She would suffer for this.
For every day that she lived while he didn’t, she would suffer.
Hazel
I was standing on the top of Tejus’s tower. The morning air was cold, and I shivered despite the two robes I’d taken from my room and wrapped around myself. The tower was the only place that I couldn’t be tempted; by Tejus, by my friends, even my brother. I didn’t dare see Benedict till I had this at least partway under control—right now, it had to be enough just knowing he was safe.
But I was lonely.
I’d never thought what it would be like not to touch people. Why would I? But it was only now that I realized how important it was to have human contact—a friend’s hand, a nudge, a hug. It made all the difference. To be constantly conscious of avoiding brushing against people or getting too close made me feel like I was watching life unfold through a window. I didn’t want every kiss between Tejus and me to end with him in pain, with him weakened. It was the exact opposite of what I wanted. Love should offer you strength, give you a reason to fight harder, to keep going when the odds were against you.
“What are you doing up here?”
Tejus’s voice echoed from the doorway of the tower, and I jumped slightly. The morning silence had been like a blanket muffling the entirety of Hellswan, and I’d been completely lost in it.
“Avoiding people,” I replied ruefully.
I heard him ascending the short steps up to the top of the parapet and turned to face him. I was relieved to see some color in his cheeks for the first time in a while—he had obviously slept well, and although the gaunt, hungry look hadn’t left his face (and I doubted that it ever really would), he didn’t seem to be suffering from my syphoning last night…
“Did you sleep in my emerald room?” I asked curiously. When I’d first arrived in Hellswan, Tejus had made me sleep in his small cubby hole of a room containing energy crystals that were intended to sharpen my mind.
“I didn’t sleep there, no. But I did visit.”
“No, of course not—wouldn’t catch you sleeping in there, right?” I mocked.
He came to stand beside me, both of us turning to look out onto the kingdom. I moved over a bit, making sure I kept an arm’s length distance between us.
“I’m glad you’re here though.” I smiled.
“I often choose to avoid people, though for very different reasons,” he muttered.
“You surprise me,“ I replied, rolling my eyes.
His reply made me smile despite myself. It was so typical of Tejus—his taciturn nature had gotten us into this stupid situation to begin with, but it also always drew me to him. It made me want to know what it was that he held back, having to rely on my instincts to know what he was feeling, having to learn to be honest enough for the both of us.
“I wanted you to have this,” he continued, taking an object from his belt and holding it out in front of me. It was a dagger – the blade sheathed, with a beautiful, ornately carved, golden handle that resembled a serpent. The pommel had been made to look like the serpent’s mouth – between its curved fangs, a brilliant ice-blue stone was held in its mouth. It looked as if a white light was emanating from the stone’s very center, clearer and more bright than anything I’d ever seen.
Cautiously, careful not to touch him, I raised my hand to take the dagger by the handle.
“It’s beautiful,” I breathed. “What is it?”
“A mercy dagger. It belonged to my mother.”
I handed it back to him quickly.
“I can’t, Tejus—”
“You can. Please—I want you to have it.”
He pushed the dagger toward me again, and this time I took it. It was heavier than I expected, and up close, more beautiful. I removed the blade from its sheath, marveling at its elegant curvature – a subtle ‘s’ shape that seemed strangely feminine.
“It’s not from a lock, is it?” I joked lamely, referring to the stone in the pommel, feeling awkward at the magnitude of the gift.
“No.”
“Thank you,” I replied hesitantly. “You said it was a mercy dagger…what does that mean?”
I had never heard of such an instrument, and never seen a dagger fashioned quite like this one.
“Mercy daggers were made for ceremonial deaths – putting the target out of their misery as quickly as possible, as the blade is always supposed to be used in such a way that the tip reaches up toward the heart. My mother kept it as her only weapon. Her great grand-mother gave it to her. The Ameroy women have kept it in the family for centuries.”
“The Ameroy women?” I questioned. I’d never heard Tejus mention that name before.
“My mother’s family name, before she became a Hellswan.”
I nodded, even more bowled over by the gift. It was obviously a precious family heirloom, and I felt like I was undeserving of it somehow. I hadn’t even known his mother, let alone done anything to warrant receiving something with such sentimental value.
