Finding Eden (11 page)

I take a shower quickly.
I stand in front of my bathroom mirror applying my makeup, hoping I
can get the smoky eye look just right. I dab on a little shimmery lip
gloss and head for my closet. I pull on the dress and notice that the
dark green and emerald colors it shimmers match my eyes and the
makeup I applied. I strap on my heels and walk out of the room.

I walk down the stairs,
and as I come into view, the voices stop. I hear someone say “wow,”
but I’m unable to see who said it.

At some point Sahariel
had managed to change from his very casual blue jeans and shirt to a
black suit and green tie; the same color green as my dress. I look
into his eyes, and just like every other time I do, I feel a tug on
the string that connects us.

“
Wow, you look
great, honey,” dad hugs me and smiles.

“
Thanks dad,”
I say and pat his back, my eyes staying on Sahariel.

“
Shall we head
out?” Dad asks.

My dad leads the way out
and Sahariel opens the car door for me. I catch his eyes and see a
strange expression glittering in them. Without his colors I can’t
tell what he’s thinking, and through our connection I can’t
sense anything. He closes the door behind me and sits next to me in
the backseat.

The drive is quiet. Dad
is acting weird. He's usually so reserved around me. Hell I haven't
even had a meal with him in a long time and now we're going out to
dinner. What is going on?

The restaurant is really
nice. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling and crystal stem wear
glitters from all the table tops. Our waitress leads us to our table
and I can’t help but notice how tense Sahariel is as he walks
beside me.

“
Eden,” dad
begins after we order our food, “There’s something we
need to talk about.”

“
Is this about
Julliard?” I ask, “Because I already told Evaughn that I
was accepted.”

“
About that,”
he says.

“
I’m still
going, right?”

“
No,” dad
says, “you’re not going.”

I stare at him.

“
What?” I
say.

People a few tables over
glance at me.

“
You’re not
going,” he repeats a little quieter, “you can’t go.
You have other things you need to do.”

“
You’re not
making any sense. What do you mean ‘other things’?”

“
Well,” my
father looks away from me then and looks at Sahariel, “maybe he
should explain.”

“
Is this some sort
of arranged marriage?” I ask before Sahariel can say a word.

“
No it’s
not,” Sahariel says.

“
Then what is it?”

“
I told you the
other day, at the carnival, what this is about.”

I stare at him in
bewilderment. The carnival was the truth? How is that possible?

“
You actually
believe him?” I look at my dad, hoping he’s not insane.

“
Of course I
believe him, Eden,” my father says, “I lived it.”

I just look at him, the
day of the carnival running through my head like a really crappy
rerun film. From Evaughn getting sick, every ones weird behavior to
Sahariel explaining to me that I’m an elf. Now he’s
sitting in front of me, having somehow convinced my father of
everything. But somewhere deep inside, a voice whispers and croons
hopefully that it’s all true.

“
We need you to
come as soon as possible,” Sahariel sounds very serious.

“
Why?”

“
We are without a
leader.”

“
And that has to do
with me because...?”

“
Our king was your
grandfather.”

“
Alright.”

“
And he only had
one child, who was the next in line for the throne. That was your
mother, and without her here, that leaves you the only one left as a
direct descendant of the royal blood line.”

“
Are you an elf,
dad?” I feel like I’m losing my mind.

“
No, honey,”
he says, “your mother was.”

“
And you’re
an elf?” I look at Sahariel.

“
Yes, I am.”

“
Are you royalty?”

“
No,” he
shakes his head, “not royalty, just a royal guard.”

“
Hmm,” I look
down at my lap, “why now?”

“
Our king was
assassinated.”

“
What if I say no?”
I ask the all too complicated question too simply.

“
I hope you don’t,”
he looks at me almost as if he’s begging.

“
That’s not
what I asked,” I say, “what if I say no?”

Sahariel just looks at me
for a long time. He’s torn. I know he wants me to say yes, but
doesn’t want to force me.

“
Then we will have
to have someone else assume the throne,” he says quietly.

Our waitress walks up
with our food and I find myself without an appetite. I ball the cloth
napkin up in my lap as the waitress walks away from up. I stand and
plop the napkin down next to my untouched food.

“
I’m not
hungry,” I say, “I’m leaving. And don’t
follow me. I’m not in the mood.”

I walk away from the
table, out the door, and call for a taxi to go home.

Lying on my bed, my dress
on the floor, I think about what my dad and Sahariel said to me. Am I
really an elf, or is everyone I know insane? I hear the door open,
close and then footsteps as they come up the stairs. My door opens
and Marcia walks in.

“
Oh, Eden,”
she says, looking surprised, “I thought you were out with your
father.”

“
I was,” I
said and sit up.

“
Did something
happen?”

“
You could say
that,” I say.

Marcia doesn’t pry;
she just walks around my room picking up my shoes and other clothes
on the floor. As she’s about to walk out of the room carrying
my dirty clothes, I stop her.

