With all the strength I had, I pushed forward in front of Max, grabbed him, and flung him through the window frame a split-second before a visible force field came down, locking me inside.
A cackle resounded through the air as Orphelia emerged through the mirror like some evil entity from a movie.
Fear flooded through me as I prepared to fight against a witch whose depth of knowledge was unknown.
I didn’t stand a chance, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try. Nessa had taught me to put up the wall. It was already surrounding me. And it wasn’t going anywhere.
Orphelia may have had control over the situation, but I still had control over the earth, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop me from keeping the protective wall around me. Well, that I knew of.
I slipped my hand into my waistband, retrieved the blood pill, and popped it into my mouth.
“What is that you’re taking, child?” her demented voice carried through the air, sending chills down my spine.
Biting down, the blood spilled into my mouth, giving me a further surge in power that only came from the life of a vampire.
“You needn’t fight,” she continued. “Even with your new unlocked powers you are no match for me. I have hundreds of years on you, and I’m gifted with an entity that will forever be out of reach for the likes of you.”
Yeah, I knew what that entity was. She had a demon inside of her. I could smell it.
Orphelia raised her hands, opened them, and shoved them toward me, releasing a cloud of thick black smoke.
Keeping my wall up, I looked around, trying to find a way out. Then I remembered what Nessa had taught me. If I could transfer my wall to covering her, then her magic would be obsolete, rendering me free to leave.
Focusing on the energy from the earth, I drew in more than I ever had before, allowing it to consume me before releasing it slowly, morphing into a wave headed for the witch.
Orphelia let out an ear-piercing screech. Then a sound ricocheted through the air, a sound I knew all too well. Only I couldn’t see where the bullet was coming from, and the wall was no longer surrounding me on all sides as it moved in on Orphelia.
Time seemed to stand still as I went to throw myself to the side, hoping that simple movement would be enough to set me free from the bullet that was on my tail. But I stopped short, my heart jumping into my throat as my gaze fell on my mother, standing not more than a foot to the side of me, and the bullet heading directly toward her.
Frozen where I stood, my watery gaze remained on her, unable to move.
“Come with me.” She pointed to a single string in the veil separating this world from the Shadow World.
Without thinking, I reached up and grabbed hold of the thread.
18
Electricity shot through me as the world around me began to morph from the one I knew into the land that lay beyond, leaving the huntresses sword behind.
My eyes widened as my mother, who was once nothing but a ghost, was now a living, breathing human before me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as tears spilled from my eyes, unable to contain the emotion swelling inside of me.
My mother was standing right before me.
Gingerly, I reached out to touch her, but she latched her hand around mine and yanked me forward as she broke into a run, heading to who knew where.
The lump in my throat grew bigger, and tears continued to spill down my cheeks, all my thoughts consumed with the way her hand was actually holding mine. I could feel the heat of her body, her very much alive body.
I barely processed the scenery as she guided me past blurs of darkness, eventually stopping inside a derelict building and pulling me into a room with no windows.
She pressed her back against the wall as she stared at me, her eyes pooling with tears. Her skin was covered with dirt, and she didn’t look as if she’d bathed or eaten properly in weeks. But in that moment, I didn’t care about the fact she was covered in filth. She was my mother.
We must have stayed that way, staring at each other for a good minute before I could finally form a word. “Mom?”
She nodded, the tears in her eyes finally spilling over. She wrapped her arms around me, holding me tightly against her as her whole body trembled with barely contained emotion. And she wasn’t the only one. Ugly sobs racked my body as tears streamed down my cheeks. I buried my face into her wavy auburn hair, the ache in my chest becoming all-consuming as I had to remind myself over and over again that she was real. I was touching her, and she wasn’t dead.
Eventually, we pulled away, and she reached toward me and wiped my tears. “I’ve missed you so much.”
The lump in my throat almost stopped me from responding, my voice coming out strained. “I’ve missed you, too.”
Her gaze dropped to my mouth, or more so, my fangs.
I slapped my lips over my teeth, trying to hide the suckers from her. I couldn’t bare to see the shock in her eyes. When I finally did look at her, she held absolutely no contempt toward me.
“Don’t hide who you are, my sweet girl,” she said. “I’ve always known who you were, and I regret not telling you sooner. If I had just come clean… you would never have been in danger.”
I shook my head fiercely. “You couldn’t have known what would happen.”
She smiled, a smile filled with a million regrets and dreams for the future. “No. But you were smart enough to work out where I hid the key, and your brother and his friends were courageous enough to listen and trust The Circle of Embers, going against everything they thought they were fighting for.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “I am so proud of the three of you.”
I bit my lip, trying to hold back the next wave of tears threatening to be released. “I missed you so much.”
