by Zara Zenia
“What do you mean by ‘the one’?” I’d heard them say it a couple of different times, but not with the same gravity as when Brandt just said it. Not with the same seriousness. “What makes me ‘the one’?”
All around me there’s awkward shuffling and puzzled looks. It makes me feel kind of stupid because they’re all looking at me like I just asked the first letter of the alphabet or something equally obvious.
It’s Lucas who finally speaks, brushing hair across my forehead. His cold fingers feel nice on my feverish skin and I sigh a little as he flattens his palm on my forehead.
“Do you not know?”
I shake my head. “I wouldn’t be asking if I did.”
Lucas gives me a grim look. “You and you alone have the power within you to create the weapon that will destroy the darkness.”
“What makes you so sure it’s me?” I ask, still having trouble coming to grips with that. At least they’re not suggesting I fight these wolves bare-handed. I’m going to have a weapon of some sort. That’s better than nothing, though I hope I get some training with it. I’ve handled a gun a time or two, a bow more often than that, but other than those, I’ve got pretty much no weapons experience. Certainly not enough to bring down an entire race of evil wolf monster things.
“Our seers told us where to find you,” Morgan says.
“And our prophecies told of you as well,” Trylor says.
“The chances that we’re all wrong are very slim,” Lucas adds. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but I assure you, you are the one.”
The finality in his tone makes me shudder and wrap my arms around myself as I sit up.
“So that’s that then? I’m the one that has to fight this…thing.” My voice sounds hollow and distant as I sit up and stare at the opposite wall, hoping that this dream will just end already.
But it doesn’t. Trylor sits down next to me, his bulky weight making the couch sag, and he wraps an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. The warmth of his body wards off those chills of despair and kindle a little hopeful flame in my heart.
“You’re not going to do it alone, Eva. We will all be there. We will all protect you and help you in any way we can.”
I look up and around the room. Every man is nodding at me, confirming what Trylor said. Every man is looking at me like I’m the most important, precious thing in the universe. It’s enough to make me dizzy. It’s enough to make my head spin and nearly make me giddy with the attention. No one’s ever looked at me with the intense longing that four men are now training on me. It’s intoxicating and overwhelming and I desperately want to see if those hungry looks mean what I think they mean, but before I can say anything, a wolf’s howl pierces the night outside.
Chapter Fourteen
Eva
The sudden sound makes me jump, but it makes everyone else in the room tense, all taut muscles and coiled energy waiting to spring. Tree branches scrape against the window panes, like nails scratching to get in and the wind howls, masking the sounds of the wolves. I shudder, trying to convince myself it’s all in my head, that there’s nothing really out there, that I’m safe in my home.
“We’re out of time,” Lucas says, peering through a crack in the curtains. His steel resolve sends goosebumps up my arms. Anything that could make a man like Lucas look that worried is cause for concern on my part.
“What do we do?” I ask, my voice small and frightened. I hate how it sounds, like I can’t take care of myself when I’ve made it a point to prove that I can. But I really don’t know how to face these wolves. They told me I’d create a weapon, but I don’t have time for that now. I don’t even know what that really means. I’ve got my bowie knife, but that’s hardly a match for even one wolf, never mind the whole pack that sounds like they’re surrounding my cabin.
“We need to leave,” says Morgan, all seriousness. “Is there another way out?”
The howling is at the front door now, getting closer and closer until it sounds like they’re in the room with us, until I can feel their red eyes tracking me, their mouths salivating at the thought of ripping me limb from limb.
“No,” I say, my voice shaky and weak. “There’s just the one door.”
“That’s not going to work,” Lucas says, frustration tightening his voice.
He starts pacing in front of the door, like maybe his frenzied movements can scare off the enemies outside, but I’m sure he doesn’t actually think that. If anyone here knows how dangerous these wolves are, it’s Lucas. I saw his memories. I remember the anguish and despair that gripped him and still kept a tight fist around his heart.
“We don’t have a choice,” Trylor says, giving a meaningful look to his brother. I can’t tell what it’s about, but I’m desperate for something, anything.
“What? What are you planning?” I ask, already reaching for my knife. If we’re going to have to get out of here one way or the other, I’d rather go down fighting.
Brandt glares at Trylor, almost like he’s trying to silently talk Trylor out of whatever it is, but Trylor’s expression stays neutral, hard and resolute. The howls grow louder outside and even though I hate myself for it, I’m hiding behind the two of them, using them as a shield between me and the door.
Brandt finally sighs, shaking his head. “We need to teleport back to our planet.”
My knees buckle and I sink into the couch without a thought, my mind blank with shock. Teleport? Another planet? I know that I accepted that they’re telling the truth and they’re really alien dragons or whatever, but I never expected they’d be trying to take me to their planet with them. I never thought I’d have to leave my sanctuary in the woods.
But the whining, howling, and scratching outside reminds me that this isn’t a sanctuary anymore. It’s a dangerous place that I don’t understand. Ever since the woods took my dad, nothing’s been the same here and there’s no use in ignoring it or denying it anymore.
