Ash (The Underground Series Book 2)

by Melody Robinette

  She inched a bit closer to Avery and felt him reach for her hand. Any anxiety she had before vanished with his touch.

  “Your observation chambers are through here,” Sheldon said, opening two incredibly large wooden doors.

  The Warriors’ mouths dropped open at the sight before them.

  The room—though it could hardly be called a room—was full of tree houses, much like the ones in Arbor Falls. There was grass and flowers and even a shimmering lake in the center. Autumn looked up to see a gaping hole in the cave ceiling to reveal the sky above. Sheldon stood in the shadows of the cave, careful not to stand in the sunlight streaming into their temporary home.

  “What the—” Forrest said.

  “How… How?” was all Luke could manage.

  Sheldon smiled mysteriously at them and said, “I can see you are satisfied with your new living space?”

  “It’s perfect,” Autumn said to him with a grateful smile. “Thank you.”

  “I will return soon to take each elf that is willing to comply to separate research labs to begin a series of tests,” he stated, closing the doors behind him.

  Their faces fell a bit at this. Autumn had a feeling that the research labs would not be quite as comfortable as the exceptional room before them.

  “Let’s check it out!” Willow said.

  They walked forward into the tree room. There were four tree houses spaced evenly around the area. Each tree house had two bedrooms, with two beds in each room, two bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen area stocked full of food.

  They each claimed a room in one of the tree houses. Autumn and Crystal would be sharing a room in the same tree as Luke and Avery, who would be sharing the other room. Kyndel, Charlotte, Jastin, and Edric would occupy the tree nearest to theirs. Ember and Forrest were sharing a tree with Willow and Jack. Eden and Lucian had a tree to themselves. They offered to give it to Autumn and Luke because they were royal elves, but the twins immediately refused.

  There was an unspoken agreement between everyone that girls would room with girls and guys would room with guys because they wanted to stay as professional and proper as possible—and they weren’t sure exactly how the vampires were observing them seeing as how the walls of the giant room were made of stone and there were no windows looking into the room. They could’ve been watching their every move through some strange, new spying invention that they’d come up with. Cameras in the acorns or something.

  Leaving their packs and weapons in their rooms, the Warriors traveled the short distance to the shimmering lake in the center of the tree room. It was almost exactly like Arbor Lake, only about a third of the size.

  “Now are you glad you came with us, Ember?” Forrest said, lounging back on the grass and shutting his eyes.

  Ember ignored him and moved to sit alone near the water. Autumn wondered if she realized that more people would like her if she made more of an effort to get to know them. She recognized that familiar feeling she got when the need to help someone crept into her conscience.

  Ember picked up a rock and threw it forcefully across the water. Maybe if Autumn just talked to her, got her to open up about how she was feeling…

  “Leave it,” Luke said, recognizing the look on Autumn’s face.

  “What?” she said.

  “She doesn’t want your help, Autumn.”

  “Just because someone doesn’t want help, doesn’t mean they don’t need it.”

  Crystal overheard this, looked from Ember to Autumn, and then shot her a horrified look. “You want to help her?”

  Autumn shrugged uncomfortably. “I don’t know. I just thought that—”

  “I’d rather you help Kyndel than that horrible…girl,” she said, though Autumn guessed “girl” was not the word she had wanted to call her.

  “Kyndel is just a spoiled brat,” Autumn said. “She doesn’t need help. She needs a good slap across the face.”

  “And Ember doesn’t?” Crystal said.

  “She’s always separating herself from the rest of the group. There may be a reason for that. I just want to get her talking, see if she’ll open up.”

  “I can’t believe you’re going to try to help her,” Crystal said, shaking her head.

  “Look, I know you two don’t get along, but I just think this is something I should do.”

  “Of course you do.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I think you know exactly what I mean.”

  “Uh, guys?” Luke said, holding his hands up as if he was unsure whether he should step between them or not.

