“Come out, come out wherever you are.” Cyrus' voice echoed eerily around the dungeon.
I backed into one corner, looking toward the stairwell where I glimpsed Horatio hiding behind the door. An idea occurring to me, I resumed my solid state and shot toward the exit. As Cyrus followed through the door, I had to hope that Horatio would be courageous enough to strike him as he passed by in my wake.
Horatio did attempt it, holding a sword in the air, but he only became another victim of Cyrus' uncanny sense of awareness.
Cyrus discovered him behind the door too soon. He stood gaping at his son, stunned… and hurt.
“Horatio?” he said, his voice hoarse.
Horatio’s gaze was steely as he looked back at his formidable father. His mouth grim, his expression resolute, Horatio said, “I’ve had enough.”
Cyrus just stared, as though he simply could not accept that his son had sided with a fae in a plot against him. Then anger lined his face. His arms shot out and although Horatio tried to dodge, Cyrus grabbed his throat as easily as a child would a doll. Cyrus slammed him against the wall, his hold around his neck tightening.
As much as I wanted to help Horatio, I couldn’t. Taking advantage of Cyrus' shock and devastation over his son, I thinned myself and soared back into the dungeon. To my horror, Nuriya was no longer trembling or spluttering. She lay still. Quite still. Don’t be dead, Nuriya. Don’t be dead. Could the venom really have killed her already? She’d only been held under for a few seconds. I checked her pulse. She was still alive. For how long, there was no saying.
Another round of roars rumbled through the palace, followed by what must have been floods of fire.
Neema snapped her pincers, agitated. Uncurling her legs, she began to creep forward. I really don’t need to deal with that too…
I hurried to scoop up Nuriya in my arms, even as the venom she was coated with stung my own skin. Cyrus yelled his son’s name. I turned to see Horatio speeding into the room, having somehow slipped from his father’s grasp. Not for long. Cyrus came zooming into the room and made a beeline for him. But then, on noticing me, he stopped midway.
I was forced to thin myself again, leaving Nuriya on the ground, as he lunged for me. I hurried over to Horatio’s end as Cyrus crossed the room and rolled Nuriya back into the pool.
She’s unconscious. If the venom doesn’t finish her off first, won’t she drown?
Despite her “superior bloodline”, she wasn’t showing any signs of being able to handle the poison any better than Cyrus’ previous wives. I wondered what made Cyrus think that she would still turn, or perhaps he didn’t and was just happy to let her die.
“We should try to damage both of them,” Horatio mouthed, sensing my approach. “Both of their stingers.”
How?
I didn’t need to ask the question. It was clear that he did not know how, any more than I knew, or he would have clarified. To make matters worse, Cyrus had just vanished his lower half and replaced it with his usual trail of reddish mist.
Oh, God. We’ve missed our chance.
We’d spent so much time waiting for him to revert to his scorpion form. All of it now wasted.
How are we ever going to pull this off?
Before I could sink into a state of mind the oracle would greatly disapprove of, I instead focused my thoughts on action.
My eyes shot to Cyrus as he lunged forward, approaching Horatio again. Taking advantage of the distraction, I swept across the chamber toward one of the swords Horatio had dropped. Forced to solidify in order to scoop it up, I wrapped my fingers around the hilt before darting into the second chamber. I wanted to dive into the pool and collect Nuriya, but I could only pick one objective. Trying to fish Nuriya out would attract Cyrus' attention again, and he would only dump her back into the pool… but if I could damage his scorpion pet…
I soared over and passed the pool, arriving a few feet from the scorpion.
As I maneuvered around the animal, I saw that she was chained to the wall. I was about to attempt to leap up onto her back to get closer to her stinger when a powerful force collided with my back, winding me and knocking the blade from my hands. Weakened, I fell to the ground, almost in the reach of the scorpion’s pincers.
Cyrus loomed over me. I could not see where Horatio was. If he was even still alive. Cyrus’ hand shot down and gripped my head, his powerful fingers raking into my hair, and he forced my neck to the side in such a violent motion I was surprised that it did not snap. I had to remind myself that I was not a vampire anymore. Fae, when in their physical state, could be damaged just like humans could. I struggled to thin myself, but couldn’t. I could only assume it was because Cyrus was already holding me.
