“I’ll take you through the process in the morning. You’ll need to be ready. It won’t be an easy journey, but it’s one I think we need to make,” Draven continued, his last comment aimed at the incubus. “You’ll all need to get a good night’s sleep.”
“Where are these Daughters?” Jovi asked before I could. “Will we be going through the jungle? The girls will need footwear.”
“No,” Draven replied. “It’s not like that. You’ll see tomorrow, but we won’t be going through the jungle. There’s little chance the Destroyers will be able to sense we’ve crossed over to their location, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing it.”
I wondered what he meant by ‘crossed over.’ Would we be traveling through a portal? I wanted to ask Draven, but I gathered from his expression that he considered the conversation over—we’d just have to wait and see what tomorrow would bring. I was apprehensive, but excited too. I would give anything to get out of the house and have a day of different scenery.
“And these Daughters are dangerous, right?” Field asked.
Before Draven could reply, Bijarki interjected.
“Very. They’re deadly creatures,” the incubus spat.
Draven looked annoyed at his friend’s outburst.
“They’re complicated,” he replied tersely. “But yes, they can be dangerous. Which is why, tomorrow, I want you to listen very carefully to what I say. You’re all going to have to trust me, something you seem to have difficulty doing.”
“Not fair,” Serena replied calmly. “You took us from the fae star against our will—we weren’t exactly inclined to trust you.”
Draven nodded, accepting the accusation.
“All right,” Field replied, trying to break some of the tension that had started building in the dining room. “We trust you. Now, tell me where you learned to fight like that?”
Jovi and Field both grinned, waiting expectantly for Draven to answer them. I rolled my eyes. Typical that both of them would warm to him after they’d had a training session together. Serena had told me how he’d beat them both pretty soundly.
Draven looked amused at their interest.
“It’s science,” he replied simply.
“What do you mean?” Jovi asked. “You’ve got some awesome strength. I felt it, and I’m still feeling it.”
“I’m no stronger than either of you,” Draven replied. “But I lose less energy by aiming my blows better. If either of you bothered to study anatomy, you’d be the same.”
“We have studied anatomy,” Jovi replied in confusion.
“Perhaps not the way I have. My study of the body, both humanoid physiques and animal, was all aimed to be used in battle. I can teach you, if you wish?”
“Yes,” Field and Jovi replied in unison. I smiled, looking over at Phoenix. Why wasn’t he joining in? He’d appeared at dinner, not saying where he’d been, and throughout the meal had sat in near silence, looking like he was a million miles away.
“Phoenix?” I prompted.
“Yeah?” he replied, looking up and around, not aware that it was me who had called his name.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He looked around—all of us were staring at him. He gave a weak smile. “Sorry— yes to the lessons. If you’re as good as these two say you are, I’m all in.”
Draven nodded, looking pleased.
“What about you, Bijarki?” Field asked.
The incubus sighed. “I don’t think so.”
“You think you’re too good for us?” Jovi asked jokingly.
“He is,” Draven replied with a small smile. “Trust me. The incubi are some of the most fearsome warriors in Eritopia. They can move faster than the undead, be more vicious than the shape-shifters Serena met in the swampland. And that’s without their added abilities.”
We all turned to Bijarki with a mixture of amazement and trepidation.
“Added abilities?” Vita asked.
It was Bijarki’s turn to cast a glance of annoyance.
“Really?” he asked the Druid.
Draven just smirked, leaning back in his chair, evidently enjoying his friend’s discomfort. Everyone else was waiting for Bijarki to continue and he looked around at us all with helpless irritation.
“I can affect the thoughts of others,” he muttered.
“What do you mean?” Serena asked, her tone sharp.
Bijarki glanced up at her with a wary expression.
“You might understand it as hypnotism, but it is a little subtler than that. It doesn’t work on all species—not Druids, for example, much to everyone’s disappointment.” He glared at Draven before continuing. “But it is effective on a few who prove dangerous to our kind—like the Deargs, Sluaghs, and some others.”
