by Ovidia Pike
“Oh, boy,” I said, exhaling deeply, wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into.
Chapter 18: Camilla
“So Nathaniel and I and some of the guard will be outside the caves?” Selene asked.
“Yes,” I said. “You’ll split up and cover the three entrances, killing the things as they come out.”
“And then what?”
“We’ll leave the cave. If we have to, we’ll wait for the faceless thing. I have a feeling he’ll show up pretty quick.”
“Princess,” Leo said. “I think you should take the rest of the guard and get away from here.”
“I’ll be fine, Leo,” Selene said. “You worry too much.”
“We’ll be with her out here,” said one of the guards.
“I want at least four of you on her at all times,” Leo said. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”
“Will do,” said the guard.
“Thank you,” Selene said with a small, sparkling smile. I looked over at Sam, who gave me the same look. I couldn’t help but to smile back at him and he reached for my hand, holding it tightly in his.
“Are you ready?” I asked everyone. Jackson, Lily, and two of the guards nodded yes.
“Alright. Just stick to the plan—there are three entrances to the cave. We need to cover them all. No one goes alone.”
“Okay,” Lily said, twisting her hands nervously around the spear she was holding. Nathaniel bent down and kissed the top of her head.
“I’ll be right out here,” he said to her. “Just right outside.”
“Okay,” she said softly, kissing his cheek.
“Okay, go,” I said to everyone, starting to head toward the cave with Sam. He didn’t let go of my hand as we approached the entrance and slipped through, followed by Lily, all of us gripping our spears. I paused when I saw all the bodies inside, wolves that were silently teeming inside the cave, squirming and rotting. The place smelled so bad that I held my breath as I jumped into the cave and starting stabbing through wolves. The chaos went up around me and I barely noticed what was going on in the periphery of my vision—I focused only on killing the wolves. I heard a gasp and swiveled around to see that Lily had fallen on the ground, surrounded by the wolves snarling and threatening to tear her to pieces. I dove toward them, watched as Lily closed her eyes, and suddenly a cloud of smoke billowed out around her, enveloping the wolves. They stumbled back and out of the smoke out of instinct, and on the outside I could focus on killing each of them. Lily stood and grabbed her stick, and together we broke the skulls of every wolf in sight.
The cave seemed to still all at once, and I looked around, catching my breath, seeing the ground littered with wolf bodies. My eyes searched the others for wounds or bites but there were none. One of the guards was missing, though, and when I scanned through I saw him lying dead in a pile of bodies on the ground. Leo stared down at him gravely, opening his mouth to speak. A shrill scream rang out from outside the caves then and I saw his face go white.
“That’s Selene,” he said, darting for the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a cascade of rock tumbled down to block it, and before any of us had a chance to try the other entrances, they were blocked, too. Leo immediately rushed over and started digging into the rocks.
“Selene!” he bellowed. “Princess, can you hear me?”
There was no response.
“Selene!” he cried again, tossing fistfuls of stone aside, not even making a dent in the pile.
“She has her guard, Leo,” Lily said, coming to him, taking him by the arm. “She’s probably fine.”
“That was her screaming,” he said, his voice coming out as a gasp of panic.
“We’ll find a way out of here,” Lily said. “We will. Nathaniel—he’s not going to let anything happen to them. He’ll protect them.”
“I hope so,” Sam said, coming to me, pulling me into his arms. He held me close for a minute before one of the guards got our attention.
“One of your men is down,” the man said. I looked over to see Jackson there, out cold on the ground. Sam rushed to check his pulse.
“He’s alive. I think he must have gotten hit in the head.”
“We have to get out of here,” I said. “This cave—we’re going to run out of air.”
“We’d better start clearing this rock out,” Sam said.
“Yes,” said Leo, who hadn’t stopped digging through the rock. We split up and worked at all of the entrances, knowing that it was futile, hoping to make some progress anyway. I hoped it would keep people from panicking, but I could tell by the look on Lily and Leo’s faces that they were already half-there. Both of them moved frantically tossing rocks aside. I exchanged a glance with Sam, who had a grim look on his face.
“There’s no way we’ll be able to do this,” I said in a low voice.
“I know, but it gives us something to do.”
“I—” I began but was cut off by the sound of gasps behind us. I turned to see something seeping through the rock wall, something black and sticky like tar. Everyone backed away, stumbling over the bodies of the wolves on the ground as the tar poured in, and then suddenly it took the shape of a man in a robe with no face.
“Hello,” he said in his high-pitched voice. “You found my friends.”
“Let us out of here,” Sam said, stepping toward the man.
“No,” I said, taking Sam’s arm, pulling him back.
“What do you want?” I asked the faceless man.
“I’m honestly sick of all of you,” he said. “Every single one of you has gotten in my way. I gave you several chances, Camilla. I spared your mate—your friends. And here you are killing my children.”
“You were planning to send them to destroy the village,” Sam said.
“You’re right, and it’s going to happen. You think I don’t have more soldiers? Do you think you actually put a dent in my plans?”
