The Veil: Corruption (HASEA CHRONICLES BOOK 2)

by Stuart Meczes

  I forced myself to sit up, even though it made my head swim. All of this. What’s happening to me…could it be supernatural?

  I needed answers.

  I waited until the next time Mikey was within calling distance of my room. I didn’t have to wait long. He’d been sneaking regular check-ups on me when he thought I wasn’t looking. Less than an hour later, I heard him inch open the door and saw him peer into the room. As much as it pained me to speak to him – to even look at him – I knew I had to.

  “Mikey,” I croaked. My throat was so hoarse the word was barely audible. But he heard it with no trouble.

  “You’re up,” he said in a surprised voice. “How are you feeling?”

  “Awful,” I admitted. “Mikey, I need you to do something for me.”

  “Sure,” he nodded. “What?”

  I swallowed hard before speaking. “Take me to the Warren.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I think what is happening to me now might have something to do with what I started to explain to you before. I need to speak to Sage Faru.”

  He slipped from around the door and stepped into the gloomy light cast by the singular desk lamp. “You want to see the Sage today?”

  “Yes. If you think you can make that happen.”

  “I…I guess I can ask.”

  “I’d appreciate it.”

  He paused. “Okay I will. Listen Alex—”

  I shook my head. “Don’t. Please just see what you can do.”

  Mikey went to place a hand on my shoulder, but reconsidered. “Okay, I’ll call Ga—I’ll make a call and get someone to speak to Sage Faru. See if he has time to see you today.”

  “Why not mind link with him? That’s quicker.”

  Mikey did a double take. “I never…how did you know about that?”

  I slid back under the covers as a headache seized me once again.

  “I know a lot of things.”

  *

  I had descended into a feverish dream, which had me fighting my way through a dark sea, trying to reach the shore, which shone like beacon.

  Sage Faru stood on the sand, holding some type of cylindrical object in one hand and beckoning me with the other. But no matter how hard I swam, the current pulled me further away, its wet claws dragging me out until land and Sage became nothing more than a pinprick of light in the distance.

  A pair of hands shook me gently and I came to with a start, squinting as the headache and sickness followed in an instant. The main light had been switched on and the glare was almost unbearable.

  “What’s happening?” I asked, squinting and covering my eyes with a hand.

  I saw the blurred outline of Mikey. He had some of my clothes in his hands. “Sage Faru has agreed to see you,” he said. “We need to go. A car is waiting outside.”

  “But what about Mum? She’ll go mental if she sees me trying to leave the house when I’m sick.”

  “She’s at tennis coaching, and John’s at the pub again. We’re good to go.” He threw the clothes down onto the bed. “Come on.”

  As soon as I sat upright, my vision swarmed with light-headedness. I felt close to passing out. Putting on my clothes took a good few minutes, even with Mikey’s help. I felt so weak. Whether what was happening to me was supernatural or not, if I didn’t get it under control soon, I wasn’t sure how long I’d have left. I had never been even close to this sick before. It felt like my body was shutting down.

  My legs gave way the moment I put my foot on the floor. Mikey caught me before I hit the deck. Ignoring my feeble protests, he hoisted me effortlessly over his shoulders, and after closing my bedroom door, carried me down the stairs and out of the house.

  The ominous skyline was a bruised vista of purple and black clouds. Thunder rumbled in the distance and steady rain was busy sweeping away the frost from the last few days. The limousine driver stood by the car, saluting us as we approached. I didn’t have the energy to respond. She was a female agent I’d never seen before, with pale skin and black hair cut into a sharp bob. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of aviator sunglasses, but as she turned to open the door, I saw a flash of purple.

  Most of the journey was spent in silence. I lay on my side on one of the seats and focused on trying not to vomit. Mikey stared out of the window, seemingly lost in thought. It was only when we neared the Warren that he cleared his throat and spoke.

  “Alex, before we arrive, I think you should give me a heads up as to what all this is about. I think I deserve that much.”

