“No,” I shouted, tears stinging my eyes. “Keep trying. She can’t be gone.”
Angela laid Courtney’s body out on the grass, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Harper, she’s already gone.”
I threw myself over my friend’s body, clinging to her. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t be dead.
“Courtney,” I shouted, lifting her and shaking her, begging her to open her eyes and tell us she was okay. “Wake up. You have to wake up.”
Angela put her hand on my arm. “Harper, I’m so sorry. There’s nothing else I can do for her. You have to let her go.”
I looked into my sister’s eyes, wanting some kind of explanation. This was my friend we were talking about. Courtney was one of the innocents. She’d never done anything wrong in her life. She didn’t deserve this.
I gripped her shoulders and fell across her chest, my tears falling onto her, mingling with the melted ice that covered her poor body.
I cried until I felt sick, my body shivering violently from the cold.
Zara placed a hand on my shoulder.
I was going to lose them all.
“How could this happen?” I asked. “How could I let this happen?”
“It’s not your fault,” Angela said. She looked up at the house, eyes wide. “Where’s Jackson?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t find him inside,” I said. “Angela, if he’s in there—”
“He called me on the communication stones just a few minutes ago,” she said. “He told me Courtney had been hurt and that I needed to come right away. He must have been with her.”
I shook my head and stared back at the house. “I have to go back in and look for him,” I said.
But as I tried to stand, Angela yanked me back down to the ground.
“It’s too dangerous,” Angela said. “The whole house is on fire, Harper. You’d never survive it.”
“He’s not inside,” a voice said from behind us.
We both turned to see the girl standing near the gardenias. Sophie. Her body shivered as she walked toward us.
I stood. “What happened?” I asked. “Is Jackson okay? Did you see him?”
“He was taken,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. “I couldn’t see anything, but I heard them. They came into my room and brought me out here to the garden. They hurt Courtney when she tried to stop them. I think they used some kind of spell to block her breathing.”
“Who?” I said. “The emerald priestess?”
“She left another message,” she said. She held her hand out to me and another green stone appeared.
Trembling, I took the emerald from her hand. The moment the cool surface of it touched my skin, the dark vision of the emerald priestess appeared in my mind again. I fell to my knees, my eyes closing against my will.
“I told you I would take away everyone and everything you hold dear to your heart, young Harper,” she said, smiling. “Now, I’m tired of playing games. It’s time for you to act. If you ever want to see your demon alive again, you will meet me at Winterhaven. Bring Zara and my sister’s ring. You have three hours.”
The vision faded and I collapsed onto the ground, my strength gone. The emerald fell from my hand into the dirt, and my eyes closed, the emerald priestess’s voice the only thing I could hear.
My eyes opened, and I sat straight up. I was in my bed in the domed city and suddenly all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
Angela was by my side, her hand on mine. Her eyes opened when I sat up, and she pulled me into her arms.
“Harper, thank God you’re okay,” she said. “What happened? What did that stone do to you?”
“How long have I been sleeping?” I asked, frantic.
“Half an hour,” she said.
I sighed with relief and touched a hand to my aching forehead.
“There was another message in the stone,” I said. “From the emerald priestess. Where is the girl? Sophie?”
“She’s with Tuli,” she said. “Why?”
“I want guards placed on her right away,” I said. “I don’t think she is who she says she is, Angela.”
She shook her head. “What do you mean? She’s just a girl. I thought you rescued her yourself from another sapphire gate?”
“I don’t have time to explain. You just have to trust me,” I said. “Tell the guards I want them to protect her. I don’t want her to know I suspect her in this.”
“I’ll tell them,” she said. She left the room for a moment, and then came back. “Harper, you have to tell me what the message said.”
“The emerald priestess wants me to meet her at Winterhaven,” I said. “She told me to bring two things. The ring I took from her sister’s hunter, and Zara.”
“Zara? But why—”
“I’ve been wrong this whole time,” I said, feeling so stupid for not putting it together sooner. “Since this whole thing started, I thought the emerald priestess wanted revenge.”
I shook my head and touched the sapphire ring I wore on my left hand.
“She doesn’t want revenge for her sister’s death,” I said, throwing the sheets off my legs and standing. “She wants what the Order always wants. More power.”
Angela moved to stand next to me.
“I’m not following you.”
“She doesn’t want to destroy me,” I said. “She wants to reopen the sapphire gates.”
How To Save Everyone
“It all makes sense,” I said. “I knew the hunters who attacked the dome wanted something inside the castle, but other than weapons or jewels, I couldn’t think of anything so important to bring down the whole city.”
“They wanted Priestess Winter’s daughters,” Angela said. “From the dungeons.”
“Yes,” I said. “That’s why none of the hunters who attacked were wearing talismans from their priestess. They were all women in Priestess Winter’s bloodline. They must have been slowly turning to hunters ever since the day she was killed. That’s why the emerald priestess started all this now. She’s running out of time.”
