Seven Crowns (Bellaton Book 1)

by E. V. Everest

Ana’s ears perked up. Could this haunting melody really be coming from thousands of miles across the ocean? From the island itself? Somehow against all odds, reaching their ears?

  “Every year, we sing blessings for the people on the mainland. For hope, prosperity, peace, and joy. Can you feel it?”

  She could. The melody struck a chord in her heart. It was beautiful and soft. If she had to give it a name, it would be simply “hope.” It was different than the controlling powers of Henry DuBois or even Chairman DuBois. It invited you to feel “hope;” it didn’t force it upon you.

  In the moonlight, a tiny armada of hopes and dreams sailed through dark, turbulent waters. She hoped the warm winds would blow them straight to the island. To the homeland she had never seen. To the place where the people believed prayers were still answered.

  For a moment, Ana dared to hope too.

  30

  Rockwell vs. Rockwell

  The brief spell of winter had run its course. The grass was green, and cattails swayed in the gentle ocean breeze. Ana was lying on top of the stone wall that surrounded the campus. A book was spread out in front of her, but she wasn’t reading.

  This place had become one of her favorite haunts after Adam showed her how to climb up back in the fall. Adam. Her mind began to play a steady stream of images of them together. His bright green eyes, his strong arms—no, she wouldn’t do this to herself. It had all been make believe.

  She needed to focus on what was real. She needed to focus on proving she had the family gift. If she could regain her family’s council seat, maybe she would be able to better protect the people she loved. Like poor Samuel.

  She thought of him being dragged through the doorway, fear ablaze in his eyes. She had been powerless. She wouldn’t be that way anymore.

  She pulled out a pocket knife she had stolen from Samuel and made a small cut across her palm. Blood began to well up. Now, all she had to do was heal the cut. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Heal, she thought. Heal. Heal.

  She opened her eyes. The blood was still pooling in her hand. Maybe she needed to look at it. Maybe that was the trick. She stared at her hand and tried again. Heal, she thought. Heal. After a few moments, she grunted in frustration.

  Why wouldn’t it work? Had her mom been able to heal? Maybe, she hadn’t been able to heal herself from the cancer, after all. Maybe it wasn’t possible to heal yourself, only others. She wished she could ask Samuel, but he wasn’t here. And Madame Bali had been unreliable lately. She was in and out, visiting the capital. She said Ana’s appearance at the Winter Ball had created many questions and even more red tape. Ana had asked for more details, but Madame Bali had assured her there was nothing to worry about. She would handle it all.

  Ana grunted in frustration and stuck a bandage on the cut. With the tech here, it would be healed in minutes. The beneficial microbes would see to that. That brought a dangerous question to mind. What if none of the Halts could heal? What if it was all some elaborate fraud?

  No. She shook her head. That couldn’t be true. There were books of records. After New Year’s Day, she had spent hours searching the family library. There were generations of stories of healing. The power had to be real. She just had to figure out the trigger.

  A voice from below interrupted her thoughts. “Room for one more up there?”

  Ana looked down and saw Holden. She hadn’t spoken to him since she had left the capital. His eyes were filled with worry. It was an unusual look for him. He was loyal, strong, and usually very content. But as always, he wore his heart on his sleeve.

  “I don’t know,” Ana called back.

  “Please.”

  She shrugged.

  Holden shimmied up the wall with as much ease as Adam. The subtle reminder didn’t endear him to her. She didn’t sit up and instead stared at the sea of words on the open page in front of her.

  Holden mimicked her position, lying down on his stomach, so that they were almost nose to nose. “So, how are you?” he asked.

  Ana flipped a page of her book a little too hard, and it ripped. “How do you think?”

  “Lousy.” His voice was gentle.

  Ana continued to stare at her book, so she wouldn’t have to meet his eyes.

  Holden continued. “You’re wondering if it was real.”

  Ana sat up and slammed the book shut. “Well yeah. Why should I believe him? And why should I even talk to you?”

