by M J Sherlock
'A hostage? What did he look like?’ I asked, my mouth dry. Could it be Niall? Was he in as bad a condition as I had dreamed?
‘Reports suggest the boy arrived soon after your parents. A teenager with spiky blonde hair and blue eyes. Why, who do you think it is?’ she asked, the knuckles of her hands whitening against the black of the chair.
‘Niall,’ said Taine and I together. Taine’s face lost all colour.
My fault. It explained why I couldn’t reach Niall. A pain pierced my side like a stitch from too much running. My nightmares were coming true. Again. All eyes turned to me. They knew how much Niall meant to me even if I hadn’t seen him since our ill-fated day out seeing London’s sights. I shook my head, trying to clear it.
‘Who is Niall to you?’ Queen Zoe turned towards me.
A lump formed in my throat and it was impossible to get my words out.
Taine answered for me. ‘A school friend, possibly even a boyfriend.’
In this mess, like my parents, because of me. I wanted to run to my room and fall apart but that wasn’t an option. Not as Niall’s friend, nor as a Guardian.
India moved to stand with me. She’d heard all about Niall at Camp Clotho. ‘In or out?’ She looked at the others.
'Already decided isn’t it?' Taine moved forward to grip my shoulder in a gesture of support. ‘We can’t leave things as they are or the Venator will decimate us next time. Besides, I like Niall and Hope.'
‘I’m in, but only if we stick together. It was lonelier than I realised being away from Taine,' said India.
'You had me.' Alex bumped her with his hip. ‘But I agree, we're better together-’
'- All for one and one for all,' I said, fighting not to appear too upset, and besides we were now standing shoulder to shoulder.
'So, it is agreed? May I inform the Council you have accepted our proposal?
We nodded.
‘You’ll need to leave the day after the Coronation.’
'We’ll need to work out the details,’ I said, ‘but I wouldn’t leave my worst enemy in the hands of the Venator, never mind Niall.’
***
Sneak Preview of Book 2
Storming the Venator stronghold to rescue my parents was supposed to end the threat. Had they targeted Niall just because we dated? Was he strapped to a dentist-style chair in a white cell as I had been? Like I had dreamed. Were they torturing him right now? After Queen Zoe broke the news, she left abruptly, leaving us all in a state of shock.
Since I knew Niall and had fancied him, I was the worst affected by the news. My internal temperature gauge broke as my heart raced. I grabbed Alex’s encrypted phone off the glass coffee table and rolled it around. The phone kept slipping out my hands and clattering on the table. One foot bounced uncontrollably against the floor. How could I help Niall?
‘You okay, Ellie-Grace?’ India rubbed my arm. She knew how close Niall and I had been.
My fellow Guardians looked at me like I was a ticking bomb. Queen Zoe’s mention of a captive boy with spiky blonde hair was an afterthought. My face felt as if it was on fire. I chewed my thumbnail, tugging it free as it caught between my teeth. Why kidnap Niall? Must be to get to me. Was it because I’d told Wyatt, the traitor, about a portal opening when I was with Niall?
‘I’m going out for some air.’ I grabbed the phone, my bag and purple coat before dashing out the flat, down the stairs and setting off running. I hated being trapped inside when stressed out. I ran for fifteen minutes straight until I reached the bottom of a hill and began climbing.
The wind tugged at my hair, whipping its long strands into my face, and stinging my cheeks and eyes. I tucked my hair inside my coat and zipped it shut. My trainers slid on the mud, but they’d do the job. At the summit, I would see where the Cloaken borders met the real world. An opportunity to remind myself I was still human.
An image of Pierce swam in my mind. Late thirties with dark hair, greying at the temples and intelligent blue eyes. He had offered to help if I ever needed him. I could phone him. Test if he was on the level. Pierce had given me his number over six weeks ago. The same day I learned the Venator had taken my parents.
I fished for the paper in the bottom of my bag. I shoved my way past my journal, pens, lipstick, mascara and a half-eaten pack of mints. My fingers closed on the paper’s crumpled edges and I drew it out and flattened it. I dialled the number with shaking fingers. Was I doing the right thing? My fingers hovered over the red end call button. The phone rang three times.
