“What is it, Hazel?” Ruby asked.
“I thought I heard something…”
Tejus put up a hand, silencing me.
“There are people approaching.” Tejus leapt off the bull-horse, drawing his sword. Ash followed suit, and so did the rest of the guards.
“Stay on the horse,” Tejus warned me.
I heard the voice again. It was definitely calling my name…
My throat constricted. I felt my heart starting to hammer in my chest. With trembling hands, I clambered off the saddle.
“What did I just say?” Tejus barked at me.
I shook my head mutely, lowering his blade with my trembling hand.
“Mom! MOM!”
“Hazel? Hazel, is that you?” The reply echoed across the forest, and a moment later my mom appeared, breaking through the foliage with my dad behind her.
“MOM?”
I thought my legs were about to give way. She ran toward me, knocking me back with the force of her embrace. I smelt the familiar, comforting smell of her—The Shade, the shampoo and conditioner she used, the smell of the laundry detergent we had at home.
“MOM! DAD!” Benedict screamed, and a moment later I could feel his body wrapped in the embrace, followed by my dad. Sobs rocked my mother’s body as she repeated our names over and over again.
Eventually, I leaned back—I wanted to look at her face. I still couldn’t quite believe that they were real. She smiled at me, taking in my appearance, then looking at Benedict and doing the same. I turned and hugged my dad, who almost squeezed the life out of me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, laughing. I felt giddy with happiness, like I was in some strange twilight zone. I just couldn’t believe that they were really here. Solid. Real. Safe.
“Hazel, you seem so…different,” my mother murmured, gazing at me with her warm, loving eyes.
“Yeah, she is,” Benedict piped up, “Hazel’s now a—”
I jabbed Benedict sharply with my elbow.
“…a badass hero,” he finished, lamely.
Jeez.
Now really wasn’t the right time to be telling Mom and Dad that! The jab didn’t go unnoticed by either of my parents, but fortunately they had also noticed Julian and Ruby in that moment.
“Your parents are going to be so happy!” my mom exclaimed. “Come here!”
Ruby and Julian flew toward my parents, and they got hugs as fierce as ours.
“Where are they? Are they here?” Ruby asked, looking over my mom’s shoulder.
My mom laughed, untangling herself from their embrace and turning toward the forest. Seconds later, what looked like the entirety of The Shade’s residents appeared, hurrying toward us—Claudia, Yuri, Landis and Ashley were a shooting blur of color.
The rest followed more slowly—the werewolves, the dragons, the Hawks, the jinn and witches, and all the vamps—even my great-grandpa Aiden! I stared, gob-smacked, at all the familiar faces I loved. The faces I had feared I would never see again.
The vamps embraced their children, crying and laughing at the same time.
“Where are your glasses?” Ashley sobbed, tears running down her cheeks as she poked and prodded every inch of Julian.
“And who the hell are you?” Claudia had flung herself at Ruby, her arms wrapped around her neck and pulling her taller daughter downward, while she glared at Ash, Tejus and the rest of the guards.
Tejus and Ash looked at one another. Tejus looked annoyed, Ash dumbfounded. I wanted to laugh at the pair of them. They were in for a treat. The GASP interrogation wouldn’t be pleasant for them… especially with Claudia being involved. God help Ash.
“We need to get back to the castle,” Tejus announced. “We’re not safe here.”
“Wait a moment.” My father frowned. “Who are you and why do you have our children?”
I cringed, mid-hug with my grandparents. I had the feeling that things were going to get awkward pretty quickly… and not just concerning Tejus. My hunger had started to flare up, and every time a member of GASP touched me, I was reminded more and more of how unstable I was around non-sentry types… They all smelled so good.
“Mom, Dad, this is Tejus,” I said brightly, fighting to swallow down my syphoning instincts.
“Tejus of Hellswan?” my father snarled.
“What of it?” Tejus replied, glaring at my father.
Tejus!
I wanted to punch him…I could see that he wasn’t going to make this any easier on me or himself—it would be entirely up to me if this situation was going to be defused.