“I know. I’ve been watching over you when I can. And I know you must’ve been terrified that day when you and your friend Max were attacked, but you handled it better than I could’ve hoped for. When I was taken, I feared you would never know, that Nessa wouldn’t have found you in time and your natural instincts wouldn’t have kicked in. But I was wrong.” She brushed her thumb across my cheek, wiping away a lone tear that had fallen. “Your defiance and rebellion are strengths, not weaknesses. Never forget that, for it makes you who you are and were always meant to be.”
She smiled at me again, then grabbed my hand. “Now, we have to work out how we’re going to get out of this place.”
“We’ve got a plan,” I said, looking around me, actually paying attention to my surroundings for the first time since I stepped into the Shadow Realms. The walls surrounding us were charred with what looked to be soot, but I couldn’t really be sure considering I had no idea how this world worked.
In the corner was a pile of rags and blankets. “Please tell me this isn’t where you’ve been sleeping.”
She ran her hand through her hair, her fingers getting stuck in the knots. “It’s better than where they were keeping me.”
I frowned. “What do you mean where they were keeping you?”
Mom smiled. “That’s a story for another day.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me down to sit on the floor. “We have more important things to discuss right now, like how you’re going to get out of here because I’m sure your brothers are going out of their minds.”
And Max. He’d also be beside himself.
“Your father…” She let out a shuddered breath. “I’m so sorry… None of you kids should’ve had to go through what you did.”
“It’s not your fault, Mom. He’s responsible for his own actions, just like the rest of us.” I wasn’t blameless, neither was Finn. Mason on the other hand, he was the perfect offspring. The only difference between our father and us, was that we didn’t permanently slip. We still showed up for life. Dad didn’t.
I looked around at the four walls we were sitting in. “How do I get out of this place when I don’t even know how I got in?”
“I don’t
know, sweetheart, but I do know the ability lies within you.”
“I don’t know how to bring you with me, and I’m not going without you. I can’t leave you again.”
“You can, and you will.” When I went to object she quickly added, “That’s something you’re going to have to learn to accept. I can not go with you this time, but I know you will come back for me.”
My chest heaved with a heaviness that was crushing my soul. I couldn’t leave without her. Just the thought of it made my heart rip into a million pieces again. “It’s pointless. I have no idea how I came through in the first place, and even if I did, I’m not leaving you when we’ve barely spent any time together.” I knew it was grabbing the thread that allowed me to come through, but how I actually physically touched that thread was unknown. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen the threads, but it was the first time I was able to use them.
Mom grabbed my hand and rubbed her thumb over my skin. “Listen to me. You can’t stay here much longer. Your magic will wane, and they’ll find you. Without the other elements, you cannot win this war. You need to work together with the others.”
“Elements?” I asked, furrowing my brow.
She smiled. “That is something I’ve learned since being in this world. You are not the only one, as you know, but what you’re yet to discover is that you have an affinity with an element, as do all the descendants. Band together, and you can cast the demons from our world for good. That is why the Society have worked so hard at keeping you all apart.”
Mind. Blown.
Pieces of what she was saying were suddenly falling into place, and I wondered if I was gifted with the earth element and that bitch of a demonic huntress was air.
Snapping back into the moment, I asked, “How do we seal the veil? How do we cast the demons from our world?”
Mom slowly shook her head. “I do not know, but without your sisters—and I don’t mean biological sisters—you cannot win. You need to find your elemental sisters and search for the key. There are so many resources that have been lost to our kind. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. I know you can work it out. Your fierce determination will get you through the darkest of times.” She looked over her shoulder as if sensing something dark was coming. “Draw on that, and don’t let anyone tether your spirit.”
Biting my lip, I nodded as she looked over her shoulder again. And for the first time, I realized I couldn’t feel the monsters anymore. This world was filled with them, which should’ve sent my senses into overdrive, but it was as if they were human. “They’re coming, aren’t they?”
Mom nodded as she stood, pulling me up with her. “We have to get out of here.”
She led me out into the streets, which were more like a war zone. The cobblestone looking pavement was crumbling under our feet. Stone buildings rose up three to four stories on either side of us, none of which had any windows.
Seeing the architecture so similar to the human world surprised me. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but it wasn’t this.
Then it hit me, and the words slipped out of my mouth more as a realization than a question. “They’re not shadows in this world, are they? They have bodies?”
Mom nodded as she pulled me between two derelict buildings. “They are almost human-like in appearance, but they can’t pass through in their demon forms, it is only their souls that are able to slip through. That is why they seek a host.”
“But I can.” I frowned, trying to make sense of everything before my time here ran out. “If that’s true, how did they get you here?”
She stopped and turned to me, a look of anguish consuming her eyes. “My witch blood allowed them to pull me through to this world.”
“To do what, Mom?”
She swallowed hard. “To spawn a half-breed.”
All the blood drained from my face the second the words left her mouth. With wide eyes, I glanced down at her stomach, relieved to see there was no bump to be seen. But that didn’t mean… “Have you…?”
