by Zandria West
‘We can definitely cross the Barrier in the car?’ I ask, frowning. I’d been hoping we could, but I hadn’t actually confirmed it.
Alex nods. ‘As enforcers, we have some special privileges. Additional freedom of movement is one. The car doesn’t matter. It’s an inanimate object. It’s whoever’s inside it that the Barrier responds to.’
I lean back in the soft leather seat. We’re only a few blocks from the boundary between worlds now and the streets have been mostly empty so far, which is a relief. Part of me was expecting roadblocks and angry demon mobs with pitchforks and burning torches to be waiting for us.
‘You said before that you could cross over but there would be consequences. What kind of consequences?’
Alex raises an eyebrow and looks at me sideways. ‘Now you ask? Seriously?’ He puts his foot down on the accelerator and the engine growls as the car picks up speed.
‘We’re on a blacklist,’ Reuben says from the back seat. ‘When we cross over, the wards will trigger and our movement will be reported to the Demon Council.’
‘Is it actually illegal for you to cross?’ I ask.
Reuben laughs in the back seat, but there’s no humour in his voice. ‘Legal, illegal, doesn’t matter. The Varak are in charge now. They want chaos and fear to spread in both worlds, which means they don’t want active enforcers. That’s why every other company but ours is dead. That’s why I’ve been living in the fucking forest for the past five years instead of doing my damn job.’
‘I can’t let you do this,’ I say, feeling suddenly faint. I want Alex and Reuben’s help, but I don’t want them risking their lives. Not for me.
‘There’s no way we’re letting you meet your brother on your own,’ Alex says, his voice hard. He doesn’t take his eyes off the road.
‘Anyway, if we didn’t come with you, Gabriel would kill us himself,’ Reuben shrugs. ‘Between Gabriel and the Council, I know which risk I’d rather take.’
27
LANA
Alex doesn’t even slow down to cross over. Moving at such speed, the magic whooshes through me so fast that all I feel is a moment of acute dizziness and then it’s done. Everything changes. Suddenly we’re on a well-lit city street with signs and other vehicles and I’m relieved when we slow down to something approaching the local speed limit.
I guide Alex to drive east, out of the city. The cabin where we’re meeting Jamie is on a stretch of remote, rocky coastline a few hours’ drive away. It was where our father used to take us when we were kids, when he needed undisturbed time to work and we needed to run wild. I haven’t been back there since he died, the memories are just too strong. It’s not a place that’s easy to find unless you know exactly where it is.
The cabin always felt safe to me, like it was somehow unable to be touched by the worries and strife of the outside world. And I know that Clarissa has never been there. It was Mum’s place, she’d inherited it from her parents, and I made Dad promise that we’d keep it just for us, in honour of her memory. Not that I remember anything about my mother, but when I was there, I used to imagine I was close to her.
Alex puts some music on. I expect it to be obnoxious rock music, but it’s a classical piece,
a choir singing with voices so clear they sound almost angelic.
‘It soothes me,’ he says. Reading my mind, of course. ‘I like obnoxious music too. But this…’ The voices soar and for a second he takes his hands off the steering wheel. ‘This is close to heaven, don’t you think?’
I feel a sudden rush of longing – for my old life, for my father, for my view of the universe to be untroubled by fears of what’s about to happen.
‘I wish Gabriel was here,’ I sigh.
‘You and me both.’
I run a hand over the symbol of the crow on my inner arm. It doesn’t move like I imagine that it should. I close my eyes. You’d think that the bond would provide some more reliable tools. Clear communication, for example, instead of this fuzzy sensing that may or may not be real. I visualise Gabriel. I reach for him through the bond, stretching my awareness, seeking for the touch of his mind. There’s the faintest glimmer, even less than last time I checked. It’s not enough. I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing. I don’t know if he’s safe.
‘Keep trying,’ Alex says. ‘You’re stronger than you know. You healed me through the bond, did you realise that?’
I open my eyes again startled. ‘What? What do you mean?’
