Zola Flash (The Zola Flash Series Book 1) (16 page)

“Kill Renz.”

“I promise.”

“And one . . . other thing.”

“Yeah?” I ask.

“I. Love. You.”

Oh, my!
“I love you, too. I have loved you since the moment I looked into your eyes.”

“Your people. Need you. You can’t forget . . . your duty.”

“My mother always told me that my sole duty is to my heart. How can I protect my planet if my heart is not complete? You have my heart, Pin. Without you...”

Pin forces himself up, high enough to place the sweetest kiss ever upon my lips. His mouth is gentle against mine.

I tightly close my eyes. I’m losing him. My first real kiss with him shouldn’t be my last.

Pulling away, he lies back down in the blood puddle, wincing from the pain. “I’m sorry,” he chokes out.

“Can you make it to my room? I can’t . . . won’t leave you here.”

“Yes,” is all he says.

Pin reaches up and places one of his arms around my shoulders. He struggles to his feet and limps close to my side, putting all his weight in my hands.

At a very slow pace, we walk out and are immediately ambushed by Renz and his guards. Renz withdraws a gun and shoots the deadly weapon at Pin. Blood spatters my face, as Pin drops to the floor.

I try to rush to his body, but Rican and Zel grabs me. “Let me go!” I pull against their hold, but they don’t let go. “Pin! Pin, get up! You have to get up! I need you!”

Pin just lies there. He’s dead. I know he’s dead.

I struggle against the guards, and managing to pull away from them, I rush over to his body and place my ear to his cold, hard chest. There’s no heartbeat. Nothing. He’s dead.

No! No. No . . .

I cry out as agony courses through me. He’s gone. He’s gone, and it’s Renz’s fault.

I wipe the blood from my face, and jumping up, I charge at Renz and punch him in the jaw. He tries to grab me, but I send another hit. And another— until the gun he’s holding onto falls to the floor.

I dive for the weapon and aim it at Renz. With shaky hands, I pull the trigger.

It jerks in my hand, causing me to drop the weapon, as Renz crumples to the floor.

His wide eyes tell me he’s shocked that I actually pulled the trigger. However, there’s no more than a slight scrape across his shoulder. The bullet didn’t even penetrate.

Grabbing the gun, I crawl over to where he lays, and point it at his head, but he quickly recovers and slaps it from my hands.

I cry out at him. I want every bone in his body to turn to ash. I want him to feel the clench in his heart that I feel in my own. I want him to cry the way I’m crying from these angry tears.

The guards merely watch Renz and my cold weeping. Neither of them dare to touch me and seem to be waiting to see what their king will do.

A smirk spreads across Renz’s face, as he narrows his eyes.  He reaches for me, but I jerk out of his way. He laughs and grabs for me a second time. He pins me down to the floor underneath him, making sure to hold my hands tight. He tells Rican and Zel to go get my friends.

“They have nothing to do with this!” I hiss at him. “Leave them out of it!”

“The people you care about. They’re your weakness.”

“Leave them be, Renz.”

He tightens his hold on me. “Let’s make a deal, Princess. I’ll take you back to your room. Britney will dress you for our ceremony. Then you say
I do
with no funny business, and we’ll finish off the night allowing destiny its dues. If you can do that, I won’t lay a finger on your human friends.” He smiles snidely in my face. “Do we have a deal?”

“Yes.”
Until I find a way to defeat you, once and for all.

RENZ TAKES IT UPON himself to escort me back to my room. Apparently, he doesn’t trust Rican and Zel to guard me. Or maybe he just knows he hasn’t won yet.

There’s no way he is going to get what he wants. There is no way I’m giving in so easily. He should know that by now. He thinks my friends are my greatest weakness. How stupid can he be? He killed the only leverage he had over me. And Pin will be avenged, without the sacrifice of my friends.

We enter the room, and Renz pulls me close to him. His hands runs down my back, and he leans in to kiss me. I pull away from him.

“We had a deal, Princess! You cannot go back on your promise.” Renz tugs me back to him, attempting another embrace.

“We do!” For now, at least. “There will be no kissing, though.”

“Why not? You’re my wife, my queen.”

“Not yet, and not willingly.”

Renz grabs a dagger from at his side and places the tip of it at my heart. “Don’t play with me, child!”

“What am I? Your wife? Child? Queen? Princess?” I ask. “I’m not scared of that dagger, or death. Killing me would only give me what I want. Your brother.”

Renz groans and throws the dagger aside, its point embedding into the wall, before shoving past me and out of the room.

I step over to where the dagger is and pull it free. Everything I want reflects in the dagger’s mirror-like blade. All it would take is one stab.

Swallowing hard, I raise the dagger.
It’s at least one way to escape this nightmarish reality.

I plunge the dagger into my stomach and quickly pull it out. I feel no pain, nothing. I run my fingers over the wound and find very little blood.