  Autumn stood up, dusting herself off and shooting Crystal a stubborn look. “If you will excuse me. I’m going to go talk to Ember.”

  “You have fun with that,” Crystal said. Luke and Avery watched this exchange with wide eyes and open mouths. This was the first time Crystal and Autumn had disagreed on anything, much less actually argued.

  Autumn whipped around and sauntered towards the shore, feeling Crystal’s eyes burning into her back. She came to sit beside Ember, who looked up at her as if she may have thought she had gone insane.

  “Hey, Ember,” Autumn said, trying to sound cheerful.

  “What do you want, Princess?” she asked, reminding Autumn strongly of Kyndel.

  “It’s Autumn, actually.”

  “No kidding.”

  “So, this place is pretty awesome, huh?”

  Ember rolled her eyes and laughed humorlessly. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re trying to get me to open up and tell you all my deep, dark secrets about my childhood and find out why I would rather spend time setting insects on fire instead of gossiping with the girls about the hottest guy in Arbor Falls. Sorry, but I’m not really into sexual politics.”

  Autumn was a little taken aback by her using this word as elves tended to tiptoe around it rather than say it aloud. “Um, didn’t you hook up with my brother to make Crystal mad?”

  “Yeah. That’s different. I can’t stand that ice girl. I thought it would be fun—and your brother is the prince, after all.”

  Autumn’s brow furrowed. “What does that matter?”

  “It’s pretty self explanatory I would think,” she said, throwing another rock across the shimmering surface of the lake. It skipped three times before sinking.

  “I see.”

  “Listen, Autumn,” Ember said. “I don’t need your help, all right? I like being alone. I prefer it, actually. So, do us both a favor and go find someone else to save.”

  Autumn stood up slowly. “Fine. I’ll leave you alone. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for whatever happened to make you feel this way.”

  Ember looked up at her with suspicion in her eyes. “What’ve you heard?” she asked, sounding slightly nervous.

  “Nothing. Why?”

  “No reason,” she shrugged, turning back to face the water. Autumn stood there for a minute to see if she would elaborate, and realizing it wasn’t going to happen, moved back to the others.

  “That seemed like it went well,” Luke said. Crystal snorted and Autumn shot her a glare.

  “Believe it or not, some people take more than five seconds to open up,” Autumn snapped. “It will probably take me talking to her a few more times before she says anything.”

  Crystal’s amused expression morphed into one of disgust. “You mean you’re going to keep trying?”

  “Yes. I am.”

  Crystal shook her head at this and then whipped around, stalking away from them to stand beside Edric, who was talking to Forrest and Jack near a willow tree. When he saw her, his face broke into a smile and he immediately put his arm around her.

  Luke frowned at this and then sent Autumn an angry look, obviously blaming her for sending Crystal into Edric’s arms. She rolled her eyes and sat beside Avery, who had watched this exchange in amused silence. Luke soon left to sit with Charlotte, Jastin, and Kyndel, who seemed to b
e making a point not to look at Luke directly. He didn’t seem to care either way because his eyes were trained on Crystal and Edric.

  Autumn let out a frustrated sigh and leaned up against Avery for support. He wrapped his strong arms around her and kissed her softly on the crook of her neck.

  “I love you,” he murmured in her ear, sending a chill through her body.

  “But I’m so different than everyone else.”

  “I know.” He chuckled. “That’s why I love you.”

  Suddenly there was a ringing of bells coming from the entrance to the tree room. Everyone turned to look at the source of the sound. Autumn and Luke stood and moved quickly to the oak doors that led to the rest of the vampire cave.

  Autumn opened the doors to find Sheldon standing in the shadows of the cave.

  “King Eugene would like to begin the first round of experiments.” Autumn and Luke exchanged careful glances before they nodded. Sheldon looked down at the paper in his hands and his magnified eyes cut back up to the royal twins. “We will begin with the two of you.”

