“No. It’s more than that.”
I met her gaze steadily. “Honestly, I’m fine.”
She leaned forward and placed a hand on my knee. “I’m your mother. I have been for several lifetimes and I know you, probably better than you know yourself. There is something bothering you, something to do with Baal. Tell me.”
This was Mum. I’d never kept anything from her before. She’d shared in my every achievement and comforted me in my every failure. Her words had helped me find direction on more occasions than I could count. And I needed to share this. I needed to talk it out, so I told her. I told her everything.
“No.” Mum shook her head. “I don’t believe it. Not a word.”
Hope ignited in my chest. “You don’t?”
She pressed her lips together. “Ibris was an excellent judge of character. He was an intuitive man, and he trusted Baal with his life. Dante loved Baal with all her heart. Ibris told me that when he revealed who he’d chosen for her to marry she’d been ecstatic. I think that she may have had a sexual relationship with Erebus, but he wasn’t her only conquest. Dante was an efreet. Ibris and I joked that Baal would have his work cut out keeping her satisfied.”
“But Sabriel said—”
Mum held up her hand. “I don’t care what he says. I don’t believe it. He must be mistaken. Speak to Baal and trust your heart.”
“I trusted my heart with Erebus and he deceived me.”
Mum sighed. “I doubt he meant to do so. Love can sneak up on us when we least expect it. He may have loved Dante and lost her. And the next woman he gave his heart to was part of a plot to assassinate your father. You said he took an oath to protect Lindrealm, to atone for being blinded by his heart. He blamed himself for the deaths. I can understand why he may have hardened his heart. By the time he met you he’d probably forgotten how to feel. He put his oath first, and he hurt you. But that doesn’t mean that your heart led you wrong. Erebus is a good djinn, but he isn’t the djinn for you.”
“But Baal is?”
“You know the answer to that. It’s why you’re so conflicted about what your angel told you. Trust your instincts Kenna. You have multiple lifetime’s experience to guide you. Just speak to Baal.”
She’d lifted a weight off my shoulders and lightened my heart. Subterfuge and lies and secrets weren’t the way. I would look Baal in the eyes and ask him to tell me how Dante died. I’d know if he was lying. If he was the murderer Sabriel said he was then he’d pay, and if not, Sabriel would have some explaining to do.
A sharp twanging pain lit up my insides and then eased so suddenly it left me gasping.
“Kenna? Are you all right?”
I rubbed my diaphragm. “Yeah, I think … I think the tether between Erebus and I just snapped.”
The carriage dipped and the horses made a strange sound, a cross between a scream and a neigh. The coach swung from side to side. Mum slammed into the wall and I slid forward onto the floor.
“What the heck?”
“Kenna! Out the window, look.”
I grabbed the window frame and peered out. The clear blue sky was dotted with shadows, huge malformed creatures with wings that beat rapidly like dragonflies. Long knobbly tails trailed out behind them. And were those pinchers?
Oh god, not again. The scorpion hybrid denizens that had attacked Baal and I after the Black Moon ceremony and almost killed us, and here were more of the same.
“What are they?” She stared at me in panic.
“Orin’s creations. His henchmen.” He must have found out about the coronation. Davin and I had believed we’d purged the palace of spies, but we’d obviously been overly optimistic. Dammit. If I’d let Baal travel with us … No. I was Fearless. I fought denizens for a living. Just not in the air.
Shit.
“What are we going to do?”
The horses decided for us, picking up speed and pulling away from the approaching threat. Their hooves churned mist into the hybrid denizens. Surely that would be enough to slow them down. A cloud formed behind us, blocking the flying scorpions from view.
We could do this. How far was the amphitheatre? The ground below was a blanket of tiny buildings and greenery. I had no idea where we were, no idea how much longer we’d be forced to evade.
Mum gripped my arm. “Kenna!” She squeezed, and pain shot up my limb.
The cluster of denizens hurtled toward us, not from beyond the cloud but directly from the side. How many had they sent, how were we going to evade them?
