Never Let You Fall (The Prophecy of Tyalbrook) (22 page)

“Xander, Rioden wanted me to remind you about your duty,” she had offered lightly. Her striking light blue eyes reminded me of ice when she stared at me.

“My duty? What did he mean?”

“Your duty to Skye, and to the Kingdom. Don’t shake your head at me,” she admonished when I started to shake my head. I knew what she was alluding to.

“I see the way you look at her,
and
the way she looks at you. It will end in pain for you both if you don’t put a stop to it now.”

“Selene, you don’t even know me. Don’t pretend that you do. We care about each other! She was like a sister to me until I was nine!” I retorted, but it sounded weak even to my own ears.

“I’m just warning you, Xander. You are her Guardian. As her Guardian, you are to protect her with your life and that is all. It will be very important for you to be a strong Guard for her once we reach the villages. If anyone finds out who she is, it is likely that they will try to kidnap her, Xander. You must be clear in your duty.”

“You think that having feelings for her would interfere with my protection of her? It’s completely the opposite, Selene! It’s
because
of my feelings for her that I’m even more committed to giving her everything that has been taken away from her!”

“Exactly! Everything, including her rightful place as Queen. A place in which you will be allowed to watch her from the sidelines, but you’ll never be able to stand beside her, Xander. She needs to marry in order to provide heirs as the prophecy states, and you know that both royal and Guardian law prevents you from being with her in that fashion. It would be better for her - and for you - if you distance yourself from her now. Protect her, be her friend, but don’t allow yourself to act on your feelings for her any further.”

Wow - Don’t allow myself to act on my feelings? That had been my pledge from day one. It wasn’t a surprise that I’d fallen for her so quickly. I recalled the night my parents died.

I had been knocked out, and didn’t wake up for two days. The first thing I’d done when I awoke was to ask about Skye. I’d had nearly gone crazy with grief when Rioden said that he hadn’t found her.

The pain of losing her felt like something had devoured me from the inside out. We exhaustively searched through Freedom Park and the woods daily. I watched the news for missing person reports. I was a nine year old on a mission. I had to find her, and I couldn’t let her, or my parents, down.

I always wondered why nothing was ever said about either the attack on my parents, or a missing child back then. Now after hearing what Selene had said about the mind-melding, I understood. They must have compelled the police to write it down as only a simple accident. When they’d found Skye, the police must have assumed that she’d come from the home, and since she had no memory of the event, they’d put her in the custody of child protective services.

Finally, after four months of searching, Rioden came home one day and told me that he’d found her. He explained that she was in a group home and that she was fine. That was it. No matter how hard I pressed, he wouldn’t tell me more. He said it was safer for her and for us if we stayed away. At least this way we knew she was safe, and he said he would keep an eye on her.

I fought him on this decision for a while, but he pushed me into training, telling me the best way I could help her was to be prepared for the next time. I was ten.

Ten. Thinking back, it’s like I never had a childhood. I didn’t go to school and I didn’t play with other kids…I trained. I steadfastly applied myself only to things I would need to know for the moment when I would get to bring Skye back to Tyalbrook, and we would finally get to kill those responsible for ruining our lives.

“Should we go?” Skye murmured, her face tucked in my chest.

The need to feel her lips on mine hit me like a sledgehammer, practically bringing me to my knees. I felt that this might be the last time we would have the chance. Once in Tyalbrook, I didn’t know what would happen, or who we might find. The only thing I knew was that I loved this girl. I loved her with all of my heart, and I always would. Even if she had to marry someone else, I would keep on loving her.

“Xander? We should go before Selene comes looking for us.”

Skye’s voice held a slight tremble – almost as if she were afraid of Selene. I shrugged it off. It was more likely that she was just nervous about going.

“Okay, yeah, we should go,” I finally relented. I clasped her small hand in mine as we pulled apart.

“It’s going to be okay, Skye,” I told her, and pulled her hand to my lips before pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles.

Her cheeks, pink already from the cool air, flushed even more with my kiss. That little blush made my desire for her kick up a notch. Her sweet innocence was intoxicating. I felt myself staring at her lips and knew that I wanted nothing more than to just swoop in and claim them.

It was at that moment that I heard Selene step out of the cabin and call for us.

“Xander! Skye?”

Skye looked back over her shoulder at the forest one last time as I called out, “Yeah! We’re coming.”

Once we’d traversed the hill, we walked hand in hand back to Rioden’s SUV. Pulling the keys from my pocket, I opened the back hatch and revealed the cache of weapons that Ri always kept stored for us.

“Wow, expecting trouble?” Skye asked, as she let go of my hand and stepped forward to peruse them.

Her fingers traced over the smooth handle of a dagger similar to mine. She picked it up gingerly and held it almost perfectly. If I thought her
blush
made me crazy, seeing her with a
weapon
! - whoa. I was going to need some major willpower, not to mention some cold dips in streams, to keep my calm around her!

“Do you want to carry that one?” I asked as I watched the way her face transformed. It’s as if holding something of protection had made her feel more powerful. A little bit of resolve, of steely strength, was finally starting to shine in her brown eyes.

She laughed, “Um, will you tell me where to put it so I don’t stab myself?”

I pulled out a sheath for the dagger and looped it onto the braided belt that rode her hips. “Here you go.”

