I didn’t know how long the torture lasted. Every second felt like a year. I believed the pain would never stop, that immortality had been given, and that this was what it would feel like till the end of time, the fires unrelenting, my silent screams never being heard.
“He’s moving,” Ruby breathed.
It was the first coherent noise that I’d heard since the pain began. As her voice floated over to me, the burning sensation slowly started to recede. My body was able to experience the fresh coolness of air on my skin, my veins feeling like they’d been cleansed somehow—of tar, of fire, of the entity.
I tried to open my eyes, praying that the abyss would no longer be there, that I would be able to see the blonde halo of hair and blue eyes that had saved me. Again.
My eyelids flickered open, feeling like heavy weights. I didn’t see the blue of Ruby’s eyes—instead I saw the blue of a bright sky, not as beautiful but rewarding all the same. A second later, Ruby peered down at me.
“Ash?”
“Hey, Shortie,” I rasped, the words feeling unfamiliar on my tongue.
“That’s the second time you’ve almost died on me. Can you stop doing that?” she barked, her expression furious.
“Yeah.” I smiled. There she was. My livewire, my future wife who didn’t just shine brightly, she was practically a forest fire.
Hands grabbed me. It was Tejus and Ruby, helping me to sit up. I looked around at their faces—a mixture of awestruck dumbness and worry. The barrier of fire had disappeared, and the shadow had changed too. It was no longer a dark mass, but thousands and thousands of soldiers in their ashen form, fighting with the fae army, GASP and the sentry ministers and guards.
I wondered why they hadn’t come toward us.
“There’s a barrier up,” Tejus replied helpfully, “a regular one. What happened?”
His tone was brusque, but his eyes betrayed relief and joy—intense emotions that I’d not seen him display unless he was looking at Hazel.
“I don’t exactly know,” I murmured. “I think the entity chose the wrong body…I felt the immortal waters, like fire running through me—I think they might have purged him somehow.”
I didn’t mention the choice I’d made to activate them. How close a call it had been. Part of me had welcomed the entity—its offer had been tempting. If it wasn’t for Ruby, it wouldn’t have ended the same way.
“What’s happened to the shadow?” I asked.
Tejus eyed me speculatively, but turned to watch the battle taking place around us. We were winning, easily. Ben took out six of the soldiers in one swipe of his sword. I was glad he was still alive.
“As soon as you shone white, the shadow changed, leaving only the soldiers,” Tejus replied matter-of-factly.
What?
“I shone white?”
“You looked like you were on fire,” Ruby muttered. “Like, your whole body—as if you were part of the barrier.”
Splatters of water started to rain down on us. I looked up to the sky, puzzled.
“There.” Tejus nodded his head over to where a group of witches were standing—Ibrahim, Mona and Corrine were manipulating the immortal water that had been brought along in barrels. It rained down on the ashen soldiers, burning them.
“We should help.” I tried to stand up, but Ruby held me down.
“Do you know what? I think you’ve done enough today. You can rest and leave this to the others.” Her tone warned me not to argue with her. Somehow, despite presumably being the hero of the hour, I was in deep trouble.
“Fine,” I agreed, yanking her down next to me. If I wasn’t fighting, neither was she.
“You too, Hazel, Tejus,” Ruby bit out at our friends. “You can all just sit right here. I’ve had enough of you all being in danger—we’ve done what we can, so we can just wait it out now, okay?”
Tejus smirked at her, but did as she asked. Hazel sat down too, and we sat in silence, watching GASP and the rest of the sentries get to work. It was like watching some kind of orchestrated dance performance—the vampires, fae armies and Sherus, werewolves, witches, dragons and Hawks were so elegant in their slaughter.
“Impressive,” Tejus breathed. I could see he was itching to get out and join them. Hazel took his hand, stilling him. Words, unspoken, passed between them and he nodded, pulling her into his arms.
This final battle wasn’t ours.