The dagger was beautiful, if not a slightly macabre gift. How very Tejus.
“Here,” he proffered the belt that had been attached to him, “you can use this to hold it.”
“Put it on?” I asked, moving my robes out of the way – I was suddenly much less cold.
He leant toward me, wrapping the belt around my waist, moving closer till I could smell his skin—the warm, musky maleness that was so distinct to him. He tightened the buckle and snapped the clasp into place, but instead of moving back again, he paused where he was. My breath started to hitch in my throat and my heart pounded so loudly I thought we could both hear it. I trembled, trying to repress the urge to touch him, as my hunger burnt like a flame inside me.
“Keep your distance,” I whispered, stepping back from him.
As I was about to turn away from him, I caught sight of something else.
“Tejus—” I started, not knowing how to convey the sight I saw behind him. I couldn’t understand what it was at first—a huge something in the sky, like a giant black star-speckled banner. But as I stared, I realized that what I was seeing was the sky…only somehow the dawn had been ripped apart to nighttime.
Then the earth started to rumble.
I lurched forward, clutching one of the crenellations for support. The very foundations of the castle were starting to shake, and as I looked wildly over the landscape of Nevertide, I could see a large crack in the earth, running through the forests that surrounded Hellswan and traveling upward toward the Seraq kingdom in the distance. Trees, buildings, the cobbled streets of the village and the small stone houses—everything started tipping toward the crevice jaggedly tearing across the land, sliding downward into its black pit.
“It’s started, hasn’t it?” I whispered.
This was the work of the entity. I could feel its evil, its malevolent purpose twisting in my gut.
“We need to get out of here,” Tejus breathed as the tower started to lurch drunkenly from side to side. The stone walls of the keep started to crumble down to the courtyard, sending plumes of dust exploding upward toward us.
Without waiting for an answer, Tejus picked me up in his arms, cradling me close to his chest.
“Tejus, no!” I cried as I felt myself involuntarily starting to syphon off him.
Ignoring me, he ran down the steps to his living quarters. I begged to be put down again, and then abruptly kept my silence as I saw the devastation of the room—the castle was falling in on us. Half of the floor of Tejus’s living quarters had slid down into the floor below. We reached the main staircase just as the tower lurched violently. Tejus ran, panting and pale, down the steps of the tower, the iron creaking and lurching unsteadily.
Run.
The crashing of stone, glass and the fierce explosion of torch fires spreading across the carpets and drapes was deafening. We entered the main hallway and were met with pandemonium.
“We need to get Benedict!” I cried to Tejus, “Julian, Ruby—all of them!” I strug
gled in his arms as he headed in the opposite direction of the human quarters.
“We’re not…going…back,” Tejus replied with effort as he picked up the pace, fighting through the hordes of ministers and guards who were creating a mass of bodies, unintentionally blocking the main doorway as they all fought to escape.
“We have to!” I cried, but his grip on me only tightened, rendering my struggles useless. I took one last look behind me as the main arch of the hallway started to collapse in on itself, and then my view was blocked completely by screaming sentries.
Benedict…
Rose
It’s working!
The glow of the stones grew steadily brighter, moving from a faint aura to rays of brilliant color that danced off the faces of the witches, jinn and vamps who surrounded them.
I glanced over at Corrine, who shot me a reassuring smile. The witch, like all the others, was perspiring heavily and looked pale—the magic was obviously taking a lot out of them, but still they continued, determined as I was to get the portal open. Mona was muttering incantations under her breath, her chest heaving as if the words were being ripped from her chest.
Looking down at the black tar, I saw its movements starting to pick up—the heavy sludge-like swirls it had been making since we discovered it now started to splutter and twist. A small opening, no larger than a dime, appeared in the center of the mass. I watched, transfixed, as the opening widened, moving from the circumference of a dime to a fist, and then it was the size of a dinner plate, and I could see the hazy yellow-blue of a morning sky.
A new dimension.
I heard a crackle above the crashing of the waves, and momentarily turned away from the portal, wondering what it was.
