by Rye Brewer
When she did, I caught sight of the swell of her belly under her robes. My heart ached for her. How much longer did she have? Was she afraid? It didn’t look that way. She seemed calm, even happy. She was clearly concerned for Fane and the rest of us, maybe—which only made my stomach turn when I remembered how cold Jonah was earlier. He didn’t care about her, the baby, or anything that related to her.
Allonic raised his arms, too, and the two of them closed their eyes.
I was sure none of us breathed as we watched what was happening.
There was a feeling in the air, something different. It stirred for the first time since I got there and felt cool against my skin. A point of light appeared in the air in front of where the two of them stood and slowly grew. It was hypnotic.
I watched with awe as it swirled and danced. The extreme darkness all around it only made it seem brighter.
Fane took a step forward. “Sirene can only hold it by herself for a few moments, so Allonic will be the last to go through. Let’s hurry—we’ll need him to conserve as much strength as possible.”
Jonah nudged me forward.
I looked back at Sirene before stepping through. I felt sorry for the little half-blood baby growing inside her. Life was difficult enough for a half-blood vampire, but to grow up without a mother’s protection? I’d never forget those early days after we were sure our mother died in the Fire. We were so scared and alone, and nobody wanted anything to do with us because of Mom’s relationship with my father. I didn’t know that at the time, which only made things worse. Why were the other members of our clan rejecting us? It wasn’t our fault Mom died.
It shouldn’t have surprised me that Jonah was so disgusted by Fane and Sirene, since vampires hated mixed blood—only I thought he was different. I didn’t think he would be so cruel.
When he said he didn’t care about Sirene or her baby, I remembered the backs that had turned on me when I needed help the most.
“Go on,” Jonah said, giving me a little push. We walked through together. I wondered if I would ever see Sirene again.
Then we were on the other side.
The first thing I noticed was the sound of running water, all around me. Over me, to the sides, everywhere. But the ground was dry.
“Get out of the way of the others,” Jonah muttered as he pulled me off to the side. He was rougher than he needed to be. Still holding a grudge, I guessed. Two could play at that game. I yanked my arm out of his grip and ignored him as I turned to examine the walls. They were cold, solid, and very smooth. Immediately it reminded me of the underground system of tunnels Allonic and Steward called home.
“So dark,” Philippa whispered when she came through.
So dark… so dark… so dark… Her voice echoed over and over until it mingled with the sound of moving water.
“I wonder how old this is,” I whispered. I ran my hands over the walls and couldn’t feel evidence of any tools used to carve the tunnel.
“Ancient.” Fane appeared behind me. “Many thousands of years.”
“How far do they run?” Gage asked. I could just make out the shape of him in the dark—even with our enhanced vision, it wasn’t easy to see.
“All over England.” That was Allonic. He leaned against the wall to catch his breath.
I touched his shoulder.
“How are you? You didn’t tire yourself out too much, did you?”
“I don’t think so.” His eyes glowed in the dark. “It’s been many years since I had to throw such a complex portal. I enjoy a challenge.”
I smiled. “You did a good job.” I leaned closer. “Do you think Sirene will be all right back there?”
He nodded. “She has a lot of support. Unlike vampires, witches don’t leave each other alone in situations like this.”
I hoped the baby would find a home with them, then, since it didn’t seem likely the vampires would care very much.
Jonah and Gage winced and groaned in unison, and the sound of their pain echoed around me until I couldn’t hear anything else.
Fane went to them. “The brands hurt more now that we’re closer, don’t they?”
“You could say that,” Jonah replied. His teeth were gritted, his voice tight.
Allonic stood up straight. “We have to move—and I’m sorry, but the pain will only intensify the closer we get to where Valerius is waiting.”
“Wonderful. I can’t wait for that.”
Philippa took Gage’s hand and leaned against his arm for a second. She was more affectionate than she used to be, too.
I guessed almost losing her brother made her appreciate him a little more.
We started walking down the endless tunnel, and as we went I looked from side to side and saw more offshoot tunnels than I could count. They must have stretched all over the country. How Allonic knew where we were going was a mystery to me, but we had to be going in the right direction since as hard as Jonah tried to hide his pain, I could just make out the sound of him drawing in sharp breaths.
“Are we walking under water?” I wondered out loud.
“There are rivers and streams all throughout the countryside. They’re all around us, even in the areas where humans built over the natural landscape.” Fane made a derisive noise. “They insist on ruining everything that’s natural.”
“You never seemed to mind the city very much,” Philippa reminded him. “In fact, you used to love standing on the roof, looking out over the skyline.”
“And?”
“Do you think those buildings always existed?” She was teasing him.
I could hardly believe it, until I heard him snicker. It was the first real, comfortable moment I had witnessed between them. I wondered if that was the way they were together before he disappeared. I never had that sort of relationship with a father—the thought of joking with Gregor was almost enough to make me laugh, it was that absurd.
