“Hey,” I interrupted, “have you seen Benedict and Julian, or Yelena? They seem to be missing…”
Ash and Tejus both shook their heads.
“The human boys?” one of the ministers asked.
“Yes! Have you seen them?”
“They left with the recon army,” he replied, his face paling as both Hazel and I glared daggers at him. “I thought they’d been requested on the mission. They rode out at the same time as the lieutenant!”
“They’re OUT?” Hazel erupted.
No, no, no!
“How did this happen?” I exclaimed. “Why would you think that three young humans would be sent on a mission like that?”
The minister looked to Ash and Tejus for support.
“We just need to go after them,” Tejus growled. “Again.”
I looked worriedly out to the forests beyond. What the hell had those idiots been thinking? Traveling with Ragnhild and the rest of the guards down to the cove? It was about as close to a suicide mission as you could get.
“We need to leave, now,” Hazel demanded, glaring at Tejus.
He let out a frustrated sigh.
“Of course. Ash, stay here, I can handle this.”
“No,” Ash replied firmly, “I’m coming.”
Our eyes met.
Thank you.
I squeezed his hand.
“Fine,” Tejus replied, clearly displeased. I could understand why; it wasn’t exactly the best strategy to jeopardize the life of the emperor for a couple of kids, but I was overwhelmingly grateful that Ash was still putting me and my friends first…and feeling a little guilty.
“Hopefully they won’t have gotten far,” I replied, looking at the minster for confirmation.
He looked away, staring at the floor. “They were due back before afternoon light.”
I looked up at the torn sky. The sun was just after its mid-point.
That’s not good.
“Let’s move out,” Ash commanded. He called over a pair of guards to travel with us, and we all hurried to the stables, saddling the bull-horses. Hazel and I were both riding solo so we had spare rides if we needed it.
“Everyone ready?” Ash called out. When we all nodded, he ordered the ministers to open the barriers once again. At full speed we galloped out of our protective bubble and headed back to the cove.
“Stay on Ragnhild’s tracks,” Tejus commanded, leading us down the pathway.
I followed Ash’s and Tejus’s horses, my riding almost mechanical. I felt like a ball of anxiety, desperately trying not to think the worst. There were a million reasons why they might have been delayed getting back. Ragnhild might have even ordered the kids to get back to the castle, and they had gotten lost on the way.
Please just be lost, I thought to myself, again and again as we continued on our journey.
We traveled along the main road, in the direction that would eventually lead to Hellswan Castle. The cove was a turnoff before that, less well marked, which might help us follow their tracks better. We rode on, neither hearing nor seeing anything amiss until Hazel cried out.
“Wait! Stop!”
We all came to a halt, looking in the direction of the forest on the right of the path.
“I think I can see something… Ash, Tejus?”
They both peered into the forest, using their better-practiced True Sight to make out what Hazel could see.
“It’s them,” Tejus confirmed, already heading for the forest. “I can see the red hair of the girl. They seem to be running in the direction of the castle.”
We all raced into the thickets. As we got closer, Hazel gasped next to me and I waited for her to tell me what she’d just seen.
“Hang on, Benedict! We’re coming!” she cried out, slamming her feet into the flanks of the bull-horse, urging the beast on faster.
Are they in trouble?
I picked up the pace, and after covering a few yards I could hear them calling out to us—desperate and terrified.
Tejus
I jumped off my bull-horse just as Julian flew toward me, his mouth set in a silent scream, his eyes bulging out of their sockets. I looked behind him, but all I could see was Hazel’s brother and his friend. Where was the danger?
“Behind us!” Julian gasped out. “We need to leave—now! They’re coming, they’re coming!”
I caught him in my arms, his entire body trembling with the exertion of the run and his fear.
“Where are the others?” I asked.
“D-dead. Everyone’s dead!”
Benedict flew at his sister, dragging her by the arm back to her bull-horse that she’d just jumped down from.
“We have to go!” he screamed.
I kept looking out into the forest, seeing absolutely nothing that could have terrified them so greatly—were they suffering from some kind of hysteria?
Then I felt it.
A cold, dead feeling seeping through my body.
“The shadows,” Julian gasped out from my arms, “the shadows are coming.”
I looked down at him, gauging from his expression that he could feel the same sick sensation that was pervading my body.
“HAZEL! Get back on the bull-horse!” I cried out, feeling that something was approaching. I didn’t know what it was or what Julian meant by shadows, but I understood that we were in grave danger. I could feel it in every cell of my body.
I released Julian, and he ran back to the bull-horses. They were starting to rear and cry, sensing the same danger as we were.
“Ready?” Ash called out, unsheathing the Hellswan sword.
“Ready.”
I looked around to see Hazel holding on to Benedict, allowing herself to be dragged back to the bull-horse, but only holding onto the reins.
“Get up, Hazel!” I yelled. She wasn’t even looking at me—her gaze was fixed in terror at the forest ahead.
I heard whispering. I wasn’t sure if it was inside my head, or coming from the trees, but it was a multitude of indistinguishable voices—all hissing, crying, echoes of dead screams, roars of pain and death. What is this?
