“I’m sorry,” Hazel whispered as we ascended the main staircase. “They’ll lay off you soon. It’s just new to them…you’re my first boyfriend, and, well, you know—you’re a sentry. It’s a lot.”
“I understand that. Don’t worry about me, Hazel,” I chided her gently, “I’m perfectly capable of conversing with your family.”
I allowed myself a small smile at her admission that I was her first boyfriend.
“What?” she asked, catching me.
“Nothing.”
“Right,” she drawled.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked, wondering how much time we had until Ash called his meeting.
“Getting settled, I guess,” she replied with a shrug.
I lifted her into my arms, carrying her up the last two steps.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed, half laughing, half admonishing me with a glare. Without answering, I prowled the corridor, trying to locate our room. The door was ajar, and I pushed my back against it, letting us in, then kicked it shut.
“Finishing what we started,” I replied hoarsely.
“They’re right—you’re a terrible influence.” She smiled, biting her bottom lip.
My hands ran over the curves of her body, our breathing rasping and desperate. She caught my lips in a kiss, her hands entangling themselves in my hair as she urged me closer. I looked into her eyes, stroking the porcelain skin of her jaw with my thumb. I was humbled by the love I saw looking back up at me.
How do you feel this way about me? I wondered, not for the first time.
“Hazel,” I groaned against her. Our kiss intensified, our lips molding, our inhales and exhales coming in perfect unison.
“I need to know,” I rasped, breaking the kiss but not moving, our lips an inch apart. “Do you have regrets about becoming a sentry, still?”
“No,” she answered without hesitation. “It makes me feel like you’re a part of me. I wouldn’t change it for all the world.”
I nodded, speechless. My throat burnt, aching with the unspoken weight of devotion I felt for her in that moment.
“Hazel?” A now-familiar voice spoke sharply from the door. I turned, Hazel scrambling back down to the floor, and saw her mother standing in the entrance, glaring at us both. Clearly I hadn’t shut the door properly.
“Mom!” Hazel gasped, looking mortified. “Awkward!”
Awkward indeed.
Jenus
I heard the clatter of the trap door being opened. Two guards were already waiting down below with me, playing a card game. I could smell the food before I saw the sentry who was bringing down my dinner.
It was later than usual, and along with the absence of the three other guards who usually spent the day down here, I suspected something was going on above. Perhaps my master? Perhaps his children, coming to wreak pain and oblivion on the foul insects that ran amok in this castle. I had tried to use True Sight earlier in the day, but with such depleted energy, I could only make out hazy shapes of gray above me—nothing to indicate that rescue was on its way.
One of the guards gestured to the other that he should open the door. They were the younger of the sentries that had been posted to watch me. I watched as a servant girl stepped out of the gloom and walked toward me, her eyes fearful. I recognized her from Hellswan castle. She had been one of the servants there, and was as thick as a tree stump.
The guard tore the barrier, allowing the girl to place the food between a small, oblong slit at the bottom of my cage. She did so hastily, but before she could withdraw I reached out, swift as a viper, and grabbed her wrist, yanking her against the bars of my cell. Instantly the guards started to syphon off me, but they couldn’t do it as forcefully or as effectively as I could to the young servant girl. Her energy was delicious, sweet like berries, and she smelt of sunshine.
“Stop! Stop! Please,” she whimpered, her beautiful blue eyes rolling back into her skull.
“Jenus! Stop instantly!” one of the guards bellowed. I paid him no heed. Once I was full of her, I released her arm and she fell backward onto the stone floor. The guards began to re-build the barriers, moving the servant girl out of the way.
“No, you don’t!” I laughed. I started to syphon off the both of them, draining them as quickly as I could. With a heavy thump the guard holding the keys fell to the floor, and then the other followed, howling out with pain.
I stood up, enjoying the surge of energy that ran through me.
It was short-lived. A moment later, the hatch to the room was torn off. Guards clattered down the stairs, the broadswords clattering against the stone walls as they surrounded me.
“Back!” I screamed. “BACK!”
Most of them laughed at me, simultaneously syphoning all the energy I had just gained. I tried to reverse it, to take from them what they were taking from me, but it was no use. There were too many.
The servant girl was cradled in the arms of one of the guards, who looked up at me in disgust.
“Don’t think you’ll be getting fed for a long time, Jenus,” one of them said as the ground rushed up to meet me.
“You will pay for this,” I spat, growling on the floor. “My master will come—come and destroy you all. You will regret the day you were dragged from your mother’s wombs! I will END you!”
“I think it’s starting to get to him,” one of the guards muttered to the other.
“Nah. He was always mad. Always missing a piece.” The guard tapped his head, laughing at me.
Fool!
How dare he laugh at me? How dare my brother subject me to this mockery? Didn’t he care that by tarnishing my name, he hurt his own? How would his people respect him if they continued to disrespect me?
I lay helpless on the stone floor of my cage, every bone in my body hurting, my head feeling like a million ice pricks were piercing into the soft tissue of my brain.
Master…why have you forsaken me?
Was this to be my future? Would I have to wait here till the end of days, never able to prove myself worthy of my master’s love? What then? Would I still get the rewards I had been promised? I doubted it.
