by Sara V. Zook
“Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled, rushing past her to get to the room.
The door was closed. I shut my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Then I thrust open the door and burst in with shame drenched all over me. Emry was sitting in a chair, his head in his hands. Raleigh was behind him, her hands caressing his back. Anger seethed through me. Now I knew how Emry had felt only moments ago seeing me with his cousin.
Raleigh looked over her shoulder and glared at me. “I think you should leave.”
I motioned toward the door. “No, it’s you that needs to go.”
“What did you just say to me?” she asked.
“It’s my turn to have Emry to myself.”
She put her hands on her hips. “He doesn’t want to talk to you.”
I exhaled loudly, unable to control the adrenaline ripping about inside me. “Emry?” I asked. “Please, let me explain.”
“Is there an explanation?” His voice was quiet.
Raleigh was still glaring at me.
“Yes. Please, let’s just talk.”
He didn’t reply.
“I’m not discussing anything with her in the room.” I loathed the way she was guarding him.
“Raleigh, go ahead and go,” Emry told her.
“You sure?” she questioned him.
“Yeah. And thanks.”
We looked each other over one last time before she finally walked past me, her perfume lingering in the air momentarily as she left. I felt so much better now that she wasn’t in between Emry and I.
“Can I sit beside you?” I asked, my hands shaking as I locked them together.
He still didn’t look at me. He gestured toward the empty space on the couch beside him. I took a seat. I wasn’t sure if I should touch his hands or not. I decided not until I could assess how much trouble I was in.
“I know what you think you saw …” I began.
“Don’t play games, Anna. I saw you and Treyu lip locked. Ick,” he made a disgusted noise as if he were on the verge of vomiting.
I cringed. Desperation was now taking over. “Emry, I was so upset about dinner. I went outside. He followed me. We were just talking, I promise you. He moved closer to me. He initiated the kiss. It was just someone to talk to, and I don’t know what happened.”
“Treyu’s a jerk,” he said. “I don’t know how you could even stand talking to him. I can barely stomach it.”
I nodded. “I know. I’m an idiot for letting him get that close. I’ve just had no one to talk to …”
“There’s no excuse for it,” he snapped. “I don’t like it. I don’t like you confiding in another man, especially someone like Treyu who has absolutely no values whatsoever. I’m trying my best to balance everything, Anna. I thought, of all people, you’d understand that. I thought, of all things, our relationship wasn’t something I had to worry about.”
I closed my eyes. I wanted to reach out and touch him so badly, but I knew he’d only pull away if I tried. “I’m sorry.” His disappointment sliced through me.
“Treyu is the son of my father’s youngest brother. Mother says he’s always had everything handed to him no matter what. She says he’s a spoiled brat, and it shows,” Emry explained.
“What about Raleigh?” I said without thinking about it.
“What about her?” He looked at me, his eyes red and puffy.
“You confide in her, and look at her.”
“First of all, Anna, you have no idea if I confide in her. She’s a friend of the family, and I merely entertain her when she visits.”
“Which is all the time,” I added.
He pressed his lips together. “You’re jealous.”
“Of course I’m jealous.”
“Anna, you’re letting your imagination get the best of you. There’s nothing between us. Nothing.”
I narrowed my eyes. Just moments ago she was rubbing his back. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you. Am I imaging that, too?”
“So what, you decide to get back at me from spending time with Raleigh by making out with Treyu?”
“I didn’t make out with him,” I yelled. “And I already told you, he kissed me.”
“Didn’t seem like you were struggling to get away.”
“Emry,” I whispered, unable to hide my own tears any longer. “What’s happening to us?”
He shook his head. “I think this is just too much for both of us right now.”
I lowered my eyebrows. This sounded like the beginning of a breakup speech.
“I’m trying to adapt to this new world, to who I really am. I’m getting used to my powers, how to use them. This world, these people, are they really for you? You said, you had no one to talk to. Maybe you should go give Carlin a visit, let things blow over for awhile, then we’ll see where we are,” he suggested.
I turned away from him, biting my lip. This is exactly what Atavia wanted to happen.
“I mean, what do you want to do, Anna? Do you want to go back to Earth or do you want to stay here? You’re so unhappy here.”
I couldn’t believe this was happening. I had thought our hardships on Earth were going to be our last, but I had thought wrong. The ones here were even worse. I had no one to back me up. It was me against this world, this Evadere. “It’s not like I see you anyway,” I admitted, knowing now he didn’t want me to stay. “Do you think I’d even make it back to Earth?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, standing now and pacing around the room like he did in times of frustration.
“I just feel like she’s out to get me, like she wants me dead and gone, out of the way.”
“Who’s she?” he asked, narrowing his eyes as he already knew the answer.
“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?” I sighed. “Fine. Your mother.”
“Come on, Anna …”
“No, you come on. You trust her way too much and know her way too little.”
“She’s my mother. She’s protected me all these years,” he said, defensively.
“And you don’t think she was lying when she said I was safely back on Earth when she sent for you on the beach?”
“Well, I guess you do think she’s lying.”
I nodded. “I think it was absolutely her plan to leave me there. She wanted me to try to survive on Evadere alone. She knew I’d be killed.”
