Anastasia (The Bolton Series Book 1) (10 page)

His pacing came to an abrupt stop. His light brown eyes grew dark as he stared at the ground at his feet. I instantly regretted asking the question. In the few months I had known the boy I had never seen him look like that. As if he would attack anything he saw. I mentally kicked myself for always seeming to ask the wrong questions.

His hands clenched in fists at his side. Every muscle in his body tensed up. His eyes grew harder with every passing second.

“No,” he said threw his teeth. I knew it was a lie.

“What happened?” I knew I was prying farther than I should but I could not help myself. I had to know what made this sweet boy turn so hard.

“I don’t like to talk about it.” His gaze still focused on the ground.

“Okay,” I whispered. I played with the hem of my shirt to distract myself. I attempted to cut off a hanging thread but my nail bitten stubs wouldn’t hold on to it.

I wanted to comfort Weldon even though I didn’t know what I would be helping him from. A loud sigh escaped his mouth as he quickly sat back down next to me.

“Being a mer I was raised in the sea,” he said quickly before he changed his mind about talking to me. “A smaller village than usual. There were only five families. When a mer is thirteen they are sent to roam the ocean for eighty two days, no more no less. At first I was fine. Since we lived in such a small village I learned how to hunt at a very young age.

“Then on the twenty seventh day I was attacked.” His voice grew small as he remembered that horrible time. I reached out and grasped his large hand in mine. I intertwined our fingers and gave him a reassuring squeeze.

“I didn’t know what to do afterwards,” he slowly continued. “I was lying on the sea floor broken and bloody. I don’t know how long I lay there. I somehow got the strength to get up and swim. I didn’t know where to go so I went home. I thought my family would help me that they would understand that I couldn’t keep going for the rest of the time. But when I arrived they turned me away. They said I was a disgrace and to never come back. So I didn’t.” That must have been why he shut down after the attack in the woods. He was remembering what happened to him years ago that caused his family to disown him.

“I found myself on a shore somewhere.” He looked up at the sky. His eyes were sad as the memories of those days came back to him. “I thought I was going to die but someone found me and brought me back to the palace where I stayed.”

“How could they do that to you?” my voice rose the more I spoke. “You were just a boy.”

“If a mer doesn’t complete the eighty two days they are considered to be weak and unworthy of living. I was lucky they didn’t kill me.”

My grip on his hand got tighter. I couldn’t believe that his family would just abandon him. He needed their help. He was almost dead.

“I think what you did was brave,” I whispered.

“No it wasn’t” he scoffed.

“It was brave going back to your home knowing what your family would do. You still went, not because you are weak but because you are brave.” I leaned my head against his shoulder. His cold skin was nice against my sun heated body.

“I have never thought of it like that.” His body vibrated with each word said.

“I am sorry that happened to you. I can’t even begin to imagine what you were going through.”

“It was years ago. I’m fine now.” I knew what he said was a lie from how he acted just minutes ago but I let it go.

We sat like that for minutes as we gathered our thoughts. I listened to his breathing, slow and steady.

I was mad at his family. How could they have done something like that to their son? Yes, he didn’t complete the quest but he tried his hardest. There was no way he could have kept going in the condition he was in, he would have died.

I wanted to yell at his parents. Ask them what the heck we’re they thinking. They let go of such an amazing boy just because of that.

I could only imagine what Weldon must have been thinking all these years. To know your family didn’t want any part of you. They would rather you be dead than to stay with them.

“What is going on here?” Yelson boomed from behind us. The suddenness of his voice caused me to jump up from the log. Since my fingers were still intertwined with Weldon’s, he followed.

“N-nothing.” I stammered pulling back my hand and pressing it to my side. I felt like I was caught by a parent doing something wrong but I hadn’t. I was caught by Yelson doing nothing but consoling Weldon.

“We were just talking.” Weldon clarified. I couldn’t tell before but he had been shedding silent tears. “I’ll go and help inside.”

“Weldon,” I said as I tried to stop him. He gave me a small smile.

