The Knight (The Heir #1.5)

16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

“ I don’t understand why you are going to such lengths for revenge,” Glasson wondered out loud.

“I told you already that it isn’t revenge.” I shoved some clothing into the backpack which I was taking with me and looked at Glasson, standing there in the doorway of my room. “You give Ash a lot of leeway. Shouldn’t you be watching her, prince?”

“You should watch yourself. You work for a princess. Why do you hate the heirs so much?”

“I don’t hate them,” I responded slowly as I stuffed a few pairs of socks into the back pocket, and then looked at a picture of Emma and me. It was a photograph from one of our camping trips. For most of that entire trip, I had let my melody out, unshielded. It was one of the happiest times of my life. Emma’s melody had been unshielded for a part of the time, too. Her parents had released it just enough so that I was able to get glimpses of what we would be, what we could be—together.

“Shad is trying to take Emma,” I said looking up at him. “How would you feel if someone came and took Ash away from you?”

“Oh, Ashlyn is always trying to get away from me. Right now, she isn’t even at home like she told me she would be. I am always aware of where she is, and honestly, if someone wanted to release me of the duty and vow I have for her, I would gladly let them.” I couldn't fault him for how he felt, even if I felt completely different.

I laughed. How could I not? It was hilarious. I knew Ashlyn could be a lot to handle. After all, Emma had been near soulless for nearly the entire time I had been her guardian knight.

“You laugh, but I am serious. She hates me, and to be honest, I do not blame her. However, I, as you do for Emma, have oaths and vows and promises that bind me to her.”

“I promised her, Glasson, I promised that I would find who did this and make them pay,” I explained.

“But, as a guardian knight, you can not use your gifts to hurt another for your own gain,” he said.

“It isn’t just my gain. If this man dies, we all gain. He is obviously looking for Emma, and if he finds her, he will find Ashlyn, you, and Shad. We have been over this. I thought you understood. No one is safe when soulless people are being created and heirs are being murdered.” I thought for a moment. “She was kept alive for a reason, though. There is no way that her melody was not captivating to him, but why didn’t he take her—and use her soul?”

Glasson shrugged. “Are you sure these Terran colonies are on the side of the Ancients? I worry a bit that if you bring too much attention to us, we will all be discovered.”

“I read their souls, Glasson. I know that they didn’t lie, and I could tell the level of their corruption.”

His brow rose as if questioning me. I had to unshield my soul to read a soul or sense corruption. But he didn't know that I had been training for years to be able to read souls without unshielding my entire melody to someone else.

“I’ll tell Mary that if I don’t reach out to her at least every other day, she can send help.”

“Do you mean me?”

“I don’t mean you. If I am a lost cause, by all means, do not come after me. I couldn't bear anyone else being killed because I failed in a task, yet again.”

“Do I need to speak with Mary?”

“No—” I paused and zipped up the backpack. “For now, leave her, and Emma, in the dark about your involvement.”

“Okay—”

“Mary will reach out if she needs you—so that is all I ask.”

“Do I stop her if she goes after you?”

“If she goes after me? No one can stop Mary.”

“Then you better not fail, Ryker, because Emma will probably go with her if she does go after you. You know it as well as I do.”

I watched as Glasson turned and walked out of my room. I sat on the bed, trying to shove the memory out of my head, of Emma and I curled up together there. I covered my face with my pillow. I knew that if I was lost, Mary would come for me. They never treated me exactly like the guardian knight I was. I was more family to Lamont and Ara than anything else. The thought of Mary, of Emma, being hurt caused so much pain in my chest that I let out a muffled scream.

I could not fail. I could not. But if I did, if I was lied to by the Terran colony informants, if my information was tainted, I didn’t want Mary coming after me.

I sat up and looked at the clock beside my bed. I had about an hour before school was out. It hadn’t been difficult for me to keep up normal human appearances during the previous weeks. I ran from the house and into the garage and started my car. I sat there for a moment, going over what I would say to Mary. I breathed in and then out, quickly.

