Oaken

by Melody Robinette

  “Because I don’t want it anymore,” she answered in a whisper.

  His eyes were now completely black. No trace of green was visible.

  “So you can be bound to Avery,” Victor growled.

  “No,” Autumn said, regaining her voice. “So I no longer have to be bound to you.” Victor’s eyes narrowed to thin slits as she continued. “You don’t talk, you don’t smile, you don’t laugh, you don’t cry, you don’t do anything. You have no feelings, no emotions, no compassion. I tried to help you. I tried to show you that just because you have Atrum blood doesn’t mean you have to act like one, but maybe I was wrong.”

  “Stop,” Victor warned.

  “Maybe all you’ll ever be—”

  “Silence!”

  “—is an Atrum.”

  Victor’s chest heaved and he shook with rage. Shudders ran through his body like vibrations on water. Suddenly he sprang at her, arms outstretched, and wrapped his hands tightly around her neck, blocking her windpipe. She clawed at his hands, attempting to free herself, but his grip was too strong. Her vision began to fade, her eyes blacking out.

  The last thing Autumn did was look into Victor’s coal-black eyes. His pupils were dilating and constricting rapidly and he had a dead, unaware look in his eyes. Just when Autumn felt she was about to pass out from lack of oxygen, she saw Victor’s pupils constrict to a small dot, his green irises clearly visible. Awareness washed over his features. He took a deep, rasping breath and released his hold on her. She collapsed to the ground, clutching her throat, her head swimming.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them, looking up at Victor to see him staring at his hands in horror. His expression changed to a look of triumph, but Autumn figured she must be too disoriented to be seeing clearly. He glanced down at her and his face contorted in agony.

  “Autumn—”

  She threw her hand out, warning him not to come closer.

  “Don’t come near me,” she said, her voice hoarse.

  “But—”

  “Just leave!”

  Victor’s eyes widened and he stumbled backwards.

  “Take the rose,” she whispered.

  His face fell as he crouched down and grasped the rose gently. It wilted on contact, the petals floating morosely to the ground. Victor stared down at the petals, a haunted look in his eyes.

  “Leave, Victor.”

  He blinked and turned slowly, exiting the clearing with a tortured expression on his flawless face.

  Autumn sat on the cold, hard ground, staring at the fallen rose petals. She couldn’t exactly wrap her head around what had just happened. After some time, unsure of how long precisely, she stood and made her way back to Arbor Castle, moving in a zombie-like state up to her branch.

  Avery was waiting for her on the couch and stood up hastily when she entered the room. He registered the empty look in her eyes and rushed over to her, pulling her gently towards the couch and onto his lap. He held her as if she were a small child in need of comforting. Autumn breathed in the smell of him, and felt herself relax in his strong hold, her head resting against his chest.

  “It’s over now,” he soothed.

  Nodding, Autumn tried not to wince from the pain. Luckily she was wearing a turtleneck so Avery wouldn’t be able to see that she’d traded Victor’s rose for the necklace of bruises decorating her throat.

  M.I.A.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Monday morning, Autumn woke up to find her neck covered in deep red markings. Gingerly, she touched the tender skin as she stood before her full-length mirror, tracing the shape of Victor’s fingers imprinted on her skin. A turtleneck or scarf would be a mandatory clothing item for a while. She knew she should probably tell someone what Victor did, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so.

  With only two weeks left until the Warrior Trial, she didn’t have the time or the energy to deal with people fussing over her or having to deal with the guilt of what might happen to Victor if anyone found out. So, she decided to keep yet another secret to herself.

  Autumn was still a little shaken up, but she thought she was doing pretty well for someone who had almost been strangled the night before. Throwing on a silver turtleneck and black pants, she traipsed down the stairs to meet up with Luke, Avery, and Crystal in the dining room.

  “Hey, single lady,” Luke said with a chuckle.

  Autumn rolled her eyes at him, but smiled nonetheless.