“Dad, look at me,” I said, as calmly as I could. “I’m alive—all in one piece. So is Benedict. None of these…err…people have harmed us—and Tejus, well—Tejus is my…”
“Boyfriend!” shouted Benedict gleefully.
You’re dead.
I made a throat-cutting motion at my brother, but he just grinned back at me. Too much had passed between us. He knew I loved him to the ends of the earth and back, and that he was in no real danger of my revenge. Apparently, all my older-sibling power had vanished.
“Yep!” he cried, over the moon at my parents’ horrified faces. “He’s our kidnapper as well! She got Stockhouse syndrome… real bad.”
“Stockholm syndrome, idiot,” I muttered. “And no, I don’t. Anyway, we don’t need to talk about this now. Let’s get back to the castle?”
I looked over at Ruby for support. She looked as pained as I did; Claudia and Yuri glaring at Ash like they were about to rip his head off.
We needed a diversion, quickly…
“Like hell we will!” my father hissed. “Your kidnapper’s your boyfriend?”
Oh, man.
I felt blood rising to my face, wishing the ground would swallow me whole. I wished we weren’t going through this in front of the entire team either—I could spot Arwen and Grace giggling, and smirks from pretty much everyone else. Great.
“What are you thinking?” My father glared at me. Clearly the ‘happy to see my daughter safe’ part of the proceedings was over. “And you!” he continued, growling at Tejus so his fangs glinted. “How DARE you kidnap my children! Do you have any IDEA who you’ve crossed?”
My mom and dad both glared at Tejus. He raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. If I didn’t know him any better, I would think he was completely bored with the exchange. But I could see the clench of his jaw and the darkening of his eyes. He wasn’t liking this one bit.
“You arrogant—” my dad burst out.
“Caleb,” my mom managed, shaking her head. “Hazel, we’ll talk about this later,” she warned me. “I mean it. But right now, I’m too happy to think straight… so, Caleb? We’re going to put a hold on this for a while. I mean it.”
My father growled at Tejus, but stepped back, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Tejus?” I got my ‘boyfriend’s’ attention away from my father. “Let’s go back to the castle. Everyone else, you need to follow us. It’s not far.”
“Follow me,” Tejus snapped, leading the bull-horses by the reins. Ash hurried to join him, clearly eager to put some distance between him and Claudia. I couldn’t quite hear what she was saying, but there was a lot of snapping and gesturing going on. At least Ash had been Ruby’s rescuer initially—he hadn’t been the one to take her captive.
“Don’t say another word,” I hissed at Benedict. “I mean it. You’re such a massive ass.”
Benedict chortled. I tried to frown, but it was so good to hear the sound of him happy. I felt the corners of my disapproving mouth turn up, and turned my head away as we walked to hide it.
“Hazel, I can’t believe we found you, alive and safe,” she said. “We were so worried. We love you so much – and I don’t tell you enough! I’m just sorry it took us so long to get here.”
“I know.” I smiled. “I love you too. I’m glad you’re here. We need your help. The whole of Nevertide is in danger—we’ve been trying to fight it as best we could, but we ne
ed the experts.”
“I got that impression,” she replied softly, glancing up at the sky.
“Yeah. Things have gotten bad.”
She squeezed my arm.
“But you and Benedict are safe—that’s the important thing.”
I nodded. I just wasn’t sure for how long. If GASP had turned up a few days ago, I would have thought our problems were finally over, but after seeing what I had today, I felt differently. I had no idea how we were going to fight whatever that was—the entity’s army? The entity itself? There was no way of knowing for sure. But it had scared the life out of me, and I didn’t know if GASP would be better equipped to deal with it than we were.
“You do seem different.” She smiled at me, brushing a strand of my hair off my face. “But I can’t put my finger on it…”
I shrugged nonchalantly, hoping I could put off this discussion till we were in the castle, and maybe even until my parents had warmed to Tejus a bit. Though I wouldn’t be holding my breath.
