“Are you Hadley?” A female voice startled her and she whirled around. The woman who stood before her was tall and blonde. She spoke with a raspy voice, the kind she’d heard in Kathleen Turner movies when she’d been younger.
“I am.” Determined to stay brave, she lifted her chin in an act she hoped looked defiant. “Why have you brought me here?”
“I didn’t bring you anywhere. I was brought here, the same as you.” The woman extended her hand. “My name is Deirdre and I think we are sisters.”
“You’re D, the one Hadrian couldn’t watch pass away.”
“Did he leave the group after he thought I died? Wow, I suppose I should be honored but that all feels so far away for me, as if it was eons ago. Time moves a little differently here. As you can see, I haven’t aged a day since my…ah…death.”
Hadley looked at the other woman and couldn’t help but notice the similarities between them. Or rather the similarities between Deirdre and Hailey. Although Hadley looked a great deal like Hailey, technically they weren’t identical twins. There were some distinct differences between them. Hadley’s face was slightly longer than Hailey’s. The shape of Deirdre’s face was exactly the same.
A slight spread of freckles covered Deirdre’s nose, another attribute Hailey shared that Hadley didn’t, or didn’t anymore. Before she’d come to Haven her own freckles were everywhere, like those of a spotted leopard. All three women seemed to be exactly the same height, although Deirdre was slimmer, much like Hailey.
It was an odd moment. There was no protocol for meeting a sister you never knew you had in a shadow dimension you didn’t until recently even know existed. Realizing she was staring, Hadley looked down at the ground.
What had happened to her manners?
“I’m sorry to be rude, I’m just a little overwhelmed right now.”
“It’s okay. I remember staring at Annabelle and Clarice when I first arrived. I hadn’t known they existed. You obviously know Hadrian. Did he mention us? Father usually forbids them from mentioning the other girls.”
Hadley shook her head. “Hadrian has deserted and returned to Haven to try to get help for our mother. I know about all of it now but I didn’t know previously.”
Deirdre raised one eyebrow. “You were in Haven. No wonder they got you early.”
Hadley glanced back up at the white sky one more time, unable to believe the difference between it and Haven and Earth’s blue one. “What do you mean?”
“It’s a little hard to get us from Earth. This dimension, the shadow dimension, doesn’t have as good a connection to Earth as it does to Haven. It takes them thirty years to get girls from there. But you’re still not quite thirty, right?”
“That’s right.” Hadley let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. That meant they hadn’t gotten Hailey yet. There was still time to get out of this. Well, she hoped there was, anyway.
“Follow me—we have to take you to your pod.”
“My pod?”
“It’s where you will live until you are claimed.”
Hadley moved forward and grabbed Deirdre’s arm. As she moved she became aware of a strange feeling against her legs. She glanced down at herself. Dressed entirely in dark brown, she wore a makeshift dress of material that resembled a hospital gown she’d once been forced to wear when she’d needed her appendix out. It shuffled as she moved. Her feet, too, were in industrial-quality slippers better served for walking neon-filled halls than dirt and rocks.
Deirdre wore plain black pants and a black turtleneck, indicating to Hadley that if this was the arrival outfit, she most likely would not have to stay in it permanently. Her entire transportation to the Shadow Dimension felt distant to Hadley, even though it had just happened. She couldn’t quite remember what had happened after they’d pulled her in. Darkness. And then standing in the clearing.
“Who is going to be claiming me?”
Deirdre sighed. She grabbed Hadley’s arm and as she looked right and left in what Hadley could best call a defensive gesture, she pulled Hadley with her until they both stood hidden behind a large black bush that was nearly dead.
“Technically, Annabelle should be explaining this to you because she is the head of our family. But she’s changing. I’m not certain how to explain it but she’s less and less communicative, more and more interested in simply leading a spiritual life, and she’ll probably just confuse you to death. So I’ll do it but don’t tell anyone that I did because, again, technically, this is supposed to be Bethany’s job if Annabelle doesn’t do it, or after her, Clarice. I’m fourth in the line of importance.”
