Stay (9 page)

I heard my name echoing through the depths of
the tunnel, but I never relented. I continued my onslaught of
punches until I felt warm hands grab onto my elbow just as I was
about to land another blow. I snapped up with eyes blazing to see
who was blocking my fury.

I stared at Kailen with hate in my eyes for
just a moment. Then the realization of my actions hit me like a ton
of bricks and I slumped over against his chest and sobbed. My hand
throbbed from the abuse that I had just put it through and it was
starting to swell. The skin around some of my knuckles was cracked
and bleeding. I clutched it to me to try an ease some of the
pain.

Kailen pulled me off of Brokk and rested his
back against the tunnel wall as he held me to him. A deep sorrow
filled me, and then remorse. My tears soaked his shirt as I cried
for my parents, and for the life that I could no longer have. I
cried for the pain that was still sharp in my heart from Brokk’s
betrayal. I cried out of desperation for having no place to go. I
had never felt so lost and alone.

As my tears began to slow, I remembered where
I was. I raised my head to see that Kailen was watching me. He
still held me cradled in his arms as he wound his hand in my hair
and stroked the back of my head. He had been whispering sweet
encouragements in my ear, but I had never heard them. I was too
lost in my own grief to hear anything.

I looked over my shoulder to see that Brokk
was still lying in the middle of the tunnel. His arms were splayed
out at an awkward angle and his head was turned to the side, facing
me. His left eye was swollen and a dark purple bruise was spreading
across his left brow and cheek.

“Is he alive?” I asked Kailen in a quiet
tone.

“Yes, he is alive.” He said with a chuckle.
“But I think he will be out cold for a while. I don’t know about
you, but I do not want to be around when he wakes up.”

“I think you are right.” I said as I started
to stand.

I wiped the remaining tears from my face, and
brushed myself off. Kailen picked up my backpack and helped me put
it on, and then pulled on his own.

“We better move fast, I doubt that the rest
of the guards are going to be far behind him.” He said gesturing to
Brokk.

I looked at Brokk for a long moment. It was
hard to believe that it had only been a little over a week since I
was in the tunnel with him. I remembered how easy trusting him had
been, even after all that he had done. I never would have
considered myself that naive. There was just something about him
that drew me to him, even when my entire being was screaming to me
that I should be afraid.

The way he penetrated me with those eyes.
Just the thought of them filled me with a deep regret. I thought
that I was falling in love with him. I looked at the ring on my
finger as it held my swollen hand near my heart. I wished that
things could have turned out different, that we could have had a
life together. I guess it was just never really meant to be.

I debated on whether or not I should return
the ring to Brokk. When he first gave it to me, I had taken it as a
promise of a future that would be full of love and wonder. I guess
that I had been hoping for a fairytale. I just did not see how that
would be possible anymore.

“Callie?” Kailen called softly.

“I’m coming.” I answered, and then I walked
away. The ring remained on my finger. I made a promise never to
take it off, and I intended to keep that promise. At least until
Brokk decided that he no longer wanted for me to have it.

“Kailen.” I called as we started walking.
“Have you ever felt something so strongly for someone that you went
against all else because you wanted so badly to believe that it was
right?”

“Do you mean Brokk?” He asked
indifferently.

I hesitated for a moment and then answered
honestly. “Yes.”

“You have known Brokk since your birth,
Callie.” He stated. “I was afraid of this when I first heard you
mention that it was he who came for you. When you were young, your
mother had a good friend who often visited the palace. Her husband
was a prominent figure in Petrona at the time. Your mother believed
it would be in the best interest of all if you were to marry their
son. Brokk.”

“So, that is why he said that I belonged to
him.” I said.

“You both spent a great deal of time together
as children, but after your parents took you away things began to
change. Lilith was very jealous of your mother’s title. So when she
named herself as queen, she cast out all of your mother’s
followers. Brokk’s father was demoted to a lowly guard, and
therefore Brokk was too. He became very bitter. I think that is why
he has tried so hard to please Lilith, even if it meant hurting
you. I think that he hoped that it would gain him access to the
title again.”

“I can not believe that all that has happened
has been because of Lilith’s greed and lust for power.” I said in
disbelief. “But Brokk? I never got that he was bitter or that he
was after any title or power. He may have been trying to please
her, but I honestly want to believe that he must have had good
intentions. He was very worried about the state of the city and the
people there.”

Kailen scoffed. “You are too kind, Callie.
Far more so than he deserves.”

“I don’t know about that. Especially after
what I just did to him.” My regret was really beginning to tug at
my heart. “I think that he was just feeling some of the same things
that I was feeling. I really don’t know how to explain it Kailen,
but it was like we were drawn to each other by some unseen force.
Like a bond almost. I even feel it now, out here. It is all that I
can do to keep myself from running back to him.”

He thought about that for a while. “I have
never heard of anyone being bonded to another the way that you are
describing. I cannot imagine how that could be possible. I don’t
even think that fairy magic could do something like that.”

That was strange. I had considered the idea
of fairy magic, but I really did not know enough about it. If
Kailen didn’t think that it were possible then maybe it was
something else entirely. I had to stop thinking about it. I had to
try to put as much distance between Brokk and myself as
possible.

I did not want to think about being anybody’s
princess either. This world was definitely corrupt, and Lilith was
surely the heart of the problem. However, that did not excuse the
fact that I was still just a teenage girl. How was I going to take
over a whole kingdom? Let alone run one. And how was I supposed to
get around Lilith? I was running from her right now.

What I really needed to focus on was what I
was going to do to survive down here. I had no idea where I was
going, or what I was going to do when I got there. I was not even
sure how long Kailen would be able to stay with me. I knew that he
meant well, but he had a life and a family of his own.

