The Sweet Series Box Set: Books 1-4

by Bailey Ardisone

  He still did not answer my questions. He was driving me crazy.

  “Mycah!” I yelled, way too loudly. Sarqua turned around and glared at me. This time I remembered to whisper, “What is going on with you? Are you just going to let him rule until he dies of old age?!”

  Mycah chuckled. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, amused.

  “Why is that funny? So you will do something before then?” I asked.

  “Nariella, that will never happen. Ohtar will never grow old and die. None of us will.”

  I choked on my own spit. I coughed and coughed, not able to breathe, working to clear my lungs. Finally, after several minutes, I wiped at my watery eyes and asked, “What?”

  “You and I are immortal, love. All elves are,” he clarified humorlessly.

  “Wait...I’m never going to grow old? I’m never going to die?!”

  “Nope.”

  “I saw elves die. I killed elves.”

  “Listen darling, you can kill and be killed, but you will not grow old and die. You will live forever as long as no harm comes to you from an outside source. You will never get sick. I am certain if you think back upon your years you will realize you have never been sick for a moment in your entire life. No colds, no flus—none of those human atrocities could touch you,” he explained quietly.

  Holy freakin’—he was right. I couldn’t think of a single time I had ever been sick. There had been times that I had wondered about it. It had been strange when I'd hear of kids not being in school because they had been sick or got the chicken pox—and that I never did. I had never known what it was like to be sick. But I had never dwelled on it. It hadn't been anything that I could explain so I had just let it go. It was weird, but it was what it was—nothing I could do about it.

  And now I knew.

  “Okay, but I don’t understand. Are you on Ohtar’s side now?” I knew the question was stupid, I mean come on. I was sure Mycah could hear the sarcasm in my voice.

  “Yes,” he breathed. My heart sunk.

  “What are you saying? What is wrong with you? You can’t be serious!” I felt the panic in my chest threaten to bubble over.

  Sarqua stopped at the outskirts of a forest and dismounted his horse, interrupting our secret conversation. Gosh darn it.

  “We must continue on foot,” he said to us.

  “Why? Are we close?” I inquired, not understanding the reason we couldn’t stay on the horses. I jumped down first and then Mycah followed, gathering his things.

  “You do as you’re told with no questions asked, Fallaner!” Sarqua barked.

  “No! I won’t! Why are you so mean? And what is wrong with you?!” I asked defiantly, pointing a finger at Mycah. Stupidly and defiantly.

  Sarqua stormed over to me in a silent fury and brought his hand up to slap me, but I quickly blocked him with my forearm, not even flinching. I never let my narrowed eyes leave his face. I was sick of being pushed around and spoken to so rudely. I felt satisfied for being quick enough to block him, but in that lame second of relishing, he used his other hand and succeeded slapping me anyway. His left hand caught me off guard as it collided with my cheek, setting off an explosion of color behind my eyelids.

  I held my stinging skin and swallowed my anger. I was put back in my place, for now. I was shown who the boss was once again, and I cringed at the thought of basically replacing one cruel man for another. I couldn’t decide which was worse—Ray pushing me around, or Sarqua. At least with Ray I knew the reason. He hated me for causing the death of his wife. Sarqua on the other hand—What the heck did I ever do to him?!

  Then I couldn’t stop myself from thinking how the old Mycah would have never let that happen. He would've never allowed Sarqua to lay a hand on me. So what changed? Did he really not care about me anymore? Did he truly think of me as only his enemy?

  I slid my gaze to him. He didn’t even look at me or Sarqua. He stayed focused on gathering his things from the horse. Did he truly no longer worry over my safety?

  I didn’t understand. Perhaps I was subconsciously standing up to Sarqua to try to get a reaction out of Mycah—To see my Mycah shine through again. The heroic version I melted into a puddle over.

  But this, this Mycah—I didn’t like.

  I gruffly walked away toward a tree and slid down its trunk, waiting for whatever happened next.

  Once Sarqua and Mycah began walking into the trees, I stood up.

