Everly (Everly Series Book 1)

by Meg Bonney

  The phrase was from my vision in the cave with Sinder. The man in the room with four pillars―it was him. The man in Sinder’s vision was my father. I stared back at him, wide-eyed.

  “I will see you after we sort this out, my dear,” he said, patting me on

  the arm.

  Captain Asher started down the hall, followed by my father. I watched until my father’s dark red cape was out of sight.

  “No, you won’t,” I whispered to myself.

  CHAPTER 34

  “My Lady, shall I take you to the infirmary now?” the servant asked.

  I looked at my feet and spun around to face him, still reeling from my realization.

  “Where are the intruders? The Porter, the Empress, and the troll?”

  “They are being taken in now. Princess, if I may ask…what happened to you?” the young servant asked.

  I touched the seashell on my eye. “Oh, I―uh―my friend accidentally shot me with a little arrow. But I am fine. Really.”

  “No, I meant―I apologize, it is not my place. Shall we go, then? Are you still feeling faint?” He held his hand out.

  “The prisoners. Where are they, exactly? And I am going to need very specific directions because this place is a frickin’ maze.”

  He didn’t respond. I grabbed his hand and squeezed the pressure point between his thumb and index finger. A simple self-defense trick Aunt Ruth taught me. The young man yelled out in pain and buckled to the ground.

  “One more time. Where are they?” I asked.

  “Ahh!” he cried out. “Captain Asher is bringing them to be tortured now.”

  “Tortured? The king said they were being questioned,” I said, alarmed.

  “That is his way. He—he does not like to call it that. They are down that hall there, and take a left. You will run right into the courtyard.”

  My stomach churned. “The courtyard? They are being taken to the courtyard?” I asked, picturing the horror of the place. “I guess that works.”

  He nodded.

  I released his hand slightly but still kept pressure on it. “Tell nobody. Understand?”

  The young man nodded. I let go of his hand and he recoiled.

  “What is your name?” I asked, pulling my sword out.

  “Lang.”

  “Lang, do you have any family here in the temple?”

  He nodded. “My wife works as a seamstress.”

  I leaned down. “Get your wife and run. Leave right now. Do you understand me?”

  Lang nodded frantically and scooted back on the floor away from me. I pulled my sword and ran toward the courtyard.

  “Down the hall and take a left,” I said aloud to myself. Just as I was about to make the turn, a group of yelling guards rushed by me.

  I let them pass, pressing my back to the wall. I needed to let the guard think that my friends were all secured in the courtyard, and then I would free them all with the ritual.

  I leaned over and saw the courtyard at the end of the hall. “Let’s do this,” I said under my breath.

  And just as I said it, someone grabbed my arm and pulled me into the room next to me. I spun to hit them with the sword handle when they grabbed my wrist. Then I saw the person’s face.

  “Jay!” I put my sword back in its scabbard on my back and hugged him so tightly I was certain I was hurting him.

  “Maddy!”

  Jason held me against his torn shirt. His hair was matted to his head, and his arms were scratched and dirty.

  “Maddy, thank god! I was so worried. I was so worried,” Jason rambled and kissed my forehead. He started to cry.

  “No, I am sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have told you. I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t you ever do that to me again! Do you understand? Do you know what was going through my head?” Jason held me by the shoulders and shouted. A lump rose in my throat.

  Keep it together, Madison.

  “You have to be quiet,” I whispered.

  He clenched his jaw and shook his head. Each tear washed the dirt from his tan skin as it descended down his tense face, making a striped pattern under his eyes.

  “Promise me that you will never do that again,” he said through gritted teeth.

  If he only knew what I had just been through. I crossed my arms and looked away. I didn’t need this right now.

  “Jason, stop. I need you to stop. Please, just be you. Please,” I begged with a shaky voice.

  “What?” Jason shook his head in confusion.

  “Please, be you. I need you to be you. I am so sorry I left, I am, but I need you to be Jason. I need you to be you.”

  Jason exhaled loudly and wiped his tears. He dropped his head forward and put his hands on his hips.

