Raene and the Three Bears (The Alder Tales Book 2) Read online

  “He’s in his office?”

  Norsa nodded, her gaze fixed on her tea, staring as if she saw a whole world in that little cup.

  Raene couldn’t wait any longer. She bolted for the formal sitting room, sailing right through it and toward the stairs that led to the upper floors. Raene flew up the steps like she had a thousand times, though never had she had such anxiety about what she would find at the top.

  This was worse than even Kaide’s transformation—when she hadn’t known to be scared. She hadn’t known the monster that was his totem. She hadn’t known the fierce flames of anger raging within him.

  But now, she knew. And she knew Blossom’s disappearance had lit that fire into a strong, enduring blaze.

  When she reached his office, he stood motionless facing the wall-length window, gazing out with his back to her. He wore the floor-length cloak required of his position. Today, it was a sleek black, and even without seeing his front, she knew there were embroidered filigrees in scarlet thread.

  Despite the noise she’d made on the steps, Kaide didn’t move. He stood frozen, locked in place.

  “I’m so sorry, Kaide.” The apology sounded weak even to her, but what else could she say? His wounds were evident from across the room.

  At last, he turned toward her, but she hated the sight. His face was gaunt, and his skin was pale. He looked even thinner than usual, like he hadn’t eaten in a week. His usually bright blue eyes were dim and dark, just as Norsa had said.

  It made Raene’s eyes prick with tears.

  “Did you bring your panel?” Kaide asked, ignoring her words.

  Raene dipped her hand into her pocket and held it out to show him, and when Kaide motioned for it, she stepped forward to place it in his hand. She could think of no reason he would take it, but she was not in the habit of disobeying him.

  Kaide walked to his desk and deposited her panel in one of its drawers. A second later, he produced a document, stamped and sealed with his official mark—a black griffin. “I’ve traded you to an Alderwood clan. You’ll find all the arrangements have been made.” He held the folded paper out toward her.

  But Raene didn’t move. “You’re sending me away?” The tears in her eyes dried in an instant as her sadness turned to anger.

  Kaide remained stone-solid with his arm extended, waiting for her to accept the document. “You’re old enough to marry. Olin will accompany you.” His voice had all the warmth of an ice block.

  Raene could hardly believe he was the same uncle she’d known all her life. He had the capacity to be cold and callous, but never to her, and never when they were alone. It was like he’d forgotten who she was.

  Like he knew what she’d done, and this was her punishment. “But Kaide—”

  “This is your duty.”

  Raene took two steps forward and accepted the official marriage arrangements, or so he said. She couldn’t open it to see for herself. There was only the crisp white paper and black wax seal.

  Behind her, she heard Olin’s heavy steps on the stairs, but all her attention was on Kaide.

  “Don’t do this,” she pleaded. When she looked up at him, she saw his ice-cold stare and the tension in his jaw. Something inside him had broken—maybe forever—and sending her away was easier than facing it.

  Raene couldn’t let her life be ruined over an innocent mistake. “Please, I swear. I didn’t say anything. We just talked. I don’t know what I could have said to make Blossom—”

  At the sound of her name, Kaide winced as if she’d struck him, but he regained his bearings a moment after. “Now you must leave.”

  “Kaide!” she screamed in shock and hurt and grief. “I didn’t mean to—”

  But he only put up his hand to stop her. With a low voice laced with calculating coldness, his eyes dark and empty, he said, “You will leave, and you will never come back.”

  Raene’s knees became weak, and despite her anger, a tear slipped down her cheek. From behind her, Olin tugged her toward the stairs. She stood dazed—her breaths loud in her ears and her feet couldn’t feel the floor. As she was led away, she turned to see him, the Vice Syndicate Kaide Landel, the man who was more her brother and friend than anyone in this world.

  Now that was gone.

  He was a stranger.

  And he was sending her away.

  Blossom crouched with her back against the wall of the narrow, concrete room. The miserably cold air hurt to breathe and made her shiver constantly.