I doubted that he would leave me out here
alone. Not unless he truly had to, but I also could not ask him to
stay. It would save us both a lot of trouble if I could just go
back to Petrona, but there is no way that I could. Even if the
queen didn’t kill me, she would make sure that I never left my room
again. That was no way to live either.

Chapter 9

Kailen hurried down the passage heading away
from Petrona and I followed. I don’t know which direction that was
exactly, there was no way to tell down there. Before we left Drake,
Kailen had consulted some of the older villagers who had explored
parts of the underground world over the years, so I trusted him to
lead. The villagers told him that there were several more caverns
along our route and that eventually we would have to cross a large
underground river. No one had really explored any farther than
there, so once we crossed it, we were on our own.

A few hours into our journey my feet started
to ache and I started to moan. I was still wearing Bree’s servant
dress and matching black ballet slippers. The slippers did not
provide much protection for my tender feet against the rocky
ground. I knew that Kailen had some extra clothes packed for me but
I didn’t want to use them yet because I didn’t know how long it
would be until I could get more if they were ripped or torn.

“Come on Callie,” he encouraged. “You can
make it a little farther.”

“Why can’t we just fly? Isn’t that what these
huge wings are for?” I whined.

“This passage is not wide enough to fully
open our wings, and there are sharp boulders jutting out
everywhere. You have only tried to fly a few times, it just would
not be safe.”

I pouted but I trudged on. The tunnel looked
wide enough to me, but I figured he was probably right. I was
already pretty bruised up from everything that I had gotten myself
into over the past few days. I did not need to add a concussion or
broken limb to the list of things that were wrong with me.

“Look Callie!” I looked up to see that Kailen
was pointing to something up ahead on the floor of the tunnel. He
ran ahead of me to investigate. I watched as he picked up some kind
of rag or cloth and turn it over in his hands.

“This is not good.” He was shaking his
head.

“What is it?” I asked as I hurried to catch
up.

“It is an insignia. It is from one of the
guards uniforms. They must have already come through here. I just
hope that they have already made their way back.” He looked very
grim when he said that.

I started getting worried that we would get
caught. I never imagined that the guards would have made it this
far ahead of us. The party that ransacked the city must have not
been the only guards out looking for me. This was the last thing
that we needed. I certainly did not feel up to having to fight
anyone else.

I looked down at my hands to find that my
knuckles were still swollen and sore from the fight that I had with
Brokk. Well, it was not much of a fight really. It was more like
me, kicking his ass. Regardless, I was too exhausted to take on
much more in one day.

“Maybe we should start looking for someplace
that we can hide out and get some rest.” I said to Kailen. “If they
do come back through here and we are out in the tunnel they will
definitely catch us.”

“That is true,” he said thoughtfully. He
started looking around for a good spot as we continued to walk.
Several moments later, he stopped in the middle of the tunnel and
stared up toward the top of the tall rocky wall.

“Do you think that we could make up to
there?” He pointed to a crevice that was at least four feet above
our heads. “We only need to be able to climb in and lie down. There
should be just enough space in there for that.”

I didn’t see what it would hurt to check it
out and I was definitely ready to take a break. I had to give him a
boost to where he could pull himself the rest of the way up onto
the ledge. Once he checked things out, he leaned back out.

“This is a pretty tight squeeze, but it
should do for the night. Here, let me pull you up.”

He reached down for me and hoisted me up onto
the ledge with ease. I had to crouch down in the shallow space to
keep from hitting my head on the ceiling as I turned to stretch my
legs out over the blankets that Kailen had already spread out as a
make shift bed.

The crevice was only about five feet wide and
about three feet tall, so it was pretty close quarters. Especially
since, it also had to accommodate our backpacks.

I picked up the remaining blanket and fought
to spread it out over the both of us. Kailen grabbed one side and
pulled it over him to help me get it straight.

“Sorry.” I said, feeling a little bashful all
of the sudden. “I hope that you don’t mind sharing.”

“I don’t mind.” He said with a reassuring
smile.

We laid there in the crevice chest to chest,
just looking off into space for a long time without saying
anything. It was the first time that I had felt truly relaxed in a
very long time.

Although we were trying to avoid the royal
guard, and we were searching for a place to make a new start, I
wasn’t afraid. Yes, my future was looking pretty uncertain at this
point, but that really didn’t bother me. Right there in that hole
high above the rest of the world, the underworld anyway, I finally
felt like everything was going to be okay.

“Callie?” Kailen said in whispering, pulling
me from my thoughts.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Do you remember anything about the time you
spent in Petrona when you were young?” He asked.

“No, all of my memories are from my time on
the surface. At least I think they are. I remember taking ballet
lessons, and my first day of school. All of those things happened
around my home in Louisiana. Why do you ask?”

“It is just that I remember you, from before
you left. You were very young, maybe five or six years old. I took
you by the hand and walked with you to the depot on the surface
where a driver was to pick up you and your family and take you to
your new life.”

I closed my eyes and tried hard to remember
anything from that time. It struck me as odd that all of these guys
remembered me from when I was young but I had no recollection of
them.

“I was eight years old. I just remember how
you were so scared, you did not want to leave your home here. I
gave you a coin and told you to always keep it close to you. That
way you would always know that I was with you in your heart and you
would never have to feel alone.”

I could not answer. I could not find the
words. My body started to tremble involuntarily. How could this be?
I thought to myself.

“Callie?” He said. I could hear the fear in
his voice.

I opened my eyes and stared into his as they
searched my face for an understanding of my sudden change in
mood.