“But why would she need one of the Winter girls to open the gates?” Angela asked. “Why not just use one of her own witches? Or better yet, bind control of the gates to herself?”
“Because the gates are already bound to the Winter family,” I said. “When the Crow Witch tried to change the family line of the Peachville gate, they killed my mother, believing she was the last of our family. With her blood, in the moment of her death, they could transfer the line from my family to theirs. Only, they didn’t know about me. I was born in secret and sent to an orphanage before they killed my mother, and the spell didn’t work.”
“So in order for the emerald priestess to take control of the sapphire gates, they would have to kill the last of the Winter family line.”
“Yes,” I said. “And they would need to do it before Priestess Winter’s spell took hold, turning the youngest of the family into hunters. Which is why they attacked the dome in the first place. I think they were after Honora and Selene, hoping to use them, only it was too late. They had already become hunters. I think that’s why the last hunter smiled when she saw Zara. The spell had already started to take her, but she was still alive.”
“But for how much longer?”
“Hours, maybe a day at most,” I said, sadness so heavy in my heart, I could hardly breathe. “That’s why she attacked Brighton Manor. She’s getting desperate. Taking Jackson was just her way of pushing me to the limits and forcing me to give Zara up.”
“We can’t do that,” Angela said.
“No, I won’t—”
“Yes, you have to,” a small voice said from the doorway.
We both turned to see Zara leaning against the stone arch of my doorway. My heart burned in my chest. Seeing her like this was devastating. Her hair was completely black now, brittle and dull. Her eyes had lost their beautiful blue shine and had turned to a milky gray. Her pale skin had dark veins snaking
through it and she’d lost so much weight, she looked skeletal.
I crossed to her and helped her walk to the chair.
“I won’t do it,” I said. “We’ll find another way to save Jackson and the others, even if we have to call in the Resistance or some other army. I won’t give you up.”
“You don’t have a choice,” she said. She placed her hand on mine and met my gaze. “I’m dying anyway. At least let me know my life ended with some greater purpose and meaning. Let me save them, Harper. I’d rather die than turn into one of those things. I can feel it happening. I can feel my humanity slipping away.”
I stroked her hair and she leaned into my hand, closing her eyes.
My heart ached. Courtney was gone and now they were going to take my sweet Zara from me, too.
“It isn’t fair.” Angela shook her head and went to stand near the balcony that overlooked the gardens.
I paced the floor with its beautiful gemstones inlaid in the tiles, a gift from my father for a daughter he wasn’t sure he would ever truly know. I wished he was here with me now, and that he could tell me how to save everyone.
But there was no one who would give me the answers. If Jackson and my friends were going to be saved, I had to make the decisions. Being a leader meant making the tough choices and letting go of those you love to save the rest. I couldn’t sit around anymore, wishing things were different or that life wasn’t so hard.
I’d been resisting this all along, thinking I wasn’t ready, or I wasn’t good enough.
But that was bullshit. The only thing holding me back was me.
It was time to stand up and be the leader my father knew I could be.
It was time for me to show the emerald priestess what happened to a witch when she messed with my family.
“I have a plan,” I said.
Angela turned, her eyes wide. “What do we do?”
“We bring everyone home,” I said. “And we finish this.”
The King Of The North
My father’s guards placed iron shackles around our hands and feet and escorted us back to the King’s City. The grand gates had been sealed shut, but there was a side passage that led directly to the castle. The guards brought us through this secret passage and led us to the throne room.
The King of the North sat on a golden throne, his shoulders slumped and his head slightly ducked and leaning to one side.
As angry as I was to be brought back to my own home in chains, the rage did not compare to the agony that gripped me when I saw him. He barely looked like himself. His hair had grown long and wild, and his eyes were a dark red color, greatly changed from their normal amber glow.
When he saw me, there was only the briefest flash of sympathy and love before he narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his scepter.
The guards threw us to the ground at the bottom of the steps leading to the throne. The chains clattered against the alabaster floor, the sound echoing off the walls and ceiling.
Aerden and I bowed our heads and waited for him to speak.
Footsteps sounded on the floor as someone ran out from a nearby room. “Lazalea,” my mother said, her voice already rattled with sobs.
My father looked to her, anger and warning in his eyes. She stopped, glancing from him to me, her hands outstretched. She straightened her shoulders and went to stand beside her husband, the king. She placed a hand on the back of the throne and kept her eyes facing downward, but I could tell she was crying.
I hadn’t seen my mother in more than thirty years, and being brought in like a common criminal was not exactly how I saw my return going down. I longed to go to her and feel her warm arms surround me. I wanted more than anything to hear my parents say they had made a terrible mistake.
For years, they told me trying to rescue Aerden was a fool’s task, and yet here he was, kneeling at my side, free.
Something told me they hadn’t brought us here to apologize.
“Stand,” my father said.
