“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
He smiled crookedly at her. “I’ve just never heard anyone talk so openly about…that. Especially not a girl.”
“Yeah, well, I lived in the Outside for seventeen years. It’s sort of a common subject there.”
“Really?” Avery asked, looking shocked.
Autumn nodded, wearing a lopsided smile.
He cleared his throat a few times before saying, “So, have you ever—”
“No,” Autumn said hastily, now blushing herself.
Once the uncomfortable silence had passed, Autumn and Avery moved on to much tamer topics, like Luke falling backwards in his chair. They were throwing their heads back in laughter when Crystal returned, looking relieved to see that they were no longer talking about sex.
“Avery, the boys are planning something and want your opinion,” she said, taking a seat next to Autumn.
“What are they planning?” he asked.
“Something to do with snow.”
Avery shrugged and stood to leave, flashing a small smile back at Autumn. She smiled back, her heart fluttering. Then she turned around to see Crystal watching her with a sly look.
“What?” Autumn said.
“Still getting over that crush are you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Autumn said, not making eye contact.
“Sure…”
“Hush, Crystal, before I hypnotize you.”
“Oh yeah? Not if I freeze you first!”
Crystal playfully shot a jet of ice at Autumn as they both jumped nimbly to their feet. Autumn laughed, moving swiftly back and forth.
“Too quick for you, Everly?” Autumn laughed as Crystal shot another stream of ice in her direction. Autumn lunged to the left and the ice soared behind her, hitting something stationary—and invisible.
“Ow!” a familiar voice shrieked.
Suddenly Kyndel materialized as if from thin air. Autumn should have known it was her. Kyndel’s power was Invisibility.
“Nice aim, Ice Queen,” Kyndel spat at Crystal.
“I’d say I aimed pretty well that time around, wouldn’t you?” Crystal said to Autumn.
Kyndel brushed the ice shards off of her black cardigan.
“What were you doing there anyway?” Autumn said. “Spying on us? You know, there are less creepy ways to practice your Power, Kyndel.”
Kyndel blushed and said, “What makes you think I care about anything you have to say, Princess?”
“Maybe because of the way you were sneaking around us all invisible and such.”
“I was just practicing my Power. I’m free to walk wherever I please, you know. Just because you’re a royal doesn’t mean you can tell me where I’m allowed to walk,” she said before whipping around and stomping in the opposite direction.
Autumn rolled her eyes at Kyndel’s retreating figure. “Why does everyone pretend to like her? She’s such a witch.”
“Her father owns almost all of the tree houses in Arbor Falls. He’s basically right behind the king in terms of power. That’s why she hates you so much. Before you came along, she was the richest girl in school.”
“Who cares?”
Crystal shrugged. “Is it snowing over there?” she said, pointing towards the group of boys.
Apparently the guys had pulled Luke away from his new girl and convinced him to make it snow. When Autumn and Crystal approached, they were in the process of building heaping mounds of snowballs
“Are you starting a snowball fight?” Crystal asked.
“Yeah!” Forrest said.
“We want in,” Autumn said.
“This is a man’s game,” Bryan said.
“Excuse me?” a petite girl with spiked, blonde hair said as she approached them. “A man’s game?” Autumn realized it was Cera, the girl with the Power of Gravity. She was in Atticus’s class with her.
“Yup,” Drake said.
“All right, then. Let’s make this interesting. Boys against girls,” Cera said.
“Well, that will be a short game,” Luke said and laughed.
“Oh yeah? Let’s do this,” Autumn said, winking at Cera and Crystal.
The three girls rounded up a few others who were willing to play on their team. With the help of Charlotte, they convinced Kyndel and her two cronies—Ella and Dayna—to join them. Pretty soon, each team had seven players.
The guys’ team was: Noah, Luke, Bryan, Drake, Forrest, Jastin, and Avery.
The girls’ team was: Crystal, Cera, Kyndel, Charlotte, Ella, Dayna, and Autumn.