Firelight glistened in Cyrus’ gold-plated teeth as a sinister smile split his face.
“You wanted to get a closer look at her, did you?”
He dragged me closer to the scorpion. His hands felt like iron as he gripped my shoulders and turned me to face his pet. The beast was thoroughly agitated by now, pulling against her restraints and snapping her sharp pincers.
“Neema does not get visitors very often,” Cyrus said, looking at her affectionately. “Sweet thing. Look at how excited she is.”
He lowered me until my body was a foot away from her pincers and jaws that looked like a meat grinder. Forcing me closer still, Cyrus laughed as the scorpion clamped her pincers around my arms, their sharp edges digging painfully into my flesh. I moved to kick her, but all that did was infuriate her further.
No. I did not go through all of this to end up as scorpion food.
“Stop!” a voice roared. Horatio’s voice.
His form whizzed past me and hurtled into his father, causing Cyrus to stagger back, and in the process, pulling me away with him. I grunted as the pincers ripped through my skin.
Cyrus sent Horatio crashing against the wall, sending a bracket of burning torches crashing to the floor. Then he dragged me to Neema again.
“We couldn’t deprive Neema of her meal now,” Cyrus drawled. “That would be terribly unfair.”
As he lowered me again, I caught sight of one of the torches that had rolled just nearby. In a burst of desperation, I lunged for it and managed to reach out with my arm and grab the torch. I swung it up toward Cyrus’ face. He released his grip in shock. Then I swiped the torch against the scorpion, who screeched and scuttled backward.
This torch had only bought me a few seconds. I had two choices: flee, or try to finish off what Horatio and I had started. But fleeing wasn’t an option for me. Fleeing the jinn only to be thrust back into The Underworld.
I was on the verge of shooting to the other side of the chamber, where more swords lay, when a spark of fire fell from my torch to my feet. In all the commotion, the tip of the torch had loosened.
I was expecting to feel an intense burning, and my skin to singe. Instead my feet caught on fire. Then the flames spread within seconds to the rest of my body, licking up my torso as though I was doused in gasoline, until there wasn’t an inch of me that wasn’t covered in flames. Still, I felt no pain. Just a warm, even comfortable, tingling sensation.
Was I just in too much pain for my brain to even register it? What is happening to me? As bewildered as I was, I didn’t hesitate a second longer. Taking advantage of Cyrus’ surprise, I lunged for the sword again and swept over the scorpion’s back with all the supernatural speed I could muster. I wrapped my burning limbs around the stinger. My fire seared her body. A split second later, I’d hacked off the bulbous tip of the stinger. As it fell to the floor, I darted down with it and drove the blade through it, twisting and turning the weapon as the poison leaked out. The scorpion’s screams were deafening, and so were Cyrus’. The intensity of their cries matched one another, as though it had been Cyrus’ tail I’d chopped. The scorpion thrashed wildly as blood and venom leaked from her end. To my surprise, Cyrus’ own lower body revealed itself, as though it was triggered by the pain. Though unlike Neema’s, his stinger was still i
ntact.
Fury shone in his eyes, brighter than the flames engulfing my body. He shot toward me and I tried to thin myself, but I couldn’t. This fire is keeping me in my physical state. I gazed around the room for Horatio. Where he had been slumped on the floor was now an empty space. He was gone. Where is he? Did he just abandon me? And Nuriya! I thought with a wave of panic. She was still in the pool. God, I’d forgotten.
Before Cyrus grabbed me again, I reached out for another torch and swung it in Cyrus' direction. He didn’t even bother to dodge this time. He whacked it out of my hands, sending it tumbling to the ground. He dragged me over to the pool and then, withdrawing a dagger from his belt, held it up against my neck.
His face twitched maniacally. “You will pay for this, fae.”
