The truth was Ana had no idea if she could pardon anyone, but she knew she had to try. For Samuel.
Whispers broke out in the crowd once more. At first, Ana thought it was at her announcement, but then she realized everyone was pointing at the video feed. She looked up. Ja and a security guard push through trees. Between them, they carried the pale, battered body of Xan Rockwell.
Ana let out a guttural sob. She held her eyes shut for a moment and got a hold of herself.
Adam was crossing the grass from the medic tent when he saw the projection. He stopped and stared.
“We have a confirmation,” the reporter announced. “Fifteen-year-old Xan Rockwell is dead.”
Ana was feeling dizzy now. Could you be dizzy from grief? She gripped the nearby reporter, who seemed surprised but didn’t step back. Ana found she was very tired. She looked down and saw the tips of her fingers were turning blue. She had touched the arrow. The poison had found its mark.
She staggered away from the reporter and her microphone to move toward the medic tent. Adam, seeing something was amiss, intercepted her. She took a step forward and then another. She swayed on her feet, and everything turned to darkness.
35
Epilogue
Ana opened her eyes. She was home in her childhood bedroom. All three of her brothers surrounded her: Fletcher at the foot of the bed, Ryker in a chair, and Hugh leaning against the wall. She closed her eyes. If this was a dream, she didn’t want to wake up.
She fell back into a heavy sleep.
When she woke, her brothers were gone. Instead, she recognized two familiar green eyes. She blinked. Adam was sitting in the chair next to her bed. She sat up, pulling the covers around her chest.
“Oh, good. You’re awake,” he said. “I was getting worried.”
“How did I get here?” she mumbled.
“How do you think? I’m the general’s son.” He gave her a dazzling smile. “I don’t want to brag, but every ship in the Seven Worlds answers to me.”
Ana snorted. “What does your dad think about that?”
“Don’t worry about him.” His voice was nonchalant, but she noticed a glimmer of worry cross his brow.
She looked around the room. “Are we really—”
“In your childhood bedroom? You tell me.”
She looked around. It was the same room—the same white metal bed, the same lavender linen comforter, and even the same set of dated pop band posters. Ones she wasn’t very proud of years later. The smell was different, and the carpet had aged.
She nodded. “Yeah, this is it.”
“Nice poster collection,” he commented.
“Oh, shut up,” she said, hitting him playfully on the arm. “How did you know to bring me here?”
“Your story in the dome. I knew this is where you’d want to be. Especially after everything that happened.”
Then, she remembered how she had gotten here. The mess she had left behind. She started to rise from the bed. “Is everybody okay? Did they find Shay?”
He put a gentle hand on her arm. “You should rest. Everybody is fine. They found Shay hiding in the jungle, scared but safe.”
“And Madame Bali?”
“Dead. They found her body washed up on the river bank. Somebody else got to her before we did.”
“So no one knows why she did it?”
“Money most likely. They found massive amounts on several IDs. She wasn’t even the real Madame Bali. My guess is someone hired her to spy on you. If she really wanted to kill you, she could have done it. Maybe she was afraid she couldn’t escape the academy grounds. Who knows? Then, when she heard about the challenge, maybe the opportunity was too good to pass up?”
“Maybe.”
They were quiet for a moment. A small part of Ana was sad. Madame Bali had been a part of her life for the last year—helping her study, cleaning up after her, and lecturing her about rules. It was still hard to believe she would do all of this.
Adam fidgeted in his chair and cleared his throat. “Ana, I owe you a huge apology.”
She looked up. Her thoughts about Madame Bali dissipating.
“I lost my head, and it nearly cost you yours. Fighting with Holden was stupid. I was jealous.”
“I’m sorry too. You said your feelings were real, and I didn’t believe you.”
“What about now?”
“I bet you dive in front of poison-tipped arrows for all the girls,” she joked, punching him in the arm. Then her face softened. “How’s your wound? Did it heal okay?”
He lifted his shirt. Her eyes flicked over his defined abs but lingered over the tiny blue scar. The spot where the arrow had sunk into his chest.
“Are we okay?” he asked, pulling down his shirt.
“Yeah, we’re okay.” She reached out to hold his hand.
There was a gentle knock at the door, and Ryker entered.
Ana squealed and, before Adam could stop her, jumped from the bed. She lost her footing and toppled into Ryker’s arms.
He laughed and spun her around. “It’s good to see you.”
“Is she up?” Fletcher whispered through the door.
“Come and see for yourself,” Ryker called.
Ana flung herself at Fletcher next, crying into his collar. She had never been so happy in her entire life. “I can’t believe you’re both here.” She thought for a moment. “How can we be here? In this house?”
“Hugh,” Ryker said.
“No way.”
“He’s changed, Ana. He’s clean. He got the house out of foreclosure. Your leaving scared the hell out of him. Out of all of us, really. We thought you were dead.”
Ana’s stomach dropped. Hadn’t Ms. K come for them?
“It was all over the news,” Fletcher added. “Terrible stuff.”
“But then we met Ms. K.”
“She’s crazy, by the way.”
Ana nodded. “But she kept you safe.”
“She did. And you too.”
“Hugh realized how close he came to losing you. He said, well, you should really talk to him yourself,” Ryker said.
They spent the next half an hour catching up while Adam watched the conversation like a ping pong match.