  Luke then began dancing and singing the song Single Ladies by Beyonce. Avery and Crystal looked at him strangely and Autumn let out a loud laugh. “Stop that. You’re just embarrassing yourself.”

  “I’m not embarrassed,” Luke said.

  “I think I’m missing something,” Crystal said.

  “Same here,” Avery replied.

  “So it went well then?” Luke asked.

  Autumn nodded, not wanting to talk about it.

  “Did he take it okay?” Crystal asked.

  Frowning, Autumn took a bite of toast and chewed slowly so she could think of what to say. They watched her expectantly as she finally swallowed and said, “Um, he was a little upset, but I’m sure he’ll be fine today. Guys usually get over break ups after a couple of minutes.”

  “That is not true,” Luke protested.

  Autumn, Crystal, and Avery raised their eyebrows at him in surprise.

  “It only takes me about thirty seconds,” Luke stated.

  Dread filled Autumn as the four of them approached campus. She was not looking forward to seeing Victor, especially since she had first period with him and he was usually her partner. But Victor never showed up to Numbers class and Autumn started to get a little worried. She tried to tell herself that he was sick or something, but she knew that elves never skipped school because of sickness. The school healer had a remedy for just about every virus in the Underground and elves rarely got sick anyway.

  Autumn didn’t see Victor anywhere on campus all day, nor did he show up to Powers class either. She hoped that he would at least come to Warrior training that afternoon.

  During the thirty-minute break between Powers and Warrior training, her eyes kept flitting to the path that led to Victor’s tree house. When Atticus arrived on the training field, Victor still hadn’t shown up, so Kyndel had to group up with Charlotte and Jastin for the day.

  “Maybe he took it a little harder than you thought,” Luke muttered to Autumn.

  Her brow furrowed as she thought this through. Maybe he thought that she was going to tell everyone about what he did so he decided to stay home.

  Avery hadn’t missed Victor’s absence either. “Where do you think Victor was today?” he asked after practice.

  Autumn shrugged, trying to appear indifferent, but not quite succeeding. “No idea.”

  “You don’t think he’s still upset about you returning his rose do you?”

  “I doubt it.”

  On their way back to Arbor Castle, Autumn tried to convince herself that Victor was just pouting because he thought he was too handsome for anyone to return a rose to him, or maybe he felt rebellious and wanted to skip for the fun of it, or perhaps he had simply forgotten he had school. Of course each excuse was more unlikely than the next. She was sure the real reason was that he figured she would tell everyone what he had done to her, proving that he really didn’t know her at all.

  Even as a child Autumn never told on Luke because she didn’t want him to get in to trouble because of her, even if he had deserved it. Of course, this situation was far more serious than Luke pulling off one of her Barbie’s heads. Autumn began to analyze why Victor would even do what he did. It was rather strange that his pupils always dilated when he was angry. She wondered if he had a psychological problem that caused him to black out when he was angry or something. She was pretty sure she’d heard of that before. Though, that was in the Outside. Surely elves were not immune to psychological diseases.

  Autumn was sure that must be it. Well, then it really wasn’t
his fault if he couldn’t control it. Of course he would be angry after seeing her with Avery. It was natural to become upset when being yelled at, as she was yelling at him. Autumn vigorously shook her head to clear these thoughts. She was not going to blame herself for this.

  “Rose?” Luke said.

  She looked up to see Luke, Crystal, and Avery staring at her in concern. “What?”

  “Are you alright?” Crystal said.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking.” She mentally kicked herself for saying this because, of course, she knew what was coming next.

  “What’re you thinking about?” Avery asked. Yes, that’s what she was expecting.

  “Nothing in particular. The Warrior Trial, school…you know, stuff.”

  The three of them looked at her suspiciously, but she pretended not to notice.

  Autumn managed to go the whole night without any further questioning and she realized that Avery was right about what he had said before—she was a better actress than she thought she was. She laughed at Luke’s jokes and talked animatedly with Crystal about a new gown she was creating for a woman she had met at the Warrior Initiation Ball. Avery continued to cast her concerned glances, which she ignored. Okay so maybe Avery wasn’t quite buying her act, but she was pretty sure she at least had Luke and Crystal fooled.