Hazel
When there were only a few of the entity’s soldiers left, Tejus took down the barriers. Ruby and Tejus helped Ash to his feet, and we looked around at the weary GASP members and sentries. The only ones who didn’t look like they were half-dead on their feet were the fae armies—they had been battling the shortest amount of time, and still looked pristine in their elaborate uniforms.
I looked around for my parents and saw them standing by an autumn-leaved tree, helping the wounded. They were safe and unharmed. My mom was attending to Micah, who had a cut running along his side. It didn’t look too serious though, and Mona was approaching—I had every faith that she’d patch him up in no time.
“How are you feeling, Ash?” I asked.
“Okay,” he replied. “Been better, been worse.”
Ruby and I smiled at each other, but her eyes seemed dulled—the smile more of an act than anything genuine. She’d been through a lot. Having Ash almost dying twice was more than any sane person could bear, and I could understand that she wasn’t exactly in a celebratory mood. Neither was I. I’d imagined this moment being very different—once the entity was dead we’d all be overjoyed, patting ourselves on the back for making it through and defeating our enemy. It didn’t feel that way at all. I just felt exhausted—and sad. I thought of all the people who had been lost—Memenion, Varga, the villagers, the Acolytes, Queen Trina, Jenus. Some of them deserved our pity, some didn’t. But they had all suffered at the hands of the entity. I thought about Benedict, Julian and Yelena too—how much they had gone through to reach today. It just seemed like a waste of their innocence. It wasn’t like any of us would ever forget what had happened. It might have made us all a bit tougher, a bit harder and more resilient. But at what cost?
Tejus turned away from our group, walking over to a body that was slumped on the ground. No one had bothered to approach it, and the limbs sprawled out, lifeless on the ground.
It was Jenus. His eyes stared upward at the sky.
Tejus knelt down and gently closed his eyelids. I joined him, wrapping the fae cloak around Jenus’ body. He looked more peaceful than I’d ever seen him in life.
“I should have been a better brother,” Tejus muttered.
“So should he,” I replied gently. I felt pity for Jenus, but I wouldn’t forget how he had tried to use me as his pawn, trying to get me to end Tejus’s life in exchange for my brother’s. How he’d locked Benedict, Julian and Ruby up when they were meant to be released.
“I’m glad he’s at peace. I don’t think he experienced much of it while he was alive. I think he was his own worst enemy, not just in the end, but all through his life.” Tejus covered his face with the last fold of the cloak.
I nodded. In some ways, Tejus could have been talking about himself.
“You’re a good man, you know that—don’t you?” I replied.
He turned to me in surprise. He was silent for a moment before replying. “I have reason to try. He didn’t.”
“As long as you remember that.”
Tejus took my hand, turning us both away from the body of his brother. He moved closer to me, his eyes boring down into mine.
“Do you think for a moment that I’d ever forget?” he breathed. “Do you think I don’t know that if it wasn’t for you, it could easily be me lying in my brother’s place?”
“That’s not true!”
He smiled.
“It is. And that’s okay. I know who I am—I know what I am, and what I’m capable of. But I also know you. What you’re capable of saving me from.”
He kissed me,
pulling me closer against him. It was unhurried—slow and lingering, like we had all the time in the world. For the first time since I’d met him, I supposed we did.
My grandpa interrupted us some time later. He cleared his throat. I untangled myself from Tejus while Grandpa’s gaze settled at some point off in the distance till I was standing, flustered and floaty, in front of him.
“GASP members are going to be dispatched to the other locations around Earth to finish off the shadow and the ghouls, but I think that you four should return to Nevertide in the meantime—Benedict and the others will need to be told what’s happened, and the villagers too.”
“Will you join us back there, after?” I asked.
“We will,” he replied. “I think it’s still prudent to search for this group of jinn, if they haven’t already been found. There are still answers that I want—an assurance that this is the end of it.”
I nodded.
Yeah. Answers would be good.
