Zola Flash (The Zola Flash Series Book 1) (13 page)

I KNOCK ON CARMEN’S door, twice. When no one answers, I knock again.

From inside the house, I can hear giggling. I turn around and look at the guys. Rican looks mean and angry, as usual. Zel just looks like he did when heading his class: professional. I point to the sidewalk, suggesting they should take a hike, but they shake their heads. Of course they would follow their orders over mine.

I turn back to the door. As soon as I begin to knock, Daisy opens the door. She looks at Rican and Zel, her eyes widening, before her gaze swings back to Rican and remains there. She blushes, and I want to gag. She actually thinks he’s attractive. I seriously need to talk to her about her taste in men.

“Hey Daisy, is Carmen here?”

“Yeah. She’s in her room.” Daisy replies without paying an ounce of attention to me. “You can go up if you want.”

“Okay.” I turn to Rican. “You should stay here and talk to Daisy, keep her company for a few short moments.”

He shifts his gaze from me to Daisy and smiles. Actually smiles. This man who has been hunting me down for a little over two months is smiling. “I can do that.” Rican says. “I can see there is no danger here.”

I walk through the house and up the stairs, with Zel behind me. Carmen’s door is slightly open, and Carmen is lying across the bed while speaking on the phone. She has a smile on her face, but when she spots Zel, she hangs up the phone and comes over to the door, where we stand.

“Can I have a moment to speak with Zola alone?” Carmen asks him.

“No,” is all he says.

“Then, do you mind explaining why you are in my house, with my friend, Teach?”

“I can’t answer that question.”

Carmen pulls me away from Zel. She looks at me like I have done something wrong. “Zola, tell me the truth. What is Mr. Wrench doing here?”

“Hey, Carmen! Your date is here!” Daisy yells from downstairs.

Carmen starts bouncing in place as her face grows bright red. She slips on her glasses and runs right pass me, forgetting about her cross-examination. She looks so happy. The happiest I’ve seen her since we met. But I can’t help but think about poor Jacob. He just told me he was in love with Carmen. And I told him to go for it. He’s going to break when he finds out Carmen is into another guy.

I sigh and walk down the stairs, but stop in place as I see Jacob. I told him not to come here.

He stares at Zel and me, as he gives a bouquet of flowers to Carmen.

Rican and Daisy are not in sight.

Coming over to me, Jacob asks, “What are you doing here?”

“I can ask you the same thing?”

“Zola?”

I look to Carmen for a moment, then away. “I came to tell Carmen goodbye.”

“What do you mean goodbye?” Carmen blurts out. She looks hurt, really hurt.

I bite down on my lip, trying to think of a way of telling her what’s going on without actually saying it. “Carmen, Mr. Wrench works for a foreign government that has been looking for me. To be perfectly honest, he works for the king I am to marry. With that said, he and Rican have been ordered to take me back home.”

“You can’t just up and leave!” Jacob demands.

“I have no choice,” I tell them.

Carmen just stands there and stares at me, confusion and sadness etched into her features.

Daisy and Rican enter the room, and a large cloud of discomfort comes over me. Daisy looks from me to her sister and then to Jacob. No one says a word, for a single word can mean the end of all I have gained while living on Earth. I can’t bear to lose them. They are the only family I have. I will not lose them because of this.

Rican leaves Daisy’s side and repositions himself next to me, as Daisy walks over to her sister. She lays a hand on Carmen’s shoulder.

“What’s going on?” Daisy asks.

No one speaks. Carmen and Daisy eyes turn to me, as if in request for an explanation. I just glance away.

Carmen pushes her sister’s hand away from her shoulder and runs up the stairs with tears in her eyes. Daisy follows.

I bite my lip harder. This can’t be happening. I can’t lose any more people. As much as I pretend to not need anyone, I do. When I look at Jacob, he’s staring after my friends, and I can tell he wants to chase after Carmen.

“You might as well go comfort her,” I say. “I’m leaving.”

He nods. “Are you going to be all right?”