Whatever those creatures are…
“Can you hypnotize someone who’s sleeping?” Serena asked hotly. I looked over at her, wondering where the question had come from, and why she seemed so flustered. Vita looked at the incubus with wide eyes, a flush appearing on her cheeks.
Bijarki met Serena’s gaze head on, his face also appearing unusually heated.
“Yes,” he snapped.
Serena fell silent, but she didn’t stop glaring at him for a good few minutes, while the rest of us continued to eat in a confused, awkward silence. Thankfully, it was shortly broken by the Druid rising to his feet and wishing us all a good night.
Once again, he hadn’t eaten a thing.
Phoenix
My sister, Aida and Vita left the dining room first, muttering about Bijarki, Serena shooting the incubus a dark look before she left the room. I didn’t understand what had happened there, but I almost felt sorry for Bijarki as he drew himself away from the table and left through another doorway.
Jovi and Field got up to leave next.
“Coming?” Jovi asked. “We should get some rest.”
“Yeah,” I replied, “you use the showers first. See you up there.”
“Okay,” he replied, and both of them moved toward the doorway. I sat looking at the empty table. I didn’t feel like sleeping yet. I had found the tree from my vision earlier, out in the front garden. Its boughs had been heavy with blossom, and a stillness and serenity had pervaded it that I’d never encountered before. When I had touched the bark, it had been warm—but that wasn’t unusual, the sun was baking…it had just seemed as if the heat was coming from within the tree.
I had sat beneath it, as if I was in a trance. I hadn’t known how long I’d been there until the sun started to set. I’d somehow managed to spend the entire day there without noticing. The strangest thing was how content I’d felt, as if—out of every single place in the world’s dimensions—that was where I was meant to be. It had been even stranger considering that, a few moments before discovering the tree, Eritopia and this crumbling house had been the last place I’d ever wanted to be—I’d had a raging inner dialogue, longing to escape the confines of the house and its overgrown gardens. But when I’d found that tree, I’d felt more at peace with myself and the world around me than I ever had even in The Shade.
There was one thing that had occurred to me while I was sitting at the table.
I stood up, sure that the coast was clear, and made my way to the greenhouse. Draven and Bijarki were nowhere to be seen, and I could hear the sounds of my friends above me, getting ready for bed.
I didn’t know why I was so reluctant to tell them I’d found the tree. I knew Serena was desperate to know, but for now, it was something I wanted to keep to myself. Partly because it was all so strange, and I wouldn’t really know how to explain how a regular magnolia tree made me feel so much.
Walking swiftly across the gardens, I kept close to the house, hoping Field wouldn’t spy me from the rooftops. I strode round the side of the house, eventually reaching the tree. I exhaled in relief. My muscles relaxed—I hadn’t realized they had been tensed before this point. I leaned against the bark, closing my eyes briefly before beginning my next task.
&
nbsp; It was so obvious, I couldn’t understand why it hadn’t occurred to me earlier. I looked down at the soil, using True Sight to see the roots of the tree. Slowly they came into vision, twisted and entwined around one another. I followed them down, deeper and deeper into the earth. Their depth wasn’t normal—the roots seemed to go on forever. Right at the bottom, I saw what I hoped I would. The roots grasped at a huge shell, the same one I had seen in my vision. It shone brightly, its pearly luminescence making it look like a jewel buried deep in the soil.
Taking a deep breath, and feeling the energy leaving my body as I fought to maintain my sight at such depths, I looked through the casing of the shell, almost blinding myself with the light that emanated from within it. As my eyes adjusted, I started to see the outline of a figure, lying curled up inside the chambers of the shell.
I crouched down lower, and the form started to become clearer. It was a girl, but more than that somehow—she was the most beautiful creature I’d ever beheld, as if she somehow surpassed being generalized by her gender. Her skin was alabaster white, her hair a flaming pinky red that seemed to become part of the shell as she nestled in it, the tips of it reaching down to her feet.
Why is she buried beneath the earth?