  Holden drew back in surprise, pulling himself into a sitting position. “When have I ever lied to you?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe when your uncle and cousin were planning to stalk and marry a sixteen-year-old for political gain.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What makes you think I knew anything about that?”

  “They’re your family.”

  Holden raised an eyebrow. “Do you know everything your family does?”

  He had her there. Her mom had a whole secret life. Then there was Hugh. She definitely wouldn’t want anyone blaming her for his actions. “So when I got on that ship, you really didn’t know who I was?”

  Holden chuckled. “Ana, nothing about the way you arrived on that ship was planned by me.”

  Ana remembered how Holden had helped her down through the hatch and away from the gunshots. She remembered how his eyes had widened when he had heard the onboard computer system announce her surname. If he was lying, he was a great liar. She didn’t think he was. “So you had no idea who I was?”

  “Not until the wave scan identified you. Even then, I half believed it was an error. Everyone thought your family was dead. It’s in our history books. The tragic, vacant seventh seat.”

  “Not for long,” Ana muttered.

  Holden smiled. “That’s the spirit. Ever since the trip to the capital, you haven’t seemed like yourself. We’ve all been worried.”

  There it was. We. “You can say his name.”

  “Fine. Adam and I were worried.”

  “Well, maybe he shouldn’t have pretended to like me.” She groaned and put her chin in her hands. “My life is a rom-com, and I’m the loser girl who the popular jock dated on a dare. Of course,” she mused, “those usually don’t end in a proposal.”

  Holden scrunched his eyebrows together. “What’s a rom-com?”

  “It’s not important.”

  “I mean, you’re definitely not a nerd. You can barely work a door in one of our low-tech spacecraft.”

  In spite of herself, Ana laughed and punched him playfully on the shoulder. “Watch it, pilot boy.”

  Holden laughed too, and his hazel eyes fixed on hers for a moment. “Adam really likes you. I’ve never seen him so hung up over a girl before. Normally, he moves on to the next one in a week.”

  “What a ringing endorsement.”

  Holden frowned. “I’m serious. He’s training so hard that he’s beaten two records this week and given himself shin splints. Won’t you at least talk to him?”

  “Maybe.” She paused. “Are his shins okay?” She immediately regretted asking.

  Holden beamed. “Yeah. We can treat that sort of stuff here in no time. So, am I forgiven?”

  Ana looked him up and down, as though she were appraising produce. “You know. I think so. But can you help me down from this wall? I’m a lot better at coming up than going down.”

  Holden scurried down the wall. Ana tossed her book into the thick green grass. Then she slowly lowered herself over the edge, until she was hanging only by her fingers and let herself drop.

  Holden caught her as she stumbled to maintain her footing. Then he wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug. “Glad to see you smile again, Halt.”

  Unknown to either of them, a set of jealous green eyes watched from across the field.

  * * *

  When Holden and Ana approached the school, they found a small crowd had formed on the black-and-white-tiled courtyard.

  “What’s going on?” Holden asked a nearby Rockwell boy.

  “It’s Adam.
He’s after Theo.”

  Holden didn’t stop to thank the boy or ask more questions. Instead he pushed his way through the crowd, looking uncharacteristically fierce. Ana trailed along in his wake.

  Adam had seized a small, wiry boy by the shirt collar. He spoke to him through gritted teeth, though Ana couldn’t make out the words.

  Holden raised himself to his full height and squared off against Adam. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Still holding the boy’s shirt collar, Adam glanced over. “Holden, he has the gift.”

  “I do not,” groaned the boy.

  “He’s just too much of a coward to admit it,” Adam growled. “It never skips a generation. Someone here has it.”

  “Leave him alone,” Holden said.

  “Not until he admits it.”

  “I only see one coward here, cousin. And it’s not Theo.”

  Adam dropped the boy, who hurried into the crowd. Adam turned his attention to Holden. “Oh, we’re cousins again. What about when you were putting the moves on my girlfriend five minutes ago? Were we cousins then?”