Skye slid her dagger into the sheath and smiled at me as I pulled out several more for myself. I wrapped a couple around my back and put one in my boot. Lastly, I pulled out a full-sized sword and attached it to the belt around my own waist.

I saw Skye’s eyes widen at the sword, yet she didn’t say a word. She just crossed her arms over her chest and watched me. It was best to not go into details at the moment, but I knew that we needed to be prepared for anything. I was sure she knew that, but was just scared by it all.

“Alright, let’s get the food and sleeping packs and we’ll be ready.”

Selene was leaning against the cabin door, watching as we strapped on weapons. When we finished, she straightened and motioned us inside; locking the front door behind us as we went back in. Taking a look around, the only thing to show that someone had been there were our packs.

The bed had been made and the dishes all put away. It seemed odd that she took such care to make the place look uninhabited. And locking the door behind us? Where were we going?

“Selene, where is the portal?”

Handing us each a satchel to carry she smiled. “This way.”

She motioned for us to follow her and we made our way to the bedroom closet, where she revealed a trap door in the floor.

“Years ago I had this cabin built and added an underground room to hide a portal. This was the safest place I could think of to make a portal that could remain open at all times. It’s attached to the portal that we’re going to come through in Tyalbrook. If there is ever a need, you can return straight here by entering back through the portal in Tyalbrook.”

“You’re telling me that we’ve had a way to get back and forth for several
years
?” I swore.

Anger at this knowledge made by vision blur. All this time we could have saved Skye and gone home!

“Xander, you knew Rioden’s plan. He didn’t think it best to bring Skye back until she was 18, when any protection she had wore off.”

“Whoa - protection? What are you talking about?” Skye asked, pinning me with her glare.

I could see what she was thinking.
‘Have you still not told me everything?’

Selene beat me to the punch. “When you first left Tyalbrook, my mother placed a very strong protection spell on you in order to keep you camouflaged from any magical eyes. It was intended to make it harder for things like demons to find you. It will wear off completely once you turn eighteen.”

“Well then how did they find me before? How were we found ten years ago, and how have they been finding me for the past few months?”

“We don’t know. The events ten years ago, we certainly haven’t been able to figure out. The spell was new back then, and it should have been strong enough. But to be fair, they had a very powerful sorcerer tracking you. The Semvon finding you now? That was probably a combination of luck and the spell beginning to wear off.”

“Or…it could have been me.” Once I said it I realized that it must be true. “I watched her. I bet the Semvon sensed me and were able to follow me, and once in the same general area as I was, they were able to sense her as well.”

Crap! I put her in risk with my stalking ways. If there had been a wall by me I think I would have punched it. I couldn’t believe that I could have been so stupid as to not think of this sooner!

Selene gave my words some thought and seemed to be in agreement, although she said nothing, for which I was grateful. Skye, on the other hand moved to soothe me immediately. Grabbing my arm, she looked between Selene and myself.

“You know what, it doesn’t really matter. I’m fine and we’re here now. Maybe they could sense you Xander, but you kept me safe in the end. So no harm no foul, okay?”

The underground room was dark and slightly damp, much like any basement. It was full of framed pictures and mirrors. There was even a shelf with boxes marked as decorations. It looked similar to anyone else’s attic space, if only it weren’t for the sheer amount of frames. Some were full length, and others were smaller. It seemed strange until it hit me why there were so many.

“The portal is in a picture?”

“Yes.”

“Makes sense. You’ve covered it up by storing all of these other frames here with it…so one picture by itself wouldn’t cause anyone to snoop,” I remarked, taking in the other frames. I tried to pick out which one held our way home.

Skye ran her fingers over the tops of a few of the frames as she walked around the small room and looked at them. They were leaning against the far wall of the basement, three or four-deep in some places. One full- length mirror was sitting off to the left by itself, and Skye walked over to stand before it.

“What is this?” she asked, reaching out her fingers and stroking the mirror. I stepped up beside her to see what she was looking at, and saw that it was just a mirror.

“What do you mean?” asked Selene.

“It feels weird. Standing here I feel…I don’t know - I feel a pull here,” Skye explained, and pointed to her chest.

“You can feel it?”

“Yes. It’s full of magic, isn’t it?”

Selene stepped up to Skye and put her hand on her shoulder. “Skye, that is amazing that you would be able to sense our magic! This mirror has been used as a portal in the past. You can feel the magic lingering?”

“I didn’t know it was magic. I just felt a tug at my chest like something was pulling me here. It’s sort of like the tug I feel around Xander.” She let that slip out and I saw her eyes bulge. Her hand clasped over her mouth before she could stop it.

“You feel something when Xander is around? Does Rioden know? Why didn’t you tell me?” Selene accused, looking at us both.

“It’s nothing. Um, it’s just like a crush, I guess. I didn’t mean it’s the same thing…” she trailed off, lowering her gaze from mine.

“Selene, we really didn’t think it mattered. Ri had explained that as Skye’s Guardian, I would feel her when she was near. Then I discovered that Skye felt the same things I did, so I just assumed it was our bond. It’s not a big deal.”

Selene bit her lip in thought, and her forehead creased as she looked between us. “It seems unusual, but I’m not a Guardian and was never trained on the bonds between Guardians and their chosen. Perhaps the Guardians in Tyalbrook will be able to explain your feelings?”