  “Keep up, Fallaner,” Sarqua demanded. I rolled my eyes. I really didn’t like him. Why had I saved him?

  This forest made me feel like I was back home in Lassaira. Yes, it felt like home. The trees were as tall as mountains and as wide as a car. Everything was verdant and lush. All different colors of greens and browns painted the scene around us. The grass felt like fluffy clouds beneath my boots.

  Then the strangest thing happened. Birds quit singing their sweet melodies, flowers practically cowered in their roots and their scent no longer filled the air as we passed. But there was one thing that did not change: The wind played with my hair lovingly.

  I liked it here.

  It was obvious the forest hated Mycah and Sarqua—but it loved me.

  “Hey, Mycah? This is where I’m from, right?” I inquired, needing more information about my life.

  “Yes, you are from Lassaira,” he answered with irritation.

  “How did you know?”

  Mycah stayed silent despite my question. I sped up to grab a hold of his elbow. “Please, Mycah. Please tell me what you know about me. Did you know I have a grandfather? I met him. Right before I was forced to run for my life. I need answers. Please,” I begged. I didn’t know when I would be able to see my grandfather again to ask him myself...If I would see him again, that was.

  “I saw you, as a baby. Bright violet eyes, gazing innocently—”

  “You what?!” I interrupted, shocked. “You met me when I was a baby?”

  Suddenly, he grabbed me by the arms and roughly pushed me behind a tree. He brushed my long, chocolate hair behind my ear and my stomach did a flip. Or two. Or three. My pulse buzzed and zapped under my skin as he bent down to put his lips right against my ear.

  He whispered ever-so quietly in his tantalizing English accent, “If you would let me finish, I would have explained. It was through my Guardian’s thoughts. Whilst we had been escaping, I was just a boy and still trying to get a grasp of my abilities. It was stressful and chaotic when my mother ordered us to flee. I couldn’t control it and saw a glimpse of Ender’s thoughts when he was trying to devise a plan to escape. He remembered you being brought through the Lassaira Ëlemmiire. As a newborn. That’s all I saw. I don’t know how or why, so do not ask.” He let go of me just as quickly as it started and returned to walking behind Sarqua. Waves of restrained anger poured off of him like I gnawed on his last nerve. I was left feeling lost and breathless against the tree, trying to get a grip. I worked to compose myself.

  I took a step on jellied-legs and straightened the invisible wrinkles from my clothes and nonexistent frizz from my hair.

  That darn sexy elf would be the death of me. I swore it.

  I started humming the melody I heard him playing on the piano, partly because it was stuck in my head, but mostly because I wanted him to know I heard him.

  He didn’t react in any way. Grrrr!

  “Silence!” Sarqua started. “The purpose for abandoning the horses was for us to continue undetected! Do you wish to alert every foul creature within a mile’s radius of our presence?!” Sarqua barked viciously at me.

  “Sorry,” I whispered, a little bit embarrassed.

  From that point onward, we had to be extremely stealthy. Mycah didn’t look at me once, despite my eyes having a hard time focusing on anything else but him. They kept wanting to be pulled back to him the more I tried not to look at him. It was tiring.

  It seemed like only yesterday I had been fighting my feelings for him. Now I wished more than anything I could go back to those stolen i
ntimate moments he had given me on occasion but I had unknowingly took for granted. I just never could have imagined my life turning out this way. I never could have imagined being anything else other than human. And I certainly hadn't wanted to allow myself to think he could've been anything other than human either.

  But with that now hanging out there in the open—I also truly couldn’t imagine my life any other way than what it was now.

  The sun was at its highest point in the sky, and despite the trees being as huge and tall as they were, the rays still managed to shine through. They bounced on each surface and living thing surrounding us, making the forest glow. Each thing basked in return.

  We continued walking carefully on foot, never stopping much for a break. It appeared that Mycah and Sarqua never got tired. Ever.

