“I won’t be,” she said. “I told you, Corrine said I just have to wait.” She climbed back into bed and leaned against the headboard. “Tell me exactly what happened with Kiev.”
I frowned, running a hand through my hair.
The truth was, as much as I hated to admit it, Sofia’s plan had worked. The dinner with Kiev and Mona had gone far better than I could have expected. Kiev had behaved civilly with me, and I’d tried to respond in kind—even if I was still a bit stiff in some of my remarks. Having the witches there to guide the conversation had definitely helped.
I wasn’t sure how long this truce would last. I was certain that we would still clash—that just seemed to be in our natures. But something told me we’d come to an understanding. Perhaps even a sense of respect for one another. At least this seemed to be enough to satisfy Sofia. I supposed, now that I’d recovered from the shock, I was grateful she had done what she had.
“There’s not much I can tell you,” I said. “Kiev and I didn’t do a lot of talking, but we were civil to each other. The witches led most of the conversation.”
She smiled. “I’m glad.”
She reached for my face instinctively, her—my—hand brushing against my cheek before I could stop her.
I flinched and stepped away. “I want my wife back.”
Chapter 16: Sofia
It took longer than any of us could have expected but, finally, I turned back into myself.
I managed to convince Derek to keep my trick a secret from Kiev. There was no need for Kiev to know. It would only be detrimental to their newly formed relationship. I still regretted Derek finding out. If Vivienne’s vision hadn’t been such bad timing, neither of them would have ever discovered my trick. Still, the two men were now on speaking terms. And that was all that mattered.
I’d never been so happy to look in the mirror. I stared at myself for several minutes once the transformation was complete, touching my face and running my hands along my skin. Derek was overjoyed. He scooped me up in his arms and kissed me hard.
Now that I was back, and Derek and Kiev were on civil terms, we needed to call a meeting to discuss the map they’d found. Derek arranged for a meeting in the Great Dome that evening. Kiev, his siblings, Mona, Matteo and Saira were already seated in the dome when we arrived. Mona slid the map toward Derek and me.
Black crosses covered the parchment, scattered across every continent. North and South America, Europe, Asia…
I exhaled sharply. The shock in Derek’s face mirrored what I felt. Vivienne, Xavier and other members of our council gathered behind us, peering over our shoulders at the map.
“I suspect that some of those gates are no longer functioning properly—like the one we entered through,” Mona said. “But more skilled witches than myself will be able to break through them regardless.”
“Do you think there’s any chance other creatures know about these gates?” Derek asked.
Derek’s question sent my head reeling. I didn’t think I could handle another intrusion of Elders and Hawks. We’d been there, done that. Gotten the postcard.
“I very much doubt it,” Mona said. “I believe only the witches know about these portals. They keep them secret. They wouldn’t want other supernatural creatures meddling with their plans here.”
“Thank God,” I said.
“Are you capable of closing gates?” Derek asked.
Mona bit her lip, frowning. “I haven’t tried, but I think so. Gate opening is a much more skilled process, but closing I believe I can manage.”
“The Ageless was able to close gates,” I said. “You’re as powerful as the Ageless, aren’t you?”
Mona’s face twitched. “Yes.” She looked down at the table uncomfortably. “But I don’t think it’s going to help. There is one warlock who is especially powerful. Rhys. I thought I might have killed him, but I can’t be sure. If he is still alive, I believe that he might have developed the skill by now to open gates. He’s one of the most advanced warlocks of our kind. He is—or was—a Channeler, like me. Only more experienced and disciplined in black magic.” She paused and glanced up at Kiev before continuing. “Close one gate, and another could just be opened the next day. I don’t think closing gates is the answer.”
I looked at Derek. Neither of us seemed willing to accept her statement.
“Well, closing these gates would be a start.”
“You forget that I can’t leave this island,” Mona said. “The Shade could withstand the attack of one witch without my presence, but more than one—hell, I’m not even sure that I could hold up the spell even if I was present.”
Derek turned to Ibrahim. “Can’t you close gates?”
He nodded. “I can.”
“Then you can go. Take another witch with you. Close as many gates as you can.”
Even Ibrahim looked dubious. “Derek, if what Mona says is true, this isn’t going to solve anything.”
Corrine gripped Ibrahim’s shoulder. “And how do we know these gates aren’t being guarded by black witches capable of overpowering Ibrahim? I don’t want to risk losing him again for a mission that probably won’t even be effective.”
It was Kiev who spoke next. His eyes traveled from me to Derek. “Perhaps we all need to accept that supernatural creatures will always be drawn to this realm. So long as they are, they will find ways to break through. Perhaps there never will be a safe Earth, and rather than putting effort into preventing their entrance, we need to adapt to survive alongside them.”
Ah, Kiev. Always the ray of sunshine.
The trouble was, it seemed that living alongside us was the last thing these witches had in mind.
Chapter 17: Caleb
Lilith.
The name played over and over in my mind as I navigated back to my island. I racked my brains for any mention of her throughout the time I’d spent with these witches, but drew a blank.