“Maybe it’s just because you haven’t seen me in a while?”
“Hmm…maybe… You must have a lot to tell me.” She eyed Tejus meaningfully.
“Yeah.” I smiled weakly. “You could say that.”
I’m in major trouble.
Ash
I had never in my life seen anything like the group that stood before me. They had emerged swiftly from the forest, appearing almost instantly—pale creatures, some inhumanly beautiful and deadly-looking, some with wings, and some strange-looking, almost nymphish people who had air where their legs ought to have been.
A short blonde woman, moving at the speed of light, rushed toward Ruby, flinging herself into her open arms. It could have only been her mother. The facial similarities were too evident for it to be anyone else.
So, this is GASP, I thought, trying not to appear too wide-eyed.
“I can’t believe we finally found you.” Ruby’s mother’s voice was muffled by her daughter’s hair. “I was out of my mind with worry—this place is so strange, and we just kept fearing the worst!”
“I’m safe, Mom, I’m safe. I’ve missed you!”
As the mother and daughter hugged, a man stood by, gazing at them both with disbelief in his expression. He was lean, with a slightly crooked nose, but handsome.
“Dad!” Ruby exclaimed, peering at him from behind her mother.
The man grinned, holding out his arms to embrace his daughter. She hugged him tightly, and I watched a similar scenario happening with Julian—a blonde woman with almond-shaped eyes crying into his hair before scolding him about his glasses.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ruby’s father held her out at arm’s length, studying her intently.
“I’m fine, Dad, honestly. I’m just so glad you’re here. How did you even get here? How did you find out where they’d taken us?” Ruby burst out with a barrage of questions, practically hopping from one foot to the other as she waited for her father’s reply.
“It’s a really long story,” the man—vampire?—replied.
“We have time.” Ruby smiled. “But we’ll need to get back to the castle.”
The blonde vampire turned to me, moving away from Ruby to glare at me. She stood with her feet hip-width apart, her hands placed firmly on her waist—she looked like she was going to pounce and attack me at any moment. She looked over at Tejus too, then took in the guards and the bull-horses, her eyes narrowing.
I looked over at Tejus, who looked irritated.
“We need to get back to the castle,” Tejus announced. “We’re not safe here.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Hazel’s dad started giving Tejus hell. I really didn’t want to be in his shoes right now. I braced myself for my own onslaught, glad I wasn’t Ruby’s kidnapper. Hopefully that would work in my favor, if nothing else did.
“Well?” Ruby’s mother glared at me, ignoring Tejus and the other parents and homing in on the person standing closest to her daughter.
“Mom, Dad,” Ruby announced grandly before I could get a word in edgeways, “this is Ash! He’s my fiancé. Ash, these are my parents, Claudia and Yuri.”
Total silence.
I didn’t know whether I wanted to shout from the castle towers with joy, or bury myself in a ten-foot grave and save Ruby’s parents the bother of doing the job for me. They were looking at me with icy glares. Her mother sneered, showing a gleaming set of fangs.
Oh… This isn’t good.
I looked at Ruby, who beamed at me, oblivious to the death sentence she’d just handed me.
“Pleased to meet you.” I swallowed, holding out my hand. It remained hanging in the air for a moment, before I dropped it. Her mother was looking from Ruby to me and back again with growing dismay.
At the same time, we overheard Hazel’s father shouting, “Your kidnapper’s your boyfriend?”
Ruby’s mother’s jaw dropped in shock.
“Please don’t tell me you’re Ruby’s kidnapper?” she growled at me.
“No! No, not at all,” I corrected her assumption hastily.
“Ash saved me, Mom. He rescued me, Julian and Benedict from a cellar. We thought we were done for, but thanks to Ash, we escaped unscathed…well, relatively.”
“What were you doing in a cellar?” her father demanded.
“We have loads to tell you too,” Ruby replied. “Nevertide’s been… interesting.”
“Back to the fiancé part,” her mother demanded, suddenly less interested in the adventures of her daughter, and far more concerned about what the hell was going on between her daughter and myself. I idly wondered if I wouldn’t prefer to be back fighting the shadow.