  It wasn’t that I was tired either—I just wished we were there already. It was torture being this close to Mycah and not being able to touch him. What was worse, though, was that he didn’t want to touch me. It was hard being around that.

  Finally, we did manage to get there. I could hear the soft moans of the fallen elves nearby. Sarqua and Mycah picked up their pace and began to run. I followed suit.

  Once we came upon a group of Night Elves hidden away in a cluster of trees, a panicked leader came bounding out.

  “Thank the Sea, you have finally come. The Tavas’Elda have retreated. Yet, we have not been able to make our way home. They are dying by the second, Sarqua.” The tall, slender elf with long, dark hair grabbed Sarqua by the shoulder in greeting. Sarqua immediately turned to me and barked more orders.

  “Fallaner, make haste!” he commanded with a tight voice. He tried to keep his voice low.

  Crap. I had to heal all these guys? There were dozens and dozens of them all strewn about. All injured. All dying.

  And it was my job to saves their lives.

  I watched Mycah as he began healing the closest injured to him. So I ran to one of them that lay moaning with his head drooped down his shoulder. I chose him, because the sound of his blood gushing out rang in my ears—it was that disturbingly loud. He had pulled the wooden arrow from his gut and caused insurmountable damage. I didn’t need to be a doctor to see that he would bleed out in seconds.

  I dropped to my knees in front of him and placed my hands over his injury. My eyes closed on their own accord as I focused all of my thoughts and emotions on healing.

  I felt the warm sensation radiate through me, and a soft buzz of energy left my fingertips. It was something I was growing accustomed to now that I knew what it was. Had I not known I could heal people, I would have never noticed the subtleties brought from it.

  “Hurry!” Sarqua ordered again.

  “I am hurrying! Do you think I like seeing all this suffering? I'm doing the best that I can!” I shot back, opening my eyes finally. The familiar glow bathed us, and the Night Elf’s eyes were locked onto mine in silent gratitude.

  “You’re welcome,” I whispered to him as I quickly stood up and moved on to the next fallen soldier.

  This one had no outward blood appearing anywhere, yet his eyes were left frozen in a wide stare. It was creepy.

  “I do...not...wi...sh….t...o...d…ie,” he rasped out. I hesitantly brought my hands to his chest, but then I realized those words were his last exhale of breath. It was too late. I could not hear his heart. I felt for his pulse and there was nothing. I tried healing him anyway, but it was no use. Nothing happened. A tear ran down my face. I didn’t know him, but that didn’t change the fact that someone’s life just went out right in front of my eyes. It was devastating.

  I slowly looked around at all the fallen Night Elves and felt the tangible volume of despair descending around me. Around all of us.

  This was sick. This war was pointless. These creatures died for nothing.

  Mycah continued to heal those he could, and I did the same. I ran to the closest fallen body to me, shaking like a leaf, and hovered over the wheezing elf. His bloodshot eyes were distant, gazing into nothing. My heart clenched for whatever he suffered from and immediately worked to bring him back to proper health.

  It did not take me long. I moved to the next. An arrow was shot through his eye and impaled him to a tree. He was dead.

  I jumped to the next. He had several arrows throughout his torso, but was still alive. I held back vomit as I pulled out one arrow after the next—four in total. I healed him.

  I healed the next.

  And the next.

  It felt never-ending and hopeless. But we did not give up. With each Isil’Elda that I healed, I felt stronger and stronger. I did not grow weak. I did not cry any more tears. I could do this. And I wanted to do this. I wanted to save their lives. I wanted to be the one that made a difference. To not be that helpless little girl that couldn’t take care of anyone she loved, but always needed to be taken care of.

  I was so far past being her. I was over it.

  I sprinted to the next. I kept healing and healing, until finally—I gave all that I could give. I sunk into the luscious ground and doubled over. My bones literally ached. I felt stronger and weaker at the same time. I felt stronger emotionally and mentally, but my body had grown tired from the exertion of energy.