“We’ll get some ministers down here…prevent him from doing this again. And no more servants—guards only. Make sure the barriers remain strong in the meantime.”
“Will do,” the other said.
“I can promise you riches!” I cried out before the barriers could be erected. “I can promise you a life beyond your wildest dreams!”
“What? Like the one you’re living?” The guard burst out laughing.
“My master, he will be here. He will come and you never need work for another man again. You will be a free man!”
The guards just laughed harder, and carried on putting the barrier in place.
Justice will be swift, I promised myself. When my master rescues me, justice will be swift and merciless.
As I laid my head back on the floor, I realized that my impulsive actions had perhaps ruined my only viable escape route. Tejus would never let Hazel down here with just the two of them when he heard of this. Not unless his arrogance let him believe himself completely omnipotent. Perhaps there was still a chance. No doubt his ego grew every day that his ex-human believed herself to love him.
Brother, come to me, I prayed. Come believing you are invincible so that when I take you down it is that much harder to bear.
Benedict
The meeting had been called, and for once I had actually been asked to attend. I’d known our joining Ragnhild’s mission would pay off. Though it was only because the rest of his army was dead that Julian, Yelena and I were the only ones who knew what had taken place at the cove—maybe I shouldn’t gloat too much. But it was exciting—having GASP here, knowing that we had an unstoppable force that was going to come up against the entity. I couldn’t wait for them to come face-to-face with the evil that had possessed me and made my life completely miserable and terrifying for so long. If the entity thought it was great and
all-powerful, wait till it met my grandpa.
“Julian, Benedict, can you tell us about what you saw at the cove?” Ash asked, interrupting my vengeance fantasies—fighting side-by-side with Grandpa and the rest of GASP, me wielding a sword like a pro.
All eyes turned to me, Lucas trying to hide a smirk. I looked to Julian for backup. He frowned at me, urging me to speak. Julian always disliked large groups.
“Well, we saw the bodies of the Acolytes,” I replied quietly. “And some weird energy barrier covering them—like something was sucking their energy, creating a sort of force field.”
“All the energy was going into the earth…that’s what it looked like,” Julian added.
“A conductor,” Yelena interrupted. “Obviously, the entity is using the bodies of the Acolytes to syphon off their energy to rise up—my guess is so he can become whole, so he can fight us.”
Smarty-pants.
“Okay,” replied Ash, smiling warmly at Yelena, “that’s a likely conclusion to draw—unless the shadows that we fought today are the entity itself?” He looked to Tejus, who shook his head.
“I’m not sure about that. I believe the shadow is the army that the book predicted. Yet because Hazel killed Queen Trina, I think we have bought ourselves some time. I don’t believe he is fully risen yet.”
“Who did Hazel kill?” my mom exclaimed.
I looked at my sister. She seemed uncomfortable.
“Our enemy,” I replied. “She was amazing. Wasn’t she, Tejus?”
The sentry smirked. “She was.”
“I think someone needs to bring us up to date with what’s been happening,” my grandfather said. “We are playing catch-up here and I need to understand what’s taken place. Sherus.” He turned to a copper-haired fae I’d never seen before. “Does this entity sound like it could be related to your visions?”
The fae nodded, eyeing the sentries with suspicion.
What’s his deal?
I’d never seen him around The Shade before. I leaned back into my chair as Ash and Tejus told GASP what had been happening and explained a bit about the abilities of the sentry species. To hear it all laid out, it sounded like some kind of bizarro fairy tale. I had a hard time believing it myself, and I’d been there! Every so often, my mom and dad would turn to me with panic-stricken eyes. To be honest, I’d been hoping they’d be more impressed with our brave deeds—but they just seemed worried. My grandpa also told us about the entity whispering to them as they passed through the portal. It seemed like he was everywhere at once, and the thought scared me—to communicate to them through a portal like that? It would have taken a lot of power.
“I can’t believe you’ve been through all of this,” my mom whispered when Ash and Tejus had finished.
“We’re fine, Mom,” I groaned, seeing Yelena stifling a giggle out of the corner of my eye. I’d like to see her parents act any differently. They’d react way worse—they weren’t even supernatural!
“Has it occurred to you that there might be jinn in Nevertide?” my grandfather asked Tejus.
“It has,” Tejus bit out. Now it was my turn to hide a smile—watching Tejus get it in the neck from my family was awesome.
“The threat of the entity rising delayed our plans,” he continued. “But if there are jinn here, they are well-hidden. I have not come across your kind”—he looked at Nuriya, Aisha and Horatio—“and before reading the book I had no knowledge of your existence.”
“Have you had any more luck in sensing anything here, in Nevertide?” my grandfather prompted the jinni queen.
“No, I’ve felt nothing, but it doesn’t mean that they’re not here. Jinn can cloak themselves well, if they don’t wish to be found. It’s unlikely we’ll just stumble across them by chance,” Nuriya replied. “Also, the jinn are the only creatures that would have been able to create those stones. But if they are not emerging now to re-bind the creatures contained within, perhaps they no longer reside in this land?”
