Two Worlds of Oblivion

by Angelina J. Steffort

  “What are you doing?” A voice startled him from behind. He spun around on his toes, finding a young woman towering over him, car-key in hand and a frown on her painted eyebrows.

  It took him a moment to understand that the blue car he’d been using for cover must belong to her.

  His eyes searched the ground for an excuse, finding a small piece of paper right behind the front tire. His fingers darted downward and retrieved it elegantly, holding it up in front of the lady. “Just looking for this.” He shrugged. “I dropped it on the way through…” He pushed himself to his feet, running his fingers through his hair, embarrassed to be caught. He, who noticed everything—every detail, every change, every danger—how could this have happened? He fashioned an apologetic smile he knew had worked on women before and wasn’t disappointed by the response.

  The woman studied his face for a couple of seconds before she ran her gaze over his chest and back up.

  Jemin knew that look. With most girls, it came with a blush when they noticed he was aware of their perception of him, but this woman was different. She didn’t look away, and her cheeks remained the same cream color.

  “I can write my phone number on that—” She pointed at the paper.

  Jemin was about to cough in surprise when Seri’s head appeared at his shoulder. “Can I borrow this guy?” She didn’t wait for a response before she pulled him around and away from the uncomfortably staring stranger.

  “Thank you.” Jemin followed her toward the salmon facade, not ducking or hiding now that Seri no longer seemed to find it necessary.

  “Breaking hearts already?” she commented with unmistakable humor. “How long did I leave you alone? Thirty seconds?”

  It was almost like hearing a female version of Heck speaking.

  “That’s about how long it was.” He tossed the piece of paper into the next trashcan and followed Seri along the salmon wall. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  Maray

  Maray flinched as Heck pulled up her shirt with two careful fingers.

  “Hold still, and it will be half as painful.”

  Maray bit back a comment and let the boy retrieve the bloody fabric from her stomach.

  “I would heal you,” Corey offered, “but my magic doesn’t work in this world.” She looked down, realizing she might have given away just how easily a touch of her hand would heal Maray, using a type of magic that wasn’t supposed to exist. “And I need access to my equipment to work my magic,” she saved.

  Maray remembered how Corey had explained the limits of magic and how a warlock had no place in a battlefield or on this side of the border between dimensions. Today, they had experienced both.

  “Can’t we use one of your bracelets to heal me?” Maray suggested, but by the look on Corey’s face, she knew that it wasn’t possible.

  “They work only for their owners.” She pursed her lips. “I am sorry.” Corey knelt down beside Maray and examined the cut. “It’s not deep. We can stop the bleeding long enough to return to the palace. I’ll need bandages.” She looked up at him expectantly, and Heck grimaced helplessly.

  “There must be a first-aid kit somewhere in this building,” Maray pointed out. Every public building had one.

  “If you promise not to disappear while I’m gone, I’ll get it,” LeBronn offered.

  Maray frowned. “Where would I go?” She knew she wasn’t going to die from the wound, but it had been painful enough to walk with the cut in her side. She had no intention of doing so again until absolutely necessary.

  LeBronn disappeared through a door at the other end of the room, leaving the four of them to themselves.

  “Do you trust him?” Corey whispered at Wil who shared a look with Heck.

  “It’s hard to trust anyone,” Wil answered. “But he got us to safety. That should count for something.”

  “Unless he’s planning to sacrifice us somewhere at an altar,” Heck joked, a grin back on his face, but less light-hearted than what Maray was used to.

  LeBronn returned with a selection of Band-Aids and bandages and handed them to Corey who pushed one of them onto Maray’s wound, face hopeful. Maray ground her teeth, suppressing an exclamation of pain.

  “We need to get her back to Allinan, and I’ll be able to help her properly,” Corey urged, earning a head shake from LeBronn.

  “We need to wait for Seri and Jemin.” His tone made it clear he wouldn’t hear any different.

  The pressure on the wound was uncomfortable but bearable under the premise that it would bring her closer to seeing Jemin again.

