I blinked. This was certainly a very different approach to how TSL usually did things.
“That’s kind of heavy-handed,” Abby murmured.
It was my father who responded to her. “Nothing but brutality will get through to these people. Some evils should not be given a second chance.”
I smiled to myself at his latter statement. My father was paraphrasing advice an oracle had once given him.
“We need to send them a message,” my grandfather went on, “that invading the land of innocent civilians is no way to combat criminals who might reside there. Not that they are attempting to do the latter anyway,” he added with a scowl. “This is nothing but a thinly veiled excuse for more control. We need to cause them problems in the supernatural dimension. We cannot make this easy for them.”
“They could have invaded other realms by now, right?” Gavin spoke up.
“Yes,” my grandfather replied. “It’s possible. Currently we only know about The Woodlands, hence for now it will be our focus. Does anyone have any objections?”
Nobody raised a hand. I suspected that many in this room were relishing the idea of finally giving the hunters their comeuppance.
“Good,” my grandfather said. “Now, Victoria said that most of the packs she visited were still unaffected. By now, of course, it could be a different story. But whatever the case, it does not seem that the hunters have been there long. I’m guessing that the base we entered is their main base, while others are simply conquered lairs. Hence, we will start by targeting the headquarters.”
“So we have to go to the Philippines first?” Ashley asked.
“No,” my grandfather said, shaking his head. “We won’t take the risk of returning through that portal. The hunters will be on high alert now, not to mention the fact that they have full sanction from the authorities to kill us or do whatever else they please. There is no need, anyway,” he went on. “We will use the portal we traveled through to return to The Shade. That leads to exactly where we need to be—the mountain where the wolves were gathered. So, there will be more questions and details to answer along the way, but seeing that nobody has any objections… let’s go.”
Grace
The plan was to travel in our helicopter-tank, Nightshade, to the portal in the middle of those fields that had bordered the enclosed city. The witches would make the vehicle invisible both during the journey there and also while we kept it waiting for us. My grandfather had already arranged to have the vehicle loaded up with ample weapons and supplies.
I walked by my parents as we all made our way to the clearing in front of the mountains, where our amphibious chopper was kept. While waiting in line, someone brushed against my right arm. To my surprise, it was Heath.
“Oh, hi,” I said.
“Hi.”
I hung back from my parents, letting them board first. Then Heath climbed up onto the ramp before extending a hand down to me.
“Thanks,” I said, uncertain of why he was suddenly showing me this attention.
To my further surprise, he kept hold of my hand as we moved through the aircraft. We passed Arwen and Brock, sitting together now. There were two seats free next to them, but as we approached, Brock splayed out his legs over them. Arwen and Brock glared up at us.
“These seats are reserved,” Brock said. “Move along, traitors.”
I chuckled, while Heath rolled his eyes. If they had really wanted to keep their relationship under wraps longer, they should have made themselves invisible in the woods so that Heath and I couldn’t pull off our prank.
We kept moving along. The seats were mostly filled up already, but as we neared the front, we spotted two empty ones in a row and sat down. As the helicopter took off, I gazed out through the window at our disappearing island. I always felt a bit sick taking off, so I was glad that Heath remained quiet.
About half an hour into the flight, however, he cleared his throat and said, “Do you mind if I talk to you about something?”
My eyes widened as I turned to him. “Of course you can,” I said. “About what?”
He looked uncomfortable as he scanned the seats around us. There wasn’t much privacy here. But what would he want to say to me in private?
He nodded toward the galley. “Care to join me in there?”
“Sure.” I might have jumped to my feet a little too enthusiastically.
We entered the galley, which was currently empty, and moved to the far end of the room. I realized now how hard my heart was pounding. What does he want to tell me?
His navy-blue eyes locked with mine. “First, I want to say that it’s been great getting to know you better recently.” He hesitated, glancing furtively at the door. “I’m, uh, also aware of… how should I put it… certain rumors going around.”
I winced internally.
“Back in The Woodlands, when Brock made that comment about me asking you out, it got me thinking that I should be straight with you.”
I was hardly breathing at this point. “Straight with me about what?”
“Grace… I’ve sworn myself to a path of celibacy until I am twenty-three.”
Oh, wow.
I stared at him, speechless.
I never could have seen that coming. Although now that I thought about it, I’d actually never seen him with a girlfriend. It had been an assumption in my mind due to his, well, godlike good looks and swoon-worthy countenance.
“Um,” I stammered, “do you mind telling me why?”
He smiled. “Of course not. It’s been a tradition for the men in my father’s family for centuries. It strengthens a dragon’s character. But also, I will be leaving for The Hearthlands next year to pursue the occupation of a priest in the king’s court. Again, this was how my father spent his formative years.”
Oh, my. “Will you ever return?”
“Until I am twenty-three, I may come back to visit occasionally. After that, I may return to live on the island full-time, or I may remain in The Hearthlands. I can’t say for certain. I should also tell you that you’re the first person I’ve told. I planned to wait until next year before telling my friends… You seem upset,” he remarked.
