Bonded Ever After (The Royal Gold Keepers #3)

Chapter 13

THIRTEEN

Ari

I worked so damn hard. I did everything in my power to help Elora without risking my own life, so I wouldn’t die the way my mother did, but all of that has been for nothing. It’s stupid that I didn’t think ahead, stupid that I didn’t consider what would happen once Elora and Callum disappeared, and now I only have myself to blame.

“Shouldn’t he be back by now?”

Serrill is bouncing on the edge of my bed, bothering the shit out of me. Veric and I had been talking about Elora and Callum’s disappearance, and what that meant for us, when Teth, Serrill, and Beva had arrived at my house, demanding to speak to me. I’d taken them into my room, even though at my age I no longer needed a guardian to live with me in my tiny home, so we were alone here. My room just felt safer. They’d demanded to know everything I knew, but it turns out I had a lot more to learn from them.

We started putting together the pieces of what we knew, and what Veric knew from watching the Council. Together, we’d come to the conclusion that Elora and Callum had disappeared into Neverwood forever, and that the Council was freaking out. All flights had been cancelled, the power had turned off, and all medical centers had been closed. An emergency order had been given by the Council for everyone to stay in their houses.

Not that we did.

Teth had snuck back out, saying he had a way to spy on the Council meetings, to give us more information, and we’d been waiting patiently ever since. It was irritating beyond belief. I hated having people in my space, hated talking to them, even hated the way they smelled.

Man, I have some serious issues.

Veric is the only one I don’t mind, the only presence that I can tolerate. From the moment we separately started looking for the ancient trail out of Paradise Falls, we’d created a bond. No… from the day our parents had died. The whole world had kept going, but not for us.

“He’ll be back,” I grate out. “Or he’s been caught and we’ll never see him again.”

“Ari,” Beva scolds.

She irritates me with her “too smart for you” attitude. You would think a girl missing a finger, and only alive because of her friend, would be a little quieter and a little more humble.

“I’m just being honest.”

“We don’t need honesty right now,” she snaps.

“You want some lies,” I tell her, leveling her with the kind of look that makes most people take a few steps back. “Everything is absolutely fine. None of us are going to end up dead in the street.”

Beva glares and pats Serrill’s shoulder like he’s a child. “We’re going to be okay. Teth’s okay.”

A second later, we hear movement in my house and all of us tense. When Teth throws open my door, some of my tension fades. At least it’s not Security here to tear me to pieces because they found out my role in all of this.

Teth sits down on the bed beside Beva, looking pale.

“What happened?” Serrill asks gently.

“It’s worse than we thought,” he manages.

Worse? How the hell could things be worse than we imagined? I hope this boy tends to exaggerate, or we’re all in trouble.

“What’s going on?” Serrill asks.

Teth takes a shaky breath. “Almost all the goldarium is gone, and Callum and Elora won’t be back. The Council intends to flee Paradise Falls, with their chosen few people. They’re going to split what’s left of the goldarium on the outside to make sure they’re wealthy out there too.”

“Fuck,” I mutter.

He nods. “That’s not even the worst of it. They’ll be giving Security the instructions to go through Paradise Falls after they’ve escaped and kill everyone left here, because they don’t want the risk of anyone getting out and telling the outside about what they did.”

“Hell…” I say, unable to even form the words.

This is horrifying bullshit. Not that I’d expected less from the Council.

His face is tight. “What do we do? Because, clearly, we’re not the chosen ones who will be getting out with them.”

I answer easily. “We can’t be in the city when they start killing people.”

“But what do we do?” Beva asks. “There’s only one way out of here… and that’s on a plane. I mean, we could try hijacking one, but we’d have to get weapons and somehow take someone who can fly the plane…”

“That’s never going to happen,” I tell her. “Security will be all over those planes.”

“Well, what then?” she asks me angrily.

I look at Veric. He gives a subtle nod, and I take a deep breath. “The ancient path. We need to take it out of the city. It’s the only way through the mountains.”

“The ancient path?” Serrill asks, clearly confused.

Beva nods. “It’s the path our ancestors used to get into Paradise Falls, and it’s supposedly the only way in or out, but no one has found it since.”

“The thing is,” I explain, “Veric and I have been trying to find the path out for many years, and we think we’ve found it. It follows the nursery rhyme almost perfectly.”

“The nursery rhyme?” Serrill asks, clearly confused.

Beva stands up taller. “Toward the north, you must go forth, past the tea, you must flee, when in doubt, stick to the route, when you see the green, don’t be seen, to enter the wall, you must crawl, or continue on, to the great beyond.”

I nod. “That one.”

“But have you actually seen a path through the mountains?” she asks.

Veric and I exchange another look, his dark eyes boring into mine. We’d always planned to travel higher and higher in the mountains, but I’d been scared to get caught. He’d been pushing me to do it, and I’d been dragging my feet. I felt like I had all the time in the world… but I guess I was wrong.

“No, we’ve never gotten that far.”

“So we don’t know if we can get out that way,” Beva says, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Her attitude is rich. Was her idea to steal a plane so freaking good? She should be thanking us on her hands and knees for having an actual plan that could work.

“Do we have another option?” I ask, pinning her with my gaze.

They’re quiet for a minute, and I can practically see their brains turning, trying to come up with a better plan. My jaw tightens so hard it pops. There is no better plan. As frightening as this idea might be, this is our life now.

Then, I watch the reality of our situation hit everyone in the room. There’s a mixture of horror and acceptance that falls over their faces, which might have been amusing at a different time. That’s right, your perfect little lives are falling apart. Unfortunately, mine and Veric’s lives had fallen apart a long time ago. We don’t have anything to cling onto here.

Beva finally nods her head. “Then we should all go home, quickly pack, and meet in the woods.”

Suddenly, it hits me. “Are you saying we’re going to travel together?”

The thought had never occurred to me. Veric and I are seasoned hikers. Taking these three with us will only slow us down. My plan had simply been to point them in the right direction and be done with them.

Beva frowns at me. “Of course. There’s safety in numbers.”

I scowl, not mincing my words. “Veric and I know what we’re doing in the woods. All of you will be nothing but a liability.”

“We can take care of ourselves,” she says, squaring her shoulders.

Looking at Veric, I’m surprised to see him giving me an expression that says he’s disappointed in me. What? What am I doing wrong? I’m being practical. Practical, but not kind.

Embarrassment rises inside of me. Surviving is all that’s ever mattered to me. And Veric. It’s not in my nature to stick my neck out for someone else, not after what happened to my mom. I swore that I’d never make her same mistakes, but it’s clear Veric thinks we should help these three.

“Fine. Everyone has an hour. If you’re not in the woods then, we leave without you.”

Everyone in the room files out, and I instantly focus on packing. Except, my hands are shaking. I curl them into fists and will myself to be calm. My mom always said that there was no point in worrying, that worrying was the most useless emotion there was. So, I won’t worry.

I pack my bag carefully, knowing that the items in this bag will determine my survival. Winter items get thrown in, and I belatedly wonder if I should’ve given the three inexperienced hikers better instructions on what to pack. By the time we reach the tops of the mountains, there will be snow on them. If they don’t have warm clothes, none of this will matter, because they’ll die.

But I can’t worry about that now. I have to focus on my own supplies. My own survival. Because the hours remaining of my life are slipping through my fingers like sand. Soon Security will be here to take my life, and I can’t be here when they come knocking.