  “It’s hard. This is all really hard,” I said softly. Please, just let it go.

  He glanced at me for a moment. “You’re right. It’s okay. I didn’t mean to yell. Maddy, come here.” Jason took me in his arms again and his tone softened. I felt his body relax around me.

  Then he stepped back but held my arms with his large hands. “I am me,” he said.

  I nodded and took a deep breath as my eyes started to dry. “I can’t get through this without falling apart if you aren’t you. I need you to be you.”

  Jason nodded. “Okay. I’m right here. I’ve got you.”

  We hugged again, and I wiped my face vigorously. I took a long, slow, deep breath, just like Aunt Ruth taught me.

  Jason looked me over. “Maddy, your leg. What happened?”

  “Oh, that. No, I’m fine. I tripped,” I said, dismissing his concern. “Where is Ren? And Ara and Gullway?”

  “They were captured. I snuck in. It’s okay, though. That was our plan. The guards didn’t seem to care about me anyway. They just wanted the Magics,” Jason explained.

  “How is Ren?” I asked quietly.

  “Terrible, Maddy. He’s a wreck.”

  I rubbed my hand on the back of my neck. “I screwed up,” I admitted, meeting Jason’s eyes.

  “Are you―are you okay?” Jason asked.

  “No, but I want to be,” I replied. “Let’s go get our friends.”

  “Yes, let’s go.”

  “We should try to stay hidden.”

  “Yeah, we don’t want to run into your father,” Jason agreed. “Did you see him at all?”

  My lips parted to speak, and I froze for a moment. Do I tell him?

  “No, I didn’t,” I said.

  “Good. Let’s get out of here before evil Daddy Dearest finds us.” Jason threw his arm around me protectively.

  I don’t know what made me lie to Jason, but luckily, there wasn’t time to dwell on it. We heard more yelling in the hallway.

  “Madison! Madison!”

  “That’s Ren!” I whispered to Jason. I started for the door.

  “Wait! We can’t just run out there.” Jason pulled my elbow.

  “I have an idea.”

  Exhaling slowly, I slid my sword’s blade across my forearm and winced. The cut started to bleed and, lifting my arm, I smeared the blood on Jason’s forehead.

  “Oh, gah! Gross, Maddy!” he yelped and swatted at me.

  I ripped the collar of his shirt and put the point of my sword into his back.

  “What are you—”

  “Trust me?” I asked.

  “Always,” Jason said without turning around.

  I pushed him out into the hallway behind a group of guards pulling Ren down the hall. It took twice as many to drag Ren as to drag Ara. Ren was kicking violently as they carried him backward toward the courtyard.

  “Go!” I said in a low, gruff voice. Walking behind the group dragging Ren, I pushed Jason ahead of me. He raised his hands like a true prisoner as we walked down the marble-walled hall. Each noise echoed loudly around us.

  The was so much anger in Ren’s face. His eyes were wild and desperate, but he moved with such determi
nation. It took like eight guards to drag him down the hall, and they were struggling to keep him from breaking away. His face went from bewildered to a relieved smile as he saw Jason and me. He stopped thrashing around and let the guards carry him down the hall.

  I kept my stare locked on his. I couldn’t breathe as I watched Ren stare back at me, smiling.

  We entered the courtyard and my mouth fell open. I put my sword away. Lining the edge were nearly a hundred people, each more injured than the last. What I’d seen by standing in the doorway before hadn’t even begun to crack the surface of the dreadfulness that lay within.

  “Put them over there,” a guard ordered.

  I felt a wave of nausea hit me, and I felt weak. Was it the moaning bodies and the horror of the courtyard or the spell? I didn’t have to decide. It was like I was being pulled to the ground. My muscles stopped functioning. Now I knew it was the spell. Even though I was only half Witch, I felt it.

  “I might fall,” I whispered to Jason. He braced me the best he could without looking too obvious as the guard threw Ren down near Ara.

  Another guard struck Ren on the back, and Ren fell to his knees. Pain shot through my spine as he buckled forward. I could barely stand now.

