Never Let You Fall (The Prophecy of Tyalbrook) (19 page)

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just stood there while she continued to stare. Xander rifled through the bag of food and pulled out a box of doughnuts and some orange juice. He smiled at me as he waved the donuts in the air.

“Your favorite!” he teased.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Selene muttered, looking at Xander. “I meant to tell you right away that I heard from Rioden.”

“You did? Where is he?” Xander asked anxiously, as he strode across the room to stand by us.

“Yes. He was able to get McClintock’s men to follow him away from the two of you, but he’s still playing cat-and-mouse with them. He thinks they are following him in hopes that he’ll lead them to Skye.”

The look of relief on his face was evident, and Xander lightly squeezed my hand as Selene continued.

“Xander, he wants us to get Skye to Tyalbrook as quickly as possible, and then find the remaining Guardians.”

“But what about him?” I interrupted. Xander squeezed my hand again, sending a comforting warmth through my arm.

“He will follow along as soon as he can. If he doesn’t, then I’ll come back myself and find him.” Selene’s voice held a firm tone of resolve. I couldn’t help but think that there was definitely more to the Selene and Rioden story than we knew yet.

I pulled my hand from Xander’s and walked over to the kitchen to grab the doughnuts and juice. As I brought them back to the coffee table, I leveled my gaze on Xander and Selene and motioned for them to sit.

“Selene, I would like to ask you some questions. Please, let’s eat and talk.”

She started to shake her head no, but Xander sat in the chair next to mine and gave her a look that clearly said ‘Have a seat.’

“We really need to get moving. I’ll be happy to explain everything to you both once we get to Tyalbrook,” she pleaded, as she sat on the edge of the couch across from us.

Suddenly fed up with the delays I had been faced with in my quest to get the information I needed, I spoke up a little more forcibly than I had intended.

“Let’s get something straight right now. Both of you need to know that I’m
not
going to Tyalbrook until I understand the whole story. Period. End of story. Got it?”

Xander smirked at my command and Selene frowned, but they both nodded assent. I started to list my questions, again.

“Selene - Xander and Rioden filled me in on a lot of things, but there’s still so much I don’t know. It was obvious from the phone call last night that Xander had no clue who you were until he talked to you. Can you explain your part in all this? You told him that you were the one who made the portal that brought us here?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, well then why did you come through with us, and why have you been hiding out?”

Selene stood up, walked over to the kitchen and pulled three glasses from a cabinet and some napkins from a drawer. She walked back to us and placed them on the table before sitting back on the couch. Taking a deep breath, she began.

“Let me start at the beginning.
My
beginning, that is. If you don’t mind?”

Xander leaned forward to pour juice into the glasses and nodded for her to continue. His eyes watched her every move, and I felt a pang of jealousy at the attention he afforded her.

“I was barely eighteen when the King and Queen summoned my mother to Castle Montibello. They were in search of a powerful spell that would be able to protect the Princess from harm. However, little did they know, they were about to be attacked by their own people.

“When whispers began to circulate that someone was trying to kidnap you, they started to fear for your safety in Tyalbrook altogether. My mother told them about another realm - here, in this dimension - where they could send you. It seemed so easy and perfect to just put you out of harms reach until the traitors could be killed off and the war could die down.

Xander, your parents stepped up immediately. They said they would bring you both here and keep you safe, until everyone could be summoned back.”

“Why couldn’t my parents, or at least my mother come with me instead? Why someone else?” I asked, trying to rationalize how my parents could let someone else assume responsibility for my safety.

“Your father was King, Skye. He couldn’t very well leave the kingdom to fall. They discussed your mother coming along, but they feared you would need anonymity more than maternal comfort. When the time came to send you away, they planned to dispatch many loyal members of the royal household out all around the country in order to discourage anyone from knowing who took you or where you went.”

My face must have held obvious disbelief at the excuse Selene had given, because she forged on fervently. “Skye, they loved you so very much. I saw this with my own two eyes. Nobody expected this to happen! No one thought we would be gone for more than a few months.”

“So what happened?! How did we end up stuck here? And why did you come with us?”

“You know Selene, I think Skye posed some interesting questions. How
did
you end up coming through, and why have you been kept a secret all these years?” Xander asked; the frustration in his voice clear.

“Let me do this in order, please! There is just so much to explain and understand.”

Selene continued, “As I said, I was barely eighteen when my mother started working for your parents to create a portal that would send you safely here. My mother had been quietly training me in the magic arts all my life. She didn’t want anyone to know that I possessed the talent. You see, magic has always been in high demand in Tyalbrook, and she feared for my safety. So together we practiced making a portal, but she never told me why I needed to know how to do it.

My mother was able to create a portal inside the Castle, using a mirror. The four of you - Xander, your parents and you, Skye - went through the portal early one morning when the castle was first attacked. I don’t know what happened on that morning specifically, but in the furor to get you through safely during the attack, the mirror was broken.

That was the last day that anyone saw your parents alive. My mother disappeared with them.”