‘I got myself into a little trouble. On purpose of course.’ He smiles a crooked smile at me which releases a herd of butterflies in my stomach. ‘Your energy passed through the bond and fixed me all up as good as new.’
‘I… really? My energy?’
He nods, a self-satisfied grin curving his lips.
‘Of course, it goes without saying that I liked the way you healed Gabriel better. I get into trouble quite a lot, so, you know, maybe next time…’
I roll my eyes at him and look back out the window. A fine rain has started to fall, and the drops are trailing lines of water along the glass. It’s dark outside. We’ve passed through the city and the suburbs and are out into farmland now. I see the occasional soft glow in the distance from a house where someone has left a porch-light on. The lights look so welcoming, so inviting. I imagine I could be a completely different person, living a completely different life, returning home to one of these peaceful, warm houses.
That’s not going to happen anytime soon.
‘Why were you living in the forest on your own?’ I turn to Reuben. ‘Didn’t you have somewhere else to go? A home? A pack waiting for you?’
I catch Alex’s glance on me in the rearview mirror, but he doesn’t say anything.
‘I deserved to be alone,’ Reuben says. ‘I couldn’t do my job anymore. I can’t go back to my pack. After Grayson left –‘
‘Who’s Grayson?’ A strange feeling tingles in the pit of my stomach at the sound of his name.
‘He was the fourth of our company. We worked together for many years, tracking demons who had broken the rules of the Accord and, if necessary, killing them before they could do more harm.’
‘Did you cross over into the human world yourself?’ I ask.
Reuben gazes at the glimpse of ocean on the horizon with so much wonder and longing that my heart aches. I’ve never met anyone before who’s both so tough and so lonely. Finally, he turns back to me and speaks. ‘I left all that to Gabriel. He would find them and mark them on the other side of the Barrier, and we would track them and kill them when they crossed back over.’
‘You were never curious to know more about what you were protecting?’
‘Of course. But I didn’t trust myself to cross,’ he says, his voice hard.
I frown. ‘You mean you risked your life to protect humans, and you never crossed over into the human world because you didn’t trust yourself not to kill them too?’
‘It’s probably hard for you to understand, Lana,’ Alex says gently. ‘We have instincts…. urges… All of us. Except for Gabe, obviously, he’s basically dry as a stone. But for the likes of Reuben and me, some days we’re up to fighting those instincts, some days we’re not. Most days we’re not sure and don’t want to risk it.’
‘And how about now? I’m human. I’m sitting right here beside you. What do your instincts say about me?’
Reuben growls. ‘My instincts say that I will fight to my last drop of blood to protect you. That anyone who lays a hand on you to harm you will be torn to pieces and cast to the crows to eat. I was born to protect you, girl-cub. You are my purpose.’
I shiver at the intensity of his tone. ‘Okay,’ I say. ‘Just checking.’
In the rear vision mirror, Alex raises an eyebrow at me and then smiles cheekily. ‘And I’ll choose not to answer that question right at this moment for fear of incriminating myself.’
His smile tells me exactly what his instincts are towards me. Heat rushes through me and I swallow and lo
ok away. A moment later, I spot a landmark that I recognise – an ancient windmill that stands crooked next to a big old barn.
‘We’re almost there,’ I say, and anxiety fizzes in my blood like sherbet.
Not long now and I’ll see Jamie. How will I get him to listen to me? How will I get him to believe me?
And if he doesn’t, how will I protect him?
28
GABRIEL
It has been a thousand years since I’ve come to this place but now my need is great.
The Temple of Akiri is a small chamber encircled by powerful magic, deep within the stone belly of the city. It is where the Great Witch is laid to rest.
Leaving Lana behind and pretending that it was just for a little jaunt around the city was one of the hardest things that I have ever done. But I discovered last night that the contamination of my connection with Ruark by my enemy goes deeper than I thought. If I am with Lana, I’m exposing her through the bond to Garenda’s consciousness, maybe even to her magic. That is not a risk that I’m prepared to take. I have sworn to myself I won’t return until I’ve burned every last trace of that foul sorceress from my mind, although I know I’m not strong enough to complete that task with just my own magic. Even if Ruark had lived, I still would not have been strong enough. I need help.