  A single, circular light shone too bright from the center of the ceiling. The space held a small wooden bed with a single white blanket, though it was more dingy grey than anything. Beside it, a desk of shining metal that startled her with its chill each time she touched it. Across the room, a metal wardrobe held simple white shirts and pants she’d refused to wear. On the not-so-far side, the door to the perfunctory washroom where she washed her Pyro clothes—the ones she’d been wearing since the day of her transformation.

  Otherwise, there were only the grey stone walls, and grey stone floors. Not a single window.

  And she thought the Alderwood had been a prison.

  She’d thought Kaide’s manor had been a prison.

  She thought the carriage had been a prison.

  So many times her freedom had been infringed, and she’d rebelled. Now, it all seemed like silliness. Now that she was here, in an actual prison, she knew how wrong she’d been.

  Eton called the space ‘her personal quarters’ but he made it clear she wasn’t free to come and go as she pleased. The door was always locked. And worst of all, he put that horrible silver device around her wrist.

  Like everything in Aerona, it was cold. No matter how she held it or pressed it against her skin, it was nothing but a cold, metal bracelet, so unlike the warm alder wood ring on her fourth finger, the one that said Beauty in small, carved letters.

  A knock sounded. It would be Eton, of course. No one else came to see her. No one else could open the door.

  When she didn’t answer, he pushed in. His platinum-blond hair was shaved on both sides so only a strip of shoulder-length hair grew down the center. It was perfectly straight and slicked back, never a single strand out of place. On his neck, the word AERO was tattooed into the slender shape of a crane. His mouth was pierced with a hoop in the corner, matching the one at the tip of his eyebrow. His diamond-white suit was pressed and crisp. He looked more businessman than kidnapper.

  “Syndicate Mercer has agreed to meet with you.” When she didn’t move or even look at him, he asked, “What are you doing?” His tone was one of confusion mixed with disgust, as if she was a rat that had snuck into his dinner party.

  Blossom stood tall, her eyes locked on the man who’d taken everything from her. “I’m waiting for the day I’m no longer your prisoner.”

  Eton’s ultra-light blue eyes stared at her like they could see right through her. “We’ve been over this. You’re not my prisoner. I’m your liason until you’re cleared for full duty.”

  Blossom tilted her head to display the tattoo on her neck, the sky-blue letters in the shape of bird, the one that marked her as Aero, the one he’d given her. A week ago, she’d gone to transformation to learn her true totem, and instead, Eton had altered it, robbing her of ever knowing what she should have been and trapping her in Aerona for the rest of her life.

  Blossom was his prisoner in every sense.

  When Eton didn’t respond, she lifted her arm and rattled the metal device he’d placed there.

  “It’s for your own good. You don’t know how to control your totem, and you’re a flight risk.” His tone was so dry, he sounded like he was reciting the Alder Mother’s prayers. She wondered how many times he’d given that particular speech.

  “That’s kind of the point of being Aero, isn’t it?” Blossom eyed him with all the disdain she possessed. Her totem, a peregrine falcon, marked her as Aero, the branch of society that contained all aerial totems. After he sabotaged her totem to make her
a bird, she found it more than a little ironic he kept her grounded, afraid she’d fly away.

  Eton’s pale features became pinched. “Stop acting like a child. Do you want to fight with me, or do you want to bring your argument to the Syndicate? She won’t wait long.”

  “Fine.” With several quick steps, Blossom rushed out the door, and for a moment it was possible to feel like she’d wasn’t under his control, though of course they both knew better. The second she was out of sight, Eton would activate the electric mechanism within her bracelet, the one that would ignite her body with jolts so painful she would collapse and convulse. Not once had she been able to withstand that pain—not once in her six attempts.

  Blossom knew how useless it was to complain to Eton—her jailor no matter how he denied the role. And despite how he glared disapprovingly at her Pyro clothes, she was determined to see the Syndicate. Blossom continued to rush down the corridor, eager to get her answers.

