ALDER (The Underground Series Book 3)

by Melody Robinette

  “I know, I know. Jeez, I can’t believe my sister is going to be engaged. That’s so weird.”

  “It’s awesome. I’m so excited for her,” Crystal gushed. “She deserves it. She deserves to be happy after everything she’s been through, after all she’s sacrificed to make others happy.”

  They remembered a little too late that Jastin was only a few beds away from them, though he was facing away, bowed over Charlotte’s unresponsive form.

  Luke nodded in agreement and said more quietly, “You’re right. Okay, I’ll go. But I won’t be gone long. I love you.”

  He would never not say those words to her now. Even if they were yelling and screaming and hating each other for some stupid, unimportant reason, he would always tell her those three words. Seeing her trapped under that tree, seeing her chest cease to rise as her breathing stopped along with her heart, it had all put things into perspective. Before now, he had been too prideful to admit to her how he really felt. He had been a fool. He knew better now.

  “I love you too,” Crystal said, her cheeks flushing with color every time she said this. She didn’t remember anything from her accident, and Luke didn’t admit that she had actually been the first one to speak these words aloud. The first time he’d said them when she woke up, her eyes had widened in surprise.

  He rushed out of the Healing Tree and down the path to Arbor Castle to wait for his sister. She’d better not be late.

  * * *

  AUTUMN’s mouth fell open. “What?” she breathed, though she’d heard Victor perfectly clearly.

  “They won’t come after you if they think you’re dead,” he stated quietly.

  “And how, precisely, are you going to accomplish that?” Autumn said. “Alter their memories?”

  “No,” Victor said, frowning then. “I don’t like to do that. It changes people.”

  “You say that like you’ve done it before,” Autumn noted. His silence suggested that this was the truth, and Autumn unconsciously put a hand to her head, wondering if he had ever done anything to her memory. Then she wondered why he would even care if he changed people when he clearly didn’t care if he killed people. But now was not the time to discuss the inner-workings of Victor’s twisted mind. “How are you going to make them think that I’m dead?”

  “By transforming a dead Shadow to look like you. After the recent attack, it will be easy for them to believe you were ambushed. Rather foolish for them to leave their queen alone and unprotected like this.”

  Autumn wanted to fight back. She wanted to tell him he was wrong and that they wouldn’t believe a couple of Shadows could kill her so easily. That they knew she was stronger than that. But, in reality, she wasn’t. She had thought the same of Cera, Lucian, and Forrest. All strong Warriors. All completely capable of protecting themselves. But, a lone Warrior could only take on so many Shadows on their own.

  She knew he had her then. Realization of the agreement she was about to make washed over her. Looking out at Arbor Falls again, she felt a hole begin to burn and open in her core, like a flame held under paper. She would never see Avery again. She’d never see Luke again. Or Crystal. Or any of the Warriors or Casters. But this pain wasn’t equal to the pain she knew she would feel if she was responsible for even one more death. Especially the death of the ones she loved. So, she knew what she was going to do. What she had to do.

  And, to further concrete her decision, Victor said, “Here, allow me to give you a preview of what you might see if you foolishly turn down my offer.”

  Suddenly a shimmering, screen-like square appeared in midair, on which flashed scenes worse than any nightmare Autumn had ever had. It was Arbor Falls unlike she’d ever seen it. Worse even than the Shadow attack. Trees falling left and right, fire raging up the ones that remained standing. Elves and warlocks alike being crushed by a sea of Shadows. So many Shadows, the ground was hardly visible. She saw people she knew being pummeled by Shadow horns and smashed by Shadow hooves. Luke’s head being cracked against a rock, his eyes going vacant. Avery surrounded by at least twenty Shadows, each one taking turns crashing into him until he collapsed to his knees, then another delivering the final death blow, the light leaving his golden eyes forever.

  “STOP!” Autumn sobbed. “Okay, I’ll go. I’ll go with you.”

  Victor waved a hand, and the images disappeared. “Can I have your word on that?”

