by Lina Jubilee
Screams rang out across the library.
“Come on!” shouted the librarian, an older Natch woman whose abilities escaped me. “Go!”
“Let us retreat,” said Rio, moving to grab me and carry me as he had when we’d saved that girl from drowning.
“No,” I said, putting a hand on his chest firmly as the wave of students pushed past us. My eyes were scanning the crowd, looking for Derek and Rajani—but they were nowhere to be found. Not even Sheila was among them. They must have left the library before all this.
Rio frowned, and I looked into his eyes, all awkwardness I felt around him forgotten. “I need to find my friends.”
Nodding, he gestured in front of him, offering to pick me up once more.
“Bryony. Your Highness,” said Professor Kouta as he realized whom I was standing with. “Come on.” We were the last students still lingering on this side of the library.
“What’s going on?” I asked, spinning on the professor. He shook his head, his eyes meeting Professor Chastity’s over at the doorway.
“Just follow the other students to the tornado shelter,” he said, typing into the comm on his wrist.
“That’s no tornado,” I started, but Rio had me in his arms once more, tucking my head against his chest as he zipped us through the library. We moved around Professor Chastity in the open library doors before she could so much as blink, down the hall and to the doors leading to the backyard.
My hair still ruffled in the air as if being blown by the wind as Rio lowered me to my feet.
“I apologize,” he said. “But I thought you would prefer not to stand there arguing with either of them.”
I leaned up on my tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “You thought right.”
He got the door for me and I rushed through, though that was laughable, considering the speed of the man beside me.
“Yes,” he said as I went through.
“Yes?” I said, looking over my shoulder as he followed me.
“Yes, I will gladly follow you anywhere. On your beach trip and beyond.”
My chest tightened as my skin flushed. This hardly seemed the time. “Rio, I invited everyone.”
“I know.” The corner of his lip twitched. “We all do. We all agree that it’s up to you which, if any, of us you wed. Were it not for our families—”
But whatever he might have said next was cut short as the portal, about twenty yards away, kicked up, another crack of light shooting outward and toward the school.
I’d never seen a portal act that way before.
“What are you doing here?!”
Turning, I found Mom running toward me, her Veras team suit on.
I ignored Mom’s question. “What’s going on?”
Mom spared a glance toward Rio and put a firm hand on my arm. Around us, incomprehensible conversations carried over the wind as Dad Jayden and Pop Nash conferred with Professor Wade. They were all suited up, their form-fitting navy battle suits acting like a second skin.
Like they’d been anticipating some kind of attack. Or they’d been in the middle of one.
“Did you come through the portal?” I asked.
Mom nodded. “Please, get inside! Both of you!”
I yanked my arm out of her grip. “I’m not a little kid, Mom! Tell me what’s going on!”
Mom blinked in the crackling light of the fritzing portal, her hair blown across her face. “Please. Just go inside.” Her voice was breaking.
I opened my mouth to speak when the portal made a cracking, sizzling sound again. And through it stepped two figures. Princes Zeke and Trey.
“How…?” I asked, my gaze flicking to both my mom and Prince Rio.
Connak stumbled out after them, leaning on the shoulder of Normak, his father, clutching his side, as if he’d been wounded.
And then out stepped Derek.
I took off toward the growing crowd stumbling out of the portal, my fists out in front of me, ready to protect anyone from another snap of light from the wonky portal.
But just as I neared it—after I felt a whoosh of air and saw Rio appear beside his friends before I was even halfway there—with a crack louder than any of the ones that had appeared before, the portal was gone, collapsed into itself.
The air rang out with the slight hiss left behind from the portal’s presence, which soon reverberated into nothing but the chirps of crickets in the twilight.
The others approached, their feet rusting the grass.
“Bryony,” snapped Dad Jayden. “You’re all right?”
My eyebrow quirked. “Why wouldn’t I be? What happened?” I looked to the princes for answers, instead settling on Derek.
Derek would tell me. Even if no one else could be counted on, he could.
Derek grimaced. “They took Rajani.”
Chapter Nineteen
The Academy’s power restored, I sat with almost all of the Veras Academy staff plus Derek and the princes and their guards in a classroom turned hastily into a war room of sorts.
The few staff missing were attending to the other students, particularly the youngest ones.
Almost no one had gotten hurt when the abnormal portal had appeared. No one except Connak—and probably Rajani.
My limbs were shaking even as I sat still, my mind racing for this meeting to be over with, just so I could get out there and do something, be useful.
Derek rested a hand on my thigh on one side, Zeke on the other. Their eyes met across the top of me and instead of their faces contorting into any sign of jealousy, Derek simply swallowed and Zeke nodded, some kind of unspoken understanding passing between them. Neither moved his hand, and their warm, comforting presences made my limbs still as I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves.
Connak was in the infirmary being treated by Professor Wade while his father stood at the head of the classroom conferring with Dad Jayden. At last, Dad Jayden turned to the rest of us.
“Rajani Hunjan was taken to Nelia by a rogue group of Nelians still acting in support of Xerxes.” The door to the classroom burst open and Daddy Alarik and Papa Zander rushed in, Papa’s eyes scanning the classroom until he found mine.
