A Life Unexpected: Holly Nather Book One (Holly Nather Series) (28 page)

Not wasting a second, we follow Luke’s lead and storm into the castle. As expected, followers of the king and queen swarm us.
Great we just upset another ant bed
. My pulse quickens and my breathing becomes fast and uneven. We are definitely outnumbered. No one wastes any time, and the war begins. Taking advantage of their superiority in numbers, three Versipellis decide to swoop in on their prey—me. I am ready for them, though. With a swift image crossing my mind, I manage to throw one guy across the room. In the absence of his not-missed presence, I quickly change my focus to the other two guys who are now honed in on me and I successfully send them both into a nearby wall with force. I turn to the sound of running feet getting uncomfortably close and what feels like a body runs into me with full force. I hit a nearby table with a thundering crash, splinters stabbing into my bare arms. Everything is happening so fast I can’t keep up with my surroundings. However, I can clearly see Lana standing over me.

“Well, well, well if it’s not the mortal who got her fairytale.” She says while laughing. Without hesitation she starts shoving magic at me so fast I don’t have time to think. I am picked up and thrown hard against a wall, knocking the breath out of me.
I am so not prepared for this
. I roll around in pain trying to get my thoughts together so I can attempt to fight.

Lana laughs and says, “Has no one taught you to fight?” Lana picks me up and throws me down again without lifting a finger. “Why don’t you just give up? I am stronger than you and I could kill you right now!” She yells, then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, Queen Estella comes walking towards us. I. Am. Doomed.

“Lana, this is my fight.” The queen says with a crooked grin. I finally find my way to my feet and prepare myself for a fight. I don’t even know how to kill someone, but it can’t be too hard. I take a quick glance around the room. The ground is painted red with the blood of the lifeless Versipellis lying everywhere. My eyes nervously scan the room for Luke, but I can’t find him. What little bit of concentration I had is now down the drain. I
have
to find him. I start to leave and go find him, but I can’t move. Lana and the queen are laughing at me and are clearly satisfied by the spell they put on me.

I am trying to free myself, even trying to teleport somewhere else, but it’s not working.
Holly, you have to concentrate!
I start looking around the room as Lana and Luke’s mother debate on how to kill me slowly and painfully. I spot a large chandelier hanging above our heads.
Brilliant.
If I do this right, it will miss me completely.
I hope
. I set my focus on causing it to shake vigorously with the end result of falling on top of them.
Come on stupid thing, fall!
Lana and the queen look up to see where my eyes are fixed, and panic fills their eyes which breaks their concentration—freeing me from their grip. I start to run and as soon as I am out of the way; I send the chandelier crashing down on top of them.

I have to go find Luke. I don’t see him, but I can sense that he is near. As a matter of fact I don’t see Arlo, Mallory, Brody, Jett or Mason either. I quickly run outside, and the sight of death is over-whelming. I start to panic that Luke is hurt or dead, but then I find him in the garden kneeling beside an unnaturally still body. My pulse quickens as I scan those alive standing around them.
Jett, Mason, Mallory, and Arlo. OH NO, BRODY!

I quicken my pace as I make my way over to them and yell, “What is going on?”

Mallory is the first to answer and places her hand on my shoulder stopping me from getting too close. “Luke is trying save Brody.”

“King Lucas and him were fighting and he—” Arlo starts to explain what happened but is interrupted by an overload of emotions over-taking Luke, Jett, and Mason.

Luke is yelling and shaking Brody’s lifeless body on the ground. “Come on, don’t do this. You can’t die. Come on…wake up…DAMN IT, BRODY!”

Without warning, tears fill my eyes. I have so many mixed feelings about everything, and now Brody is dead. “Luke!” I yell, and he looks up at me, his eyes clouded with tears.

“He’s dead!” Luke yells with tears in his eyes as he stares at his lifeless friend. My heart sinks into my stomach, and I fall to my knees. I go to place my hand in Luke’s but he pulls away.

“WHERE DID HE GO?!?” Luke yells. His whole demeanor has changed. Luke has gone from rational to irrational in less than a second.

“Where did who go?” I ask trying to remain calm.

“My father.” He says with clenched teeth and his magic boiling so much I can feel the heat radiating from his body.

I place my hand on his shoulder trying to calm him down which is not working. “I don’t know….your mom and Lana are stuck inside. He may be in there trying to help them.” I didn’t even get out the last word before he is running to the castle entrance. We all take off after him. When we get inside Lana and the queen are dusting themselves off from all the debris. The king is standing there with them.

Luke’s expression tells me he is ready to fight over the death of his best friend. In the mindset he is in right now he won’t be content with inflicting minor wounds on his target. He is out for blood. Luke throws his hands in the air, and it sends all of us except him and his father up against the walls. We’re incapacitated, unable to move. We are all yelling at him to let us help him, but he doesn’t even glance at us. Instead, he silences us to where we can’t speak. Our mouths are moving, but no words are coming out.

Luke looks at his father and yells, “This is between you and me!” There is no sound in the room except for the sounds Luke’s footsteps make as he stalks predatorily towards his dad.

His dad throws up his hands in surrender and says, “Son, I’m sorry about your friend, but it is your fault. You know none of you had to do this.”