“Eva, you shouldn’t,” Morgan says, sinking onto the couch next to me. He looks at me with so much sincere concern that it takes my breath away. “It could be a trick. They take you to their planet and you never come back here. Think about it.”
A lump tightens in my throat, my heart hammering painfully against my ribcage. I don’t know what to do. I know I can’t stay here. I know it’s not safe here. I know there’s a part of me deep down screaming that I need to leave now before I can’t leave. And Morgan’s here trying to talk me out of it, his voice soft and musical, lilting like a lullaby. I’d love to listen to him for hours, but right now, all I can hear are the wolves and it’s terrifying.
“Do you have a better plan?” Brandt counters, the tension in the room picking up again. I know these guys don’t see eye-to-eye on much of anything, but it would be great if we could go five minutes without them fighting over something. Still, Brandt has a point. Morgan is asking me not to take the only escape that’s been offered and he hasn’t given me an alternative.
So I turn to him expectantly, waiting, hoping he has something to say, a plan to add to the mix, but he just shakes his head, resigned.
“No, I don’t.”
“Nor do I,” Lucas adds. “I think teleporting is our only way out of this, unfortunately.”
“But you’re coming with us, right?” I ask, looking at Lucas, then Morgan. I can’t say why, but I know I need all four of them. I know they don’t get along and would probably much prefer to not be stuck with each other, but I need them and I can’t let them get away. I don’t really fully understand this need yet, and until I do, I need to make sure they’re nearby.
Lucas and Morgan look uncertainly between them, but before either of them can answer, Trylor does it for them.
“Of course they are.”
That seems to enrage Brandt, who sends a withering glare to his brother, but Trylor is unfazed by it. Seems he’s used to annoying his brother.
“Go ahead,” Trylor says with a nod to Brandt.
Brandt grow
ls and pulls a device from his pocket. It looks like a cell phone, handheld, rectangular, a shiny black surface with no buttons. He puts it down on the floor and waves his hand in a specific gesture over it. The screen lights up white, then bright blue, the light enough to fill the room like it’s daytime. The phone is acting like a giant vacuum, sucking in the air around it, making my hair whip around my head and the curtains rustle. The movement pulls the curtains away from the window just long enough for me to see glowing red eyes on the other side before they rustle back in place.
“Is this safe?” Morgan yells over the roar of the wind being sucked into the phone. It seems impossible that such a tiny thing can have so much force.
“Safer than staying here,” Trylor answers grimly, jumping onto the phone. But instead of smashing it like I’d expect, the phone just sucks him in and then he’s gone. That huge muscular man, just vanished without a trace.
“You next,” Brandt says, ushering me forward. Morgan and Lucas just nod.
I swallow, the lump in my throat painful. This could be a disaster. This thing could kill me. I might never see Earth again. There are a thousand ways this can go wrong, but I refuse to dwell on them right now. I give each of the three remaining men a quick hug and bite my lip looking back toward the phone.
“I guess I’ll see you on the other side,” I say, closing my eyes tight as I step toward the suction of the portal.
My foot never hits the ground.
Even through closed eyes, I can see the bright lights swirling around me, pinpoints and streaks and floating balls of light in all different colors. It’s so bright that the instant I open my eyes, I have to squeeze them shut again. But that one glimpse was enough to show that I’m falling through a kaleidoscope, my heart hammering out of my chest. I force my eyes open enough to squint, to look for any sign of Trylor or Brandt or Lucas or Morgan, but there’s no one. Nothing but lights and colors and the fear that I’m going to be falling forever and ever.
We didn’t have time to talk about what I should do if this teleport doesn’t go right. Will I just be stuck in this limbo? So much for being the one and saving everyone…
The constant falling is making me dizzy and lightheaded and despite all the lights around me, blackness starts to creep in at the edges of my vision, the roar of wind around me now sounding far off and muffled. A cold sweat breaks out over my body, pins and needles pricking my fingers and toes. There’s nothing I can do to ward it off, nothing I can do to stop this falling, this feeling of being pulled under.
My fingers instinctively reach up and wrap around the pendant my father gave me on my eighteenth birthday. The one he said would bring me great things, luck and protection. I don’t know about all of that, but it’s the last connection I’ve got to my dad, so I clutch it tight.
I wish you were here, Dad. I wish you were still around, I think, tears pushing up to cloud the little vision I have left through the tunnel of darkness. And then the tunnel closes and I’m gone.
Chapter Fifteen
Eva
The first thing I notice when I wake up is how warm it is. My whole body feels heavy and immovable like I’m covered in a lead blanket, but that can’t be it, because my eyelids feel the same way when I try to open them. But the warmth is nice. Comforting. And now I’m not falling anymore, so there’s that.
I groan, trying to move, to sit up, to open my eyes, anything, but my body doesn’t respond.
“Shh, it’s okay,” a soft voice says, its accent foreign and sharp — Trylor. I feel the backs of his knuckles sweep across my forehead and sigh at the touch. Something about his heated skin makes me content. Makes me feel safe.
At that thought my eyes fly open. “The wolves?” I ask, straining my ears for their blood-curdling howls. But I hear no such thing. It’s actually very quiet where ever I am. Peaceful, even.
