Arcadia

An eBook By Tabitha Bradley.

Alex looked out over the Valley.

The sky above was dark with clouds, and the air was chill, but Alex felt a spark of excited warmth within. She was going home!

She hurried down the path into the Valley, anxious to see the beloved people who had become her family.

As she verged upon the great gate to the underground fortress of Arcadia, she felt a distinct chill. The massive door was ajar. And, as she approached it, the chill deepened. The entrance hall was dark. No warmth, no golden light, no rich spicy scent of myrrh and cinnamon heavy in the air. No children playing, no friendly murmur and bustling of people. Her people.

No, the great entrance hall of Arcadia was the chill of a dungeon, a tomb. The only sound was a distant dripping, echoing in the vast hall like a death dirge.

"My gods. What the hell happened here?" she muttered, standing in the middle of the polished rose granite floor, looking around like a lost child.

Footsteps. Armored boots on stone. Alex stifled a gasp. Damn! She wondered if her voice carried further than she'd thought. She quickly hurried to an alcove beneath the great, sweeping staircase, just as a troop of guards marched down the stairs. Alex stared at them in shock.

The Regissian Guard! What in bloody hell were they doing here?

A loud crash from upstairs confirmed her fears.

"The Commander is getting pissed," the sergeant muttered.

His corporal nodded.

"The angrier he gets, the worse off it's gonna be for Galliard."

The troop headed across the open entrance hall to the door.

"I hope, for our sakes, he finds what he's lookin' for. It gets harder and harder to deal with him by the day," the sergeant said, as they walked out the door.

"Yeah," Alex heard the corporal's voice carry as they closed the door behind them.

She crept out from her hiding place, as another crash resounded through the empty hall. She looked up the staircase. She knew where the sounds were coming from, and a shiver went through her.

Quietly and stealthily, Alex made her way up the stairs. The sounds were getting louder as she stepped into the wide carpeted hallway. A huge oaken door was placed not far away, and it was from beyond this impressive door that the destructive sounds came. And with the sounds, Alex could now hear a voice.

"No! I said I don't know!" The voice was strained, filled with defiance and pain. And it cut Alex to the heart.

Justin!

"Damn it, Galliard! You're a liar, and your lies are going to be the death of you!" Another voice, deep, furious, deadly, whipped out of the closed room. Alex froze, her skin going clammy cold. She could barely draw breath as that hated voice from her past, as big as life now, snarled from inside what she'd always considered the safest place in the world.

Justin Galliard's study.

Justin, who was her foster brother, and the closest thing Alex had in the worlds to family.

Defiled by the villain who'd ruined her life.

"You can't kill me," Justin growled, "if you do, you'll never find it." There was silence, pregnant and breathless. "And you know that."

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