  “You have my word,” Autumn said through angry tears.

  “Not so fast,” Victor said, slipping a hand into his inside jacket pocket, pulling out a wine-colored rose.

  “What is—?”

  “It’s a Covenant Rose. The agreement is only binding if you say it while holding this.”

  Autumn frowned at the rose he held out for her to take. “What will happen if I break the covenant?”

  “All agreements are off. So, I believe you now know what that means.”

  With a trembling hand, Autumn took the rose and spoke, “Victor, you have my word that I will go with you to Alder Island and stay, indefinitely, as your prisoner—as long as you cease all attacks on the Underground.”

  The rose grew warm in Autumn’s hand.

  “That should do it,” Victor said with a satisfied smile, taking the rose back.

  Autumn felt so many different emotions that she settled on staring blankly ahead. She didn’t even cry now, her previous tears having dried in the cold wind on the cliff. “So, I guess we just go now. It’s not like I can say ‘goodbye’ to any of them.”

  “Yes. But first we must set the scene,” Victor said, and seconds later, twenty Shadows appeared out of the tree-line.

  “What’re you going to do, kill all of them and transform one to look like me?” Autumn asked in a flat voice.

  “Not all of them. I’ll kill seven of them. You wouldn’t be able to kill all of them if you were ambushed. The other creatures will be instructed to be milling around you. Don’t worry, they will also be ordered not to attack anyone who may happen upon your body.”

  The reality of the situation struck her. That’s right, she thought, someone will have to find me. Please don’t let it be Luke or Avery. Let it be someone who doesn’t know me—someone who doesn’t love me.

  Breaking through Autumn’s thoughts, Victor began waving his hands in the direction of each Shadow. Autumn was morbidly mesmerized by the ease at which Victor could kill his own creatures. Seven Shadows dropped to the ground until there were just thirteen left standing, none of them batting an eye at the sudden death of their brethren. They didn’t have souls, so why would they?

  Almost as if he were an artist, Victor made slashes in their hides and implanted some of Autumn’s arrows to make it appear as though she had killed them. When it came time for him to create the dead “Autumn” she almost had to turn away. Almost. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. She watched in horror as one of the remaining towering Shadows was transfigured to look just like her, down to the very last freckle. He transformed the Shadow before killing it, so for a moment, she stood face to face with herself. It was almost like the time she and Luke had switched bodies, only she had been able to tell his soul was there by his expressions and through his eyes. Shadow Autumn’s face was eerily vacant, her eyes absent of any emotion. It was lucky her eyes would be closed because no one would believe it was her otherwise.

  “Kill it,” Victor said to one of the other Shadows.

  It was one of the strangest sensations Autumn had ever had, watching herself being killed. She knew the creature wasn’t her, of course, but even still. She flinched as the other Shadow impaled her through the back with its sharp horn, which shattered through the front of her sternum. Inky black blood sprayed outwards and then poured from the wound as Shadow Autumn collapsed to the ground. Victor transformed the liquid to a bright red, as hers would’ve been. Then the Shadow smashed her in the ribs with his hooves until Shadow Autumn’s torso looked deflated and deformed. It broke her leg, which twisted backward in an unnatural way.

&n
bsp; “That’s enough,” Victor said, and the Shadow stopped at once.

  The scene was set. It would be impossible to deny that Autumn was dead and that she’d been killed by the Shadows after fighting for her life. She tried not to imagine what the others would think, how they would blame themselves. Especially Luke and Avery. But her death was better than theirs. She could live with her death. Her imaginary death. If this was what it took to save those she loved. She would do it. And Victor had known she would.

  “That should suffice. It’s time to leave now,” Victor said, reaching out a hand for Autumn to take.

  “H—how are we leaving exactly?” Autumn asked uncertainly, trying not to think about what she was about to do, where she was about to go.

  “By magic.”

