Ash (The Underground Series Book 2)

by Melody Robinette

  “Avery told me to let you come back in your own time,” Luke muttered, shooting an irritated glance at Avery. She’d almost forgotten about her fight with Ember, which seemed exceptionally trivial at the moment.

  Autumn turned to close the door behind her. “Avery knows me well.”

  “What’s going on?” Crystal asked.

  Autumn took a deep breath and exhaled the words, “Victor is an Ellock.”

  “A what?” Luke and Crystal said simultaneously.

  Avery, on the other hand, looked at her with a thunderstruck expression. “What? Are you positive?”

  “Rion—that blond warlock that works for Sam—is his father. I’d been suspicious about his eye color since I met him. It’s the exact same as Victor’s. Then I heard someone call him Mr. Lavigne. For a minute I thought he was Victor undercover, but after I confronted him, he told me about how he had an affair with Victor’s mom, Elizabeth, and basically that Victor is their lovechild. No one else knows.”

  “Wait,” Luke said, shaking his head in confusion. “What the hell is an Ellock?”

  “It’s the offspring of an elf and a warlock,” Avery said.

  “How did you know about that?” Autumn asked him. “Rion said only leaders and their confidants know about Ellocks.”

  “My dad told me about them a long time ago. He and Olympus were pretty close. He didn’t tell me many details, he said that it was dangerous for me to know too much, but he thought I should at least know what Ellocks were.”

  Crystal’s eyes were round, but Luke still looked confused. “So, I’m guessing this is a bad thing?”

  Autumn nodded. “Very bad.”

  “What does this mean, exactly?” Crystal asked.

  “It means that Victor is a hell of a lot more powerful than he’s been letting on,” said Autumn in a dark tone. “Rion said that he’s worried about Victor’s silence and the fact that he hasn’t already done away with Vyra.”

  “Maybe he’s using her,” Luke suggested. “Letting her do all of the dirty work so all he has to do is kill her to become ruler.”

  Avery nodded. “That’s a possibility.”

  “Has there ever been another Ellock in the Underground?” Crystal asked.

  “Rion said there’s only been one other and that he was the reason the Underground War started,” Autumn said.

  “But I thought they said—” Luke began.

  “They lied,” Autumn said. “They changed the history books so we wouldn’t know about Ellocks.”

  Luke and Crystal looked incredulous. Avery seemed unsurprised by this information.

  “Do you think we should tell the others?” Crystal said.

  Avery was already saying, “No,” before she finished her sentence.

  Luke raised his eyebrows at him. “Why not?”

  “If any of the other magical creatures found out about this, we would be looking at the second Underground War,” Avery said. “They would want to get rid of all the elves and warlocks to keep this from ever happening again. We would either have to fight and most likely perish seeing as how we would be greatly outnumbered, or we would have to flee to the Outside.”

  “But why can’t the other Warriors know?” Luke said. “They’re elves too. They aren’t going to cause any problems.”

  “The fewer people that know about this the better,” Avery assured him. “You know how big Kyndel and Forrest’s mouths are. They’d be sure to let it slip at some point, which could be deadly.”

  “But don’t you think they deserve to know what they’re up against?” Autumn asked.

  “It wouldn’t change any of their minds. They would all still want to get rid of Victor and Vyra. I’m telling you, this information needs to stay between us.”

  “All right, but let’s make sure we get as many warlocks and centaurs as we can to fight Mr. Ellock,” Luke said. “Sounds like we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

  The next morning, Rion appeared at the Warriors’ cabin, requesting the presence of Luke and Autumn in Sam’s living quarters. They briefly made eye contact before looking away and walking the short distance to the Chief Warlock’s cabin.

  Sam beamed up at them as they entered. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” the twins returned.

  “My daughter had many good things to say about the two of you after the dance last night.”

  Autumn smiled. “Oh?”

  Sam nodded. “She seems to think that you are—oh how did she put it—totally swift.”

  Autumn and Luke chuckled.

  “She’s pretty swift too,” Autumn said.

