“Is that so?” I look advantage of his momentary shock to grab the keys from his belt, roll him off me and leap out of the bed. I lurched toward the door.
Throwing a glance over my shoulder, I swore beneath my breath. I had thought I’d rammed it right into his stomach, but due to his proximity, I’d missed my mark. Instead he had a stab wound near his hip. Clearly not fatal, as he staggered toward me, fury filling his eyes. Now that he was alert to me, I dared not go near him again in case he wrestled the weapon out of my hand.
He let out a hoarse laugh as I fumbled with the keys, opened the door and began racing along the corridor.
“So you like things rough, Princess?” he called after me, his voice rasping as his footsteps sped up. “I can accommodate rough.”
My blood was pounding in my ears as I reached the end of the corridor and skidded round the corner. I ripped out the second knife from beneath my thigh, holding both handles upside down, the blades flat against my wrists, as I caught sight of two ogres at the other end of the corridor.
Anselm was almost twice my height and his legs were frighteningly powerful even after the injury he’d just sustained. I dared not look back, but it sounded like he was no more than a few feet away from me. On seeing Anselm and me, the two ogres stopped dead in their tracks and blocked the corridor entirely with their huge frames.
I supposed they thought that I would slow down. I didn’t. I sped up. Slipping out the two knives at the last minute, I dug them into both of their guts before they could even register what had happened. Blood spilled down the blades, soaking my hands and arms. I pulled the blades out again as they keeled over, allowing me passage just as Anselm grabbed the strap of my dress. I swiped out with the knife, narrowly missing his wrist as he withdrew his hand.
I didn’t know how long it would be before I came across more ogres in the passageway. Eventually, they’d catch me. I couldn’t keep running forever. And these knives would be no good against Anselm now that he knew my trick. He was too strong. He’d overpower me if I let him catch up with me, even if I was holding two knives.
I’d thought I’d be able to make the chase last a bit longer, but as I turned the next corner, I walked right into a dead end. I whirled around, trying to make it out before Anselm closed in, but I wasn’t fast enough. Placing both hands against the walls, he breathed deeply as he staggered toward me, dark blood dripping from his wound and leaving a trail on the floor.
I tried the doors closest to me, but they were locked. I backed up against the window at the end of the hallway, swallowing hard as I brandished the two knives.
I steeled myself as he approached within three feet of me. I didn’t believe that I could win this fight, but I had to go down trying. I held my breath, expecting him to launch forward and begin trying to wrestle the knives from my hands, when he stopped suddenly and looked directly over my shoulder, out of the window. His breath hitched and his lips parted. His eyes widened. I was shocked as he stepped back away from me.
What in the world?
I didn’t even have time to turn around to see what on earth he was distracted by when there was a sudden blow against the side of the mountain. The ground shook, and glass shattered. I fell, ducking my head between my knees, trying to protect myself from the sudden shower of shards of glass. My back stung as several shards pierced through the sheer fabric of my dress.
There was a deafening roar—that of no man or creature I’d ever witnessed before. It penetrated my eardrums and vibrated around my brain.
“Dragons!” Anselm bellowed toward the opposite end of the corridor. “The castle is under attack!”
Dragons?
Before I could even look up to see what had just smashed through the window, heat engulfed me. I cowered closer to the window frame as a blaze of fire shot through the corridor. Through the blaze I could just about make out Anselm running for his life and disappearing at the other end. As the fire died, I clutched my mouth to stifle a scream. I backed up into a corner and folded myself as small as I could as a set of sleek-reddish brown scales slid into the hallway.
I cast my eyes up and down the length of the gigantic creature. Its head was facing the hallway’s exit, so I couldn’t see it, but the rest of its body was formidable enough to make me tremble. It was perhaps five times the size of an ogre. Smooth bat-like wings grew from its back. Its legs were thick as tree trunks and each foot was equipped with four heavy claws. Its long tail was pointed and sharp, almost like a stingray’s.