“Where is the princess?” Leo asked, stepping forward. “Where is Selene?”
“I ate the princess,” the faceless man said. “A royal snack.”
“No,” Leo said, taking a step toward the man, a ferocious look on his face.
“I’m afraid I did,” the faceless man said. “I—”
He was cut off when Leo shifted into lion form and lunged forward, raking his claws through the front of the faceless man’s chest. The man disintegrated into the thick tar on the ground, and before anything could happen, he had seeped back through the rocks and disappeared.
Chapter 19: Gabriel
There was a knock at my door and I quickly grabbed a towel, wiping the leftover shaving cream from my face and glancing at myself in the mirror before going to open it. Harley stood on the other side.
“You’re back,” she said.
“I am. What has everyone been doing? I haven’t seen Jackson.”
“Well, uh—” Harley said. “They went to go raid the cave where the faceless man keeps his zombies. But...they haven’t come back yet.”
“When did they go?” I asked.
“Yesterday morning,” she said. I glanced at the clock to see that it was 3 p.m., and felt nervousness creeping up my spine.
“How many of them went? And who?”
“Lily, Jackson, Nathaniel, Camilla, and Sam. Also the princess and her guards—there were twelve.”
“So eighteen people left here yesterday morning to...what? Why would they go to the cave?”
“They were trying to lure him out to kill him.”
“Without me?” I asked. “Why would they try that?”
“Because you weren’t around, Gabriel,” Harley said. “You haven’t been around. Somebody had to do something about it, if you’re not going to.”
I glared at her and sighed.
“I guess we’d better go check. Do you know where the cave is?”
“More or less,” she said. “But we’ll need some more people to go with us.”
“We don’t have anybody,” I stated. “We l
ost most of the guard, and everyone else is gone.”
“We have Sophie,” she pointed out.
“No,” I shook my head. “No way.”
“We need help, Gabriel,” Harley said.
“I’m not bringing her into this. She doesn’t want to see me, anyway.”
“We need her help. Sophie is trained, she’s good with her gun. She has something that the rest of us don’t.”
“She’s just a human,” I protested, but I knew that she was right. “I don’t think she’ll come with us, anyway.”
“She will if we tell her that everyone is in danger,” Harley said. “If they’re not dead already.”
“And if they are?” I asked, feeling cold all over.
“I don’t know,” Harley said simply. “Are you ready?”
“I guess. Sophie’s at the campgrounds.”
“Okay,” Harley said. “Let’s go.”
I nodded, closing my door behind me.
“Why didn’t you go with them?” I asked her as we started to walk.
“Because it’s not my job,” she said. “Somebody has to be in the village. I would have gone if you were here.”
“I had to get away for a few days,” I said in defense.
“You shouldn’t have sent Sophie away,” Harley said, and I felt a pang in my chest at the remark.
“I had to. You know—about the prophecy. How our bloodline ends.”
“I sure do,” she said with a laugh that took me by surprise.
“What are you...laughing at?”
“You have no idea about the prophecy. Not really,” she said. “No one knows what it means.”
“It means that if I take my natural mate, she will die alongside me,” I said. “I cannot have a mate.”
“Don’t you ever just want to say, ‘fuck it all?’” Harley asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“I feel that way right now,” she said with another giggle. I looked at her questioningly but kept walking.
“You know your bloodline ends as well,” I said.
“Yes, I know,” she said.
“And if you take a mate, he dies.”
“I know,” she said again, but there was no sadness in her voice. In fact, she sounded downright cheery. I shook my head and we walked in silence the rest of the way to the campsite. I paused outside of the ranger cabin, catching a glimpse of Sophie and her honey hair sitting at a computer, her chin resting in her hand.
“You’d better lead,” I said to Harley.
“Is she pissed?”
“She shot me,” I said, pulling up my sleeve to show her the graze wound on my arm.
“That’s so funny,” Harley said, knocking on the door. Sophie stood up and opened it, smiling when she saw Harley, before she looked in my direction. The smile lit up her face and I felt breathless with desire and need for her as she stepped out into the sun, her eyes turning to my face. She pursed her lips and looked decidedly away from me.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“We need your help,” Harley said.
“I’m not going to help him, I’m sorry,” Sophie said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I’m not the one that needs it,” I said to her.
“Don’t talk to me,” she said, without looking in my direction again. “What is going on, then?”
“Several of the others disappeared going to the cave where the faceless man keeps the zombies, I guess. They’ve been gone for almost two days.”
“What?” Sophie asked, a worried frown coming over her face. “Nobody came back?”
“No,” Harley said, shaking her head. “Gabriel and I—and you—are going to go there to check it out. But we need you and your guns.”
“Who all is there?”
“Camilla and Sam, Nathaniel, Lily, Jackson, the princess and her guard of twelve.”
“What if they’re dead?” Sophie asked.
“That’s something we’re going to find out,” Harley said gravely. Sophie glanced over at me, then back at Harley.
“I’m doing it for them,” she said, and disappeared into the cabin for a moment, coming back with a gun slung over her shoulder and one at her hip.
