Anastasia (The Bolton Series Book 1) (14 page)

speed than I thought possible and moved to hit my midsection again.

I fell to the mat clutching my side. That had to be the worst hit yet.

“Master I think Annie has had enough for the day.”

Master Kai sat on the farthest corner of the mat assessing our every move. He slightly nodded letting us know we were dismissed. “First thing tomorrow morning you will resume. Anastasia still needs much work.”

“Yes Master.” We said in unison.

Yelson helped me up from the ground. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. I need the tough love right now. It’s not like we have much time left for me to train.”

Yelson’s face fell at my words. He knew it was only a matter of days before I would be sent to end Daruka.

We said our goodbye to Master Kai before we walked out the door.

As soon as I was in my room I grabbed my pj’s and ran to the bathroom before Yelson could get in the shower. The cold water helped to calm my stressed body.

This was the second day I practiced with the swords. I was nowhere near being decent with the weapon. I needed some sort of miracle to happen, some hidden power that made me a professional with the sword. That, however, would never happen. It was something I had to practice with. I would learn it sooner or later, preferably sooner.

I turned off the water and got dressed as quickly as my sore body would let me. I knew Yelson was waiting by the door, I could hear his thoughts of today’s practice. He was wondering what to do to get me to learn it faster.

“All yours,” I said as I passed him to get to my room.

“Thanks.”

I locked my door behind me. I didn’t want Yelson to enter.

I knelt down next to my bed and pulled out the box my sword was in. I could still feel it in my blood but it just asked for more. It’s as if it was a drug and I needed my fix.

My fingers traced the symbols on the box. I lingered on the bandraoi’s crest. I had finally understood what Simon had said about the blue crystal. We didn’t carry it around because it was us. It was our blue eyes that let the world know who we were.

After a minute I lifted the lid. Lying were I had put it was my sword. Its silver metal gleamed in the light begging to be lifted off its velvet bedding.

Giving in to its temptation I picked it up. Blue flames once again exploded from my hands and traveled up the blade before returning. The coven symbols perfectly glowed blue.

I smiled as the power surged through me. I had never felt anything like it before. It was as if nothing could touch me, I was indestructible.

“Daruka doesn’t know what’s coming for him,” I smiled before putting my sword back.

After breakfast the next morning Yelson and I went to practice. He taught me more about proper technique and this time I listened the every word as closely as I could. I had to understand this as quickly as possible.

I was happy when my sword made contact with Yelson’s midsection. It meant I was doing something right. He didn’t give me time to celebrate before he was attacking me again. I made contact with his shoulder one more time before he hit me six times in a row.

When I couldn’t lift my arm from the hits Master Kai dismissed us. It wasn’t even dinner time yet.

I took a quick shower before I met Emilie in the kitchen. She stirred a big pot of noodle soup. I laughed as she had to stand on a stool to reach the top of it.

“Hey you, how was practice today?”

“Good. I can’t feel my arm though.”

“I have to have a word with Yelson then. He is supposed to be teaching you not hurting you to the point where you have a big ugly bruise on you.” She pointed to the golf ball sized bruise on my upper arm.

“It’s okay Em, really. I need the push.”

“Not that much. I know that he goes too far sometimes and I know you won’t say anything to him about it so I must. Now do you want to eat?”

Emilie served me a bowl of soup when Yelson came in carrying Arabella on his shoulders. She squealed as he put her down on her chair.

“Hi Annie.”

“Hey Arabella,” I smiled at her. It was days since I had last seen her. Her blue dress matched her hair perfectly. “Want to go with me to brush Mary after dinner?”

“Yes,” she beamed at me. She was always happy to do things with me. Now I knew why. I was the princess. The thought made me shiver.

We quickly ate our meal and ran out to the barn. Yelson being the protective body guard followed us.

Mary was happy to see us. She let Arabella brush her while I fed her a sugar cube. Arabella loved the horses. Her face always lit up when she was around them.