  And, grudgingly taking Victor’s hand, Autumn was torn violently from the waterfall boundary, from her world, from her home. She felt the magnetic connection she shared with Avery wrench within her core as if it knew what she was doing. Leaving him. Leaving all of them. Leaving behind no trace but the dead Shadow that everyone would think was her.

  10

  Gone, Gone, Gone

  AVERY arranged the scene where he would propose to Autumn with absolute attention to detail. Everything had to be perfect. As he was in the process of carving their names in the bark of the tree where they had first kissed, a painful jolt struck him in the stomach. He stood up, confused as to what he’d just felt. It wasn’t a stomach pain or a cramp. It was something else, something he’d never felt before. The place where the pain had come was the exact place he’d always felt the magnetic sensation when he was around Autumn. His eyes went wide and dread spread through him like a deadly sickness.

  Autumn.

  Forgetting everything he was doing, forgetting the diamond rose, forgetting rationality, Avery sprinted through the irritated fay fairies to where Knight was grazing happily and mounted him, causing the pegasus to rear back with a start. Grasping Knight’s mane, he held on until the pegasus had calmed down enough to fly in the direction of Arbor Castle.

  The flight felt like it took days, but in reality, it was only about thirty minutes, the frosty air biting at his ears and nose all the while. Avery leaped off of Knight before he’d even touched the ground and raced into the castle. Workers shot him annoyed looks as he barreled past them into the throne room where Luke sat at the foot of the raised platform, absentmindedly tossing his Warrior knife into the air.

  When the door slammed behind Avery, Luke jumped, and then leaped back as the knife landed, point-down, between his legs.

  “Whoa, man! What’s going on? You almost made me lose my—”

  “Where’s Autumn?” Avery asked hurriedly.

  “She’s late,” Luke grumbled, tugging the knife out of the wood of the platform where the two thrones sat. “But aren’t you supposed to be in Fay Forest? You’re gonna ruin—”

  “What do you mean she’s late?” Avery said, his heart beating faster, his anxieties confirmed. “Autumn’s never late.”

  “Not to important things, she’s not. But I didn’t make this sound like that big of a deal. All I said was that I wanted to talk to her about—”

  “I think she’s in trouble,” Avery said, cutting Luke off for the third time.

  Luke climbed quickly to his feet. “What? Why?”

  Avery paused. He knew he would sound crazy if he said that he’d just had a feeling. He couldn’t explain it, anyway—the depth and power of that magnetic connection they shared. “I just do. We have to find her.”

  “Okay. We can go look for her,” Luke said, holding his hands up, clearly pacifying Avery and undoubtedly questioning his sanity. “She’s probably just up by the waterfall. You know how she’s been sitting up there lately. She says that it—hey!”

  Avery was already in the process of sprinting out the door before Luke could finish his sentence.

  Legs pumping, heart racing, Avery flew through town with Luke on his heels. He still couldn’t explain why he was so certain something was amiss. The connection he and Autumn shared was still confusing to him, and they hadn’t exactly discussed it with anyone else, so to tell them that “he felt a gut-wrenching pain deep in his core where his usual gravitational pull was located” would have made him sound crazy. Maybe he was crazy. He hoped that’s what it was, actually. Maybe the jolt in his stomach had just been nerves about proposing to Autumn, which he was about to ruin, but he didn’t care right now.

  If Avery had been able to focus on anything other than finding Autumn, he’d have been impressed by how well Luke was keeping up with him. He would’ve supposed it had something to do with his long legs. Or that perhaps Avery had ignited some sort of worry in him as well. He would’ve thought this if he’d be capable of thinking about anything other than her.

  The steep climb up the hill that led to the waterfall boundary slowed both of them down. Luke was audibly panting. If Avery’s body was experiencing any pain, he couldn’t feel it. Only a little further. Then he would see Autumn, sitting there peacefully looking out at Arbor Falls, and everything would be okay, and he and Luke would laugh about how ridiculous he had been to think anything was wrong. So, he may have ruined his proposal. At least he would know she was all right. In the end, that was all that really mattered.

