you.”

  He wrapped his arms around my waist. Just being that close to him again made my soul sing with joy, and caused me to focus on something other than the sadness and the loss of Ryker and where he was and what was happening to him—and if we were too late. He placed his chin on the top of my head, and our melodies danced and swayed and swirled around each other—and there we stood in each other’s arms. Everything somehow felt right, like all the sadness and all the pain from the world would melt away into us, and we would be okay as long as we held each other. As long as our melodies sang together, nothing could break us, nothing could stop us, nothing could hurt the ones we loved. Together we would restore and mend all of the broken things.

  “Maybe we could just stay here forever,” I said, pretending it was a real possibility.

  “That, Emma, is the best idea I have heard all day,” Shad replied, pulling away from our embrace to look into my eyes. His golden eyes found mine, and I wanted to melt into him forever. He smiled at me.

  “We could just live in the trees and build tree houses out of sticks,” I whispered, unable to speak louder because I was too entranced by his eyes.

  “We could hunt for our food,” Shad whispered to me, a little unsteady.

  “Have no rules,” I added, as my body, my head, my legs, and my arms came closer and closer and closer to him.

  “None at all,” he agreed as he stepped forward so that every inch of us, other than our heads, were touching. His body caused my body to feel the electric current as it flowed back and forth between us—as if we were on the edge of something, as if—if we would come just a bit closer, just a fraction of an inch closer, we would explode, but not separate, we would explode together, and into each other. As if we came any closer—we would learn what we could be, what we could have together.

  My head moved down to meet his. His bent down to mine, and our bodies were very close, and our melodies were swirling around us like some beautiful perfect storm, and our noses brushed against each other. I think—I think—No, I know that this is peace; this is heaven, and this is where I have always belonged. He dragged his nose down my jaw, and I knew that I had melted into him. He was me, and I was him because I didn’t know what was happening to my body, and I leaned on him, and he held me up. His legs were mine; he made me whole.

  His lips were in front of mine. I stared into his honey colored eyes and thought: yes—this is it. Yes—kiss me. As soon as I thought the words, as soon as my melody took them and shared them with Shad, he pulled away from me. And I knew that I had lost something. I knew that something had just been lost—and I wanted to find it, I wanted to have it—I ached for it, and my body wanted to drop to the forest floor and mourn the loss of it—weep tears of sadness until I got it, whatever it was.

  “I am sorry, Emma.”

  ”What is happening to me?” I said, unable to breathe, confusion rattling through my limbs.

  “Emma, our bond is overwhelmingly strong. I am so sorry. I should not have gotten so close to you, not like that.”

  “But I wanted you to—I mean, I want you to be close to me, Shad,” I said, and it felt right; it felt true.

  “Oh, Emma—please” his voice cracked. “Don’t make it more difficult.”

  I watched him as he stepped further away from me, as if—if he were to get too close to me, I would burn him, and he would burn me, as if we were toxic, and I thought—I know that isn’t true; together we are magic.

  “Shad, I am sorry. I am not trying to do anything to hurt you.”

  “You are not hurting me,” he said, as he straightened the collar of his button-down dress shirt. I watched as he fixed his black tie, not realizing before that moment what he was wearing, how he looked out there in that wild place, and I smiled: this is Shad; this is him, and I want all of him.

  Emma, you cannot think things like that, Shad whispered to my soul.

  What things? I thought.

  That you want me—that you want to kiss me. Please, you are making it really difficult for me.

  I watched him as he fixed his hair, watched as he studied me, fear in his eyes.

  “I am sorry, Shad. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. Why can’t I want to kiss you?”

  “We cannot kiss, Emma. I am sorry. I should be in better control around you,” he cleared his throat.

  “Control?” I laced my fingers together, and I tried to not let his words cut me, let them dig into me, but they did, and my melody was crying and bleeding, and I thought: Why are you afraid? What have I done?

  I am not afraid of you, Emma. You have done nothing. He finally walked closer to me, taking my hands in his, and I felt our souls bending together. “It’s just that there are so many things you don’t know about me, about Terra, and about who you are. I don’t want us to go too fast. I don’t want to ruin what is between us—our friendship.”

