Luke looked down at the churning waters below and remembered all that had happened to him in the past week. One second, he was at home hunting for his family, and then the next, he was kidnapped by Dueglesteiners, the enemy of his country, Bellona, tasked with this quest along with five other kids, and put into life or death situations that is just way too much for a twelve-year-old to handle.
He’d also met this amazing girl, Skylar. But now that he looked at the bottom of the cliffs, he felt the emotions wash over him until they were too much.
“I’m sorry, Skylar,” he whispered to the water, “I let you go and I shouldn’t have. I know you’re out there, somewhere. And I will find you.” Luke squeezed his eyes shut as the tears trickled down his cheeks. Three days ago, Skylar had fallen off this cliff, as Luke watched, helpless, trying his best to pull her up. But he couldn’t. Skylar let go, and the last thing Luke saw was her looking at him with a sad smile.
She’d tasked him with helping the others reach Dueglestein, and now Luke wasn’t sure he could do that. If he couldn’t protect Skylar, how could he protect the others?
“Luke?” he heard a voice behind him. He turned around to see Adalene, her arms crossed, her white hair in a braided crown around her head. “Ve have ze boat ready,” she said in her elfeish accent, tucking a strand of white hair behind her pointed ear, “Ze others are vaiting or you.”
“I’ll be there,” Luke said softly, not even fazed by the fact that she could see he’d been crying. Adalene turned and left, leaving Luke alone with his thoughts once again.
Richard, one of Luke’s new friends, suggested that Adalene would be the sixth person in the prophecy with Skylar gone, which angered Luke.
How could Richard so easily replace someone like Skylar? Most of his friends now thought she was dead, so they thought it was best to just “substitute” her.
Luke didn’t hate Adalene for that, after all, she’d done so much for them already. Giving up her queenhood, supplying them with weapons, food, and now a boat to take them to Dueglestein. She’d been seemingly thrust into this position now, and Luke didn’t blame her for feeling left out.
But Luke was loyal to Skylar, and he knew that she couldn’t be dead, she had to be alive. She had to.
But Luke knew that he couldn’t stand here forever with his thoughts. Soon, they’d overwhelm him and swallow him whole. He’d seen what that did to a person, he’d already seen it in his mother after his father’s death.
Seeing no other way, Luke walked in the direction Adalene did, to see their new boat...
ns 15.158.61.20da2