“So all of you are here. A through G.” Hadley’s mind whirled as if she’d just been hit by a tornado. Tears filled her eyes and she laughed. Deirdre sounded just like her, spoke just like her, and Hadley understood her perfectly. Even Hailey didn’t share her thought patterns that closely.
Deirdre smiled and rubbed Hadley’s arms, once again showing how closely they shared thoughts, as most people would have no idea why she’d teared up.
“Annabelle, Bethany, Clarice and I are all here. We’ve all been claimed. Annabelle has a child, although he was taken from her years ago, as is customary, and no one has seen him since. Bethany should be entering that cycle soon. Eliza and Fiona were scooped up in the middle of the night and, I guess, transported somewhere else—we have no idea.”
Hadley swallowed. So it wasn’t bad enough that she’d been brought here, she could be taken again. “And G?”
“Grace…well, she didn’t transition very well, which is why we’ve all been very worried about you and your twin sister. They sent her to the mines. It’s where all the men work. This planet, as dark and lifeless as it is, is filled with all sorts of Mystical currency. It’s what they sell, the incentive they offer to leaders to get them to give over their women. One of the things they mine is called Breathless. They give it to our father—it keeps him alive endlessly and forever young.” Deirdre smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “But you seem to be steadier than she was, less flighty, so I’m sure they’ll keep you to mate with and not send you into those places.”
Hadley silently winced, because if traits ran in families, then Deirdre had just described Hailey to a tee and, as she’d already suspected, Hailey would not do well with any of this, not at all.
Shaking away that thought, Hadley whispered all of her sisters’ names once. It wouldn’t do, now that she knew them, to call them A through G.
Deirdre still hadn’t answered her question.
“Who is going to claim me?”
“Here’s what’s happened, although I’m unclear as to the timing of everything, but at some point, the shadow people stopped producing females. Slowly they started to die. So to ensure the continuation of their people, they started stealing women from other places. We, in turn, get taken from our dimension. Our bodies are left behind and we ‘die’ there. Our father wanted endless life, the shadow people have the means to give it to him, so he, in turn, presents us to them as gifts of a sort.”
“Oh like hell.” Hadley clenched her fists. “I am not going to be breeding for anyone. Our mother does quite enough of that, thank you. No, we are finding another way out of here. Hadrian and the others, they know about this place now—either they or I will find us an escape.”
Deirdre’s smile was sad—no warmth met her eyes. “Well, I hope you are more successful than I was.”
Hadley’s heart bled for Deirdre. The other woman had obviously once tried to escape herself. She hooked her arm through her sister’s. “Okay, take me where I am supposed to go. There are five Pettigrew women here now—I am quite certain we can handle anyone and anything.”
Moments later she was sitting cross-legged in a makeshift tent Deirdre had referred to as a pod. Introductions were made to Bethany, dark-haired like their father and thin like a beanpole, and Clarice who, in contrast, had white-blonde hair and ten pounds too many on her that, in her sister’s case, didn’t mak
e her look fat, just curvy. Annabelle still hadn’t emerged, which Hadley was just fine with.
What was she supposed to say to her oldest sister? “Oh hey, thinking I would never have to face the music with you, I decided it was okay to sleep with the love of your life as if you had never existed”?
Hadley swallowed. No, she definitely wouldn’t be saying that. She still wasn’t really sure how much they knew about her. Deirdre had sounded surprised that she knew Hadrian, so maybe Annabelle didn’t actually know about it. Shaking her head, Hadley decided against chickening out. She’d wait for an appropriate time and tell her. And if, say, that particular perfect time never arrived, then she never needed to say anything. She closed her eyes, knowing in her soul that wasn’t the answer either.