“Rose, Rose? Can you hear me?” Caleb’s voice blared from the radio—the crackling I’d heard was the transmitter on my breast pocket coming to life. Not wanting to break my connection to Corrine and Claudia, I shoved the on-off button with my chin.
“Caleb!” I cried. “It’s working—the portal’s opening!”
I heard nothing for a few moments, and then my husband’s voice returned.
“I’ll tell you why later, but you’ve got to trust me on this one, Rose—stop opening the portal!”
“What?” I called back, thinking that I’d misheard him. Why would he want us to stop?
“STOP!” he bellowed.
Everyone looked over at me, their concentration broken at the sound of Caleb’s voice.
“STOP OPENING THE PORTAL!”
No!
The next world’s morning sky started to shrink before my eyes, the tar creeping over the light like a cancer once again.
No…no…no.
Corrine, Mona and the rest of the witches and jinn had released their control of the stones as soon as Caleb’s voice emerged from the radio. I watched disbelievingly as my only hope of getting to the children began to shrink before my eyes. I wanted to scream in frustration.
This can’t be happening. We were so close!
I looked around at the baffled expressions of the rest of the team. I switched off the radio, needing a few moments before I could listen to the logic and reason behind Caleb’s command. Right now, I just didn’t care what the danger was – maternal instinct was blindsiding any other thought or feeling. I would have happily faced an apocalypse if it meant I could see my children again…
I watched as Nuriya slowly gathered the stones back into her pouch. The storm had died down almost instantly, leaving an eerie silence to descend on us all, along with a burning question:
What are we going to do now?
I tried to reassure myself that we would find another way… I just couldn’t shake the ice-cold fear that time was running out.
Ready for the next part of the Novak clan’s story?
Dear Shaddict,
I hope you enjoyed A Power of Old!
The next book, ASOV 39: A Rip of Realms, releases January 29th, 2017. So you don’t have long to wait!
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Love,
Bella xxx
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Read more by Bella Forrest!
THE GENDER GAME
The Gender Game (Book 1)
The Gender Secret (Book 2)
The Gender Lie (Book 3)
The Gender War (Book 4)
A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES
Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story
A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)
A Shade of Blood (Book 2)
A Castle of Sand (Book 3)
A Shadow of Light (Book 4)
A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)
A Gate of Night (Book 6)
A Break of Day (Book 7)
Series 2: Rose & Caleb’s story
A Shade of Novak (Book 8)
A Bond of Blood (Book 9)
A Spell of Time (Book 10)
A Chase of Prey (Book 11)
A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)
A Turn of Tides (Book 13)
A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)
A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)
An End of Night (Book 16)
Series 3: Ben & River’s story
A Wind of Change (Book 17)
A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)
A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)
A Hero of Realms (Book 20)
A Vial of Life (Book 21)
A Fork of Paths (Book 22)
A Flight of Souls (Book 23)
A Bridge of Stars (Book 24)
Series 4: A Clan of Novaks
A Clan of Novaks (Book 25)
A World of New (Book 26)
A Web of Lies (Book 27)
A Touch of Truth (Book 28)
An Hour of Need (Book 29)
A Game of Risk (Book 30)
A Twist of Fates (Book 31)
A Day of Glory (Book 32)
Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians
A Dawn of Guardians (Book 33)
A Sword of Chance (Book 34)
A Race of Trials (Book 35)
A King of Shadow (Book 36)
An Empire of Stones (Book 37)
A Power of Old (Book 38)
A Rip of Realms (Book 39)
A SHADE OF DRAGON TRILOGY
A Shade of Dragon 1
A Shade of Dragon 2
A Shade of Dragon 3
A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY
A Shade of Kiev 1
A Shade of Kiev 2
A Shade of Kiev 3
BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY
Beautiful Monster 1
Beautiful Monster 2
DETECTIVE ERIN BOND (Adult mystery/thriller)
Lights, Camera, GONE
Write, Edit, KILL
For an updated list of Bella’s books, please visit her website: www.bellaforrest.net
Join Bella’s VIP email list and she’ll personally send you an email reminder as soon as her next book is out! Tap here to sign up: www.forrestbooks.com
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