“No, not upset! I, uh, just had no idea.” His words were still sinking in. I thought back over all the times I’d pined for him over the last year. My thoughts and hopes regarding him. My fantasies… But spurred by Heath’s confession, I felt an unexpected surge of confidence. Like I could tell him anything now. Like I no longer had to feel awkward around him.
“I’m going to be totally honest with you,” I said. “I’ve had an embarrassingly huge crush on you for, like, at least a year.”
Heath chuckled, then nodded. “Yeah, I know. Benedict has made it hard for anyone under the age of twenty on this island to not know. He’d make a great newscaster.”
I smiled more broadly, feeling rather touched that Heath had chosen to tell me first of all people. I appreciated the gesture.
Before either of us could say anything more, my great-grandfather Aiden strolled into the galley and began helping himself to some juice. Heath and I took that as our cue to leave.
As we returned to our seats, I wasn’t sure if I would ever fully stop crushing on Heath. It was hard to not admire a man so fine. But I wasn’t stupid enough to not read the hint he was giving me: move on. Get on with my life. Find someone else.
Stop being a lovesick puppy.
I felt strangely liberated throughout the rest of the journey. We spent it talking animatedly. Even Arwen and Brock broke their vow to ignore us and gazed at us over their seats. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Heath—the person beneath his intimidating, breathtaking exterior. He had a sharp sense of humor and struck me as an intelligent, collected person who thought much about the world and his future in it. I hoped that, even if we’d never be more than friends, this could be a friendship that would last.
Derek
We descended in the field bordering the township and touched down. As the hatch
opened and we piled out, I already knew something was wrong.
Where the gaping circular hole in the ground had been was simply a circle of dirt.
“Someone’s closed it off,” Ibrahim said, staring at the soil.
“Without a doubt, they have witches working for them,” Mona said darkly.
“Or some other supernatural creature with the ability to wield this kind of magic.” I looked to Aisha and Horatio. “Can jinn close off gates?”
They looked at each other before shrugging. “I’ve never been aware of a jinni doing that,” Aisha replied. “Possible I s’pose.”
I let out a slow breath. These hunters were not stupid. They weren’t stupid at all. When they had stormed the mountain, they must’ve discovered the portal and then closed the damn thing off. This was unfortunate because, at least from what Victoria had told us, they had closed off all the other known gates in the Woodlands too, except for the one right inside their compound.
Although we had witches and some jinn with us, I still did not feel comfortable about leading everyone back to that portal. The security would be battened down now more than ever, but more importantly, our arrival there could alert them of our plans. Even if we shot through while invisible, they had sensor technology to detect the presence of witches, vampires, and others. It would not take much guesswork to suspect that it’d been us.
We couldn’t alert them to our plans yet. The element of surprise was one of our main advantages, and we had to keep it that way.
I clenched my jaw. “All right,” I said heavily. “This just means that we will have to return to the supernatural realm via a different gate and then travel to the Woodlands on the backs of our dragons.” Since they still won’t allow themselves to be transported by magic. The dragons would play an important role in what I had planned. We could not do this without them.
“What about all our supplies? And our chopper?” my daughter asked.
“We will stick with the same plan. We will leave Nightshade outside the portal, and the witches can cast a spell of protection over it. It will take much more time to stock up on supplies, of course. Hence we need to try to find a gate that will lead us as close to The Woodlands as possible. We will need to carry with us as much as we possibly can.”
“So which portal do you suggest we travel through?” Ben asked me.
I looked to our witches. “What do you suggest?”
“Hm,” Ibrahim muttered. “I suggest that we go via the nearest gate to The Shade—leading to the ogres’ realm. At least we know exactly what is on the other side of that.”
Everyone agreed, and so we returned to the aircraft and took off again.
Touching down on the beach, Kyle transformed the aircraft into a tank, and we went trundling into the jungle where we knew the gate to be—in the hollow of an old abandoned well. Once we reached it, Kyle drew the still-invisible Nightshade to a halt. We gathered as many weapons as we could manage before piling outside. After the witches had put up a protective barrier over Nightshade that only we could penetrate, we leapt into the portal in pairs.
At the other end, we landed on a familiar beach. Over the years, weeds and bushes had encroached on this area, being close to the forest that lined the beach. It had become overgrown, rendering the gate hidden to anyone who didn’t have prior knowledge of its location.
I moved onto the sand and looked up and down the long strip of beach. There were no ogres in sight.
We made a few more trips back and forth, carrying through more weapons, before the dragons shifted into their beastly forms, allowing us to load the heavy equipment onto their backs.
I climbed atop Ridan with Sofia, while others chose their own dragons and the jinn cast shadow over our group to shield us from the sun. The jinn opted to fly alongside the dragons.