Realizing she was being rude, Hadley opened her eyes. Bethany was babbling on about the things Deirdre had already told her. Not wanting to get the sister she felt the closest to in trouble, Hadley listened again, nodding at the appropriate times and asking what she hoped were the right questions.
“Who were the ones who came and got me and how did you know I was here?”
Bethany opened her mouth to speak but a voice from the back of the room caught her attention. “When I first came here, I thought I’d died and actually been sent to hell, but now I know that all things happen based on our chosen paths.”
Hadley whirled around, her rear end scraping the floor as she did so. In front of her stood a statuesque redhead who looked as if she belonged on the cover of a magazine. She didn’t need to ask who it was—instinctively she knew it was Annabelle. The skin on her arms tingled. There was no way Hadley could ever compete with her in the looks department if it came down to Hadrian making a choice.
Annabelle crossed the room and pulled Hadley into a tight embrace. “Welcome, sister.”
Tears filled Hadley’s eyes and this time spilled down her cheeks. They were sisters, not rivals for the attention of a man—even if Hadley happened to love that man. The thought struck her dumb. She’d thought it so naturally, as if she’d been thinking it for years. She did love Hadrian. Damn it. But it didn’t really matter.
Annabelle had loved him first.
If, and it was a big if, Hadley somehow got them all out of there, she would have to find a way to reconcile herself with things if Hadrian still loved and chose Annabelle.
She shook her head. This was not the right time for any of this. Bethany stood, her eyes shooting daggers at Annabelle. Uh-oh, there was some sort of tension between the two women and Hadley felt certain she didn’t want to get in the middle of it.
“As I was just about to answer you,” Bethany tugged on Hadley’s arm until she was no longer in Annabelle’s embrace, “the men who came for you are the grabbers—they have a special ability for dimension travel and they knew where you were, I would guess, because our father told them.” Her dark eyes flared as she spoke the last bit.
Bethany was obviously a woman who harbored a lot of anger. Hadley got the distinct impression she wasn’t to be trifled with and made a mental note not to make an enemy out of her.
Thunder sounded in the air and Hadley jumped. She hadn’t realized it was about to rain. The four women hung their heads and moved to the center of the living area where five rugs were laid out. On top of each rug was a folded woolen blanket that looked to be too short to actually cover Hadley’s entire body. Was that where they were sleeping?
Clarice pointed to a rug next to hers and Hadley walked over to it. “Is the thunder some sort of signal to go to bed?”
Clarice shook her head. “Not technically, but it rains hard every night. We can be guaranteed that in a few moments the lights will go out and we’ll be plunged into complete darkness. The men don’t mind it—they can see perfectly, maybe better, without light. But there’s nothing for us to do but go to bed.”
Hadley unfolded the scratchy blanket and lay down. This was a far cry from the bed she’d shared with Hadrian earlier in the night. There wasn’t even a pillow. With the lights still illuminated she could see the other woman had made balls of their blankets and used them as cushions for their heads. It must not get too cold here at night. She followed suit and tried to make herself comfortable.
If everything about the situation was odd, and heaven knew it was, then lying on a floor with four sisters she knew nothing about was the cherry on top of the sundae for Hadley.
She cleared her throat. “So how come none of you are with your—well, with the men who claimed you?”
Annabelle rolled over onto her stomach. “They may still come for us tonight, little sister, or they might not. It will depend on whether or not they have need for us.”
Hadley shivered. She had no intention of lying on a floor waiting to see if a man had need for her. This was like something out of a nightmare.
“So, they just come, and you—uh, you’re…available for them?” She needed to be very sure she understood just how awful this was.
A tear flowed down Clarice’s face. “That’s just about it. Sometimes they just want us to clean up their homes but sometimes it’s just what you’re imagining it is.”
Hadley wasn’t a damsel and she’d never imagined that she’d want to be rescued by a knight in shining armor, but if Hadrian rode up on a horse right now she wouldn’t complain.