“Annie, can I talk to you?” Yelson asked when he saw Arabella preoccupied.

“Sure,” I said as I exited the stall. We moved as far as we could from the stall but were still able to have the young girl in our sights. “What’s up?”

“Kenelm wants to know if you will see him tomorrow.”

“What?” I hadn’t seen him since the day he gave me the book. He left the palace after I ran to Ulma’s. I didn’t know where he went when he wasn’t at the palace and I never asked.

“He is your father Annie. He just wants the chance to talk with you.”

“And what if I don’t want to talk with him? Do I have a choice?”

“Of course you do, you always do. That is why he asked me to ask you. He doesn’t want you to do something you don’t want to. He just wants you to be happy Annie.”

“I just don’t know if I’m ready for that. My whole life growing up was a lie because of him.”

“Maybe he could answer those questions. I know you are wondering why he never tried to get you back.”

“I know why,” I said. Arabella stopped brushing Mary to give her a sugar cube. She giggled as Mary’s lips touched her

palm. “Ulma said Amelia promised my parents not to come back. Kenelm would have respected that.”

Yelson stared at me with a sense of humor. I looked back at him with a sense of confusion. That boy sure knew how to make my wheels spin. “What?”

“You should talk to him.” Was all he said before he told Arabella it was time to go inside. I stayed with Mary to give me some time to think.

I didn’t want to talk to that man. He let some other people take me and didn’t even try to get me back. If he did I knew my parents would have let him. They wouldn’t have wanted me to grow up like that. They would have wanted what was best for me and that would have been with Kenelm, my real father.

He didn’t care that someone else had me, his daughter. He just continued living his life. That’s what I wanted to believe. It would make it that much easier for me not to like him. I didn’t want to like him anymore. But it was a lie that I was telling myself.

Kenelm loved me even though he never knew me. He was just following what Amelia told me parents. He knew she would have never wanted me to come back because Daruka wouldn’t stop his search for me until I was dead and she was right.

Maybe I should just talk with him for a few minutes. Yelson was right, I did want more answers even though I seemed to regret it when I got them.

When I made my way back into the palace Yelson sat at the table waiting for me.

“I’ll talk to him.”

“Good,” he sighed. “He’ll come tomorrow at noon. Master Kai said you must go to practice afterward.”

“Okay. Yelson?”

“Yes?”

“Can you come with me real quick? There is something I have been wondering since I got the sword.”

“Okay.” He followed me to my room. I closed the door behind him and went to my bed. I kneeled down for the box that held the sword of Ustrina and brought it out. I patted the floor next to me, motioning for him to sit by me. He did as I asked.

“Kenelm told me that he thought the sword would kill Daruka without me having to be the one holding it. He told me how you volunteered to do it. That, by the way, is a stupid idea.” Yelson laughed lightly at me. “But I remember Simon telling me that only a full blooded witch could activate its powers.”

I opened the box to reveal the sword. I pressed my palmed to my thighs to keep me from touching it. This was something Yelson had to try.

“You want me to touch it?” His accent had gotten deeper as he fought for the words to say.

“Yes. I know you are half siren. I may not know the other half, and that’s okay, but maybe it would still work for you. If something were to happen to me before I could stop Daruka at least you would still be there. We would still have a chance.”

“Nothing is going to happen to you Annie. Not as long as I breathe.”

I smiled at him. He would really risk his life for me. I hoped and prayed that it never got to that point. “We have to think realistically Yelson. This isn’t some fairytale where you know the good guys will win. This is real life. Life where the bad guys have constantly won. There is always a chance one of us won’t make it.”

“You can’t talk like that.”

“I have too. Please Yelson.” I pushed the box towards him. He eyed it suspiciously before looking over to me.

“This isn’t going to work you know.”

“We have to try. I need to know that you all will still have a chance if something were to happen to me out there.”