  Experiments

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “Why does it matter what my dog’s name was?” Autumn asked with an exasperated sigh.

  “Just answer the question,” the vampire researcher said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose for the billionth time.

  “Mufasa.”

  “And where did that name originate?”

  “It’s from a Disney movie.”

  “I see. And what is a Disney?”

  Autumn rubbed her hands down her face, groaning.

  Four hours later, Autumn returned to the observation chambers. She walked slowly to the lake in the center of the room to find that half of the group was missing and the other half looked as miserable as she felt.

  “Where is everyone?” she asked, plopping down next to Jastin, who was sprawled out on the ground, his curly blond hair splayed in a halo around his head.

  “They’re still being interrogated.”

  “Did they question you too?”

  “Yes,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “That was the longest three hours of my life I think.”

  “Try six hours,” Autumn grumbled.

  “I wonder what they’re going to do to us tomorrow. Drive splinters under our fingernails? Pluck out our hairs one by one?”

  “Yuck. I don’t even wanna think about it. If this is their form of torture, it’s rather effective,” Autumn stated, lying back onto the grass beside him.

  She heard the oak doors open, but was too exhausted to see who it was. It didn’t take long for her to figure it out, anyway.

  “Vampires are children of the devil,” Luke said.

  Autumn and Jastin chuckled.

  “I thought you liked talking about yourself,” she called out, still not bothering to sit up.

  Luke collapsed on the ground beside Autumn. “I do, but not for six hours, and not if I have to talk about my favorite bedtime stories when I was a kid, or my third grade teacher, Mrs. Muffin-top.”

  Autumn and Jastin burst out laughing at this and were unable to stop for several minutes.

  “How are you two laughing right now? Torture isn’t a joke,” Eden grumbled as she and Willow joined the three of them.

  “Have a good talk?” Autumn asked her, wiping her streaming eyes.

  “Oh, yeah,” Eden said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I just love talking about all the different kinds of flowers my mother used to plant in our garden. How were any of those questions relevant?”

  One by one, the rest of the elves returned to the lake after questioning, all grumbling about their seemingly pointless questions.

  “I hate you, Princess,” Kyndel said as she joined their group.

  Autumn chuckled. “What else is new?”

  Everyone went to bed early, too tired to practice any fighting skills. Crystal didn’t speak to Autumn as she crawled into bed and turned on her side to face the wall. Autumn sighed in exasperation. If Crystal wanted to be mad at her for trying to help someone, then that was her problem.

  The next day, the Warriors were taken back for more questioning. This time, though, the questions were different. It felt more like a therapy session than research. Autumn told them about her parents’ deaths and the year of depression that followed. She spoke of Victor’s betrayal, her near strangulation, and being captured by Vyra.

  “And why would you say you befriended someone like Victor Vaun?” the researcher asked, raising a bushy brow, quill poised.

  Autumn shrugged and said, “I guess I have some sort of, I don’t know, inner desire to help people who are suffering.”

  “Including people with a darkness inside them?” the other researcher asked.

  “Especially them.”

  By the time she left the dimly lit room, she was even more exhausted than the day before, but this time she was emotionally drained as well. Autumn was hit with a heavy silence as she entered the observation chambers. Most everyone sat alone, reflecting on the second round of questioning. Some looked as if they had been crying.

  Autumn had seen a therapist back when she first moved to Ireland and was pretty used to talking about her parents’ deaths. Losing them never got any easier, but talking about it did. She could see how something like this would upset the others, especially if they’d been forced to talk about something they’d never really discussed before. Maybe Ember would open up to the vampires if she wasn’t going to open up to Autumn.

  When Luke returned from his session, he was frowning at the ground, his brow furrowed. He came to sit beside Autumn and took her by surprise when he pulled her into a tight hug.

  “Uh, Luke?” she said, patting him on the back. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” he muttered, pulling away. Autumn watched him with a concerned look until he flashed her an overly exaggerated smile.

