Anastasia (The Bolton Series Book 1) Read online

  “What?” She gasped clutching at her chest right above her heart. “Don’t they know that if they kill their planet they will die as well?”

  “Yes, many people have tried to stop it. However, there are much more people who only think of themselves and won’t care until it’s too late.”

  “Is it true that it only has one moon?” Arabella asked from her seat on the ground. She stared up at me excitedly wanting to know as much as she could about the planet earth.

  “Yes,” I laughed. “But that one moon is enough for them, their sky is also blue.”

  Her head bounced up and down as she took in what I said. Bolton had two moons and to her it seemed odd to have only one. As for the blue sky, I do not think she would be able to accurately picture it.

  “Have you lived in the palace your whole life?” I asked them. I didn’t like when attention was on me.

  “Me? Oh goodness no,” Emilie laughed as she tucked her feet under her. “My town was attacked two years ago and the king allowed for me to stay here. I was the only survivor so I had nowhere to go.”

  Her face fell a little as she thought about that time. I mentally kicked myself for asking the question. I always seemed to ask the wrong questions.

  “But it’s alright,” she said when she sensed my regret. “I was an orphan before so I didn’t have much of a place there

  anyways. This has been my home. I couldn’t dream of a better place.”

  “Do you miss it?”

  “Sometimes. Arabella your turn,” she said before I could ask something else.

  “I lived here for as long as I can remember. Cabel brought me here when I was just a baby.” Arabella continued to play with her doll. I smiled at how happy she seemed. She was an orphan like everyone else but she didn’t let it affect her. The light always shone through her.

  A door slammed shut in one of the hallways followed by heavy footfalls. We all looked to the source of the sound. Yelson walked out of the hall closest to us. His face seemed tight as he tried not to look our way. I knew it was my fault. He didn’t want to talk to me yet.

  “Hey Yel,” Arabella chirped from the ground in front of me. He looked over to Arabella and forced a smile onto his face.

  “Hey there Bel, what are you doing?” His voice seemed strained. Was he still mad? I glanced over at Emilie. She looked at him trying to figure out what was wrong as well. I guess it was odd to see him act that way.

  “Annie is telling us about earth. Do you wanna listen?” She eagerly patted the ground next to her. Even before he said anything, I knew he would not.

  “Next time, kay?” His voice softened at the little girl. I looked up to see him staring at me. His gray eyes look right into my blue ones. The butterflies crept into my stomach again.

  “I have to go.” He broke his eyes away from me and walked up the stairs to the third floor. It should not have surprised me he was allowed to go up there. He seemed like an important person here.

  “Don’t you have a play date with Chi?” Emilie directed towards Arabella.

  “I don’t have to go today. She would understand,” Arabella pouted as she looked up at me.

  “Go play with your friend. We will still be here when you come back,” Emilie said. Arabella sighed as she stood up with her doll.

  “I’ll see you later Arabella,” I said to her as she sullenly made her way down the steps.

  Emilie turned towards me as soon as Arabella what out of earshot. I could see in her eyes that she knew something was wrong and she wanted answers.

  “What was that?”

  “What was what?”

  “I have known Yelson for two years. He has never acted like that until now.” She looked at me accusingly.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe he just doesn’t like me.”

  “Uh huh,” she whispered but she let it drop which I was thankful for.

  We spent the next hour talking about earth and how much she wanted to visit it. I tried to keep all the bad stuff about earth out of the conversation. She wouldn’t understand how bad it was there. Bolton was beautiful. Its creatures took care of it because they knew if they didn’t they would ultimately die with it. That was something the humans didn’t understand. Even if the proof was right in front of them with the oceans turning dark, the air growing thicker, and the plants dying.

  When Arabella came back, we talked about the things the kids did for fun there before the war. By the time we were done, I was tired. There were still hours before the sun set but I was already drained. As soon as my head touched the pillow on my bed I fell asleep.