A great mass of shadow seemed to slither out from the forest floor, growing steadily larger and encompassing the treetops. The whispering increased — becoming louder and more insidious. I thought if I listened to it for another second it might drive me mad.
“Tejus! If the shadow touches you, you’re going to die!”
It was Benedict’s voice that warned me, just in time. The shadow was slowly growing closer till it was only a foot away from me. I swung out my sword instinctively, and the shadow jerked back. I sliced through air, moving my weapon with practiced motions. Ash did the same next to me, and the guards rushed forward with their swords wielded and ready. We chopped at the dark mass, swinging blindly—the only assurance that we were making any difference was the short jolts backward that the shadow made when it came into contact with our blades. But it kept coming.
I could feel sweat starting to trickle down my forehead and back, my arm growing weary. I didn’t dare syphon off Hazel—my only worry was that she wouldn’t make it out alive. The shadow was starting to close in on us, the whispers becoming mocking and teasing, laughing at our efforts to destroy them. It wasn’t the entity’s voice, I knew that much, but it was just as evil.
“Hazel! Get out of here!” I cried again, knowing that she was still behind me. I heard Ash do the same to Ruby, but they didn’t pay any attention to us. We were backing up toward them now, the shadow slowly herding us all together.
I moved next to Hazel, forcing her and Benedict to stand behind me.
“Ash, we need to get out of here!” Ruby yelled.
“I know!” he called back, swiping his sword furiously. “But I don’t know how!”
I looked around as I slashed my sword. The shadow had almost completely surrounded us. Only a small pool of light on the forest floor was left, the rest was covered in darkness. I held Hazel back with one hand, worried that she’d
step out into its gloom. One of the guards screamed. I glanced over to see his body flying up in the air, carried on the shadow as if it were a wave, and then watched in horror as it was released abruptly. His body slammed to the floor. Hazel groaned in repulsion as his innards spilled out—he had been slashed across the chest.
I fought on, slashing more fervently at the black mass.
“It’s gaining on us!” Benedict yelled out.
I turned, just in time to see the shadow moving forward, heading for Benedict and Hazel. Before I could do anything, Hazel retrieved her mercy dagger and thrust it into thin air. As she did so, the whispering escalated into a scream. A man’s face appeared out of the shadow. It was contorted in a grimace, its eyes nothing but black holes. Its entire form seemed to be created from the shadow itself, only a shade of a man. The figure exploded into a black ash-like substance, floating into the air and then disappearing altogether.
The shadow retreated, but I had a feeling that our reprieve would be brief.
“Everybody leave!” I cried out, dragging Hazel to the nearest bull-horse and flinging her on behind me. She looked dazed—as confused as I was as to what exactly had attacked us. One of the guards grabbed her brother and the redhead. We galloped onto the path, the shadow and the whispering steadily regaining ground.
I held onto Hazel’s hands, clasped around my waist.
I had sworn on my life that I would keep her safe, but once again she had been put in the path of danger and I had been unable to fully protect her. What good was my love if it couldn’t accomplish that one thing?
I could still feel the sensation of the evil we had left behind. Was that the army that had risen from the sea? An indestructible force that didn’t even have flesh in which we could bury our weapons? I had assumed that whatever the entity brought forth would be a force to be reckoned with. But to see something so unnatural, so out of the realm of any enemy I had encountered before, sent another chill racing down my spine.
Rose
I groaned, lifting my head off the floor.
What happened?
I rubbed my eyes and tried to sit up. My head felt woozy, and I had a headache. I looked over to the still form next to me, relieved it was one I recognized.
“Caleb?” I placed my hand on my husband’s arm, urging him to wake up. He opened his eyes, looking up at me in confusion.
“What was that?” he asked, groaning in the same way I had as he pulled himself up. We both got to our feet, looking at the rest of the GASP team, all doing the same—staggering to their feet with baffled looks, some still clutching their heads.
“Dad?” I called, seeing him standing and helping my mother up. “What happened?”
“It must have been Abelle,” he muttered angrily, looking around for the woman. It was pointless. Unsurprisingly, she was nowhere to be seen.
“Was it some kind of magic?” I asked.
“I’m not sure what it was… Mona? Corrine? Ibrahim?” he questioned the witches as they approached us, looking very annoyed.
“No idea,” Mona replied, “certainly the first time I’ve ever experienced anything like that.”
The jinn came forward, looking equally irritated that they’d been knocked down by the same magic.
“That was horrible!” Aisha snarled. “What did that bitch do to us? I feel completely drained.”
“As do I.” Queen Nuriya shook her head furiously. “Where is that rotten creature? She’s going to pay for that one day. Mark my words.”
“Do you think it was creatures like her who damaged the children at Murkbeech?” Claudia asked menacingly, her claws extending.
I nodded slowly. It would make sense. If a human brain was exposed to that kind of treatment it was bound to leave an effect. I wondered if Abelle herself had been involved in the kidnapping of our children?
“I’m going to kill her,” Claudia raged. “If she’s done that to my children—if any of them have—I’ll tear them to pieces!”