  “I trust you won’t run again,” he droned, guessing her thoughts.

  “Why would I run when there’s so much here? How could I live without a little grey room to be locked in all day?” Blossom looked back to glare at him as she let her sarcasm run away with her.

  Eton didn’t bother to reply.

  In another life—another situation—she and Eton might not have been enemies. He was callous to her, as if she was beneath him, but he never harmed her or mistreated her, other than activating the totem-control device. He simply did his job. But Blossom hated that it was his job to keep her trapped, and he did it without question—without hesitation. Eton was a mindless tool only to be used at the bidding of someone else.

  Blossom had no respect for that.

  Side by side, they walked the length of plain, white corridor that held the inductee quarters. As a transfer from another branch, Aero was required to offer her housing until she could arrange her own. Blossom didn’t remember captivity being part of the arrangement, but no one had asked her, either.

  On and on they walked, until the crisp corridors opened, exposing raw stone and frigid caverns.

  The lava tubes.

  Contrary to their name, the lava tubes were enduringly cold. She tucked her arms across her chest but couldn’t combat the permanent chill in the air. No one else seemed to notice, though. Blossom was alone in her misery.

  Only a few weeks ago, she’d been in the warm Pyro market, listening to Druma describe the volcanoes and the tubes beneath them. He’d told her the Aero tubes had been dormant for centuries, and Aeros lived inside them. Even then, she’d wanted to see the tubes.

  Now she was here and it was the last place she wanted to be.

  Despite her newfound hatred of everything Aero, she couldn’t deny the lava tubes were magnificent. The cavern ceilings stretched so high the lights couldn’t find them. The darkness simply consumed anything more than ten stories up. In the air, in the space between the foot traffic and the darkness, there were hundreds of birds.

  The aerial totems of Aero were on display, all different sizes and shapes and colors. Some were slow, like the hulking albatross, a seabird with milk-white wings spanning longer than three grown men. Others were fast, like the muddy-brown finches and fiery cardinals. It was a canvas splattered with wings and beaks and screeching calls.

  Blossom looked up at them with envy. What she wouldn’t give to let loose her wings and join them. But even here, trapped within the confines of the lava tubes, Eton wouldn’t let her free. Only days after her transformation, the urge to fly made her more desperate than ever.

  Her feet felt doubled in weight. She struggled to move her heavy human form when she could be light, could ride the air like the birds of Aeros. Eton rushed her along, tugging on her arm to break her from her reverie, but her eyes remained upward and her feet dragged on the stone floor.

  “Let me go,” she fussed when she grew tired of his incessant pulling.

  Eton stopped and glared. “If you miss this appointment, you’ll have to wait another two weeks. I imagine you’d like to be rid of me before then.” Beneath his words was his undeniable desire to be free of her as well.

  Blossom allowed herself a wan smile. She’d made him miserable, too. There was a sort of satisfaction to that, but she knew it was petty. How dark did a person become when they relished the misery of others?

  One week locked in a stone room had made her just that dark. One week with her feet on the ground and the sun hidden from her eyes. One week away from Kaide, wondering what he thought of her disappearance, knowing what kind of hatred he harbored for Aeros. Her heart hoped, but her mind knew Kaide would never forgive her for this.

  Blossom had wallowed in darkness long enough to get consumed in it.

  “Will she take this off?” Blossom asked, lifting her arm and shaking her metal bracelet.

  Eton looked at her from the corner of his eye. His tone remained frigid as he replied, “No one can predict what the Syndicate will do, but no. I don’t think she will.”

  “Why? Because I ran?” Blossom glowered at him, though she knew it was useless.

  “Yes, and she wants you here. It’s an easy means of accomplishing that.” Brusquely, he added, “Can we go now?” His mask of calm was beginning to crack as she tried his patience.

  “Fine,” she grumbled. If nothing else, at least she’d be free of Eton after this. Once she was formally a Vice Syndicate of the Aero branch, she wouldn’t need a liason.