  Holden looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “You think I haven’t noticed how strange you’ve been acting all year. Always staring into space and brooding.”

  “Adam, we’ve known each other since we were babies—”

  “Exactly. I know when you’re lying. I just didn’t think it would be to me. Admit it. Admit you’re into her, and I’ll”— he sucked in a breath—“I’ll let it drop.”

  “No, you’ve got this all wrong.”

  “Fine. You leave me no other choice then. I challenge you,” Adam spat.

  Holden’s mouth fell open. Shock and hurt spread across his face like an open wound. Finally, he nodded and turned to walk away.

  What did it mean? Were they going to fight? Ana wanted to go after Holden and find out what was going on, but she knew it would only make things worse. Hopefully, this would all blow over.

  * * *

  It didn’t.

  The next day, Adam dragged a table into the center of the courtyard. A small line formed behind it, like he was selling prom tickets. Only there was no prom. He chewed on a pencil eraser and addressed the doll-faced Zane Fleur in front of him. “So any special talents?”

  The boy leaned across the table with a smug smile. “Poisons and archery.”

  Adam nodded. “Sweet. We could use someone like you.”

  Ana had been listening from a few feet away and stormed over to the table. She still wasn’t completely clear on what the challenge was, but it sounded like it involved weapons. She knocked Adam’s clipboard off the table. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Adam was the portrait of calm. His demeanor didn’t slip, not even for a minute. He picked the clipboard off the ground and dusted it off. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m signing up recruits.”

  “Recruits? For what?”

  He looked at her like she was the village idiot. “The challenge.”

  “You can’t mean that. You really want to poison Holden? Your own flesh and blood? You Rockwells take things way too seriously.”

  “Maybe you don’t take them seriously enough,” he snapped. A trace of emotion rose to the surface of his icy demeanor.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You know what it means.” He didn’t look at her. Instead, he stared down at the clipboard as if he were reading.

  No way. He couldn’t possibly have expected her to marry him. She was only sixteen, and he was seventeen. Even if they were to get married in two years, she would be eighteen. She wanted to be a normal teenager. Then, many, many years from now, she wanted to marry for love. Not some stupid political alliance. Especially one built on a pile of lies.

  Still, she had played a role in this whole “challenge,” and she wanted to end it. Sure, she was mad at Adam, but that didn’t mean she wanted him and Holden ripping each other’s heads off. “Can’t you just let this go?” she asked.

  “I’m not the one who started it.”

  The burly Ivan Rockwell leaned around the Fleur boy to listen in to their conversation. Ana gave him a withering look before returning her attention to Adam.

  “Can we walk?”

  He glanced back over at the line.

  “Just for a minute.”

  He shrugged. “Fine. I guess.” He turned toward the small group of people waiting. “I’ll be right back. Write your names down.”

  Adam followed Ana a few paces away from the table.

  “So?” he asked. “What did you want to talk about?”

  “This whole thing between you and Holden. Call it off.”

  He snorted. “Of course you want to talk about him. I should have figured as much.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not calling it off. He started it.” Hurt passed briefly over his stony features. “I saw you two by the wall. What are you? Dating? Maybe you’ll take that marriage alliance after all. Just not with me.”

  Ana couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How dare you try to high road me? You lied to me for months. I wouldn’t even be talking to you if it weren’t for this stupid fight between you and Holden.”

  “You admit it then. You are dating Holden.”

  Ana threw her hands up in the air. “There is nothing going on between us. We’re just friends.”

  “So, you’ll be his friend but not mine? We’re from the same family, you know. You’re such a hypocrite.”

  Fire danced behind her eyes. “You’re the one who pretended to date me. You’re the one who kissed me. You’re the one who invited me to the ball.”

  “To be fair, you kissed me.”

  “I didn’t hear any complaints,” she countered, color rising to her cheeks.

  “Well, that’s before I realized there were three of us in the relationship.”