  “Are you okay? Maddy, you have to stand, they’ll see you,” Jason said with barely parted lips.

  “I felt that. I felt Ren’s pain. How…” I didn’t finish my thought, but it didn’t matter right now. Nothing else mattered as the horror of the courtyard crept over me. Each anguished, twisted face stared vacantly at nothing. There was blood everywhere.

  “Come on! We are needed at the gate!” a guard shouted, and the group that had just brought in Ren filed out of the courtyard. Thankfully, they left me there. Just the Magics and my friends.

  I dropped to my knees in the grass.

  “Madison, I am so happy to see that you are all right,” Ara whispered. She didn’t seem affected. Not like me and Ren. I flopped to the ground. Across from me was a man with pale white hair. His face was covered in blisters, some broken and others crusted over. His lips were cracked and white like he had been baked in the sun.

  “It’s the spell, Madison. It is rendering you ill, just like the others, so you cannot move. We need to get you to the center of the courtyard to do the spell. I will go find your aunt,” Ara said.

  I nodded to her as best I could. But it wasn’t the spell—not entirely. It was more than I could handle. So much death and suffering, all at the hands of the man who was my father.

  “I need to talk to Ren,” I said.

  “What? Maddy, no. There’s no time.” Jason lifted me up, but I flopped like a wet noodle, unable to keep my legs locked.

  “Jason, please,” I said groggily. “Sinder’s vision might be right. I might not get out of here.”

  “That’s ridiculous. She was just messing with you. It’s all crap.”

  “No, it isn’t. It was him. The man from the vision. It was my father and the things he said.”

  “Maddy, you met him? You said you didn’t,” he said with narrowed eyes. “You lied?”

  “I lied. I didn’t know what to say. I met him and he was everything I wanted him to be, but at the same time he was nothing like I thought. But she was right. Sinder was right. I didn’t believe her at first, but it was him—the man in the room filled with the blood of the four bodies. It was him. And I came here, just like she said not to, and she was right. She said that if I walked into the temple, I wouldn’t walk out. I need to talk to Ren. Please, Jason, I just need to talk to Ren,” I begged. “I need to say good-bye.”

  I scanned the faces of the fallen and broken Magics. Each more distressed than the last.

  “My father did this. He did this,” I said softly.

  We reached Ren, who was only a few steps away. Ren didn’t say a word as Jason knelt down—not until I spoke.

  “Are you okay, Ren?” I asked. He was curled up on his side in the fetal position.

  “Madison,” he replied, lifting his head to see me. “Why is this happening? The spell―my father’s research said it would not affect me. I should not feel like this.”

  “I don’t think it’s the spell, dude. You took a beating when we got in here, Ren. Just take it easy,” Jason responded, gently laying a hand on Ren’s back. Ren nodded back at him. I smiled at their exchange, because if Sinder was right and I didn’t make it out of this temple, at least they would have each other. It was a morbid thought, but it gave me the comfort I needed to keep my composure for the time being.

  “If it makes you feel better, I feel it, too. Everything you are feeling, Ren.” I reached for his hand with mine. “I feel it, too.”

  A tear rolled down the side of his face. He closed his eyes and nodded.

  I wiped the tear from his face. “I think you have some of my magic. I didn’t mean to give it to you. I’m sorry. This is my fault. I bound us together somehow. I can feel things that you feel. It’s my fault you feel this way now. I’m so sorry.”

  “No, do not be sorry. I am glad, Maddy.” Ren opened his eyes.

  I scoffed. “You can’t be glad for this, Ren. Look at you. You can barely move because of me.”

  “True.” He forced a smile. “But I am glad.”

  “I need to ask you about the spell,” I said. “I put my blood on the sword?”

  Ren nodded as another tear rolled down his face. “Yes, and you put the sword into the ground.”

  I touched my lightning bolt earring, still clipped to the collar of his shirt, and smiled.

  “Guys, look!” Jason said. I turned to see Ara. She was seated about twenty feet away and holding someone in her arms.

  “Aunt Ruth.” I beamed.