Since I was backed up into a shadowy corner, the beast hadn’t yet noticed me. I jumped as it roared again, its whole body heaving as more fire shot down the length of the hallway. Then it started moving swiftly toward the exit, where it turned a corner and disappeared out of sight.
My knees trembling, I stood up, only to be knocked back down as a second tremor ran through the floors. Again glass shattered—in a room perhaps a few hundred yards away, in the corridor perpendicular to the one I was sitting in.
Gripping the edges of the window pane, I pulled myself to a standing position and stared out of the smashed window.
Beneath the grey cloudy sky were a spread of dragons, their heavy wings beating the air as they headed directly toward me. Their scaly oblong faces were clearly visible, as were their slanted yellow eyes. I looked left and right. Several had already made contact with the building, and another window smashed a few floors down.
“Oh, my,” I breathed, backing away and sprinting down the hallway.
I was in a daze. Dragons? Ogres? What the hell is happening to me?
I even considered for a moment as I ran along that corridor, ducking down as another window smashed a few yards away from me, whether I was indeed in a dream. It would have to be a very long dream if it was. A dream that was impossible to wake up from.
As an ogre appeared before me in the hallway, he looked like he was about to throw himself at me, but on seeing another dragon climbing through the broken window and into the hallway behind me, he began running alongside me. I threw myself down a flight of stairs just in time to escape the wave of heat that gushed from the dragon’s mouth.
I looked around the floor I’d just dropped down on. I’d been expecting more winding passageways, more endless doorways to run my hands across, but instead I was in some massive open hall. There were dozens of ogres running to and fro, strapping on armor, brandishing weapons and running toward the windows. It was chaos.
I jumped as a heavy hand closed around my shoulder. Gripping the knife, I was about to strike when I realized just in time that it was Bella. Terror was written all over her face as she stared down at me.
“We need to hide!” she hissed.
She gripped me by my midriff and began milling through the crowd of ogres preparing for battle. Bella wore a long cloak and gathered me against her chest. I did my best to cling to her as she lowered the black cloak over me, hiding me from view.
She was so thick and heavy, it felt like if she fell, she’d crush me to a pulp. I had to just hope that wouldn’t happen.
“What is happening?” I gasped. I couldn’t see where Bella was running since the fabric was covering my face, and I couldn’t remove it for fear of losing grip on her.
“They come sometimes, the dragons. Erisard’s lot. To plunder us…” Her breath hitched. “They eat us ogres.”
The hallways echoed with shouts and screeches. I began to sweat beneath the fabric as I felt the temperature rising.
“Dragons,” I murmured. I still couldn’t believe it.
I was about to ask another question when Bella let out a blood-curdling shriek. She jolted upward, and if it weren’t for her clinging to my midriff, I would have fallen away from her. She… we… were being lifted into the air.
As more glass smashed, I thrashed against the cloth covering my eyes and stared downward. My stomach flipped. We’d just broken through a window and were flying through the air, away from the ogres’ mountain abode, over sharp black peaks. Heavy leathery wings thund
ered either side of us, lifting us higher and higher. Claws gripped Bella by the shoulders, and parallel to us, gripped within the dragon’s front right foot, was another ogre.
Several other dragons surrounded us, each carrying ogres of their own. They held them in their claws like hawks holding rats. I strained my neck to look at the dragon’s face, shiny and scaly and splattered with blood. Up close, these creatures were even more terrifying. And their scales gave off a musky, bitter odor.
“Where are they taking us?” I whispered.
Wincing, Bella grunted.
“Somewhere no good, Miss Rose.”
Chapter 11: Mona
As I stood at the gates of the Ageless’ celestial palace, a sea of familiar faces smiling to welcome me home, it should have felt like a dream.
But it didn’t.
It all still felt like a nightmare.
Even as the new Ageless herself, Thalia Adrius, descended the steps toward me in all her ethereal beauty, I couldn’t manage the faintest of smiles. Grief was clamped around my heart like a barbed wire. I could barely breathe.