For once I didn’t think Claudia’s torture fantasies were an overreaction. I was very tempted to get my hands on Abelle again as well, see how well she fared with a pair of fangs sunk into her neck…
“She’ll meet justice,” my father barked, “but if she’s free, then we need to get to the children before she can warn the army, or get to the kids. Lethe, Azaiah, Field, Blue—will you all fly on ahead and see how far away we are?”
They nodded, the dragons shooting up into the air to join the half-Hawk brothers.
While we waited, I tried to work out how long we’d been out. Maybe a couple of hours? The light didn’t seem very different, but it was hard to tell with the massive gashes in the sky.
“I really hope Hazel and Benedict haven’t been on the receiving end of that,” I muttered to Caleb. “It was so painful.”
I shuddered, thinking about them being subjected to the same treatment… perhaps more than once. It didn’t bear thinking about.
“I know,” he replied with a growl. “I’m looking forward to getting my hands on their captors. They’re going to regret crossing this family…”
Corrine walked up to us, placing a hand on my arm. A second later, the remains of my headache were almost completely gone.
“Oh, thanks,” I said, smiling at the witch.
“The same treatment I gave the Murkbeech residents we took back to The Shade,” she replied. “It helps soothe the mind.”
I felt grateful that when we did find the children, at least we had a team well-equipped to heal whatever they might have endured. I just hoped none of them were in the same state we’d found the human boy who’d known Hazel. He’d been so far gone…
“They’re different, Rose,” Caleb muttered, as if he’d read my mind. “They’re stronger.”
“I know,” I whispered.
But they’re still just kids.
Corrine, Mona and Ibrahim started to heal the others and we all waited impatiently for the Hawks and dragons to return. I started to notice that one benefit of Abelle’s mind-attack was that before now, most of the GASP members had been weirded out by the strangeness of the land, baffled as to how another dimension like this could have gone unnoticed for so long. Now they weren’t unsettled. They were furious. They were ready for revenge, to destroy the creatures that had taken our kids, to fight against a force that could knock us all out like this. We’d be ready for them next time.
Lethe and the others landed, informing us that the castle was a few miles away, still protected by the strange force-field they’d erected around it. They hadn’t seen any sign of Abelle.
“Let’s get moving,” my father commanded.
We continued the journey, moving a bit faster than we had been. As we crossed the floor of the silent forest I heard the quiet and melodic mutterings of the jinn contemplating magic that might repel another attack, and the witches discussing how they might expand the strength of Corrine’s mind-soothing skills.
Micah paced ahead, reaching my father.
“We think we can track Abelle, if you want us to try,” he said. “She headed off in the opposite direction.”
My father shook his head.
“We need you for this. Hopefully there will be time to track her down after we find the kids. I want her brought to justice, but she can’t be our priority right now.”
“Understood,” Micah replied, “but just say the word and she’s a dead woman.”
I felt a huge swell of pride. I knew that part of this mission was to solve the mystery of the fae king’s premonitions and the threat to the In-Between, but I knew deep down that the majority of GASP members were here because of their loyalty to our family—and they were all ready and willing to overcome any obstacle or danger to get the kids home safe.
“Mom, are you okay?” I asked as I drew up near her.
“I’m okay, thanks to Corrine. How are you?” She took my hand, something she hadn’t done for a while. It reminded me of being a kid again, feeling so safe when she was arou
nd. It made my heart ache. I missed my kids so much.
“I’m okay,” I attempted a smile.
“Your father says it’s a good sign that Abelle went in the opposite direction—if she’s trying to avoid the castle, it might mean that whoever’s there poses less of a threat to us. We don’t know how much of what she said was lies.”
I nodded. It was a possibility, but there was an equally large chance that they were just as dangerous to us as she was, if not more.
“Stop!” my father commanded, pausing mid-stride.
I froze, listening for noises within the forest.
“There are people nearby. Get off the track and up in the trees if you can. They might be heading this way.”
The team vanished, melting away into the forest, the jinni and vamps disappearing up into the leaves, the werewolves burying themselves into the undergrowth.
But I stood still.
There was something familiar about the voices…
Hazel.
Hazel.
Oh, God. It was my daughter’s voice…
That’s my daughter’s voice!
It’s her!
I started running.
Hazel
“Wait, Tejus.” I gripped his waist more firmly. “I think I can hear something…”
We were almost at the castle, and so far we had managed to escape the shadow’s approach. The feeling of dread that accompanied the shadow hadn’t been felt for a while now, and it seemed that at least for now, we were safe. We had ridden hard, only slowing to a less relentless pace a mile back, giving the bull-horses and riders a much-needed break.
“What is it?” he asked. “The whispers?”
“No…” I hesitated. Was it someone calling my name? It wasn’t coming from the direction of the castle though, but from the forest. Had Jenney come looking for us?
“Can you use True Sight?” I asked, pointing in the direction I thought the voice was coming from. “I’m too weak. It’s not working.”
He looked in the direction of the forest, waving for the other riders to stop.
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