They used the sporadic trees as blockades rather than a singular snow mound. Crystal made a wall of ice to signify the boundary between the teams.
“Okay, elves, take your places!” Cera called as if she was the director of a play.
Everyone rushed to find a boulder or a tree suitable enough to hide behind.
“Now!” Drake bellowed.
Grabbing a handful of snowballs, they commenced chucking them at the other team. The girls lost Dayna and Ella almost immediately as they got Noah out. Everyone used their Power to their advantage. Autumn had finally learned how to concentrate her power on only one person at a time and she aimed a long, piercing note at Drake, who stopped in his tracks, hypnotized by the Song. She hurled a snowball at him, effectively getting him out.
“Nice one!” Cera called.
Cera had put a shield of Gravity around herself so that she was virtually unreachable. If a snowball hit her shield, it was immediately thrown back at the other team. So, the guys mostly just avoided her snowballs.
Autumn sent a jet of song to Avery, but he threw his hands over his ears and ducked behind a tree. He jumped back out and shot a snowball at her, which narrowly missed her as she ducked. She tried to hit him with another note of song, but it seemed that he had stuffed something in his ears to make himself temporarily immune to her Power.
Charlotte lovingly called Jastin’s name before hitting him with a snowball and blowing a kiss. Autumn got Bryan and Forrest out, but the girls soon lost Charlotte and Kyndel. Luke took a well-aimed shot at Crystal and got her out.
It was now just Autumn and Cera against Luke and Avery. Luke blew a gust of wind at Cera, knocking her off her feet and breaking her concentration. Her shield failed just as Avery hit her with a snowball. Avery and Luke laughed and slapped their hands together.
While Luke was distracted, Autumn managed to get a stream of song to him and hit him in the side of the face with a snowball.
Autumn and Avery were the only ones left now. Autumn darted all around her territory and ducked behind various trees when she saw something fall from Avery’s left ear. Concentrating harder than ever, she aimed a jet of song at his open ear. He stopped, a dazed look crossing his face and Autumn nailed him in the chest with a snowball.
The girls’ team cheered, jumping up and down and jeering at the gloomy looking boys.
“How does it feel to lose to a bunch of girls?” Cera called to Drake, who was grumbling something about cheating.
They were all freezing. The snow had melted through their thin garments, numbing their skin. The teams dispersed, heading in different directions. Autumn saw Luke leave with the girl he had been with earlier, and Crystal had rushed off soon after she got out of the game, claiming that she was already late for a meeting with her mom.
Autumn began to stroll towards the castle alone.
“Hey Autumn, wait up!” Avery called.
She paused and turned to wait for him. Apparently he hadn’t expected her to stop so suddenly because he crashed into her and they both toppled to the ground, Avery landing on top of her.
“Ow,” Autumn said breathlessly.
Their faces were inches apart.
“Sorry.” His warm breath felt good on her cold face.
“S’okay,” she said with difficulty.
Avery’s face inched closer to Autumn’s until his lips brushed hers slightly. Fighting against every urge
in her body, she rolled out from under him.
“I can’t,” she said, climbing to her feet.
“Why not?” Avery said, his square jaw clenching.
“You know why not.”
“Victor?” Avery spit the name like it tasted bad in his mouth. “Who cares about him?”
“I do,” Autumn said, starting to walk away. Avery grabbed her hand and pulled her back.
“No you don’t, Autumn,” he said. “You just feel sorry for him.”
She pulled her hand from his grasp. “You have no idea how I feel, Avery.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Oh yeah? How’s that?”
“You feel the same way I do.”
Autumn’s breath caught in her chest. “And how do you feel?” she asked, regretting it as soon as the words left her mouth.
“I can’t really put it into words.”
“Try,” Autumn said. Her hands were shaking, and it wasn’t because of the cold.
“Every time you’re near me it’s like there’s this force inside of me, pulling me towards you.” Autumn stared at him with wide eyes. He had just described exactly what she’d been feeling since the moment their skin first touched. They were silent for a second before Avery said, “You feel it too. I know you do.” Autumn stayed silent. “You do feel it, right?” Avery said with less conviction now.