“I love your daughter,” I stated implacably. I wanted them to know that I wasn’t messing around—that although this was all obviously coming as a horrible shock to them, my feelings for Ruby wouldn’t change no matter what they thought. I was still reeling from her acceptance. The fact that I couldn’t touch her without risking losing my limbs was starting to become physically painful.
“And I love him.” Ruby smiled at me softly. “There’s no better man for me, not in all the dimensions. We’re a good team, like you and Dad.”
“I find that hard to believe.” Her mother crossed her arms, staring at me.
“Well, it’s true,” Ruby retorted.
It suddenly became crystal clear where Ruby got her stubborn nature from.
“Are you like the others?” Ruby’s mother asked me. “A sentry, or whatever you call yourselves?”
“I am,” I replied, hoping that Hazel’s condition wasn’t going to be brought up anytime soon. If they found out what a sentry marriage consisted of, I doubted I’d see daylight again.
“Ash is an emperor,” Ruby stated proudly.
“Of this place?” Her father looked around doubtfully. “What happened here?”
“The thing we’re running from – or were running from.”
I hadn’t seen a sign of the shadow for a few miles now. Still, we should be moving. I didn’t like standing out here in the open.
Ruby hugged her parents again.
“Keep walking? I just want to talk to Ash for a few moments—just follow that guy.” She pointed at Tejus.
“You have mere minutes, Ruby May Lazaroff, then you join us.”
Her father’s tone brooked no argument. She nodded, smiling and happy, unbothered by her father’s obvious disapproval.
We hung back, watching the members of GASP follow Tejus up to the castle. They all stopped to hug, kiss, or playfully punch Ruby on the arm as they went past, exclamations of “Thank God we found you!” and “So happy to see you!” echoed through the group, and Ruby grinned happily at each of them. Tejus took charge, trying to speed everyone up. There wasn’t really time for a reunion.
This is who she belongs with.
The thought hit me with complete clarity. This was her tribe—her people. I had the uncomfortable feeling of being separated from Ruby—that I didn’t quite
fit into her life. The life outside of Nevertide that I’d almost forgotten that she had.
“That was intense,” I murmured once there was some distance between us and them. I tried to shove the feelings away.
“That’s my parents.” She sighed happily, laughing at my expression. “They’re fierce, but you’ll get used to them, and they’ll love you. I promise you that. They’ll see how good we are together.”
I nodded, not quite convinced.
“So,” I countered, changing the subject, “you’re my fiancée?”
“I am. I decided this morning. I just didn’t have time to tell you.”
She turned toward me, her face glowing. I leant down toward her, bringing her into my arms and kissing her softly on the lips. It quickly increased its intensity, and just like always, Ruby managed to make the entire world disappear for me—it was only the two of us, in our bubble, the darkness fading away.
“We have a lot to talk about though,” she said softly, breaking the kiss.
“I know we do. It’s not going to be easy…I’m not blind to the complications, especially now,” I said, looking at the retreating members of GASP, “but I swear we can make it work.”
“I know we can. I love you, Ash, and that’s all that really matters.”
I nodded, staring into her clear blue eyes. I hoped she would still feel that way after spending some time with her family and friends. I didn’t believe for a second that Ruby was easily swayed by others’ opinions—I knew she wasn’t. But once she was reminded of her life, her home in the “Shade” place that she’d mentioned, perhaps it would become difficult to hold on to the relationship that we’d built here.
“Here,” I said, remembering the ring I had kept in the pocket of my robe.
“Oh, Ash!” Ruby exclaimed as I gently pushed it onto her finger.
“I know it’s not exactly fitting for an emperor’s wife, but it belonged to my mother. I got it days ago when I went to get my old job back at the kitchens. I thought I would need it at some point.”
“You’ve been planning all that time?” she asked, staring up at me.
“Ruby, the moment I met you I knew. You’re the one for me. I wasn’t ever going to let you go.”