I just knew one thing: she was the person I had to seek out if I ever wanted to understand how Annora had lost herself, and whether there was any chance of recovery.
The boat was considerably slower than the submarine and it wasn’t until the following evening that I finally arrived back on the island. I’d dropped the dead body in the ocean hours ago, but its stench still lingered in the cabin.
I left the boat moored in the harbor and made my way back up to the castle. I was glad to find the entrance hall empty. I was in no mood for answering questions now.
I had almost made it back to my room when I came across Annora on the staircase.
“Caleb!”
I groaned internally, lifting my eyes from the stairs to look at her.
“Frederik and the rest told me you were lifted up into an aircraft.”
“We came across a group of hunters,” I grunted.
“Hunters,” she said, wetting her lower lip, eyes glazing over as she considered my words. “Where are the others?”
“Dead. The hunters murdered them.”
There was no sadness in her eyes at the news, just irritation. “How did you survive?”
“By turning into a madman. I leapt from a cliff. Almost died in the process. I managed to come by a fisherman at sea and… here I am.” I looked at her impatiently. “And now, if you’ll excuse me…”
Her eyes scanned the length of my dirty, almost naked body, and she stepped aside for me to continue on my way.
I locked myself in my apartment and the first thing I did was take a shower, soaping myself from top to bottom, trying to get rid of the sand and salt water. When I looked in the mirror, my skin had mostly healed itself of the burns and blisters, but areas of my back which had been particularly exposed to the sun were still sensitive.
I dried myself and climbed into bed, stretching out my aching limbs and closing my eyes.
Memories of the hunters came drifting back. The sick torture, the loss of several companions I’d spent decades with… I just felt numb to it all. I’d become desensitized. I realized t
hat was partly Annora’s influence on me, and in that way, I’d become like her.
Now that I had time to think in the silence of my own room, and pushing aside thoughts of my encounter with Mona for the time being, the true implications of what had transpired dawned on me.
Annora wouldn’t want to risk losing more of her vampires. If this type of ambushing was going to become a more regular occurrence, we needed The Shade’s humans more than ever.
Chapter 18: Rose
The whole island was shaken by what had almost happened to my parents. It just reinforced how dependent on Mona we were now. In the face of Annora’s cunning, it seemed that only Mona could protect us. Goosebumps ran along my skin to think what would have happened if Mona hadn’t figured it out in time.
I remembered asking Caleb what happened to vampires bound by Annora’s curse who stayed away longer than seven days. He had refused to tell me.
Caleb. The memory of him disappearing with Mona, not even looking up to say goodbye, still haunted me.
I supposed I should have been thankful to him. He’d made the break quick, clinical. I understood why he’d done it. There was no way that we could be together now.
I put thoughts of Caleb aside as I approached the foot of Zinnia and Gavin’s tree. I went up in the elevator and walked onto their balcony, knocking on the front door.
Griffin opened the door and smiled.
“Hey, Rose. How are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“Do you want to come in?”
“No,” I said, “I wanted to talk to you, Griff. Could we go for a walk along the beach?”
I couldn’t miss the excitement in his eyes as he grabbed a sweater from the back of the door and pulled it on.
“I’m going out,” he called into the apartment before stepping out onto the balcony with me and shutting the door. We descended in the elevator and it wasn’t until we had hit the forest floor that I felt comfortable enough to begin.
I caught Griff’s hand and squeezed it, looking up at him in the eye.
“I owe you an answer,” I said. Griff stared at me intently, barely breathing, even though I could tell he was trying to be cool. “I’m just going to be honest with you, okay?”
“I wouldn’t expect you to be anything but,” he said.
I held Griff’s hand tighter. “I love you, Griff. And I hate to say but, but there is a but. I think my love for you is strongest as my friend.”
I looked up at him. His eyes were on the forest ground. He was quite expressionless. He nodded slowly. But didn’t answer.
We walked the rest of the way in awkward silence as we reached the beach.
“Are you all right?”
This time he looked directly at me. “Of course I am,” he said, smiling. “Having you love me as a friend is enough.”
I squeezed his hand tighter. “But things won’t be awkward? Now I know what you really feel about me…”
He sighed. “I can’t pretend that I haven’t wished we had more than friendship, but things don’t have to be awkward.”
“But I feel awkward about it,” I said. In a way I wished he’d never told me.
“Well, don’t,” he said, stopping in his tracks.
We continued walking, but I wasn’t convinced.
“I guess you just have to see the situation for what it is,” Griff said, “I won’t feel awkward around you, I promise. And neither should you.”
I draped my arms over his shoulders, lifting myself up and planting a gentle kiss on his cheek. His face flushed red, almost matching his hair color.
“But if you go doing that too often, it might get awkward,” he said, grinning.
I reached for his arm again, looping mine through it, as we continued our walk along the beach.
“Okay. Thanks, Griff.”
We began chatting about other things, like Mona, Kiev and my parents almost dying. After about a mile, we caught sight of Ben and Abby walking toward us from the opposite direction.
I raised my eyebrows on seeing the two of them together. Even when Abby was round our house, she barely talked to Ben. It was a shock to see them both strolling alone together like this, Abby bunching up the hem of her dress in the waves, holding Ben’s arm.
