Lucas
Lucas ran to the kitchen and grabbed two of Brie’s freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
“I think this should fit her. We’ll find something better later,” Brie said, holding up clothing that he didn’t bother looking at. He took it and launched himself upstairs.
Lucas knocked gently. There was no answer. Entering the room, he kept his head down, just in case. The coast was clear. He heard the shower turn on, immediately followed by the sound of Cass muttering something to herself.
“Cass?” he called into the bathroom.
“Still busy!” she replied quickly. “Is it okay if I get the feathers wet? I couldn’t remove the necklace.”
“It’s fine,” he said, walking into the bathroom, still looking at his feet.
“Don’t come in!” she said.
“I won’t look, but take this.” Lucas looked away. He rolled up his sleeve and blindly stuck his hand through the shower curtain. He’d seen Cass naked once when he’d barged into her room unannounced. They never spoke of it.
“Why are you passing me a cookie in the shower?”
“Just put it in your mouth,” he replied, annoyed at the water dripping down his hand, trailing down his arm and into the sleeve of his shirt.
“That’s what he said,” she replied, laughing at her own joke.
He resisted a laugh; there wasn’t time for jokes. “Cass, please, just—”
“Okay, okay,” she said, the sound of her words muffled by the sounds of chewing. “I will have you know, this is the first time I’m eating in the shower.”
“Clothes are on the bed, and another cookie. Remember, be quick, be quiet.” Lucas rushed out of the room and closed the door behind him. He listened for a few moments while he caught his breath. Cass was here, in his world. As he let out a long sigh, the sound of the shower water running stopped.
Voices traveled upstairs, unfamiliar voices. More than one. He walked downstairs as casually as he could, even though he was aware that he was moving faster than usual.
If they sensed he was anxious, they would know something was up. He shook it off and schooled his expression.
Nisa, a Reborn whom they’d only recently recruited and who was a few years younger than him, stood at the open front door. Two of the royal guards stood in front of her, blocking all light from behind them.
“Hey, boys,” Lucas said plainly as he reached the front door and then he rested a hand on Nisa’s shoulder. “Nisa, Brie’s looking for you in the back garden.”
She looked up at Lucas appreciatively, curtsied and left.
“We smell a Guest, a female Guest.”
Lucas recognized the speaker as being Lochlan’s younger brother, Kain, although he looked at least a few years older. Age meant nothing to Firsts.
“You just missed her.” Lucas leaned against the doorframe, his heart still thumping wildly.
“There was one?” Kain asked, his blue eyes wide. The blue eyes and fair skin were about the only things that resembled Lochlan. He licked his bottom lip, exchanging a glance with the other First before looking back at Lucas. “Where did you find her and where did she go?”
“I just stumbled upon her while out hunting and uh, she ripped off the necklace.” Lucas shrugged casually and then added, “Poof, gone.”
“Why?” he growled. The guard standing beside him rested his hand on the golden hilt of his sword.
“She didn’t want to be here,” Lucas replied, picking at imaginary fluff on his wet sleeve.
“You have to report all Guests to the king,” they shouted in unison.
“I don’t have to do anything,” Lucas spat, feeling his power building. He looked downward, shutting his eyes just in case.
A familiar heavy hand slapped him on his back. “What’s going on here? We paid our taxes, yeah? And we have no kids.”
Lucas exhaled in relief hearing Xo’s deep voice.
“Let me deal with these clowns,” Xo whispered and looked at the two Firsts, who scrunched up their noses in disgust.
“Mind if we take a look around?” Kain asked, a hungry smile spreading across his lips. While it was phrased as a question, they both knew that denying them was not an option.
Xo snuck a look at Lucas and then nodded confidently and shrugged as if it were no big deal.
Lucas’s mind raced to his bedroom, to Cass. He would trade his telekinesis for teleportation right now. He would trade his life for hers.
They led the royal guards through their home. Kain strolled through every room, sniffing loudly, using his telekinesis to move furniture around, open curtains and cupboards. The other guard used his sword to push items around. They reached the bedroom and Lucas squared his shoulders. He would fight them, if he had to. He would kill them, even though killing a royal guard, let alone a prince, was a crime of the highest degree. He wouldn’t let them take her.
His stomach twisted as Xo opened the door and they walked inside, but the room was empty. The clothes were missing from the bed. The windows were wide open, letting in a crisp breeze. They surveyed the room, peeking into the still-steamy bathroom, and moved on.
Kain spun around and unsheathed his sword, his maroon-and-gold cape lifting and falling at the sudden movement. The point of his sword pressed against Lucas’s neck, the cold metal sending a shiver down his spine. “Next time, call us, or you will be invited to the palace for disobeying the king’s orders, and I am sure you don’t want to find out how that goes,” Kain spat.
