A Dome of Blood

by Bella Forrest

As if summoned by their lord, a dozen Dhaxanians came forward as well, while Varga and Elonora stayed close to our grandparents. Elonora didn’t seem all that comfortable to be separated from Nevis, but she didn’t flinch. It was obvious that she loved the guy. I only hoped they’d both survive this so they could be together—much like I hoped I’d see Douma again.

  “We’ll all help,” one of the Dhaxanians said.

  Two hundred miles’ worth of tunneling. A fae shuttle headed for the winter-summer cluster. No sign of our Perfect and Faulty allies. This had to be the sweet-and-sour side of our Stravian experience, though, frankly, I would’ve preferred it significantly less extreme.

  “Listen, we have a great advantage now, with the bilocation spell,” Derek said.

  The woods thundered in the distance as the Perfects from nearby islands finally reached the colosseum. I would’ve loved to have eyes on them, to see the extent of the damage we’d caused. We’d made it so far, though, and we had to keep going, no matter how much we wanted to look back.

  “Let’s take this whole crew to the base camp, first,” Derek added. “If we move fast, we’ll be there in a few hours. Then, a bunch of us will teleport to the winter-summer cluster and secure the fae’s positions by midnight tomorrow. That way, when the Hermessi are ready, all they’ll have to do will be to activate themselves using the fae as their conduits.”

  “What about the mass memory wiper? We’ll need that to disable the Perfects,” Xavier replied.

  Derek sighed. “I’m afraid we won’t know anything about it until we hear from Amane or Amal. In the meantime, we must bring the Hermessi back to their full strength. They’re raw forces of nature. The Perfects won’t survive them, and that’s our most violent option right now, in the absence of a mass memory wiper.”

  My heart was thudding, wrestling against the confines of my ribcage. Every second that passed without hearing from Douma added to my aggravation, to the point where I could no longer hold it in.

  “Douma. Are you there?” I asked through the earpiece again. “Douma!”

  Thunder rumbled in the distance. Elonora’s eyes glimmered gold as she used her True Sight to check on the colosseum. Before she could open her mouth to say something, a blue pulse flashed through us and continued to extend outward, like a solitary ripple across time and space.

  It felt weird. As if magnets had just tried to pull my organs inside out for a moment.

  “Crap,” Elonora croaked. “That came from the colosseum. The Perfects surrounded it first, and now they’re going in.”

  “What type of pulse was that?” Cameron asked. “It was weird.”

  “It kicked my intestines around,” Lucas grumbled.

  “Yeah, it was strange, but… I don’t know what it was,” Elonora replied. “I only know it came from the colosseum.”

  Derek scratched the back of his head. “Maybe something flammable blew up?”

  “It wasn’t an explosion,” Elonora said. “It was something else.”

  I pressed the main button on my earpiece again. The pulse must’ve hit Douma, too, wherever she was. “Douma, are you there?”

  This time, however, the silence was different. It was blank. Zero static.

  “Oh, no,” Kailani murmured, pressing the buttons on her earpiece. “Harper? Come in, Harper? Anyone? Can anyone hear me on the main channel? You should all be hearing me now,” she asked, looking around at all of us.

  Like a hammer in the gut, the realization came. Brutal and soul-crushing, as we connected the dots to this blue pulse. Sofia covered her mouth, hit by the shock of it all.

  “The comms are down again,” Derek concluded, his brow furrowed.

  “That must’ve been the disabling pulse,” Elonora said. “I remember Raphael specifically saying that, once rebuilt, the blocking towers could be activated remotely. Maybe this is what he meant.”

  Hunter grunted and muttered a string of curses. “We destroyed the damn colosseum. How the hell was that pulse even possible?!”

  “We knew from the very beginning that the explosions might not take everything down,” Lumi reminded him. “Maybe it was Ta’Zan or Cassiel or whichever of his lieutenants managed to get to wherever they were keeping this magi-tech. Clearly, said magi-tech survived the explosions and jammed our comms channels again.”

  Bijarki lit up like a bulb, fueled by intense emotions of anger. I’d seen him shimmer with joy and love whenever he was close to Vita, but I’d never seen this end of his emotional spectrum. I had to admit that, as pretty as that silvery skin of his was, it gave me the creeps when it manifested his rage.

