Page 27 of Shattered Heir
“You are not alone, Emma. We will figure this all out.”
But as we walked to Ryker’s car, and as we drove home, I could not help but think: there is no way that this is my life, that the world I just saw is my world. This is all so unreal, and what a strange truth I have to come to terms with—this truth, this realization that I do not belong to the only world I have ever stood upon.
Chapter Thirteen
“Remind me again, Mary. Why am I going to school?” I asked as Mary handed me a plate with bacon, scrambled eggs, and a piece of toast. My mouth watered.
“You are still only sixteen.”
“But I will be seventeen soon.” I would be seventeen on November 5th to be exact. Thinking of that made me think of my parents, and so I quickly stopped that train of thought before it spiraled. I smiled. It was a fake smile, but I hoped that it would help convince her—as if that helped at all.
No it didn’t.
She handed me a fork. “You are still going to school. For now, while we try to help Shad and plan our next move, we need to blend in. We don't need the government getting involved in things.”
“What is our next move?” I asked as I shoved a forkful of eggs into my mouth.
She gave me a look, and I gulped down the eggs.
“Sorry,” I cleared my throat, “I mean we need to save Shad, but are we going back to Terra?”
“We need to return. If Shad can be saved, then we will go home. Of course, only if we find the cave with the portal.”
“See! There are bigger things going on than spelling tests and math.” I set my fork down as she turned away from the kitchen island and opened the fridge. I noticed that Mary said, “if” not when, we saved Shad, and I tried not to let that bother me, but it did.
“Keil is working with Shad, and we are not sure how long it will take before we can figure out which cave has the portal.”
“Did anyone ever think to search for Cade and follow him?” I asked as I stuck a piece of bacon into my mouth. I was sure that it had been entirely too long since I had enjoyed bacon. I was going to fix that; wait, do they have bacon on Terra? Shad had joked about flying pigs being on Terra. I knew that was probably a joke, but still what if? Did I even know what animals they had there? Were there entirely different species of animals running around? Wait, Ryker had referred to Glasson as a lion, so there must be lions or at least something similar? My thoughts seemed to wander more than ever before, and I tried to forget about the animal life on Terra in order to listen to Mary. I felt like it had been a long time since we had really talked.
“We have a few Terrans working on that,” Mary said as she poured me a glass of milk. She poured one for herself, too, but I was still stuck thinking about the lions, and I could not get them out of my brain.
“Are there lions on Terra?” I asked as I placed a piece of toast in my mouth with a loud crunch. Crispy bacon was the best.
“What?”
I cleared my throat before I answered, swallowing a bite of toast down quickly after the bacon. “I was just thinking, or well,wondering about the animals on Terra. Are they like the ones here on Earth, or are they different?”
“Oh—well, there are a few similarities for sure to Earth, even in the animals, but there are some animals on Earth that Terra doesn’t have, and some on Terra that Earth doesn’t have.”
“So are their lions?” I asked, looking and waiting for her answer. For some reason, that was important for me to know, and I had no idea why.
“Yes, they look a little different, but very similar. There are many different animals, but many are very similar to this realm.”
“Wow, that’s cool.” I looked at my plate for a moment, then finished off the last of the eggs and bacon. Why did it feel nice to know something so trivial about Terra?
“So, like I was saying, I guess Keil has a networking system here, and even Glasson has knowledge of Terran groups around here."
"What is the deal with Glasson?"
"What do you mean?" Mary asked, taking a bite out of her bacon.
"I mean, like, he's a prince, right? But Ry knows him; then he's also a knight and guards Ash, who is a princess of Sorra?"
"Glasson is the Crown Prince of Torren. Their kingdom was blessed with incredible knights. Their knights, those who guard over others, are called the guardian knights. It is one of the highest honors a knight of Torren can obtain.”
“So, the story about Princess Scarlet and Knight Ronin are real? The Princess of Torren married a knight and saved her kingdom from her curse of beauty?”
“Yes, they have a rich history. Once Princess Scarlet and her knight broke her curse, they were never cursed again; they were blessed.”