  Sarqua already grasped my arm in a tight grip and pulled me to my feet. “Did I say you were finished? Move!” He pushed me toward the next body but I stumbled forward and landed roughly on my knees. I fought the urge to glare up at him. I could feel deep inside of me a hardening rebellion form. I didn’t know when, but soon—I would not take much more of this. I would snap. It might not have been today—but as sure as the sun rises each morning, it would happen.

  I fumbled my way over to an injured elf, and this time, I shook more from sore muscles than anything else as I stretched my arms out to place on his hemorrhaging chest.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  ~Naminé~

  We spent the entire day searching for Rydan’s Fëa. He could feel we were not yet close. The point of one’s Maranwe Journey was to jump-start the bond a Maite’Ona and their Fëa shared. It would take great concentration and determination to be guided by one’s connection alone before having any physical contact.

  It was taught that if you endure your mighty journey by following the minute connection to your Fëa, you would then truly deserve one another, and the bond would be solidified.

  Rydan had momentarily quit walking as he said, “The sunsets here are unrivaled.”

  I gazed out at the colorful horizon. Multiple hues of pink, orange, and red sprayed across the sky in streaks. It truly was a sight to see. We had just finished walking through a marsh, and now that we were on the other side of it, the view was utterly exquisite. The Nura’ringul Mountains were not far in the distance, and the sparkling snow that lay there reflected the setting sun like a torch in the sky.

  “Before you and Remycah returned, we did not see many cloudless skies in Aselaira, and I was not allowed to venture out of our Kingdom. This is a rare treat for me as well,” I agreed.

  “Why is that?” Rydan wondered.

  “There are none, or at the very least a few, who understand the omen our Kingdom is cast at the hands of Ohtar’s treachery. The Kingdom is dying. It is poisoned by the murder of our true king and starving for the true heirs to return. There is but a single way it can fully heal. And that is when Remycah takes back the stolen throne,” I explained proudly. “The healing process has already begun. It started the moment you and Remycah returned to Luïnil.”

  “He better not screw up,” Rydan quipped. I laughed along.

  “If he is to, then I know you would be there to pick up the pieces. I am certain you both cannot let us down,” I teased.

  “Yeah, well. We’ll see I guess.” He picked up a fallen twig and snapped it in two as we continued walking.

  “Rydan, may I discuss a matter with you?” I inquired timidly.

  “You don’t have to ask my permission,” he replied.

  “All right,�
�� I agreed, nodding my head. “I suppose I wanted to apologize to you. I feel incredibly guilty for encouraging you so strongly to come home that time in our dream. I should not have asked you so earnestly. I was just so overcome by the ability to speak for the first time...I had been waiting to say—” He interrupted my rambling by placing a finger to my open lips.

  “Shhh,” he ordered seductively. I could hear my heart thumping in my ears. He shook his head just slightly. “I was already in Luïnil when you asked me to come home. I was already here.”

  “You were? But why? I was so guilt-ridden that you came alone and so urgently because I asked you to—If anything should have happened to you because you had come alone, I would have never forgiven myself.” I could not stop the words from flowing out of my mouth.

  “Naminé, didn’t you hear me? I didn’t go through the tree because you asked me to. I went through it because I needed to learn more about you.” My heart skipped at his sweetened words. I felt my skin heat a few degrees higher. I hoped he did not notice the difference.

  I tried to distract myself. “Then that must mean the reason our connection was stronger that instance, and the reason we were able to speak to one another, was because you were in Luïnil. I cannot communicate with those outside this realm.” I found it fascinating to discover new limitations to my dream-weaving ability.

  I would have never known that had I not asked. Remycah and Rydan were the first beings I had ever tried to contact outside of Luïnil. Not having much practice with my gift certainly did not help matters, either. It was entirely new to me, and because I had to keep my gift secret, it meant I had no one there to instruct me of the dream-weaving ways. No mentor. No teacher. I had to learn on my own through instinct and trial-and-error. It made the whole process frustrating and sometimes painful. It would leave me weak and frail, especially since I had to keep Calen so far away.