We launched into the sky. The ground beneath us quickly became a distant sight. As I gazed down upon the landscape, I could see the mountain kingdom of the ogres sprawled out beyond the high skull-topped gates. Then I noticed something else. Something gleaming from a mountainside beyond the gated kingdom in the far distance. Gleaming like glass against the sunlight.
“Wait,” I called, causing everyone to halt in their travel. I pointed toward the shine. “Do you see that? Let’s move closer.”
I should have been able to see clearly what it was even from this distance with my vampire vision. But the sun outside our shadowy shelter was impairing my sight. I considered whether it might just be an optical illusion.
But as we drew closer, it was not. Brown oblong buildings with wide tinted glass windows came into view. Signature architecture of the IBSI.
My fear had been realized. The Woodlands was not the first land the hunters had touched. While the ogres were not exactly a species we wanted to help, given their penchant for human flesh—particularly that of newborn babies—hunters gaining control in any place within the supernatural world would be good for nobody.
I was half torn over destroying the hunters in this realm first, while we were here. But we would have to come back this way anyway for the portal. Our first priority had to be the werewolves—especially in light of the mutant attack. We didn’t know how many had survived, how many had managed to flee, or what the hunters were doing there now.
Thus, I instructed the dragons to continue forging ahead to The Woodlands.
Grace
The Woodlands was so densely populated by trees, I feared we might not even be able to spot the IBSI’s buildings from above. But thanks to a high pole rising through the treetops—perhaps some kind of power or communication pole—we didn’t have difficulty. Then we caught the glinting of fluorescent lighting through the treetops’ foliage. We had arrived.
“We ought not descend too low,” Derek said, “lest they’ve installed more sensitive alarms.”
“Our first protocol will remain the same as regular missions, of course,” my father said, sitting behind me with my mother—all of us atop Tyron. “And what is that, Grace?” he asked me.
“Rescue any humans or other innocents,” I replied.
“Exactly,” my father said. “Lucas and Kailyn,”— he looked to the fae who were now hovering in the air—“you’ll come with me to do the initial scoping out, I assume.”
“Of course,” Kailyn said.
My father slid off Tyron, leaving my mother and me on the dragon’s back, while he, Kailyn and Lucas gathered together and thinned themselves.
I wished at times like this that I had the ability to fly and thin myself like my father did. I would be far more useful on these missions.
The trio descended on the treetops and disappeared through the leaves. We waited in tense silence, listening and hoping that they would not take too long, that they would meet with no obstacles on the way.
I doubted anything would happen to them, being creatures that the hunters had still had little chance to study, but one never could be too sure with these people. There was an unsettling mystery to their operations, many things about their technology still did not make sense to us.
I released a sigh of relief as, about half an hour later, the trio returned. As they arrived at our level, my father said, “We searched the buildings. Found no humans—or other innocent creatures. Just hunters and an enormous basement of their mutants. They also have a wide clearing around the back of the buildings where they keep the beasts. Hundreds and hundreds of them.”
They must’ve slowly but surely transported them all through the portal from their base in the Philippines.
Derek paused, his eyes settling on the quiet compound beneath us. “All right,” he said in a deep voice. “Then let us begin.”
Everyone among us who could hover—namely the witches, fae and the jinn—remained in the air, while the rest of us remained in our positions. The fae began rummaging through our supplies of weapons, gathering explosives, while the witches and jinn worked on creating a sturdy shield beneath us to protect us from any retaliation we might receive from
the ground.
And then the first bomb was dropped. It shattered the peace of the woods, followed immediately by strangled cries and screeching. Hunters and mutants. I found it rather ironic that these explosives had been provided to us by the US government.
By the time the fae had rained down three in quick succession, the entire compound was a storm of fire and smoke. But we had only just begun.
The dragons began descending. I steeled myself as they each took a deep, sucking breath before shooting out torrents of deadly flames directly toward the buildings.
I couldn’t help but feel that this might be overkill.
If the place had been smoldering before, now it was absolutely blazing. There was certainly no need for me to assist in spreading the fire further.
Becoming bolder, Tyron dipped lower, moving toward the back side of the compound where less fire had spread. I could make out a group of eight hunters who had not been caught up in the explosions and fire—I guessed they had not been in the buildings—racing toward the fence. Tyron quickly quelled their attempts, engulfing them in a billow of fire.
Exploring the back side of the compound further, we discovered what my father had been talking about: the vast crowd of mutants. They were chained to the bases of trees.
“Another dragon over here,” Tyron bellowed. Ridan headed our way. Riding upon him were my grandparents, Derek and Sofia.
The two dragons doused the mass of mutants with fire. I knew these creatures to be resilient to heat, but not to the sort of heat that the dragons were breathing down. They would be scorched to a crisp.
I was not bloodthirsty by nature. As brutal as these mutants were, all of this was hard to watch. Especially since the mutants had been chained and unable to fight back or flee. I had to recall the words my father had spoken earlier about how some evils simply needed to be eradicated.