  “I agree.” Sam wore a proud smile. “Though it wouldn’t hurt her to lower the decibel of her speaking voice just a tad.” Luke snorted at this. “Rion also seems to think that you are being rather genuine. He made quite the case for you last night,” he said, nodding at Rion, who continued staring straight ahead, avoiding eye contact with either Autumn or Luke. “So, with that being said, I don’t see why I can’t send my Warlock Army to help you defeat Vyra and her brother, Victor.”

  “Really?” Autumn said, smiling.

  “Really.”

  “Thank you so much, sir,” Luke said.

  “Not a problem, not a problem. Just promise me you will kill that evil elf woman and her idiotic brother.”

  Luke nodded. “We’ll certainly do our best, sir.”

  Autumn glanced at Rion then. His brow was furrowed and he looked blankly at the ground. Autumn wondered how he felt about armies from all over the Underground coming together to kill his son. Autumn and Luke’s dad used to tell them that there wasn’t anything they could do that could keep him from loving them. Autumn wondered if Rion felt that way about Victor. Though, he never actually knew him. He hadn’t even raised him, which was why she found it very odd that Victor would adopt his actual father’s surname when he came to Arbor Falls.

  As the Warriors packed up their pegasi, Autumn noticed that Ember kept shooting her heated glares. It took her a minute to remember their fight last night and the fact that she had punched Ember. She’d been so caught up in learning about Victor that she had completely forgotten about that little incident.

  Avery, Luke, and Crystal seemed to be just as distracted as Autumn was, especially Avery. Rather than loading up Knight, he stood absently beside the pegasus, apparently deep in thought. By the looks of his furrowed brow, they weren’t good thoughts either. Autumn approached him cautiously, unsure of what was on his mind.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” she said.

  This statement seemed to confuse him. “A what for my thoughts?”

  “Right, um, a bronze leaf for your thoughts?” she said. He raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed. “What’re you thinking about?”

  “Oh,” he said. “Nothing really, just that this Ellock thing is making me reconsider everything I knew about Victor. He’s much more dangerous than I realized.”

  “Well, he has the combined strength and power of an elf and a warlock, of course he’s stronger than we thought.”

  “It’s not that. It’s the ease he had of keeping this information to himself—the web of lies he created, yet always managed to keep from breaking. He’s much more intelligent than I gave him credit for, and that above everything is what makes him so much more dangerous. He knows how to play this game, and play it well. I have a feeling Vyra is actually the one under his control, she just doesn’t know it yet.”

  Autumn frowned at this. “What do you think he’s going to do?”

  He shook his head. “That’s the problem. There’s no way of telling. We’re going into this battle blindly.”

  “Hey, lovebirds!” Jack shouted. “Nearly done? We need to get a move on here!”

  Avery ran a hand down Autumn’s arm and gave her hand a squeeze, a gesture so simple, yet it still caused the pull within her core to kick in and want more. She mentally told it to cut it out and left Avery’s side to prepare Sundance for the journey to Heather
Plains.

  Autumn saw Rion watching her out of the corner of her eye. She turned to face him, but he simply winked and turned back towards Sam’s cabin. She frowned after him and climbed onto Sundance.

  They left Onyx Forest and the comforting smell of pine behind and moved on to an endless stretch of flat plains. This particular trip was the longest so far, and by nightfall all of the Warriors and pegasi were completely drained from flying all day with minimal breaks. They unpacked the cots and food supplies in tired silence as Avery and Ember built the fire. The warlocks had sent food with the elves so they all gathered around the now roaring fire and ate a decent meal of bread, cheese, and fruit.

  “I feel like we’ve been gone forever,” Charlotte said gazing dazedly into the fire, the flames making her chestnut hair shine.

  “Right? I don’t even know what day it is,” Forrest said as he tore at a piece of bread with his teeth.

  “It’s the 4th of April,” Lucian said.

  “Dang,” Edric commented. “We’ve been gone for almost two weeks.”