As he brought the knife driving toward my chest, a wave of heat rolled through the chamber. Cyrus paused midair and twisted his head. A mass of fire—perhaps shot from a dragon?—was heading toward us with such speed, Cyrus didn’t even have a chance to react as it slammed against him, forcing him to drop the knife and me. He fell to the floor, allowing me to rise to my feet, and as I did I found myself face to face with Lucas. Also fathered by fire… His whole body blazed, just like mine. He had been the flaming cannonball.
My eyes traveled past him quickly and I glimpsed Horatio and Aisha, holding more swords. Horatio left me to get help. As Cyrus scrambled to his feet—or legs—Horatio, Aisha and Lucas lunged at once, all three piling onto him.
Let’s finish this once and for all…
Sweeping up my sword, I leapt onto Cyrus’ back and struck just beneath his stinger’s bulb, the same thin area where I’d struck Neema’s body. Cyrus roared so loudly it felt like my ear drums would split. I twisted the knife deeper into the bright red bulb as it detached, mashing it up into a pulp. Poison oozed from it as though it were a seething boil.
It was a disgusting sight to behold, both the mother scorpion and her mutant writhing together on the ground.
“I-I think we’ve done enough damage,” Horatio said, even as he looked petrified at what we’d just done. “Under this pain, I can’t imagine he’s strong enough to hold up the bond…”
“Let’s go,” Lucas said.
“No!” Aisha roared, before we could even consider leaving the dungeon. The next thing I knew, she’d wrapped her legs around Cyrus' waist and plunged her dagger right through his throat.
He choked, blood spurting everywhere. Aisha’s sweaty face twisted with rage even as tears welled behind her eyes. “This is for my family.” She jerked the knife lower down his throat, creating a sickeningly wide gash and causing more blood to pool. “For my brothers.” She tore sideways. “My fathers.” She withdrew the knife and made a puncture in the side of his throat. “And my uncles.”
My stomach lurched as, with a sharp pivot of the blade, she tore Cyrus’ head clean off.
It all happened so fast, Horatio, Lucas and I just gaped.
The mighty Cyrus Drizan. Dead. At the hands of Aisha.
Ben
It was Lucas who roused us to our senses. “We’ve got to leave,” he breathed. Both his and my flames had died down by now.
“Wait!” I said, darting toward the pool. “Nuriya!”
“She’s all right,” Horatio said behind me, his voice shaky. “I-I took her out of there when m-my father’s focus was on you.”
Thank God. I couldn’t believe that she would have been alive in there after all this time.
We rushed to the exit and up the stairwell, arriving back in Cyrus’ bedroom.
“What happened?” I asked, looking around the empty apartment.
“We arrived as planned,” Aisha said, her chest heaving, eyes still gleaming with menace. “We couldn’t have picked a better night than the night of a royal wedding. Everyone’s blind drunk, even the guards. We hardly even needed the dragons to cause a distraction.”
“Who else came?” I asked anxiously.
“Everyone,” Aisha replied. “Though only Lucas, the dragons and I came down to the palace. The rest are waiting up in the desert for us.”
Good.
“And where’s Nuriya?” I asked.
Horatio led us to a cupboard near the exit to Cyrus’ apartment. When he drew it open, Nuriya lay there curled up in a ball. She was trembling, but thankfully conscious. Her face, covered in burns, lit up a little when she saw me and she even cracked a brief smile.
“I knew you’d come for me,” she said to me.
Horatio picked her up, and then we all hurried away from the apartment.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Now the bond should, uh”—Horatio’s voice cracked. He swallowed hard—“definitely be removed.” I wondered if there was a part of him that grieved his father’s death. Mostly he seemed to be in a state of shock.
“Which means we have to free the rest,” I said.
“We already gathered them in anticipation of you killing Cyrus,” Aisha said. “They’re waiting as close to the exit as possible—in one of the entrance halls the dragons didn’t scorch yet. At least… we gathered as many as we could.” Aisha’s tone dropped, then she choked up. “H-he killed…” She gulped. “He killed every man in our family.”
Damn. I couldn’t blame Aisha for charging at Cyrus the way she had.