  Autumn could tell Avery was about to question her as she moved to enter her branch. So, she did the most logical thing she could do to clear his mind. She pulled his face firmly to hers and kissed him long and deep. He pulled away gasping a little.

  “What was that for?” he said, breathless.

  “I just wanted to kiss you. Is that a bad thing?” Autumn asked innocently.

  He shook his head slowly. It would seem that she had achieved her goal. She smiled wryly and murmured, “Goodnight, Avery.”

  “Night,” he said as she left him staring dazedly after her on the landing.

  On Tuesday, Autumn walked into her Lab class to find that Victor hadn’t shown up again. Seriously? What is he thinking? Autumn thought. They had less than two weeks until the Warrior Trial and he was skipping because of a stupid breakup and an attempted strangulation? Autumn frowned at this thought and realized that she may be taking this situation too lightly.

  When Victor didn’t show up to Warrior training that afternoon the other Initiates became anxious as well.

  “What if something happened to him?” Charlotte said after practice. “Doesn’t he live alone?”

  “He probably got lost on the way back from getting his heart broken.” Luke started laughing then stopped abruptly when he saw the death glare Autumn was shooting his way.

  “What?” Cera said with raised eyebrows. The others turned to face Autumn as well, with similar expressions.

  She gave them a sheepish look before saying, “I, uh, returned his rose Sunday evening.”

  Everyone began talking at once.

  “Why would you do that?” Forrest asked, incredulous.

  “Aw, how come?” Charlotte exclaimed.

  “Is that why he hasn’t shown up to practice?” Jastin said.

  “Well, he was sort of depressing to be around sometimes,” Cera admitted.

  “Does that mean he’s free then?” Kyndel asked, though she didn’t seem remotely interested.

  Autumn didn’t know who to answer first, but found herself cracking a smile at Kyndel’s comment.

  “He’s all yours,” Autumn told her with a smirk.

  Kyndel raised her eyebrows, obviously not expecting that answer.

  “You don’t seem all that upset about it,” Forrest said.

  Autumn shrugged. “It just didn’t work out.”

  When Victor didn’t show up to Numbers class Wednesday morning, Crystal and Forrest turned to Autumn, looking concerned.

  “Maybe we should go look for him after school,” Forrest suggested.

  “Or during lunch,” Crystal said.

  Autumn nodded in agreement. Maybe something bad really had happened to him.

  So during lunch all of the Initiates left in search of Victor’s tree house.

  “Hey, that’s Victor’s unicorn,” Autumn said, spotting the horned beast grazing in a passing clearing.

  The others took a few steps back, looking wary, but Forrest approached the beast slowly, speaking to him in his Animal Language. He returned quickly, telling the others that Victor’s tree house was not far down the path.

  They immediately knew when they had found it because it was the only tree house around in the remote area. It was made of a very dark, almost black bark and the branches were completely bare. It was much larger than Autumn originally pictured and she wondered absently why Victor had never invited her here and then realized she was glad he hadn’t.

  The house looked empty and desolate. Cera approached one of the windows and peered in. “It’s completely dark inside. I can barely see anything. He isn’t home,” she determined bleakly, pushing away from the window. They all exchanged worried glances. Kyndel narrowed her eyes at Autumn in accusation. Of course she would think this was entirely Autumn’s fault.

  Forrest spotted a doe watching them from behind a nearby tree and approached it, speaking once again in his strange language. He turned back to the others with a grave look upon his face. “She says Victor left a few days ago and hasn’t been back since.”

  Everyone exchanged a nervous glance at this.

  “It would’ve been nice if you would have waited to return your little rose after the Warrior Trial, Princess,” Kyndel hissed. “I don’t have a partner now thanks to you.”

  “Shut it, Kyndel,” Avery growled. “You’re just mad because you actually have to try now that you don’t have Victor doing all of the work.”