The lights went out and thunder sounded in the sky again, followed by the sound of hard rain on the tin roof of their tent.
She’d never felt so alone in her life and in desperation she closed her eyes, pleading with the universe that she could sleep.
Chapter Sixteen
“Tell me again why you’re all coming with me?” Hadrian stomped around the room for maybe the tenth time.
“We will not leave Lady Hadley to those creatures.”
Stone’s voice sounded viler than Hadrian had ever heard it before. Hadrian reached out and grasped the other man’s shoulder. Hadley knew how to inspire loyalty in those around her in a very brief period of time. Normally he would insist on doing this alone, but, like the day they’d insisted on leaving the princess to come with him, he couldn’t persuade them to stay here. Also, in the eventuality that he failed, he could count on one of them to complete the job and see that his woman came to no harm.
His woman.
He closed his eyes. Even now she might be pregnant with his baby. His heart sped up at the thought. They had taken no precautions to prevent conception. The chances were small. Due to their long lifespans, people in Haven took a very long time to conceive—he and Dragon were one hundred years apart—but there was still a possibility. Condoms didn’t exist in this dimension. No one could make another sick through sexual contact and babies were so rare he’d never heard of a pregnancy not being wanted.
Of course, there might be something wrong with his thinking. Damn Earth. He was going to have to reevaluate everything now that he’d come back.
He’d meant to kidnap Hailey and leave Hadley alone. Fate had thrown the wrong sister at him but she’d turned out to be completely right for him in every way. Nothing would keep him from her.
He turned his head to Dragon, who was watching him in silence. “And you? Why are you coming?”
His older brother rolled his dark eyes in disgust. “I would think it would be obvious. I am the only one who can get us there and I am the only one who can get us back. You’re going to require me to be present at the exit site.”
Hadrian didn’t buy it, not for one second. He stalked into his brother’s space. “So this is entirely altruistic, is it?”
“No. I can’t lie. I want the credit for taking you there and back. I want the king’s thanks and I want to see the Shadow dimension for myself. But it doesn’t negate the fact that you do still need me to do it for you.”
Those reasons made more sense. Dragon was always out for number one. Hadrian nodded. He supposed it was a fair deal. Dragon would get them there, Hadrian could save Hadley, and Dragon could get whatever experience he needed out of th
is too. “Then let’s do it.”
“Wait.” His mother’s voice filled the room. “You don’t know about the Shadow Dimension. Or at least you shouldn’t know about it.” The last was said with a glare at Dragon who, surprisingly, looked down at the floor.
“Mother, we are running out of time. I need you to stay here and take care of Hadley’s body. She may start to show flu-like symptoms. It is imperative that you not let her body die.”
Leopard nodded. “I will not fail in this, but you must hear me out. I was but a small child when we saw the shadow people regularly. They are from a dimension filled with males. It has been over a century since any of them have been able to produce a female child. They came to the king, the father of our current ruler, and requested the right to mate with our women. The idea was to continue to produce males to work the mines in Shadow Land, to build their ships for above-ground travel, and, in other words, keep their dimension running despite the lack of women. The king scoffed. He wasn’t giving us over to be broodmares to the shadow people. He banned them from Haven and had the Mystics ward our barriers so they couldn’t cross again.”
“Let me be clear about this, just so I’m sure I understand—all shadows are men? Even the ones that are of women? Your shadow is actually a man?”
Leopard shook her head but Dragon interrupted. “The shadows that you’re thinking of are not the shadow people. The shadows on the wall are just light casting images of you on the wall or the floor. These are people from an entirely different dimension and when they come here they look like shadows.”
Well at least that made sense. As much as anything did when one was trying to figure out the intricate details of dimensional travel. It didn’t matter. He had one objective and that was to get to Hadley and bring her home while there was still time. If there were Shadow men waiting for him when he got there, then he’d dispose of them like he would any other threat. If they could feel, they could bleed. If they could bleed, they could die.