“I’m princess of Victian. Of course I’m going to be okay.

We leave the house, and I contemplate running away from the Renz-abiding goons. They wouldn’t be able to catch me. Their weight would slow them down. Or not—it never slowed Pin down.

I glance up at the starry night sky and sigh at the knowledge that I won’t be seeing these stars anytime soon. I walk off ahead of Rican and Zel and wrap arms around myself. It’s chilly and I didn’t think to grab a jacket. I turn around to ask for one of theirs, but they have vanished.

All is quiet on the street, but in the next breath, an invisible force slams against me, turning my awareness into falling darkness.

MOM?

Pin?

Carmen?

Jacob?

All the people I love stand around me, as if some change has occurred. As if something big and awful has happened to me, which I can’t recall.

Carmen is crying into Jacobs’s chest. Mom and Pin just stand there, impassive. It’s like I have died, and they are in mourning.

Amid the people I love dearly, I see the most special person of them all. Cleo.

I run to her, but when I reach for her, she vanishes. Literally disappears before my very eyes. As I turn to the others, they also start to vanish.

Tears stream. I fall to my knees and weep.

My nightmares are coming true. I’m alone. Completely alone. Just me, myself, and I.

“Zola,” comes a distance, almost ghost-like voice.

I climb to my feet and look in the direction from which the voice came, but no one’s there. “Who are you? Where are you?” I shout into the white void surrounding me.

“Zo-la. Come to me.”

“No way!” Why in the Glucoxi galaxy would I to go some strange voice?

“Come, the answers to your questions await.”

“What?”

“Come.”

I stare across the white plain, and before I know it, I’m running towards a voice that claims to have answers. A solution. A solution to what? Gods, what am I going to find? 

I continue to run, which seems useless to me.

Things slowly fade into existence. Trees, birds, and a moonlit night sky.

I finally stop running. The sky is filled with beautiful stars and the three moons of Victian. The trickle of falling water fills my ears. Following the sound, I come upon an old male drinking from a lake. He has wavy, grey and white hair. For an old male, he appears to be in great shape and health, as he rises and turns towards me.

I gasp in surprise upon seeing that the male has the exact same eye color as I do. Never before have I met another person with stardust blue eyes. My mom told me it was a rarity.

“Come, my child,” the male summons. “We have much to discuss.”

I look at him as he holds out his hand. “Who . . . who are you?”

“The time for answers is now. The solution to your problems will be told. Follow me.”

Taking his hand, I keep pace with him, feeling totally confused but driven by a need to know what is happening to me and why. We walk down the riverbank and follow the trail up a snow-covered mountain.

We arrive at a structure covered in snow and moss. He opens a door set within it and gestures for me to go inside. As I do so, I notice pictures of my mother covering an entire wall. Seeing an image of my mother in her old battle armor, which I was forced to leave behind when I escaped Victian, brings a tear to my eye. Why am I here?

I turn to leave, but the male is in my way, holding a picture of my mom in a formal gown.

He gives me the picture and says, “I know being here, surrounded by these pictures, is hard for you. It’s hard for me, too.”

“You have no right . . .”

“I have every right to bring you here.”

“No. You. Don’t. Who do you think you are?”

“Your grandfather!”

I collapse onto the floor. Grandfather? My mother said that he died in the earlier part of the war.

The old male bends down beside me and pulls me into his arms. “I know it’s difficult to accept or understand, and I know that you feel lost and alone. You lost your mother, sister, and father. I lost my daughter. I’m in the same situation as you, almost, but crying is not going to help. Crying is not going to bring them back.”

“I know.” I weep. “I don’t know what to do.”

“You are a beautiful, intelligent young girl. And you are not to marry Renz, but you have to.”

“What?” I wipe away the tears. “Why?

“Your mother and I put a plan in motion before you were old enough to remember.”

