Everly (Everly Series Book 1)

by Meg Bonney

  “Wait! We need to band together! There is an intruder in the temple! Here, guard, come here.” One of them waved to me.

  I nodded and slowed so that I was in the midst of the group of six or so guards. We jogged together down the hall back to the main foyer, where I had just come from.

  I felt incredibly anxious as I tried to come up with a plan. What if the female guard woke up? Is that what this was?

  “I am so screwed,” I said through my teeth, dropping my head down.

  We reached the giant door through which I had entered the temple. A clump of guards were already at the door, pushing into it with their bodies to hold it closed, and they waved us over.

  “Hold the door! Hold the door!”

  I was pressed into the door by the guard behind me. I leaned against it with the group of them, still in a haze from what I had just seen. There was so much chaos and yelling as something pounded on the other side of the massive wooden entrance.

  I closed my eyes and tried to picture any movie or any TV show. Anything but the courtyard. I had to push the image from my mind.

  “Hold the door!” another guard bellowed.

  The door vibrated as something pounded on it. I heard a growling on the other side.

  “What is that?” someone yelled.

  “A troll!” the short guy next to me yelled.

  “Did we lose a troll?” a guard in the back of the pack asked.

  “Why was that not reported?” the woman on the other side of me boomed.

  A troll?

  “Gullway,” I mouthed.

  I felt panic course through me as I looked around at all the guards. There were too many of them. They would kill Gullway.

  Damn it, Madison!

  This was so stupid. Coming here alone, leaving them alone without knowing where I had gone. Of course they were going to come looking for me. It’s what I would do if it were any one of them. I should have told them. I should have made them understand why I needed to do this.

  “Hold it!” I ordered the guard on the door, and I rushed to the five guards in the back of the mob who were holding a door-width wooden plank.

  I wrapped my arms around it, taking it by myself.

  “Everybody down!” I screamed over my shoulder as I turned around and charged the door, holding the board.

  With all my might, I lifted it into the two metal holders on either side of the door with a grunt and rested my palms on it, breathing loudly.

  “There.”

  I turned to see the fifteen or so guards staring at me with wide eyes. The ones who had dropped to the ground when I ordered and the ones who I had knocked to the ground because they didn’t listen when I yelled for them to duck were all climbing to their feet now.

  I brushed my hands on my stomach. “That should keep him out.”

  “What, are you trying to be a Strongblood or something?” the tall one asked me defensively.

  I shook my head. The woman next to me tilted her head to look at my face and then down to my leg.

  “You better clean up. You know the king will not approve of you looking like that,” she said.

  “Right,” I replied. “I should go do that.” I began moving through the crowd with my head down.

  “What is this? What is at the door?” a deep voiced boomed from the back of the crowd.

  The guards parted, then lined up in a military fashion to reveal a tall man with short, dark hair and a long crimson cape hanging from his shoulders. He wore the same style of chest plate as the guards, but his was a deep red, not black.

  My mouth fell open as I realized who it was.

  It was the king. It was my father.

  CHAPTER 33

  “What are you doing standing around with an enemy at the door? To your stations! Now! I want them brought in alive. They have a troll with them, so take heed.” King Dax’s black-gloved hand pointed to the hallway next to him.

  “You three stay here and help me hold the door. The rest of you, get to the south gate and await Captain Asher’s orders. We need to stop the attack immediately,” he instructed as he walked toward me.

  I turned toward the door, hiding my face from him. Every muscle in my body tensed. I couldn’t breathe. My hands shook.

  I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. He was next to me. My father stood next to me, leaning his weight into the door that I had just barricaded.

  The force on the other side of the door pounded wildly. I could hear deep voices yelling and a splash as something or someone hit the water.

  “Stay on the door. Give it your weight! We do not want them to think it will give. Show them your strength.” The king nudged me with his elbow as he leaned his shoulder into the middle of door.

  “Your knee. When we are done here, go get that taken care of,” he said. “Do not let your enemy see you bleed. Remember that.”

  His eyes were just like the portrait. They were the same light brown as mine, and he had long eyelashes that curled. I nodded, unable to speak to him. He looked younger than I would have thought.

  I glanced back to the door and tried to breathe. I tried to calm my racing heart when he grabbed my arm and spun me to face him.

  The door jutted in, splintering parts of it. Shards rained down on my head. I reached up and pushed my palms into the wood, setting it flush again with a dull, crackling pop.

  “Great strength, guard. Have Strongblood in your line somewhere, do you?” the king asked me.

  I nodded, keeping my face to the door. The pounding on the other side of the door stopped for a moment.

  “Your eye―look at me.” I turned my head slowly to face him.

  Oh, no.

  The king clutched my arm in one hand. With the other, he lifted the helmet from my head and sent it to the ground with a clank.

  “Is that a shell on your…” The king’s expression softened as he studied my face. His hand went to his mouth. “It cannot be,” he said, his eyes pooling with tears. “Lanora?”

  I said nothing as I stared back at him.

  “Lanora, is that you?” King Dax put his hands on either side of my face. “What have they done to you?”