Aerden and I stood side by side, his arm brushing mine, as if to let me know we were in this together.
“You are both brought here on the charge of treason,” the king said. “What say you to this charge?”
I met his gaze, looking for any resemblance to the great demon I had admired as a shadowling. His body and spirit were still strong, but his mind was leaving him.
What has happened to you, Father?
I wanted to ask more than anything, but I knew he wouldn’t be able to answer me. The mad don’t know they are descending into madness. Something had changed him, though, more than I ever expected. In only thirty years, how had he deteriorated so much?
“We have committed no treason,” I answered. “I’m begging you to set us free so that we can go back to the human world and warn our friends that a great battle is coming. A great betrayal. Please, Father, I’m asking as your daughter, to let us go.”
“You are no daughter of mine. You directly disobeyed the order of your king,” he shouted, slamming his scepter into the arm of his throne. “I warned you not to interfere with the business of the Order of Shadows. I told you not to meddle with the dealings in the human world. I told you to leave that boy to his fate. You betrayed me.”
“How can saving someone we all care about be considered a betrayal?” I asked, standing straight and tall. “If anyone has committed treason in this room, it’s you, Father. You’ve turned your back on your own people, leaving them unprotected. What has become of you?”
“You will not speak to me in this manner, child, or I will have you thrown in the dungeons.”
“Throw me in your dungeons if you must,” I said. “But I will not admit to treason. The only wrong I have done is believing in you. You were once a great demon. A great king. Now, you abandon all hope and hide yourself inside these city walls while the rest of your kingdom fights for their very survival. It is you who should be brought to trial. Not me.”
“Daughter, don’t,” my mother cried out. “You’ll only make it worse.”
“Speaking the truth shouldn't be a crime, Mother,” I said. “If you had only admitted the truth when Aerden was first taken, we might have saved him sooner. But you lied to me and to Denaer.”
I used the name given to Jackson at birth, Denaer, since my parents didn’t know him by his human name. But even then, my pleading did nothing to stir their sympathy. I could see it in my father’s eyes. He wasn’t going to let us go.
“You turned your back on Aerden, telling me that he was as good as dead. Well, here he is,” I said, turning to him. “He’s safe and alive and free. I was a part of that, Father. It’s not too late to join the fight against the Order. Those who helped Denaer and me save his brother are still out there fighting, and they are in danger. Let us go now, and you can be a part of saving thousands and returning them to their lives here in the Northern Kingdom.”
“Your lies are of no use here, girl,” my father said, standing. “Guards, throw them into the dungeons until we can have an official trial with the Council.”
“What treason has Aerden committed, my king? He has done nothing against you. He has disobeyed no orders from you,” I said. “What reason do you have for throwing him in the dungeons?”
“He abandoned his duty to the Royal Guard when he left the city a hundred years ago,” he said. “Guards!”
They seized us, taking us by the arms. I struggled against them, kicking and trying to shift, but the chains had been enchanted to take away my ability to transform.
“You’re making a mistake,” I shouted. “Denaer and Harper are in danger. They’re the only ones left who can save our world from the Order. You have to at least let me get a message to them.”
But my father and mother had already turned away, their backs facing me as they walked to the king’s chambers on the other side of the room. They disappeared inside, not listening to my screams of protest.
The guards marched us out of the throne room and down a dark hallway. When the
y reached a spiral stone staircase on the far side of the castle, they forced us down floor after floor, deep into the ground, and shut us inside adjoining cells with enchanted iron bars.
I shouted at the guards to let me go, but none of them paid any attention. They didn’t care that I was a princess and that my father had obviously lost his mind. They blindly followed the orders of their king, leaving us in semi-darkness half a mile below ground.
I kicked and slammed my hands against the bars, cursing.
How could he live with himself, throwing his own daughter into the dark dungeons he reserved for criminals? All I’d ever wanted to do was be loyal to the demon I loved. I’d followed him, wanting to free his brother, my dear friend.
Somehow, throughout the years, his war had become my war.
I wanted to see an end to the Order of Shadows just as much, if not more, than he did. Not solely because of what had happened to Aerden, but because over time, I realized just how many of my own people had been taken and forced into slavery.
And now, the only friends who had ever worked alongside me to face the Order were in trouble, and I was helpless to warn them.
I kicked the bars again and Aerden laughed.
I turned to look at him. “How can you possibly laugh at a time like this?”
He shrugged and leaned against the bars. “You have no idea how ridiculous you look, kicking at those bars with a plain leather boot, as if they will suddenly give way and allow you to escape.”
I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. “Now is not the time to be laughing. Our friends and family are in danger, and we’re stuck in here with no way to help them or warn them. There’s nothing funny about that.”
“No, it isn’t funny,” he said. “But kicking the bars is not going to get us out of here.”
“What will?”
“Well, accusing the king of treason is probably not the first step.” He raised an eyebrow, and I couldn’t help but smile, despite the dungeon around us.
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