Chapter Nine

Everett

The group was much quieter after the attack. Everyone had seemed startled by the sight of the hounds. Being face-to-face with the creatures made it all feel real. Their lives truly were in danger. These are the creatures that killed countless people. They were more than deadly. They had just killed six of them. The group was a mixture of people, all with different experiences, which allowed them to fight together more efficiently.

Everett didn’t want to show his exhaustion, he didn’t want to show any weakness. As much as he wanted to trust the others, he couldn’t bring himself to. They weren’t very fond of him from the moment they all met. He didn’t want to seem like he was easy to take advantage of. Especially the blonde girl who walked a few paces behind him, slower than she was before. The moment he saw her white hair and silver eyes, he recognized her from the palace. He had been attempting to sneak out through the servant's entrance to go into town for a night out drinking. His father had kept him and Roman hidden from everyone, never allowing them to show their faces at political events. It made sneaking off to the pubs much easier since nobody knew who he was. He hadn’t expected to see the cloaked figure sneaking into the kitchen that night. Aerilyn was a mystery that he wanted to understand. He had to assume she was poor since she had been stealing the scraps from the palace’s kitchen. Otherwise, he knew nothing else about her.

He slowed down his pace, letting Aerilyn catch up to him. She gave him a look of confusion, raising one of her brows. There were still spots of blood coating her cheeks and hands, reminding him of the injury she had received while trying to protect him. He didn’t understand why she did something like that after swearing she wouldn’t save his ass. “Why are you staring at me?” She questioned, her lips pressing into a tight line. “Just considering the ways I could feed you to the hounds while you’re sleeping,” he lied easily, making her roll her eyes at him. “You had your chance to get rid of me, yet you didn’t. You don’t have to act like you’re heartless, Princey,” she shot back at him, hugging her arms around herself as she walked. He wanted to find a snarky remark to throw back at her but came up with nothing. The guilt ate him inside, feeling as if their lives were in danger because of him. His father was the one continuing the Choosing ceremonies. He felt like he had to own up to some responsibility for his family’s doings.

“Now you want to be quiet?”

“I wanted to stop all of this. My goal, when I got the crown, was to get rid of the Choosing ceremonies. It feels like a waste of lives that never deserved to end like this. He hated me for not agreeing with him,” he let the words spill out, unable to contain them any longer. He didn’t exactly want to admit everything to the girl, but he never had the chance to speak his truth. He wanted someone to know how he felt inside. She only stared at him, not saying a word as she seemed to be processing his words. “Is that why he put your name in?” The frown pulling at her lips made him feel a pang of guilt for unloading this on her. “I think so. He hates how rebellious I’ve always been. Roman, my brother, was always the favorite. He listens to everything my father says and doesn’t question any orders. I, on the other hand, have challenged him more times than I can count. He never wanted me to take the crown. This was his way of ridding himself of my presence,” he gave her a small shrug, avoiding eye contact entirely.

“I’m sorry, Everett. I think you’d make a lovely king. Even if you’re a jackass, I can tell you have some good intentions buried inside,” she tried to provide him comfort and it gave him a warm bubbly feeling in his chest. Nobody had ever said those words to him. Nobody ever told him that he would be a good king, he was always the second choice. “That means more to me than you could imagine,” he whispered, finally looking over at Aerilyn. The girl was much shorter than he was, gazing up at him with her silver eyes. She gave him a smile before shoving into him with her shoulder. “But don’t think this means we’re friends, pretty boy. That would never happen,” she wiped the smile off of her face, attempting to glare at him. “Oh, of course not, little thief. I don’t befriend criminals,” he shot back before he glanced back at the others who were finally catching up to them.

“I’m not good at trusting other people, I don’t know how to. Out of everyone, you have a tiny sliver of it,” she held her fingers up, her thumb and pointer finger hovering over each other to show a small space between them. “Don’t worry, I’d choose you too,” he said without thinking. He felt his cheeks warm at the comment, realizing how wrong it came out. He didn’t want to correct himself and make it more awkward, so he simply pretended as if the words never came from his lips. He was used to flirting around, it always came easy to him. He’d go home with girls from the pub or sneak around with a pretty maid to spite his father. He was experienced with women, to say the least. But Aerilyn didn’t seem to be affected by any of his charm. Usually, the smirks and teasing had women falling at his feet, it was odd to see her so immune to it.

“So what are your abilities?” Brinley’s voice interrupted the awkward silence between Everett and Aerilyn. “A Brute,” he replied, hating that he had one of the most useless powers. “A Floral, I worked in the fields,” Aerilyn smiled at her. He could see it now that she admitted to it. He could picture the girl kneeling in the dirt and growing flowers. How she gained such skills with a sword was beyond his knowledge. “I’m a Forcer, I started working on the walls a few years ago. I had to go through extreme training for it, but as the only child, I wanted to make my parents proud,” Brinley explained, her face practically glowing with joy. “Healer, as you all have found out by now,” Bastian spoke up. The man had been quiet the majority of the time they spent traveling. He remained a mystery to them all. “Please don’t cast judgment on me for this, but I’m a Neuro. I promise you all, I would never use my abilities against you. But I suppose out here they aren’t of much use,” Blaise replied, causing all of their attention to turn to him. Neuros weren’t as common as they used to be. They could manipulate people’s minds. They could control someone’s actions with one thought. The fact that he was a Neuro only put more anxiety on Everett’s shoulders. He could see the change in everyone’s expressions.