SWNOVELS Chapter 58
As soon as I opened the room, horrible hacked up cough resounded in the space.
Looking around, books lined the walls, shoved into corners, piled on the floor, crammed into the bowing wooden shelves. Their worn leather bindings gave off a musky scent that saturated the clean air.
Blue orbs found Harris, his skinny, frail frame decked in a blue and white argyle sweater with brown slacks and a red bow tie. His wiry white hair was sticking up at odd angles, glasses perched at the end of his nose.
Face stuck in a book as he held it close to his eyes, studying every detailed sentence. He didn't acknowledge my presence, but remained placid and docile, murmuring things under his breath as his eyes scanned left and right of the page.
Tumultuous rain clouds churned in the blue sky, their heaviness just waiting to be dispelled. The door slammed shut with a rattled bang, one that eradicated the stillness of the scene.
"I know, about everything." I spoke with unleashed fury evident in my tone. "I know that you're my grandfather. I know about the portals and how they're dying and will soon collapse into nothing. I know you don't want me to be Queen. I know that you would rather have me live a normal sheltered life and have seven worlds, filled with creatures that have thoughts and emotions and plant life that could break through medical history and save countless lives, die. Rather than see me accept my true title and save said worlds.
"I know, I know everything and you didn't TELL ME!!!" I roared, my chest heaved with emotions. At this Harris snapped his book shut, finally deigning it necessary to pry his nose -which looked so similar to mine- out of his old dusty book.
"Can't you see girl," he sneered with irritation. "You know nothing, nothing of the complexities of the situation, nothing of the worlds you are hellbent on saving, nothing of what being Queen of the Seven Lands actually means, you know NOTHING!!!" He rebutted with uncensored rage and irritation.
It was in the moment of terse silence that I truly looked at him. His lips were chapped but plump, his eyes looked almost sunken, dark circles smudged under his crystalline blues, the same shade as my mothers. His body looked thin, unhealthily so. Harris looked as if the wind could blow him away.
The moment of my silent observation was broken when he opened up his chapped lips to speak again, "if you go down to Hope island and open that door, then not only are you going against the societies orders, however old they may be, but you are exposing yourself to some dangerous people and practically drawing a bullseye on you forehead!" He spluttered, hacking up a terrible sound that resembled more to a man drowning than a cough.
"The society would either hang you, or exile you, just like your parents. Or maybe some disgruntled superstitious member of the Society would catch wind of what you are, kill you before the Society even makes up it's mind. Hamilton while we're at it, maybe the dragons would drag you down into their layer and you would never be heard from again.
"But let's say for, arguments sake, that none of that happened. That you were accepted into the Society as the head of the order of Adams.
"Not only would you have to run it, with virtually no members, but you would have the power of seven universes running in your veins, taking over your body at the tinge of evidence that you, their Queen, is at risk. You would end up either hurting someone or going mad, maybe both. Who knows, crazy things happen in this place." He continued to spout out all the reasons my decision was a bad idea, I hadn't even told him I was going to save my dad and open the portal, and already he had known.
He had known.
Maybe it was genetically encoded in all grandparents DNA to know when their grandchildren were doing something stupid. Or maybe he knew me a lot better than I thought. Leaving the thought unfinished, I focused back on his rant, my stomach churned with nausea the more and more I thought about actually facing the shifters.
I had done it before, several times. But that was different. They had my dad now, and that thought alone sent the fear that hissed doubt in the back of my mind, to the forefront.
It was a lot harder to do something stupid after you had thought over said stupid thing. But was saving my dad really stupid, risking my life for someone I loved couldn't possibly be stupid, ever.
Harris was almost red now, his gaunt face had flushed with a splotchy pink. I raked a hand through my messy, strawberry streaked locks. "Harris," I said quietly.
My meek voice silenced him entirely. The room was yet again, aggressively silent. "Yes Myra?" Harris answered, his face turned down in a frown, as if he were frowning at a student who had just answered wrong.
Disapproving.
"I'm going to go, I know that much at least. But to do that, I need your help. I don't know how to open the portal door or much about being Queen. I need your help to figure it out." I told him tentatively, it was my way of secretly seeking for approval. If he said yes, then I knew I had at least one familial ally. My mother was distraught, too much to be of help. My father was kidnapped and who knew...