I cast a plea to the Gods that Alexander and Reuben will find Lana soon, that she will be safe with them until my return, then I shut myself off from the bond. If I can’t see Lana, neither can my enemy. It kills me. Every moment is agony of a kind I’d never imagined, but it is what I must do.
The steps down to the Temple are numberless and ancient, a path of nightmares and terror. The guardians that the Great Witch set to watch her resting place are monsters, through and through. But monsters of the mind.
With each step you take you must face some new horror. The loss of those you love, made so real that your heart is torn to pieces within your breast. Visions of torture so cruel and so vivid your mind shatters. A sense of failure so profound you wish you had never been born, you long to cast yourself into the darkness of death to end the humiliation that is your existence. Each step I take, I tell myself it is not real. It is the enchantment. I saw her weave it with my own eyes, many, many years before. I cannot let it fool me into giving up. Not now.
I know I am getting close because the stairs are no longer made of rock, but of bone. The skulls of her enemies have been crushed and wedged together to form the ground on which I walk. I said the Great Witch was powerful; I never said that she was merciful. I whisper a small prayer as I continue down, feeling the ancient bone crumble beneath my feet. Suddenly a tremor begins that is at first so tiny I wonder if it is real or something I’m imagining, a product of fear and exhaustion. The tremor grows stronger with each step as I descend into the temple. I must call on the Great Witch and ask her to meet my need. I must have her favour now, draw her back from the realms of the dead, or I shall surely be buried beneath tonnes of stone. That is the enchantment she made all those centuries ago, while I watched.
‘Teacher!’ I cry out, and then say the old words, so ancient and so long unspoken. ‘Erek torali ektalia teremis. I call on you now, oh Great One, I beg for your assistance.’
The ground trembles and shakes beneath my feet. Small rocks begin to tumble, bouncing down the stairs above me, then larger rocks start to fall. Clouds of dust are rising in the air – at least I hope I’m breathing in dust and not particles of bone. The trembles turn to lurches. The ground moves as though it is no longer solid but is made of some kind of jelly-like substance. I’m sure the whole chamber is about to collapse around me.
‘I am close to finding the key,’ I cry out. ‘Just as you instructed. I searched for centuries and I am close now, but Garenda is closer.’
In an instant, the tremors stop. The place falls still and silent.
Ah, so apparently the name of the Great Witch’s nemesis is the magic word that gets her attention, even from the afterlife. Not my desperate plea for help. Not the promise of her work being almost complete, but fucking Garenda. She’d always said theirs was a hatred that would last even beyond the grave. I guess she wasn’t kidding.
Come
I feel the word as much as I hear it. It is a vibration within my chest, deep and dangerous. I look down into the darkness and take the final few steps.
The sarcophagus is just as I left it a millennium ago. Dark stone carved with a myriad of runes that add to the wards of protection surrounding the place. I feel a sense of unease as I approach, and then I realise that the feeling isn’t my own, it’s something of Garenda squirming within me, as though trying to escape this encounter. Too bad, bitch. You hitch a ride with me, you go where I take you, I think, a grin twisting my lips for the first time since this whole fucking disaster began to unfold.
It only lasts a second though, because the task awaiting me now is the most terrifying I’ve ever had to undertake.
I must open the sarcophagus.
I must raise the dead.
I take the ceremonial knife from my belt, and make the cut to my palm, allow my blood to drip and pool onto the stone. Then I begin to trace the runes with my finger, chanting the words as I touch them. The language is ancient and powerful and utterly lost. All knowledge of it died with the Great Witch – or almost all. For I feel the words kindling something within me, a power that begins to flame and grow.
