Heir to the Second Line, Part One

Chapter 1

One

Avalon

The First Day Of The Revolution

“My name is Lierick Hanovan, and I’m here to surrender.”

My visceral response to the man in front of me was incandescent rage, which made no sense.

I didn’t know him. Maybe there was even a little attraction, but only because he was objectively handsome, with hair so golden that it didn’t seem real, and dark eyes like two sinkholes that lured you in, holding you tightly as you fell into their abyss.

Shaking my head, I refocused. “The armada at your back would say otherwise. I don’t need to be the Librarian to know the name Hanovan and deduce you aren’t here to kneel to the First Line.”

The smile Lierick gave me was almost proud. “I should have been more specific. I’m here to surrender to you specifically, Daughter of the Ninth Line.”

I looked between Vox and Hayle, like they might have any idea what the fuck was going on right now. “My name is Avalon. Avalon Halhed.”

He smiled. “I know.”

Throwing my hands in the air, I looked back at Vox for answers. He watched our—my?—prisoner with hard eyes. “The Second Line is dead.”

The first sign of anything but congeniality flashed across Lierick’s face, as animosity clouded his expression.

“Obviously, we aren’t, despite the hard work of the First Line.

I’m sure they broke quite a sweat while killing women and children, murdering babies in their cribs and the elderly in their beds.

” He spat the words like venom. “Despite what was obviously a well-planned exercise, we survived.” He turned back to me, dismissing Vox entirely.

“I would request an audience with you, Avalon. I feel like there are a lot of things you don’t know yet, truths that would definitely make everything seem clearer. ”

I looked around the courtyard, searching for some hint about what was happening.

Svenna, who seemed almost dazed, was no help.

Enora, the Librarian, was watching the whole interaction like she couldn’t wait to get a pen and paper and scribe it down.

But there were no other instructors out here, nor were there any other students. In fact, it was strangely quiet.

I was inclined to believe what the man in front was who he said he was, with his gold-and-black uniform that I’d never seen before—not in all those long Battle Strategy lectures, not even in the history books.

Behind Lierick was another man, clad in the same uniform, his hand on his sword and his eyes constantly moving, looking for threats. Definitely a soldier.

“Who’s that?”

Lierick looked over his shoulder. “My cousin and self-imposed bodyguard, Iker.”

Iker appeared to be around a decade older than the rest of us, and he appraised Boellium with a barely concealed look of contempt. He oozed menace, but held himself like a warrior.

Hayle’s eyes tracked him, and I didn’t miss Braxus edging to the left, protecting his master. Or protecting me. I adored that hound.

“How is he holding everyone else back?” Hayle asked softly, though his tone was all grit.

Lierick gave him a smirk. “Third Line, you said? I bet the First Line treats you like you’re nothing but dumb animals.

We know that you were once the spymasters of Ebrus, and perhaps we know a few more secrets that have gotten lost in your histories.

” He tapped his temple, then looked at Iker.

“Iker is just using a little persuasion to keep things calm. Everyone sees what they want to see, and no one’s overly stressed about what’s happening out here. ”

Calm lambs to slaughter.

Vox let out a growl that probably would’ve been more at home in the Third Line. “Enough with the fucking word games. What do you want?”

The remaining good humor melted from Lierick’s face as he looked at the man who held my heart in his hands. Vox was giving his best nonchalant Heir face, like he found this whole thing tedious. Like he could squash the men in front of us like bugs.

I wasn’t sure that was true. There was a reason his ancestors had the Second Line wiped out. They’d been a real threat to the First Line’s position of power, which meant they were strong in magic.

Lierick’s eyes moved around the courtyard, and even over at the horizon, like he was expecting the Dawn Army to appear.

“That is a conversation for somewhere more private, once Avalon is in possession of a lot more information. Librarian? Would it be possible to use your library? Perhaps see those books that are no doubt the reason you’re standing out here, rather than safely in the stacks. ”

“Librarians were once warriors too. We were also on the front lines of battles,” she snapped, sounding pissy. When Lierick raised a hand appeasingly, she huffed an annoyed sound, but eventually nodded. “This way. We’ll go through the rear entrance.”

I didn’t want to expose myself as being clueless, but since when did the library have a back entrance?

However, I seemed to be the only one confused. No one stopped us as we walked down the small, winding path between the atrium and the exterior wall, stopping at a large wooden door with no handle. No keyhole. Nothing. But when the Librarian pushed it, it swung open on silent hinges.

“Your friend will need to stay outside.” Enora’s tone was firm, and when Iker went to protest, Lierick gave a quick shake of his head.

“Of course, Librarian.” The two intruders seemed to have a silent conversation, before Iker huffed, taking up position against the stone wall.

Inside the door was a long hallway that seemed to be bathed in sunlight, despite being inside. The Librarian walked briskly in front, with Hayle indicating that Lierick should go ahead. Vox went next, and the hounds flanked me, before Hayle brought up the rear.

I rolled my eyes. The Heir to the Second Line was using his psychic abilities on over a hundred people while having a pleasant conversation, and hadn’t even broken a sweat.

If he’d wanted to kill me, he probably would’ve done so by now.

But still, I humored both Hayle and Vox by walking between them.

The ceilings in the corridor were high-vaulted, and I could see flashes of the glass dome.

Long mirrors midway down the stone walls bounced around the light that streamed in.

An open door off the hallway showed a small kitchen, and beyond that, a bedroom.

Were these the Librarian’s living quarters?

I’d figured she just made a nest under her desk and slept sitting up, like an owl.

She pushed through another plain door with no obvious handle, and we ended up in a room I was all too familiar with. The official entrance to the library, including the circulation desk.

