“You cannot think about anything, we must leave immediately. You are in danger, remember keep your mind empty.” he whispers. When he moves forward, I see that my grandma had been hidden behind him the whole time.
“Grandmother, what are you doing here?” I ask.
“Ali. You must leave quickly. Riley will explain everything once you are far enough away, but there is something dreadfully wrong in the palace. I will follow you out of town but then you're on your own.” she whispers. Riley takes my hand and guides me down the hallway. He and grandmother look around the corners stealthily, and when we finally make it outside they both exhale nervously. I want to ask them a dozen questions but I know that something must be wrong, and I must be in danger so I decide to listen to them and not speak. I can feel myself relaxing as grandmother grabs onto my shoulder helping me onto the horse. She smiles up at me, but in a painful manner.
“You and Riley will ride on horseback together, and I will take my own horse. I will follow you out of town and then I must come back here.” she murmurs. I can see her breath from the chilly morning as she speaks. I shiver and Riley removes the cloak and places it over my shoulders. I'm frightened and the expression on Riley and grandmother's face is grim. The ride through the forest is dark and scary; the silence from Riley and grandmother is as eerie as the noises the forest creatures make in the dark hours of the night around us. I wrap my arms around Riley, squeezing tightly as the large arms of my cloak dangle awkwardly past my hands. Riley's chest rises and falls in a perfect pattern that lulls me to sleep, I fight to stay awake but my body is so exhausted that I lay my head on his shoulder and fall asleep instantly before I even get a chance to ask any more questions.
I wake up to the sound of a crackling fire nearby. I sit up urgently searching for Riley, and I spot him bent over next to a tree nearby. He turns around carrying an armful of fire wood.
“Good morning, Sleepyhead.” he whistles.
“Good morning.” I yawn. “Why is it so cold? Where are we?” I ask shivering and wrapping my arms protectively around my chest. I look around at the scenery surrounding me; it is breathtaking. We are sitting on a grassy hill that slopes steeply downward towards a large half-frozen body of lake. The tiny ice particles reflect the sunlight upwards. In the distance is a few large mountain peaks covered in a blanket of pale white snow.
“We are near the Kingdom of Elacia. It is my home and it is located in the North because werewolves are accustomed to the colder temperatures.” he answers. He has changed and is wearing a flannel jacket and a pair of rugged blue jeans. He looks like a real mountaineer and I stare at him as he places the firewood onto the fire. I stare into the fire and think about my family and the palace I left behind longingly, wishing that I could reverse time and return.
“Will my family be safe?” I ask.
“I had a vision earlier before we left that no one was seriously injured. They damaged your entire room but everyone else escaped with minor cuts and bruises.” he answers.
“Thank goodness.” I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Thanks again for your help.”
“Can I tell you what exactly happened at the palace?” he asks cautiously.
I really don't want to hear it, but then deep inside I am longing to know. I look down at my palms glowing with sweat even though the weather is frigid and cold. The chilly breeze lightly blows my hair back and I look up into his golden eyes.
“I need to know.” I say trying to reassure myself that this is actually what I want from him. I feel sick to my stomach and any moment whatever I had consumed from the day before is bound to appear magically before my eyes.
“No one was hurt but I know what's wrong with Theo.” he says, saying Theo's name callously. “Theo's father is Mathew, but he doesn't know this yet. Theo was forced to kidnap you but since he failed in his attempt Theo has disappeared and no one knows where he went.”
“Theo's gone.” I whisper feeling much more emotional than I thought I would. This is worse than I thought it would be, Theo my soul mate gone and his father wants him to kidnap me. After I think about the second thing I am torn into two pieces. One part of me really loves Theo, but the other part is angry at him for even considering bringing me to Mathew.
“Theo's father implanted his mind with memories as a baby and nothing that Theo has done since then has truly been his choice. I'm sure that the real Theo would never want to hurt you.” He reassures me, I am surprised to see that he is helping him but it doesn't last long. “He's still a jerk.” Riley says giving me a smug look and folding his arms across his chest. He stands up and wipes his jeans clean looking around and into the trees. He puts his finger up to his mouth in a shushing manner. I grow increasingly frightened by this motion and try to speak but he races to me holding his hand against my mouth. As I listen closely I hear a rustling noise from nearby and my heart thuds loudly in my chest.
