Bonded Ever After (The Royal Gold Keepers #3)

Chapter 21

TWENTY-ONE

Ari

We’ve been traveling for weeks, following the maps we created that we believed would help us find the ancient trail leading out of Paradise Falls. But so far, we haven’t seen anything to indicate that we’re going the right way.

The weather has grown colder. Veric and I walk side-by-side, with Teth and Serrill trailing behind us. They’ve struggled to keep up with us each and every day, making an already miserable process even worse. I’d considered leaving them behind, but Veric had refused. I don’t know what it is about him. After his father dying and mother going missing, he shouldn’t care about the world. He shouldn’t care about other people.

I don’t.

But somehow, he still does.

He slows our pace when it gets to be too much for them. He stops and gives them a break when their new, not-worn-in boots hurt their precious feet. When he catches game, he makes a fire and shares the food with all of us, even though the two men don’t deserve it. We lead them to water, we find mushrooms and berries to eat, all while they stare around in fear.

They’re useless to us. Useless, and yet, unless I want to carry on by myself, I have to tolerate them. I have to accept that they’re here, dragging us down, even when this is a life-or-death situation, and I hate it. Isn’t it enough that we’ve taken such a gamble to try to survive?

“I can’t believe everyone in Paradise Falls is probably dead by now,” Serrill says, sounding out of breath and sad.

“So many lives lost,” Teth murmurs.

To my surprise, Veric stops and looks back at them, and I know he’s going to speak even before he does. “Maybe not.”

“Why do you say that?” Serrill asks, looking confused.

It takes Veric a minute to form the words. “When everyone went to pack, I warned my old caretaker about what was going to happen and showed her the map. She said she had a phone tree, a way of getting in contact with a lot of people in town very quickly, and she was going to warn everyone she could. If she did it, there could be many more people following behind us.”

I’m shocked. “You did that?”

He nods.

“Why? Those people are assholes. All they care about is themselves.”

He cocks his head. “They didn’t deserve to die.”

I fold my arms over my chest. “And what if they catch up to us and cause problems?”

He shrugs, his green eyes holding mine, saying a million things his lips will never share. “I wasn’t going to just let them die. If I did, I wouldn’t be any better than the Council.”

When he keeps walking, I follow after, feeling uncertain. Veric is the only person who makes me feel this way. Who makes me feel like he can see inside of me, to every tiny crack, and knows how to fix everything that’s broken inside of me with just a word. Maybe it’s because his words are so rare and precious, I don’t know.

Veric suddenly stops ahead of me.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, hurrying up to him.

Just in front of us, there’s… there’s a path lined by glowing flowers. They’re golden and beautiful, unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life. Nothing grows between the flowers, not even grass. It’s just a perfectly formed path.

“What the hell is this?” I ask.

Serrill and Teth come to stand beside us, gaping. This feels unreal. Like magic. Like something that shouldn’t exist in the world.

“It’s the ancient path,” Veric says softly, and the minute he says it, I know.

“We’ve found it. We’ve found the way out!” I’m ecstatic.

This doesn’t mean our adventure is over. If anything, it means it’s just begun. We have to take this path through the mountains and somehow come out to the outside. Then, we have to find a way to survive in a dangerous new world we know nothing about.

Veric surprises me by taking my hand. Our eyes lock, and that tension that’s always between us sizzles the air. I want to be closer to him. I was to press myself against his big body and maybe not be strong for just a minute. Maybe trust someone else for the first time in my adult life.

But he turns to face the path, and we start walking.

Somehow, I expected the path to feel different, but it doesn’t. We just continue on it, knowing for the first time that we’re going in the right direction. That there’s a way out of our nightmare.

The hours tick away and the path stretches out before us. Teth and Serrill breathe heavily as we climb higher and higher, and I try to will myself not to be annoyed by them. Maybe at some point I’ll be grateful for them. Just not now.

“What’s that?” Serrill asks, pointing.

I follow his finger and see something strange, just off the path. It looks like a big wall of tangled vines, except there’s something green underneath. I know what it is. I’m probably one of the few people in Paradise Falls who have gone close enough to the wall to Neverwood to really see it for what it is.

“It’s an entrance to Neverwood,” I say, “but I never thought there was more than one.”

“Impossible,” Teth murmurs.

“Why do you think it’s here?” Serrill asks.

My mind starts working. “I wonder if some of the original families were able to go through the entrance.”

“Should we try?” Serrill asks.

Everyone looks at him in shock.

“Only the two families can step through,” I tell him.

He gives me a strange look. “Maybe. Maybe not. We’ve never tried, so how do we know?”

On one side of us is the entrance to Neverwood. On the other side is the path to the outside. For some reason, this feels like an important decision. A choice we can never take back.

What should we do?