“Queen Nuriya and Corrine will take you back.”
“Okay, thanks,” I replied.
“No, thank you, Hazel,” my grandpa countered. “I couldn’t be more proud of you and Benedict if I tried. You have both turned out to be… extremely impressive.” He smiled broadly and I fell silent, not really knowing what to say. I felt a flush appearing on my cheeks to see my grandpa so pleased with me, and turned away to tell Ruby and Ash that we’d be leaving.
They were sitting next to one of the fire fountains, both of them staring into space. At first I wondered if they’d had an argument, but they were holding hands. Maybe they were just exhausted.
“We’ve been asked to head back to Nevertide, tell the others what’s happened,” I announced. Ruby paled, but stood up with Ash, ready to go.
“If you want to stay…” I hesitated, looking at Ruby. Maybe she’d prefer to stay with her parents or head back to The Shade.
“No,” she replied quickly, “It’s fine, honestly. I’m just tired.”
Ash looked at her, worried.
She smiled that strange, empty smile at him.
“So, who’s getting us there?” she asked brightly.
Ash and I looked at each other. Something was up with Ruby, and I knew that it had to do with Ash and the danger he’d just been in, but there was nothing I could say to make her feel any better. We would just have to hope that it wore off in its own time.
“Corrine and Nuriya,” I replied.
The witch and the jinni appeared the moment I said their names.
“You know the drill,” Corrine muttered, “hold hands.”
A second later, we were standing in the star-studded vacuum of the In-Between dimension, traveling slowly away from the planets of the fae. The silence was uncomfortably oppressive, but I clutched Tejus’s hand, knowing that it would come to an end soon. Up ahead I saw the bluish, swirling portal that would lead us out onto the snowy peaks of Mount Logan.
We stepped inside the tunnel, the force of the wind knocking into us.
“Stay together!” Corrine called out.
She led us through, the jinni following behind. I glanced over at Tejus, both of our expressions probably matching—crossing through the tunnel was something I’d only ever experienced hours before on the way here, and it was strange.
Once we arrived at Mount Logan, Corrine and Nuriya transported us to the North Sea. There we hovered for a few moments over the ocean, while the mouth of the portal became visible. We followed Corrine in, traveling once again through the bluish tunnel that would lead to the cove.
When we arrived in Nevertide, Corrine and Nuriya helped us once again by transporting us to the shore. The sea had become unfrozen, waves gently moving against the sand beds.
“Hazel!”
Benedict was running toward me, his face set in a mixture of disbelief and joy at seeing us all alive.
“Miss me?” I laughed, wrapping his body in my arms.
“Where are Mom and Dad?” he asked, untangling himself a moment later.
“Not far away. They’re just finishing up, they’ll be here soon.”
“And the entity?”
“Dead,” I confirmed.
“Really dead?”
“The deadest.”
“Awesome,” he breathed.
I smiled. That about summed it up.
Benedict
I couldn’t believe that we’d won.
I was so relieved that they were all alive—and not wounded, miraculously—that I completely forgot all about the Oracle, who was still standing back from the shore line.
“Who’s your friend?” Ruby asked, glancing over at her.
Then everyone turned and stared.
“It’s the Oracle,” I replied proudly. She might be as useful as a wet blanket in a storm, but we’d still accomplished our mission and found the person responsible for locking up the entity in the first place.
“What?” Hazel replied, looking at her in confusion.
“It wasn’t a group of jinn that locked it up—it was just her. She’s half Ancient, half jinni. Apparently, she’s lived in Nevertide since she was little. I’ll be honest,” I continued in a whisper, “she’s kind of…weird. And not a very good Oracle.”
“A totally crap Oracle,” added Julian, less bothered about keeping his voice down. Then again, she’d probably seen that insult coming.
“I need to have a word with her,” said Corrine, looking stunned.