  I looked up at him. Slight wrinkles were set around his eyes, but he did not look that old—not nearly old enough to have an eighteen-year-old daughter. He must have been in his thirties at the absolute oldest. His beard and mustache were black with no gray hairs. Could this really be him?

  “Yes.” My voice was more like a whimper.

  He put his hand on his cheek. “What magic could have done this to you? I do not understand. How…?”

  The king pulled me to his chest, and the hair of his beard rumpled against my forehead.

  “I am your father, dear. Do you remember? Do you remember your father?”

  I did not return his embrace as he held me. My father. I was in shock. Like I wasn’t actually there but dreaming. This was all a dream. I squeezed my eyes shut. He pulled back and held me away from himself for a moment.

  I didn’t speak.

  “What a day this is! My daughter has returned to me!” he exclaimed. “You there! Take my spot. I must take her to be treated. This is no place for the Princess of the Ember Isle.”

  He smoothed my hair and hugged me again.

  “Say something, Lanora. Say something. Are you all right?”

  I nodded. The other guards around me began to whisper. I felt sick and dizzy and more overwhelmed. He was right in front of me. My father was standing in front of me, and I couldn’t speak. I wanted to hug him and ask a million questions, but all I could muster was silence, a wide-eyed stare, and shaking hands.

  I need Jason.

  I can’t do this.

  Jason should be here.

  “I am so happy that you broke free of your captor! They brought her in. Don’t worry, she will face justice for what she has done to you, my sweet Lanora.”

  “Ruth? No, please don’t hu
—”

  “Yes, Ruthana of the Rosewood Coven,” he said with disdain. “She will pay dearly for her crimes.”

  “But she thought she was protecting me,” I said, staring through him, letting the weight of this moment press me into the ground. “You have to let her go. You have to let them all go.”

  “What have you been told? What has she told you about me? About your mother and her coven?” My father put his hands on my shoulders and looked down at me sympathetically.

  “Nothing. She never told me,” I answered, feeling like a small child. But before I could continue, he started talking again.

  “Poor girl. Then let me. Your mother left her coven to be here with me, and that outraged her wicked sisters. The Witches declared war on me and my kind, the Strongbloods. They destroyed these lands with their magic and convinced the other Magics to join their cause. Those monsters stormed the temple with their sorcery and nearly killed your mother.” He paused and tension twisted in his jaw. I could see the veins bulging just above his temple as he spoke.

  “Even your Aunt Ruthana lived here, once. She came here with your mother and was to marry Captain Asher, as it were. But even the promise of marriage could not stop that snake from betraying us. She took you and fled the temple that night. And the Magics murdered thousands on the Ember Isle.”

  I blinked and tears rolled down my cheeks. “I—I didn’t know that.”

  “That was the last time I saw you. And the last time I saw your mother―so, no. We will not be letting any of them go. They will pay for their crimes. Every single one of them. Until every ounce of magic is removed from Everly, none of us is safe.”

  I swallowed hard. “But I a—”

  “How did you get this uniform?” He looked me up and down. “It does not matter. You are safe now. Do you understand? I will protect you.”

  I nodded absently and blinked quickly. He was a jittery man. He spoke quickly and seemed scattered, like his brain was jumping all over the place and his mouth couldn’t keep up.

  But he was my father. My dad had just said he would protect me. It was like I had wandered into one of my childhood daydreams.

  This can’t be real.

  King Dax began walking me down the long corridor. I was in a foggy haze. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t act.

  Could it be true? Was Aunt Ruth in the wrong? Was I wrong about my father?

  He was speaking. He was rambling something at me, but I did not hear a word of it. It was like he was at the other end of the hall and I could just hear the echo of what he was telling me.

  He’d looped his arm around me, hugging me to his side. I had him built up in my mind as this evil man. Ren and Ara made him sound like the devil, and yes, he was different than what I had expected. But not evil. Even after what I had seen in the courtyard, how could I believe that this man—my father—was evil? He seemed so normal. Well, as normal as any of this could be.

  And then it hit me. The blinding reality masked by all this father-meeting haze.

  My friends.

  My friends were here at the gates, looking for me. They thought I was in trouble. I needed to tell them that I was okay, and I really needed to convince my father to let Ruth go. I could tell him that the Magics didn’t kill me. I was fine. Maybe if I made him see that Ruth wasn’t evil, he would still let me do the ritual.

  I pushed back away from my father.

  “What is it, dear? You do not need to be afraid now. You are home. I do not know what she has done to you, but we are going to fix it,” he reassured me.

  I took a few steps back and hit the wall behind me, causing me to jump.

  “Sorry, um, my friends―my friends are out there,” I stammered. “I need to speak to them. Can you take me there?”

  King Dax folded his hands together and put his finger to his lip.

  “They are not your friends. They are the enemy. From what I hear, one is a Porter—the son of another betrayer of the Crown. You must not consort with such people. I know what you must be feeling, but you need to trust me. I am your father, Lanora. You were taken from me, but now you are home. You are safe.” King Dax spoke as if I were a small child.

  I moved to the side to avoid his touch as he attempted to lay a hand on my shoulder.

