Don't Let Go (Third Book to the Other Side)

Chapter One (The Lost Warrior)

I stared at where he had been mere moments before, seeing but not comprehending. The portal was crumbling in on itself, marking the last hope of his escape. He never came through.

I didn't react. I didn't feel. I didn't think.

I sat there, staring at the spot that Thomas had been.

"Alexander," murmured a soft voice, and I felt a hand touch my shoulder. I shrugged it off immediately. It wasn't Thomas. I didn't want it.

"He's okay," I breathed. "He's going to be okay. He's got out of worse stuff than this before," I said, forcing down the urge to fall apart right there. I rose to my feet and looked around. I had been expecting the familiar comforts of the castle, or maybe Avionerra.

But I didn't recognize anything at all about this place.

"Where are we?" I asked, searching for anything that could give me an answer, but there was nothing there.

"Alexander," said Eliza, stepping forward and setting her hand on my shoulder once more, and as much as I wanted to flinch away from her unwelcoming touch, I forced myself to stay still. "Why don't you rest for a moment?"

"Rest? We can't rest. Thomas is waiting for us. We have to find him."

"Alexander," she said my name again, and it sounded like she was inches away from tears. "Thomas isn't coming."

"It's the shock," Hercules murmured, more subdued than I had ever seen him before, though I couldn't figure out why. "It's gotten to him."

"Don't you guys see? This is all part of his plan! Thomas isn't stupid. He wouldn't charge into battle like that, and he would never surrender that way either. He's waiting for us at the end of this path," I said, nodding to the path that stretched through the awaiting forest. "And we just have to find him."

Angelica and Aaron exchanged a solemn glance, while Philip hugged his body and kept his head lowered. Lafayette was very visibly trembling, and when Hercules stepped over to him, I expected him to turn away, ignore him. But instead, he fell against Hercules's body, and Hercules didn't hesitate in holding him. Washington was comforting a crying James, and Eliza stood close to me.

Peggy inspected the closest tree, her fingers resting gently on the wood that was tinted blue. "I know where we are," she said, taking a leaf from the branch above her head.

"You do?" Washington asked so calmly it infuriated me. He had no right to be this calm. "And?"

"Well, when Thomas... when the King stabbed him," she said, glancing over at me briefly. "All of his power consumed him at once. It took control. He was trying to open up a portal to the castle, but I think—"

The words had barely left her mouth before I cried out in surprise, sprinting forward. "Thomas!"

He was standing at the edge of the forest, staring down at himself as if he couldn't quite believe he was there. Dressed in the same clothing he wore during our time in Avionerra, he grasped his bare arms; the tendrils of silk fluttering behind him in the sudden breeze. His head shot up as the name echoed through the woods, and it took him a second to hold out his hands and protest, "Alexander, stop!"

But I ignored him. "God, you had me so worried, you moron. I thought I was going to—"

I should have fallen into his arms, letting him hold me as I told him exactly what was wrong with him. I should have felt his warmth pulsing through me, the rise and fall of his chest, hell, I wouldn't have minded the sticky crimson blood that should have been staining the front of his shirt.