“This is crazy talk, Anna. Seriously. You are way over thinking what happened.”
“Am I?” My anger now stirred viciously within me. Now he didn’t want to be with me, and he didn’t believe me. Atavia had really gotten her claws into him. Maybe Emry was too far gone to get back. “I think she’s a malicious schemer. Anything to get her own way, and she wants me out of the way.”
“Listen, Anna, I’m only going to tell you this one more time. I’m in training to be a king. I have big shoes to fill, my father’s. There’s a lot going on here between contributors and Scaves. I have to figure everything out along with my powers. I don’t have time for relationship drama. I thought you’d be able to support me one hundred percent.”
“I do …”
“No, not at all. You just want to stir things up and create unnecessary problems. I don’t need that kind of stress right now. I need people around me who are going to lift me up, so figure out which side you stand on, Anna.”
With those words, Emry Logan turned and left me all alone.
“There you are,” Jillianne squealed, entering the room as she saw me standing there, still open mouthed that Emry had just left. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Come with me.”
“What do you want?” I asked as she grabbed my arm like she had when she had found me in the dungeon. She pulled me toward the hallway.
“Tonight has been a mess, an absolute mess. It’s time we get you back up to your room so things can settle down a bit.” Jillianne led me over to the stairs. I walked with her, my body completely numb to the pressure her short, fat fingers were putting on the skin of my arm.
&
nbsp; We got into the room where she didn’t let go until I was sitting on my bed, staring up at her, unable to even care that she was being a nuisance.
“You need to calm yourself and get some sleep. Everyone’s a little bit irritated, a little bit tired.” She placed a cup of warm liquid into my hands. “Now, you just drink that up and go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a bright day for all, I just know it.”
“What is it?” I asked, sniffing it, the aroma sweet and comforting.
“Something similar to what you humans would refer to as tea. Everything’s all natural in it. Drink it down. Go ahead now.” She put her hand under the cup and lifted it to my lips.
I eyed her wondering if I was going to wake up in the morning if I did decide to drink this. Then again, right now I wanted to sleep. I needed to forget this evening had even happened. Maybe it’d erase my memory. Maybe I would wake up happy. I tilted the cup up so that the drink would pour into my mouth. The taste was equally sweet as the smell, like honey. It was soothing. I downed the entire thing and handed the cup back to Jillianne.
“Very good,” she patted me on the head. “Get some rest,” she instructed.
I watched her go, then leaned up against one of the large pillows sitting on top of the blankets. I tried to block out all the unpleasant thoughts, of Treyu and Raleigh, of Emry’s suggestion I return to Earth without him, and within minutes, I felt my lids grow heavy.
Chapter 11
A loud thumping vibrated from behind my eyes and radiated into my temples as I struggled to get my eyes to open. The light shining in from the window made the pain even more unbearable. I stretched out my arms and changed position from my side to my back. I was wet. The bed was wet. Was I sick? Had I spent the night sweating out a fever?
I sat straight up. My head lurched forward with the rest of my body. The thumping increased. I groaned. What was happening? My eyes wouldn’t focus. They felt so heavy. My hands went to my dress, the same one I had worn last night. It too, was drenched. My hand ran down my bare legs. A thick slime covered them. I brought my hands back up in front of my face and made my eyes open wider so I could get a sense of exactly what was going on.
Oh … my …
The dark red liquid dripped down my palms and ran down my wrists and arms. Blood. I was covered in blood. It was everywhere, all over me, all over the bed and blankets. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, the pain of my lungs expanding, mixing with the extreme throbbing in my head. Was all this blood mine?
I ripped all of the blankets away from my body and turned to get out of the bed. As I tore the covers off, a bloody mess of knotted blonde hair and crimson stained porcelain skin appeared beside me. I pushed away the hair from the face. Two dead eyes stared up at me. Two eyes that belonged to Raleigh. The blood was hers. Deep gashes severed through her beautiful gown piercing into her torso. I couldn’t get out of the bed fast enough as I fell backwards off the opposite edge of the mattress and collapsed onto the cool floor, my hands making blood prints in the cement. My stomach tensed up and then contracted as I vomited again and again, the force of the motion making my head feel as though it was going to split in half.
I got to my feet somehow and hobbled toward the bathroom. I turned on the shower and stripped all of the blood covered clothes to the floor. I let the hot water gush over my head and down my skin, the bottom of the tub filling with Raleigh’s blood as it vanished down the drain. This couldn’t be happening to me right now. Raleigh was dead. I was soaked in her blood as if I had tossed and turned all night with her corpse right beside me as I slept. The thought gagged me as I went to all fours again and threw up beside the drain.
I got to my feet and reached for the soap. I poured it all over my body, viciously scrubbing my skin until it burned. I had to get this off me. I couldn’t stand to be covered in it. I looked down at my hands, the blood even dried under my nails. I dug them into a bar of soap and scrubbed again, my jaw clenching together from both a churning stomach and the anxiety of it all.
What was I going to do? I couldn’t go back out there and see her there.
