Never Let You Fall (The Prophecy of Tyalbrook) (16 page)

“You’ll be fine, Skye. I’ll keep watch.”

“I need you, please. I’m not scared but I hate the nightmares I keep having, and when you’re by my side I seem to sleep better,” I finished on a whisper.

I watched as a multitude of emotions played over his face. He finally sighed and pulled me in for a hug.

“Okay,” he relented. “I’ll be out in a minute, and then we’ll talk.”

He kissed the top of my head and released me. While I waited for Xander to finish in the shower, I snuggled up in the large bed. I lay there, staring as the flames licked at the large logs Xander had placed in the fireplace.

My eyes got heavier and heavier until I finally closed them and fell asleep.

THIRTEEN - EVERYTHING CHANGES

Skye

“I’m gonna win!” I laughed over my shoulder as I ran down the street.

“Oh, no you won’t!” he yelled, laughing back at me and making stomping sounds right at my heels.

I laughed, and then screamed in terror as he started to catch up to me. I dropped my backpack - because I knew he would pick it up - so I could run faster. The joy on my face proved that the screams were just for show.

I heard his laughter and looked behind me to see him swoop down and pick up my backpack in one swift movement. He never stopped running. Just when I thought I would make it around the last house before he did, I tripped. I landed on my knees and thrust my arms out to break my fall.

“Skye!” he called out, as he jogged up to me with concern in his voice. “You okay?”

I looked up at him, wiping my scratched up palms on my pant legs, and declared, “I was winning when I fell!”

He laughed as he started to sit on the grass beside me. His face was a silhouette in the setting sun as he leaned over me.

Suddenly he pulled up, snapping his head toward the house.

“What is that?” he mumbled to himself, and held his hand out to help me up.

“Hang on, Skye.”

He slowly walked around the corner of the neighbor’s house and peered around the bushes.

“Oh no!”

Quickly dropping our backpacks, he grabbed me and hid me beside him.

I tried to peek around him and the bushes, but he pushed me back. The air was ripe with the smell of smoke.

“Stay here and be super quiet,” he said as he walked closer to the house.

I bit down on my sweater sleeve to keep myself from crying out. I could hear screams coming from inside the house. My house. The shatter of glass sounded as a fireball sailed out of the kitchen window.

“Skye! RUUNNNN!”

I stood up and stepped out of the cover of the bushes, and suddenly he was beside me.

“Listen, Skye - you have to run. Go to our hiding spot at the park and don’t stop for anything. I’ll come and get you when it’s safe, I promise! Run, now GO!”

He grasped my arms, turned me towards the park and pushed me to go.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the house was beginning to glow now from the fire. I noticed a smoky-looking man run out of the house, being followed by someone. The sound of metal scraping metal pulled me back to the boy who was still talking to me.

“I will
never
let you fall, remember!” he pleaded. I shook my head while the tears streamed down my face.

“Run!” he shouted one last time as he ran towards the house.

The boy turned at the door to the house and looked for me. Flames lit up his face for just a moment, but all I could see were his bright blue eyes as they stared at me. The flames leapt out of a front window, and I belatedly noticed that the black figure and whomever was chasing him were now gone. The boy stepped into the front door and was swallowed by the fire…

“No!” I cried as I sat up. “There’s a fire!” The crackling sound and acrid smell of a fire still filled my senses.

“Skye! Skye, it’s okay! It’s just the fireplace,” I heard Xander call, as I rubbed the sleep from my blurry eyes. The edge of the bed sank down as he sat beside me. He leaned down, holding my face in his hands, and looked into my eyes.

“It’s just the fireplace, baby. It’s okay,” he reassured me. I couldn’t stop hyperventilating as I stared into his eyes.

“No! The fire - he walked right into it! He told me to run, and he walked into it…!” I raged hysterically; trying to remember my nightmare.

“Did I have a brother, Xander? I think it was my brother. Oh. My. God. Why can’t I remember?” I cried, falling into his chest. “Who was he?”

“Shhhh,” Xander soothed, stroking my hair. “Don’t worry right now. You’re safe.”

“I know I’m safe!” I shot back at him as I sat up. “Damn it! I want to remember my family, Xander! I loved him. The boy in my dreams, we were racing and then we came upon the house and he…”

I frowned as the memories came back. There was something very familiar about the way he had abruptly stopped and listened at my house. I tried to figure out how he had seemed to know that something bad was happening. Even before we could see it.

“Xander, did I have a brother?” I asked him clearly, knowing he would tell me.

“No, Skye, you didn’t have a brother. You’re tired – why don’t you lay down and rest, and we can talk about this in the morning.”

“I don’t want to rest! Why am I having these dreams all of a sudden? Ever since you came into my life, I keep dreaming of my parents’ death.”

Why is that? I thought to myself, as I scooted back and leaned against the cushioned headboard. Why were my dreams so vivid all of a sudden? I closed my eyes in an attempt to recall every moment before it flitted away again.

“Oh,” I breathed aloud, as a vision floated behind my eyelids.

In my remembered dream, I saw one of the Semvon running out of the house with someone chasing him. Rioden! It was Rioden chasing him out. That would explain the metal sound I’d heard; it was his sword.