She slipped her hand into my sweaty right palm, leading me up the stairs toward my quarters. In my left palm, I still clutched the only possession I’d left the island with—my mother’s jewelry box.
I couldn’t pay attention to the elegance of the palace as Thalia, Brisalia and their third sister, Hermia, led me through chamber after chamber. I just wanted to be alone. Thankfully, the sisters were understanding.
On first arriving in The Sanctuary, I’d asked the first witch I came across to take me to Brisalia. I’d explained to her briefly why I was here, and she hadn’t pressed me for many details. I couldn’t have been more grateful for that. I wasn’t ready to talk.
Brisalia brought me immediately to the city palace, where I was to be housed. As we reached the top of the building, we stopped outside an ornate rosewood door. Pushing it open, the sisters led me into a sprawling apartment. From its pearl-studded window panes to gold-leafed bed frame, there wasn’t a single corner of the place that didn’t ooze extravagance.
But, as with the rest of the palace, I didn’t care.
“We’ll leave you now,” Brisalia said, as I entered the bedroom. “If you need anything, there is a maid staying in the servant quarters.” She pointed toward the hallway to my left.
I nodded, watching as they backed away and closed the door behind them.
I walked over to the dressing table and, opening my palm, looked down at the jewelry box. Tears threatened to spill from my eyes again as I stared at it. Lifting it to my lips and placing a kiss on the gem-encrusted lid, I placed it down on the table directly in front of the mirror.
Then I looked up at my own reflection. I looked a state. My eyelids were puffy, my face deathly pale.
I shut my eyes, wincing as the memory of Sofia and Kiev kissing at the Port blasted through my head.
My head dropped down against the table, and now that I was alone, I could no longer hold back the tears. They streamed afresh from my eyes as the question I’d asked myself a thousand times in the past twelve hours replayed in my mind.
Why would Kiev do this to me?
Chapter 12: Kiev
Mona’s departure had blazed a hole in my chest. A hole I knew wouldn’t be filled until I once again held her in my arms.
After we extinguished my burning home, I entered it once again and walked from scorched room to scorched room, hoping she’d be there. Our bedroom had borne the brunt of the flames. It was practically unrecognizable. The bed had disintegrated, as had most of the furniture. I was about to walk into the bathroom when a soft voice spoke behind me.
“Kiev.”
I turned around to see Sofia standing in the doorway. She was looking at me with concern.
“Patricia and the others have finished examining the bodies that were left outside Brett’s cave.”
I took a step toward her. “And?”
“The murderer squished their bodies up badly. But not quite badly enough. One of the witches, Leyni, noticed one thing in common with each of the corpses—their intestines had been completely removed. Piecing this together with the strange visions some of us have been having, the witches have concluded that, somehow, a ghoul was placed on this island by those two white witches… it might even still be here, for all we know.”
“A ghoul,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. I didn’t know much about such creatures, and I didn’t recall ever encountering one in my hundreds of years in existence, but I had heard rumors about them. “How could Mona not have suspected that she was being influenced by a ghoul?”
“Apparently, once a ghoul has you under an illusion, it’s very hard to detect anything other than what it wants you to see.”
“So those bitches…They placed a ghoul on this island to trick Mona into returning to The Sanctuary.”
Sofia nodded. “I can’t think of anywhere else Mona would be now. Vampires and werewolves have been searching everywhere for her. She’s nowhere to be found on this island.”
I swore, slamming my fist against the doorframe. Then, without waiting another moment, I rushed out of the room, down the stairs and out of the house. Sofia racing alongside me, I ran full speed ahead.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“What do you think?” I breathed. “I need to bring Mona back.”
Sofia followed me to Corrine’s temple where all the witches were conducting their examinations. I ran from chamber to chamber looking for them until I found them in one of the innermost rooms, all gathered around two tables pushed together. My siblings, Erik and Helina, along with Matteo, Saira, Abby and Derek stood there too, deep in conversation.
They all looked up as soon as I entered.