  Five more steps, four, three, two—

  At first, he didn’t process what he was seeing. His brain and his heart couldn’t come to an agreement. If Autumn were dead, surely he’d be dead too. After all, they shared a heart. If hers had stopped beating, how could he still be alive? But there she was, her auburn hair splayed out in a bloody crown around her pale face. Seven Shadows lay dead on the ground, and several more drifted around her broken body. She had fought. She had tried. But there had been too many.

  If his mind hadn’t been exploding with pain and horror, he’d have turned around and told Luke not to come any further. But, as it was, he couldn’t move, much less speak. Because what else was there to do? He’d just found the love of his life lying lifeless on the ground. The sick irony crashed over him in a wave. This was the same ground on which he had found his sister…in nearly the exact same spot.

  Flashes of Avabelle streaked across his mind—then it went back to Autumn—then Avabelle—then Autumn. Until he couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed onto his knees by her side, pulling her stiffening body into his lap, attempting to brush the blood-soaked hair off of her forehead. The sound of Luke’s guttural cry from behind him was distant and muted, as if his head was submerged in water.

  This can’t be happening, Avery thought. Again. He had promised himself he would protect her. Maybe he let himself believe she could take care of herself. She always had. But here she lay in his arms, surrounded by seven dead Shadows and several others that were still alive. Luke let out a bellowing yell and commenced attacking the still-living Shadows, who strangely hadn’t attacked them yet. With each blow, Luke’s cries grew louder. Avery didn’t have the heart or the strength to tell him that he’d been in his exact shoes not long ago and that no amount of Shadow deaths would ever take the pain he felt away.

  * * *

  LUKE ripped his Warrior knife from its holster and began slashing at the remaining Shadows’ torsos, their faces, their necks. Dark, sticky blood, stained his hands and clothes, but he kept going. With each dead Shadow, his pain grew, rather than diminished. These disgusting, vile creatures created by Victor Vaun had killed his only sister. His twin sister. The only person in the world—both Underground and Outside—that had been by his side every single step of the way.

  She had known what he’d lived through, she’d been there when they were both toddlers, fighting over Legos, she’d been there when they started Kindergarten and when he’d gone to the principal’s office in first grade for cutting a little girl’s pigtail off. She’d comforted him as he cried in the backseat of the car after being scolded by their parents rather than laughing like most siblings would. She was there when he asked a girl out
for the first time, and she was there later that day when they broke up. She had been there when they lost their parents, when they discovered their true identities, when he’d found his Power, when they’d both become Warriors, when they’d become rulers. He had always counted on that, her presence in his life. He’d taken it for granted. They were Oaken. They were stronger than death. But, after the death of his parents, the death of Olympus, the death of countless Warriors, he should’ve known they weren’t invincible. In fact, as Royals, they were more vulnerable than any other Warrior.

  As the last Shadow fell, Luke fell with it. He didn’t even bother holding back his sobs. He no longer cared. Avery was clearly in shock, silent tears rolling down his face, dropping with a small splash onto Autumn’s cold cheek. One thing Luke couldn’t understand was how he hadn’t felt her death. She was his twin, after all. Weren’t they supposed to have an unexplained connection that no one else did? Even Avery had felt her passing. Why hadn’t he?

  Then the torturous thought of when she had died hit him square in the chest, knocking the breath out of him. What if he’d gone to look for her the minute she’d been late to meet him? What if he could’ve saved her? And then he realized that those two words would likely haunt him for the rest of his life…what if.

  11

  Be My Guest…Um, No Thanks

  Autumn followed Victor through the dark, cavernous passageways, lit only by burning torches situated along the wall in twisted iron sconces. The hollow mountain in which Victor lived was surprisingly open and spacious. She’d originally pictured something like the interior of an anthill with narrow, claustrophobic passages. Though, despite the openness of the halls, it was still shrouded in darkness, which was suffocating in itself.