“Oh, stop it,” Vita moaned, hitting Aida on the arm. “Once we get further in there will be water—there’s got to be a stream somewhere with this much jungle.”
I hoped there was. We hadn’t brought any water with us… or any food. Still, I wasn’t overly concerned—in a lush place like this, water and food was unlikely to be scarce. We just had to make sure we didn’t poison ourselves in the process.
We started to pick up the pace—thanks to Aida and her daydreams, we were now all in search of a water source.
“Stop, please—stop a sec,” Vita called out. She had fallen to the back of the group, and I hurried to her. She bent double, leaning against a rock.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, seeing her visibly pale right before my eyes. She clutched at her stomach with an agonized groan. We crowded around her, all of us deeply worried. She had started sweating profusely, more than was normal. I saw that the hand clutching her stomach was trembling violently.
“Vita, breathe,” I commanded her gently, “just breathe.”
She nodded, inhaling deeply, but in the next moment her body jerked backward, her spine curving backward with her face thrown up to the sky. He eyes rolled back into her skull.
“Vita!” I cried, grabbing her before she fell.
She jerked in my arms, and Phoenix moved me aside, holding onto her tightly as she shook. It lasted no more than ten seconds, and then her body went limp.
“Vita, Vita?” Phoenix called her name, rubbing her arms to bring her awake. I heard Field land behind us, giving a sharp inhale of breath as he saw Vita in Phoenix’s arms.
Slowly she opened her eyes, looking around at us all, dazed, but registering our presence.
“We need to get out of here,” she whispered, her voice dry and reedy. “We need to leave… Now. We will become the hunted. His creatures never sleep.”
“What creatures?” I gasped. “Who will hunt us? Vita?”
She started to convulse again, her eyes scrunched up in pain and her breathing coming out in the short pants that reminded me of when they’d all been unconscious on the hospital beds.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.” Field moved to pick Vita up, taking her in his arms. Before he could fly up with her, he paused, turning around in the direction we’d been heading.
“Everyone, hide!” he whispered, dragging Vita and me down into the undergrowth.
Serena
[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]
As I ducked down, I realized what Field had been reacting to. I could hear someone, or something, running through the undergrowth at great speed, heading in our direction.
Vita’s panting, and her pain, hadn’t let up.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, covering her mouth with my hand. She looked up at me in panic, and I tried to hug her at the same time, to reassure her. I couldn’t let her give our position away if she cried out—I could only hope that whatever was running toward us would continue past, and that we weren’t their target.
I looked over to where Aida, Phoenix and Jovi had been standing, but I couldn’t see them.
Good.
Hopefully the large leaves and the bright colors of the various jungle plants would be enough to shield us from sight.
The sound grew louder. They could only be about a yard away from us now. I started praying that we wouldn’t be noticed, when another noise made my blood run cold. A loud shriek, high-pitched and vicious, sounded from above us. Whatever it was, it was horrible—like an animal in severe pain. I heard the flapping of huge wings smacking against the tops of the trees.
I clutched Vita tighter, glancing over at Field, his horror mirroring my own.
The next moment, I caught sight of the creature—or creatures, as I soon realized—who had been running through the undergrowth. I now believed that they were most likely running from the creatures overhead, and so when I caught sight of them, I was no longer worried about us being found, but more worried about their fate.
They were two men who would have looked entirely human were it not for two very small horns at their temples, and slightly silvery skin, which might have just been a trick of the light. As they ran, they repeatedly glanced up into the sky, their faces fixed in expressions of fear.
They were only a matter of feet away from us when one of them collapsed on his front, a spear protruding from his back. I gasped, covering my own mouth as soon as it slipped out.
The second man flung himself down on the ground next to his companion, and before I could cry out a warning, another spear shot through the sky, landing in the second man.
I turned my head away, not wanting to see anymore.
The screams from above grew louder, almost victorious. The trees directly above us shook as wings hit against them, then shuddered still. The cries grew fainter, and I heaved a sigh of relief when I heard a final cry, coming far off in the distance.
“Are you okay?” I whispered to Vita, removing my hand from her mouth. Field motioned for us both to be quiet, pointing at the two dead men on the ground. I was about to move back up when, to my surprise, the second of the two men slowly rose to his feet with a muffled groan. The spear must have missed him by inches, its tip protruding from the earth. He stayed crouched on the floor, clutching at the lifeless arm of his companion. I caught sight of his profile, contorted by devastation.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so very sorry.”
He muttered something else under his breath, and yanked out the spear. With a sudden explosion of rage, he snapped it over his knee, splitting it in half. Next, he took a hunting knife from a sheath at his side. He closed his eyes momentarily, his face etched in misery. In one single, fluid movement, he sliced the neck of his companion—thick silvery blood pooling out onto the forest floor.
I gasped, unable to help myself. The action had been so violent, so unexpected in his moment of mourning.
The man turned sharply in my direction.
“Show yourself,” he barked out, his voice thick with unshed tears.
