The thought made me feel sick.
My mind was brought back to the present as a faint green glow had started to emanate from behind me.
“Ruby!” I called out, already running toward the temple. “Get Hazel away from there!”
I saw the blonde girl scurrying across the sand. As I reached the entrance, Hazel and Ruby were already slowly backing away from the stone door.
“Get behind me,” I growled at Hazel, resisting the urge to yank her back. Both of them moved swiftly, joining Julian and Ragnhild in the cover of the trees. The door had started to tremor in its setting, causing the ground to rumble with a low, intense shudder. Slowly the door started to grind sideways, and more green light spilled from the entrance, lighting up the path.
The silhouette of Benedict was slowly revealed. He stood, patiently waiting, statue still, as the door opened fully. He moved forward, his steps slow and unhurried as he ascended the slope of the path.
“B-Benedict?” Hazel whispered. I held up my hand in warning—I wanted her to be silent. Whatever Benedict was about to do, I wanted him to do it without being interrupted…I needed to know more, and this was our only chance.
I hastily backed away, avoiding the glare of the green light. I didn’t know if he knew we were there or not—sometimes when we’d encountered him under possession he appeared to be completely oblivious to our presence, and then sometimes not.
Silently, I watched as he turned in the direction of the water. He moved steadily over the rocks and dunes, avoiding the remains of the ships. As he moved out of the intensity of the light, I realized that he was clutching one of the stones in his hand. It glowed softly. It meant that Benedict would be strong right now. We had to be careful.
I edged forward, wondering what he was doing. He looked as if he was heading straight for the sea…
He was. He walked swiftly over the sand where the tide had gone out, but didn’t stop when he got to the water, wading straight in, his splashes echoing through the absolute silence of the cove.
Is the entity trying to drown him?
Hazel had obviously reached the same conclusion I had.
“Benedict, no!” she cried out, running out from the trees to follow him. I grabbed her as she tried to run past me.
“Hazel, stop!”
The searing pain of her syphon flooded my body, disorientating me with pulsing shocks like someone was digging pins into my brain matter, but I held on, not willing to let her anywhere near her brother. Knowing she would hate me for it later.
My grip tightened.
“Come back!” she screamed, and I held my hand over her mouth, willing her to be quiet.
While she struggled in my arms Benedict waded into the water up to his waist. He paused, waiting for something, and then raised his arm in the air, holding the stone aloft. Hazel stopped struggling.
With an almost careless flick of his arm, the stone went flying into the water. I heard the heavy ‘plop’ as it hit the surface, sinking to the bottom of the ocean. I waited, looking out to the sea…what’s supposed to happen?
Benedict lowered his arm and started to walk back toward the shore.
“Don’t move,” I commanded in Hazel’s ear, gritting my teeth against the pain. I released her, praying she would do as I asked. This was our chance to restrain him—if the stone had left his possession he should be in a weakened state…
“Ragnhild! A barrier!” I cried, needing the extra mental strength the guard would provide after holding onto Hazel. He ran toward me, throwing out his energy. It wasn’t very strong, not what I would expect from a lieutenant, but our energy linked nonetheless.
I was about to throw the barrier outward, but before I could focus, Benedict stumbled on a rock. Rather than righting himself, his body fell forward, collapsing onto the sand.
“BENEDICT!”
Hazel started to run, and I didn’t have the energy to stop her.
Rose
We stood around the portal, suspended inches from the surface of the water. The black tar-like substance hadn’t moved, despite the witches and the jinn working their magic on it for hours.
“This is impossible!” declared Aisha. “I’ve never even seen this black stuff before. It’s gross.”
I rolled my eyes. This wasn’t the first tirade of complaint that Aisha had exploded with, and if this continued much longer, it wouldn’t be the last.
“Patience, girl,” Nuriya scolded. “Go back to the moldy drinking hole if you want.”
“No, thanks,” Aisha retorted. “It stinks like wet dog.”
Corrine sighed irritably—Aisha had broken her concentration. The witch looked downhearted, and I started to worry. Really worry. What if we could never get it open? Given all that I’d survived in my life, I’d kind of always believed that where there was a will, there was a way…but it didn’t look like all the will in the world was having much luck here.
“Maybe we need to head back.” Corrine exhaled. “I don’t know how much difference we’re making. If we could find out more about it, where it might lead, we might have more luck.”
Mona opened her eyes—she’d been in a trance-like state, not remotely bothered by the constant whining of Aisha.
“Corrine is right. We’ve tried everything—”
Mona went silent as the tar of the portal shifted. We all looked down at its black, shiny surface. It was still. Had we imagined it? No…it shifted again, the surface jolting, like something behind it was trying to get out.
With a sludgy groan, the tar moved again. This time something burst from its center, shooting up into the air and then abruptly falling back down again, missing the portal, instantly being swallowed by the sea.
“What the hell was that?” I asked.
“No idea…I’m about to find out,” Corrine whispered.