Crossing the room, I place myself before the mirror and gasp. The wound is healing! Filling in on itself. Oh, gods. What’s happening to me?

I slump to the floor. I can’t even escape this if I wanted to. Curling up into a ball, I rest my head on floor and don’t attempt to stop the tears.

I’m going to fail.

***

Where am I? Why I am here, wherever here is . . . Oh, the parallel world. I must be sleeping.

I look around for my mother, or grandfather. Neither of them stand before me.

Pin does, though. How is he here? Only pure souls can serve here. No offense to him, but he’s as pure as Earth’s atmosphere.

As I walk toward him, he stares down at me, unsmiling. Same old Pin. I wish he would smile.

“Why did you come here? I don’t want you mourning me.”

“Pin.” His name is the only word I can accomplish.

Pin raises his palm to my cheek. I turn and kiss it. As he bends down to my level, his cool breath flows across my face, and it feels good.

Everything around us disappears, and we’re suddenly lying on a big bed.

He peers down into my eyes, his face coming closer.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Something I should have done in the beginning.” He presses his mouth to mine.

His mouth is hard and soft and comforting. The way he kisses me makes me feel loved. Something I haven’t felt since watching my family die.

Pulling away from him, I shake my head no, rejecting him after waiting for so long.  He merely smiles and pulls me against his chest, running his hand through my hair as he kisses the top of my head.

“I really want to. I’ve wanted to for so long,” I say into his chest. “But this isn’t real. You’re . . . in a parallel universe, here and not here. I dare not imagine what it will feel like when I wake and you’re not there, after all.”

“I understand, Zola. You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I waited too long to tell you how I felt. I was afraid, because of who I am. I’m Prince of Payohlini and my brother wants you. I lied to you. But you must know, I’m working on getting back to you. This isn’t permanent.”

“How is that possible? You’re . . . dead.”

“Yala says that she know of a way we may permanently leave this world and rejoin you.”

“You’ve talked to my mother?”

“Yes.” Pin grabs my hand. “Close your eyes.”

It’s a command. I really hate commands of late. “Why?”

“Just do it.”

Closing my eyes, I feel a breeze on my face. I open them just for a moment, and the whiteness I’ve come so use to, now is a tornado of swirling colors; my eyes not knowing where to focus. It’s both terrifying and calming.

Pin is focused and concentrating with great effort. Instead of throwing my arms around him, like I want, I reclose my eyes. Pin’s pull me against him. With that one touch, my world is complete. My heart is complete. Pin is here.

The breeze disappears, and my eyes remain closed.  I know if I open them, the happy blissful feeling I just experienced will disappear; I’m not ready for that.

“You can open your eyes, Zola.”

I ignore him. I don’t want this to go away.

“Are you alright?” Pin asks, his tone concerned.

Finally opening my eyes, I say, “I’m fine.”

“Don’t alarm me like that.” He scowls. 

“Sorry.” I smile at him. He was afraid for me. He lets me wrap my arms around him. “No need to be afraid.”

He rolls his eyes in a playful manner, and it’s nice. I’ve never seen him so loose and free. “Someone wants to talk to you.”

I follow Pin’s gaze to a group of people. A family, it seems. My family, in fact. Except, they’re not real, even though they stand before me, smiling. Especially Cleo. She is as I remember. Big purple eyes, curly black hair, and rosy cheeks.

I turn away from them. How could Pin bring me here? They’re not real.

I wipe away my shed tears, and climbing to my feet, walk away.

I don’t get far before my sweet innocent sister calls out to me, right before a pair of hands land on my shoulders.

“Pin, I can’t face them. I just can’t.”

“Why not?” It’s not Pin’s voice, but still one well known to me, a voice I do not want to hear at the moment. “You haven’t done anything wrong, sweetie.”

Slowly turning around, I look up at my father. “I’m sorry, but it’s too much. I want to wake up.”

“That’s not like you, Zola. I didn’t raise a child who would give up because she has lost everything. You were raised to be a brave and strong person. Not a weakling.”

“You don’t understand.”

“I understand that you are scared and alone. You have been through things I would never wish upon my worst enemy. But you are only dwelling on the bad things. What about the good things, Zola?”

“I just want my life back, Dad.”

“You will lose Pin if you get your life back.”

I look from my father to Pin. As Pin walks towards me, he seems to be watching my father for some kind of approval.

My father nods, and Pin pulls me away from my father’s side and kisses my fingers.

When he peers over my shoulder again, toward where my father stands, I turn around.

“I will listen to Mother,” I say.

“Good. At least Pin can kiss some sense into you.”

I blush. I can’t believe my father just said that.

I cross to my mother and Cleo. My sister is watching Pin with admiration, but when I near, she throws her arms around my waist. I bend down to her and hug her tight. She doesn’t release me when I try to straighten, so I pick her up. “I miss you too, Cleo.”