  “So Feris turned you and then?” Maray asked LeBronn to distract herself from the sensation.

  LeBronn leaned against a showcase and crossed his arms. “He dumped me in the river to dispose of me.” His face darkened. “And when I woke up, I was—” He glanced down at his body, “—well, this.”

  “A shifter.”

  “A shifter who can turn others.”

  Heck gasped beside her. “You have turned others?”

  “Some.” LeBronn noticed their shocked faces. “Some unintentionally, like my daughter. And some intentionally, like my men.”

  Heck cursed under his breath. “Seri is a shifter?”

  LeBronn nodded, and guilt crossed his face. “It was an accident,” he admitted. “But my pack is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Even if Feris probably created me to have some monster to fight for him, he has forged a weapon against himself. My pack is loyal to me, and we are fighting for our own cause—to save Allinan.”

  Maray knew that type of speech from the other revolutionaries she had encountered and was glad that LeBronn’s plan didn’t involve disposing of her.

  “Is everyone like you?” she asked hoping to learn enough to make up her mind if there was a reason to be worried—more than she already was.

  “You mean able to create others?” LeBronn’s slitted eyes squinted even more. “If there is anyone else like me, I haven’t encountered them.”

  There was something about the way he said it that made Maray uneasy. LeBronn noticed, and his expression smoothed. “I was the first, and Feris might have just learned how to do it. With Langley, he already knew how to dial down the intensity of whatever he injected us with so he wouldn’t become too strong. But Feris still is a dangerous man. Even if he has run out of resources, Yutu-blood, spells, and potions… I don’t trust him not to find another way to bring destruction.”

  Wil’s hand was resting on Corey’s shoulder, a crease of worry beneath his short, ginger hair as Corey fidgeted beside Maray. It had to be horrible for her to hear people speak about her adopted father like that. She had trusted him all her life until recently when they had found out he had been the one aiding Rhia in her attempts to gain immortality and omnipotence. Who knew what part he’d played in the first breach of dimensions? For all they knew, he and Rhia were hiding somewhere in this world, biding their time until they were strong enough to attack—whatever an attack meant. A new rift between the worlds? An army of demons? Special spells?

  “Do you think they are here in this world?” Maray asked, still in her own thoughts.

  “You look cozy,” an unfamiliar voice claimed in a familiar tone, making all of them jump.

  When Maray turned around, her heart gave a tiny leap. There, behind a petite Asian-looking girl, Jemin’s bright-blue eyes were hovering like two gems in a dirty face, half-hidden under strands of caramel.

  Maray used Heck’s hand to pull herself up, ignoring the stabbing pain in her side, and launched herself toward him. Jemin’s gaze locked on hers, full of unspoken emotion and something she had never seen there before—

  “I can’t believe you’re alive,” Maray whispered as she stumbled into Jemin’s arms, and his hands pressed her to his chest. His touch felt better than ever.

  “Do yourself a favor, Princess, and believe it,” the girl said behind her, followed by a muffled laugh from Heck.

  “Death becomes y
ou, Seri,” he commented on the tiny girl’s appearance.

  Maray ignored them—all of them. What mattered was that Jemin was alive and safe. Everything else could wait. Or so she thought.

  As she reached up her hand to touch his cheek, the wound in her side gave a sharp sting, and she gasped.

  “What is it?” Jemin grabbed her by her shoulders and held her at arm’s length, running his gaze over her body until he spotted her blood-oozing wound, and his face twisted in horror. “How did this happen?”

  He carefully pulled her back toward his side, laying his arm around her for support.

  “One of Langley’s guys got close enough for a half-decent hit,” Heck explained with his humor restored. And when Maray eyed him, she noticed that the tension had left him now that Jemin had returned unharmed—looking as if he’d been dragged through dirt and ashes, but good enough to believe he was fine.

  Seri had joined her father at the showcase and was mirroring his posture, arms folded across her chest. The two of them were whispering, raising their heads in-between and looking at Maray with concern and eyes full of questions.

