“Just don’t compromise my modesty, Shortie,” Ash chided me.
I punched him playfully in the arm. “Shut up.”
“Ready to be transported into my sea of calm?” he asked.
“I’ve got a better idea, actually.”
I shifted in his lap and took his face in my hands, gently stroking the soft stubble across his jaw. I dipped my head down, kissing him chastely on the lips.
“You’re right.” He smiled. “That’s a much better idea.”
He tightened his arms around my waist, pulling me closer. Our lips met more forcefully, and I sunk into the dreamily familiar tastes and musk of Ash’s body and mouth. My hands ran along the back of his thick shoulder blades, digging into his muscles.
Then we were interrupted.
A loud knock came from the door to the room. I sighed, shifting off Ash. He gave me a smirk, and walked over to open it.
The same minister who had escorted us to our room was waiting in the empty hallway.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Ashbik, but the queen would like to talk to you.” He smiled pleasantly, but didn’t bother to glance in my direction.
“I’m coming,” Ash replied, looking back at me and smiling. “I won’t be long. Are you okay here, or do you want to come?”
“I’m sorry,” the minister interjected, “the meeting is a private one. I’m sure you understand.”
“She can wait outside,” Ash stated firmly. “Ruby?”
“I’m okay, really—go.”
“See you then.” Ash’s smile had dimmed, but he winked at me as he shut the door behind him.
Great.
It seemed that whenever Ash and I were in Queen Trina’s castle we were separated at some point by her. I understood why Ash would be needed to speak with the queen—I was sure she would be interested in the rains and the borders up around Hellswan—but it didn’t make me comfortable that I was never included in these. It might have been typical royal behavior, but I had observed that Tejus always fought tooth and nail to have Hazel accompany him wherever he went, leaving her out of very little. Why was Queen Trina so reluctant to have me in the meetings? Though I had no evidence, and a lot of bias after the conversation with Abelle, I couldn’t help but feel like she was trying to drive a wedge between us.
Wow. You’re starting to sound like a crazy jealous girlfriend…is that what you want to be? I asked myself in disgust.
I paced up and down the room slowly, not knowing what else to do. I felt too restless to get any sleep—worried about Hazel and Benedict, trapped in the castle, and also knowing full well that Hazel would be going out of her mind with worry about Julian, and now me. Even if we couldn’t get into the castle, it would be worth visiting tomorrow as soon as it was light. We could at least get a message through the barriers, and I could see for myself that Hazel and Benedict were okay. Ash might think it was pointless, but I didn’t. And the more I could get him to spend some time away from here the better.
A flash of light caught my eye, coming from beneath the doorway. It was so quick, I’d thought I imagined it, but pressing my ear to the wood, I could hear very faint footsteps walking in the opposite direction Ash had just gone.
I opened the door and peered outside into the hallway.
Up ahead I could see a glow of light, flickering in the dark of the palace.
Nymph.
This time I was determined to follow her and get some actual answers. I ran back inside the room and pulled on my shoes, then rushed back out—leaving the door slightly ajar so I’d know which one it was on my return.
I ran as quietly as I could along the hallway, going in the direction that I’d last seen the glow. Luckily there seemed to be only one large hallway that stretched on for ages. I could see the light disappearing at the other end, and I hoped that I wasn’t about to lose her. I sped up, and reached the end of the hallway, only slightly breathless. It opened into a huge courtyard, lit by huge basins of fire where the flames seemed to be dancing on water.
The nymph was dancing around the basin at the furthest end of the courtyard. She looked beautiful, the flowers and leaves entwined in her hair glinting in the firelight, her strange outfit swishing around her.
She smiled and waved at me, beckoning me over.
Don’t go. Be smart, Ruby, the reasonable voice in my head tried to warn me away, but I needed answers more than I needed caution.
As I walked toward her, she giggled, her voice a melody of beautiful notes and tones.
I trained my eyes on the floor, trying to avoid making direct eye contact.
“Who are you?” I asked her bluntly.
“A friend of the queen. Who are you, fair human girl?” she asked sweetly.
“Ruby.”
“Like the stone,” she replied, laughing.
“I saw you earlier,” I replied as sternly as I could. “What were you doing? Were you messing with the minds of the villagers?”
The nymph giggled again.
“You almost caught me today.” She sighed. “Crafty humans…the queen won’t like that. She doesn’t like nosy little people. You’re even more curious than the last one.”
“What do you mean?” I asked sharply.
“Oops.” She laughed again, and before I could get a straight answer out of her she fled. I tried to follow her, running down another corridor that led off the courtyard, but it was in complete darkness and I couldn’t see any evidence of her glow.
I walked slowly back to my and Ash’s room.
What did the nymph mean?
Had there been other humans who had come here? Was Queen Trina also kidnapping humans as well? We were obviously hugely beneficial to sentries, so it was likely that Queen Trina would have indulged in the same practice as Tejus and his brothers…especially with the Imperial trials coming up. I hadn’t really given much thought to what the human-stealing policy was in the rest of Nevertide’s kingdoms.
I thought about what the nymph had said. More curious than the last one. I felt like it implied that the human she was referring to wasn’t around anymore.