‘Pierce here, Counter Terrorism Unit.’ His deep, cultured tones were unmistakable.
My voice shook, ‘Ellie-Grace here.’ I focused on breathing deeply. In, one, two, three, and out. Repeat.
‘I hoped you’d call. Is this about Niall?’
‘How did you know?’ I clutched the piece of paper. Was Pierce with the Venator? Could the police trace an encrypted phone?
‘After the fireworks over in Whitechapel, I got permission to investigate you more deeply. I saw the selfies you’d taken together at the London Eye and on the Thames river cruise.’
My teeth chewed my bottom lip, covering it with indentations. Only the taste of copper made me stop.
‘Your school friends were extremely helpful. Niall was taken the same day as your parents.’
I gasped. ‘Oh my God.’ I reached out a hand and found a boulder to perch on. Its sharp angles jutted into my legs, but I welcomed the discomfort. Deserved it for drawing Niall into danger. Not checking on him much earlier.
‘You still there?’ Pierce’s voice rose.
‘How can I save him?’ I chewed my nails to the quick and spat out the bits.
‘Can’t save everyone.’
I flinched at the finality of his words. Failure was not in my vocabulary. ‘I can’t leave him with the Venator. They kidnapped and tortured my parents. Murdered a Cloaken named Jenaro in front of me. They would have killed the rest of us too if they’d had chance.’ Grass and scattered rocks lay ahead of me. I got to my feet and continued the climb.
‘Come in and make a formal statement. You’re only fourteen. What can you hope to achieve against them? Let us take over.’ His tone was calm and reasonable. Pierce would have made a good hostage negotiator.
I scoffed, ‘Yeah right, sooooo going to happen.’ My friends would be spitting mad at me for ringing Pierce. I was a moron. ‘Why didn’t they snatch you after you found us at Elderton Manor? They had recordings of you and your fingerprints.’
Pierce’s breath hitched.
I paused my climb. ‘Got you there, didn’t I?’ I shook my head if I couldn’t trust him...
‘My superiors threatened me. Told me to leave it alone. Can’t do that.’ He spoke in a quiet undertone as if trying not to be overheard. He sounded genuine but I wished I could see his face to be sure.
‘Why can’t you do that?’ I avoided scree and focused on placing my feet on the small patches of grass in between the loose stones.
‘The Venator are terrorists. Simple as. No-one should get away with causing explosions, death and mayhem in the middle of London or anywhere else.’
Too right. ‘But they’ll go after your family.’ My foot slipped on some gravel. I pitched forwards and used my hands to break my fall, barely protecting the phone. Chips of gravel pricked my skin. Stones rattled down the hill as they caught on boulders. I needed to pay more attention.
‘I’m an orphan. Made for this job. No-one to use against me.’
Confident or con man? I reached the summit. ‘No point in me coming in if your superiors side with the Venator. I’d be killed or worse. Where is Niall? Do you know?’ A patchwork of green and brown fields surrounded me. I would need binoculars to see beyond the Cloaken border. Maybe next time.
‘There are rumours of a Venator base up in Northumberland, near Hadrian’s Wall. After you shut down their London base, some may have retreated there.’
‘Where exactly?’ A gust of wind whistled around my ears. Up here,
I was even more exposed than I had been down in the valley. I shivered and tugged on my gloves. December was no time to be out in Yorkshire without a hat. A scarf would’ve been welcome too.
A bird of prey with a cream underbelly dove to the ground, its slate blue wings outstretched. Maybe a falcon. It rose back in the air, its talons empty.
‘Seventy-five-mile search area too big for you?’ I heard the smile in his voice. ‘Close to an archaeological dig. The Venator has an interest in it.’
‘That fits what I heard too.’
Drops of water blew on the wind as the sky greyed. I’d better get a move on if I were to make it home before dusk.
Pierce said, ‘Don’t go. It’s a trap. Why leak it to me otherwise?’
Would he warn me if he were on their side? ‘What are you doing about it?’