  “You don’t deserve anything,” I bit. A pang of regret hit me as soon as the words escaped my mouth.

  “Wow, that’s nice.”

  “No, I’m sorry. That was out of order.”

  “It’s fine,” he sighed. Leaning forward he added, “So are you actually going to tell me what the hell is going on now instead of pretending I don’t exist?”

  I let the question hang in the air for a moment. “Okay,” I conceded. “I need to get my own head around this anyway. But don’t say anything until I’m done, because it’s hard enough for me to think as it is.”

  “Deal.”

  I racked my brain for the best way to phrase everything. It was so difficult to put into words. But I had to try.

  “I have different memories. Memories where I was the Chosen, not you.” I told him everything, about how Gabriella was my infiltrator after my Awakening. How I had to fight Bargheist as my test. That I had the unique ability of healing and that I found out Gabriella and I were soulmates. How he had been with Scarlett. Mikey stopped me, raising his eyebrows.

  “Scarlett…the Bloodling? I’ve barely ever spoken two words to her.”

  “Mikey…”

  “Sorry, carry on.”

  I explained how the Sorrow had attacked the night of the Christmas Ball and how I had defeated it by feeding it its own soul. I told him everything else I could remember. About training up new recruits, the HASEA being stretched too thin. I explained about going to see Lafelei – who had been hidden in the jungle near the Brazilian base, protected by a load of Fera. When I was done, I was pretty confident I hadn’t missed anything out…the things I could remember anyway.

  “So yeah,” I finished, “those are the things I remember. But there are other bits missing, like spots in my memory that I can’t seem to access.” I rubbed at my temples as if to dislodge the rogue thoughts.

  Mikey had been listening to me with his chin resting in his hand, wearing a pensive look on his face. Now his face had evolved into one of utter shock and confusion. He drew upright, eyebrows raised. “I don’t understand it. The rational explanation would be that you’ve somehow made these things up in your mind, maybe because of stress or something. But you are talking about things I haven’t told you, and things I didn’t even know.”

  “Like what?”

  “The mind link thing you mentioned earlier for starters. And Rachel – I never told you about her betrayal. Plus what you mentioned about the sensations you felt when you were around Gabriella.” I could see he was treading carefully. “I, err…I know what you mean. But I never told anyone about it. I wouldn’t.”

  “And the things you don’t know?”

  “What you said about Lafelei being in our world. I’ll have to check that with Sage Faru. But if you’re right, then something really messed up is going on.” He cut me an odd glance. “You promise you haven’t spoken to any Guardians about things? No one has told you stuff they shouldn’t have?”

  “I promise.”

  Mikey swore under his breath. “I don’t get it. Some of the things you’ve mentioned...they didn’t go down like the way you describe them, but a hell of a lot of it was similar. But it all happened to me.”

  There was a loud peal of thunder overhead and a cloudburst of heavy rain began to tap on the roof. A few splashes found their way into the car and speckled onto my arm. Mikey shut the window.

  “Tell me about what you remember,” I said as he sat back
down.

  “Alright, well some of this you already know.” He rubbed at the back of his head. “So going back to the start, I had my Awakening a month or so ago. Wasn’t paying attention crossing the road and got hit by a car. It messed up my leg and pelvis. Doctors thought I was going to be in the hospital for ages, but after this crazy fever I was out in two days. Felt better than ever, which was the Awakening of course.

  “By this time, I had already been on friendly terms with Gabriella. She infiltrated my life by pretending to be a transfer student from Italy. She pretended to be my age and put herself in my classes. One of which was taught by Rachel – she’d taken over from Mister Mitchell.” He muttered ‘bitch’ under his breath. I waited for him to continue.

  “Me and Gabriella started chatting a lot and hanging around together. We got on so well we started meeting out together outside of school and—”

  “I am totally fine with you skipping this part,” I interrupted.