  “Impressive, Ogden,” Luke said with a smirk. “I didn’t know you knew how to count, much less knew how many days there are in a week.”

  “Shut it, Oaken.”

  Luke flashed him a spiteful grin. “Don’t believe I will, thanks.”

  “Why don’t you shut your damn mouth before I shut it for you,” Edric said through clenched teeth.

  “Oh yeah? How ’bout—”

  Jack cut them off. “How about both of you shut the hell up before we make you kiss and make up like Autumn and Kyndel.”

  Great, Autumn thought, even the Tetras know about that little sleepover incident.

  That night Autumn was visited by another unpleasant dream, though this time it was more a memory than a dream and it came in flashes like scenes in a movie.

  Autumn was in Vyra’s lair, chained to the manacles, sitting on the cold stone floor. Vyra was sneering down at her.

  “So you are working with warlocks,” Autumn heard herself say, though her voice was distorted, muffled.

  “More or less,” Vyra answered.

  The scene shifted. Autumn was still in her lair, still chained to the manacles, but Vyra was now joined by Victor.

  “Victor can control Shadows,” Vyra said. “They were made with his blood, you know. As long as Victor is alive they will continue to multiply.”

  Another shift. Vyra was gone and Victor and Autumn were alone.

  “Look at me, you coward!” she shouted.

  Victor’s eyes flashed to hers. “I am many things, Autumn, but a coward is not one of them.”

  “You are the definition of a coward, Victor Vaun.”

  “Do not presume you know me. I have done things that you could never even dream of. Things a coward could never do.”

  The scene shifted once more, but only briefly. All Autumn saw was an arrow soaring through the air as if in slow motion and piercing Victor’s chest. She watched as he fell to the stone floor, but was taken aback by the look on his face. It was not surprised, angry, or painful. It was amused.

  Autumn awoke with a start.

  Centaurs

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “Edric is such an assface,” Luke grumbled as he strapped his pack to Thunder the next morning.

  “I’m sure he feels the same about you,” Autumn said, shoving her old Warrior uniform into her own pack.

  “I could care less what he thinks about me.”

  “Like I said—”

  “Ugh. Never mind. I don’t know why I’m even talking to you. You’re supposed to take my side. I’m your brother, and your twin at that.”

  “I’m always on your side, Luke.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said. Autumn rolled her eyes in exasperation. He was almost as touchy as a girl sometimes.

  It took them nearly another full day to make it to Heather Plains. The flight felt longer than usual because of the complete lack of scenery. The grassy plains below stretched on for hundreds of miles and there were only a few trees that speckled the land like buoys in a sea of grass. Autumn felt like she was back in west Texas. All that was missing were the tumbleweeds and the brutal sand-filled wind.

  They descended with the sun and landed as it hit the horizon, blasting the Underground sky with colors of pink and orange.

  Autumn and Luke left the group heading towards the boundary of Heather Plains. It was Autumn’s idea to ride atop Thunder and Sundance so that they were, in a way, on the centaurs’ level. Their pegasi ambled onward, slowly climbing a hill, both tired from the long day’s journey. As they made it over the hill, they saw a pair of centaurs, probably guards. The female had caramel colored skin, which blended to deep brown hair covering the lower part of her horse-like body. The male’s skin was as dark as mocha, contrasting with the stark white hair of his lower body. They were both armed with long swords that glimmered in the light.

  “Who goes there!” the male called.

  The female flashed them a look of distaste. “Ugh. It’s dryadales.”

  Autumn and Luke exchanged annoyed looks.

  “We are Oaken,” Luke said, holding up his wrist to flash his rose-shaped mark. “I’m Luke, and this is Autumn,” he said. The centaurs raised their eyebrows at this and exchanged an amused glance.

  “And I am Eric Kason. This is Kynedy Bryn.”

  “Yeah, see,” the girl said, holding up her hand. “Oh wait, I don’t have a birthmark. Do you have one, Kason?”

  “It would appear that I do not, Bryn,” Kason said.