“It doesn’t matter how I feel,” Autumn said, emphasizing each word.
“Yes, it does,” Avery said, stepping closer so that they were only a foot apart now.
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Why? Because of Victor? Because you want him to believe that someone can care about an Atrum?”
“I do care about him.”
“Not the way you care about me.”
Autumn sighed. “It’s not just about Victor. It’s everything, Avery. This—us—just can’t happen.”
“Says who?”
“Olympus,” Autumn stated, daring him to disagree.
“Olympus?” Avery said. Autumn nodded. “He says you can’t be with me?”
“Not you specifically. He said Luke and I aren’t allowed to be with any of the workers in the castle. It’s a rule.”
Avery took a step back from her, an expression of intense resentment and disgust on his face. “You don’t want to be with me because I’m a castle worker? Because I’m beneath your social status?”
“No! That’s not what I said. You’re twisting my words.”
He began backing away from her saying, “No, I got it. If you’ll excuse me, Your Highness, I must be getting back to my duties at the castle.”
He stormed off in the direction of the path that led to the castle, leaving Autumn to decipher whether the sting from the cold or the look in his eyes was more painful.
AVERY trudged up the path to the castle, fuming. The last thing he saw was Autumn staring after him with a hurt look on her face. What did she have to feel hurt about? Royals, he thought with distaste. He had thought she was different, but she wasn’t. She deserves Victor. He mentally kicked himself for thinking that. No one deserved that. No one.
He charged into Arbor Castle and up the winding staircase to his branch. He didn’t feel like eating tonight. Opening the door to his branch, he stepped quietly inside in case his mother was asleep.
As he passed her room she called out, “John?”
Avery sighed and backtracked, opening his mother’s door slowly. She was lying on top of her comforter in her thin nightgown, making her frail body look even more emaciated than it already was. Her eyes were hollow, underlined with dark shadows, and her mousy brown hair was splayed out on her pillow. “John?”
“No, Mom. It’s me, Avery.”
“Where’ve you been, John? Have you found Avabelle? Have you found our baby?”
Avery stared sadly down at his mother. He didn’t feel like correcting her tonight. “Yes. I found her.”
“Good,” she sighed, closing her eyes. “Good.”
“You should eat your dinner,” he said, frowning at the bowl of cold soup on her nightstand. The castle nurse must have already made her daily visit.
“Mmm,” was all his mother said. He waited, but she stayed silent. He backed out of her room, shutting the door behind him.
“Goodnight, John,” he heard her say.
He was used to being called by his father’s name. Ever since Avabelle died, his mother hadn’t been normal. She talked to people who weren’t around anymore: his father, his sister, even his grandmother. But she never talked to him. Not in person that was. She was still able to contact him through his dreams. He was relieved that she still had some control of her Power, if nothing else. She must have retained her sanity in her sleep.
Their dream connections were not always pleasant, though. Sometimes she shared her own dreams with him. Sometimes he couldn’t tell the difference between his mother’s messages and his own nightmares.
Warrior Test
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The way Avery was behaving now made Autumn almost miss his old silent treatments. He shot her numerous glares throughout the school day and occasionally broke the hostile silence to say something dripping with sarcasm like, “Good morning, Your Highness,” and, “I sincerely hope you slept well last night, Princess. I made sure all of the peas were removed from under your mattress.”
Autumn tried to ignore him, and when that didn’t work, she merely shot him a look of annoyance. Their friends had obviously noted the change in their behavior, but no one commented on it.
To put it mildly, Victor was quite pleased with the new development and hardly had trouble showing it. Every time Autumn gave Avery one of her loathsome looks, Victor smiled to himself.