  ~*~

  Purple light shone brightly on my closed eyelids bring me from my dream. I pulled the covers over my head trying to block the light that was trying to wake me up.

  “Get up Annie,” A gruff voice said before he pulled the covers away from my face. I shot up at the sudden movement. Yelson’s face was inches from mine.

  “What?” I breathed. I moved to the other side of the bed and got out. I was glad I had fallen asleep in my regular clothes but it was not as if he hadn’t seen my pj’s before.

  “It’s morning. I thought you would like to meet with Cabel before he leaves.” I slept through the whole night. I did not give myself much time to process that before I agreed and followed Yelson to the study. I did not care if I was still wearing the same clothes that I was yesterday I needed my answers and today I was going to get them.

  Yelson lightly knocked on the wooden doors that lead to Cabel’s study. A voice came from inside telling us to come in. Cabel was sitting behind his desk. His fingers were interlocked with one another. Stacks of paper were neatly placed on his desk. His green eyes followed me as I sat down on the same seat as the last time I was in his office. Yelson stayed by the door.

  “Yelson has told me you want to know what is happening. Where do you wish for me to start?” His calm voice did nothing to sooth me. My right leg twitched up and down, a clear sign of my nervousness. I was finally going to be told about everything. All the questions that had built up in my mind were finally going to have answers.

  “Who is Daruka? Why does he want me dead? Do you know where he has my family? What is this place? What secret weapon do you all have against Daruka?” I meant to ask only one but I could not help myself. Cabel did not seem to mind as he only smiled at me.

  “This is the village of Hovolia. This palace was built as a second home for the royal family but they had not used it for many years as I told you already. We now use it to house and train whomever the King sees will be able to help us in the future.

  “Daruka is a warlock. He comes from the Bandraoi coven. As I am sure your brother has taught you that they happen to be one of the most powerful and oldest creatures on Bolton. He used to be a very important person in the royal family. He was a spokesperson for the king, traveling all around the kingdom. That position made it easy for other creature to believe what he stands for. That is for the control of not only bolton but of earth as well.

  “He wants you dead because he thinks you are the only one who can kill him. Once you are gone and the prophecy is dead, he will have nothing standing in his way. More and more species will side with him and soon after, no one will be able to stop him. I’m sorry, but we do not know where he is holding your family.”

  “What do you mean I am the only one who can kill him?” I looked at him in shock. I have never killed anything especially a person. Never would I be able to. A killer wasn’t something I had in me.

  “You, Anastasia, are our secret weapon. A prophecy says that when the truest of all evil rises, only his blood can be the death of him.” Was he trying to say that I was somehow related to this person? That was impossible. Both my parents are only children and I only have one brother.

  “I’m not Bandraoi. My family is Strega. You all have this wrong.” I stood up from my chair shaking my head back and forth. Nothing was making sense.

  “We are not wrong your majesty.” A voice said fr
om behind me. I turned to see Kenelm in the doorway. His blue eyes held mine. Relief washed over me at the sight of him. I thought I would never see him again. He was the only person other than my captured family that I knew I could trust.

  “Kenelm,” I sighed rushing to hug him. He seemed startled by my contact but quickly wrapped his arms around me. “You must be. There is no way I am related to that man.”

  “We may be interpreting the prophecy wrong but we know it is you.” He pulled away from me and placed his hands on my arms. His warm touch helped ease my incoming headache. Maybe I didn’t want to know everything after all.

  “If there were any other way to do this we would. I am still trying to come up with something.”

  “Sir, you know there is no other-,” Cabel’s sentence was cut short by Kenelm’s stare. Whoever Kenelm really was must be someone powerful if he got Cabel scared to talk.

  “Yelson, take her to Master Kai. She needs to prepare.” Kenelm let go of my arms. His eyes still held mine.

  “Wait,” I stammered at Yelson who grabbed my arm. “Will I be able to see you again?”

  A smile spread across his face. “Of course, your majesty.”