  Bryn laughed. “Strange.”

  “I don’t know, Bryn,” Kason said looking at Autumn and Luke with an amused expression. “I thought the Royal Elf Mark was in the shape of a star.”

  “Really?” Bryn said, lazily pawing the ground with her hoof. “I thought it was in the shape of a heart.”

  “Could be. Or maybe it was—”

  “Okay, cut the crap,” Luke said, earning himself a glare from the two centaurs.

  “It isn’t smart to speak to a centaur in such a way, dryadale puer,” Kason said.

  “Oh yeah? My sister and I have just visited the head merman, vampire, and chief warlock of the Underground. I’m pretty sure I can handle a couple of centaur guards.”

  “So you’ve visited the Fish King, the Four-eyed Bloodsucker, and the Pretty Boy Warlock? Oh, we are so intimidated,” Bryn scoffed.

  “Luke—” Autumn warned, seeing the murderous look on his face.

  “You should be scared, pony girl,” Luke pressed on, “because if you don’t cooperate with us, you may be Vyra Vaun’s next target.”

  “Luke!” Autumn exclaimed, horrified.

  Luke’s last statement, however, seemed to have struck the centaurs by surprise.

  Kason narrowed his eyes at Luke. “Is that a threat, boy?”

  “It’s a warning,” Luke stated.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Bryn asked, looking slightly concerned.

  “It means you should let my sister and I speak with your leader.”

  Autumn had to admit that she was pretty impressed with her brother, though she couldn’t say she cared for his tactics.

  “Are you in league with Vyra Vaun?” Kason asked suspiciously.

  “No, of course not,” said Autumn. “We’re working to fight against her.”

  Bryn put her hands on what would have been her hips if she didn’t have half a horse body. “But you’re dryadales,”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So, why would you go against your own kind?”

  “Vyra Vaun is not our kind,” Autumn said in disgust. “She’s an Atrum.”

  “She’s still a dryadale,” Kason noted.

  “Okay,” Luke said in exasperation. “We don’t have time to explain ethics to a couple of pony people. We need to speak to your leader.”

  “Pony people?” Kason growled.

  “Sorry, do you prefer the term equus virum?” he said.

  “Vetus
lingua loqueris?” Kason said in a tone of surprise.

  “Non ut infigo sicut loquentem equus,” Luke said.

  Kason rolled his eyes and Autumn looked at her brother with a dumbstruck expression.

  “So, uh, may we speak to your leader, please?” Autumn said, shaking her head and turning away from Luke.

  “No,” Bryn said.

  “No?”

  Luke let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh, come on. I was just joking!”

  “You can’t talk to her because she isn’t here,” Kason said.

  “She?” Luke asked.

  “Yes, she.”

  “And when will she be back?” said Luke.

  “Paucos dies.”

  “Translation?” Autumn asked.

  “It means a few days,” Luke said in exasperation.

  Autumn shot Luke yet another bemused look before turning back to Kason and Bryn. “We will return in paucos dies then.”

  Luke made a face. “You just butchered that pronunciation.”

  “Elves butcher everything,” Kason said.

  “Centaurus possidet,” Luke sneered.

  Kason shot Luke a death glare and began pawing the ground.

  “Come on, Luke,” Autumn muttered, pulling him back towards the Warrior camp.

  “Stupid horse people,” he grumbled as they retreated.

  “What language were you speaking?”

  “Latin. I started learning it the year after mom and dad died, to occupy my mind.”

  “Is that what you were doing when you shut yourself up in your room for hours?”

  Luke nodded.

  They made it back to the Warriors to find them lounging on the ground talking languidly. When they saw Autumn and Luke approach, one by one, their faces began to fall.

  Eden stood. “They aren’t going to help us?”

  “Their leader isn’t here right now,” Autumn said. “She will be back in a few days.”

  “She?” Edric said in the same surprised tone as Luke.

  “What’s wrong with a female leader?” Crystal asked him with pursed lips. She seemed to be getting annoyed with him more frequently as of late.