She regained composure, clenching her thick jaw as she vanished us to the desert.
Indeed, a crowd was waiting there. My family, River and also a group of female jinn. It warmed me to see Safi among them. Thank God we got them out of that mess.
River leapt at me as I approached. I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her neck, breathing in her familiar scent.
“Are you all right?” my mother asked, as my parents and sister hurried to me.
“All right.” I nodded. “Where are the dra—”
“It’s not safe to stay here longer.” I spun to see Jeriad approaching us at a run, our other dragon companions close behind him. “We must leave. Now.”
I couldn’t have agreed more.
We returned to the islet in Lake Nasser, and for the first time in hours, I was able to catch a breath. I dove into the lake, taking River with me. Dipping under with her, I relished the cool water against my skin.
The freed Nasiris remained speechless, shaken and traumatized by their time in the Drizans’ palace. I wasn’t sure what Horatio—the only male jinni among us—planned to do now. I wondered if his people would punish him if he returned. Whatever the case, he decided to tag along with us.
When we climbed out of the lake from our brief bath, we had to forge on to the mountains… where our real problems would begin.
Ben
Before leaving for Canada, I briefed the jinn about what was required of them—that I was indebted to a fae, and they needed to help me pay off this debt. Of course, I still wasn’t able to tell them exactly what the fae wanted their assistance with, for I had no idea myself.
Although they were still in a daze, I was relieved that at least there was no resistance on their part. Aisha, having recovered a large part of her family, was less weak from mourning. Even though the others were worn, they all agreed to help me, including Nuriya.
And so together we left Lake Nasser—everyone except for the dragons. I told my family and River that they did not need to come with us, but they insisted. We traveled by the jinns’ magic toward the mountain portal where I was due to meet Sherus in just a couple of hours’ time. As we reached the peak and gazed down at its smooth snow-clad surface, we caught sight of a lone figure already waiting there. Sherus was early. Goosebumps ran along my skin, and I instinctively held River closer.
This is it.
As we touched down, my stomach clenched as he turned around to face us all. He raised a brow, as though surprised I’d kept my word. Then he moved closer, his brilliant amber eyes fixed on my jinn companions. He cleared his throat.
“I’m glad you came,” he said.
I nodded curtly, then gestured
toward the jinn on either side of me. “These jinn are willing to assist you in whatever your request is,” I said. “Now would you please give a briefing on what exactly you need from them?”
“Naturally,” Sherus said. “Come with me.” He gestured toward the gaping portal.
The jinn exchanged uncertain glances with me before we moved forward. I shot a glance at the rest of our group—both vampire and fae—indicating that they stay, but since River was already on my back, and only tightened her grip on me at Sherus’ invitation to follow, I let her stay as she was.
We drifted to the hole and sank inside. Sherus led us through the swirling walls of the tunnel. River filled my right ear with a soft gasp as we emerged in what looked like outer space. The endless, star-speckled void.
“Are you okay?” I whispered to River, suddenly anxious. For a moment I feared that perhaps the atmosphere might not be tolerable for non-subtle beings.
But she replied, “Yes. I’m okay.”
She did not sound like she was suffocating, so I returned my attention to the fae.
“Take us closer to those stars,” Sherus requested the jinn.
He was pointing to the brightest star in view, one that had caught my attention the last time I’d come down here. Obediently, the jinn used their powers to vanish us God knew how many miles closer. When we reached our destination I realized why Sherus had spoken in plural. The “star” I’d seen from a distance was actually four distinct, glowing globes, each with a different hue—white, green, blue, and golden-brown—and very close together. They were aligned in a gentle arc, like a bridge. A bridge of stars.
I looked back to Sherus. His expression was tinged with melancholy. He swallowed before beginning his much-needed explanation. “Those stars you see are the realms of the fae—fae of all elements.”
“What do you mean by elements?”
“Earth, water, fire, and air,” he said, pointing to each of the stars in succession: golden-brown for earth, blue for water, red for fire, and white for air. “Although most fae can affect elements of all kinds, the element toward which a fae is most inclined is that by which he is defined.”