  Avery was a little more difficult to pull out of his despondent state. He sat beside the twins in silence. When Luke asked if he was all right, he simply nodded once. Autumn was sure he’d just been talking about his father’s death, his mentally absent mother, and the murder of his sister. Then she realized with a jolt of guilt that he still didn’t know that Victor was the one responsible for Avabelle’s death. She’d found this out when she’d been taken captive by Vyra, but hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell him.

  Reaching over, Autumn grasped his hand firmly in her own, hoping the pressure would lessen his anxiety. He squeezed back.

  By late afternoon, everyone had returned except for Ember and Kyndel. The Warriors practiced shooting arrows at apples hanging from a nearby tree. To make it more difficult, Luke decided to pluck a few off of the tree and hurl them into the air for them to shoot. The guys competed to see whose arrow would be the first to shoot the apple.

  Jack and Forrest’s arrows crossed through the air as the entrance doors opened. Ember walked in and hurried to her tree house, keeping her eyes on the ground the whole time. Apparently the vampires were better at breaking through invisible walls than Autumn.

  Kyndel was still being questioned. Autumn thought that was strange. She wouldn’t have believed Kyndel would have that much wrong to say about her life.

  “I wonder why Kyndel isn’t back yet,” Autumn said, thinking out loud.

  “She’s probably crying about not getting the pony she asked her daddy for,” Eden said with a laugh.

  Charlotte glared at her. “You have no idea who Kyndel really is, Eden.”

  “Sure I do,” Eden retorted. “She’s a spoiled little rich girl, and so shallow that you can see right through her. No wonder her power is Invisibility.”

  Charlotte just shook her head, clenching her jaw in repressed anger. Autumn frowned at this. Apparently Charlotte knew something the others didn’t. Autumn knew she shouldn’t judge someone who she didn’t really know on a personal level, but Kyndel had always been so horrible to her. It was really hard to see the good in someone who had only ever shown people thei
r bad side.

  Autumn and Charlotte were the only ones to notice when Kyndel entered the room, quiet as the wild cats she so greatly resembled. Her face was red and splotchy and she still had tears pouring down her face. Mimicking Ember, Kyndel ran straight to her tree house without acknowledging any of the Warriors. Charlotte frowned and followed after her friend, her chestnut hair flowing behind her as she moved quickly to the tree house in which Kyndel had just entered.

  Autumn was glad Kyndel had a friend like Charlotte. She would have hated to have to try and help her too.

  After another night of uncomfortable silence in the room she and Crystal shared, Autumn woke up dreading the day to come. Who knew what the vampires had in store for them.

  Grabbing something to eat in their little pantry, Autumn breezed out the door to sit around the lake with the rest of the group. Sooner than anyone would’ve liked, Sheldon was ringing the bells to the entrance. Autumn and Luke answered it, getting ready to leave with him for more questioning.

  “We would like to see—” he looked down the bridge of his nose through his thick glasses at a paper in his hand, “Ember Burns and Crystal Everly.”

  Autumn and Luke exchanged a bemused glance.

  “Okay…” Autumn said.

  When they returned to the lake, everyone turned to face them.

  “Uh, Crystal and Ember,” Luke said. “They want to see you.”

  “Both of us?” Ember said, looking at Crystal in disgust.

  Luke shrugged. “Apparently.”

  Crystal narrowed her eyes at Ember as they both stood to leave. The Warriors watched as Fire and Ice exited through the doors, being careful to stay at least three feet apart.

  “Wonder what that’s going to be about,” Willow said.

  It was pretty clear what the vampires were doing, though, when Sheldon returned to fetch Luke and Edric.

  “Damn,” Autumn muttered. “They’re putting enemies together.” She exchanged a wary glance with Kyndel.

  Autumn scanned the remaining elves, wondering who would be next. She hadn’t noticed any open hostility coming from anyone else, save for her and Kyndel.