  “Lanora…” He furrowed his brow with worry.

  “But if you just let me talk to them, they will leave, I promise. They are just worried about me.” I tried to keep my voice from breaking as I spoke.

  “They will be dealt with swiftly, I assure you,” he replied, looking down the hall toward the temple door we had been holding shut.

  “Sir!” Another man came running over to where we stood in the middle of the long hallway with all the torches. He was dressed like the other guards, but his chest plate had a design on it and his sword was longer. He removed his helmet, showing his sandy blonde hair. His baby face made him look not much older than me, but his deep brown eyes were hard and emotionless.

  “We have them,” he said. “We have the intruders.”

  “Excellent. Asher, it is she. Look.” My father gestured to me.

  Captain Asher. I couldn’t help but look back at him with disdain.

  He turned to look me over. “Who, sir?”

  I watched as the realization hit him as he examined me. His shoulders fell a bit, and his studiously proper stance relaxed.

  “It cannot be.” Captain Asher took a step toward me, bowed his head, and tucked his arm in front of him. He looked back to my father. “Can this be fixed?”

  My father shook his head. “I will not stop until I find a way.”

  I adjusted the shell on my eye, feeling self-conscious about it now.

  “Princess…welcome home,” Captain Asher said.

  “Sir, the Porter and the Empress are with the troll,” a guardsman yelled over to Captain Asher from the end of the long gray hallway.

  A shudder ran through me. Ren, Ara, and Gullway were here. But where was Jason?

  “I want them all questioned. I will meet you there,” King Dax instructed Captain Asher with a nod.

  “But, please, I need to see them. They’re not dangerous. They’re looking for me,” I pleaded.

  My father ignored me. “Asher, do you believe it? She has returned. And on her own, too,” he said. “She has my instincts. Cancel your plans this evening. We will celebrate!”

  “Your majesty, sir…please. I need to get to my friends,” I said. My father continued to boast about me like I wasn’t there.

  “She looks like me, does she not? We will have to get her cleaned up and her wounds dressed, of course, but I want her by my side when we execute her captor tomorrow. And I want all of the Ember Isle there to witness it!” he exclaimed joyfully. “This is a great triumph.”

  I stepped away from my father. “Enough!” My voice echoed through the hall. My glance accidentally crossed over the torch that hung on the wall behind my father, and it flared with a soft roar. I immediately dropped my eyes to the floor of the hallway, hoping they didn’t notice.

  “What is it, Lanora?” the king asked.

  I looked back up. Captain Asher’s eyes narrowed. He studied me intently.

  And…crap. He knew; he saw the fire flare up when I looked at it. He may have figured out I was a Magic, but it didn’t matter. It was clear that my father had no interest in listening to my side of things.

  Nope, I had to do this my way.

  “Sorry…Dad, sir. I just―I do not feel well from the journey. And my eye hurts,” I said nervously.

  I mulled over the information I had. I needed to get to my friends. But could I get to them? And where was Jason?

  “You there! Take my daughter to the infirmary. She has wounds,” King Dax ordered a servant dressed in raggedy black clothing.

  The servant hurried over to me. “Your daughter? The princess has returned?”

  I couldn’t stand to hear any more of this. “Ohh…” I put my
hand on my head and acted as if I was losing my balance.

  “Are you all right?” the servant asked, bracing me before I fell.

  “Get the princess to the infirmary now!” Captain Asher pointed down the hall, but kept his calculating stare on me.

  I leaned on the young man and stopped, looking back over my shoulder. King Dax was standing in the middle of the hallway. He gave me a smile. I could see in his eyes that it was truly genuine. It made my heart ache.

  In a whirlwind of moments, I had met my father and found that he was nothing like I had thought. He wasn’t an evil king perched high in his tower. He was an anxious, quick-talking man who seemed to care for me. And he was so pleased with my return.

  But in the brief time I had been able to reunite with him, the reality had become painfully clear: He would kill everyone I loved, and he was going to do it whether I protested or not.

  Every delusion I had let myself believe in order to get to this point faded. All the false hopes and the unjustified reassurances that I had given myself disappeared, too.

  I know what I have to do.

  I broke away from the young servant who was helping me and walked over to where my father was standing.

  “What is it, Lanora?” he asked softly, still talking to me like I was a child.

  “It was good to meet you,” I answered.

  “My dear girl. My dear girl,” he said, and he hugged me.

  Just a hug. Nothing spectacular about it. But it was one of those moments I had built up in my mind for so long that even though he was not the man I had hoped he would be, the moment was everything I had hoped for.

  I broke down into tears—tears of what, I didn’t know. I took a deep breath and I squeezed him tighter.

  “You are strong, like your father,” he said in my ear, lifting me off the ground.

  “I am,” I agreed as he lowered me back down.

  “Wipe those tears,” he said with warm eyes. “Remember, dear, our power is fixed in the minds of the lesser folk of Everly. We must not let them see our pain.”

  No.

  A shudder went through my entire body, and my mouth fell open. Those words…that phrase. It all came flashing back through my mind.