by J. L. Weil
But none of them were grinning now. In fact, their faces were somber and agitated.
My eyes were glued to the water and softly their deep, timbered voices floated up to my ears.
“Where is she?” Jase whirled on Kieran, his violent anger radiating off him, so deep, those violet eyes burned brightly. His face contoured with unbridled rage.
Kieran flinched. I’d never see him look so dejected before. His green hair hung over his eyes, shielding them from me. “She’s gone,” he whispered. “She took her.”
Jase’s fist lashed out, connecting with the right side of Kieran’s cheek. I winced, my fingers digging into the rocky edge of the pool. Jase wasn’t one to throw a punch and ask questions later. That was Zade. What was happening to them?
Don’t fight. Please. Just find me.
Kieran did nothing to fight back as if he deserved the hit. It wasn’t his fault I was captured. I wanted to tell him so, assure them I was alive, that I was okay, but I was hopeless to do anything but to watch them.
Zade paced the main hall in the castle of Viperus, while vines of greenery tangled along the high ceilings. “We have to get her back,” the Golden God growled.
“We don’t even know where she is,” Issik pointed out, his words coated with sheets of frigid ice.
“Does it matter? Tianna took her,” Jase snarled, hands fisted at his sides, looking like he was ready to go for round two with anyone who volunteered.
“No one knows the Isles like the four of us,” Issik reminded, stuffing his hands into his front pockets. “The witch might have magic, but even with all the magic in the world, she won’t be able to hide from us forever.”
A lump formed in my throat. With this pool, Tianna got a front row seat at every move the descendants made, but even knowing it, I couldn’t force myself to stop watching. We’d only been apart for two days, yet it felt like months.
Jase exhaled sharply. “Issik is right. We need to be smart. Tianna won’t kill Olivia, not until she gets what she wants.”
No one said it, but they were all thinking about the dragon stars.
“What do you suggest?” Issik inquired, his perfect face devoid of all emotion. The Ice Prince was ready for battle.
A shadow flashed across Jase’s features. “We draw her out with a trade.”
“No,” I murmured. They couldn’t hear me, but it didn’t stop me from trying to will them to understand. If they gave in, gave Tianna the stones, we all lost.
The water rippled again, shifting the scene to a different day. The sun was beaming on the blue sky above, and the descendants were no longer in Viperus fighting or plotting. They were in their dragon forms, flying over a kingdom of gold with towers linked by bridges. An impressive sight—the dragons—the land was too, but seeing four powerful dragons with their wings spread wide, took my breath away. Each of them was so unique in coloring and physique, from the shape of their heads to the vibrant painting of their scales.
My heart became leaden by the weight in my chest. The two-way mental conversation didn’t work through the magic of the pool. If they were speaking among themselves, I couldn’t hear their words, which was for the best. The less Tianna knew of their plans, the better chance I stood at being rescued, but it didn’t stop the ache inside me from spreading.
If Tianna knew of the silent communication she didn’t lead on, but from the way they angled their heads, the flair of their nostrils, and the fire in their eyes, I knew something was brewing between the descendants.
The water stirred, taking the faces of Jase, Kieran, Zade, and Issik with it. Tianna’s hand waved over the now stilled water once again, smiling sugary at me as if this made us friends. “This is a sign of good faith. You help me, and I’ll let you see how your dragons fair, that they are still alive, as often as you like... assuming you cooperate that is.”
“How do I know this isn’t a dirty trick, just another one of your magic spells?” I so desperately wanted to spend the rest to the day beside the shimmering pool, but I couldn’t let myself be swayed that easily.
“I think you know it is real. This isn’t the first pool you’ve seen like this in the Veil. There are many. Some in plain sight, others concealed.”
“What is this place?”
Tianna’s eyes crinkled. “I call it the Pool of Mirrors. Although others before me might have given it a different name, for it has been here many, many centuries.”
“How does it work? Could I make them appear?”