The horses screamed. The carriage shuddered and bucked.
My butt left the seat and pain exploded in my head as it bashed against the roof of the carriage.
“Kenna!”
Mum’s arms were around me, cradling me as we slid from side to side. Pain bloomed in my shoulder and my leg. Mum’s yelp was followed by a moan. We were lifted then dropped, and the world was filled with sunlight.
I raised my chin and stared up at the sky. My stomach dropped and ice invaded my veins. “Oh shit, oh fucking shit.”
The roof was gone and the monsters closed in, pincers at the ready. A cool calm pervaded my senses and my hand closed around my everlight blade. Mum released me and scrambled back.
She knew what I was about to do.
I stood, legs planted wide for balance in a carriage that was swaying so hard it might as well have been a swing. My prosthetic locked, acting as an anchor. The denizens lunged and I sliced. My blade made contact with a pincer and glanced off with a scrape of embers. What the fuck? That blow should have dismembered it. It had certainly hurt them when Baal and I had been attacked. I jabbed again, and once again the blade glanced off the creature. No … Orin had done this. He’d upgraded the fuckers.
They were no longer vulnerable to everlight.
Mum’s scream battered my eardrums. “Behind you.”
I turned just as Mum slammed into me, trying to knock me out of the way, but she was too late. The huge pincher snagged us, plucking us from the dismembered carriage like a pair of juicy grapes. The appendage closed around us pressing us together, digging into my back. Couldn’t breathe … I couldn’t.
Mum’s horrified face swam before my eyes and then darkness claimed my vision.
16
BRETT
Brett parked his ride and climbed the steps to the imposing Academy entrance. Nostalgia hit hard, stealing his breath as the memory of his first day flooded his mind. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he’d climbed these stone steps, a young man of barely seventeen years with stars in his eyes and hope in his heart. The hope remained, but the stars had winked out when they’d taken Danny from him and he’d lost Kenna. And now he was the star, the star of the show he was about to put on.
The doors opened and Fearless Holden, Brett’s old tutor at the Academy, greeted him. The guy had barely aged. He looked as fit and toned as he had almost seven years ago. Holden didn’t bat an eye at Brett’s appearance, instead he smiled warmly.
“Thank you for coming Brett.”
He led Brett into the foyer of the austere looking structure. Their boots snapped against the stone floor, echoing eerily in the silence. Students would usually be rushing about to and from classes, but today they were probably all gathered in the auditorium for Brett’s big speech.
He knew the way to the auditorium but allowed Holden to lead the way, mainly because the corridor wasn’t actually big enough to allow them to walk side by side, but also because he needed a moment to gather his thoughts and his wits. He was no stranger to morale boosting, had done it many times for his comrades, but this was different. This was about standing in front of his colleagues and the next generation of colleagues and having them examine his defects. Have them pity him for what Orin had done, and to turn that pity to determination to avoid the same fate.
The auditorium loomed ahead, and his heart rate picked up. He could do this. Just breathe and get through it.
Holden pushed open the doors and Brett stepped into
the dimly lit room. Was that a kindness to him? To allow him to hide in the shadows while he spoke like a lurking beast? No, that wouldn’t do. They needed to see. They needed to see it all.
Brett stopped in the doorway. “Turn up the lights.”
Holden glanced over his shoulder, a question in his eyes.
Brett nodded. “Just do it. Please.”
Holden reached for the switch by the door and the room lit up. A murmur rippled through those gathered. Brett took a deep breath and strode in.
Silence.
Pin drop silence.
And then someone began to sob.
Brett stepped onto the podium and looked down on his fellow Fearless. He could imagine what they saw. A beast of man, his bald translucent head gleaming in the lights, each harsh plane of his diamond cut face like a killing razor, and his eyes—eerie and empty save for the pinprick of a pupil. Yeah, they saw a monster who used to be one of them. Brett’s chest rose and fell as he sought the best words to begin with. But then maybe words weren’t necessary. He reached up and unbuttoned the shirt of the Fearless uniform Baal had given him. The custom-made attire that hid the truth of the mutation, under the fabric lay what remained of the man he’d once been. He slowly shrugged it off.