  Friendship—

  Friendship—

  Friendship—

  I repeated the word in my head over and over and over, and it felt wrong; it didn’t feel right, and I hated it. I hated the shape of it on my tongue; I hated the sound of it from Shad’s mouth; I hated the way it floated to me on the air. I hated each letter, each sound it made and the letters and their individual shapes.

  “I understand this is strange for you, so let’s worry about finding Ryker, and the rest—we will figure it all out later.”

  “Later?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “When?”

  “After we find Ryker, we can talk and figure this out—after that.”

  “But Shad, I know what I want.”

  “Emma,” he breathed my name out in desperation. “I am sorry to disappoint you, Emma, but it is simply that kissing to me, kissing on the lips, isn’t something taken lightly on Terra.”

  “I don’t take it lightly either,” I said, picking up some sticks for kindling—trying to distract myself from the confusion that was roaring inside of me. “I have never even been kissed, for real, before. It’s not like I want to kiss everyone.” Only you.

  “I know you don’t, but Earthlings think of kisses differently, so I could understand you feeling different. And this bond we share—it makes you feel things for me, and I don’t want that to confuse you.”

  “What, now that you kissed me and not even my lips, we have to marry?” I asked with a laugh and looked at Shad.

  His face paled, and he looked worried as he brushed a hand over his face. “I am so sorry. I never should have gotten so close to you—kissed you even like that; I never should have kissed you at all—please, forgive me, Emma. Our connection is really strong, and I am sorry—“

  Is being with me really that horrible? That regretful? I was a broken vase on the floor.

  “A real kiss is like a marriage proposal of sorts, Emma. It is a serious, well thought-out, and planned ritual on Terra.” He bent down and picked up a stick. “I just cannot do that. When I kiss a girl, Emma, on the lips, it will be because she will be the girl I will marry someday. I don’t think you are ready for that, and that is okay.”

  At that moment, I knew he was right. I knew that I didn’t want to get married right then. I wasn’t ready for that—I knew I was too young—that would be insane. But, the pain from his words struck me as if he took the broken pieces of me and stepped on them, slowly crushing me into dust. I tried to tell myself that it was okay, that no one our age would want marriage, or even think seriously about it. And while I wanted to date him, how could I at sixteen know who I was supposed to marry? I liked Shad, but Marriage? He was right; maybe it was good that we had not kissed, especially
if it meant that to him. Maybe it was also good that we had not kissed because I wasn’t sure about anything in my life anymore. Knowing all that, it still hurt. Maybe this connection is making me feel things too strongly.

  “I am not ready to get married.”

  “Kissing doesn’t mean you have to get married necessarily, but you just have to be careful because—if you mark someone, their melody is etched onto your soul.”

  I was silent. I didn’t know what else to say. I knew that there were bigger things, more important things going on right then than us, but it hurt that I couldn’t have him, couldn’t have all his kisses, and couldn’t have all his love—that I could not have his melody etched onto my soul.

  He touched my face and moved my head so that our eyes met.

  “You are the most important person to me, the most important person in the universe. Please, know that; I want you to know that, Emma. I need you to know that.”

  I buried his words inside my heart. I kept them close as I nodded. “We should probably get fire wood. Keil and Mary will need it soon if we are going to eat tonight.”

  “Yes, of course. You are okay, right, Emma?” His eyes look worried, and I pulled out a smile.

  “Yes, let’s focus on finding Ryker,” I answered.

  We walked side by side, bending over every once in a while, finding something we could use for a fire. As we made our way back, I noticed that the sun had started to set, making it darker in the forest where we then were than it was in the clearing of our campsite. We stepped into the clearing to see Mary and Keil looking over the map.

  “We have the fire wood,” I called as we dropped the wood in the middle of our camp. Keil and Mary didn’t look up. Shad bent down and started constructing a fire, and I could not help but think back to Ryker building a fire and doing a horrible job of it. I laughed at the memory, and then cried because Ryker wasn’t there with us.

  “Emma?” Shad asked as he added kindling to the fire. I watched as the fire caught, and he eased the larger logs, onto it so that it would make a good, long-lasting fire. I knew what his soul was asking—if I was okay.