A Life Unexpected: Holly Nather Book One (Holly Nather Series) (21 page)

LUKE

BREATHE. LUKE, YOU
have to breathe. I am concentrating on every breath I take while I prepare myself to go after her. I use the wall as support and lean against it while I gather my thoughts.
What just happened? How could I be so stupid?
I start pacing around the room, trying to contemplate my next move.

“UGHHHH!” I yell as I send a chair hurling towards the wall. I run my hands through my hair and look at the spot where Holly was just a moment ago. I start to go after her but stop when the door flies open.

“What is your problem?” I say through clenched teeth. Brody is looking around the room with skeptical eyes and then back at me.

“Maybe I should ask what
your
problem is.” Brody says as his eyes once again scan the room that is in complete disarray.

I lean against the wall and slide down to a sitting position. I run my hands over my face trying to make sense of all this. “Have you forgotten how to knock?”

“I knew it was just you in here because I could not sense other magic. I’m not used to you having a girl in your room. I’ve always just walked in.” I close my eyes as Brody speaks—wishing he would leave.

“Holly left. I told her the truth about everything.” I wiped a tear from my eye before it could escape and roll down my cheek. I am not one to normally show emotions.

Brody hangs his head and shakes it. “I told you that you should have told her sooner.”

“Brody, she has no control over her magic. Who knows where she went! I know I could trace her magic and find her, but I don’t know if that will just make her more upset.”

Brody puts his hands in his pockets and looks down at me. “You have to let her go and let her think about all of this on her own.”

I know he is right. I want to argue, but there is nothing to argue about. “I know.”

“Luke, she will be fine. If it will make you feel better, we can go to where she is, stay hidden and watch her every move. If something goes wrong, we can step in and help.”

I am about to agree with him and tell him that is a brilliant idea, but I know Holly would be mad if I did that. “She would be even more upset if she thought I didn’t trust her to go out on her own.”

“I will do it then. I will make sure she stays safe. You need to be here anyway. You need to figure out what
you
are going to do now. Once your parents find out she left, they are going to send someone out to get her. You will need to come up with a story, so your parents leave her alone.” I did not think about that. I should be the one to protect Holly, but I know Brody is right. I need to be here keeping anyone from going after her while he watches over her.

“You send me a message the second something seems off.” This is my entire fault, and I hate myself for it.

“You know I will. First thing we need to do is lock the gateway from here to Earth.”

“My parents will know we did it.”

“So what? Their son is about to go against them—possibly kill them for what is right. Do you honestly care?”

I shake my head. “Where are Jett and Mason?” I ask while standing up.

“At home I guess. Do you want to send a message or me?”

“I’ll do it. You cause enough headaches.” I hate doing this, but sometimes it is the quickest way to send urgent messages. I hate when messages are sent to me via brain—it hurts like hell. “They should be here in a minute. I told them to meet us at the gate.”

“I know you probably don’t want to hear this right now, but Luci and I worked things out.” A smile creeps onto Brody’s face. I knew he seemed happier.
Especially
when he offered to protect Holly.

“That’s great.” I force a smile on my face. I am happy for him. He gave up a life here to come with me to Earth—even though I told him not to. “So when is the big day?”

“Whenever the fight is over. I didn’t tell her about our plans for war, though.” He is as bad as me about keeping secrets.

“You should take your own advice.” I say as I find a pair of shoes and put them on.

Brody shrugs his shoulders. “I didn’t tell her because there is no reason to have her worry.”

“Yea, you see where that got me.” Changing the subject, I say, “Let’s go lock the gateway. The sooner you can get to Holly the better. Plus, I need to be here to stop anyone from going after her.”

Looking around the room, Brody laughs and says, “If you don’t want anyone suspecting anything, you might want to set this room back to normal.”

With the wave of my hand, the room looks as if nothing happened. Before we leave the room, I look at the bed that is now perfectly made. Brody sees where my eyes are fixed. “Luke. She will come back.”

I garner my thoughts and put on an emotionless expression—as if none of this happened. I don’t want to leave, just in case Holly decides to return. I want to be right here waiting. To keep her and the place she once called home safe, there are things I need to do. I tell Brody I’ll be out in minute and quickly write a letter to Holly. I place it on the bed and use my magic to make it for
her
eyes only. She will be the only one who can see this.

Holly,

I can never express how truly sorry I am. I wanted to come after you
right away, but I know you need time alone to think. There are things I need to do to protect you and the place you once called home. The guys and I are going to lock the gateway, not even my parents will be able to pass through it. I am forming a plan against my parents. I am going to create peace in Terre if it is the last thing I do. I should have told you everything, and I’m sorry I did not. If you get this letter, it will bring you to where I am only if you want it to. I love you.

Luke

I put my hand on the door knob and am about to exit the room, when I realize I’m being stupid. I can’t be seen right now. I close my eyes and teleport myself to the front gate. I see the guys talking to the guards.

“I imagine those two won’t—” The guard stops talking when he sees me. “Prince Luke, I didn’t expect to see you out of the room for the rest of the day!” He and the other guard start laughing.