Enora stopped, and we all halted like little ducklings behind her. “Speak now,” she commanded softly, but once again filled with an authority I wasn’t sure she possessed.

Lierick raised an eyebrow, and that one small gesture told me more than all his confident assertions. He was used to being the one giving orders. He was used to being obeyed.

He really was the Heir to the Second Line. Fuck me.

Turning his attention back to me, his face became serious. “I think it’s best to show her the copy of A Future History of Ebrus first. It will help answer a few more questions.”

The Librarian must have agreed, because she reached beneath the long circulation desk and pulled out two-gold embossed books and a letter.

“These came back from Fortaare with Mr. Taeme and Mr. Vylan. It took me far too long to assess and catalog them. It would have saved us all so much grief if I had been faster.” Her eyes flicked to me, then back down at the stack.

“The letter is addressed to you, Miss Halhed.”

Frowning, I slid the letter from the top. The handwriting seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it. It wasn’t my father’s or brother’s—the script was far too feminine—and honestly, no one else would bother. Especially no one from Fortaare.

Hayle nudged me. “Read it.”

My eyes skimmed the words, my brain tripping over the information. It should be impossible. No, it was impossible. I looked at Hayle. “It’s from Ellanora Halhed.”

Our family was once incredibly powerful, Avalon, and you, the Ninth Daughter of the Ninth Line, will be the most powerful of all, if not the one steeped in the most pain. Because the universe is about balance, and the Goddess gifts with both hands.

What I’m about to tell you is of the utmost importance, Avalon. You control the fate of Ebrus. The lives of hundreds of thousands of people rest on your shoulders and will be decided by your decisions.

You are a Recreationist.

A Recreationist. The word reverberated through me, like it was encoded in my blood and bone, so achingly familiar, yet foreign all the same. I knew its definition somewhere, deep in my soul, where we tended to reject the things that didn’t make sense.

Like the feelings I had for Hayle. The feelings for Vox. The dreams. So many dreams that had felt so real.

“Show me,” I whispered, and Enora pushed the top book toward me. A Future History of Ebrus.

The title was a contradiction, and shouldn’t make sense. Yet it did. Even before I opened the first page, I almost knew what I would find.

A child is born. A Daughter of the Ninth Line. This one, more powerful than all those before her, will suffer and succeed. The Ninth. The Ninth. The Ninth.

I skipped through the pages, but when my eyes snagged on a familiar name, I stopped.

Some people are destined to die, no matter how much we wish it weren’t so. Malina Halhed is a sweet soul, someone so pure that even the Goddess favors her. She loves her husband, her children, the people of her Barony.

Her pure heart is the reason she is chosen to keep the balance.

A beautiful catalyst. Her fate is tied to that of her beloved youngest daughter.

When Avalon stumbles close to the edge of a cliff, Malina doesn’t think; she races to her daughter, pushing her back, but loses her balance and falls to her death.

Summoning the powers of the Recreationist for the first time, Avalon resets the time to the last Swell, a place where she deemed the world to make sense, or a safe place to rest.

She resets to her crib in her parents’ room, Malina waking her with a smile.

It was my dream. One of many I’d had over the years, where I watched my mother trip and fall, her face getting smaller and smaller as she fell to the bottom of the ravine, the maid’s hand on my arm stopping me from falling down after her. I flicked to the next page.

Malina picking flowers with Avalon. Calling Avalon back from too close to the edge of the ravine, she reaches for the large purple epsirialle flower that Avalon wanted.

Unfortunately, Malina trips on a rock that has been exposed from strong rains the week before, and stumbles over the edge.

The child, Avalon, screams for her mother until time resets.

She wakes again in her crib, Malina smiling down at her.

Maid covets the Baron of the Ninth Line for herself. Pushes Malina over the edge.

Malina falls backwards, hitting her head, and in a daze, falls over the cliff. The Goddess must intervene to prevent the infant from resetting the moment over and over. The trauma is staining her soul. Avalon returns home. But her Recreationist powers have activated.

I didn’t understand. My heart was thundering so loudly, I was sure they could all hear it. I flicked to the end of the book, but it was blank. I skimmed back to the middle, and today’s date flashed at me.

The Heir to the Second Line, Lierick Hanovan, uses his persuasion powers to take hold of the mind of Vox Vylan, lover of Avalon Halhed and Heir to the First Line.

Using the powers of his Line, Lierick Hanovan forces Vox Vylan to turn his gun on himself, shooting himself in the heart.

This is witnessed by the Recreationist, and she resets time to her last Swell, although she is still unaware of what that moment means.

A time where she is loved and secure. A safe place.

Fortunately, it is only hours beforehand, with her other lover, Hayle Taeme.

I looked up at Lierick Hanovan. He looked almost… contrite. Pulling back my arm, I punched him in the face as hard as I could. His nose crunched beneath my knuckles, but it wasn’t enough. That instinctive rage I’d felt earlier made sense now.

“You fucking killed him? You killed him, and you have the audacity to sit across from me and smile that smug fucking expression at me?” I dived across the table, and we crashed to the ground.

He lay there as I hit him, throwing every ounce of training I had behind my fists.

Lierick didn’t even try to dodge my blows, taking every single one like a penance, until Hayle pulled me back and into his arms.

“A different Lierick did that. A Lierick who didn’t know you even existed, not really. I wouldn’t do it now, knowing what he means to you. I swear it on my life, and the life of my people.” Lierick’s face was both sad and earnest, and I hated that I believed him.

I breathed heavily, the tears stinging my eyes. Vox’s expression was hard. “Fucking explain,” he muttered ominously.

Lierick nodded. “It’s better that I start at the beginning.”