It had been the same with Sara’s father, too. He was always good to me but we weren’t friends. I envied Philippa for having that and understood why she’d miss it.
We walked for what had to be miles. I wasn’t used to walking at normal speeds for such a long time—we coursed for a good reason. This walking was exhaustive.
But Allonic couldn’t course and the rest of us weren’t sure where we were going. We needed him to guide us. There were a lot of twists and turns, rights and lefts we took at what felt like random.
Allonic called out directions like he’d been there a million times, totally sure of himself.
Still, it was exhausting, and the pain was taking a toll on Jonah and Gage.
Jonah started stumbling a little, like he couldn’t concentrate on walking straight when he had other things to think about.
I took his arm when it seemed like he couldn’t walk anymore.
“Let me.” Fane took my place and helped Jonah keep moving.
I stepped aside and tried not to watch. It felt like I was invading their special moment.
Allonic was in front of me.
I fell in step beside him. “Why are we walking all this way?”
“What would you suggest?”
“Getting a portal directly to Sorrowswatch instead of walking for hundreds of miles?”
“It hasn’t been hundreds of miles. Besides, we can’t portal directly. There are many layers of enchantments over Sorrowswatch. It’s impossible to open a portal there.”
Which probably meant we’d have to walk back out to where we started. I hoped Jonah would feel better after we finished, or else there was no way he’d make it.
Gage was in terrible shape, too.
We walked on, moving as fast as we could considering two of us were in agony. I took comfort in the thought that the worse the pain, the closer we were.
Some comfort that was.
20
JONAH
The pain was almost blinding. If I could’ve cut my arm off to end the burning sensation, I would have. Only it was starting to spread through
out my body. Every step was agony.
“We’re almost there,” Fane muttered as he helped me stay on course. “Just hold on.”
I could make out the shape of Anissa walking next to Allonic. She had tried to help me walk. She didn’t hate me, not that I understood why she would, if she did.
I had not done anything to hurt her, had I? I couldn’t think clearly, but even so, I couldn’t remember anything. She was the last person I’d ever want to hurt. I went out of my way not to hurt her, even though she always found a reason to be mad when I meant well.
I looked over to my right, where Gage and Philippa walked together. I still had a hard time getting over what he did when he ran away, but at least he was feeling the same pain I was. That sort of made up for it. We could work the rest of it out somehow.
“Talk to me,” I groaned as Fane helped me through the tunnel. “Tell me something. Anything. I need to stop thinking about how this damned brand burns.”
“What do you want to hear about?”
“Anything. I don’t care. Just give me something to think about other than this.” I held up my arm, and just that slight gesture was enough to make me grit my teeth.
“Your sister got me thinking about when your mother and I first came to the city,” he said. “We could always see it across the river, you know. We watched it grow bigger and bigger. Sometimes we’d go over if we needed something—parts for our farm machinery, that sort of thing. Neither of us really cared for the hustle and bustle. She was a farm girl at heart, and farm work was in my blood. I had grown up thinking people who lived all crammed together were insane. Why would you do that if you could live out in the open? Feeling the earth between my fingers, smelling the fresh air—especially right after the rain? That was the best.” He sounded like his old self when he talked that way, animated and happy.
“Only we couldn’t once we turned.” His voice went dark.
I wished he would keep talking about the farm if it meant he would sound happy again.
“We tried to live our normal lives, but there isn’t much work a farmer can do when he can’t go out in sunlight. Granted, by that time there wasn’t much work I had to do on my own. We had hands to help with the grunt work, so to speak. But those hands needed supervision. They wanted to see me during the day, outside. That just wasn’t possible—I’ll never forget the first time I tried. You think you’re in pain now?” His laugh was grim.
“It was the same with your mother, too. Do you remember any of those days?”
I tried to think back. I only vaguely remembered life before moving to the city. “Gage and I used to chase the chickens around until Mom would just about lose her mind. She said we’d worry them so much they’d never lay eggs again. I remember being barefoot a lot of the summer, too. That was fun. We’d try to catch fish with our bare hands. Remember that, Gage?”
He snorted. “Remember the time you fell into the creek face-first when one slipped out of your hands?”
“That was closer than you ever got to catching one.”
We both laughed a little. Those were good days. I always thought we were lucky to grow up where we did, when we did.
Fane chuckled. “You don’t know how difficult it was for your mother and I to take the four of you away from there and move to the city. We spent many nights talking straight through to the dawn—of course, we didn’t sleep anymore, so we could do that easily.” He sighed. “We couldn’t hunt freely, for one thing. News traveled fast. If there were people passing through the village, for instance, everyone knew about them. If they disappeared, everyone would know that, too. It was a struggle in those days. We knew everyone for miles around, and they knew us. We had to live somewhere where it would be easier to hunt and get away with it.”
“So you moved across the river. I remember that. None of us understood why. I cried myself to sleep for a week,” Philippa admitted.