  “Oh yeah, sorry. Anyway, she revealed who she was soon after I was out of hospital and bought me into the Warren. I went through training and everything just like you said. I had a pretty hard time dealing with it all. Needed someone to talk to, you know. So I told you about what was happening to me, and you were really supportive about it. Even though I could tell you were jealous as hell.” He gave an awkward cough. “Can’t blame you though, I’m sure I would be.”

  A gave a weak smile. ‘You were. A bit.”

  “I started getting attacked soon after that.”

  Attacked. The word shunted through my brain and I shuddered. Why does the thought of him getting attacked feel so raw? He’s obviously still alive. I shook away the thought so I could carry on listening to his story.

  “There were quite a few. That Bargheist creep you mentioned was one of them. Faru had given me these swords though—”

  “The Crimson Twins.”

  “Yeah. He didn’t last very long. None of them did.”

  “You took them all on by yourself?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, well they always attacked me when I was on my own, so I didn’t really have a choice.”

  “Were you scared?”

  He shrugged. “A bit. Like I had to control my nerves when I fought them, but I don’t think you’d find a Guardian who didn’t. You don’t grow out of fear.”

  I made a noise of agreement. Every time I’d fought a new Rogue I’d had to pass that little mental barricade that made you want to turn and run or surrender. It got easier to hurdle each time, but it never completely disappeared.

  “I knew that being a Guardian meant being under constant threat, so I half- expected the attacks,” Mikey continued. “I was just surprised it happened so soon. But that was because of Lafelei’s words.”

  “They meant you?” I tried to keep the indignation from my voice.

  “Me and Gabriella.”

  “But how can you be soul twins? You’re not even the same age.”

  He frowned. “I don’t know what that’s got to do with anything. My soul was just reincarnated nineteen months later than hers. They are still identical. We’re still soulmates.”

  I took a deep breath as the emotional knife took another jab at my insides. Changing the subject I asked, “What was your final test then, if you’d already beaten Bargheist?”

  “I had to have a knockout fight with Midnight,” he groaned. “He kicked seven shades of crap out of me before I managed to get a very lucky knockout. He is a bloody machine.”

  “Is? He’s still alive?”

  “Yes.”

  Midnight is still alive. For the first time, I felt a glimmer of happiness in the misery of my situation. “In my memory, he died in the attack at the base.”

  “The attack you are talking about never happened.” He looked past me through the window. From my position in the car, I could see thick beads of rain slipping and somersaulting their way down the glass.

  “There was an attack though. We lost a couple of Guardians, but not Midnight.”

  “Anyone I would have known?”

  “Not that I can think. Mainly the lesser-skilled logistics who had to be called in for backup.”

  “So what caused the attack? Was it Rachel?”

  “Sort of, inadvertently. Basically, when I started to have nightmares, I took a notepad to bed and wrote things down as soon as I woke up, before I could forget. It was sketchy, but after a few days I had a pretty good idea of what I’d been experiencing.”

  “You dreamed about The Sorrow chasing you, didn’t you? And about a derelict mansion?”

  He pointed a finger at me. “Bingo. So after my Awakening, I knew the dreams had to be supernatural, so I took what I had to Faru as soon as I could. He knew then I was being tracked, and we started investigating together. Wasn’t long until we discovered Rachel’s estate and worked out who Rachel really was.” He shook his head and his voice changed, despondent. “But we didn’t discover that little scrap of the Veil she kept hidden away there. If we had, we could have sealed it and stopped anyone from getting hurt at all.” He seemed to mentally shake off the bad thoughts.

  “Anyway, we went to arrest her, but Dakin – another traitor – got her a message first and she did a runner. Escaped to Pandemonia through her Veil section and bought The Sorrow back with her. Sage Faru could tell a section of the Veil had been unsealed the minute she did it, and we prepared instantly for full-scale invasion. This horrible Red Sky covered Chapter Hill first, then it came pretty soon afterwards.”

  “The Red Storm,” I said.

