Page 83 of The Heir

Mary insisted that we make stops at random places along the coastline. Mary, Shad, and Keil were all shielding their melodies. I didn’t need to shield my melody because I had the crystal from Shad. I was very grateful for it, laying against my chest; its warmth felt like an anchor, keeping me in place and safe.

We drove four hours and finally arrived at some coastal town and checked in at a very old hotel, named Seagull Creek. I thought:that is just about the worst name for a beachside property that has ever been created. I mean, first of all, who likes seagulls? They poop on you and steal your food and don’t even get me started about the spreading of diseases. Then there is the obvious creek—like, really people? This is the ocean! You couldn’t be more incorrect.I stared at the sign for a while, and Shad nudged my shoulder.

“It is just a hotel. Does the name really matter?” he smiled, holding back a laugh.

“Shad, this is a ridiculous name, I mean,Creek, really?” I pulled my bag from the trunk and followed Mary and Keil down the outside of the building. They found our rooms, and Mary stuck the key card in, holding the door open for me.

Maybe there is a creek nearby, Shad floated that to me.

Maybe pigs can fly,I floated, through my melody, back to him.

They fly on Terra.

What?I sent him quickly.

Just kidding—

I shook my head as a picture of a pig flying over a babbling creek popped into my head.

“SHAD!” Then I heard laughter in my soul, and I could not help but send it back to him. I needed that. I needed to laugh.

That next morning, I woke up to dense fog on the coast. I stretched my aching limbs from the car ride and walked to the large window of our hotel room. It overlooked the ocean, but I couldn't see the water because of all of the fog that blocked the view. I slipped on a sweatshirt and my shoes and made my way down into the lobby. Soon, I had a cup of steaming hot chocolate, and I headed for the deck that wrapped around one side of the hotel. I watched as the sun peeked through the fog; then, I sat and closed my eyes for a moment. The calm within the constant crashing of waves soothed my weary mind, and I focused on it. So much had happened in such a short amount of time. Ryker knew my parents had been murdered, and he was looking for their murderer, and was correct in doing so. What would’ve happened if he had chosen to be open with me—if he had told me who he was—who I was, and what exactly was going on? Maybe he knew Mary was trying to find the right time to let me know I was Terran, but Ryker should have told me. What I could not figure out was how in my limited memories, did I haveone of a six or seven year-old Ryker when he was supposedly a superior human who didn’t age, so how was that even possible?Maybe he isn’t Terran after all,I thought as I continued to listen to the crashing of the waves. I’d never heard his melody before, right? I had a song in my head, a song just for him, which reminded me of him. I stopped sipping my hot chocolate. That was it; that washismelody, I knew it; I knew the sound of it, and I could hum it right then.

So I’d heard both Shad’s and Ryker’s melodies. Shad explained that hearing melodies is how humans on Terra connected when not using verbal language. Shad’s melody was much stronger than Ryker’s or than any of them. Was that just because they all shielded their melodies? I also wondered about being a royal of Haleston. I didn’t want to be from that kingdom, and it was obvious from what Mary told me about Tarick, there was still evil there.How could my father be related to such an evil man—and his own brother no less! How could his own brother kill his own father—my grandfather? How could he then sentence his own brother, my father, to an agonizing death?

I really hoped I would never have to meet that Tarick guy again, the man who caused my family so much pain.

Another thought came to me:What are the odds of Shad just happening to move in right across the street from me? Maybe he had a lot more to do with everything. He said he had been searching for me for lifetimes–What does that mean, exactly? I had barely lived one lifetime.I wondered about his family and what they might have been thinking about what might have happened to him—for all of this time.I wondered if they had lost hope of ever seeing him again. My own uncle sentenced him to the same dungeons as my father, and like my father, he arrived here.Why? Why did they all come here? Were there more reasons than this Earth realm, as they called it, being a safe haven for magical beings? There has to be something moreto all of this—I was certain of it. I opened my eyes and saw the sun had chased away more of the fog, and as I sat up, I could see the dark blue-green of the water below. Black and brown jagged rocks were exposed, and waves crashed into them, spraying up white foam and causing small, little trickles of salty water to fall down the insides, water trying to drain back into the ocean before other waves crashed into the rocks again. But the cycle repeated, and the rocks’ trickling never stopped, and the waves never stopped.

“Good morning,” Mary sat down beside me with a drink in her hand.

“Good morning,” I replied.

“Are you doing alright with all of this, Emma? I know it’s a lot.”

I thought about that question:Am I okay?Sure, I had like a million questions, but everything made sense, and I could not deny its truth–only grapple with it.

“Yes, I am,” I answered, sipping some of my hot chocolate, which at that time, was justwarmchocolate.How long have I been out here?I thought.

“You are an incredible young woman, Emma.” She shook her head. “I am not sure if I could handle all of this as well as you have.”

“I do have questions.”

“Like—?”

“Is Ryker one of us? How did I go throughout my entire life, growing up with him? Like, I remember him being small like I was, and yet, you all don’t age the same as humans on Earth.”

Mary set her cup down and looked out to the water.

“He is a guardian knight; there is much that we do not know about them; however, it is thought that they can change and become whoever or whatever they need to be for the person or family they are protecting. I never saw him as a little boy; he wasalways the same Ryker to me as he is now. But you, you could see him the way you needed to see him until the time was right.”

“What about school? Everyone around us thought he was our age, too.”

“He can adapt minds, I believe, to make people see him how he needs to be seen. It is an Ancient’s gift that only the guardian knight-line possesses. He isn't able to use it for anything other than for helping to guard and protect one of the Heirs. The Ancients set in place limits to each power they gift to us.”

“So he wasn’t ever a little boy,”

She nodded,no.

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