“It’s not going to work because I won’t ever have to use it.” Yelson touched his palm to my cheek. “As much as I wished you didn’t have to do this I know you can. It’s in you Annie, the power to bring peace back to this world. The bad guys will never have a chance against a good girl like you.” I laughed at him. He took his hand away from my face and turned back to the sword. “Don’t be disappointed if this doesn’t work. Okay?”

I nodded my head. His hand moved slowly to the leather handle of the sword. He took one deep breath as I held mine before he grabbed it.

There was no flash of blue as there had been when I touched it. Yelson didn’t feel anything surge through him like I did.

“No,” I whispered. It didn’t work. Now I truly was Bolton’s only hope. If something were to happen to me out there, if I were to die, both planets would be at the mercy of Daruka.

“Annie I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I sort of knew it wouldn’t work. Now I just have to make sure not to die.”

“Don’t talk like that. I told you nothing is going to happen to you.” I simply nodded. Yelson put the sword back into its box and put the cover on it. He pushed it back under the bed. He lifted me from the floor. “Come on. You have a big day tomorrow. Get some sleep.”

I let him guide me to the bed. I didn’t bother to change into my night clothes I just moved the covers over me.

“It is going to be okay Annie, as long as we are together. I promise you that.”

“I know. Goodnight Yelson.”

“Goodnight Annie.”

*~*

Yelson knocked on my bedroom door just before noon. When I opened it he was leaning against my doorframe. I smiled at the sight in front of me. Even in his blue jeans and plaid shirt he could take the breath out of me.

“He’s here.”

I nodded and backed away from the door. I stood in front of my mirror and braided my hair to the side. I was just procrastinating and Yelson knew it.

“Hey,” he whispered by next to me. He saw the shakiness in my hands as I tied the elastic around my hair. “You have nothing to be scared of.”

“I know. It’s just that this is going to be the first time I have talk to him since I found out the truth.” I grabbed the book he had given me off my dresser and opened to the painting of Amelia. “This is her, my mother.”

Yelson took the book from me. He smiled as he looked it over. “She was very beautiful. You look just like her.”

“Yea,” I sighed. “I wish I got to know her.”

“It might be too late for you to know your mother but it is not too late to know your father.”

I had to get to know Kenelm. I knew I did. I needed to take this opportunity to get to know my real father. But the thought scared me. I already had a dad even if he was gone. It felt like a betrayal in some way.

“Have you looked through the rest of this?” he asked me as he turned the page.

“No, I haven’t had the chance too with practice.” I looked over Yelson’s shoulder as he skimmed through the pages. “He wrote all these?”

Book was really a journal. After the painting was Kenelm’s handwritten letters. He addressed every entry to me. Yelson let me take it out of his hands. I had to read them. The first entry was dated two weeks after my birthday.

November 16, 1994.

My dearest Anastasia,

I know you are too young to understand what is occurring. However, I want you to know that I never wished for this to happen. I thought I was helping to bring you into a planet of peace, a place you were happy to call home but now it is nothing more than war and death.

I respect your mother’s wishes of sending you to earth with Alder and Celesta. Your mother wanted nothing more than to have a girl. When you were born she smiled the brightest she ever had. So, I know she will only do what is best for you.

But that does not stop me from wanting to go there and take you away from them. You are my daughter and I love you more than life itself.

I hope you are able to understand that I had no other choice. I will find a way to end Daruka before you get of age. That is the very least of what I owe you.

With all my love,

Your Papa.

I felt Yelson pull me towards the bed. He sat me down knowing I probably would have fallen if he didn’t.

Hearing that my father actually wanted me made my heart flutter. I wanted to believe that he didn’t care for me. That was why he didn’t try to get me back. But it wasn’t true. My father loved me even if he didn’t get to know me all these years.

“Annie,” Yelson sighed my name as he brushed a tear away from my cheek.

I looked at Yelson and smiled. His gray eyes held nothing but concern for me like they always did. “Thank you Yelson,” I said as I hugged him. His warmth instantly surrounded me as I let out a sigh of relief.

