Eadlyn Selects

Eadlyn Selects (last chapter!)

I shout above the clamor, "Out! Now! The stairs go up and out the right double doors! Hurry! Hurry!" I rush to help an older woman with a toddler. Then I act as a crutch to hurry along our retired butler. People stream out around me. 

Dad is next, wringing his hands. I see that his pupils are dilated. He is trembling and leaning to the right.

"Dad, take Mom out," I say firmly.

"She needs a doctor," he whispers. "And her medicine." Then he turns to Hale with a fierce expression I've never seen before. "But I need to help here."

To Hale he orders in an icy tone, "Let me negotiate. Dismantle the explosives. We have the woman, Eady's old maid, Neena."

I wish I had a watch. "Where's Kile? I need Kile! Dad, get out! There's no time! Neena escaped! She's behind this! Let me handle it! Go!"

Dad rubs a grimy palm over his bandaged face. He's confused, not thinking clearly, maybe concussed.

Eerily calm now, Hale says, "You have about one minute to clear out or we all die."

"You can have a seat on the cabinet! I'll pardon you! Anything to stop the bloodshed!" Dad begs.

"You need to get out." Hale says to me, paying no mind to my father, which tells me how little time we have for anything but survival. The room is half cleared.

"Dad, go!" I order.

Mom appears behind him, holding her chest. Her skin looks waxen. I spin Dad around to see her.

"America, my love." He hoists her up into his arms, kisses my forehead, and rushes past me. He's still limping but he's moving faster than I thought he was capable of. They might make it. While negotiating the crowds and stairs, I see him murmuring reassurances to Mom, whose eyes widen and fasten on me in alarm.

Kile. He stands before me holding his shoulder but flashing furious eyes at Hale. I curl into his chest for a hug. I can tell by the ginger way he's holding himself that he has injuries I cannot see. My brothers are behind him supporting Josie between them. Osten has tears running freely down his face, his frightened eyes wide and dazed looking. Kaden has a bandage seeping blood on his forehead and a sling around one arm. His pants are torn off at the knee and his shin is splinted.

"Please take them," I whisper to Kile. "Please, I beg of you."

Kile stiffens, "Is it true? A bomb?"

"Yes. If you care about me, help me with this. Make sure my brothers make it safely up, and Josie. My dad just left. Please, I won't go until everyone is out." The room is almost clear. "I'll be right behind you," I say, unsure if I mean it. By my mental calculation, we're out of time.

Osten, Kaden, and Josie hobble to the door. I see Lucy and Marlee behind them, both seeming not right and leaning on each other.

Tears fill my eyes, and I beg once more, "Please."

Kile eyes Hale who has deposited the slumped woman on the floor and is running his hands over the walls. He said he could dismantle a bomb, didn't he? The woman drags herself up and goes to help him.

"I want to stay," Kile says brokenly.

"It'd be selfish. We aren't selfish. Love sometimes means sacrifice, right?"

A deep pain passes through his body. Shuddering, he says, "Right, your Highness."

Kile heaves Osten on his back and instructs him to hold on. Then he hoists Josie into his arms.