Kaden walked to his room, feeling desperate, shocked, angry, miserable, and so many other emotions that his body had gone into a numb state. Loss felt like a weight on his shoulders and his whole body sagged from the burden. The announcement had been made, the palace was covered in black. Yet it still didn't seem real. He couldn't believe that the room right above him would be empty. No more heavy footsteps place deliberately to annoy him, no muffled voices would be heard talking, laughing. It was empty. and it seemed that there was a hole in Kaden's heart the size of that room. A hole that could not be filed. The whole that Eadalyn should have filled. He laid down on the bed and fell asleep, but he dreamed about the attack.
Kaden yawned and walked to his room. Eadalyn had just announced her engagement to Kile. Everyone had left the Great room but they stayed with Sylvia, who was helping get through the hundreds of reporters and paparazzi trying to get pictures of the newly engaged couples. The rebel alarm suddenly filled Kaden ears. All he could hear was the rebel alarm blaring and the screams of thousands of guest as they were rushed to safe places. All he could see were frantic people trying to find their loved ones. Guards suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into a safe room. His parents were in there, as well as Osten, Ahren, and his mother and Father, Queen America and King Maxon. They all looked like they let out a breath when I came in. "Thank God Kaden, you're safe," Mom hugged me and I could see her doing a head count, "Eadalyn, Kile, where are they?" She demanded of the guards. They soothed her, telling her there was a safe room near the Great Room, and that correspondences has told them that Eadalyn and Kile were safe. He gave mom the walkie talkie to see for herself. "Eady?" She whispered.
"Mom," came the response, "don't worry about us, now we have to be qui-" The line went dead and all we could hear was static. A minute later voices came back on. A manly voice, so low it was almost a growl.
"Queen America, we have killed you daughter and son-in-law, and we're leaving. Next time we come though, we come to kill the rest of you. We will be vicious and there will be no survivors." Then all we could hear was static. There was dead silence for a minute, it seemed the rebels had stayed true to their promise and left. Mom screamed and pounded on the door.
"LET ME OUT OF HERE, MY DAUGHTER COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!" Mom screamed at the guard. I had never seen mom so mad, or so frantic.
"Your Majesty, I'm sorry, but we have orders not to let you out until the palace has been searched thoroughly for rebels." Mom looked like steam would start coming out of her ears.
"THAT'S MY DAUGHTER WE'RE TALKING ABOUT, LET ME GO!" The guard looked terrified, and he fumbled for the keys and unlocked the door. Mom sprinted down the hallway toward the Great Room with the rest if us and dad close behind us. We reached the safe room there. The door was slightly ajar, but no guards were near. "Oh my God." Mom said softly. Dad stepped up and took her hand. Together they walked into the safe room. I couldn't see inside the room at what they were looking at, but watching mom, made it pretty clear. She turned as white as a sheet and collapsed to the floor sobbing. "Eady, oh Eady." Dad just stood there with his jaw hanging open and his face pale. He looked like he was in shock. The rest of us stepped inside and were instantly horrified. The safe room was big. It was holding about 50 people, including Eadalyn and Kile, Silvia, Gavril Fadaye, Eadalyn's maid, Neena, and lots of news reporters and paparazzi. Every single one of them had been slaughtered. It looked like they had tried to shield Eadalyn and Kile from view, but the rebels just killed them all until they found them. Kaden looked at Eadalyn's body. She was still wearing the beautiful dress she had worn at her announcement. It was sky blue, with a floor length skirt, made of layers of floaty tulle and silk. The skirt faded to white at the bottom, so it looked as if Eady was on a cloud. He fell to his knees next to them taking Eadalyn's hand, but it wasn't warm and soft as it usually was, it was cold and clammy and she was dead. Dead. She would never come back and-
Kaden woke with a start. It had been two years now since Eadalyn and Kile's deaths, but memories like those kept haunting his dreams. It was always the same, they started at night, when he had walked into bed, but soon turned to the attack. He shook his head. The sadness that had once filled him had gone away. He was still sad, but he felt better, he felt like Eadalyn and Kile had just gone on vacation, and he would see them after a while. He had come of age yesterday, and his Selection would start in a month. He was very excited when his mother and father proposed a Selection. Theirs had gone so well, It seemed like a fairy tale to Kaden. And Eadalyn had even made a deal with her father that she only had to last three months, but she ended up taking double that time and finding love. Kaden saw no reason he should be any different. He was more worried about liking them all so much he couldn't decide which one. Also, his parents had gotten better, but were still sad about the loss of their first child and son-in-law to be, but the idea of a Selection reminded them of theirs, it made them so happy, Kaden couldn't refuse. It had been a long two years, but with a Selection coming, the whole palace seemed brighter and more cheerful. Kaden had other things on his mind though, tonight was the night he would announce to all of Illea that he was going to have a Selection on the report, andhe was a nervous wreck. He had addressed the country before, of course. With Eadalyn gone and Ahren already married, he would be king of Illea soon, but he had never been talking about himself. He was worried that no girls would enter, or the people would take it badly. The good news was that the country was in a particularly good mood. They had finally infiltrated the rebel base and had all the rebels in custody. The country was free of rebels. And, as of a few days ago, the King and Queen had announced that they were working on plans to eliminate the castes. They had explained that it would probably take about 5 years to put the plans into action, and another 10-15 to actually eliminate the castes, but people were just glad something was finally happening. All in all, the odds were in my favor, but we'll see about that. The lights turned on, and blinded me for a moment. We were on. It was now or never.