“I’ll always be here for you. You’ll never be alone again,” he said into my hair causing a shiver to go throughout my body. I could hear in his mind how much he cared for me. I also saw something that made my heart skip a beat.

He wanted to kiss me.

I immediately backed away from our hug. He looked a little sad at me. He didn’t want it to end so soon. I swear my heart was beating so fast in my chest that I thought he could hear it.

I wanted him to kiss me. I’ve wanted it since I arrived at the palace. However, I was scared. I have never been kissed other than the pecks on my cheeks from my family. With our constant moving I never found time to have a boyfriend or even friends until I moved here.

“I should go see him,” I whispered as I tried to ignore his thoughts.

“Yeah,” he said as I stood up from the bed.

“I’ll see you at practice?”

“Of course.”

I walked out of my room and walked straight to Cabel’s study. Cabel was gone for the day so we weren’t going to be interrupted.

Kenelm stood next to the desk with his back towards me. I didn’t know what I was doing as I ran to hug him from behind. He seemed just as surprised as I was because he jumped at my contact.

He turned around and hugged my back. My body convulsed as I cried onto his shirt. He didn’t say a word as his hands soothingly patted my hair.

“I’m so sorry,” I cried into his chest. “I thought you didn’t want me. But I read your journal and I’m so sorry.”

“You had every right to think that,” he said as he pulled apart our embrace too look me in the eyes. “I never wanted you to be taken away from me. You are my whole world. When I finally convinced Alder and Celesta to bring you back you were already grown up. They didn’t want to tell you just yet. That is why they took you to that cabin to live at. They didn’t want you to hate them for not telling you the truth.”

“They were right. I probably would have hated everyone but that would have been because I didn’t understand. If you all just told me everything from the beginning instead of beating around the bush for months then none if this would have happened. Alder and Weldon would still be alive, Celesta would be here and I would be farther along in my training.”

“I will not allow you to do this Anastasia. I promised you I would find another way.”

“Unless I have some long lost cousin we don’t know about this is happening. I have accepted the fact that I am the only one who can kill him, now everyone else has to.” I could hear his internal debate. He knew only I could do it but by being my father he wanted to protect me from that. “Please, it will just make this all easier for us.”

He turned around to sit on Cabel’s chair. He didn’t want to send his only daughter to what could possibly be her death. I was all he had left and he wasn’t sure what he would do if he lost me again.

I pulled the extra chair next to him and sat down. “Listen, I know this is hard. You have already lost one loved one at the hands of Daruka but I have no plans of dying. I will be coming back.”

His sad eyes looked up at me. “Well, it seems I cannot change your mind. Just promise me one thing before you leave.”

“Anything.”

“I know what it is like to hide from love. I tried to keep away from your mother for years because I was afraid. Now I wish that I had not. I wished I had spent that time with her” He grabbed my hands. His made mine look like those of a child. “I see the way Yelson looks at you and the way you look at him. I know how you feel about each other. Do not hide from it like I did.”

“But how could you know?”

“I am a Bandraoi as well your majesty,” he smiled. “You are not the only one who knows how to use their powers.”

“Oh,” was all I could say as I remembered he could read minds as well. He also knew how to do it better than me so he could probably see more than what we were thinking at the moment. He probably saw that Yelson wanted to kiss me a few minutes ago.

“Yes I did and I stopped listening right after,” he promised me.

“I just don’t know if I could do something like that right now.” Especially if I didn’t come back from my fight with Daruka. It wouldn’t feel right if I started a relationship with Yelson just for me to die.

Kenelm smiled at me. “As they say ‘it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all’. I know that better than most. You also promised me that you would come back.”

“That is true. Thank you,” I said as I stood up from my chair. “I guess I should be getting back to my practice.”

“Yes, of course. You can always talk to me, you know that?”

“Yes. I do now.” He gave me one last hug before I left the study.

I quickly made my way to change and go to practice. Yelson leaned against the stairs with our plastic swords in his hands. I searched the room for Master Kai but he wasn’t there.