“We knew you did, and we wished there was something we could do for you. But it was the only way. We trusted that you’d understand one day. It wasn’t only survival, either—we needed others like us. We couldn’t survive on our own. There were things we needed to know. We needed support. The only way to find it was in Manhattan.”
“How did you find others like you?” I asked. “I mean, it’s not like you could go to the internet to find others with like interests.”
“We learned to look for certain traits. Pale skin, bright eyes. I’m sure you’ve noticed how we carry ourselves differently from humans, too. Over time, it was easier to recognize those like us. We found that most of the time, they were happy to make connections, too. Many of them were unorganized, moving around on their own. I decided to band us together. One thing led to another and after a few years, we met the members of what’s now the Bourke clan. When I took over leadership of the clan, it took our name.”
“Did you ever regret turning? Becoming what you are today?” Philippa asked. She sounded a lot more subdued than usual.
“Never for a minute. If I hadn’t, it would’ve meant saying goodbye to Elena. I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want the four of you to be away from her, either. We were a family.”
Philippa let out a sort of choked cry, but we all pretended not to hear her. It was easier that way.
“Do you ever regret our decision to turn you?” Fane asked.
We were quiet for a long time, all three of us. When neither of the other two spoke up, I decided to.
I said, “We were a family. If any of us had decided not to turn, that person would’ve had to live without the others. I don’t think any of us wanted that.”
“And we didn’t want to leave any of you behind,” he agreed.
Suddenly, the pain broke. One second my arm burned the way it would as if Anissa’s silver blade was pressed to it, then the next… nothing.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Gage?”
“You, too?” He was looking at me.
“What is it?” Allonic stopped short and turned to us.
“The pain’s gone. Absolutely gone.” I flexed my arm in amazement. It was enough to make me want to drop to my knees and thank whoever made it stop.
Allonic’s eyes glowed like fire. “I had suspected that would be the case, but didn’t want to get your hopes up in case I was wrong.”
“What happened? What changed?” Anissa asked him but stared at me.
“We’ve crossed the boundary and are now in Sorrowswatch. There was a chance the brand’s spell would last until we reach the very spot where Valerius waits, of course. I couldn’t be sure.”
“It doesn’t matter much to me either way,” I admitted in relief. “I’m too glad it’s over.”
“Do you think we’re very close now?” Fane asked.
Allonic nodded. “We’ll have to be careful now. We could come upon the chamber at any point.”
“Chamber?” Philippa asked as we set off again.
“I doubt he’s waiting for us above the surface,” Allonic said. “We could come upon him at any moment. Where we stand, this spot, is where the brand leads to.”
I looked around and noticed that the tunnel had widened. The ceiling was higher than before, too. “Is it lighter in here, or am I imagining things?”
“I thought so, too,” Gage murmured.
We all moved with a lot more caution than we had before. Since I didn’t need his help anymore, Fane took his place beside Allonic. He wouldn’t let his kids go ahead of him. No matter what he said, I couldn’t believe he wasn’t still the same person he used to be.
Anissa fell back a bit, and I walked next to her. “You okay?” she whispered.
“Better than before.” Which was an understatement.
Allonic stopped short with his arms spread.
We all stopped behind him.
“What is it?” Fane asked.
“We’ve arrived,” Allonic announced.
I looked around and didn’t see anything different from what I’d seen all along.
“Where?” I asked.
“Here. Straight ahead.”
What was straight ahead looked to me like a stone wall, but Allonic stepped forward with his hands straight out, and touched the stone. It seemed to dissolve under his hands.
“Holy hell,” Philippa whispered.
Why any of us were surprised by anything like that anymore, I couldn’t say.
I tried to see inside the chamber that Allonic had revealed, but the opening was too small to allow a very good look. Anissa took my hand as we walked through the doorway and I didn’t let go. None of us knew what we would find on the other side.
There was more light in there, though I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. The sound of water went away and left a sort of deafening silence in its place. An enchantment, I guessed. The chamber reminded me of a church I went to back when I was young, before turning. The ceiling stretched up beyond us, up and up. I never would’ve guessed from looking that it would be that large.
“Where are we? I mean, what is this place, really?” Anissa turned in a full circle, looking around.
Allonic shrugged, but I wasn’t sure it meant he didn’t know or didn’t want to say.
Something along one wall caught my eye. A huge glass box. The light reflected off it, so I couldn’t see what was inside. It sat straight up, on its end.
“What is that?” I couldn’t help but walk toward it. Something about it drew me closer.
Philippa and Gage followed me.
“Wait,” Fane said. He drew up behind me. “Don’t make any fast moves. We don’t know what we’re dealing w—”
He went silent before he finished speaking.
I knew why.
I couldn’t find any words.
None of us could.
It was a sarcophagus. There was a body inside. It had been decades since I last saw her, but I would’ve known her red hair and creamy white skin anywhere. Not to mention the nose that was so like mine, and the light scattering of freckles Philippa had inherited.
“Mother?” Philippa breathed.
“Impossible,” Fane murmured.
Only she was there, in front of us.