She waved her finger in the air and clucked her tongue. “You have not given me your word. But I will tell you that time has no bearing in the Pool of Mirrors. Past, present, and future circle like the moon orbits the Earth.”
Meaning the visions were as unpredictable as Tianna herself. My eyes darted over the cavern. No windows could be found, and there was only one way in visible to me. This room was a dead end. “And if I refuse? What will you do to me? Keep me locked up in your box of darkness?”
The razor tip of her nail scratched along my cheek, a cool, deadly caress, and I felt the tender skin slice just at the surface. “Refuse me and I will make an eternity of hell for you, Olivia dear. The box of darkness, as you’ve named it, is a small fraction of what I can do. I will break you. You will beg me to kill you.”
Color leeched from my face. “But you won’t kill me.”
She lifted her finger off my face, but the sting lingered, burning under the surface of my skin. “No. What I can do is far worse.”
That was what I was afraid of.
“Your part is simple, dear. Lead me to the other two stars. We set out tomorrow, and every day after until I have them both in my possession.”
If it were only that simple... I didn’t dare tell her that despite the fact that I’d managed to find two stones, I had not done so on my own. Without the help of the women in white, I wouldn’t have discovered a single star.
Perhaps there was a way I could deceive Tianna, at least until the descendants rescued me. If there was one thing I’d learned from the Pool of Mirrors, was that they were searching for me, and that gave me hope.
This was a dangerous game of lies and truths, yet I was willing to play it.
When I didn’t refuse, she took my silence as agreement and I didn’t correct her. Let her think I was yielding.
I was whisked back to my little prison just like before, with nothing more than a blink of an eye. Annoying and disoriented. I didn’t weep this time, regardless of how much I wanted to do it. My lip trembled, but I bit down on it, hard, focusing on the pain instead of the emotional agony. No tears were shed as I lay on the cold, damp ground of the cavern. Dry-eyed, I categorized everything I’d seen today and learned. It might take me hours or days, but I would escape. I would free myself, and get the hell out of here. Alive.
Of course, I always had the option of sitting around and waiting for the descendants to rescue me, but after a few more days in the box, I realized, I wasn’t the kind of girl who sat around.
I spent three days in the cell without a glimmer of Tianna. When she hadn’t shown up to begin our search for a star, a growing sense of restlessness nagged inside me. Part of her torture, I was sure, as was allowing me a glimpse at what I longed to see, and then strip it away from me. Mind games. Her way of showing me she was in charge. I was allowed nothing unless she approved. Hell, she might as well dictate what time of the day I could pee.
I’d kill for a shower. Literally, kill.
Sadly, I was given no luxury.
I was becoming paranoid, overthinking everything. My mind needed to be sharp and attentive, but with no stimulation, but it was going slack. Where was she? Had she changed her mind? Was I no longer important? Had she found another way?
No! I couldn’t think like that.
Right as I was on the verge of breaking down, the locks on my prison clicked open, and I was caught between relief and fear.
Chapter Three
“You didn’t think I’d forgotten about
you, did you?” The sugary sweetness of Tianna’s voice made my stomach pitch.
Two hideous looking creatures flanked her on either side—only coming up to her waist in height. Their leathery skin was a gangly green, making them appear almost sickly, and they had ears that were long and pointy, similar to those of elves.
Drawing my gaze away from the creatures, I glared at the witch. “How could I possibly think that? I’m your most precious possession,” I replied, letting the sarcasm drip thick on my voice.
Tianna grinned, a corona of darkness appearing to swath around her. “I brought along a few friends, the reason for my delay. They’ll do just about anything for a pretty bauble or a gold coin,” she purred.
“What are they?” I asked, forgetting my manners, and failing to hide the disgust from my face.
“We’sss goblinssss, girl,” they hissed, speaking in perfect unison as if they were of one mind. Freaky.
Goblins? Really?