It was always hard to talk to Mary. She treated me like an equal. I didn’t like that there seemed to be no boundaries with her, I didn’t know what to do with it. She was stubborn. I didn’t know why she cared about me after what I had done to her family. But, Mary was a Terran keeper, so it was my belief that she liked to keep the peace, keep the harmony. But I would be lying if I said that I understood what keepers actually did because, in truth, their ways were still mostly foreign to me.

I pulled up to the flower shop. I walked into the yellow building to the smell of fresh blooms.

“What’s going on, Ryker—something with Emma?” she asked, without looking over at me. I pulled myself up and sat down on the counter. She gave me a look that said all I needed to know: she didn’t want me sitting up there, but I didn’t move.

“I have a lead, from the Terran colonies, and I am headed there to flush it out.”

She paused in her ribbon curling to look up at me. “Ryker, this isn’t safe. I wish you wouldn’t.” Her eyes locked onto mine

Her melody was partly shielded, but I felt her feelings of worry and fear flood me as I let mine out just a small amount, only what was necessary. I sent back my emotions to her, emotions of peaceful calm like the waves of the sea. She shoved them away and sent me more feelings of sadness. I looked up at her, and my melody faded away—she seemed done with it.

“Mary—” I responded, reaching out to her.

“If you get killed, Ryker, I don't think—" I jumped from off the table, sensing her tears were about to fall.

“Mary, I will come back.”

She snorted, “Ryker, you and Emma are all I have left,” and she gasped.

“Mary, I have a vow to fulfill—and an oath. Once they are complete—”

She held up her hand. “Just stop. Just for one second, don’t talk about being a guardian knight, with duties and honor.”

“That is who I am, Mary.”

“Yes, that is a big part of you.” She looked up at me, her face, showing sadness as she touched my cheek with her hand. “But there is so much more to you than that, Ryker. I wish you knew that—I wish you could see it.” Her melody floated to me, and mine was still partly unshielded, so I could sense her feelings again. She considered me family, felt that I was like a brother; I smiled. I had never felt more loved than when I was with Lamont’s family. It was truly remarkable.

“I appreciate it, Mary. Really, but Emma is everything, and I have to protect her. Please, I am begging you. If I fail—if I don’t call you, please do not come for me—under no circumstances are you allowed to come after me, Mary. Do you hear me?” I didn’t realize the anger in my voice until I was silent and heard my shouts echo off of the brightly colored walls of her flower shop.

“You’re telling me what to do?” Mary stood tall, her shoulders squared and her eyes trying to be fierce as they looked at me.

“Yes,” I said, my chest rising and falling at a rapid rate.

“You—guardian knight, do not tell me what to do.” She was in my face, her finger almost touching my nose. I pushed her hand away.

“Mariela,” I sighed, using her Terran name, looking at her small body and her trembling hand, trying to be something she was not—trying to be commanding.

“No—you are my family, Rykerian Dallard , and I will not leave my family behind. Go. Do what you have to do, but if you don’t call me when you are supposed to call me, I will come after you and save you. That is what families do.”

She had used my full name; she must have been really serious, just as I had been when I used hers, but she wasn't listening. It was important for her to understand. I was nothing in comparison to Emma, nothing .

“She could die, Mary!!”

“This conversation is over. I have work to do. Call me every other day so that I know you are well.” She left the room to enter the front of the store, and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I knew that Mary considered me to be family, and I knew that we cared for each other. How could we not—when we had been living so close to each other for so long—but that? That was desperation because of all she had lost when Ara died, of all that meant for Emma, for what that meant for her life. That was not Mary—that couldn’t be sweet and kind Mary, I thought. Finally, as the door chimed, and a customer started talking to Mary, I slipped through the back door and made it back to my car. I didn’t know what I would do if she came after me, but I knew that the vow I had made to Emma was unbreakable. I had to discover who that man was, and it was then my chance. I needed to succeed. I could not fail her, not again, and I certainly could not let anyone rescue me. I didn’t need rescuing. I was the one who did that; that was my job. That was what I was born, bred, and trained to do, and I would do it.