She placed her hands over the surface of the water, closing her eyes for a few moments. There was a fizzing on the sea’s surface, white foam quickly swirling in a mini-tornado. The water rose up, reaching the tips of Corrine’s fingers. Balanced on its surface was a small, dark stone.
Corrine picked it up, and the water collapsed back down.
We all stared at it in silence.
It had a kind of reddish tint, and was almost perfectly round. Maybe it was a jewel of some kind? But it looked a little too dull for that. Before I could ask any questions, Nuriya tentatively took it out of Corrine’s hands and held it up to the light.
“Do you know what it is?” I asked.
The jinni’s face looked quizzical, but it was a few moments before she answered me.
“I think I do…” she murmured, then broke off into silence once again.
“Well?” demanded Aisha, echoing all of our thoughts.
“Long ago,” Nuriya began, wetting her lips, “and we are talking thousands of years, the jinn had an ancient practice of binding the souls of malevolent supernatural creatures into stones… stones just like this one.”
“Any creatures?” I probed.
“Yes…but there was one in particular. I can’t recall what it was, but the stone would bind them from doing harm. The stones were placed in the In-Between—there’s a star full of them, every single part of it covered with these stones, each holding a soul that’s been locked away for eternity.” She lowered the stone, handing it back to Corrine. “We need to put this in a bag. The stones are powerful things—they can send even supernaturals mad if exposed to them for too long.”
Corrine tightened her fingers around it, staring at Nuriya.
“Corrine?” I prompted, waiting for the witch to procure a bag.
“It’s powerful,” she whispered, moving the stone around in her palm.
Nuriya and I looked at one another.
Aisha leaned forward, knocking the stone out of Corrine’s hand and catching it before it fell back into the water.
“Well, that proves that theory.” She rolled her eyes and placed the stone in one of the pockets of my backpack.
>
Corrine seemed to shake herself awake. “That was scary,” she said, looking stunned—something I wasn’t used to from Corrine. “The stone…it felt like it was calling to me.”
“Don’t touch it again,” Mona replied quickly. “None of us touch it if we can help it.”
We all nodded, some of the less powerful witches still staring at Corrine in bewilderment. If Corrine could be swayed by its call, and Mona was warning us against it, then I didn’t have much hope of any of us being able to handle its power.
“Can we use the stones to unlock the portal?” Corrine asked. “They’re obviously powerful. If we can get enough, perhaps it will be enough power to dislodge the block?”
“It’s worth a try.” Nuriya nodded. “As I said, the stones are powerful. The energy contained within them might provide us with enough force to amplify our magic on the portal.”
“Won’t we be in danger of opening the stones?” Mona asked. “Releasing whatever’s inside them?”
Nuriya shook her head. “It’s doubtful that we will be able to open them, even if we wanted to – the stones are sealed with a much more powerful magic than ours…the stones are ancient, and whatever locked them is long lost to us now.”
The jinni looked thoughtful, and we waited in silence for her to continue.
“It would mean that we would have to travel to the In-Between. I haven’t been there in a while…” she resumed softly.
“Can we not try with just the one stone?” I asked, not wanting to leave the portal for a second when I felt that we were so close to making a breakthrough.
“One is not enough,” Nuriya replied. “The magic of the portal lock exceeds the magic of a single stone—it must be equally weighted if this is to work.”
“So we go to the In-Between,” Mona announced.
“And face an entire planet of stones like the one that just sent Corrine into total crazy-space?” Aisha retorted. “That doesn’t seem very smart.”
“We don’t really have a choice,” I reminded her.
Aisha exchanged a glance with her husband Horatio, then frowned, staring wearily at my backpack. I understood the woman’s misgivings—I shared them, but for the first time since we’d found the portal I also felt hopeful. If a bunch of stones were the key to unlocking the portal, then I would stop at nothing to get my hands on them. I also desperately wanted to know what kind of creature was so dangerous to the jinn that rather than killing them, they locked them in eternal stone prisons. Could they even be killed? If those were the creatures waiting on the other side of the portal, then my kids were in more danger than I could even contemplate.
“Caleb,” I breathed. My chest had suddenly tightened, and I felt the back of my neck breaking out in perspiration. This was not good.
“Don’t jump to conclusions,” he replied firmly.
“Caleb’s right,” Corrine replied. “We don’t know anything yet—just that there’s a distinct possibility that someone on the other side of the portal wants us to get in.”
I nodded.
Please be one of the kids.
Maybe it was a message? Both Hazel and Benedict knew about the story of Mona, Kiev and the rest of Matteo’s crew being released from a stiff portal by Benjamin and Abby. If they realized that the portal out of their dimension was blocked, then they would know what to do.
I tried to force myself to calm down and then addressed the group.
“Let’s head back to the port and call the others. Then we’re taking a trip to the In-Between.”
Hazel
His body lay in the sand, his face ghostly pale and everything about him looking crumpled and broken.
How did this happen?
How did I let this happen?