“I needed that talk. Thank you Annie.” I followed Weldon with my eyes until he disappeared into my family’s cabin. I turned around to see Yelson staring at me. His tensed face had relaxed since he first saw us.

“What was that about?”

“Nothing. I can’t talk about it,” I sighed.

He nodded not pushing me to talk any further. I returned to my seat next to him. He smelled like the woods, like home.

I gazed at the cabin. The blue vines that encased the bottom felt like they were protecting my home from the bad. As long as they were there nothing could happen to it. I hoped it was true.

I wanted to tell everyone inside to leave, that they were disturbing the peace but I couldn’t. They were helping me to find my family.

“You ready to go in?” Yelson asked when he spotted me looking at the cabin.

“Not with everyone inside,” I said. “I need to go in by myself.”

“We will find them Annie. We won’t stop till we do.”

“I know.” My heart froze when I looked over to him. Behind his shoulder two red eyes looked back at me. Its purple lips formed a growl causing a shiver through my body. Yelson quickly spun around at the noise startling the goblin.

“Annie, run!” He grabbed the goblin by its torso as it lunged for me. Its thick black hand managed to get a hold of my arm. It yanked on me so hard I fell off the log hitting my head against it.

My fuzzy sight was able to make out someone running out of the cabin. It was Weldon followed by the guards and Mari.

Yelson jerked the goblin in an attempt to get it away from me but it just got me closer to it. It pulled my arm closer to its sharp teeth. I screamed and pulled against him, trying to get free.

Weldon’s fist made contact with the goblins face. The shock of the hit caused its grip to loosen on my arm. I managed to get free. One of the guards dragged me away to where Mari was standing.

She had her sword out. Her eyes scanned the tree line. Mine followed hers to see half a dozen more creatures emerge from the thick trees. Most were goblins but there were a couple I had never seen before.

We wouldn’t be able to fight them all off.

“Get her in to the cabin.” Yelson barked at his sister. His hands wrapped around the goblins face and twisted its head farther than it should go. The loud snap echoed around the clearing.

My legs refused to move. I stood frozen staring at Yelson in horror. Even though that thing deserved to die, I could not bring

myself to accept that fact that Yelson did it. He killed something in front of me.

“Anastasia.” Mari jerked my arm toward her forcing me to run to the cabin.

Two goblins jumped out of the forest after us. A guard managed to stop one and pinned it to the ground with his body. However the second one was faster and escaped his grasp.

Mari pushed me to keep running as she stopped halfway to the cabin. She cut through the air with her sword. It made contact with the goblins left arm. It fell to the ground letting out a high pitched scream. Within seconds she was running after me. When we entered the cabin she locked the door behind her.

“No, they are still out there,” I screamed at her. She stopped me before I could open the door, holding my arm back with her free hand.

“Yelson told me to bring you in here. Protecting you is the most important thing right now.”

“He is your brother.”

“I know that,” she yelled. She shoved me away as she turned the last lock. “And I know this is what he would want me to do because protecting you is priority.”

“You said that but why?” I asked. She moved past me to look out the window. “Why am I so damn important Mari? It can’t possible just be about Daruka.”

“Yes it is! You are the only person who could end the wrath of Daruka. You can bring peace back to this planet and only you can. So yes you are so important for only that reason. Can we please discuss this another time?” She was right. Everyone else was still outside and I needed to focus on how to help them.

I followed her to the window. She pushed the blue curtains out of the way. From the angle we were at we couldn’t see much. The goblin Mari had injured was still on the floor clutching its arm. Two more bodies lay behind it and only one of the guards, the one who dragged me from the goblin, was visible.

His dark hands blocked a hit from the goblin that was missing an arm. The guard moved to punch the goblin but it was faster and dogged it landing one of its own on his left hip. It quickly kicked the guard’s feet from under him. A cloud of dirt appeared when his large body hit the ground.

A different creature, one I did not recognize, ran to where the goblin now sat on top of the guard. Its large claw like hands started digging into the guard’s chest. Blood had begun to saturate the guards shirt.

“Oh my gosh.” I jumped away from the window and looked to the door.