  “So, we’re cut off from Calliope again,” he snapped.

  “And Nathaniel. And Douma. And Amane. Herakles. Everyone we gave an earpiece to.” Rose sighed, shaking her head slowly.

  Trees broke in troves, not far from our location. Something was happening out there, and it couldn’t possibly be good for us. Rose groaned, then looked at the fae and her brother.

  “It’s time. We have to go. Now!” she said.

  I didn’t like the idea of leaving. Not now, not when I didn’t know whether Douma had made it or not. Maybe she was still locked up. Maybe she’d been crushed in the colosseum’s collapse and was now vulnerable to capture. So many unpleasant maybes.

  With an iron will and an unshakeable resolve, Ben, Taeral, Lucas, Vesta, Kailyn, and all the other fae in our group put their hands out, their palms facing the ground. An earthquake shook us all, before a circular hole opened up beneath them.

  They all dropped inside, swallowed by momentary darkness.

  By the time we reached the edge, the tunnel was already forming beneath. Ben and Vesta led the way, since they had the directions to the base camp. One by one, we slipped down the steep edge and entered the tunnel.

  I stayed close to Elonora, Jovi, and the others, while Nevis and his Dhaxanians led the way with Vesta and Ben. Their frost abilities would be required to hold up an entire tunnel through the water, once we reached the ocean.

  Above us, there was spine-tingling silence. In the distance, however, sonic booms cut through the sky, while more Perfects went to the central colosseum.

  Come to think of it, Ta’Zan was going to be pissed off, and then some! Yet, I knew he’d breathe a sigh of relief once he saw that his GASP prisoners were still there. I would’ve given anything to see him blow a gasket once he realized that all he had were copies, useless for his genetic work. It was the only thought that gave me some kind of comfort as I ran through the tunnel with the others, in Douma’s absence.

  All I could do was make sure my people got to safety. I’d find a way to get to Douma later, if she didn’t return to the base camp first. I also had to withstand the increasing discomfort in the pit of my stomach.

  The operation hadn’t gone as smoothly as we would’ve hoped, and we were cut off from the world again, in terms of means of communication, but there was still a spark on the horizon: a shuttle of fae badly needed by the Hermessi to rise up and put the Perfects back in their place. To put an end to Ta’Zan.

  Derek

  I should’ve been happier for finally getting out of that damn dome.

  We’d been stuck there for what felt like decades, not weeks. It was nice to move again without the shock collar heating up or electrocuting me. But our mission was incomplete. The comms were down, and we couldn’t get hold of our allies. We didn’t know how many had survived the melee by the southwest entrance. We didn’t know if Amal and Amane had made it out with the mass memory wiper.

  Our goal was to fight Ta’Zan in a clean manner, disabling his army by wiping the memory of the Perfects. The bigger the device’s radius, the more minds to clean, and that was where the Hermessi’s power intervened. They had the juice to make it happen.

  Otherwise, we would be forced to kill them, also with the Hermessi’s help. Upon the next full moon, the natural elements were going to channel their energy and activate themselves by using the living bodies of one thousand and one
fae on Strava. From that moment on, all hell would break loose—the kind of hell that would later haunt us and chip away at our consciences.

  I didn’t want the Perfects to die. I wasn’t a fan of them, but I understood that their minds had been skewed and programmed by Ta’Zan to obey him, to commit acts of cruelty and atrocities in his name, for the sake of so-called genetic superiority. They’d been radicalized, but they could be brought back. They deserved a shot at life without bringing down the entire universe.

  My heart ached sincerely at the thought of killing them all. Chances were that nothing would survive the blaze of an activated fire Hermessi, for example, no matter what gene editing Ta’Zan did to prevent his Perfects from completely burning. I didn’t yet know for sure how the Hermessi’s intervention would help, but I understood enough to know that it entailed complete obliteration. The raw force of nature, once unleashed, had to be stronger that his artifices.