“Hey,” I called, as we neared within ten feet of each other. “What’s up?”
“We were just taking a walk with—” Before Ben could finish his sentence, there was a heavy pounding against wet sand and Shadow came into view, hurtling toward us. He carried in his mouth a thick tree branch. He halted at the last minute and dropped the branch in front of Abby.
I leaned over and stroked Shadow’s head. Then regretted it instantly. He tried to leap up on me. He would have flattened me—albeit affectionately—had Abby not grabbed his collar and hauled him away. He continued to thrash about, straining to lavish his slimy affections on me.
“Whoa, boy,” Abby said. As a vampire, she was the only one powerful enough to control him. Shadow’s strength still scared me, even though I knew I owed my life to him for carrying my mother out of The Blood Keep.
Griff and I decided to keep walking along with Ben and Abby, who were now headed back toward the direction of the Port. As we were approaching, Abby stopped short. Shadow’s ears pricked up. They both turned their eyes toward the ocean.
“What?” Ben asked.
“Listen,” Abby said, placing a finger to her lips. “Someone is calling for help.”
We all strained our ears once more, and finally I heard it. Abby was right. Far in the distance, someone was yelling for help.
Abby squinted, scanning the shoreline with her supernatural vision. Finally she pointed.
“Someone is out there, beyond the boundary.”
Ben looked in the direction of the harbor and pointed toward one of the submarines. “Let’s go see.”
We hurried over to the port and bundled into a submarine. We followed Ben into the control room. He navigated us away from the jetty, toward the boundary of the island. I hoped nobody had seen us. Our parents didn’t like us going near the boundary.
As we looked through the glass screen, human legs came into view.
“Go up,” I said.
Ben surfaced and we hurried back to the hatch. Ben climbed up first and stuck his head out.
“It’s Micah!” he called down, before climbing out.
“Who’s Micah?”
“One of the werewolves.”
“Careful, Ben,” Abby called up as he balanced on the slippery roof.
I lifted myself up through the hatch. My eyes fell on the spot where a young man with shoulder-length blond hair was floating in the water, one of The Shade’s small wooden boats beside him, capsized.
“Micah,” Ben shouted.
Micah looked around wildly, unable to see the source of the voice since he was outside the boundary.
“Are you all right?” Ben asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “I just strayed too far by accident. I didn’t mean to go outside the boundary.”
“Hold on,” Ben said. “I’m coming for you.”
Ripping off his shirt, Ben dove into the water and reappeared on the other side of the boundary. He reached Micah, gripped hold of his arm and pulled him toward the submarine.
“Thanks,” Micah panted. Griffin reached down and helped haul Ben onto the submarine, and then Micah. Micah towered over me, a small net of fish hung over one shoulder. I stepped aside.
“How is it you weren’t able to come back in?” Griffin asked. “I thought Mona gave you all permission to come and go as you please.”
“Yeah. Knowing my luck, I think I was out fishing during the meeting she called to put that charm on us. It seems I’m able to exit but not re-enter.”
We all dropped back down through the hatch and made our way to the control room. Ben began navigating us back to the shore.
I recognized Micah now that I eyed him more closely. I’d seen him among the crowd before, but had never spoken to hi
m. He sat in the passenger seat directly opposite mine and was making no attempt to hide the way he was staring at me. I found it off-putting and turned my attention to Griff.
“Why don’t you come back to my place after this and I’ll cook us both something?”
“I’d love that.” Griff smiled down at me.
I looked up again at Micah. His hazel-brown eyes were still fixed on me. I got up and pulled Griff with me out of the control room and into the passenger area to avoid Micah’s gaze. He was a beautiful specimen of a man, but I didn’t understand why he was looking at me so unashamedly. It occurred to me that maybe—since he was a werewolf, and also from the supernatural realm—I shouldn’t be so quick to judge him. Maybe their manners were just different. The fact was that until Kiev’s arrival on the island, I’d never encountered a werewolf in my life. They intrigued me, but I had no idea how they behaved. They seemed to be less reserved than vampires.
Whatever his reason for staring at me, I didn’t feel comfortable and was happy to retreat to the passenger room toward the back of the submarine while we travelled back to the island.
Griff and I let the others exit first. Micah was the last we were waiting for. He picked up his fish net and dragged it up through the hatch, some fish still alive and flapping. We followed after, Griff pushing me up first. Ben and Abby were already making their way toward Shadow, who was waiting on the sand. Micah stopped midway along the jetty and turned back to face us.
“I was going to roast some of these.” He gestured to the fish. “Just thought I’d invite you both to join me.”
I’d been looking forward to spending some quality time with my best friend, but I wasn’t sure how to turn Micah down without sounding rude. He already knew we were hungry and I intended to cook for Griff and myself.
I looked after Ben and Abby. They’d already disappeared into the woods with Shadow.
I looked at Griff. He shrugged.
“Thanks. That would be lovely,” I said. I reached out a hand and Micah shook it, his grip wet and intense. “I’m Rose, by the way.”