“Back on Earth. They won’t be coming after us,” he says, helping me to sit up in the plush, luxurious bed. My eyes start to focus on things other than Trylor and though they’re working just fine, I can’t believe anything I’m seeing.
The room itself is huge, with ceilings that are at least twenty-feet high and has massive windows along one wall. But it’s not just the size and scale of the place — because the scale is weird too, everything’s slightly too big, like it’s made for people of Trylor and Brandt’s size, not humans — but everything is glittering and gold. The floors have shimmering mosaics and the high ceilings are dotted with glittering chandeliers. The bed I’m in has to be one of the softest things in existence and I’m afraid if I stay in it too long it might just eat me. But the concern in Trylor’s golden gaze tells me that he’s not going to be letting me move any time soon.
“Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
“I’m not sure,” I say, taking stock of my body. I can wiggle my fingers and toes, and with a great effort, I can even bend my knees and turn my head. Nothing really hurts, it’s all just heavy. Like I’ve been out with the flu for a week and my muscles have atrophied. But I don’t think I’ve been out that long. At least I hope I haven’t been.
“How long have we been here?” I ask, holding my breath, my eyes still roving around the room. The windows on the far side go from floor to ceiling, covering the whole wall with fabric panels in between each of them. But the curtains don’t obscure the view, and that finally makes me realize that I’m not in Kansas anymore.
“A few hours only,” Trylor says, still stroking my forehead softly. It’s nice. His touch is so reassuring that I don’t want to move away or ask him to stop, but my eyes are focused out those windows.
Outside looks like something out of a video game or a movie. We’re up high, that much I can tell because I can’t see the ground or any other buildings really, but the sky is a warm orange and in the far distance of the horizon, there are fires burning as far as the eye can see. Impossibly large flames that could swallow skyscrapers whole. I shift uncomfortably on the bed, trying to inch away from the windows. I don’t know if that’s normal, but it’s definitely unsettling. The world is not supposed to be on fire.
But Trylor seems unconcerned about the blazes far in the distance, so I try to push them from my mind as well.
“And the others?”
“Everyone made it,” he says with a nod. “My brother is tending to some things here and the others are recovering as well.”
I sigh and sink back into the impossibly soft pillows. I hadn’t realized how worried I was that the others hadn’t followed me through the teleporter until Trylor told me they were safe. Knowing that, I can recognize the low-lying panic that had me worried moments before.
I stare up at the ceiling, my whole body exhausted, but my mind racing. Another planet. Me. Eva from the forest. Eva who’s never even been to a big city. On another planet.
The whole idea is insane.
But here I am. With an alien. On another planet.
After a long time of wrestling with that concept, I turn and look at Trylor. He’s still looking at me with this concern etched into his features and I realize I never actually told him I’m okay.
I reach for his hand and squeeze. “Thanks for getting us out of there. I’d be in big trouble if it weren’t for you.”
He starts to say something and then stops, his eyes burning intensely. “If not for you, we’d all be in big trouble,” he says.
I manage to give him a smile at that. “We don’t know that yet. I could fail miserably at whatever this is.”
He shakes his head, his eyes hard and serious. “No, you won’t. But that’s not our concern right now. You should rest and regain your strength.”
I nod, too tired and weak to really argue with him. As much as I want to get up and look around and see where I’ve landed myself, I just don’t have it in me right now.
Another handful of minutes ticks by with Trylor petting my hair absently and my eyelids slowly drooping at the rhythm.
“Is this where you live?” I ask, not sure if this
huge room belongs in someone’s house or a very opulent hospital. It doesn’t really feel like a place where real people would live, but they’re not exactly human, are they? They’re dragons and what do I know about dragon decorating?
He chuckles and the warm sound shivers through me, heating me up from the inside. My body starts to crave his touch in other places and I’m wondering how I can convince him to forget about my recovery long enough to satisfy this need I have for him, when he answers.
“Yes, my brother and I live here, along with a healthy number of staff.”
“Staff? Are you guys rich or something? This place looks like a palace…”
I catch Trylor’s eyes glittering at me and gasp, my eyes going wide. “No…”
He nods, smiling, looking almost bashful as he rubs the back of his head. “Yes, this is the palace of Desergan. I suppose I left that part out? Brandt and I… this is our planet, these are our people. We are not just a part of this planet, we rule it. I am the King, Brandt the Prince.”
Now I really can’t help gaping at him. “You’re dragon royalty?” Not just aliens. Not just dragons. But alien dragon royalty.
What have I gotten myself into?
He gives me that bashful smile again and shrugs. “Not by choice, but yes.”
Now it makes so much more sense why they’re so determined to save their people. I mean, of course, just about anyone would fight to save their species if it came down to it, but Brandt and Trylor seemed to take this whole mission of theirs more seriously than just that and now I understand why. He must feel immense responsibility for his people and their welfare. I can’t forget the pain in his eyes when he told me about the evil wiping out their kind, destroying their planet and enslaving their friends. That wasn’t just the pain of a man who’d lost everything. It was the pain of a King who’d failed to protect his people.