“We should seek them out,” Uncle Ben replied. It was the first time he had spoken during the meeting, but everyone instantly paid him attention, even Tejus. He was just like that—a born leader, just like my grandfather.
One day I’m going to be like that, I promised myself.
“What about lands beyond the water, would they find a home there, perhaps?” the jinni queen questioned Tejus and Ash.
“We don’t know what lies beyond the ocean,” Ash replied, clearing his throat. “We don’t travel there. None of our kind do. We use the portal if we wish to visit the human world.”
“You’ve never been curious?” my grandpa asked.
“Nothing lies beyond it,” Tejus snapped. “Ocean as far as the eye can see. We have True Sight. We know there is nothing more to be found.”
The GASP team looked at one another in confusion, bewildered how Nevertide could be a dimension all of its own. I couldn’t make sense of it either. I looked over at Hazel, who shrugged.
The conversation moved swiftly on.
“By your accounts, this shadow is impossible to kill. It doesn’t look like we have many other options available to us,” my uncle continued.
“Near impossible,” Hazel corrected him. “When we were fighting them, my dagger definitely came into contact with something—almost like it burnt part of the shadow. It was weird, but the rest of it backed off. It’s how we were able to get away.”
“Do you have any theories?” Tejus prompted her.
Hazel hesitated before replying. I realized she was just as nervous as I was about talking in front of the sentries and GASP.
“When I first saw the water that the Impartial Ministers were using to regenerate themselves, I couldn’t help notice how similar it was to the stone in my pommel. I don’t know why, but I think it has something to do with that.”
“Show me your dagger,” one of the Impartial Ministers commanded. Simultaneously, Tejus and my dad turned and glared at the wrinkly sentry.
“Show some respect,” Tejus snapped.
Hazel ignored the tone of the Impartial Minister, laying her dagger on the table. It was one of the most amazing weapons I’d ever seen—I’d coveted it since I saw it. I hoped Tejus had a few more to spare.
“Let me see that.” The fae took it from the table before the Impartial Minister could. He studied the dagger curiously, paying particular attention to the stone at the end of the handle—it looked like a marble or something, but almost like it was alive inside. So cool.
“Sherus?” my grandfather questioned. “Is this something you recognize?”
“This is no stone,” the fae replied quietly. “This is a glass vial, and contained within it are the waters of immortalitatem—the water the jinn gifted our kind long, long ago.”
The Impartial Minister looked furious, though I couldn’t understand why.
“It is the water of the Impartial Ministers!” he exclaimed. “We created the immortal water!”
Queen Nuriya gave a snort of derision, and the old sentry glared at her.
“You, yourself?” Tejus questioned the Impartial Minister slyly.
“No, of course not. It was created long ago by our forefathers.”
“But you don’t know for sure?”
The Impartial Minister looked affronted that Tejus would doubt him. I sighed. Of course the jinn would have made it—like the Impartial Ministers would ever create anything remotely helpful.
“Whoever created it,” my grandfather interrupted diplomatically, “it obviously has properties that might benefit us, if Hazel is right. Is this immortal water mentioned in any of the literature you mentioned earlier?”
“No,” Tejus replied. “But if it is also created by the jinn, which I imagine is likely, then perhaps it is another weapon we can use against them.”
“A weapon!” the Impartial Minister burst out. “The water is sacred, it is not a weapon!”
“Someone might mistake you to be on the side of the entity,” Tejus replied dryly.
“We are just trying to maintain order!” the minister replied.
“Order is gone,” Tejus barked back. “I don’t know if it’s escaped your notice, but Nevertide is in tatters and many of your kin are dead. If we all die, who will be left to keep your precious order?”
“You have always been unreasonable, Tejus,” the old minister replied, looking like he was sucking on a lemon.
Tejus turned back to the rest of the table. “We have the water; we just need to work out a way we can use it and test Hazel’s theory.”
“Get us to the water, and we can do the rest,” Ibrahim announced.
Tejus looked at Ash, who nodded.
“We leave at dawn, and we’ll avoid the forests as best as we can,” Ash asserted. “Everyone get some food and get some rest.”
The room started to empty.
“I don’t think we’ve met yet?” My mom came up to Yelena, smiling down at her. “Were you kidnapped from Murkbeech?”
“No—Rome. I was on holiday with my parents when I was taken,” she replied cheerily.
“I’m so sorry.” My mom looked horrified.
“Don’t be.” Yelena shrugged. “I like it here—well, I like being with Julian and Benedict and the rest of the kids. It’s been fun. My parents were just going to send me to boarding school at the end of the summer holidays, so it doesn’t really make a difference to me. The food hasn’t been great though.” She pulled a face.
“Oh.”
My mom looked impressed. I guessed in some ways Yelena was kind of like a GASP member in training—even though she’d told me she was always afraid, you’d never know it. It would be kind of cool to have her back at The Shade—maybe for holidays. Not full time though. She would drive me mad.
“You should also know that your son saved me from a burning building,” Yelena continued, “no one mentioned that bit when they were debriefing you. And then he saved me from Acolytes when they tried to kidnap me and take all my energy. Then he saved me again today, dragging me back from the cove when I was so scared I thought I wouldn’t be able to move.”
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