An uncanny wind arises, swirling and roaring around me, as though magnified by the enclosure of stone. I continue my task, tracing each rune in blood, calling its name. Lightning crackles along the surface of the sarcophagus and I feel it moving through me, jolting and sparking. If I survive this, it will be a fucking miracle. I do not stop.
As I trace the runes and say the words, the roar of the wind turns to screams, desperate howls of terror and pain, and I sense figures all around me, crowding in close, almost touching me. The dead cling to me, drawn to the promise of the realms opening as moths to a flame. I feel a sudden surge of fear. What if I’m not strong enough and it goes wrong? What if, instead of releasing just the one soul I need, I release them all? I fumble over the final few words, my hand shaking, and then in an instant there is utter silence.
‘I hope you’ve got a very good reason for making all this mess,’ a voice says.
I spin around. She’s standing right behind me. My eyes widen – she looks almost as she did in life, just… blurrier, as though somebody has smudged her reflection and I can’t quite make out its edges.
‘Well? What do you have to say for yourself?’
The Great Witch does not look happy to be disturbed.
I fall to my knees and bow my head before her, as much from exhaustion and shock as from reverence.
‘Mother,’ I whisper. It has been so long. I truly never thought I’d see her again. ‘Mother. You’re here.’
29
LANA
I have no idea whether Jamie will even show or not until we finally turn down the dirt road that leads to the cabin and I see his shiny black Subaru parked in the driveway. I let out a breath. That’s the first hurdle cleared. He’s here. I’ll at least get to talk to him.
I sense Alex and Reuben tensing as Alex slows the car and pulls off onto the grass to park behind the Subaru. As we get out, I take a big lungful of air. I love it here – the tang of salt always makes me feel alive, like the power of the ocean itself is filling me with strength and vitality. During the daytime, the view is spectacular: the wide-open horizon, birds circling above, and ocean stretching to the skyline, so vast and so wild. Tonight, there’s enough of a moon that I can make out the whitecaps far below, vivid against the slate grey of the sea. The gentle murmur of waves breaking over and over is as familiar and reassuring to me as my own heartbeat.
‘Alright,’ I say, trying to remind myself why we’re here and what I have to do.
The problem is that Jamie is so… committed to his life. He wants all the things our society tells you to want – s
uccess, stability, the esteem of his peers, money, a home like you see on TV. He wants them so badly that he lives his life every day as though getting those things were the purpose of all existence. I guess, for him that’s true. Which is going to make what I’m about to say even harder for him to deal with. Because until I’ve done whatever I have to do to find the key and remake the Barrier, he won’t be safe. That means he’ll have choose: give up what he values most to go into indefinite hiding; or risk his life to keep living like none of this is really happening.
I glance at the two men waiting patiently either side of me. Alex, who took the time to change his clothes before we left the safehouse and looks as slick, sexy, and deadly as the first time I met him. I see a little grin flicker on his perfect lips. God I wish to fuck he couldn’t hear my every thought. I frown at him and he shrugs.
On my other side is Reuben, my werewolf warrior. He looks like a cross between Rambo and Bear Grylls. Like he’s just stumbled out of the woods after being lost for a decade but in that time, he’s been training with an elite squadron of soldiers and now he’s ready for an epic war we can’t afford to lose. He looks determined: ready to kill or die. He also looks uncomfortable as fuck under my gaze. His eyes flick down to the ground, and I see his shoulders rounding, like he’s trying to hide in plain sight. A man as impressive as Reuben should not have to hide.
‘Hey,’ I say to him. ‘What happened in the tunnel was an accident, I get that. You thought I was an intruder. Your intentions were honourable.’
He keeps his eyes on the ground, his head bowed. ‘I’m sorry Lana,’ he says, his voice low. ‘I should have known. As soon as I saw you, I should have fucking known.’
‘Hey, it’s okay. It’s fine. We’re fine.’
He looks up and tentatively meets my gaze. His eyes are as vivid green as the forest canopy, flecked with gold like autumn leaves. I wonder whether they change when he does, or if those are the eyes he wears as a wolf? A shiver moves through me at the thought.