Riley holds me tightly and kisses my forehead then he stands up and draws a weapon out of his pocket and positions behind a tree. The thing moves above us now quickly, spinning around until it lands gracefully in front of us. I think I’m going to have a heart attack and I open my eyes to see a small boy, about 10 years old standing inches from Riley's face.
“Brother!” the little boy shouts with glee and jumped onto Riley's back making him drop the weapon and fall to the ground. They’re both on the ground rolling around and laughing hysterically. Riley finally stands up after five minutes of rolling around on the ground and he helps the little boy up onto his feet. Now that I get a closer look at the little boy I realize how similar he looks to Riley. They both have the same shade of golden eyes, but the little boy has dark hair, almost as dark as my own and it is cut shorter than Riley's. They have the same smile and the same upturned nose and rosy cheeks. The little boy is dressed in brown corduroy material with a loose long-sleeved green button-up shirt.
“Is this her Riley?” he asks, staring at me with a big grin. “She is beautiful.”
“Yes, Princess Alison this is my brother Lucas.” Riley replies patting his little brother on the head. Lucas fights to escape Riley's hold and runs up to me.
“Nice to meet you, Princess. Our family has been eagerly expecting your arrival.” His tone becomes much more formal and I shake his hand but he looks at me oddly. He takes my hand and kisses it. “Girls don't shake the hands of men around these parts.” He says, shaking his head and doing his best to sound like an old western cowboy. Riley playfully taps him on the shoulder and he cries out in pain, but then the mood turns more serious.
“Does mom know you're all the way out here by yourself Lucas?” Riley asks crossing his arms and trying to look fiercely down at his younger brother.
“Yeah...” he replies with a sheepish grin and as his eyes widen we both know that he is lying. “Aw. Fine. Mom doesn't know I'm out here Riley but guess what I'm starting to get my superpowers just like you!”, he exclaims joyfully changing the mood and the temperament of his older brother in an instant. Riley picks up his little brother in a bear hug and swings him around at dizzying speeds in circles so fast it makes my own head spin.
“You got your powers?” Riley shouts with glee. “So what are they Lucas?”
“I'm a Seer, just like you! Isn't that great?” he answers smiling happily.
“That's fantastic.” Riley says sounding a little distracted. “Well we should start going back home before the creatures of the night start appearing.”
He grabs his little brother by the hand and drags him to our horse where he hoisted him up and then he helped me up afterwards, wrapping his strong arms around my waist. Lucas grabs onto the reins of the horse tightly and Riley begins to lead the horse forward as he walks. I hold on tightly to the fragile body of the small boy. I am worried that at any moment the horse might decide to sprint forward and I will be left with nothing to keep myself on it, and at that moment I decide that I really don't like horses. It is m
y first time riding one other than when we had to escape the palace. I was so exhausted that I didn't remember much of that journey so this had been my first conscious experience with riding a horse and it wasn't turning out that well. My stomach feels queasy and I am trying to keep the food that I had eaten inside me so I distract myself by looking around at my surroundings. As we start to go down the giant grassy hill, the snowflakes begin to fall all around us shimmering in the sunlight and I look to my left as we pass the body of lake that I had seen from the top of the hill. It sparkles as the snowflakes reflect on it covering it in a thin layer of snow. As we get closer to the lake I see shadowy figures dancing beneath the ice in the water.
“What are those Riley?” I ask pointing towards the lake.
“The souls of demons.” He says seriously.
“Right.”, I smirk, imagining that he is trying to scare me.
Lucas casts a wary eye towards the lake, but I become distracted by other things. I gasp at the scene before my eyes because unlike the ancient kingdom of the elves, Elacia is a large modern metropolitan city bustling with life and every inch of the city is lit up like an enchanted fortress. The only thing that makes it even appear to be a kingdom of creatures other than humans is the large wrought iron gate that surrounds the entire city, and the sound of horses hooves instead of car engines.
“Where are all the cars?” I ask frowning.
“What is a car?” responds Lucas.
“You seriously don't know what a car is? What have you been doing your whole life living under a rock?” I joke. “A car is something with four wheels made out of machines that transport people from place to place.”
“Oh. Those things that humans use instead of horses?” asks Lucas. “We don't really need anything like that because if we need to get somewhere fast we're much faster than any car that a human can build.”
“That makes sense.” I reply feeling a little disappointed that I will have to get used to riding horses and not feeling in control of my own speed.