I couldn’t even touch him without causing him more pain. Ruby turned him over gently till he lay on his back. She leaned forward, pressing the side of her face to his chest. Julian sat on the sand, clutching at the hand of his friend.
“I can feel a heartbeat,” she whispered. “It’s faint, but it’s there.”
I nodded, feeling dizzy with relief. I was grateful that Ruby was here, being the responsible sister when I was incapable of anything other than overwhelming hunger. I focused on doing what I could - hastily removing my robe and placing it around Benedict.
“We need to move him,” I muttered. “He needs to get away from this place.”
“I’ll take him back with Ragnhild.”
“Let me get Tejus—we should all go back together,” I replied, looking around for both him and the lieutenant. I couldn’t see them anywhere. “Where’s—”
As soon the words were out of my mouth, Tejus barked my name. “Hazel, the temple,” he called out, his voice echoing from the hollows of the earth.
I hesitated, looking down at Benedict.
“Go. I’ll look after him,” Ruby replied. “If we don’t discover more about the entity, soon, we’re all in trouble.”
I nodded, staggered to my feet and ran down to the temple. The door had remained open after Benedict emerged, and the eerie green light still spewed from its depths.
Ragnhild and Tejus were both peering over the stone table block in the center, where the light was strongest. Flickering within the green light, the brightly multi-colored stones from the Hellswan locks danced erratically in their settings.
“All the grooves are filled,” Tejus muttered as I walked over to stand at the opposite side of the table. As soon as I’d entered the temple, hunger had kicked in—I could feel my throat constricting, and a dull hollowness in my stomach. I still didn’t truly understand why the effects of mind hunger felt so physical, like my body was in the throes of starvation.
Doing my best to ignore it, and mentally block Tejus, I looked down at the surface of the table. All the grooves were filled but one.
“Do you think that’s the stone that Benedict just threw in the water?” I asked, placing my finger over the empty groove. It felt warm.
Tejus nodded. I looked up at him—waiting for answers.
What does this mean? How much danger are we in?
His mouth was set in a line, his dark brows furrowed. The light that emanated from the runes in the table and the stones cast part of his face in a green glow, while the rest remained shadowed. The effect made the stark planes of his face sharper and more prominent. I’d been about as intimate as anyone could get with this man, but as I stared at him, hoping for words of reassurance or hope, I felt like I was looking at a stranger.
“Is the entity free now?” I whispered.
“I don’t know.”
None of us knew enough. I felt like we were completely unprepared despite the fact that we’d been hurtling toward this inevitability ever since the emperor had taken the stone and placed it in the Hellswan sword. One action—one seemingly insignificant action—taken by a foolish, arrogant old man, and now we were facing a terrifying and uncertain future.
I looked around the temple. Nothing felt that different. If anything, since Benedict had collected the last stone, Hellswan had felt almost peaceful…if you didn’t count me trying to syphon off my friends.
“We should return to the castle,” Lieutenant Ragnhild announced, his fingers tracing the glowing runes that surrounded the table. “If the entity is coming, then we should all be somewhere safe.”
I didn’t know how safe I considered Hellswan castle, but I was eager to get Benedict away from here.
“Tejus, will you take Benedict?”
I had agreed with Ruby when she’d suggested that Ragnhild take Benedict, but I realized that there was no one else I trusted with my brother’s safety. Tejus would protect him with his life—and anything less than that was unacceptable to me right now.
“Of course,” he replied.
We walked out of the temple, and made our way over to Ruby and Julian, who were still hovering over my brother. Ruby was stroking his forehead and muttering to him.
“How is he?” I asked.
“I
think better—his heartbeat’s getting stronger,” Ruby replied, smiling up at me. “I think he’s going to be all right.”
Suddenly I felt lighter, and along with an overwhelming surge of love for my friend, my perspective shifted. The uncertainty and fear around the rising of the entity suddenly felt manageable. Maybe it was the peaceful night and the stars shining down on us that encouraged my optimism, but I felt like the danger had abated—and as long as my friends were alive and well, and we were together, then we could overcome the obstacles Nevertide threw our way.
“Tejus is going to take him back,” I replied, smiling back at Ruby.
“Okay,” she replied, and both she and Julian backed away from Benedict so that Tejus could pick him up. He bent down, cradling Benedict’s head in the crook of one arm while the other went under his knees. Rising, he held my brother against his chest as if he weighed about as much as a bag of feathers.
“Thank you,” I sighed, my insides turning to goo.
He nodded, and turned toward the water. The vultures had reappeared on the shore, and Lieutenant Ragnhild stood waiting with them. He was shifting from foot to foot with impatience. I assumed that he was eager to get the castle on security lockdown, as I belatedly realized that the guards and ministers would have no idea that the entity had seemingly completed the unlocking of his own prison.
We all climbed onto the birds, and soon the cove and its unnatural green glow was out of sight. I hoped I would never have to return to that place; I never wanted to see that temple again—I never wanted to be in the presence of something built for the sole purpose of worshiping something so dark and evil.