What happened to the boy?

I glanced over at Xander as he sat on the edge of the bed; his face a mask of worry - or something else. He looked scared - or maybe confused? He was grappling with something big, I could sense it. What had him so bothered? His blue eyes searched my face and I stared wordlessly at him.

Blue Eyes.

Blue eyes! The boy in my dreams! With my eyes closed, I pictured his face in the light of the flames and saw his bright blue eyes. Looking at Xander again, I reached out my hand and then lowered it, as I realized that those were the same blue eyes.

“It was you?” I asked; an accusatory tone to my voice.

I could see the realization when it swept over his face. The realization that he could no longer keep me in the dark. He didn’t answer me, though. Instead, he just nodded his head once, a look of pain crossing his beautiful face.

“How? Why didn’t you tell me? I mean…” I stammered as the memory of his kisses and promises filled me again.

“Oh my God, the kiss…please tell me we aren’t related, Xander!” I pleaded.

“Oh God! No, Skye - we’re not. But it’s complicated…”

“Well of course it is! Everything is complicated here, isn’t it?”

Pissed now, I flung the covers to the floor angrily and scrambled off the bed.

He was there? Xander was there?

Ten years ago, he had been with me. He’d me to safety while he ran into a burning house. He had been a mere child himself, yet he had shown so much bravery. I spun around and faced him across the room.

“You told me earlier that you had loved me forever,” I said accusingly. “I thought those were just words, Xander. But they weren’t, were they?”

“No.” His stance was wary, but his face was dejected.

“God, I’m so confused! If I came over with my parents when I was two, then how? When did we meet? How did you get here?”

“I came over when you did.”

“What?! Why didn’t you tell me that? Why did you come too?”

“It’s…”

“Complicated?” I finished for him sarcastically. “I get that, but it’s time we un-complicate things, Xander. NOW.”

“I know, Skye.” His face pleaded with me as he came closer. “I’m sorry that I’ve had to keep you in the dark. There are things going on here that have never been said, and they can’t be taken back once they are. Things that will change everything.”

“No more secrets, Xander! I want to know it all.”

“Can we just wait for Selene? I have a feeling that she’s going to have information that even I don’t.”

“No. If you truly love me like you say you do, then you’ll tell me about my -
our
- past.” I emphasized ‘
our’
because it was more and more obvious that we had a shared connection.

I really hated the way I was being so hard on him, but I genuinely felt that it was time for the lies to stop.

“Okay,” he sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. He sat back in the chair by the fire and leaned his elbows on his knees.

“I guess I should start with my parents. They were your parents’ Guardians, and also their best friends,” Xander started, his face becoming sad. “From what I’ve been told by Ri, Guardians marrying each other is rare, because of their duty.”

“What is their ‘duty’? I don’t think you’ve really explained the Guardians to me.”

“Guardians come from a specific bloodline. Well, several bloodlines, but basically they are born to guard and protect those they are assigned to. They are typically set to guard royalty, but are sometimes assigned to other important wealthy land owners, or sometimes even the families expected to marry into that family.”

“So basically you’re a bodyguard, right?” I asked, in an effort to simplify things for him.

“Well, yes. Except that not just
anyone
can be a Guardian. And we don’t just guard anyone who asks us. We have always been tied to royalty. Oh - and there are certain, I guess you could say magical, elements to us that make us perfect for the job.”

“Magical elements? You mean, like the whole thing where I can feel you when you’re near?”

Xander smiled at me when I brought that up, and continued on. “Actually that’s a rather special, um talent. I was talking about our heightened senses. We are born with sharper sight and elevated hearing, in addition to the tracking reflexes we have.”

“Tracking reflexes? Like a bloodhound?” I teased, just to see him smile again. He leaned back in his chair and flung a pillow at me lightly as he laughed at my joke.

“No, Skye. The fact that we can feel demons, and sense them when they’re near. I don’t really know how it works, or even where we got it from.”

“Okay, so that’s Guardian 101, right?”

“Yep, that’s it in a nutshell. There’s so much that even I don’t know, since I wasn’t really schooled or trained properly. But Ri did as good a job as he could at getting me up to speed.”

I couldn’t disagree with him there. Xander’s reflexes and senses had saved me countless times in the last three days alone, and apparently even when I was eight.

“So your parents were both Guardians?”

“Yes. They grew up in the same village as your mother, and had known her all her life. The three of them were inseparable. It was that friendship that brought your mother into the path of the new King, your dad.”

Ready to hear this story, I crossed the room and sat down cross-legged on the end of the bed. The fire crackled across from me, but it was just embers and small occasional flames now.

“Go on.”

“Well, from what I was told, my parents had been assigned to the castle as extra Guards after their training. For some reason, your mother went to the castle to see them and while there, your dad happened upon them. He apparently fell for your mom on sight.”

“You told me that my mom had been betrothed to someone else before she married my father.”

“Yes. But I have no idea who it was, or when. I don’t know what happened; I just know the happy story. Your mother, while visiting mine at Castle Montibello, met your father and they fell in love. Your dad had just been crowned King a few weeks earlier, because his own father fell ill and could no longer rule. He was young; they all were.”