  “Can we trust her?” Maray asked Jemin in a murmur as she sat down on the floor again.

  Jemin knelt down beside her, taking Heck’s place from before, and nodded. “Until today, I thought she was dead. It’s a miracle.”

  “Her father turned her into a Yutu-shifter,” Maray corrected. “It has nothing to do with miracles.”

  “Neelis LeBronn was one of my father’s most loyal friends,” Jemin said, no longer whispering. “He saved you.”

  Something in his eyes told her that the topic wasn’t open for discussion, so she grabbed another bandage and pushed it onto her wound, biting back the pain that came with it.

  “We need to get her back to Allinan, where we have access to magic.” His eyes flickered to Corey, who nodded but didn’t speak.

  Heck, on the other hand, was at his side, patting his shoulder. “We’ll need to be prepared to face Laura’s wrath.” He chuckled, but Maray’s stomach tightened, sending another wave of pain through her body.

  “I wouldn’t be so worried about my mom,” she informed them. “My father, however…”

  “You should transfer back,” Neelis LeBronn agreed and stepped forward. “Princess Laura and Ambassador Johnson are probably worried sick. I’d be surprised if they haven’t already sent the entire palace guard out to search for you.”

  “I doubt that.” Maray realized that what few people knew of her existence were either dead or in this room—or under the command of someone in this room. Except for Rhia and Feris. It would surprise her if her mother shared this secret with a random group of guards. If anyone was out there, it was Scott, and he wouldn’t even know where to look. “But we should go, you’re right.” Maray inclined her head. “Thank you for saving us.” She glanced at Seri. “Thank you for saving Jemin.”

  The girl shrugged and stepped closer. “He made it pretty difficult.”

  Maray gave her a questioning look, but the girl didn’t specify. Instead, she smiled at Jemin. “Thank you, Seri.” He returned the smile, letting a connection shimmer through that Maray didn’t understand, and a squashiness came with it… or it came from the continuous pain in her side.

  “We’ll take you back to the palace in this dimension,” LeBronn let them know, not even thinking to ask whether that was what they wanted. “Once there, you can cross the border safely. Right into your bedroom, Your Royal Highness, if you please.”

  Heck suppressed a chuckle beside Jemin. “Best we let the two of you go alone, then, Jem.” His grin broke through, and Jemin gave him a frown.

  “Thank you, Neelis,” he said, ignoring Heck’s comment, and wrapped his arms around Maray, scooping her up before he got to his feet lightly as if he was carrying just her cloak instead of the whole person.

  The constant up and down didn’t help with the pain. Jemin’s arms were curled tightly around Maray as he was carrying her along the rows of trees in her world. Tourists glanced at them sideways as they approached the palace, probably wondering if they were part of a theatre group or photo shoot. But the group’s interest was more for the massive balcony which was throning between two curved sets of stairs leading up to high, arched windows with closed, emerald window-blinds.

  Maray’s focus was diverted by the movements of Jemin’s muscles beneath her cheek and his constant murmured flow of apologies for having abandoned her at the cabin. Heck, Wil, and Corey where nervously glancing back and forth, escorting them to the palace, while Neelis LeBronn and Seri had stayed behind in the safe house—just in case anyone unwelcome crossed the border there. By now, Maray wasn’t sure anymore if she’d rather face Rhia than the wrath of her parents.

  “Down here.” Heck rushed past them and under the balcony to one of the wide doors. In Allinan, Maray had seen guards at these entrances, but here, the doors were closed and unprotected by the pretty-uniformed men and women of Allinan’s palace guards.

  Heck waved them over, holding one of the doors open just enough for them to slip through. Some of the hundreds of people watched them as they disappeared into the castle, but nobody seemed to find it strange that they would enter there. Not on this side of the door, at least.

  Inside, a crowd of tourists was waiting patiently in line to enter the next guided tour of the palace. Some curious gazes along with some upset ones met Maray’s eyes as they excused their way through the queue, Heck spearheading the operation.