Gasps filled the air, and more sobs joined the first as they took in the taut flesh of his abdomen, unmarred until the diamond ate away at it, sliding beneath and leaving red swollen welts in its wake. The transformation had been halted, but his flesh was dying, failing against the assault of the mineral, hungry to claim him.
Brett locked gazes with a sobbing Fearless in the front row. “Stop.” His voice was a slap.
The Fearless pressed a hand over his mouth, shaking his head. He was a newbie, probably only just graduated.
“You think I want your pity?” Brett swept his gaze over the crowd. “You think crying or gasping will change what’s been done?”
Silence greeted him.
“This is what awaits each and every one of you. This is what Orin wants from us—our flesh and our bodies to form an army to take the fifth dimensions. We’re nothing to him but cannon fodder for his assault on the djinn. He’ll come soon, and he’ll have mutated hybrid denizens and The Hunt to do his dirty work, and if we don’t stand up and fight, if we aren’t willing to die if need be, everything we hold dear, everyone we love, will be at his mercy. I know there are those of you who have clawed your way back after injury, eager to join the fight. There are other seasoned Fearless who would lay down their lives for the cause. But most of you are new graduates, cadets thrown into battle before your time, and my next words are to you. Yes, the threat is large, larger than we’ve ever faced, and the urge to turn and run the other way will be fire in your veins, but look at me. Look hard, because if you give in to that fire, this is what you’re running toward.”
He allowed his gaze to linger this time, making eye contact here and there. and then he locked gazes with a familiar pair of deep blue eyes. Eyes he’d looked into on several occasions as he reached climax, eyes usually filled with desire or longing, but this time they were filled with horror and disgust.
Karl lowered his lashes, breaking the contact, and for the first time since he’d been altered, Brett wished the diamond had reached his heart.
He was done here.
Slipping his shirt back on, Brett stepped off the podium and headed out of the auditorium. They’d get their orders soon. They’d been passed to Holden and all the bases—a city-wide alert to mobilise at the drop of a hat. The image of his altered form would stay with them now. It would haunt them, and when the time came they would do whatever needed to be done to prevent this fate befalling their loved ones.
Yeah, he was done.
17
“Kenna, baby girl, wake up.”
Cool hands caressed my forehead. The coronation, the carriage, the attack! I sat up, eyes wide, breath exploding from my lips.
“It’s okay,” Mum soothed.
The room around me was constructed entirely of stone. Weak light shone in through the metal bars on the wooden door. “A cell. We’re in a cell?”
Panic gripped my throat, nails digging into my flesh. Brett had been locked up like this. Experimented on. Is that what they intended to do to us?
“All right, so maybe it’s not okay.” Mum ducked her head. “But I’ve been thinking. He could have ordered them to kill you. This would be over, but he didn’t. He ordered them to bring you back here so maybe … maybe I can reason with him. Get through to him.”
I stared at her grime-smeared face incredulously. “You want to reason with Orin? The Twilighter who poisoned Brett and turned him into …” There were no words for what had been done to my friend. “Orin just orchestrated an attack on us. He’s had us kidnapped. I’m the queen of the fifth dimension, an obstacle. If he doesn’t want me dead, then he has something worse than death in store for me.”
My hand went to my blade, but grasped air. Great. They’d taken Frieda, or had I dropped her? This was the moment when panic would be appropriate, but if I let that bitch in she’d never leave. Instead, I pulled myself off the ground and walked to the door to peer out into a stone corridor lit by a wall sconce. My coronation dress dragged across the floor behind me, cumbersome where it had torn during the attack. No guards, no signs of life.
I gripped the chilly bars. “We need to find a way out of here.”
Mum joined me at the door, and pressed her hands to the wall. “We’re deep down, sweetie. I can feel the earth above us—so many layers of earth. This isn’t the palace. This is somewhere else, somewhere under Twilight.”