Reluctantly, seeing no other choice, I rose to my feet. The moment I did so, Phoenix jumped up from his hiding place, looking menacingly in the direction of the horned man. For the first time since I’d laid eyes on him, I noticed how strangely beautiful he was—unearthly handsome, like an artist’s depiction of beauty, as unreal and inhuman as any I’d ever seen.
He didn’t look surprised to see either of us, and less so when the others emerged from their hiding places.
“Who are you?” Phoenix demanded.
“I feel like I should be asking the questions,” the man replied, his voice deep and husky, his eyes lighting on me and Aida. His stare was piercing and traveled up and down both of our figures with a lazy delight, making me feel like he was seeing right through my clothes. Vita was the last of us to stand, swaying slightly as she clutched a tree for support. The horned man’s eyes widened at the sight of her, and his gaze became even more intent.
I blushed furiously, moving in front of Vita to protect her from his stare.
He saw what I was doing, and smiled broadly—the anguish of his friend’s plight seemed to be momentarily forgotten and he bowed down low, not for a second removing his gaze from Vita.
“It’s such a pleasure to meet you all.”
I rolled my eyes in disgust. Vita just stared at him, like she was hypnotized.
“Seriously?” I interrupted. “Who are you—and can you stop staring at my friend like you want to eat her?”
Field moved to stand directly in front of both me and Vita, blocking the man’s view. He crossed his arms, staring him down till he replied.
“Sorry,” the man replied, not sounding sorry at all. “I’m easily distracted. I’ll tell you what and who I am back at the house—you’ve decided to abandon the Druid, I take it?”
“What do you mean?” I asked sharply. How did this stranger know where we’d come from? I glanced over at the rest of the group. Everyone—other than Vita—eyed him with deep suspi
cion and anger.
The horned man shrugged, seemingly oblivious to the reaction he’d just caused.
“Like I said, I’ll tell you everything.” He searched the sky again. “But we really do need to get moving. Unless you all wish to spend the rest of eternity with Azazel? Which, by the way, I do not recommend.”
I looked to Field, wondering what he would think the best course of action was. I knew what I thought, that we should get the hell out of here and turn back, but I was starting to realize that my vote as the youngest wasn’t going to hold much sway.
“All right.” Field nodded. “We head back. But we will want answers—proper ones, not the vague half-truths the Druid provided.”
The horned man eyed him speculatively.
“He may be telling you the whole truth—perhaps you just don’t want to hear it,” he replied softly.
Field ignored him, moving back the direction we had come. We all followed him, the horned man keeping up the rear. I kept Vita close, wondering what kind of spell he had her under—I’d never seen my friend behave so moon-eyed. He was handsome, I couldn’t deny that, but her behavior made me think that something else was going on. She walked alongside me as if she was in a daze, and I didn’t know how much was due to the painful episode she’d just had or the new arrival.
What I was totally sure of was that Vita had experienced a vision.
“Vita,” I asked, drawing her away from the others, “what was that? Can you remember what happened?”
She shook her head, wrapping her arms around her small frame.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I felt sick, horribly sick… like there was this weird bile filling up inside me…and then I saw things, like a film playing out in my head. I saw the men rushing through the forest, and that creature…the one in the sky—he had grabbed Field by the neck, lifting him up off his feet.” She shuddered. “It was horrible.”
I got the impression that there was more she wasn’t telling me. Her face was back to its unhealthy palor, and I briefly pulled her toward me in a hug before releasing her so that we could navigate the jungle.
“It was a vision, wasn’t it?” she asked me.
“I think so.”
She didn’t reply, staring forward as we walked. I couldn’t imagine what she must be feeling—to discover that she was an Oracle, that all the Druid had said was true. I looked over at Aida and Phoenix. Would they start to experience visions soon too? Or did the Druid have it wrong, was it only Vita among us who had been passed the gift? Both Phoenix and Aida looked downcast. They had watched as Vita had convulsed painfully, they must have been wondering if they were next, and at least contemplating the fact that everything we had been told so far had a ring of truth to it.
I wanted to talk to them, but with the horned man here, now didn’t feel like the right time. He obviously knew something about us, or at least our presence in Eritopia, and he clearly knew the Druid. I kept glancing back at him, wanting to keep an eye on him. Field obviously had the same idea. As soon after we’d started our trek back, he’d maneuvered himself next to the stranger, keeping his distance, but ready to attack if necessary. I wanted to know what the man’s connection to the Druid was, and why he’d butchered his friend—and just left his body out in the jungle—after he’d seemed so devastated at his death in the first place.
There was also something familiar about the spears that had been shot down by the winged creatures in the sky. I tried to recall their detail, but it had been such a shock, and had all happened so fast, that I hadn’t really taken a proper look at them. I tried to think why they might have been familiar to me…and then I remembered. The painting in the house—the one that had been covered by the curtain, depicting the half-man half-serpent demon riding on the back of the horse. My mouth ran dry. If those were the creatures that had been flying overhead, then we had made a lucky escape. A really lucky escape.
Serena
[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]
Eventually we re-entered the safety of the lawn. The ravens were sitting where we had left them, and as soon as we stepped onto the overgrown grass, they shot up into the air, squawking and screeching, before settling onto the roof of the house.