“What do you mean ‘disappeared’?” I asked, the blood draining from my face. My heart raced as I tried to imagine the terror my parents must have felt when sending their baby girl into another dimension, never knowing if they would see me again. Tears blurred my vision and I shook my head to clear them. As Selene continued, I reminded myself to be strong.

“I was at home all that day and the next. My mother never came back from the castle, but there was little going on in the village to make you think the castle had been taken over.

On the third day of my mother’s absence, a knock came at our small hut. Opening the door, I found a young man just a year or so older than me, who said he brought urgent news from the castle.”

I saw the warmth in her eyes when she mentioned this man, and noticed the slight tremor in her voice. This young man was special. Xander interrupted, his voice echoing my thoughts. “Rioden?” he exclaimed.

Selene took a visibly deep breath and shook her head affirmatively, confirming it was, in fact Rioden. My mind whirled at this information.

“I invited him in, and he told me bits and pieces of what he knew. See, at the time of the attack he had just come back from Guardian training, and had gone to visit his sister and Xander at the castle.

He told me he’d barely arrived before alarms sounded at the castle. He knew that those alarms meant someone had breached it. According to Rioden, my mother quickly opened the portal and the four of you hastily went through. He was confused about what had just happened, so the King and Queen tried to explain it, along with my mother.

He left the three of them and went in search of other Guardians to safeguard your parents, and also to see if he could help with the threat. When he returned, they were all gone. My mother, the King, and the Queen.”

Tears brightened Selene’s eyes as the scope of everything began to crush me. Xander, Selene, Rioden, and all of our parents.
Eight
people
whose lives were ruined, all because of me and what I supposedly represented.

I wanted to run. I wanted to find a bottle of Jack and drink away the pain that bore down on me like a child tumbling down a hill.

But instead, I sat there and listened to more of her story.

“Rioden was so amazing! He asked me questions about the portal and how it all worked. His love and devotion to you, Xander and your parents was so evident. He wanted to know how we were supposed to get you back here.”

Selene continued, “That was when he told me that the mirror that held the portal was broken. When he went back to the hall and saw that everyone was missing, he found the mirror on the floor, shattered.”

“He asked me to create a new portal so that we could find you guys, and so we ran. By that time, unbeknownst to us, an army had begun to sweep through the countryside in search of Skye. Anyone found to have been loyal to the royal family were captured.”

“Why didn’t you just create a portal at your house?”

“I don’t know,” Selene laughed lightly. “I was young and foolish, Xander. I had no idea what I was doing. We thought we should find a deserted area, because we thought that any portal I made would remain open. We wanted to hide it so that no one could follow us. I didn’t realize that my magic just wasn’t powerful enough to create a portal that strong.”

“Is that how you got through and he didn’t? You weren’t strong enough?” Xander prodded.

The glare that Selene pinned on Xander could have frozen the Heat Miser. She was pissed!

“Yes, Xander - that is why!” she spat; standing up and wandering over to the windows that overlooked the forest. “We made it to the edge of the village easily enough, but as we were heading through the forest we realized we were being pursued. We ran as fast as we could, but we couldn’t seem to shake our tail.”

Softly, Selene continued, “Finally we came upon a dense copse of trees, so I started working on a spell to create a portal with Xander keeping watch. A single creature, something I had never seen before, had followed us, and Rioden began to fight it.”

“Once the portal was stable I called out to Rioden. He told me to go through first and he would follow. He swore to me he would.”

“So what happened, Selene?” I asked softly, noting the way her voice trembled.

“I went through and waited. I waited and waited. I almost went back through to search for him, but he had promised, so I waited. Ten minutes after I went through the portal, it closed and I was alone. Just like that.”

“I didn’t know what happened to him,” Selene confessed. “I sat in the middle of the forest and waited, hoping that somehow it would be different on his side and he would still be able to get through…but he didn’t. So I did the only thing I knew to do. I began to track you guys. I knew I could locate you with a tracking spell, and I knew it was what Rioden would have wanted.”

Selene turned back to us and fixed her gaze on Xander. He still sat in the chair next to me with his elbows resting on his knees; his face composed, deep in thought.

“Xander, I’ve been here fifteen years. I have a lot that I could tell you about what I’ve done here, but most of it isn’t relevant to you, or to Skye. We need to leave here now and get back to Tyalbrook. It’s time to go home.”

Her voice was matter of fact. She stood straight and locked her blue eyes to his. I wasn’t surprised when he finally stood up and turned to me.

“Skye? Do you want to ask her anything else?”

What? Ask anything else? I still felt like I had a million things I could ask! I stood as well, not wanting to seem any smaller to them than I already was.

“Yes, I have more to ask! Selene, why didn’t Rioden tell Xander about you? Were you ever able to find us once you came here? Well, of course you did,” I stammered, answering my own question. “I mean, you found Rioden when he finally got here, right? Why didn’t you just find us and stay with us?”

“I
did
find you. It took me about a week to track the four of you down. I met with Xander’s parents, and we all agreed that I would stay in this dimension. I had no reason to go back to Tyalbrook, with the kingdom falling apart and my mother gone.

Xander’s parents didn’t want me near you for safety’s sake, because of the magic I have in me, Skye.”