“Be my guest,” I replied. She should be answerable to everyone—she’d let us all suffer a lot of bother for no good reason. Just because everything had turned out okay, it didn’t mean she should be let off the hook, as far as I was concerned.
Corrine, Nuriya, and the rest of them all started walking toward her. The Oracle looked pleased as they approached – I guessed she could sense them. It struck me that she wasn’t very self-aware…maybe that came from living in a cave all by yourself for thousands of years.
I followed with Julian and Yelena.
“Thank you for ending the life of the entity.” She smiled at them all before they could get a word in. “Better this way than being re-imprisoned by the stones. Nevertide, and I, are grateful—your names will not be forgotten. You have sacrificed much.”
“Yeah, we have,” Ruby spat out. “No thanks to you.”
“Perhaps,” the Oracle mused. “Or perhaps not.”
There go those stellar prophecy skills.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ruby bit back. She was mad. I wondered if something had happened in the battle, something that had pissed Ruby off. Ash was alive, and I assumed her parents were otherwise she would have said something, so I couldn’t really understand what was bothering her so much—not to this point of fury, anyway. I glanced at Hazel, who shook her head with a ‘don’t ask’ expression.
The Oracle reached out and held Ruby’s hand. She looked like she wanted to shake it off but something stopped her.
“Ashbik won’t come to further harm, Ruby. You’ll have a happy life together, a long life. You two are the new beginning that I spoke of earlier, Tejus of Hellswan and Hazel as well. But it is under your rule that Nevertide will transform—will become truly free.”
The Oracle released her hand and stepped back.
“Thank you,” Ruby whispered. She wiped at her face hastily, looking as if she was crying.
“I should return to my home,” the Oracle added.
“Wait,” Nuriya interjected. “I’m afraid you can’t do that yet. The rest of GASP will want to question you. I understand that you may have helped us in ways we do not realize, but we need to know the full story, and I would prefer it if you waited for Derek and Sherus to arrive.”
“You don’t trust me,” sighed the Oracle.
“No,” Nuriya answered honestly. “I don’t. The fact that you’re a child of an Ancient and a jinni of old is curious, if not downright terrifying. I hope you understand.”
The Oracle fiddled with her dress, looking uncom
fortable. “I have told the children and the other jinni my story,” she replied softly.
Nuriya crossed her arms.
“That’s not enough. Please, you must stay.”
“But if I stay now,” the Oracle replied, “my own future becomes very unclear.”
“They can’t harm you,” Aisha replied. “It’s in the best interest of us all for you to stay a while—yourself included. We need to confirm what you’ve told us. There’s a lot we don’t understand about the sentries and their history that you do.”
I hid a smirk.
Oh, yeah.
My sister was technically part-ghoul. So gross. I didn’t know if I wanted to tell her or wait until she found out from the Oracle…Either way was tempting. Maybe I’d wait for the right moment—let her relax a bit from the battle first. Enjoy her last moments of ignorance before I spilled the beans.
“Are you okay, Benedict?” Yelena asked.
“Yeah!”
“You look like you’re choking.”
In delight!
“I’m fine,” I replied hurriedly.
Yelena gave me a baffled look and then shrugged, turning her attention back to the Oracle.
The Oracle agreed to stay. She made it clear that she wasn’t all that pleased about it, but she stopped resisting. It was strange to come across a creature that was part Ancient, who seemed so compliant – not bent on destroying us all, but almost as if she was afraid of us in some ways.
Nuriya and Corrine sent the villagers back to Memenion’s castle. Ash would come and see them shortly to give further instructions, and make sure they all had some way of feeding themselves until they could return to their farming. I guessed most of them expected him to go with them, but I got the impression that he didn’t want to leave Ruby’s side, and none of us were willing to go back into the depths of Nevertide. We all wanted a break, and to get home as soon as we could. Even Zerus stayed with us. He didn’t say much to anyone, least of all his brother, but he seemed content enough to just sit still, staring up at the torn sky, waiting for the stars to come out.