I suddenly felt a sharp pang of grief that anyone would cover her with so many layers of earth, that they would hide her from the world when she was so clearly meant to be part of it—to be seen, to let us hear her voice, to watch her walk and move. Her eyes were closed in sleep, and I desperately wanted to know what they would look like, but instead, I had to be content to see her chest rising gently, and the dark lashes on her lids throwing shadows on her cheekbones.
My fingers pressed into the earth. I was ready to dig her up myself then and there, to claw my way through the worm-infested soil that separated us.
“What are you doing?”
I jumped up at the sound of Field’s voice. I had been so preoccupied by her beauty that I hadn’t heard him approach.
“Just looking at the tree,” I replied stiffly. “It’s the one from my vision.”
“Are you sure?” Field asked, with instant interest.
“I’m sure.”
“Can you see anything beneath it? Like the shell you were talking about?”
“No,” I replied swiftly.
He looked at me strangely. I realized that my reply had been too swift, too dismissive.
“Sorry,” I replied, trying to smile. “It’s just frustrating. Anyway, I should get some sleep.”
“You look tired,” agreed Field, looking like he wanted to discuss the tree in more detail, but left it, appearing to ignore my odd behavior and put it down to exhaustion.
“See you in the morning,” I said, leaving him standing by the tree. I made my way back around to the greenhouse, hearing the flap of his wings as he ascended to the rooftop. The moment I had left the tree, I felt horribly guilty for lying to him, and not even sure why I’d done it. I wanted to call him back and explain, but something stopped me. I didn’t want to share her existence yet, I just wasn’t ready. I felt so possessive of her, and protective in a way I couldn’t really even begin to explain, not even to myself. I just knew I was supposed to find her. That somehow, we were connected.
I went back inside the house, bewildered and confused. But as I sank into bed, too tired to shower, I realized I felt happier than I could ever remember feeling—like suddenly everything made sense, like I truly belonged somewhere, with someone. With her.
I slept soundly that night, a dreamless sleep that felt closer to death than to life.
Serena
I was up early again the next morning, anxious to begin our trip to the Daughters. Like Aida, I was eager to get out of here, even if it was to face creatures that the incubus had deemed ‘deadly’.
The incubus in question was starting to become a major problem. Last night, while we’d been having dinner, I’d worked out what he’d been doing up on our floor. As soon as he’d mentioned hypnotism, I recalled what I’d read about incubi in one of Ibrahim’s human-written books back in The Shade. It had been an old book on the mythology of supernatural creatures. The author had gotten a great many facts wrong about vampires, werewolves and fae, but I recalled that, as the stories went, incubi usually appeared to their prey in a dream, making humans feel attracted to the creatures before they finally appeared—usually to procreate with them.
A shudder ran through my body. If that was what Bijarki had been doing, then he was in major trouble. I would need to speak to Draven about keeping his friend on a leash. I didn’t care if it was his ‘natural’ inclination—he was to stay as far away from Vita as possible. I’d told both Aida and Vita about my conclusions, but they didn’t seem as convinced as I was, though, predictably, Vita had blushed a bright red. Clearly it was up to me to safeguard her against Bijarki. He might have been handsome, and unrelentingly polite and courteous on the surface, but I wasn’t convinced. Not by a long shot.
As if I don’t have enough things to worry about already.
I waited for the others at the breakfast table, pouring myself a steaming cup of coffee. Field was the first to arrive.
“Did you sleep okay?” he asked, removing the jug of coffee from my place setting with a wry smile.
“I wasn’t going to drink it all, but yes, I had a good night’s sleep.”
He nodded, grinning.
“Before we leave, do you need to syphon off me?” he asked.
I shook my head. I hadn’t really had any need to use up my energy here, and when I’d syphoned the pain away from Phoenix, I must have taken a good deal of his energy too. It was my brother I was more concerned about.
“I’m fine, but maybe you could check with Phoenix?” I asked.
“Will do.” He nodded. “Did you know he found the tree?”
“No!” I exclaimed. Why hadn’t Phoenix mentioned it to any of us?