  “Excuse me, madam—” Jemin squeezed past an elderly woman who was wearing a grey hat and a frown, following Heck through a narrow side door leading away from the crowd.

  “This will do,” he said and stopped. Heck, Wil, and Corey followed his lead.

  Maray just had a moment to take in the golden ornamentations on the white walls of the empty room before she noticed the familiar haze. They were crossing the border.

  The room looked almost the same, only here, a small desk was set up in a corner, hosting the commander of the palace guards.

  “I thought you were dead,” said Commander Scott instead of a greeting. The middle-aged man got to his feet and crossed the room, exposing his uniform and his weapons dangling at his side under his cloak. “I was just about to head out. I got word that the tunnels under the gardens collapsed in some places,” he said and watched Jemin as he set Maray gently onto her feet. She flinched. “Is it possible you had anything to do with this, Princess?”

  Maray didn’t correct him. She had asked him to not call her ‘Your Royal Highness’ or ‘Princess,’ but Scott kept falling back into protocol.

  “She is injured,” Jemin said instead of waiting for Maray to talk her way out of his question. She knew Scott was on her side, protecting her mother and herself from Rhia and the rogue revolutionaries, but she didn’t know exactly how much he knew concerning the strength of her magic.

  “We can take her to the infirmary,” Scott suggested, but Corey stepped forward, her dark forehead wrinkled with concern.

  “It’s better no one sees her—especially not in this state.” She laid her hand on Maray’s back, pretending to be supporting her, but Maray felt how the stinging sensation in her side slowly faded. “Her injuries are only half as bad as they were. The cut stopped bleeding a while ago.” She reached to the seam of Maray’s shirt and pulled it up, exposing a cut that was half as deep as it had initially been.

  Scott raised an eyebrow. “That looks like a bandage and some bedrest will be enough to get her fixed.”

  Jemin bent forward to take a closer look and was about to say something when Maray kicked his foot, unnoticed by the rest, and caught Scott’s attention with a cough.

  “It’s best I return to my chambers,” she suggested and nodded, hoping to get the others on board with what she was trying to do. She needed to get to somewhere safe—somewhere protected from eager Allinans’ eyes where Corey could finish her healing-job properly before she faced her parents.

  “
As a warlock and trained healer, I agree.” Corey was first to react, and she played her role well. “The Princess has been through a lot today. She should rest before she is confronted with any other issues—” Corey paused, obviously waiting for Scott to understand.

  “You mean Princess Laura and Ambassador Johnson?” he guessed correctly, and his lips tightened. Corey nodded. “They are not amused, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Not amused?” Maray inquired the meaning of his words.

  “To speak in Rhia’s terms,” he said with a dark laugh. “They have been turning the castle upside down. I’d have been out there, looking for you, if your father hadn’t insisted that someone they can trust was needed around here in case you returned…” His thinning hair pulled back on the top of his head as he raised his eyebrows. “Apparently he was right.”

  Maray felt a deeper surge of guilt. She knew her father had trusted her—always. They had been the only people they could rely on for a long time. And she had let him down. She had betrayed his precious trust. And yet, he had chosen to trust her to return by herself.

  “Where is he?”

  “In your room.” Scott turned to the side to pick up something from the desk.

  “What’s this?” Jemin demanded to know. There was a glistening in his eyes that informed Maray that he would be even more protective than he had been before the incident.

  Scott gave him a sharp look.

  “I apologize,” Jemin said, remembering his place. “Commander Scott, may I ask about the meaning of this note?”

  To Maray, his words didn’t sound any less aggressive, but Scott seemed pleased enough with the formalities of the hierarchy between them.

  “This is to Unterly,” he said with a face that made it clear he didn’t like it any more than Jemin or Heck did. Even Corey joined the party, tightening her grasp on Maray’s shoulder.

  Maray waited for a moment for someone to fill her in about what was going on until Scott finally gritted his teeth at her, obviously uncomfortable enough to start sweating at her inquisitive look.