I look at my grandfather. I cannot believe he just said that. He wants me to marry the enemy. Granted, I was going to do it anyway, to release my mother’s soul, but a grandfather doesn’t tell his granddaughter to marry someone like Renz. My life is a living nightmare. This is just a dream and nothing more. This man is not my grandfather.

“Are you alive?” I blurt out.

He stares at me with sharp eyes. “What kind of question is that?”

“Well, are you?”

“Yes, I certainly am alive. I have projected myself into your dream, to explain your dilemma and offer a somewhat solution.”

“Our people don’t have that ability,” I counter.

“Our people? I need to explain that as well. I am not a Victian. I am Payohlini.” He says it like it’s nothing, but I can’t even begin to process his words.

He’s my grandfather, but he’s Payohlini. His words are torture to my inner being. He is not a Victian, but the enemy. Not even a Payohlini can be that cruel. How can a person with a pure soul make anyone go through such torture?

“Zola, do not be afraid,” the male says in a soothing voice.

“Afraid?” No, I’m not afraid. I’m seething. You don’t give someone family, just to snatch it away. “You are my enemy. What do you want with me?”

“I want to help you, and I’m not your enemy. I am your grandfather.”

“My parents aren’t Payohlini.”

“Your mother is.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I speak the truth, believe me, my dear child. Time is short. At this rate, you will be waking up to prepare for a mating ceremony and a permanent marriage. I wish we had more time, more time to explain and prepare you for what’s ahead. I’ll try to give you as much information as our abbreviated time allows.”

He walks towards me, and it is like he is looking into my soul. Everything I ever felt is pouring into his heart. My grandfather pulls me into his arms, and I throw my arms around his neck, letting all my tears fall upon him.

What feels like hours later, I have finally stopped crying. I sit in a chair across from the old male as he searches for a box. When he finally locates it, he carries it over and hands it to me.

Opening it, I find letters with the Victian official seal on them. I open the first one and begin to read:

Dear Father,

It has been a while since I last wrote, and I’m terribly sorry about that. I probably will not be able to write to you anymore. Not because I don’t want to, but because the war has begun. It is possible I won’t be alive much longer to write.

I don’t want mother or you to feel sad for me. I would much rather die than live to see my daughter wed against her will. If my dear Zola finds out about her fate, Father, I want you to tell her everything I don’t have the heart to tell her myself. If we are captured or slain, or she happens to escape, I want you to find her and send her far away, where the Payohlini can’t find her.

Thank you for forgiving “my treachery”, as you called it. I never meant to break your heart. I know what you are thinking. None of this would have happened if I didn’t marry Dimi. I did, though, and I do not regret it. I love him. I love our children. All of them. And I love you, Father. All I ask is that you take care of my Zola, your granddaughter, when I’m gone. I don’t expect to see you or mother again, as we are going into hiding. I just want to let you know that I love you.

Your Loving Daughter,

Yala

I drop the letter in my lap. My mother is a Payohlini. She kept part of who I am from me. From Cleo. How could she do that? How is that protecting me?

My grandfather takes the box from me and gives me a dusty old scroll. I unroll it and attempt to decipher the written letters and symbols.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand this.” I hand him the scroll back.

“It is an ancient legend written in old Payohlinian script. From long before you and I. This legend is feared by both the Payohlini and Victian. It speaks of opposites wedding. They shall bear a child, who will bear a child with her enemy. That child will be born with enough power to control all in our galaxy.”

“Is that about me?”

“Yala and Dimi are the first Payohlini and Victian to mate in all of history. So, yes. Most people believe this prophecy is about you.”

“So, a child I am supposed to have with a Payohlini will be a despot monster?”

“Some of my kind, like Renz, wants that child to be born. They believe if they can control it from a young age, they will hold the power.”

“I won’t,” I say. “That child will never be born.”

“You cannot escape destiny, Zola. A child will be conceived sooner or later.”

“If I don’t . . . if I don’t have. . .”

“If you don’t mate with a Payohlini.” He finishes my thought. “If not Renz, then another will force you to have the baby of legend.”

“No! Fine. Is there a way to get out of marrying that monster? To stop the legend?”