“Let’s go,” she said. “Do you know where we’re going?”
“Yes,” Harley said, leading the way. I lingered to walk beside Sophie, looking over at her, studying her face. She looked back and then glared at me, speeding up to walk beside Harley.
“So why wasn’t Gabriel with the group? Or you?”
“Gabriel was out wandering around,” Harley said.
“I’m right here,” I said behind them. “I can hear you.”
“How long were you away from the village?” Sophie asked me in a cold, crisp voice.
“I don’t know—a week. A few days.”
“Is that why you looked like a sasquatch last time I saw you?”
“A sasquatch,” I snorted. “Yes, that’s why.”
“You were out here moping,” Sophie said, shaking her head.
“I was not moping,” I growled. “I just needed time alone.”
“I bet,” Sophie said sarcastically. “Time to think. I hope it was refreshing for you.”
“It wasn’t,” I said to her. She glanced over her shoulder with a sardonic smile.
“Good,” she said, satisfaction in her voice. I grumbled in response and continued to follow them, lingering behind so I didn’t have to hear them talking. Occasionally, Sophie shot me a hateful glance over her shoulder, and every time I met her eye and drank it in, knowing I deserved it.
“Okay,” Harley said, stopping once there were caves in sight. “There are three entrances to the cave. We should probably split up.”
“Sophie’s staying with me,” I said.
“If I stay with you, I’ll shoot you,” she retorted. I shrugged.
“I don’t care. Shoot me. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
She gritted her teeth in irritation, but the look in her eyes was one of relief. That meant she still trusted me to keep her safe, no matter how she felt about me, something that I held onto as Harley parted from us and we started toward the caves. Sophie walked quietly beside me but rushed forward when she saw the bodies on the ground. I reached out to stop her, but she was too quick—she went toward the cave and I jogged after her to see the princess and Nathaniel on the ground, along with other men and women I didn’t recognize. Sophie knelt down beside Selene and felt for her pulse, then looked over her shoulder at me.
“She’s alive,” she said with relief as I went to Nathaniel, doing the same thing. His pulse was faint but it was there, and both of them were breathing steadily, as if they were simply asleep. We checked the rest of the guards and stood up, peering around us closely. Sophie held her handgun at her side and I heard her take the safety off, putting it up in front of her.
“Let’s look around,” she said, walking toward the base of the cave. She placed her hand on a piece of stone, tracing her fingers over it. A cascade of rock blocked what looked like might have been an entrance to the cave.
“Hello!” Sophie called out. “Is anyone in there?”
“Sophie?” came a voice on the other side, strained and barely audible.
“Lily, are you...trapped in there?”
“Yes,” Lily said. “And we’re running out of air. We tried digging out but just couldn’t. I don’t—we have to get out of here.”
“Is everyone alive?” I asked.
“One of Selene’s guards is dead,” Lily said. “Jackson got hit in the head with a rock and knocked out.”
“Is he okay?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Lily said. “Please—you have to get us out of here. We’re all going to die in here. There’s no water, and so many bodies—”
“We’ll get you out, Lil,” Sophie promised.
“Is...Nathaniel out there?”
“Selene,” another voice chimed in, a man this time. “Is the princess out there?”
“They’re alive,” I said. “Passed out, but alive.”
I heard a sob of relief on the other side of the rock wall.
“Thank you,” Lily cried.
“We’ll get you out,” I promised her, echoing Sophie’s words.
“We’re going to need more people for this. And it might take days.”
“They don’t have days,” Sophie said with a worried look.
“I know,” I said grimly, running my hand through my hair in frustration.
“Let’s go. We need to get back to the village,” Sophie said. “Get as many people out here as possible. Bring everyone.”
“It could be a trap,” I pointed out.
“I don’t care. Those are our friends,” Sophie said boldly. I nodded, knowing she was right. We turned to walk away and were suddenly frozen in place, and I felt a chill creeping up my spine as the faceless man came into view.
“Hey,” he said in a casual voice. I glared at him as he came near me, seeming to study my face with a blank scrutiny.
“I have something fun in store for the two of you.”
Chapter 20: Sam
“Sophie?” Lily called out with no answer. She turned to me with a worried look on her face.
“Where are they? It’s been an hour.”
“Maybe they went back to get more people to dig us out,” I said, trying to comfort her.
“Maybe,” she said, anxiously wringing her hands together. I was about to try to speak when there was a loud rumbling sound, and for a moment I thought the cave was going to collapse in on us. I reached for Camilla and pushed her down, covering her body with mine. I closed my eyes until the rumbling stopped, and then looked up to see that the entrance to the cave was open. I got up and lifted Camilla to her feet, following Leo as he scrambled out of the cave. I blinked as we climbed out into the sunlight, saw Leo dash toward Selene and pull her into his lap. A look of relief passed over his face when he found out she was breathing and still alive.
“Princess,” he said. “Wake up, your highness.”
Selene laid still and limp, unresponsive. Beside him, Lily had knelt over Nathaniel doing the same thing.
“What’s wrong with them?” she asked in a panic.