The Binding (5 page)

He stands for a minute watching me not saying a word, then his face ch anges and the scowl is gone.
Silently , he turns and walks back into the front room. I stand looking at the empty doorway, and then mentally slap myself back into action. I don’t bother closing the door again . I grab my boots from the closet and shove my feet into them, tying the laces as quickly as I can.
They’re my old hiking boots that I haven’t worn in a few months.
I’m leaning over them when a drop of water lands on top of my left boot. A tear…
seriously ?
Why am I crying now?
I haven’t shed a tear since Lucas’ disappearance four years ago , but it seems that’s all I’ve been doing since his reappearance earlier.

I
don’t know how things got to this p oint, but I know that I’m alone, again. I straighten up wiping at my eyes. I don’t know why Tha rin hates me so much, but he did save my life from my own brother. Despite his animosity toward me, I know that one fact is true : H
e saved my life tonight . Regardless of his feelings for me, I know he’ll protect me from the Ange and from Lucas . I have to also consider both Marilyn’s and Julia’s safety. Julia! Without thinking twice, I take out another piece of paper and write down an address.

As I stand I find myself looking in the mirror. I look a wreck.
S
tanding in front of me is a girl with hair tied hastily into a ponytail and about ten pounds overweight. My t-shirt is a little tight from the extra pounds I’ve gained the last few months , but it’s not stretched to its limit. My eyes , the color of “
light beer ”
according to Juli a , are red from crying and tired—
looking . I touch the small scratch under my eye and as unbelievable as it is, it’s already healing. The arrow must ha ve barely touched me. I can’t remember, but I thought there was blood . It also hurt more than just a scratch would have .

I try looking for the girl who a woke this morning, go ing about her business as usual. The girl b efore she found out about a royal heritage and the target on her forehead.
So much has happened to night, strange and unbelievable things. I feel disconnected, but mostly, I feel alone. I’ve been alone before, but this time it’s different. It’s not only being alone, but being lonely . The feeling is overwhelming. I hold back the tears and swallow the loneliness. I stare at myself in the mirror. I have a hard time seeing the girl who overslept this morning thinking of nothing but going for a run .

I sigh dejectedly because I didn’t always look this way. I was in track from junior high through my junior year in high school , on the varsity volleyball team and took martial arts at Mr. Li ’s with Julia for a little more than six months . That is until Frank found out about it and pulled her out .
Without Julia training with me, what was the point in staying on?

Looking at
myself in the mirror , I finally make a decision.
I’m done feeling sorry for myself and being scared.
I’m going to Velesi to find Lucas and bring him home. What happens after that, we ’
ll just have to wait and see. I take one last look at my room, perhaps my last look.
The ribbons from track and volleyball , and the trophies from the two competitions I entered as a student of Mr. Li’s, are on the wall. I really should have cleaned my room whe n Marilyn asked me to. It’s too late now.

I pull
my backpack out from the corner and empty out the contents. I grab another pair of jeans, three pairs of socks, some underwear and three more t-shirts, stuffing them all into the pack. I shove my running shoes in hard as I zip up the pack. I grab my hoodie from off the floor, slipping it on as I make my way to the door.

I walk out
, closing the door behind me , and I move into the living room to find Tharin and Tolan waiting . They b oth have their beanies back on, ears tuck ed underneath. I look around the room for Cessa, but she’s no where to be seen .

Tolan smiles at me reassuringly and I step up to him, almost whispering, “I’ll go with you , but on one condition.” At that, Tharin turns slight ly toward us, but I keep my eyes on Tolan.

“Yes?” asks Tolan, moving in closer to hear me better.

“My friend Julia, she has to come with us. I won’t leave her here alone.”

“Doesn’t your friend have family?”

“She does, Tolan, but she might as well be raised by wolves. I don’t want to leave her, please.” I look at him pleadingly, and he smiles gently with a puzzled look on his face .

“All right, give me her address. I’ll find your Julia for you and bring her with us.” He turns to Tharin saying, “I’ll meet you at the vehicles, give me an hour.”

Tharin nods. I hand the piece of paper with Julia’s address over to Tolan. He takes it from me , gently touching my fingers. Embarrassed, I pull my hand away quickly. I meet his eyes and he smiles at me again. He then bows slightly and is quickly out the door.

I’m
not sure if Tharin noticed, not that he would care .
I just don’t want him to think I was flirting with his brother . Then I realize that Tharin isn’t even looking at me . He doesn’t wait for me either. He walks out the front door without a word . I follow behind him as he leads me out into the night.

*

I stand in the middle of the small living room looking around me . This is a humble home, warm and welcoming.
The furniture is old and worn, but clean and covered with blankets knitted by caring hands. The small old bookshelves are mismatched and full of well—
read books of all types. The wood floors are worn, but clean and dust—
free as are the rest of the furnishings in this quiet, unassuming home.
I suddenly feel like an intruder, a thief in the night come to steal the princess away. Lily and the life she surrounds herself with is not what I expected.
She’s the daughter of Queen Senestra and John Michaels, a human warrior in his own right.
She’s also sister to Lucas, the Black Prince . I expected her to be pampered and ensconced in a life of luxury. Instead I find a humble being who has n o t deserved any of my rudeness or anger.

The image of her standing in her room, with her top still over her head, and then how she quickly pulled her shirt down comes back to me. Her modesty surprised me , standing there shaking with a look of fear and innocence .
I found myself thinking about how beautiful she is, even if she doesn’t know it. At that moment I wanted to go to her and just hold her, the way I held her in the chair. I wanted to rub her back and tell her that everything would be okay. I wanted to wash away any fear and comfort her until she stopped shaking. Instead, I had to look away. I walked out of there before I did something I would regret.