“I am
not
your son!” Each word that left Luke’s mouth was full of anger. Brody’s death has pushed Luke over the edge, and I feel sorry for the one who is responsible for it. Focusing his attention on his father, Luke pins his father to the ground. His dad starts convulsing and tries to speak but can’t. The king is in obvious pain. I close my eyes because I can’t watch him torture his father. I want to scream and tell him to stop, that he isn’t thinking clearly, but not a word can escape from my lips.

While inflicting more pain on his father, Luke yells, “I will not stop unless you give your word that you will stop all of this! Stop all of your evil plans! Step down from the throne; you don’t deserve to be called king.” I open my eyes. The King is nodding his head trying to agree with Luke, but he is in so much pain he can’t say anything. Luke eases up a bit so his dad can speak.

“I promise. Your mother and I will leave, and you will never see us again. Just let me live, please!” His father begs.

Luke looks to Mallory. “Mallory, is he telling the truth?”

Mallory looks at the king and searches deep into his soul. After a significant amount of time, she looks at Luke and shakes her head no. Luke falls to his knees as he lets his magic go.
Why is he letting his magic go!
Mason and Jett free themselves from the hold Luke had on them. They must have sensed the magic the king is brewing, because they are at Luke’s side in an instant. I am unsuccessful at breaking the hold Luke has on me, and I fear what I am about to see.

Luke is emotionally defeated and has given up fighting. His father is about to do something and by the look on Mason and Jett’s faces they know who this
something
is targeted towards—Luke. I am screaming with no sound coming out of my mouth and trying to push myself from the wall. Luke’s father is about to take his own son’s life! Tears are streaming down my face, and I close my eyes because I can’t watch this fight. After a while, everything falls silent after what seemed an eternity of cringe-worthy, fight-related sounds.

When I feel Luke’s spell break, and I can freely move, I open my eyes to see Luke’s mom, dad, Lana and her parents lying dead on the floor. I gasp and place my trembling hand over my mouth. Luke runs over to me and wraps me in his arms.

Whispering in my ear he says, “It’s over Holly. We are safe now.” He wipes the tears falling down my cheeks and tries to force a smile on his face.

“Luke, don’t try to pretend like you are okay! This is not okay! So many have lost their lives today!” Any calmness I had is now gone, and I am yelling at him. Luke hangs his head, and a few tears find their way down his cheeks.

“I never said any of this was okay! You knew this had to happen!” Luke runs his hands through his hair. The few tears falling from his eyes have multiplied. I look to see if we have an audience, but the only others in here are dead. I suddenly feel ill. I bury my head into Luke’s chest, and he wraps me tighter in his arms as I cry.

“Holly, I’m so sorry you had to see all of this. I am so sorry.” Luke says in a whisper.

Pulling my head from his chest I say, “Did you kill them?”

“My parents, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“No. Mason and Jett did. My dad was about to kill me, and in that moment I would have let him. I lost any fight I had left in me. When Mallory confirmed that my dad was lying, I lost it emotionally. I just hoped that there would have been a change of heart. My mom and Lana and her parents tried to stop Mason and Jett when Arlo stepped in. This is something that will never seem okay but what happened was inevitable. More lives would have been lost if those five were still alive.”

“But, it was your parents!” I yell.

“Holly, I have not considered them my parents for a long,
long
time. None of us wanted it to come to this, but it did.” Looking around the room Luke takes a deep breath and lets it out. I bury my head in his chest again and listen to his heartbeat. Luke moves my hair out of the way and whispers in my ear, “I am so relieved that you are okay.”

“SHOULD WE GO
find everyone?” I ask Luke.

“Probably. I have to get in touch with Brody’s parents.” Luke says as he takes my hand, and we walk outside. When we get outside, I see that everyone has started cleaning up.

“What are we supposed to do with all of them?” I ask while getting nauseous at the sight of blood and dead bodies.

“There families will be contacted so the bodies can be claimed. It will be long cleanup process.” Luke says sounding exhausted and defeated. Normally, he tries to act so hard, like nothing bothers him, but not now. I feel so bad for him.

Arlo walks over to me and Luke and says, “I’m sorry for all that has happened. I guess I’m going to go ahead and leave. But before I go, I have to ask—does this mean we are all free now?”

“Yes, but I will make the announcement later this week. We need to let families be with each other right now.” Luke says while trying to smile.

“I understand, and thank you, my King.” Arlo says and smiles. He starts to walk away, but Luke stops him. “Arlo?”

“Yes?”

“Would you like to come be part of the staff here? I could really use your help.” Wow. Maybe they are going to get along after all, and Luke will find it in him to forgive him.

“It would be an honor.” Arlo says with a smile and then walks away.

I see Mallory sitting down on the steps to the front door. I promised her I would help her find her parents, but I don’t know anything about the prison or anything here. I will have to get Luke to help us.

“Mallory, as soon as Luke notifies Brody’s parents of his death, I promise, we will find out where your parents are, okay?”

“Thank you, and I‘m so sorry about Brody.” She says while placing her hand comfortingly on my arm.

When Brody’s parents show up, Luke goes to meet them at the gate and to tell them what happened. Brody’s mother falls to the ground sobbing while Brody’s dad tries to comfort her and also cry over the loss of his dear son.

Luke and Brody’s parents come walking towards me. Mallory and I stand up to greet them. Brody’s mom is still crying but not as hard as she was a little bit ago. Her husband’s eyes are all red and puffy from crying, but somehow he is able to work up a smile as we greet each other. The resemblance Brody had shared with his father was uncanny.