“Don’t you dare.” Mari closed the blinds blocking our view of the fight.

“We need to help him.” I ran to the door and started to unlock it. Strong hands grasped my shoulders and pulled me away.

“I already told you no. You cannot go out there until Yelson comes for us.”

“We can’t just not do anything Mari. He could die, they all can die,” I tried to reason with her. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if any of them died because of something that was my fault.

“And he was aware of that before he volunteered to come, we all were.”

“What?” I stared at her in shock. She knew there was a possibility something like this would happen.

“Everyone here volunteered to come. Cabel told us that we might get attacked by Daruka’s men because they could be waiting for you to return so that they can kill you. He was right. He also told us that protecting you is our primary concern, no matter the cost.”

Yelson lied to me. He told me the possibility of Daruka’s men attacking was little to none and not to worry about it. I believed him. It was the only reason I was okay with us all returning to my cabin.

“I don’t want anyone to die because of me,” I whispered. I never wanted this to happen. I thought it was safe to come back here.

“I am not letting you out of this cabin.” She planted her feet in front of the door. Her hands rested on her hips as she stared me down.

“Mari, please. I have already lost my family because I hid from the bad guys. I don’t want to lose any more people for the same reason.”

I could see her processing what I said. She knew what it meant to lose people. She lost her parents. She didn’t want to lose her brother too. However, she also knew what it meant for my safety. I was the only one who could end this war and bring back peace to Bolton. If I died there was no more hope left in the world.

“You stay next to my side the entire time.” She grabbed a dagger from her belt and handed it to me. The heavy metal felt foreign in my hands. I hadn’t had much training with weapon but I needed something to protect myself so I gladly took it.

Mari grabbed her sword off the floor. She looked through the peephole before opening the door. Its hinges creaked sending an eerie noise into the unusually silent clearing.

The guard lay face down in the last place I saw him. The goblins who attacked him were nowhere in sight. I ran past Mari to where he laid.

“Anastasia,” Mari hissed after me but it was too late. I knelt down next to his body. It took all my energy to turn him over. His white eyes blankly stared at me.

“He’s dead.” Mari’s cold voice came from behind me. I fumbled with trying to find a pulse even though it was a lost cause. “We need to go.”

She grabbed my forearm and yanked me to my feet. We started walking away from the fallen guard.

I followed her because I needed to find Yelson and Weldon. As much as I was sad for the dead guard, I didn’t feel much. I didn’t know him, not even his name. I needed to find my friends and make sure they were okay. 

No one was in sight. A few bodies littered the ground but other than the guard, I didn’t recognize anyone. I don’t know what I would have done if I did. We walked around the perimeter of the clearing before deciding we needed to go into the forest.

There was a small patch of brush that had been disturbed recently. We both decided it was as good a place as any to enter from.

The mid-day sunlight seemed to disappear in the thick forest. I kept close to Mari while watching out for anyone else. I didn’t want us to get attacked by surprise again.

“Did you hear that?” Mari whispered. She looked into the trees on our left but there was nothing there.

“No.” I strained my ears to hear what she did. She beckoned me to follow her as she moved toward what she was hearing. We walked for a minute before I started to hear it too.

Someone was talking. Their voices were just mumbles but the closer we got the clearer their conversation became. However, they were speaking Greek. I could only make out a few words here and there, nothing to make sense of what they were talking about.

“Do you know what they are saying?” I asked Mari. She seemed to understand what they were speaking.

“They are talking about killing someone,” she said quietly next to me.

“Who?” My breath quickened at the thought of it being one of the guys. Maybe they had gotten one of them somehow.

“I don’t know. But he is there with them.”

I listened to the men’s voices. It was two people talking back and forth to each other. Their scratchy voices fought over something I couldn’t make out. After a few minutes new voice joined the conversation. One voice I never thought I would hear again.

“We need to save him.” I whispered quickly as my heart rate sped up in my chest.

“Anastasia I know you want to but I just don’t think we can.” Mari shook her head.

“I have to,” I hissed at her. She must have sensed the determination in my voice because after a minute she nodded. Her