  “Do you have the book?” Ren asked. “If you do the ritual now, the binds on the Magics here will break and they can get out on their own.”

  “No. I left the book with the guard that I knocked out and whose clothes I took. First room on the left. It is safe,” I replied. “Long story. But I don’t need it. I memorized it.”

  “Of course you did, you little overachiever.” Jason smiled. “Maddy, go. I’ll stay with him.”

  “As soon as I do the ritual, you need to get Ruth, Ren, and Ara and get out. And find Gullway. Get them back to Greenrock, okay?”

  Jason shifted. “What about you?” he asked. “Maddy, we’re all leaving together.”

  “No, we can’t, Jay. This place is crawling with guards. I am going to create a diversion. I will get the rest of the Magics out and I will―I will try to meet you in the caves. The grotto with the baby fae. But you heard Sinder. I won’t walk out of here. I need you to save them. Please. Promise?”

  “I am not leaving you here. You need me here, with you,” Jason stated simply as tears welled in his eyes. “You can’t even stand up.”

  I half smiled at him. “Do you know what the quickest way to get me to do something is?”

  I took a slow, calm breath and focused all my energy on moving.

  Then, slowly, I stood up.

  Jason nodded and sighed. “Tell you that you can’t.”

  I straightened my posture and took a few slow steps toward Ara. Every step got easier, but it was like I had just done a twelve-hour spin class. Ara was holding a ragged Ruth, who looked like a wreck. Her clothes were tattered, and her face was swollen and covered in blood.

  “Aunt Ruth.” Her name escaped my lips when I saw her. I wanted to go to her. I wanted to say a thousand things to her, tell her that all her training helped me and that she was the reason I made it this far, but there was no way I could. I didn’t have the energy to do that and break the spell. I would have to tell her after. The moans of the Magics grew louder, and then, all at once, things grew quiet. The Magics started to turn to look at me—the ones that were able to move, anyway.

  This ends now.

  I took a deep breath and walked to the middle of the courtyard. I pushed the hair out of my face that had cl
ung to my sweat. The spell made me feel like I was walking in mud with two broken legs. I pushed on, but my knee buckled with just a few steps to go and I fell to the ground.

  Jason jumped to his feet. I held my hand up and shook my head, trying hard not to show that I was in pain. Jason sat back down slowly, keeping his concerned eyes on me as he did.

  If Sinder was right, I wouldn’t be walking out of here. No reason for Jason to risk helping me now. I mouthed “Love you” to him. He smiled brightly and mouthed back “Eww.” We both smiled.

  Deep breath.

  “What are you doing? You know we are not to stay in the courtyard!” a guard yelled to me from the entryway as I knelt.

  Pulling a glove off, I tossed it on the ground and I slid my sword over my hand, keeping my sword hand gloved. Not sure how much blood was needed, I smeared my blood on the tip and up both sides of the blade toward the hilt.

  “Stop it!” The guard started to run to me. “You there! What are you doing?”

  I took a few deep breaths and gathered my strength.

  I carefully laid the blood-covered sword on the ground and stood as a guardsman charged me. Before he could even reach out to grab me, I swung my leg up and landed a kick, cracking right into his jaw. He flew to the side, dropped to the ground in a crumpled pile, and did not move.

  I fell back to my knees on the green grass, having exhausted my energy. But out of the corner of my good eye, I could see her sitting up now. Ruth. Her mouth was open, and it was the first time I could remember seeing her look at me like that.

  I pointed at her. “You. You taught me that,” I said tearfully.

  And I realized how much I loved her. Everything I was would be gone if I had grown up here. I owed Aunt Ruth everything. And after we get home, I intend to tell her just that.

  “Stop!” another guard yelled, but he wisely did not approach me.

  I picked up my sword. “Magic binds the Magics’ line to ’mid the temple doth confine―”

  “Stop!” another voice boomed. I ignored it.

  “Lanora!”

  I paused and looked up, my heart pounding now. In the doorway to the courtyard stood King Dax and Captain Asher. My father’s face was not angry like the rest, but sad and destroyed.