  I nodded, holding him to his word, and allowed Yelson to pull me away.

  We walked through the kitchen and into the living room. I internally groaned when Yelson held the front door open for me. I did not want to go out there again. I did not want to have to face the people who hated me for some reason. The orange morning light spilled into the room, shortly blinding me from what waited outside. I followed him out letting out a breath I did not know I was holding. Oddly, no one was around.

  Yelson lead the way with me in tow across the dirt road to a small building with only a door on the front side. He held that out for me too, allowing me to go first.

  The inside was just as plain as it seemed on the outside. No windows were on the first floor, neither was a floor. Dirt crunched under my feet with every step I took. One large mat covered two thirds of the floor. A staircase was in the back left corner of the room. We walked up it to the second floor.

  A cot and small kitchenette were placed in the far corner of the room. An old man sat in the middle of the floor with his back to us. His gray hair was in a low ponytail that covered his dark back. It was longer than mine, reaching down to his pant belt.

  “Master, this is Anastasia Miller.” Yelson introduced me as he sat down cross-legged in front of the man. He motioned for me to sit next to him.

  “Ah, Anastasia. Welcome home.” Master Kai eyes were a cloudy gray, the kind people with blindness get but he was looking right at me. His smile caused even more wrinkles to appear on his dark, aged face. A deep scar ran across his left cheek onto the bridge of his nose. “Yelson has brought to my attention that you need training and quickly.”

  I looked over to my guard. He was looking straight at Master Kai avoiding my eyes. I did not understand why I would need training. Was it to help me kill Daruka? The thought of it made me want to vomit. I could not kill someone, I just could not. It wasn’t who I was.

  “From the looks of you, he was right.” So he could see. Master Kai rose from his sitting position. Yelson followed just as gracefully. I, on the other hand, stumbled after them as they made their way down the steps.

  “She needs to learn how to defend herself, Master. I may not always be there to protect her.”

  “I understand.” Master Kai walked to the middle of the mat. Yelson and I stood on the outskirts of it. “Anastasia, please stand in front of me.”

  I quickly took off my shoes and stood a foot in front of Master Kai. Yelson sat down on the dirt floor keeping his eyes on me. He looked amused. I stared at him wondering what could be funny about this situation.

  A sudden sharp pain broke out on my left arm. I grabbed the area just above my elbow and held it close to my body as the pain erupted.

  “Ow.” I cried as the pain spread throughout my upper arm.

  Master Kai lashed out his arm again hitting me in my stomach. I kneeled over grabbing my midsection. “If you don’t wish for pain you must stop me first. Then the pain will never come.”

  His leg shot out at me meeting my right thigh. A small cry of pain escaped my mouth and the new sensation of pain. I could see Yelson in the corner of my eyes. The smile faded from his face being replaced with a look of worry.

  Master Kai moved away from me giving me time to stand back up. It took a minute until the pain in my thigh was bearable. I slowly got up putting as little pressure as possible onto my right leg.

  I saw his hand lift away from his body and before I could process what I was doing, I grabbed it, stopping it from coming into contact with any part of me.

  “Good. You have some instinct. Think with your body not your mind.” He took his hand back and walked around to where Yelson now stood. He looked at me wide eyed.

  “Bring her back tonight. We have only just begun.”

  Yelson nodded and grabbed my arm. He escorted me out of the building. A few people were walking around the road and stopped to stare at us. Yelson didn’t seem to notice them as he towed me back to my room at the palace. I recognized the Fay I had seen the day before. Her green eyes looked at me with worry as we passed her.

  Once inside he closed my bedroom door. His gentle hands caressed my arm where Master Kai had hit me. A large ugly bruise had already started to form.

  “This may hurt. My kind isn’t as gentle as Stegas with healing.” He put his hand over my forearm. A red mist surrounded his hand and wrapped around my arm. It felt like someone was pushing on my bruise. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. After a minute he let me go. The bruise was gone along with the pain.