The thrashing of Lucas’s power inside him grew wilder. He shut his eyes and Xo stepped in between them, gently lowering Kain’s blade, his other large hand raised in surrender. He said, “Yeah, yeah, we hear you. She wanted to leave, ripped off the necklace before any of us could stop her.”
Lucas exhaled the breath he had been holding and nodded. “Of course, your Highness.” He bowed, appealing to the prince’s inflated ego.
Kain shot him a final look of distaste before marching out of the manor.
Lucas slammed the door behind him hard enough for the hinges to complain.
As soon as he was sure Kain was far away enough, he ran through the house. He couldn’t smell her anywhere.
Xo ran ahead of him, surveying all the rooms they had just checked with the royal guard and Prince Kain.
“Are they gone?” Nisa asked, intercepting them in the library, her light brown eyes wide with fear. She almost always looked scared, but Lucas had come to learn that was rarely the truth.
“Where is she?” Lucas asked desperately.
Nisa smiled reassuringly and said, “She’s okay, we hid her…” she paused and grimaced before continuing, “…in the dungeon. It’s the only place we could think of that they don’t know about.”
Relief washed over him. He rubbed his hands across his face, and then it hit him. “The dungeon?” he asked. He didn’t want her in the dungeon. He didn’t want her anywhere near the dungeon.
“Brie’s in there with her. She said it would be fine,” Nisa explained, brushing a loose dark brown curl behind her ear. “I’m sorry, I knew you wouldn’t want her in there.”
Lucas offered Nisa a polite smile and ran downstairs to the dungeon, taking three or four steps at a time. The staircase went down three floors. Each floor it became narrower and narrower until it was only wide enough for one person.
Moving so fast, he could barely stop himself before colliding with the metal door. He grabbed the cold handle and felt his skin prick in the center of his palm as it drew blood. It didn’t make him flinch anymore. The metal bars shifted before he heard the familiar click signaling that it was unlocked. Flinging the door open, he walked inside and found Cass collapsed in the middle of the dungeon on the floor, barefoot with her loose, wet hair strewn across her face. Brie sat beside her, cross-legged, a stern expression across her dainty features.
“She’s okay, I think today’s been a lot for her.” Brie stood and walked toward the dark shadowed corner of the dungeon. “She seems fine. She told me she thinks she had a vision, but then she collapsed before she could say anything else.”
Lucas nodded, but Brie’s focus was already elsewhere. He brushed Cass’s black hair from her face and trailed his finger along her freckles as he did when he first saw her in this realm.
When she was asleep, she looked exactly as she had when they were kids.
After a few moments, her eyes fluttered. The flecks of green in her hazel eyes seemed brighter than usual. He pinched her chin and a confused smile spread across her face.
“I had a vision.”
He smiled at her. “I heard. Do tell.”
“Of you, talking to two men who were looking for me or for a Guest. I could see it clearly, I could hear you clearly,” she said, confusion covering all her features, but still, the smile remained. “It happened when I put this shirt on.” She pulled at the oversized beige t-shirt she was wearing and sat up. Her eyes were wide and filled with questions, questions he was afraid he might not be able to answer.
“That’s my shirt,” Lucas replied, touching her arm. He still couldn’t believe she was here. There was no time to process it. “It must have triggered a vision about me.”
“I know. It smells like the ocean.” She straightened her legs and wiggled her toes. “Why do you smell like the ocean and why do I smell like firewood? Why couldn’t I smell like vanilla, like Brie?”
Brie came out of the shadows and giggled.
Lucas chuckled nervously, glancing toward the dark shadows of the dungeon. It was quiet, at least.
“I smell like vanilla because I was baking. My chosen scent is pine trees,” Brie said, grabbing his shoulder affectionately before turning to head upstairs. “I’ll get some food ready.”
“You chose the ocean? Why?” Cass asked, standing, practically drowning in his t-shirt.
“Reminded me of you, of us, of summer at the beach, surfing, ice lollies…reminds me of home,” he said and stood up. She walked into his arms and he wrapped them around her.
“What’s the point of the chosen scents?”
“To blend in, but it doesn’t always work,” Lucas said, fiddling with the ends of her wet hair. “I don’t actually know. Xo just asked me to pick a scent before he covered mine. Anyway….” Lucas released her and gestured for her to follow him to the dungeon door, but she hesitated.
“Luke,” she said, biting on her bottom lip the way she always did when she was nervous, “I had another vision, when I walked in here.”
Lucas waited in the doorway. “No wonder you collapsed. You need to be careful about overusing your abilities.”