Harris was the only family I had right now, and however distant we were, he was still family and it somewhat gave me some comfort to know that.
He looked down on a worn picture frame, a small reminiscent smile tipped up his lips. "She is so much like you Lizzy." He whispered to the air. His mood radically altered. His weighty words seemed to float in the air for a moment, returning the room to the same tranquility it had once been in, only for a moment though.
"I need your help." I insisted, "please." I added as an afterthought.
His features returned to their hardened line. All hope of him helping me drained from me at once, before he jerked his bony face to the bookshelf. "The one with the wings on the spine, it will say 'The seven Lands and their ruler'." He mumbled it with such reluctance, that I hesitated, almost expecting him to stop me. One step after the other guided me to the book.
Before long, I had plunked myself down on the edge of an armchair in the corner of the study and began to tear through the book. The brown glue crumbled in from the spine of the leather-bound book as I cracked open the ancient tome.
Useless.
Useless.
Useless.
Useless.
Useless.
Not Useless, my mind jolted to a stop as it took in the page. Two blue orbs stared back at me as I took in the intricate drawing. No detail had been spared, I noted, as I analysed the picture with my breath trapped in my lungs.
The girl had blonde curls that was streaked with a fierce strawberry colour that caught your eye. A small mouth hidden behind full pink lips. Hoping to find a distraction from the uncanny resemblance, I traced my eyes on the hidden figure behind her.
Dark skin stretched over taut muscles -that shifted in the most interesting ways when he moved, not that I had ever payed attention to that sort of thing. Eyes so brown they resembled a swirling mass of chocolate with whiskey flecks. So deep that once you saw them it was hard to tear your gaze away.
His head was bowed, as if he was saying some sort of sacred prayer. However, the mans eye's were solely trained on the woman at the front.
Annotations, foot notes, whole paragraphs of writing outlined the two figures. The words that caught my eye weren't protector or Queen, but the words like Demon or harbinger of destruction. It was those words that raised my pulse into an erratic thump and made my eyes film over with unshed tears and my face contort into a grimace.
I was dangerous.
Whether I liked it or not, some people believed that my very existence was a danger to this earth. I tried not to dwell on the fact that they thought Alex was the only person who could save me from myself. I would never do that to Alex, I would never bind him to a supposed monster. Queen of Monsters, a voice in the back of my mind whispered loudly.
I felt a cold tingle of dread slither up my spine agonisingly slow. I looked to Harris, then settled my eyes back on the page. In my minds reel, I had forgotten my task, finding out how to open the door. To end this once and for all.
I slammed the book shut, upon finding the information, too terrified to chance finding out more unwanted information about myself, and potentially Alex.
"You didn't want to tell me." Was all I could summon. Shock, still coursing through my thumping heart.
"The initial plan was to eventually tell you, that was not my idea but your parents'. But they saw how you grew up, the person who you are. They knew you would open the portal. They wanted you to have a normal life, possibly live long enough to live one of your own. And as they predicted, here you are, planning a suicide mission. It seems they didn't teach you the value of self preservation." Harris scoffed.
I bit back my angry retort and calmly but shakily rose to my feet. Hugging the oily smelling book to my chest, I looked Harris dead in the eye. "I can't just let seven worlds die. I can't leave those kids and my Dad in the hands of shifters. I'm sorry but I can't, I won't do it. Not when I know of a way to stop it." I reasoned.
Harris stilled, his whole body rigid as he turned to the window, eyeing the clouds with interest. His fingers tapped against his thigh in a slow pulse as he pondered over everything.
"You are just like your Grandmother." Harris suddenly said, his eyes mildly red with brimming tears. His mood again, drastically changed.
He strode toward me and engulfed me in his arms without hesitation. I could have sworn I felt a tear land on my shoulder. "Go, go." He suddenly announced, drawing away. "I may not like this, but I am sure as Hamilton proud of you for growing up to be so fierce." Harris declared. "I'll take care of everything here, just go. But promise me one thing."
I nodded my head for him to go on.
"Fight with all your might. And don't you dare die, it's not your time to go yet and so help me Hamilton, I am not letting another member of my family die before I do." He swore, tears shimmering clearly in his eyes. Taking him into one last hug, I tightened my arms around him, muttering my promises into his sweater.
Tears sprang to my own eyes, as hope for my father coming back suddenly burst within me.