Damn birds.
I instantly felt guilty—they had tried to warn me away the night I’d followed the shape-shifting creatures into the swamps, and their protest earlier had been a kind of warning too, but I couldn’t help but be slightly freaked out by them…they were just regular birds, as far as I could make out, they weren’t supposed to know things.
The sunshine, bright and pure now that we were out of the swamp, burned down on us from its high mid-point in the sky. I tried to wipe the worst of the perspiration off my skin, but it was pointless, it just kept coming—snaking down my back constantly. If I didn’t drink a gallon of water soon I was in danger of becoming seriously dehydrated.
We all stepped through the still-smashed greenhouse door, and I idly wondered why the Druid had told me the house regenerated itself—clearly it didn’t in certain respects.
Field swore under his breath. He looked annoyed to be back, mission failed and in no better place than when we started off.
“This way,” announced the horned man, leading us through to the same blazingly hot room we’d first encountered the Druid. Once again, a fire was roaring away in the hearth.
“You have got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed. It had to be over one hundred degrees in here.
The Druid had been sitting in his chair, and at my explosion he stood up, looking at me as if I was insane. His eyes shifted over to his friend. His expression became questioning and he looked behind him as if waiting for someone else to arrive. The horned man shook his head. I guessed the exchange was about the other horned companion, but neither of them came out and said anything. For a split second, I thought I saw the Druid’s eyes flicker to black again, but it was so brief that perhaps it had been a trick of the light.
“Well?” Jovi demanded, breaking the silence.
Once again, the horned man looked silently at the Druid as if he was waiting for permission to speak. I found that curious—was the Druid his superior somehow? They were different species, but they obviously knew each other well. It made me feel strangely relieved…sort of glad that the Druid hadn’t been holed up in this house by himself. I couldn’t imagine how lonely that might be—how disconnected you’d feel from the world around you.
Permission had been granted, because the horned man turned to us all, his eyes focused on me, Aida and Vita, shining brightly.
“I’m Bijarki, an incubus—if you hadn’t already gathered, one of the many who live in these lands.” He bowed down low, a small smile playing on his lips.
I gaped.
I’d heard of the incubi, but never come across one before—though Field might have, as GASP had rescued some incubus babies from the harpy orphanage. From what I could remember of the details told to me by my grandma Rose, the creatures were incredibly ugly, with grey, ashen skin. Perhaps that explained the silver hue he had. Talk about an ugly duckling turning into a swan… I also recalled that in myth, incubi were reported to prey on women…huh. That would certainly explain his behavior. I couldn’t imagine it would be very difficult for a woman to fall in love—or, more accurately, in lust—with him.
“And the creatures above us? Why were they hunting you down?” Field asked.
“The minions of Azazel—you’ve heard of him?”
Field glanced briefly at the Druid. “A little, yes.”
“Then you’ll know he now rules Eritopia—and his minions are known as the Destroyers, particularly nasty creatures that have little in the way of a soul. They offer no mercy, and hunt only to kill, never capture.” He cleared his throat—the memory of his friend’s death might have been harder on him than I assumed, as his next words came out thick with sorrow. “My companion and I had displeased the Destroyers, and Azazel himself. We were running for the safety of this house—which, I
assure you, is the only place where you will have a chance of remaining alive in this land. Especially as I gather that some…all of you are Oracles?”
“Some, allegedly,” Field replied.
“But we were all taken,” I clarified, raising my eyebrow at the Druid. I wanted to know why.
“That was an error on my part,” he replied evenly. “I could only sense that a few of you had begun the transformation, but as it was so early on in the process, I couldn’t define which of you it was. It was better to take the risk and remove all of you than leave it to chance.”
I was surprised that the Druid admitted the error, and I remained silent. I supposed if he did believe that the Oracles were in grave danger, then he’d acted in their best interests. In a way, I was glad he’d made the error, rather than just taking the three of them—it was better that we were dealing with this together, and that Phoenix, Vita and Aida hadn’t needed to go through this alone.
“So what did you actually do to anger the Destroyers?” Aida asked, turning to Bijarki.
“A mission gone wrong,” he replied vaguely.
I was about to interrupt, to ask for more detail on the ‘mission,’ when the Druid spoke.
“I need to speak to Bijarki privately. We can reconvene later,” he instructed, his gray eyes gazing at us with steely determination. Clearly, he wouldn’t be taking no for an answer. I would have objected—the Druid had blown us off for long enough with his requests to delay questioning—but I was so desperate to get out of the heat of the room I was glad that we could return upstairs where it was marginally cooler. I also wanted Vita to get something to drink… her color still didn’t look good.
“Let’s go.” I turned to the others, looking meaningfully at Vita. “I think we could all use a break.”
With a mutter of displeasure from Jovi, the rest of us trailed out of the room.
“I also want to show you something,” I added, heading for the stairs. They followed and when we reached the second floor I led them in the direction of the painting, parting the velvet covers to reveal the image.