“Yes, one possible alternative.” He pauses. “Only when you marry someone you truly trust and love, before Renz forces you to mate, can the legend be stopped. You have to form the connection.”

“How would that work?” It’s not like I can force the connection.

“Payohlini don’t believe in adultery. Renz will not come after you, if you marry another. Thus making the prophecy null and void.”

That won’t work. The only person I trust that much and love is Pin. And Pin doesn’t see me like that. Not to mention, he is a Payohlini, as well. “It won’t work, grandfather. Renz has captured me, and I’m probably on his ship right at this very moment.”

My grandfather looks saddened. “Zola, I’m sorry. For sure, I thought that would work.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I could have prevented Yala from marrying Dimi, but I did not. It is all my fault.”

“My parents met and fell in love. I love them, and I am glad they were happy. Not to mention, if they hadn’t met, I wouldn’t be here.”

Being with my long lost grandfather gets me thinking about how much my life has changed. I have discovered so much about myself and made some amazing friends. If they still are my friends, that is. I have fallen in love with the most perfect male, who I would have never met, if not for this tragic war. I would have never imagined myself being happy on another planet, and with a Payohlini. I never imagined I could be part Payohlini, but I am. Oddly enough, I’m okay with that.

“Can you tell me how my parents met?” I ask him. “They never told me.”

“Of course.” He smiles, and I can see the love in his heart reflected in his eyes. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything!”

“I can only tell you the things I know.” He looks at me then begin the story. “When your mother was about eighteen, she was friends with a very wealthy young lady named Leena, who was just as beautiful as my daughter. However, Leena was a wretched person. She was overly spoiled. Leena was the type of person who cared for no one, other than herself. She was selfish. Yet, somewhere underneath all the negativity, she had a soft spot for Yala. One year, Leena threw a massive ball to find the perfect husband. She invited all the eligible men from many planets. Since she and Yala were such good friends, my daughter got an automatic invite. She was the only person at the ball not of royal lineage.

Even though Leena was throwing this ball, she already knew who she wanted to marry. Both she and Yala had known. The ball was a very selfish, self-serving exercise to see how many men would throw themselves at her. The ball was for her own amusement. Leena’s eyes were on the Prince of Victian. But it didn’t work out that way. The Prince of Victian saw Yala before Leena. From the way your mother explained it, it was love at first sight for them. He formed the connection. They danced all that night in the gardens of the palace. No one saw Prince Dimi’s arrival. And no one saw his departure.”

Ah. “So, what happened next?”

“Dimi returned home to Victian and Yala stayed on Payohlini. For a couple of months, Yala was heartbroken. She had fallen in love in one night and was haunted from that night on. On Leena’s twentieth birthday, she hosted another ball, hopping that Prince Dimi would attend. Of course, he did arrive. However, this time, he didn’t dance or speak to Yala. His attention was on his future wife. The night went smoothly for Leena, but Yala was filled with jealousy towards her friend. Yala wanted so badly to speak out, but she said not a word.

“Before the night ended, Dimi made a speech. He was to announce his engagement to Leena. Instead, he announced disengagement. Dimi declared his love for Yala to the whole galaxy. Naturally, Yala’s and Leena’s friendship ended. Leena sought to banish them both from the palace and Payohlini. But the Court overruled on Yala’s banishment. She had done nothing wrong. But this meant no Dimi for Yala, and vice versa. You know, you are so much like your father. He was willing to do anything to get what he wanted.

“Since Dimi was banished, he stayed at my home when he came to visit. Though not to his liking, he did anything to be with Yala. For hours, they would sit in Yala’s small room, talking. One day, Dimi didn’t show up. Rumors flew around that he had become king and taken a princess from Delgoria to be his bride. The Delgoria princess was just a rumor. However, becoming king was not. Dimi had to rule on Victian after the death of his father. His love life was not important, or at least that’s what your mother thought. She was beside herself, fretting and feeling wronged. But to her surprise, he came back.