  “Thanks.”

  “I remember how it felt the first time Master Kai did that to me. Was not pleasant at all. He seemed to go tougher on you. I did not start to bruise until two hours later.”

  “Isn’t that the truth,” I laughed. I stopped abruptly when my side began to hurt. I just knew there was a bruise there as well.

  “I’ll go get Emilie. She is way gentler with this than I am.”

  “It’s okay. I think I’ll live with it.”

  “At least let me do it then.”

  I nodded and lifted the edge of my shirt. I really didn’t want to walk around with the pain but I didn’t want Emilie to see me like this. For some reason I felt like I needed to act strong around her.

  Master Kai had hit me just above my belly button. Yelson placed his hand over my skin. The red mist appeared again but it didn’t hurt as much as the last time. I was prepared for it. He let his hand linger a little after he healed me. After a few seconds he moved to my thigh.

  It was the biggest bruise yet. When the red mist appeared I had to hold in a scream. It felt like he was digging a knife into my skin and twisting it.

  “I knew I should have gotten Emilie,” he whispered when he took his hand away. He looked sad as he looked away from me. It hurt him to know he caused me pain. He was supposed to be my guard. Pain was something he protected me from.

  “I’m fine, really Yelson. Look all better.” I jumped off the bed and bounced around the room a little to show that I wasn’t hurting anymore. I felt silly but was happy. It was the first time I felt like myself since I got here.

  Yelson laughed at my little get up. “Well now you have to eat something and change before we go back to Master Kai. It’s going to be a long day.”

  Chapter Six

  It had been a month since I had started training with Master Kai. I had spent every morning and night practicing how to protect myself. Most times, I would practice with Master Kai. He knew I was holding back because of his age. Of course I could not hurt him but throwing punches at an eighty-year-old man did not seem right. So, every now and then he would get Yelson to practice with me. I was hesitant at first but when Yelson did not seem to hold back, I opened up to the idea.

  Many of the exercises came easily to me. I was surprised to se
e what my body was capable of when I did not think too hard about it. Maybe it was because it was in my blood. This was something I was born to do.

  I have grown to accept the idea that I was the only person who could stop Daruka from mass destruction. I still could not kill him. No matter how hard I told myself that I had to, if I didn’t everyone that I loved would die, but I couldn’t. He was still a living, breathing, person and I could not be the one to end that.

  I looked over my body in the full-length mirror Emilie convinced me to put in my room. My body had slimmed down drastically in the past month. I pinched the area around my belly button and again on my side where most of my extra fat had been. My fingers grabbed nothing but skin.

  My blonde hair was pinned into a bun behind me head. A few strands had found their way free and into my face. The blue eyes that stared back at me did not seem like those of a stranger to me anymore. They were my eyes. The excited, happy look in them was me.

  I smiled at my reflection. I couldn’t remember the last time I had ever felt like that. Even on earth I was never truly myself. This planet was my home. Now I just needed my family back.

  “Annie, come on.” Emilie busted through my door with a basket in her arm. She smiled at what I was wearing. “So glad to see they fit. I was getting tired of seeing you wear the same four outfits over and over again.”

  I laughed and looked down and the jeans and t-shirt Emilie had given me. I had to admit when she first told me she was going to be expanding my wardrobe I was a little scared. I was expecting everything to be flashy colorful dresses like the kind she wears. When I saw the plain jeans and t-shirts she got for me, I was relived.

  “Let’s go. Everyone is waiting for us.” She skipped down the hallway, not waiting for me, and out the back door. I quickly followed her.

  Yelson was helping Arabella onto her horse while Weldon was waiting by Mary. His hand absently brushed back Mary’s mane. The black nail polish that was on his finger nails had begun to chip off. I had found out that the only reason he had that on was because of Arabella. She wanted to see how the color looked on a guy and Weldon volunteered to let her paint his nails. She had redone them four times in the past month.