  We kept running through that tunnel for hours. Once in a while, we tried to reach out to the others through our earpieces. Foolish of us to think the same actions done repeatedly would yield different results, but despair had this way of messing with our critical thinking.

  The rumbling of the colosseum’s destruction stayed behind, as the Perfects tried to deal with it—figuring out what happened, helping their brethren out, and looking for Faulty survivors, if any had been left behind after Isda’s warning. They’d been smart enough to launch that pulse after the explosion, and that alone was confirmation that parts of the colosseum, aside from our diamond dome, had survived the blast.

  The fae worked tirelessly to keep the tunnel up and dig farther south. They did the same through the ocean, where the Dhaxanians intervened with their frost, making sure we all had safe passage. Our witches and warlock did their part, as well, in making this journey as smooth as possible.

  “We’re almost there,” Rose said, leading the way with Elonora, Varga, Ben, Taeral, and Vesta. “We’ll regroup and catch our breath there.”

  “The Draenir who stayed in the base camp were instructed to gather provisions of water and food for us, upon our return,” Ben added.

  As the tunnel ascended, I took Sofia’s hand in mine. She looked at me, her lips stretching into a bright and encouraging smile.

  “It’s going to be okay, Derek,” she said. “We got through the worst part already.”

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to breathe properly until Ta’Zan is a pile of ashes,” I muttered.

  “Patience, Dad. We’ll get to that point,” Rose interjected. “We have to be smart about this. And, hopefully, Amal and Amane and the others are already on their way back to base camp, as well. Douma, Raphael, Araquiel, Nathaniel, Uriel, Angelica, and Deena are all perfectly capable of supersonic flight. If necessary, they will make use of it.”

  Somehow, that thought didn’t comfort me as much as it should have. Though, it wasn’t in my nature to be a super-optimistic beacon of positivity. Real life had taught me the hard way that things could get worse, fast. I had to be mentally prepared for that, so I wouldn’t get us tangled in a problem, but rather focused on the solution.

  Vesta grunted as she put her hands up. One last push, and the ground split open. The cool air of a mountain cave came through, chilling me to the bone. I loved it.

  We emerged from the tunnel right into Ben and Rose’s base camp. I could tell by the many backpacks and weapons they’d left behind, along with an impressive pile of food and water bladders stacked against a wall.

  I recognized the handful of Draenir that had stayed behind. They were just like Rose and Ben had described them: beautiful, pale, and delicate, with slender figures and curious eyes. The eldest stood up, lighting up like the sun at the sight of us.

  A second later, he and his people took a couple of steps back, clearly overwhelmed by the number of people coming out from the hole in the ground. We spilled into the large chamber—hundreds of us, tired and hungry, thirsty and nervous.

  “You made it back!” the elder Draenir exclaimed, then put his arms out as Ben and Rose rushed to hug him.

  “Yes, we did, Rakkhan,” Rose replied, then looked back at Sofia and me, smiling. “These are our parents, Derek and Sofia. They’re part of the reason we’ve been fighting so hard.”

  I felt compelled to shake Rakkhan’s hand. He was, after all, one of the survivors of Ta’Zan’s genocide from more than a century ago. His grip was firm, his tone soft.

  “It is an honor to meet you,” he said. “Rose and Ben spoke highly of you, and for good reason. You’re responsible for great acts of peace and kindness in this universe.”

  “We do the best we can with what we have,” I replied, then introduced the rest of our founders’ crew to Rakkhan and the six Draenir that had stayed with him.

  We took a few minutes to quickly eat and drink something. The Draenir had even hunted some animals at the base of the mountain, offering us a fresh supply of blood. It gave me the burst of energy I needed to push through.

  Rose and Ben brought Rakkhan up to speed with how the mission had been carried out, along with the unexpected twists and turns, including the comms blockers coming back on. Rakkhan listened carefully, processing every detail as he occasionally glanced around at the plethora of GASP prisoners we’d suddenly crammed into the cave.

  His people were equally fascinated, unable to take their eyes off the diverse species that had come together to fight Ta’Zan. Dragons, witches, warlocks, werewolves, Maras, Dhaxanians, fae, Bajangs and Druids, incubi and succubi, vampires and Lamias, and more—all driven by the singular desire to restore balance and prevent the universe from flipping over because of one maniac’s ambitions.