“I need a witch to come with me to The Sanctuary to help me find Mona,” I said. “Who volunteers?”
There was a silence as the witches exchanged glances. Then Patricia, the tall wiry witch at the end of the table, raised her hand. “Out of all of us, I’m the most skilled. I’ll come. But I’ll need to consult Mona’s map to know which gate into the supernatural realm would be best to use.”
“We have copies of it in our home,” Sofia said quickly. “I’ll fetch one.” She hurried out of the room.
“I’ll come too.” Erik stepped forward.
I looked at him reluctantly. “What use will you be? You’re a vampire.”
“So are you,” he shot back.
“The fewer of us there are, the better,” I said. “I need to draw as little attention as possible.”
As if she hadn’t heard the words I’d just spoken, my sister stepped forward too. “If Erik is going, I’m going too.”
Before I could even respond, to my surprise, Matteo reached for her hand and pulled her back. “No, Helina,” he said. “Kiev’s right. The fewer people who go, the better.”
I would have pondered longer about the look of affection Matteo had on his face as he stared down at my sister, but I was too preoccupied with the matter at hand.
My eyes fell once again on Erik. My brother could be as stubborn as an ox once he got an idea into his head, and something told me that it would be easier to just let him come with me.
Breathing out in frustration, I said, “Fine. Erik and Patricia come with me. Nobody else.”
Gripping both Erik and Patricia by the arms, I pulled them out of the room before another word could be said.
As we ran down the corridor toward the exit, Derek called after me.
“Be careful, Novalic.”
I shot a look back over my shoulder to see his silhouette at the other end of the shadowy corridor. Grimacing, I gave him a curt nod before continuing toward the exit.
I didn’t know how we were going to actually pull this off—and I was sure neither Patricia nor my brother had any clue either. But it didn’t matter. The image of Mona burning through my brain clouded any uncertainty I might have otherwise held about what we were about to attempt.
As we left though the front door and entered the moonlit courtyard, I stopped.
“Wait here for Sofia to return and give you the map,” I said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
I lurched back through the woods until I reached the beach. I didn’t stop running until I reached Mona’s and my wrecked home again. Whizzing through the front door and up the stairs, I passed through the bedroom and entered the ensuite bathroom.
I reached for the scorched drawer beneath the sink and pulled it open. The contents near the front were mostly ruined, but as I reached further inside, my fingers brushed against a leather pouch. I pulled it out and examined it, relieved to see that it was still intact. My eyes remained fixed on the small bulge beneath the fabric for a few seconds longer before I slipped it into the back pocket of my pants.
Then I hurried out of the house, back toward the courtyard. I’d expected to return to only Patricia and Erik, but there was also a third person: Abby. I was relieved Patricia was holding the map already.
“Right. Patricia, Erik, let’s go.”
“I’m coming too,” Abby said.
I scowled at her. “Did you not hear what I said back there?”
Grabbing Patricia and Erik, I yanked them away from Abby and started moving away from the courtyard. But Abby caught up and stood in front of me, blocking my way.
“I’m coming with you,” she repeated, hands on her waist. “I’m fed up of sitting still on this island. I want to help.”
“We don’t need anyone else tagging along. It will only be a hindrance—”
“Come on, Kiev,” Erik said, gripping my shoulder. “Let Abby come if she wants to. One extra person won’t do any harm. It will only make four of us.”
I wasn’t sure my temper could stand being held up for another moment, so, rather than risk maiming someone, I agreed.
“Patricia,” I said. “Take us to The Sanctuary.”
Chapter 13: Sofia
We’d been so tied up in the crisis of Mona leaving us completely defenseless against the black witches, it wasn’t until Kiev had left the island that Derek and I realized that Ben wasn’t in his room. Panic gripped both of us. We thought that perhaps he’d escaped to the human area and was wreaking havoc there. But a thorough search for him there soon assured us that he had not. My father helped us scour the whole island for him for the rest of the day, but he was nowhere to be found. Nobody seemed to have seen him.