Her words sent a chill up my spine. “It doesn’t mean we can’t escape. Plus, Baal and Davin will be searching for us. The carriage will arrive, all torn and stuff and Baal will figure out what’s happened.”
Mum’s eyes grew dark. “The carriage won’t arrive. I came to as they were bringing us down. I heard the guards talking. They mentioned executing the horses. They were laughing about a deception, something do with Kai.”
My hand flew to my mouth. “They want everyone to believe that Kai had something to do with this?”
Mum nodded. “I believe so. But it makes no sense, because all that will do is cause discord and risk the hoard reactivating.”
Shit. She was right. The hoard had kept the djinn realm safe from invasion for years, why would Orin want to reactivate it now? We were missing a crucial element of his plan. The only way to know for sure was speak with Orin, ask the right questions, and gauge his answers. A thought occurred to me, something Mum had said.
“Mum, what makes you think that you could get through to Orin?”
He gaze flickered from side to side. “I wanted to tell you last night, but—”
Boot falls echoed down the corridor, and Mum grabbed my hand in panic and tugged me away from the door, into the shadows in the far corner of the cell.
A face appeared beyond the bars—male with shorn dark hair. His skin was pale, almost translucent and black veins were visible like an intricate spider’s web beneath it. His eyes were black, and slightly bulbous.
What the heck was he? Another one of Orin’s experiments?
“Don’t try anything,” he said. His voice was like sandpaper scarping against my senses. “There’s nowhere to run, and I have permission to hurt you if you try.”
The click and clatter of keys followed as the door was unlocked. He didn’t enter, just stood in the doorway and ushered me forward. He was alone. Could I take him?
“Don’t,” Mum’s voice trembled. “Don’t give him an excuse.”
“Oh, please do,” the man said. “We do love to inflict pain.”
We?
Mum squeezed my fingers tight. “Please, Kenna.”
Her fear was infectious. “I promise.”
“Come.” He jerked his head.
I stepped out into the corridor and Mum made to follow, but the guard slammed the door in her face.
“Wait!” Mum
cried. “Take me too.”
“You will not see him,” the man said. “We permit him this one, as a reward for his service.”
What the bloody hell was going on? Mum gripped the bars. “Kenna, there’s something you need to know. Something—”
The guard slammed the handle of his truncheon through the bars, catching her in the forehead. She made an oomph noise, and then there was a thud as she hit the ground.
For a moment I was frozen in place, and then rage surged through my veins, taking over. My fist connected with the side of the guard’s head. He stumbled back, steadied himself, and then raised his head to lock gazes with me. His lips slowly curled in a sadistic smile.
“We are so pleased.”
Oh shit. He moved so fast I barely had time to react, and then his fist smashed my face, my eyes squeezed shut on impact. Something crunched and the world shattered into splinters of pain. I opened my lids to a red haze. The world was swaying and my face was a dull throb. Darkness hovered at the corner of my vision. No way was I going down. I shook off the impeding unconsciousness and spun, kicking him in the head. But my aim was off, something to do with being punched in the face. He laughed and lunged. His fingers gripped my hair, and he twisted. My scalp screamed in pain, reducing me to a wild cat, scratching and clawing at him to get him off.
He released me abruptly, the sneer slipping from his face.
I slid to the ground, my head throbbing and my face aflame.
“Get up,” he said. “Follow.”
He stepped over me like I was a piece of shit and began to stride off.
Using the wall as support I pulled myself up. Thank goodness for the state-of-the-art prosthetic, it was the only think holding me upright. My vision was blurred, and darkness threatened to eat away at what was left. My eyes grew hot as tears threatened. No. No. No. I was stronger than this. I could do this. Mum had wanted to tell me something, something that would help with Orin. With a clear head, I may just be able to figure it out. I hobbled past the cell, keeping my neck rigid. I wouldn’t look into the cell. Mum was either unconscious or dead. If she was unconscious then I’d get answers when I got back. If she was dead … I’d rather not know.
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