What had happened last night? I couldn’t remember a thing. I remembered Jillianne giving me a drink of ‘tea,’ and then passing out into a deep sleep.
Think! Think! I yelled at myself. How could this have happened without my remembering a single thing? It seemed impossible, yet here it was.
I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a thick towel around me. I prayed I had gotten it all off. Now what to do …?
I pressed my back up against the wall and closed my eyes attempting to think. This headache was unbelievable. I ran to the mirror and checked for injury on my head as the cause, but found nothing was there. Maybe it had been that drink. What had been in that concoction Jillianne gave me?
“Help!” I cried out. “Help me, please!” I said a little louder this time. I screamed at the top of my lungs, my skull throbbing with each shrill noise, but I knew someone had to come to me. I wasn’t going out there alone to face what was left of Raleigh.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Someone I had seen at dinner a few times hurried into my room. They looked at me standing in the bathroom doorway, then looked to the pool of blood on my bed, Raleigh’s arm and hand protruding from the covers. His face went white. He was an older man, short and stout. His hand moved up to his gaping mouth as he couldn’t take his eyes away from the horror scene.
“Please, help me,” I begged. “I don’t know what happened. I just woke up and found her beside me like that. I was covered in blood. I just showered it all off, but I can’t stand to go past her.”
“Who is it?” he asked.
“Raleigh,” I cried.
“Raleigh?”
“Yes.” I sucked in a large gulp of air.
“You wait,” he stuttered. “Wait right here.” He put his finger up. “You wait right here, and I’ll go get someone.”
Tears streamed down my face. “Hurry.”
The little man practically sprinted from the room.
Emry appeared at the entrance of the door. I rushed over and wrapped my arms around him. He hugged me back, my wet hair dripping all over him.
“I don’t know what happened,” I cried. “I didn’t do this. I didn’t kill Raleigh.”
“Shh,” he said, his hand on the back of my head so I didn’t have to turn around and see her lifeless body again. “I know. I know you didn’t do this. We’ll get to the bottom of it. Just try to calm down.”
“You believe me?” I looked up into his eyes just then.
He frowned. “Of course I would never think you capable of murder. What’s the matter with you? I’d never think such a thing.”
I leaned my sobbing face against him again, unable to stop trembling.
“What’s this I hear about Raleigh being dead …” I heard Atavia’s voice echo down the hall and then fall short as she entered the room. I didn’t want to see her. I just wanted to continue to be comforted by Emry.
Ben Hanley stepped up behind Emry. I recognized his shiny shoes right away as I had been looking down. Emry turned to Ben as I stood beside him, our hands still tightly intertwined.
“Ben, get some men in here to get rid of the … body. Jillianne, go get some girls to clean this all up. Don’t even try to clean those sheets and mattress though. Have them burned,” Emry instructed everyone.
“What’s she still doing here?” Atavia bellowed out. “Get away from my son.”
I ducked behind Emry, never letting go of his hand.
“Mother, take a deep breath,” Emry suggested. “This isn’t what it seems.”
“It’s exactly what it seems,” she shouted. “This girl is nothing but trouble.”
“It doesn’t look good,” Jillianne admitted.
“Who else do you suggest we point the finger to?” Atavia asked, her voice stern and on the verge of irate.
“Not Anna. Don’t even start your accusations against her. She’s no killer.”
“Jealousy is
an emotion that can overtake any completely sensible person and turn them into a murderer,” Atavia yelled. “It’s one of the most, if not the most controlling emotion there is.”
“No!” I cried out. “I did not do this!”
“Poor, poor Raleigh,” Jillianne kept repeating.
“You!” I shouted. “What did you give me before bed to drink?”
“Aha!” Atavia exclaimed. “Anna was drunk, weren’t you? Just look at her. She looks horrid.”
“It was just a little tea-like substance to help her sleep,” Jillianne explained.
I wiped the tears off my chin before they fell. “It made me black out.”
“No,” Jillianne said defensively. “It was nothing like you’re thinking. You just slept soundly. You were exhausted.”
“So soundly I don’t remember Raleigh coming into my room, or dying beside me?” I questioned her. “No,” I turned toward Atavia. “Someone set me up. Someone killed Raleigh and dumped her in my room to make it look like I had something to do with it.”
“Unbelievable,” Atavia said as men entered the room and headed to the bed to remove the corpse. “You are the only one who would have wanted Raleigh dead. Everyone else loved her.”
I looked to Emry for help. He glanced back at me, his eyes full of pity as he was just as confused as the rest of us. “Mother, stop, please. I’m telling you that Anna didn’t, couldn’t have done this. She’s a wonderful person no matter what issues she’s having with me and Raleigh. This is not the way she handles things.”
The men lifted the body and began carrying her out, the blood trickling all over the floor.
“Stop,” Atavia called out. “Look at what a mess you’re making. You can’t have a stream of blood running the whole way through the castle. I have guests.”
“Your majesty?” one of the men asked.
“Put her back down. Go get something to put her in so others don’t see her.” She shook her head. “Idiots.” She turned to face everyone else. “Out, everyone out. You,” she pointed to me. “Get dressed. I want everyone in the study. Ben, don’t take your eyes off her.”