Rain drizzled. The falcon circled overhead before plummeting. It rose with a small bird clutched in its talons.
‘Can I reach you on this number?’
‘It’s borrowed.’ I pulled up my hood.
‘I’ll get back to you.’
A dialling tone buzzed in my ear.
The drizzle became a downpour. By the time I’d made it halfway down the hill, I was soaked. Like an idiot, I forgot I could use a portal to get home until Taine materialised next to me bringing an acrid smell of ozone with him. He grabbed my arm and with an outline of blue crackling electricity, we dived into the gel like whirlpool and arrived back at his flat.
Taine asked, ‘Why do you do this to yourself?’ In an echo of the first time we met, he grabbed a towel out of the airing cupboard and threw it at me.
I towel-dried my hair and face before following him into his lounge. India was already there and was now lying on a brown leather sofa across from Alex. Dressed in skinny jeans and a red jumper, India looked stunning with her caramel skin and long black hair. I was going for the drowned cat look myself. Sopping wet but still cute.
‘Sorry. I needed to clear my head.’ I might as well spit it out. ‘Pierce says Niall disappeared the same night as my parents. He reckons the Venator are holding him near an archaeological dig on Hadrian’s Wall.’
Alex’s sea-green eyes flashed with annoyance. ‘You should have checked with us first before ringing him.’ He ran a hand through his dark hair.
‘Was it a seer thing?’ Taine sat on the remaining armchair.
I nodded. ‘His image came into my head, so I rang him. He had good intel. They can’t break the encryption, can they?’
‘Is it a trap?’ India moved to a sitting position.
‘He said I shouldn’t go.’ I slid in next to her on the sofa.
‘Could be a double-bluff.’ Alex tapped on one of his gadgets. ‘They can’t break our encryption, but they could have tapped Pierce’s phone if it’s not encrypted.’
‘He said it was encrypted when he gave me the number,’ I said. ‘Still, it’s a trap but we can’t leave Niall and Hope there. Neither would be there if it weren’t for me.’
‘You should change your name to Atlas,’ said India.
I blinked. ‘Why?’
‘Carrying the world on your shoulders.’ She grinned at me.
My lips twitched. ‘Ha, ha, very funny.’
How could we rescue Niall, Hope and the artefact? Running in all gung-ho and getting our faces blown off wouldn’t help either of them. We needed a strategy. Memories of Annie’s first words to me surfaced. Cloaken Guardian. You must find what is lost, right a great wrong and reunite our clans. All our lives depend on it. Only then can we defeat our enemy, the Venator. When you wake, you will remember.
Finding the lost will and jewelled globe and even restoring Zoe to her rightful place as Queen had not been enough to fulfil the prophecy. Nor had finding and liberating my kidnapped parents. Only with the news of Niall, Hope and another lost artefact was I beginning to understand the scope of our mission.
Where earlier I had felt daunted by the scale of the challenge, now as I looked at my fellow Guardians, I believed together we could make the impossible possible again. Refusing to give in to fear about Niall’s fate, I began to put steps in place that would reunite us once more.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Pauline Bateman and Cressida Downing for reading early editions and for editing support. I am grateful too to Canva.com for images and software to create cover art. Most of all, thank you to my family for putting up with me writing at all hours of the day or night and to our cleaner, Dawn, for helping to keep the house from descending into chaos.
This book came out of a writing class at South Cheshire College where I was given the prompt, 'she jumped out of a window and...' That piece of writing became Chapter 5. My husband was in the same writing class and from his prompt he wrote some of the back story for the Venator. Our lecturer, Kate (CM Coffey), suggested we wrote a book together, but two authors soon became one. I hope the success of this book motivates Jeremy to continue using his storytelling gifts too.
About The Author
Michelle Sherlock
Hi! I am a Change Manager by day and an Author by night. My first novel came out in 2020 amid a pandemic and book two is well underway.
I live in Cheshire in the UK with my husband and our two children. We share our home with a chocolate miniature Labradoodle, Melody, and Kingsley, our rescue cat.
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