  Everyone looked at Avery in surprise. Autumn doubted they’d ever heard him talk like that to anyone other than Victor, especially not to a girl. Kyndel glared at him, but said nothing.

  They made their way back to the campus in nervous silence, everyone at a loss.

  “Should we tell Atticus?” Charlotte spoke up.

  “Probably. I’m sure he’ll be concerned too when Victor doesn’t show up to training again,” Forrest said.

  “Maybe we should send a Navigator out to look for him,” Luke suggested.

  The others nodded in agreement. They decided not to discuss it with Atticus until after Powers class so the students who weren’t Warriors wouldn’t overhear. They all met up on the training field, waiting for Atticus to show up when they saw a silhouette approaching in the distance, bracing themselves to give him the bad news.

  Autumn narrowed her eyes at the approaching figure. “Victor!” she exclaimed in surprise. The others gasped as they registered what she was seeing as well.

  “Where have you been?” Kyndel called in a stern voice.

  “You had us worried, man,” Forrest said.

  As Victor came into the light there was a collective intake of breath. He looked horrible. His skin was pale, he had dark circles under his eyes, and he wore a dead expression upon his face. Autumn swallowed thickly at the sight of him and couldn’t stop herself from brushing her fingers softly across her bruised neck.

  “Are you alright?” Jastin asked him.

  Victor didn’t answer.

  “Okay!” Atticus shouted from behind them, causing everyone to jump, “Everybody ready to get started? Ah, Victor, nice to see you back. You been sick?”

  Victor nodded absently. Atticus did not question this due to Victor’s appearance. Autumn’s brow furrowed as she continued to take him in.

  Practice was just as grueling as ever. The Tetras had captured ten Shadows this time, two for each Warrior pair. Victor seemed to come back to life as training went on. He didn’t speak to anyone, but managed to kill both of his Shadows before anyone else had killed one. He left Kyndel staring at him with a mixture of indignation and awe.

  When Atticus announced that practice was over, Victor immediately left the training field, avoiding a
bombardment of questions. They all stared after him blankly.

  “He looks bad,” Jastin said.

  “Well at least he’s back,” Kyndel said.

  “Yeah, you didn’t have to do anything at all today.” Forrest laughed, jumping out of the way as Kyndel moved to slug him angrily on the arm.

  Victor’s reappearance did nothing to soothe Autumn’s unease. If anything, she felt even worse.

  Scarves and Roses

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  The rest of the week passed semi-normally. Autumn went to classes, Warrior training, and went home exhausted. Autumn and Luke were able to squeeze in some time to visit Thunder and Sundance, who had both grown quite a lot since Christmas. Avery said that they would be able to fly in a few months.

  Victor kept up his silent treatment, which really wasn’t all that different from how he had been acting before. The only difference was that he didn’t say one word to Autumn whatsoever. He wouldn’t even look at her. She was sure he was ashamed of what he did and that he had noticed the fact that she wore a turtleneck or a scarf every day to cover her bruise-striped neck.

  On Saturday, the Initiates had the most challenging practice to date. Atticus even allowed them Sunday off so they could recuperate, even though the Warrior Trial was the next weekend.

  After dinner, Luke, Avery and Autumn walked tiredly up to their branches and Crystal left for the roots. As Autumn began to enter her branch, she felt Avery grab her hand. She turned to him in question and he simply bent to kiss her hand, keeping eye contact. She felt him slip a piece of paper into her palm. She raised an eyebrow at him, but he simply gave her a crooked smile and continued up the stairs.

  Autumn walked into her branch and opened the paper to read it.

  Meet me on your balcony at midnight.

  AVERY climbed astride Knight with a feeling of nervous anticipation in the pit of his stomach. He wanted tonight to be perfect. Autumn deserved nothing less. Knight leapt into the air and glided to Autumn’s balcony. He heard stirring within her branch and seconds later she was throwing the balcony doors open. Her auburn curls framed her soft, heart-shaped face, upon which rested a coy smile, her hazel eyes shining brightly in the moonlight.