Wonderful. I was being chaperoned by two green goblins and a witch. This should be quite an adventure. I couldn’t wait to get started. They also had a disturbing fascination with the necklace I wore at my neck, the one given to me in Viperus by the woman in white. It was this charm that had led me to uncovering the Star of Poison.
“Come,” she instructed, waving her hand. “While we still have the cover of night.”
I obeyed, although I nearly snorted at the idea of me finding a stone in the pitch black of midnight. Was it wise to mention I had a tendency of falling into holes, or tripping over basically everything? Nah. I’d let her figure it out on her own, she seemed to know so much about me already. Besides, I would probably be beaten for my clumsiness as it was. No use bringing it to her attention.
Stepping over the threshold of my invisible prison, the never-ending nothingness that surrounded my cage vanished.
“Take one of their hands,” Tianna instructed.
“Why?” I inquired, glaring down at one of the goblin’s fingers. He only had four. My insides cringed. Would it be slimy? Or rough with callous?
“Because they can willowphase.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
She linked one of her elegant hands with the other goblin. “You’ll see.”
The goblin leered at me, holding out his hand. “It won’t hurt,” he assured, with a twist of his black lips that could be lying or speaking the truth. It was impossible for me to know.
On a sharp inhale, I placed my fingers inside the goblin’s waiting, upturned palm. His four little appendages folded over mine. Tianna gave me a cold smile, her eyes biting into my skin like winter’s frost. Before I had a chance to give another thought about what willowphasing was, blackness gathered me up, the roaring of wind and speed echoing in my ears and rushing over my cheeks. The four of us were gone from that spot in the mountain, swiftly floating through space.
When my feet touched solid ground again, the darkness faded with it. The scent of ginger tickled my nose, and then I saw the evening horizon splashing the sky with hues of purple, pink, and orange as the sun sunk behind crags of black ash. At the base of a volcano, the ground was covered in lavish jade blades of grass.
This had to be Crimson—Zade’s region. Was he near? I wanted to snuff the ember of hope that sparked inside me, but was afraid Tianna would see it.
We stood on the edge of the kingdom. Over my shoulder, dust of sand kicked up in the air. I didn’t know the name of the territory Tianna used as her hideout, but it bordered Zade’s lands.
A foreign weight settled onto my hands and feet. Curious, I glanced down and my stomach hollowed out. Chains of white silver were shackled to my wrists and ankles. I lifted my arms, testing their weight and was surprised to find them very light. This was going to make walking even more difficult than it already was for me.
A hysterical short laugh escaped me as I stared down at the shimmering metal. “Is this really necessary?”
“In case you get any ideas about running,” Tianna explained, staring at me with a funny expression.
Oh, I had ideas all right, but they involved her eyeballs and a dull knife.
The two goblins prowled behind me, tendrils of their magic still glimmered over my skin. I shuddered, wanting to rid myself of the feeling. So, they could willowphase, jumping from different points in the world. A handy trick. Too bad one of the stars hadn’t given me the ability to willowphase. It would come in quite handy right about now.
“Where are we?” I asked Tianna beside me. I wanted to hear her affirm my assumption.
Tianna’s eyes sparkled. “Where isn’t important, Olivia dear. Only what we need to find.”
One of the goblins put his finger into my back and shoved. “Move.”
Keeping my foot planted, I looked over my shoulder and glared down at the little pointy-eared man. “Push me again and I’ll kick you.”
Tianna chuckled, her lips pulling back into a wicked smile. “My kind of girl.”
I blanched. The last thing I wanted was to be compared to her.
Crimson kingdom was sprawled across black sands, patches of green land, and a towering volcano—Titan Mountain—the only volcano on the Isles. I’d never seen anything like it, but that could be said for each of the regions in the Veil. They were all unique and impressive on their own. Through the puffy white billows of smoke from the volcano, Zade’s ebony palace stood tall and powerful. It was made entirely out of obsidian, as I recalled, with sharp angles and piercing towers. He lived in a formidable kingdom that was sweltering hot twenty-fours a day. Even with the blanket of night, the air was stifling, making it almost difficult to breathe.