“Yeah. I saw him crouched in the soil beneath it. To be honest, he was acting oddly. I hope he’s all right. He said he didn’t see anything beneath it, like the shell—or rather, the egg…but I don’t know.” Field shook his head, frowning.
“What?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s nothing… just keep a close eye on him today. He certainly seemed a bit ‘off’, almost like he was lying to me…But it’s Phoenix. He doesn’t lie.”
I nodded, worried. My brother didn’t lie, but then again, neither did Field. He wouldn’t say something like that unless he thought he had good reason to.
“Shall I say something?” I asked.
“Maybe wait till after we see the Daughters. It might be nothing, and I don’t want him to think I was spying on him or anything.”
“He wouldn’t think that,” I replied. My brother had a very high opinion of Field and Jovi. He would know that Field was only concerned. Still, perhaps it was best to drop the matter until later. We would have enough to deal with today.
“Are we all ready for the trip?” asked Jovi as he entered the room.
“Ready to get out of here,” I muttered.
“The girls and Phoenix not up yet?” Jovi asked me. Before I could reply, Phoenix walked in, looking fresh-faced and clearly in a good mood. I glanced swiftly at Field, who smiled. Clearly whatever had happened last night was in his imagination. I felt it was fine to bring up the subject of the tree, and so I asked my brother about it.
“Yeah, I found it last night,” he replied. “I still have no idea what the vision was meant to be showing me, it was just a tree… No shell or egg or anything. Maybe it will all become clearer later.”
“Right,” I replied, relieved. He seemed perfectly fine, and Field gave a quick nod. We were back to normal.
“Shall I wake Vita and Aida?” I asked, wondering where Draven was. And the incubus…
“Has anyone seen Bijarki?” I asked sharply, rising up out of my seat.
“Here,” he replied, appearing behind us and glaring at me. I guessed he picked up on w
hat I’d been thinking—that he was back up in our bedroom, placing dreams inside Vita’s subconscious. “Draven requests that you join him in the basement,” he added.
“I’ll get my sister and Vita up,” Jovi said. “Better that my sister’s morning mood is inflicted on me.”
He left the room, but I stayed seated, wanting to wait for Vita and Aida before we went down.
“We’ll be along shortly,” I snapped at Bijarki.
“Of course,” he replied. “I’ll just tell Draven that he needs to wait to begin the perilous mission because some of you can’t be bothered to get up.” He left the room, banging the door behind him.
“What’s his problem?” Phoenix asked, frowning.
“Don’t ask,” I replied, staring at the closed door.
“Go easy on him, Serena,” Field said, his voice gentle but firm. “We can’t afford to have friction in this place, we’re cooped up in here. If we’re at each other’s throats, this isn’t going to go well.”
I bit my lip. I didn’t want to tell the boys what I thought he was actually up to. Field had no idea how restrained I was being. I was only keeping quiet because I knew the boys would rip him limb from limb if they knew what he was doing. I wouldn’t divulge what I thought until I had some concrete proof.
Soon, Vita and Aida joined us and we all made our way down to the basement. The ‘secret’ room that led on from the main basement was open, and Draven was already in there with the incubus, deep in conversation. As soon as they heard us approach, they fell silent, and Draven nodded in greeting.
“The process of travel to the Daughters is a fairly complicated one,” Draven began, “but if you’ll just be patient, I’ll explain everything shortly.”
I nodded, and we all fell silent, letting the Druid do what he needed to without interruption. I was actually fascinated to see how he did travel. Taking us from the fae star must have required a lot of magic and energy to accomplish.
My lips parted slightly as Draven removed his shirt. He had his back to us, and his muscles rippled with the movement over his golden skin. I heard a hiss of breath, but couldn’t see what he was doing. Silently, so as to not distract him, I walked around the room, hoping to get a better look. I gasped out loud when I was facing him. In his hand, he had a sharp stone, and was carving symbols across his chest. Blood seeped from each one, but he continued to carve, only the slight flinch of his muscles giving away how painful it must have been. The others followed me, and Bijarki frowned in our direction, warning us to remain silent. Vita and Aida paled, but Jovi looked reluctantly impressed.