“Not like I asked for it.” She looked up at him and said, “I saw a man in a cage, screaming, and while I don’t hear anything right now, based on what I could see in the vision, I think it’s this dungeon and Brie wouldn’t let me go in that direction….” She pointed at the dark shadowed corner.
Lucas felt his stomach somersault. “It’s nothing.”
“You can’t lie to me.”
He bit down. He had no idea how to explain this to her. “Can we go upstairs and eat something and I swear I’ll explain everything after….” He sighed, turning back to the door. “I need some food in my stomach before we have this conversation.”
“Well, that’s not ominous at all,” Cass joked and he smiled, opening the dungeon door and waiting for her to walk through. He closed the door behind them. He heard the sound of the metal parts locking in immediately.
Brie was in the kitchen slicing onions. She looked up as they entered and smiled, teary-eyed. “Food won’t be done for another half an hour at least, maybe a bit more.”
“Do you need some help?” Lucas offered and Brie shook her head, her eyes landing on Cass, who was walking around the kitchen, looking at everything. “I think your hands are full enough as is.”
Cass turned around and looked at Brie. “Thanks for the clothing and for taking me to the dungeon,” she said, offering up one of her best smiles. The one that always got her out of trouble. Kind and soft.
Brie replied with a smile as kind and soft, and pointed at a loaf of bread on the counter. “Lucas, could you make her a sandwich? I’ll bet she’s starving and too embarrassed to admit it.”
Cass looked as though she would protest and deny her hunger, but instead she simply nodded.
Lucas walked up to the counter and patted a barstool. Cass climbed onto it. He sliced the bread and she was practically salivating. Reaching out to the fridge, he grabbed a block of cheese.
“I don’t see any power lines,” Cass said, eyeing him. “How is your fridge powered?”
“Solar panels out back,” Lucas replied. He stretched out his hand and summoned a jar of butter. He unscrewed the lid and buttered both slices of bread, the way he knew she liked it.
“Huh,” Cass said, “that’s interesting…everything seems kind of…rural.”
Lucas laughed and sliced the cheese. “It is, but the Firsts have access to pretty much everything in your realm. We get the solar panels from the Firsts when we register our villages. It’s part of the agreement.”
“So, are these people here, are they your village people?” she asked.
“We’re called Thistle,” Lucas said with a sigh. “And before you ask, no, we didn’t get to choose the name. The king assigns them…flowers for the First villages, weeds for the Reborns.” Cass’s mouth dropped open and Lucas shook his head, uninterested in discussing the king. “Never mind that.”
“Every time you answer one of my questions, you know you give me ten more, right?”
“I realize. Can you please eat? Your stomach growls keep giving me a fright.” He placed the sandwich on a plate and cut it down the middle. He slid the plate across the counter toward her. Cass was about to argue when her stomach grumbled loudly. She pulled a face at him, picked up the sandwich and hungrily bit into it.
“Luke, what’s my mom going to think when she can’t find me?” she said with her mouth full as if the thought had just struck her.
Lucas leaned on the counter and sighed again. He knew Aunt Maya would freak out.
“I’ll be gone for days, I assume. Is there a way I can contact them? Or go back there and then come back here?” she asked, shoving the last bit of the sandwich into her mouth. She dusted the crumbs off her face and chest onto the table and then brushed it into her hands.
Lucas held out his hand and she gave him the crumbs. “I don’t think there’s a way to contact them and no, as far as I know, you can only be a Guest once…. There isn’t a standard rulebook. I don’t know.” He emptied his hands into the bin in the corner of the kitchen. He grabbed a kitchen towel and wiped the counter.
“So, they’ll think I’m missing, like you went missing?” Cass pursed her lips up on one side, nervously. The pain across her face pulled him into sticky guilt.
“I’m sorry, Cass…I really am…. But unlike me, I’ll make sure you go back. And you’ll be able to help Calla. It’ll be worth it. Promise.” Lucas walked up to her and extended his hand. Cass took it and he led her back down to the dungeon. “Speaking of promises, I promised you I’d tell you what’s going on in the dungeon. But before we go inside, know that what I’m about to show you is scarier than anything you’ve ever experienced.”
She nodded warily.
They walked through the dungeon and to the dark shadowed corner she had asked about. “Luke,” she said. He could hear the fear in her voice. “Could you tell me what it is? What’s so scary?”
Lucas sighed softly. He looked up for a moment. He didn’t know how best to explain it. “It’s our friend, Jean. He’s going to die or he’s going to bite one of us and become one of them.”
“A First?” Cass asked, walking closer toward the dark shadowed area.
Lucas shook his head, the frown line between his brows deepening as the pain curled around his heart. “Like Rahlog. A monster.”