Atticus had been pushing his Powers students harder than ever in a last-ditch attempt to prepare them for the upcoming Test. As the days went by, Autumn became more and more nervous. It was like the Melodies concert all over again, but with much higher stakes. She continued her daily practices on the dueling grounds at the castle along with Luke, Crystal, and to her annoyance, Avery. She made sure to steer clear of him during this time. With her nerves already on edge, any comment from him might have caused her to snap.
She wondered if anyone else was practicing as much as the four of them. Autumn secretly hoped that they’d all come down with a terrible case of procrastination. The day before the Warrior Test, Atticus sat the entire class down and surveyed them with a serious expression.
“As you are all aware, the Warrior Test is tomorrow. I’m sure you’ve all been practicing very hard, or at least I hope. We counted up the numbers yesterday and have found that more than half of the 4th quarter elves will be taking the Test, nearly 100. Out of these only ten will be chosen to become Warriors.”
Autumn’s face fell, along with many of her classmates. These weren’t the best odds. She had been fairly confident about her chances…until now.
“There will be three components on which you will be tested,” Atticus continued. “One: archery skills. Two: fighting skills, without the use of your Power. And three is, of course, your Power. Once everyone has performed these three tasks, we will dismiss you until the results are posted at 9pm tomorrow night. Any questions?”
Everyone stared up at him with wide eyes. No one spoke.
Atticus chuckled and said, “Don’t worry, guys. I’ve taught you well. Remember that I’m on the judging panel and know your potential.”
“Who are the other judges?” Forrest asked tentatively.
“The current Head Warrior, Gregorius Dodge, and the Head of Aspen Academy, Alphreda Hopkins.” Everyone in the class looked slightly sick to their stomachs as they registered all of this information. “All right, that’s it for the day. I suggest that you eat a nice dinner and go to bed early. I do not advise practicing tonight. You’ll need your energy tomorrow. I will see you all in the morning at 9am sharp on the school dueling grounds.”
That evening, Autumn joined Luke, Crystal, and Avery at thei
r usual table and ate without tasting anything, too absorbed in her incessant thoughts.
A female castle worker sitting at the table next to theirs stood to leave, brushing up against Luke’s back and smiling demurely at him as she apologized. Luke gazed longingly after her. “Man,” he said. “Stupid castle rules. I would so hook up with her if Olympus wouldn’t have me beheaded.”
Avery looked up from his plate. “What?” he said with a look of disbelief.
“Oh, are you related to her or something? Sorry,” Luke said sheepishly.
“No. What did you say about castle rules?”
Autumn raised an eyebrow at him and pursed her lips.
“Oh,” Luke said, looking relieved. “Autumn and I aren’t allowed to date castle workers because we’re considered their ‘superiors’ and it would be inappropriate or something. It’s one of Olympus’s rules. But I think it’s lame. I mean, look at the classic story of the princess and the stable boy, only it would be the prince and the hot castle worker girl.”
Avery glanced up at Autumn as she gave him a smug “I told you so” look.
“That wasn’t a rule before,” Crystal noted thoughtfully. “But, then again, there weren’t any young royals at the castle.”
“Yeah, but Olympus was the only royal elf around here for a while and he wasn’t about to hook up with one of the maids or something, was he?” Luke snorted.
Autumn burst out laughing as the ridiculous mental picture of their grandfather wooing a maid popped into her head. “Well, I’m going to head off to bed,” she said once her laughter had subsided. “Want to be well rested before I embarrass myself in front of 100 elves. Plus the judges. Night, guys.”
She walked up the stairs to her branch looking down over the enormous library, which she had yet to take advantage of. Now that she thought of it, she hadn’t read one book since she’d arrived. Evidently her real life was now more exciting than a novel.
“Autumn?”
She turned to see Avery standing on the steps below her, hands shoved in his pockets and head hanging. If he were a dog, his tail would have been between his legs.
“Yes?” Autumn said, folding her arms across her chest. “Come to turn down my bed for me, sir? I think you may have missed a couple of peas as well. I’ve been sleeping horribly lately.”
Oaken (The Underground Series Book 1) Page 15