Where had their curiosity gotten them?
Julian
Queen Trina hadn’t exaggerated the hostility of the dungeons.
I had no idea how long I’d been down here. I could see next to nothing, as no window allowed in light, and whenever the door to my cell was opened to shove in disgusting stew-like food, it was shut abruptly. The walls that kept me in were thick stone, and damp enough to make me think that these dungeons were close to the sea—deep underground. I had a chamber pot, which I kept at the furthest point away from me, and a hole in the middle of the floor that I was to empty my waste into. The smell in the room was even worse than that of Jenus’ cellar within Hellswan kingdom. I would have happily traded prisons in a heartbeat if I could.
It also seemed like escape was a complete impossibility.
My only weapon was a spoon that I had stopped using for food. I had spent all the endless hours of spare time sharpening the edges on the stone. It worried me that they’d even left me with any kind of metal object. It indicated that the chance I would get to use it was pretty non-existent.
In the beginning, when I’d first been escorted down here—by two ministers, who had begun brutally syphoning off my energy as soon as they laid their hands on me so that I was woozy and compliant—I had spent hours peering from the small barred hole in the door, hoping that one of the nymphs would get bored and come to make mischief. My plan would have been to bargain with them, for anything, to get me out of here. I guessed that nymphs rarely had true loyalty to anyone other than themselves, and might be willing to go behind Queen Trina’s back for the right price. But no one ever came. I saw no signs of glowing light, heard no sound other than the constant dripping from water running through the stones.
The total solitude also meant that I had nothing to do for hours but think. Or, more accurately, regret.
I wished that I had spoken to Hazel or Ru
by about Benedict before being stupid enough to follow him on my own. If I hadn’t been so judgmental of the girls’ decisions and their help with the trials, then I doubted that I would have ended up in this situation. Before I had believed that Ruby and Hazel were breaking the group apart by spending all their time with the sentries, when all along it had been me and my attitude that had caused a rift in the group. I should have listened to Jenney, been less pig-headed about everything, and maybe we could have all helped Benedict and together removed him from being a pawn in whatever sick game Queen Trina was playing.
I worried about him and Ruby. When I first arrived I had thought that she might be down here as well, the last thing I’d seen before I was taken by the Queen was Ruby’s body lying helpless on the ground with Benedict standing above her. Maybe Ruby had been taken back to the Seraq kingdom, but they had kept us separated to add to our misery. I had called out into the blackness of the dungeons a couple of times when I first arrived, but only my own echo had answered me, so after a while I’d stopped. It was too depressing.
I had to accept the idea that my friends had most likely left Nevertide by now. The idea left me feeling completely alone and more isolated than I’d thought was possible, but I also realized that my chances of getting out of here without GASP investigating would be slim. However, I also had to accept that even if GASP did manage to locate Nevertide, all their focus would be on the Hellswan kingdom. Why would anyone bother to look for me here? I couldn’t recall the journey to the dungeons at all, but I didn’t doubt that they would be well hidden—judging by the state of them, and the lack of occupancy, they probably hadn’t been used in centuries.
After I’d given up looking for the nymphs, I’d made a pact with myself. If I truly couldn’t bear to be down here a moment longer—really and truly, like I was going half-crazy—I would ask Queen Trina to reverse my decision. She had originally said that I couldn’t change my mind, but if my friends were gone, she might feel more disposed to have me wandering around the castle anyway. Perhaps I could be useful to her in some way? Get a job as a servant or something, and try to avoid the nymphs till I could figure out an escape. I didn’t regret my decision to choose the dungeons over free rein in the palace yet. As hellish as this was, it would have been worse to lose my mind completely—to believe that I was enjoying Queen Trina’s hospitality, perhaps even refusing to leave when GASP came to rescue me.
But when the time came, when any hope I had was well and truly down the gutter, if Queen Trina disagreed and refused me, then I had my knife. It was my alternate option to spending a lifetime in this cell. Maybe there would be more adventures for me in the afterlife than this one.
Rose
We arrived in the small village of Murkbeech. Corrine had transported us here: me and Caleb, Claudia and Yuri, and Ashley and Landis. We hadn’t spoken at all while we’d waited for Corrine to work her magic, and as soon as we landed in the small village that led to the camp, the silence became deafening as we looked around at the dim sky and gray desolation of the place.
When I’d pictured Murkbeech village, I’d recalled a cozy-looking general store, a quaint gift shop and a grocery shop with fresh vegetables laid out neatly in rows under a bright canopy. Now the shops were empty—windows smashed, no lights coming from within, and rotting vegetables littering the street.
Something had gone horribly wrong here.
“It looks like a ghost town,” Claudia murmured as she picked up a carton of milk from the side of the road. “This is dated from two weeks ago, look.”
I inspected the label. She was right. Which meant that all this destruction was relatively new. I had half hoped before we arrived that Murkbeech was having a huge problem with their electric and phone signals. It wouldn’t have been that surprising given their location, but it was all too obvious that something far more sinister was going on.