Hugh knocked on the open door. “Mind if I come in?”
Ana looked up, unsure.
Fletcher and Ryker got up from the end of her bed.
“We should give you two a minute,” Ryker said.
Adam crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t look inclined to give up his position next to Ana.
Fletcher caught him under the arm. “C’mon, Casanova. She’ll be here when you get back.”
Hugh and Ana were alone now. Neither of them spoke. She studied him. He was different from the last time she had seen him. His face was clean-shaven. His hair was short at the sides and slick at the top. His clothes were neat and presentable.
“Ana, I’m really glad you’re safe,” he said, breaking the silence. He didn’t meet her eyes. Instead, he leaned against the wall with his hands in his jean pockets, looking at the floor. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t a better brother. I’m sorry I started drinking. To think, I might have lost you—”
He looked up at her, waiting for her to rip him to shreds.
Instead, she walked over and wrapped her arms around him. He enveloped her in a hug. They talked for hours. They talked about his life. He was sober now. He was working the steps. He had gotten the house out of foreclosure. He had a girlfriend and a job he liked at the local hospital. They talked about Mom—how much they missed her and when they thought of her most. They talked about Ana and everything that had happened to her this year.
Then he asked about Adam. “You’re lucky Fletcher didn’t kill him.”
“What? Why?”
“Ana, he showed up at the doorstep with you in his arms. Unconscious. He’s confident, I’ll give him that.”
“That’s Adam alright.” She smiled.
“So, who is h
e to you?”
“It’s complicated.” She told him everything.
Adam in the headmistress’s office on her first day of school, gifting her the sword. Adam inviting her to sit with him and breaking all the old traditions. Adam’s jacket brushing against her bare arm as they looked out at the stars together. Adam running out of the mangrove, trying to keep her out of trouble. Adam’s terrible ice skating. Their faces close together. Their first kiss.
Then the truth being revealed at the winter ball. Her fear of trusting him. His selfish pride. Begging him to call off the challenge. Finally, Adam moving in front of the arrow.
At the end, Hugh said, “It doesn’t sound complicated to me at all.”
Maybe he was right.
They were distracted by the sound of a thump at the door, followed by, “Dammit, Adam.”
Hugh smiled and turned the doorknob.
Fletcher, Ryker, and Adam all toppled through the door.
* * *
The next few days were some of the happiest Ana could remember. She was surrounded by her family and the home she never thought she’d see again. She knew in the back of her mind that it couldn’t last forever. She knew she’d have to return to Bellaton eventually.
One night, Ana and Adam stayed up late watching rom-coms in her room. They sat on top of the bedspread with a pile of junk food spread between them.
Halfway through the movie, Adam threw his hands in the air. “Now I get it! This is why you freaked out. Obviously, I’m the jock.” He flexed a muscle.
She rolled her eyes.
“But you thought you were the nerd? You can’t even operate low tech.”
“That’s what Holden said!”
They both laughed.
Ana snuggled in the crook of his arm, and before long, they fell asleep with the TV still blaring in the background.
* * *
“Well, well, well, aren’t you two cozy?” a voice boomed from the doorway.
Ana jolted awake. Filling up the entirety of her doorway was the hulking personage of General Rockwell. Ana’s eyes widened, and she nudged Adam.
“Huh? What’d you do that for?” he mumbled, blinking back sleep from his eyes.
She nudged him again. “Adam, wake up.”
Adam saw his dad and shot straight up. “Oh, hi, Dad,” he managed.
“Hi, Dad? Are you kidding me? I’ve been looking for you for five days,” he barked.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you. I just—” Adam didn’t get to finish.
General Rockwell waved his words away. “I’ve already figured out how we can explain this debacle. You two have been secretly betrothed and wanted to make your announcement after the challenge. When Ana was hurt, of course, my son, the brave military leader, rose up to protect his future wife. He swept her away to safety while the threat was assessed and neutralized.”
“Do you know who killed her?” Ana asked.
General Rockwell looked down the bridge of his nose. “That remains unknown. Adam get out of bed, get dressed, and prepare to depart at sunset.”
“I am dressed,” Adam protested, getting out from under the fleece blanket that was draped over them. “See?”
“What happens between a man and his wife is none of my business.”
Ana turned red.
“Dad, we’re not married, and I’m not ready to leave yet.”
“Fine. You can stay for one more week. I will say you are familiarizing yourself with Earthen culture. You better memorize something. And you”—he looked at Ana—“gift or no gift, better come back with a ring on your finger.”
The general turned and left.
Gift or no gift? Did he know? She swallowed. Did Adam know? She had tried her best to shield the plant from the sight of the cameras. Adam had been unconscious, right?
Her secret was treason.
The honeymoon was over.
THE END
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Also by E.V. Everest
BELLATON SERIES
Book 1
Seven Crowns
Short Story
Christmas on the Bumblebee
Coming November 2020
Book 2
Untitled
Coming February 2021
FLASH FICTION
37
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About the Author
Evelina Everest is a tween to teen fantasy author. Ever since she discovered the summer reading program, she’s been unstoppable. After all, if books contain worlds, she’s pretty much an intergalactic traveler, right?
When she’s not visiting other worlds or inventing her own, Evelina enjoys drinking too much coffee, playing her trombone, and petting her four fur babies. You can learn more about her work at www.evelinaeverest.com.
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