“You okay, pumpkin?” he asked in my mind.
I didn’t have the heart to respond in words. This fugitive had taken my best friend.
Roulette bounced on her feet in the front of the classroom beside my mom. “That fucker was on Nelia all along then?”
Papa Zander turned to her. “We finally caught up to the ‘Xerxes’ who’s been caught on camera making his way across the country.” The way he said the fugitive’s name, like it left nothing but distaste in his mouth, put me on high alert. “It was a Natch who could shapeshift. He was hired by the senator who organized Xerxes’ breakout.”
Daddy Alarik grimaced. “We’ve had a rather productive talk with Senator Nelson. Appropriate punishments are in place, and rest assured, any scandal he was attempting to prevent is now at great risk of being leaked regardless. It turns out he’d been sending trusted aides to try to talk to the man—try to find weaknesses in my armor, so to speak. Instead, the fools got commanded to spill their secrets, and Xerxes manipulated the situation to his advantage.”
It was all well and good to know that Veras and the Renegades had been hard at work pinpointing the why and the how the fugitive had made his escape, but right now, I couldn’t have cared less if the U.S. President herself had sprung him loose. I wanted to know what had happened to my friend.
“Why did they take Rajani?” I asked loudly.
The entire room turned to me, my dads exchanging a silent conversation between them. But I knew Zander could only talk to Jayden among them telepathically.
“They were looking for you,” said Pop Nash, the only one of my dads who could understand the urgency I felt in the situation, the need to act without thinking every little detail through. “Xerxes went to jail knowing Aurora was pregnant, and with you all over the news as of late—I guess he got
it into his head to take our kids.”
I tensed and Zeke rubbed a palm against my back. “Sage?” I asked.
My dads looked at one another, and Mom stepped forward.
“He’s safe,” she said. “Your aunt and uncles are keeping a careful eye on him and Lacey. Alanna could very easily be a target of Xerxes, too.”
Normak spoke next, his mouth in a grim line. “The Nelians who assisted Xerxes more than twenty years ago… We thought them rehabilitated. As a people, we were not used to this kind of…”
“Treachery,” Daddy Alarik finished for him.
“Crime of any sort. We fought the wild boars, not each other.” Normak swallowed.
“But you did fight the human population,” muttered Roulette beside him. No one commented on it.
“Xerxes made his way here and found my son with the Natch girl,” explained Normak. “He saw Connak in the footage of Princess Bryony on her dates, apparently, and he demanded to know where she was.”
“Long story short,” Nash said, cutting in, “we popped in from our own Nelian portal, not too far from his. The two portals kind of collapsed into each other?” He looked to Dad Jayden for confirmation and the Veras team leader nodded. “Causing all that wild reaction. They led to different points on Nelia, but they both came here.”
“We stepped through,” said Mom, “but Xerxes acted fast, grabbing Rajani as a hostage. He took her through the portal and the princes followed—”
Zeke’s hand stopped moving across my back and I turned to him. “How were you two there?” Some of their bodyguards hugged the wall behind them. “Without your guards?”
Zeke and Trey, both in workout clothes like Rio, were covered in bits of dirt, light scratches from branches or something of the sort dotting their shapely biceps and chiseled cheeks.
Beside me, Derek squeezed my thigh. “I ran into them in the hall after you left to take your test.”
“We had a talk,” said Zeke, his accent making the simple sentence seem far more menacing than it was.
Prince Trey sat up straighter in his seat, his features softening. “We wanted to know what he thought about your idea of us tagging along with you on spring break.”
“And whether he would count himself among your suitors,” finished Zeke.
My face flushed as I avoided the stares of everyone in the room—including all of my parents. Roulette made a soft little gasp, though, her head cocking. I wondered what she thought of her son being asked by a couple of princes if he wanted to date me. I wondered if her mind jumped immediately to the type of love my own parents shared and what she’d think of her child being in such a relationship.
As if I would never make up my mind.
“In any case,” said Derek, pushing his glasses up his nose with his free hand. “We were near the door to the yard when the portals started crackling. We didn’t think much of the first portal at first, didn’t realize who’d stepped through—”
“But then we heard the screams and the lights went out,” said Trey. “We ran out to help. Saw your friend being carried away.”
“Trey yelled out for him to stop,” added Zeke, “but the bastard had already gone through the portal by then. Instead, all he succeeded in doing was making the rest of us stand still in our places.”
Trey directed a burning stare toward Zeke, his lips mumbling something I couldn’t quite hear. Maybe the princes weren’t as well-trained in combat as Veras Academy students. I could hardly blame him. We’d had a pretty peaceful few decades.
“I headed after them to follow them through,” said Trey, “after releasing everyone from my command. Zeke and Derek caught up to me. When we made it through and we found him and a few others.” He nodded toward Normak.
“The prince commanded us to halt,” said Normak, eyeing him suspiciously. “We couldn’t move. My comrade and I kept the portal open. My son stumbled in after and explained the situation, and the prince let us go.”