  “I see Douma and the others haven’t made it back yet,” Rakkhan said.

  “They’re missing,” Rose replied, crossing her arms. “I’m hoping they’re on their way, though. They’re strong and resourceful. The blast must’ve helped with their escape.”

  “We saw the column of smoke, far away in the sky. One can see well from the mountain top,” Rakkhan said. “We saw the clouds of Perfects descending upon the explosion site, too. You went underground. That was wise.”

  “They probably spread out afterward, hoping to catch whoever did it,” Ben said. “But with copies of us still in there, they didn’t have much to go on. From that point of view, the mission was a success. We extracted all the prisoners, including our founders,” he added, lovingly looking at Sofia and me.

  “But we don’t have the mass memory wiper yet.” Rakkhan sighed. “You know what this means, right?”

  “If we don’t get it, we’ll have to kill the Perfects,” Xavier interjected.

  “It’s not a path I would like for us to take,” Rakkhan said. “But we may have to, in the end…”

  Vesta gasped, her eyes wide and glassy as she looked at us. She wasn’t the only one. Other fae displayed a similar reaction, including my son.

  “Oh, wow,” Ben breathed, the shock on his face visible.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I think the seven hundred and forty-two fae landed,” Vesta said. “Or something related to them, anyway. I felt fire, water, air, and earth vibrating through me, as if I’d manipulated all four of them at once.”

  Ben shook his head slowly. “We’ve been running for hours. They couldn’t have been flying for so long, not with Perfects flying around the colosseum. They were meant to come down fast and hide. But I do agree it might have something to do with them.”

  “We’ve all experienced this weird… pulse, or vibration, or whatever you want to call it,” Lucas replied.

  “So, what, the Hermessi were doing a tally and decided to communicate that we definitely have the right number?” Ibrahim asked.

  Vivienne shrugged. “It could be. I felt a tingle, too. And I’m no fae.”

  Elonora raised a hand. “Me, also.”

  “Yeah, I’ll hop on that train, then.” Kailani sighed.

  “And I,” Lumi added.


  I couldn’t help but frown, trying to see the connection.

  “We’re all creatures who had contact with the Hermessi, one way or another,” Elonora said, her voice wavering slightly. “I had that weird dream, weeks ago, before we knew what we know now. Kale had her Hermessi episode, too. The fae, well, they’re fae. They’re the conduits. Of course they’d react.”

  “And I had my first vision in years,” Vivienne replied. “It was the same as Lucas’s and Kailyn’s and the other fae’s dreams.”

  “So, this is what, an approval nudge from the Hermessi?” Taeral asked. “It felt awkward. Like someone poking at stuff inside me, stuff I’d only let a qualified surgeon or witch healer handle.”

  “It means we have one thousand and one fae present on Strava,” Lumi interjected. “We are one step closer to the end of our mission here.”

  Bijarki stepped forward. “We need to get a plan together, and fast. We can’t let the fae stay out there on their own for too long.”

  “I agree,” Ridan replied. “We need a search party. Maybe two or three actually, to find Amane, Amal, and the others. If they’re not back by now, something clearly must’ve happened, and we don’t have our comms to help us anymore. We have to work with this setback, now.”

  There was a sense of urgency in his voice that struck a chord in me. From what Rose and Ben had told me, Ridan had fallen for Amane. I’d seen enough of Amal to understand why—if Amane was her twin, she clearly had the beauty, the intelligence, and the grit to steal a dragon’s heart like that. I sort of sympathized with him, as I did with Dmitri, regarding Douma. They were both in love with powerful creatures, and I didn’t want to let the likes of Ta’Zan win by crushing them and their newly formed bonds. I just couldn’t.

  “Okay. We’ll pick a group, fast and quiet, able to move around easily without the Perfects—” I started saying, but stopped when Vesta collapsed.

  Ben, Zeriel, and Elonora rushed to her aid, but all three of them froze when water started pouring out of the young fae’s mouth and nose. I held my breath, instead, ignoring the murmurs and gasps erupting from the crowd behind us.