The magnitude of her statement hit me with a force that knocked the air from my lungs, crushing me. There was no way that she had been a willing participant, which meant…
Mom shook her head violently. “They do not create life the same way we do back on Earth, so get that thought out of your head.”
The weight of the world suddenly lifted from my shoulders, and I could finally breathe again.
Tugging me forward, we slipped through the darkness of what appeared to be a never-ending night in this world. There was no moon in the sky, only an eerie glow that reminded me of the sky before a vicious storm with a promise of hail the size of golf balls.
Breaking past the last of the buildings, we spilled out onto barren wasteland. Jagged rocks rose at least a hundred feet into the air, and a thin layer of ash fell from the sky, coating my exposed skin with a layer of black soot.
It wasn’t until we were a good way into the rocky forest before we stopped and my mother turned to me. “The fluorite will protect you for a short while longer. But you need to try to get back through before they find you, because you can guarantee they know you’re here.”
“Orphelia?”
She nodded. “Now try. See if you can recreate whatever you did back on Earth.”
As much as I didn’t want to tear my gaze away from her, I knew I had to leave. If I stayed, they’d find me and I would doom my mother to an eternity of misery. I was her only hope of getting out of there.
Looking into the air, I tried to focus on the barely visible veil that led into my world. It wasn’t clear like it was on Earth, but if I concentrated hard enough, I could just make out the tall buildings that didn’t belong to this world. A single thread gave off the lightest of blue shimmer, and I knew without a doubt that was the connection to the other side. “I can see it.”
I tore my gaze away from the thread and looked at my Mom, my heart already breaking, knowing there was a good chance I wouldn’t be able to bring her through with me. “How am I going to find you again?”
“When the time is right, I’ll be waiting for you here.”
“How will you know when we’re ready?”
A warm smile lit up her face, making my heart ache that much more. “Because when you’re ready, this world will be in chaos.” She cupped my face in her hands. “You will have unlocked the secrets that have been hidden to us witches for so long. And until then, I will hide in the buildings that have been long deserted. They are nothing but relics to the years that have passed.”
“Is that why I didn’t see any demons?”
She nodded. “They don’t frequent that area unless they absolutely have to. But when you come back, you better be ready to fight them, because they will not go down easily. Which, again, is why you need the other elements. Together, you’re stronger.”
She looked over my shoulder. “You need to leave. Your magic is strong, and although these rocks will hide your signal, they won’t absorb it for long.”
I threw my arms around her, hugging her tightly, tears once again slipping from my eyes. “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too, sweetheart.” She pressed a kiss on my forehead then said, “Go. I’ll be fine.”
Leaving her was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I’d spent years imagining getting her back, and now that it was a reality, I had to say goodbye.
“Tell Mason and Finn that I love them, and I can’t wait to see them again,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “And tell your father to stop feeling sorry for himself and start being the father you kids deserve.”
I nodded. “I’ll find a way to get you out of here. I promise.”
“I don’t doubt it for a second.” Her warm smile broke my heart a little bit more.
Gripping her hand tightly, I reached out to the spark with my other hand, tears streaming down my cheeks as I allowed my soul to be absorbed into the fibers like I had done when I first traveled through. I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d done differe
ntly—maybe it had something to do with reconnecting with the katana. Whatever it was, I was relieved I could now travel through the realms.
Slipping back into my world, my legs gave way, and I collapsed onto my knees as I stared at my empty hand my mother had been holding only a second ago.
Through blurry eyes, I looked up at the air in front of me where I saw my mother staring back at me. She mouthed the words “I love you” then disappeared from view.
I must’ve stayed there for hours—or maybe it was only minutes. I really had no idea. The pain of losing her all over again was almost too much to handle. Then I remembered the longer I sat there, the longer my mother would remain in the Shadow Realms.
Morning had long broken. The sun was peeking through the dark clouds in the sky, trying to break free and cleanse the earth with its warm rays.
That was never going to happen while the demons were gaining strength.
Getting my shit together, I stood and looked at my surroundings. From what I could work out, I was in the part of the city that bordered the no-go vampire zone.
I had to get home, but I had no idea where home was. I’d only ever sat in the back of the van and had never seen the scenery as we drove. I didn’t have my phone, but I knew Ashley was at school and was never without her phone. At least, I hoped she’d be, because I had no idea how much time had passed on Earth while I was in the Shadow Realms.
19
The bell rang as I arrived at the school, and there were students everywhere, rushing to their next class.
I had no idea what day of the week it was, but there were three places she could’ve been heading to.
Contemplating leaving my weapons somewhere so I wouldn’t scare the other students, I quickly dismissed the idea because there was no way I was going to risk losing them to some asshole student who thought they were cool.
Bracing myself for the worst, I headed toward a group of three guys piss-assing around near the tennis courts, smoking dope, thinking they were the shit.
I used to be one of them. Well, maybe not the group I was approaching, but I still had the same attitude as they did.
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