I shut my eyes and clench my fists even tighter. I will not care for her. I will marry her and honor the treaty. Then I will let her do as she pleases. She can come back here and have as many lovers as she wants ; I don’t care. As for me, I will go through the Binding with Kalis as we were meant to . Kalis. I realize that I haven’t thought of her since the attack earlier. I try to think of Kalis and bring her face to my mind, but all I can see is a black hair she-devil with innocent honey-colored eyes.

I h
ear Lily come out of her room, but I keep my back to her, waiting for her to come to me. Instead, she walks over to Tolan and asks him to do her a favor. When she hands the note to Tolan, I see the contact between them and I turn away.
Maybe she and Tolan will be lovers and I won’t have to worry about her any longer.
Then why do I have the urge to strangle my brother?

“I have to leave her with you, Tharin. Promise me you’ll not mistreat her again.”
Tolan’s words come quietly in my mind, but the hard edge behind them doesn’t escape me.

Without a word I nod. I watch as he walks out the door, and then he’s gone.
He’s going after Julia because our little Princess doesn’t want to leave her friend. Now that’s more of what I expected.

As soon as I sense her approach, I walk toward the front door and lead her out into the night. I don’t want to look at her. I don’t want to see those honey-colored eyes staring back at me filled with fear and mistrust ―
those same eyes that looked upon Tolan with trust and kindness. I take another deep breath and straighten my shoulders. I will not be bowled over by this girl, for I am Tharin Lunar of the Oak Clan. I am the future king of Velesi , le ader of the Thirte en Clans and Lily Michaels is my betrothed.

I sigh heavily before landing another step. I just wish someone had told her that.

*

We
hav e been walking for about four blocks now with Tharin leading and me following along. He hasn’t said a word since we left the house. When we walked out I was heading for the car, but Tharin continued north on foot. I figured we would be back before Marilyn returned from Australia so we could have taken her car while she was gone. I mean, how long can it take to find Lucas and bring him back?

Tharin stops
at the corner in front of a 7-Eleven convenien ce store.
It’s late and there’s no one at the gas pumps, but there i s light coming from within the store. Every now and then he would slow down and wait for me to catch up. Each time we stopped he would start to say something to me, but then he woul d take a frustrated breath and continue walk ing . If he has something to say, I wish he woul d just say it.

Tharin
watches me as I finally catch up to him at the pumps . Again , he’s about to say something, but turns and walks away.
After two steps he stops , his body tense and alert. I sense the tension running through him and feel it growing within my own body. In one smooth motion, he takes off his coat throwing it around my shoulders , and pulls me against him. He practically lifts me as we head for the convenience store when a spinning silver blade sho o t s past us with unbelievable speed.
It’s shaped like a Frisbee, but bigger. It fl ies by us and crashes through the glass doors , continuing through the far end of the store . Seconds later , as we mak e it through the door, the spiraling disk comes back at us without losing any momentum. Tharin shoves me to the side , covering me with his own body as we hit the floor hard.
As soon as the disk whips past us, Tharin i s back up on his feet . He pulls me up after him as he runs toward the opposite side of the store, trying to reach the back room . I look behind me and see the young male clerk watching wide-eye d in shock.

“Get down!” I yell at him . That seem s to shake him out of his stun ned disbelief .
W
ithout hesitation he throws himself on the floor behind the counter.

“Move!” yells Tharin as he continues dragging me with him.

We
make it to the door to the back room when I hear the spinning sound come again.
I’m slow t o react .
I feel a searing pain as something strikes me from behind. I stumble to my knees, but Tharin lifts me up and throws me into the back room, slamming the door s hut with him on the other side.
I land on my knee and feel the pain shoot through my left hip . I sit back, breathing hard. I shove my hands through the arms of Tharin’s coat, and flip the length behind me as I pull up my left leg. The knee is tender, but not seriously hurt . I get up on my feet and limp my way back to the door. Just as I reach the handle , the door flies open and Tharin rushes in. Without missing a beat , he grabs his coat and pulls me forward taking me along for the ride. He tucks me into the croo k of his arm and with his other hand shoves my head into his chest.
His rock-hard body is warm and safe. I can’t breath e and trying to catch my breath is painful. I struggle to keep up and can feel the sticky sweat through his shirt. I pull my head up enough to look at my hand and see red.
He’s bleeding! I try to pull out of his hold when we burst through the back door and find ourselves in an alley. To the right is the way back to the street and between freedom and us are three men with their back s to us.

At the sound of the door opening , they turn on us swiftly, weapons ready . One holds something that looks like a machine gun , another has a semi-automatic and the third is holding a large hand gun.
I’m terrified and in pain , but my mind is focused on the blood on my hand. Without thinking, I pull away from Tharin shoving him behind me. I stand with my arms out as if to shield him from the men in front of us. I don’t know what I’m thinking or doing, but I know I can’t let Tharin keep putting himself in danger for me.
He’s hurt and I have to give him time to get away.

“Don’t come near us!”
The strength of my voice surprises me. I command Tharin to run.

The men in front of me relax a bit, looking from one to the other . When I don’t hear any movement from behind me, I turn to Tharin, “What are you waiting for?
Run , I said!
RUN
!
”

Tharin
doesn’t move, instead he looks at me bewildered before bending over laughing.

“What the…?” I turn back to the three men and find them smiling at me.
It’s then that I finally notice they bear a close resemblance to Tharin. Each is wearing a coat and beanie just like Tharin and To lan. They start walking toward us, and e ven though I know they must also be e lves, I still push myself back against Tharin, my arms out protecting him, keeping myself between him and them. The men each look at me as they walk past. When the building that we were just in starts to shake, it’s their cue to take off, with the guy at the end taking one last glance at me. He smiles and winks before running after his friends.