“
Marcia?”

“
Hmm?”

“
Do you think my
father would ever lie to me?”

“
What?” she
says, “No, of course not. I know he’s not around much,
but he would never lie to you. Why do you ask?”

“
No reason,”
I say, “Hey Marcia?”

“
Yeah?”

She opens the door.

“
What do you do
when something important has to be done, and you’re the only
one who can do it, but you don’t want to do it? What do you
do?”

“
It depends,”
she moves to stand at the foot of my bed, “if it’s
something important and you’re the only one who is affected by
it, then I suppose it’s up to you how important it is. But if
there are more people being affect by the outcome of what you decide
to do, then well, you suck it up and do what you have to do.”

“
When many people
are counting on you to succeed,” she says, “if you fail,
you not only fail yourself, but you fail the others as well.”

She smiles and leaves the
room quietly without asking any questions.

“
I hate my life,”
I say. I flop back on my bed

An hour later I hear the
door open and close, the murmuring voices of my dad and Sahariel
float up to me. Sound of someone walking up the stairs comes through
my door.

“
Eden,” my
dad knocks on my door before opening it, “can we talk?”

I sit up and look at him
as he walks in, “I’m not going to Julliard, am I?”

“
I’m afraid
not,” he says.

“
Well,” I
say, “it’ll make a great cover story, I guess.”

I feel a tug, a twinge,
on the line with Sahariel and then it goes slack. In a blink of an
eye Sahariel is standing in my room smiling down at me.

“
So that’s a
yes?” He’s really happy, and I can see that in his eyes.

“
As much of one
you’re going to get.”

So quickly my eyes can
barely see, Sahariel turns to my dad and says, “We need to
leave as soon as possible. I’d like to leave tonight-“

“
Hold on,” I
cut him off, “sorry to break it to you, but we’re not
leaving until I’m done with high school. I’m not going to
leave randomly. That will leave too many people asking too many
questions.”

“
She’s right,
you know,” my dad looks at Sahariel.

“
I know, I know,”
Sahariel frowns and shakes his head, “I didn’t say I had
to like it.”

“
Besides,” I
say, “there’s actually only five weeks left in the year.
I’m sure you people can wait.”

“
Your people,”
Sahariel says.

“
What?”

“
Nothing,” he
sighs.

“
Well, we should
really start planning,” my dad motions for Sahariel to follow
him out, “I don’t really want to have to deal with people
who think she’s been kidnapped.”

Then my dad and Sahariel
leave me alone in my room, leaving me alone with too much time to
think about the life I’m leaving.

The weeks seem to fly by,
and before I know it, Evaughn is hosting a going away party for me
the night before graduation, before I'm supposed to leave my human
life behind for what may be forever.

“
Thanks for doing
this,” I say to Evaughn.

“
No problem,”
she smiles at me, “just promise me you’ll call me
sometime.”

“
I’ll try my
hardest,” I tried not to make a promise I’d have to
break.

We sit around Evaughn's
kitchen table, just me, her and Brock, just talking about high
school.

“
I remember your
first day,” Brock says to me, “you managed to go from
cool to, well, freak in just a couple of hours.”

“
Yeah, don’t
remind me,” I roll my eyes, “pretty much the worst day of
my life.”

“
What happened
again?”

“
I ran into Miss
Queen Bee between classes and made her spill her latte on her
designer shoes. Apparently that’s bad.”

“
Oh I remember
that,” Evaughn says, “I was in the bathroom when she ran
in cursing your name.”

“
Yeah, it didn’t
help that I just didn’t care either,” I say, “oh
well.”

“
I’m sort of
glad it happened,” Evaughn says, “those shoes were ugly.”

After a few more hours of
reminiscing, I tell Brock and Evaughn that I have to head home. Both
of them give me a hug.

“
We’ll miss
you,” Brock says, “stay in touch, alright?”

“
I’ll try,”
again I try not to make any promises, hoping they won’t come
looking for me if they don’t get a hold of me.

I wave goodbye and smile
as I see Brock twine his fingers with Evaughn's. At least they’ll
be happy. I drive home and try not to be too sad. I’m just too
emotional and nervous to think about anything else. I pull in the
drive way and hop out of my car, contemplating what sort of trip I
will be going on. I walk up the drive when there’s suddenly a
hand on my shoulder.

I try to scream but it
gets lost in my throat and a hand clamps down over my mouth. I try to
get away, but an arm wraps around my shoulders and lifts me off my
feet. I try to bite, claw, kick, anything, but nothing works. Someone
has me and I don’t know what to do and my heart is studding.

“
Eden, stop,
relax,” I hear a voice in my ear and I immediately comply.

The arms loosen and I’m
able to look up at Sahariel's face. He’s on guard, his eyes
darting back and forth in the darkness. My hand gripping my chest
over my heart, I automatically tense and he silently and quickly
carries me into the house. He sets me down just inside the door and
closes it silently behind himself.