“We weren’t in the same portal that asshole had gone through,” said Derek, squeezing his hand into a fist. “This was the portal Veras had used to get back—unaware of the situation. It had collapsed into Xerxes’.”
“My other comrade took over keeping the portal open so I could attend to my son,” said Normak. “And we came through to find the king.”
“We couldn’t save her,” whispered Derek. “We didn’t even know where she was.”
“It’s just as well,” said Dad Jayden. “We wouldn’t want our students and our guests to put themselves in danger.”
“Rajani is our friend,” I said, referring to Derek and myself. I sent a grateful glance toward Zeke and Trey for putting themselves at risk, too.
“Which is why you’ll just put yourselves in greater danger,” said Dad Jayden on the field. “Bryony, you’re his target. I need you especially to stay out of this one.”
I slammed my fists on the desk in front of me. “Rajani is only in danger because of me!”
Mom crossed the room and stood in front of my desk. “All you’re demonstrating right now is that you’re not in the right headspace to go rescue her.”
Glaring at Mom, I leaned back into my chair with a huff.
“Which is why you, Derek, and our visiting princes”—Mom looked to those she named in turn—“are all going to join your brother at your aunt’s house on Earth.”
“What?” I snapped. “Mom, you all said it yourselves—Aunt Alanna’s a target. And around her, we’ll be sitting ducks—”
Mom held up a hand. “Alanna is participating in this mission to catch Xerxes once and for all,” she said, her voice clipped.
“But then you’ll—”
“Bryony, you don’t need to know the details. You just need to be safe. I know you’re all adults, but you’re young yet—inexperienced.” She shot Trey an especially harsh look at that. “This is our fight.”
I bit back a comment about how I doubted she’d ever agreed to step aside when her loved ones had been in danger at my age. Mom had joined Veras at eighteen, before there had been an Academy. They’d just been a small group of Natches trying to make the world a better place for our kind and Typicals alike.
Mom leaned down and put a hand on my shoulder. “Please, Bryony. Just promise me you’ll stay safe.”
That much I could promise. So long as she didn’t know all of the details of how I planned to do so.
Aunt Alanna and her husbands lived in a cozy, four-bedroom house outside of town, with plenty of acreage to both keep the outside world away and to keep Alanna well out of the range of any passing Natches who hadn’t signed up for a training session without their abilities.
Not that my aunt stayed a hermit entirely. She had to get out and stretch her wings on occasion, confused Natches and strange looks turned her way be damned.
I wished she were here right now, even if I knew how foolish that was. With her gone, all the Natches around me still had their powers, and they’d need them if things went according to plan.
Because I’d spent the night at my aunt’s, curled up on a spare bed next to Derek, and my parents had yet to give me an update. We’d changed into Alanna’s and my uncles’ workout clothes, each of us managing to find something that fit, and we were tired of just sitting here, twiddling our thumbs.
I’d tried it their way. Now it was morning, and we were trying it my way.
“You want to be bait?” asked Zeke, his Kiwi accent making it especially clear he thought the idea ridiculous.
“Shh!” I said, looking over my shoulder to see if my two remaining uncles who’d stayed behind had heard me. Caspian was outside the front door, talking to one of the prince’s bodyguards. Without Alanna around, his skin was rock-hard, his ability always “on,” so to speak, though his handsome features were distinguishable through any element he hardened his skin into. Bo was down the hall, in his sister’s room, tending to her. With Alanna gone, her abilities were back, which meant she had to literally hold herself together and experience
pain all the while.
She’d gotten more used to it since she’d been afflicted with her ability all her life. But it still involved resting often. Renegade contacts had been called in to help guard the students left behind at the Academy, taking over where Lacey might have been tasked to help. Sage had insisted his fiancée stay with him.
Here. In this quiet house. Where everyone inside was of help to no one.
“No,” said Rio in his clipped tone. “We are not putting you in danger like that.”
Derek frowned. “What if it was someone you cared about who’d been taken? What if Bryony herself was already taken by that criminal?”
“We’d do whatever it took to find her,” said Trey. He sighed and leaned back on the couch. “All right. What do you have in mind?”
“Trey,” said Rio.
“She’s a fighter,” said Trey, taking a deep breath and then slowly smiling at me. “Not a damsel. And that’s why we love her.”
“Agreed,” said Zeke.
I couldn’t believe that it was just two days ago that the princes had all proposed to me and I’d felt too awkward around them to even face them again.
Now I only felt like I could do this because I had all four of them here. I took Derek’s hand and Trey’s in mine, giving them both a squeeze. “Rio?”
Sighing, he kicked off from the wall he was leaning against and sat down on the couch beside Trey. “I will not let you do this without me.”
“We can’t get to Nelia without a portal,” I said, relieved to have them all on board and without a moment to waste. “So we have to make the news.”
“What?” asked Zeke, clearly disbelieving. “Make the news and have your parents and our bodyguards on our asses long before some mad elf criminal shows up? Blimey.”
“And speaking of,” added Rio. “How are we to get anywhere without our guards knowing? They will never agree to such a plan. They serve our parents first before us—protecting us comes before following our orders.”
Drat. There really were few options at this point, weren’t there?