“
Trust me,
I would rather be upstairs with my wife, but I have some things I need to take care of.” I do my best to put a smile on my face. I look at the guys and nod my head, letting them know I’m ready. We walk far enough that we are no longer in the guards’ sight.

Jett is moving his head and eyes in every direction. He is nervous and has every reason to be. Looking at me, he says, “Do you know where it is?” I hear him ask the question, but my mind is too focused on Holly to answer.

Brody answers for me. “Yes he does.”

Temporarily taking my mind off the only thing that matters to me, I say, “We can only teleport there. You guys ready?” They all agree that they are, so I close my eyes, hoping no one has beaten us there.

“Have you ever seen anything like it?” Mason asks in awe of the gateway. I couldn’t care less what it looks like. I loathe this gateway to Earth. It is only a sign of destruction in my opinion. I roll my eyes—a habit I seem to have picked up from Holly, which is adorable when she does it. I sigh out loud at the thought of her. I run my hands through my hair, focusing my attention on the annoying region of space in front of me. It is so incredibly dense that not even light could escape from the surface. In other words, a black hole.

Jett looks at the gateway. “Why don’t we just destroy it?” I give Jett an evil look for proving the fact that he did not listen to me earlier when I explained that only Holly
and
I could destroy it, since we created it. He slumps his shoulders. “It seems strange that it even worked. Holly was one of us when you got married.”

Now I want to punch him for proving yet again that he does not pay attention. I have explained this to all of them a million times. “Holly is more mortal than Versipellis until her magic reaches its full potential. Besides, every bit of research I did states that as long as she was born mortal, it would work. I have already explained this to you.”

“Have you told her yet about Gaia?” I want to pretend I don’t know what Brody is talking about. I give him a sour look for bringing it up.

“She left before I could.” I feel my stomach twist into knots and blood rush to my face. Remembering that Holly is destined for another world makes me sick. I feel trapped in my own stupidity. How could I have kept these things form her? I just hope that somehow her being in Terre, married to me, and now having Versipellis magic, Gaia won’t try to claim her as its own. I am going to have to tell her at some point though.

Brody interrupts my inner drama, saving me from an almost-meltdown at the thought of Holly choosing Gaia. “We should probably lock this thing up and get out of here before someone sees us. Plus, you need to get back to the Castle before anyone realizes you and Holly are gone.” I nod and we all join together to lock the gateway between Terre and Earth.

HOLLY

WHEN I OPEN
my eyes, I am shocked that I actually teleported myself. I am somewhere with nothing but trees and grass. I can hear water running. I sit down, because I am so numb from everything that has happened in the last few days.

I wonder if I can put a protection thingy around me like the guys could. I don’t want anyone to find me. They didn’t say anything special; they just concentrated. That can’t be too hard. Walking over to a huge tree, I lean up against it, close my eyes, and put my fingers to my temples. I start concentrating really hard on being protected from everything around me, to be invisible. Nothing seems to be happening. It sure would be nice if some glitter, a puff of smoke, or
something
would fall from the sky to show me I am at least doing it right. To my disappointment, there is nothing. I guess only time will tell. I could really use a book or a class on
Versipellis Magic 101 for Dummies
.

As I am walking, the sound of running water grows gradually louder. There is no way that is a river. As I walk out past a few trees, a huge waterfall comes into view.

Tapping my chin with my finger and looking around, I try to think about a tent, a sleeping bag, and all the necessities I need to survive out here. Instead of a tent that I could sleep in, a tent the size of a Barbie appears. I laugh out loud. Sooo not going to fit in that! Maybe I should concentrate on size while I think about everything I need. Yeah…that didn’t work either. Now there is a huge tent fighting for room with the trees and nearly in the water! I start imagining something I can fit in, and when I open my eyes, the tent is shrinking to a normal size. I walk over to see if anything is inside, and lo and behold—there is nothing. I start to concentrate again, but this time I feel strange. I feel like there is lava boiling from my fingers down to my toes. I am about to jump in the water from the fear that I am about to burst into flames when I hear footsteps.

“Hello?” I jump as I hear the feminine voice. I turn around to see a girl about my age, well, my age on Earth. She is petite like me. She has red hair that goes just below her chin, and her eyes are the color of amber. She smiles at me.

“Who are you?” I ask, while simultaneously trying to deal with a hot flash from hell.

Laughing a little she says, “My name is Mallory. I’m sorry if I startled you. Are you okay? What is your name?” I am not sure it is a good idea to announce that I am the Princess of Terre right now. I am sure it’s been known that the new princess’s name is Holly, so a fake name would probably be best. Just to be safe. Also, until I get this feeling of being on fire to go away, I don’t really feel like having a conversation.

“Be right back.” I say as I take off for the cold water. I jump in and swim around for a bit. After I feel some relief, I get out and walk over to this girl with red hair, whose name is Mallory. I can tell that she wants to say something, but she doesn’t.

I start ringing out my wet hair and say, “That’s better. And my name…” I almost tell her my name, but then I stop. I probably shouldn’t announce who I am just yet.