As we walked, sweat formed on my brow, the back of my neck, and beaded down my spine. I noticed one of the goblins had a slight limp to his gait, favoring his right leg. “What do you expect me to do?” I queried after a few minutes.
Did she think, like my dragons did, that I had some connection to the stars? That she could parade me around the kingdom, and I would lead her straight to the stone? They were wrong. I hadn’t found them. It had been purely accidental. Or had it?
I guess I could say they had found me in a way and it hadn’t been without help, but my lips were sealed tight about the women in white who had aided me. I wasn’t sure how, but I knew it was important that Tianna didn’t learn of them, and the roles they played in assisting me.
They were my secret weapon.
She blinked. “Whatever it is you do.”
A snort/laugh rolled out of me—an action that didn’t go unnoticed by Tianna.
“What is so humorous?” She sounded genuinely curious.
“Other than the goblins’ faces,” I insulted and shrugged. “Just that you think I’m going to be able to find the stars.”
Her strides matched mine as we moved deeper into Crimson’s smoldering heat. The expression on her face was one of pure boredom. “Why is it wrong for me to expect you to be able to do what you’ve already done?”
“You’ll see.”
She tugged on my chained hands and I stumbled forward. “Get to work.” The little goblins at my back snickered.
Bitch. Bitch. Bitch. The word chanted in my head.
My feet dragged through the burning black sand, while the chains jingled into the night, joining a chorus of birds. I took a long shuddering breath, waiting to see if in fact, I would feel anything, a tingle of power, a pull of recognition, or a woman in white.
Nothing.
I felt nothing, but a balmy breeze rushing over my face, carrying the faint stench of burning fires—lava, I realized. Disappointment and relief swirled in my gut. A part of me wanted to find the stars quickly and be done with my imprisonment, the other part hoped I never found them. It would serve her right.
We continued to stroll about the land. “Do you sense anything?” Tianna asked for the fifth time in the span of an hour. She was driving me mad with her constant pestering.
“I can’t concentrate with you badgering me,” I barked
, shaking my head. “Besides, I told you, it doesn’t work like that.”
“Bullshit. It’s an enchanted object. Of course, it gives off a pulse of energy. All you have to do is find it—want to find it,” she corrected.
“If that’s the case, then why can’t you find it?” I dared ask. “You have more magical powers in your pinkie, than I do in my entire body.”
“True. Very true. The difference is in the signature of the magic. Not all mystical energy is the same. Like a thumbprint, it has a unique coding. If I were to come upon a spot charred from magic, a simple touch or taste would allow me to identify the user, assuming we’d ever crossed paths before.”
A taste? I imagined Tianna licking the ground. “The stones… you’ve never touched them?”
“The crowns were destroyed, their stars lost, before I got the chance.” The emotion that drove her was unmistakable then. Hunger. It was in her expression, in her voice.
And she was looking to make up for it now.
Over my dead body.
I ignored the tightness in my chest. This was going about as well as expected. Feelings I didn’t want, clutched my insides, but I shoved them aside, focusing on the task and my impending doom.
For hours she dragged me around the kingdom, like a dog on a leash. Her eyes were always on me, watching me, looking for a flicker of recognition, hoping that I had felt something. The two goblins rarely gave me more than a few feet lengths in front of them. They occasionally mumbled to themselves, but were silent for the most part, waiting to take orders from the witch.
We kept far enough away from the castle, that I couldn’t devise a plan to run and seek sanctuary behind the obsidian walls, not that I would make it with these chains or would even be protected from the witch there. On more than one occasion, Tianna had strolled into Jase and Kieran’s homes as if she was a welcomed guest with an opened invitation. Nothing would stop her from grabbing me in Zade’s home.