I felt sick with worry, and for the first time in a long time, utterly hysterical with fear that I was trying to keep under wraps for everyone else’s sake. I also knew that the more we treated this like a routine investigation, like we’d done countless times before, the higher our chances of success would be. The more we panicked, the more foolish decisions we would make, and then…well. It didn’t even bear thinking about.
“Let’s head toward the camp,” I replied to Claudia, gesturing to the others to follow the dirt track that led out of the village and up to the main house. Caleb took my hand and gave a quick squeeze as we moved forward with supernatural speed. Our eyes met briefly, and I could see the same fear I had reflected back in him.
As we approached the camp house, the sign ‘Murkbeech Adventures’ written above the sprawling one-story building, I felt my heart sink. It was in almost complete darkness apart from a flickering strip light coming from one of the outhouses to the right of the building. Next to the entrance was the camp bus, or what was left of it. It looked like it had been lit on fire, the paintwork black and singed, and the front engine just a shell that exposed the basic framework.
What the hell happened here?
Sticking together, we continued along the track, alert for the slightest sound or indication that there might be someone around.
“It’s too quiet,” Landis murmured. “But I can sense something…”
His sentence trailed off, but I knew exactly what he meant. I could feel something—a tension that was starting to build, and a feeling that we were being watched from the trees that surrounded the camp on either side. I didn’t know if it was the place that was giving me the creeps, or something real that was about to jump out at us.
It wasn’t long before we found out.
We heard a loud bang, like a door being swung shut. Then from behind the back of the camp, dark, human-shaped silhouettes emerged, running toward us.
“What on earth?” hissed Claudia as we instinctively grouped closer together, readying ourselves for the attack.
As they got closer, I could start to make out their faces—human ones, but mindless, their eyes dead-looking with no sign of intelligent life within their forms. They looked filthy, as if none of them had bathed in weeks, and all of them gaunt to the point of emaciation.
“They’re only human,” I said. “We’ve got to try not to hurt them.”
I questioned the wisdom of that as one came lumbering toward me—a woman in her mid-forties, trying to slash at my face with mud-caked fingers, her face contorted into a vicious grimace. I knocked her down and she lay motionless on the floor. Before I could check if she was still alive, another one came tearing toward me. I kicked him back, seeing that my husband was doing exactly the same on my right. There were about a hundred of them in total.
“They’re like Bloodless,” Ashley gasped as she slammed her fist into the face of a teenager. He put up a good fight, more athletic than some of the others, but soon enough his butt was in the dirt.
“They’re definitely not Bloodless,” Corrine replied, knocking over eight at once with a spell.
“Anyone seen our kids?” Claudia asked as she heaved another body into the pile of groaning humans in front of her.
We all shook our heads. I didn’t know if it was a good sign or not…
Soon we had a large pile of bodies in front of us—thankfully all alive, but certainly worse for wear.
“We need to restrain them,” Caleb said, heading in the direction of the camp house. “I suggest you all stay here and keep an eye on them. I’m going into the house.”
“I’ll come with you,” I told him, hurrying to his side.
Caleb and I walked up to the camp in silence. I was half afraid of what we might find inside, but also hoping that perhaps our kids were hiding somewhere, away from the crazed humans.
As soon as we stepped inside, Caleb tried flicking the light switch, but nothing happened.
“Power’s out,” he murmured, checking out a broken lamp on a side table. “I’m surprised they don’t have a backup generator here…but maybe with the refurbis
hment they didn’t bother putting one in.”
We picked our way through broken furniture and strewn rubbish to the first dorm. None of the beds were made, and the smell in here was particularly pungent. I looked around, using my vampire vision to see if I could see any belongings of the kids, but I didn’t see anything I recognized. We checked the other dorms, but everything was in such a mess it was difficult to distinguish individual items.
We were about to leave the last dorm and head back when something caught my eye. It was a black t-shirt with a bright neon logo on it, crumpled up on one of the beds. I made my way over and picked it up. It belonged to my son.
“Caleb, look.” I held it up.
He walked toward me, and then lightly touched the fabric of the shirt.
“They left in a hurry, then,” he commented, his voice low.
I nodded. “And there,” I said, spying a cell phone on the bed. “I think this is Benedict’s.”
Trying to switch it on, I found it was completely dead—which wasn’t surprising, just frustrating. I looked around at the other beds more closely. A lot of them had mobiles lying on pillows. The camp must have asked them to leave them behind during activities.
“We’ll charge it up somewhere and see if it helps us.” Caleb took the phone, and I gathered the t-shirt in my backpack. I wasn’t sure how much help it would be, but I wasn’t going to leave it here anyway.
We searched the rest of the house, and, on finding it deserted, we swiftly made our way back to the rest of the group.
“Did you see… anything, in there?” Ashley asked, her face paler than even a vampire’s should be.
I swallowed. “No sign of our kids. Just Benedict’s cell and some others. Which is why they weren’t calling,” I replied.
As I gazed over the humans Corrine was keeping in check with her magic, most of them still woozy from our attack, I started to realize that there were three groups emerging: those who were children, and the guests of the camp; the camp organizers, all wearing something to distinguish them, like a ‘Murkbeech’ t-shirt or badge; and those I presumed came from the village—mostly slightly older, including one woman who looked like she was near eighty.