Mom smiles at me and takes Cleo from my arms. “There’s a portal at the end of this dimension. It releases souls back into your plane. If Pin can get there and successfully find his body . . .”

He can come back. “Are you all coming back, as well?” I ask, trying to contain the hope surging through me.

“I’m afraid not, sweetie.”

“Why?” My voice cracks.

“Our bodies are long gone. There would be nothing for us to return to. And you need Pin more than you need us.”

“That’s not true, Mom.”

“Your father and I see how you are with him. Your world is better when he’s around. You are better. You need him, even if you don’t want to admit it.”

“How long will it take?”

“It doesn’t take much time to cross. The hardest part is finding the body.”

“It’s in the palace dungeon, if they haven’t moved it.”

“All you need to do is stall the ceremony. Can you do that?”

“Yes.”

***

I wake back to the real world. However, I don’t open my eyes but just lie still, because if I open them, Pin won’t be here, and everything will feel like a dream instead of something real.

“My queen, will you not open your beautiful sparkling eyes for me?” Renz’s voice shatters my peace.

Lifting my lids, I glare at him. “Why are you here?”

“Our mating ceremony, which you are not yet dressed for.” Renz moves closer to me. “I could help you dress, if you want. Our wedding is less than an hour away.”

Less than an hour? Will that be enough time for Pin to return?

Stall
. I have to stall this ceremony.

I smile up at Renz and run my fingers up his neck and into his hair. “Renz, my king, can you please do me a huge favor?”

“What can I do for you?”

“Can you postpone the ceremony until my seventeenth birthday? I will be of age then.”

“My sweet, you are asking my heart to wait a long pain-aching month?

“I am.”

“. . . would be highly foolish of me,” Renz says, although I don’t hear all of what he says.

“Um . . . could you repeat?”

“You’re such a child. Not listening to your superiors. I said that it would be highly foolish of me to postpone the ceremony.”

“Why?”

“Zola, Zola, Zola . . .” Renz glances toward the ceiling. “Why would I wait that long, when Pin is working on getting back? Do you take me for a fool?”

Oh, no!
“How do you know that?”

“You talk in your sleep.”

Damn
. I haven’t done that since I was a kid.

“You know, even if my brother returns, I’ll just kill him again and again and again, if necessary. Nobody is going to get in the way of you conceiving my child, not even you. I will lock you in the dungeon and shackle you to the wall, if I have to.” He curls his lip. “Now, go get dressed.”

“Fine, but Pin will make it back.”

“That’s not likely, my queen.”

***

Dressed for the ceremony I’m dreading, I stare at myself in the mirror.  The gown is beautiful and green, almost sea green, and though it’s high at the front, the back is cut low. The material is so flowy, it drapes my body perfectly.

There’s a knock at the door, and I go over and open it. Outside, pink flower petals shield the floor while guards line each wall.

The guard nearest my door clears his throat and hands me an intricately carved wooden jewelry box, with a note from Renz attached to it. I disregard the note and open the box, to find the rarest crystal in our galaxy inside. Stories say only the pure at heart can touch it. Unfortunately, there aren’t many pure-hearted people left in all the galaxies. Me included. So, I doubt the stories are true. Especially if Renz has it.

I hand the box back to the guard. “I don’t want it. Send it back.”

“I’m sorry, but King Renz requested you appear wearing the necklace,” the guard replies. “No matter what.”

“Well, tell your king, there’s no way I’m wearing a stolen artifact.”

“How do you know it’s stolen?”

“Just tell him!” I shout at the guard.

The guard bows. “As you wish.”

I watch as he recedes down the hallway. Renz, dressed in his green royal garb, stands at the end. He seems to be listening to the guard when he glances toward me. Taking the box from the guard, he heads my way.

As he nears, I step from the doorway and allow him entrance into my room. “Couldn’t you wait ceremony to see me?”

“No.” His eyes scan over my body. “Green suits you. Maybe it’s a sign from the gods. Now, spin around and let me see you.”

“No.”

“Then, let’s go. Our guests await.”

Guests? He had time to invite guests?
“Might as well get this over with,” I mumble.

Renz takes my arm and marches us down to the ballroom. At the doorway, he smiles and releases my arm, taking my hand in his, and ushers us inside.

The music begins to play and people stand. Of the guests, I know none. However, in the corner of the ballroom, Carmen, Daisy, Sofia, and Jacob stand, their hands bound with rope while guards surround them.

As we stop at the altar, everyone takes their seat.

The priest beings to speak, reading required passages from scrolls and reciting the legend.

Pausing, he sighs. “King Renz has requested I skip over the marital vow,” the priest informs our guests. “But the vow is the most personal part of this ceremony. Therefore, it will be a part of this occasion.”