  “Oh, you must be counting your dad.”

  Adam clenched his jaw like a volcano about to explode.

  “You want a challenge? Fine. You’ve got one.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

  “I’m joining Holden’s team.”

  Adam’s mouth opened in surprise. “You can’t be serious. My team will wipe the floor with you.”

  “We’ll see.”

  * * *

  Midway through botany class, Ana’s mind churned. What was the challenge? What had she just signed up for? That horrible Fleur boy had mentioned poisons and archery. Were Holden and Adam going to try to kill each other? Was this some sort of gladiator thing?

  Professor Fleur was lecturing them on a new plant they would be cultivating. The instructions were very precise, but Ana’s mind was elsewhere.

  She whispered to Ophelia, “What’s the challenge?”

  Her icicle blue eyes widened. “Oh no. Please don’t tell me Holden and Adam aren’t going to—”

  “They are,” Ana interrupted.

  “I knew they were acting strangely, but I never thought they’d ever take it this far.”

  Professor Fleur shot them both a look and returned to her lecture.

  Ana swiveled in her chair to look at Holden. He was sitting with Theo today. She passed him a note.

  Adam has a booth set up in the courtyard. He’s recruiting.

  Holden mouthed back, So what?

  No amount of sign language was going to answer Ana’s questions. She waited until Professor Fleur asked them to break off into groups and hurried over to Holden’s table.

  “Doesn’t that seem a little extreme to you?”

  “Ana, what do you know about the challenge?”

  “Nothing really.”

  Professor Fleur called their names and told them both to get back to work.

  “Meet me after class. We’ll talk more,” Holden promised.

  Ana returned to her table and tried to focus on the lesson. As was often the case, Ophelia did most of the work, but Ana helped here and there, heaping soil w
herever Ophelia pointed.

  At the end of the class, Ana waited for Holden at the door. As he caught up with her, Ivan Rockwell passed by. He gave Holden a dirty look. “You sure she’s worth it?”

  Ana felt a pang of guilt.

  She and Holden walked toward the Rockwell Training Fields while Holden tried to explain the challenge.

  “It’s a Rockwell family tradition,” he started. “A way to settle disputes. Adam and I will each form our own team made up of six people. The competition will take place in a month.”

  “Somewhere on campus?”

  “I don’t know. The location is always different. A volunteer committee is formed and sworn to secrecy. Students and faculty advisers prepare the location, terrain, obstacles, and climate.”

  “Is it inside or outside?”

  “It could be an ice world, a forest, a shopping center, or an underground bunker. Anything. That’s part of the challenge. Preparing for every scenario. You also have to be careful choosing your teammates. If you choose a Fleur with the gift they would make a killer opponent in a forest, but in the arctic, they’d be dead weight.”

  “How do you win?”

  “It’s capture the flag style. You defend your base and steal the other team’s flag. You need two men standing to win.”

  “Two men standing?” Ana echoed. “They wouldn’t let kids get hurt though?”

  “Not kids. Rockwells.”

  “Rockwells are kids too.”

  He smiled sadly. “Not to our family. We start battle exercises and training at nine. The results of these challenges go on our permanent records. Our loss/win record is considered when making command decisions out of school.”

  Ana frowned. She was beginning to realize how serious this was. “You said you can get hurt, but they wouldn’t let people die, right?”

  Holden kicked at the ground with his shoe. “I mean, it has happened. But not in a long time,” he said in a hurry. “At least fifteen years. It’s rare, never planned, and an instant black mark on your record if you’re at fault. But accidents do happen.”

  “There are no protections in place?”

  “There are, but not everything is predictable. The habitat itself can be dangerous. There could be poisonous snakes. You could get hypothermia if it’s cold. The weapons appointed are nonlethal, but hand-to-hand combat is also allowed. A lot of things can go wrong. But generally, no one’s badly hurt, just cuts and broken arms. Those are pretty common. But deaths, no.”