  He blew air out of his lips. “The hell do you know these things…?” He whispered so softly it was barely audible. Louder he said, “Yeah, the Red Storm. Followed by that ugly mother.”

  Even though I felt awful and so many weird things were going on, I couldn’t help but crack a smile. Mikey has a way with words.

  “It tore up Chapter Hill town on its way to us, but luckily it was only interested in getting to me, so there were no deaths. We were ready when it came. I’ll admit though, seeing that demonic thing ride towards me on that messed up Unicorn, I bricked it then.”

  “I think anyone would.”

  “But I also knew it could be defeated. Lafelei’s words gave me that confidence. So while the others kept the Depraved busy, I hacked away at it with the Crimson Twins. Faru shouted at me that he could see something inside it. I asked for him to retreat and give me his Farsight. When he did, I noticed and realised what he was talking about, so I made a run for it into the grounds.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I needed to get it away. I knew from what I’d learned about The Sorrow that if I opened that mask, anyone looking would lose their soul. I couldn’t risk endangering that many Guardians. So I chose to take it to somewhere away from the main battle.”

  He chose to fight on his own when he had Faru and full Guardian support. He’s braver than I was.

  “Where was Gabriella when all this was happening?”

  He looked down at his hands. “She had to be taken inside. She suffered some kind of meltdown when it arrived, and no one could get her to function. Not even me.”

  I did. I bought her back.

  “So what happened afterwards?”

  “I knew beyond a doubt that Lafelei’s words about seeing what was hidden was a direct reference to that twisted mess of a soul The Sorrow owned. So I tore the thing out of its chest, ripped open that bloody mask, and fed the bastard its own soul. That was that. It was over.”

  I forced myself to sit up, even though it made me feel lightheaded. “You ripped its mask off, knowing it could have stolen your soul?”

  “Yes.”

  So much braver.

  I thought about Mikey taking on all of the SOS who had attacked him when I had been terrified and barely able to defend myself. About him actively decoding his dreams and speaking to Faru straight away instead of keeping everything to himself until it was too late. Which meant that Sophia still had a Dad. I thought a
bout him fighting The Sorrow without even Gabriella’s support. Without any support. My stomach sank as something became clearly obvious. He is a better Chosen than I ever was.

  He carried on speaking although I was barely listening now, lost in my own failures. “The only thing that’s bothering me now is that weird stuff that attached itself—”

  Mikey cut off mid-sentence as the car screeched to halt on damp gravel. He turned his head to glance out of the window.

  “We’re here.”

  36

  Alex

  The grand doors to the temple creaked open. We inched forward, my arm draped around Mikey’s shoulder. Gabriella led the way. She’d met us in the entrance hall, and I had spent the entire elevator journey avoiding eye contact. Even watching the torchlight dance on the side of her face as we’d made our way down the rocky cavern had been enough to twist my stomach into knots. Mercifully Mikey and Gabriella cared enough about my feelings to keep their distance from each other.

  The chamber was exactly as I remembered it from my memory – colossal in size, with arching golden pillars and sweeping tapestries that depicted the Elementals, woven in countless colours. But it seemed different somehow, full of looming shadows and dark corners – as if the supernatural flames were no longer able to cast their light beyond the pedestals that lined the room. Or maybe it was just my fading eyesight, I couldn’t tell.

  Sage Faru was waiting, perched on the ornate chair at the top of the golden stairs at the far end of the temple. He was alone. As we neared, he stood up, using his cane to balance himself, and he swept his robes aside so he could descend the stairs – one careful step at a time. He raised a hand towards us and we halted. “Please, do not struggle any further.”

  Clapping his hands together, two Golems emerged from the dense shadows on either side of the grand chamber. They were carrying chairs, which they set down facing one another before retreating and being swallowed by the shadows once more. Faru gestured towards the nearest one and Mikey helped me settle into it. He and Gabriella then stood either side of me. My very own Guardians, I thought bitterly.