  With her eyes down, Blossom could only hear the beating of wings and the calls of the birds over their heads. She tried to concentrate on the ground and the crowd of people walking down the tunnel.

  Whoever heard of such a thing? Walking when you could fly?

  She would never understand. Anger and unfairness kept her company as they walked deeper into Aerona, the tubes widening and the crowds thickening.

  Blossom didn’t know where they were going, but she didn’t expect Eton to pull her off into a narrow side passage and push open a hidden door.

  “What is this?” she asked as she followed him.

  “A short-cut reserved for the high class and such.”

  “But you’re not high class,” she reminded him. Eton was little more than a servant, and she was not about to let him forget that.

  His jaw clenched. “You are.”

  Blossom recoiled, appalled that he would have the gall to use her position—and all its benefits—while keeping her confined as he did. She was still gaping in disgust as they filed into a glass elevator.

  “You’re using my credentials?” Blossom finally seethed, ignoring the layered stone flying past them as they ascended.

  “We could have gone the long way if you weren’t so slow. It’s like you’re trying to be difficult. Or maybe you just don’t know any better.” Eton crossed his arms and faced the corner of the glass box like a child being punished for stealing candies.

  Blossom was about to laugh at his petulance when a wave of white light flooded the elevator. Her hand flew to shield it from her eyes, but even then it was still too bright. As they climbed higher and higher, she blinked through the light, until at last, she could see the landscape slowly shrinking below them.

  Like a white blanket, snow covered everything. The terrain sloped up into mountains and down into valleys. Trees occupied the narrow paths between peaks; even those were dusted in white.

  Blossom stood so close to the glass her nose pressed against it. The chill crept in, but she didn’t pull away. Her eyes were too focused on the view. Despite her hatred of everything Aero, Blossom gasped.

  She’d never seen anything like it.

  Behind her, Eton leaned on the glass wall with a satisfied smirk. “Welcome to Aerona.”

  Her eyes absorbed the awesome sight—the endless white ground and grey-clouded sky. Now, she could see farther, could see sharper. Blossom had stood at such vantages hundreds of times before her transformation, but her vision was clearer than ever before. Like Kaide’s smell or Parson’s stren
gth or Gemini’s hearing, Blossom’s totem left its mark on her human form. She could see everything from up here.

  Only the thin tower beside them blocked the view.

  There was so much space. So much air to carry her and trees to hold her if she grew tired. Her hand moved to the device on her wrist and tugged, hoping one last pull might be enough to set her free, but of course, it wasn’t. She was still trapped.

  Trapped in this human form.

  Trapped in this glass box.

  Trapped in Aerona.

  “Stop,” Eton demanded behind her, but she paid him no mind. Her hand worked at the device, and her eyes drank in the air she desperately wanted—needed—to feel beneath her wings.

  “Just because you never transition doesn’t mean I don’t want to,” she growled as she continued tugging on the uncompromising metal bracelet.

  Eton’s hands landed over the top of hers, and she froze in place. In a hushed tone, as if divulging a secret, he told her, “The more you fight it, the longer you’ll have to wear it. Convince her you’re here to stay. Quit trying to run. Play this game by her rules, and she’ll give you what you want.”

  Blossom couldn’t figure out why he’d suddenly given up his surliness, but nonetheless, she wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe there was a way out of here. Tentatively, she asked, “She’ll let me go back to Pyrona?” Back to Kaide—back to her beast? Blossom looked up into Eton’s too-light eyes and knew the answer before he said it.

  “Never. But, if you’re smart, you can convince her to let you use your totem. If you show her you’re an ally, she’ll give you a place by her side.”

  “I don’t want a place at her side,” Blossom screeched.

  “It’s the only place you have left.”

  Eton’s hands were still on hers when the elevator slowed and slipped into darkness. He stepped back to the opposite side just as the doors opened to reveal another crisp white corridor. She was starting to think this was all a trick, some endless white corridor she was doomed to walk on repeat for the rest of her life. Didn’t they have any other colors?