Ciaran hovered the borrowed capsule low to the ground and maneuvered between rocks shaped like the devil’s claws and fangs. He glanced at the monitor of his wrist unit and estimated his position compared to the tracker which showed his brother’s whereabouts.
Black Rock was the sewer of the multiverse. That was Ciaran’s observation. Calling it the universe of darkness was too glamorous. There was nothing here but waste. He felt sorry for its native creatures and understood why they attacked Eudaiz all the time to steal resources.
This was his firsthand impression of this universe, and he had an odd feeling that over the hundreds of years of battle, the Eudaizian citizens’ impression that Black Rock was their number one enemy was wrong. This wasn’t a combat-ready universe. The most it could do would be to provide soldiers for hire.
That meant their true number one enemy was unknown.
The tracker suggested he was very close to where Tadgh was captured. But in front of him was nothingness. Not even a large rock.
He glanced at the radar. It detected nothing.
Suddenly, the capsule slammed straight into something hard.
The capsule exploded. All Ciaran saw was a blinding flash.
In the Daimon Gate, Madeline opened her eyes and saw the ceiling of her children’s chamber. She must have fainted, falling to the floor of the capsule.
Jennifer was arguing with Moira.
“What did you do to her?” Jennifer asked Moira.
“Nothing except for helping her to give birth to the children. My technology is a lot more advanced than that of Eudaiz. So whatever is happening isn’t my doing.”
Jennifer turned and grabbed Madeline’s shoulders to shake her but saw that she had regained consciousness.
“Don’t die on me, Madeline. I wouldn’t want to see the look on Ciaran’s face when he comes back and finds that he has to take care of the children himself.”
Madeline sat up by herself, groggy. A tear rolled down her face.
She had just had a psychic episode and had seen Ciaran’s capsule explode.
It wasn’t a precognition because she knew it had happened.
She sat on the floor, leaning against the wall of her children’s birth chamber. There were no more tears on her face, but her teeth started to chatter. She was hyperventilating, and her hands shook.
“What happened, Madeline?” Jennifer asked.
She couldn’t speak. She knew she was going into shock. This was weak of her. She couldn’t let it happen. Madeline looked at her shaky hands. She closed her eyes and concentrated.
The place was dark. The explosion was harsh. She replayed again what she had seen in her mind.
The explosion. Ciaran’s shadow.
There was something about the explosion. It wasn’t inside the capsule. Wasn’t right outside it, either. It was more like a jolt of energy. She didn’t know what it was. She couldn’t make sense of what she had seen. But she could make sense of what she hadn’t seen.
She hadn’t seen Ciaran dead.
A cool hand brushed over the wound on his forehead woke Ciaran. He opened his eyes and saw a pale female face looking at him. It could be the beautiful face of a girl in her mid-twenties on Earth, but something in the girl’s big sad eyes was so haunting it tugged at him. She was trying to take care of his injuries.
“What’s your name?” he asked. He tried to move his hands but couldn’t, and he figured they must be tied. The cold seeped into his skin, suggesting he was lying on some kind of rock.
She looked at him and said, “Libby.” Her voice was hollow and distant.
She was a Black Rock creature.
Ciaran had never seen a Black Rock creature express so much emotion. So much sadness.
Libby tugged at the rope tying him as if to make sure it wasn’t cutting into his skin. Then he felt an object being slid into his hand. He grabbed it.
The girl’s head perked up at the footsteps of someone approaching. The sadness in the girl’s eyes was replaced by fear.
Someone spoke in the native language. The girl said something back and earned a hard slap. She fell to the floor. A man shouted at the girl until she scurried outside.
Ciaran sat bolt upright and saw Kyle looming over him. Kyle smirked. “I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have both of the LeBlanc brothers in my hands.” He clucked his tongue. “I promised to hand you over alive. But I didn’t promise I wouldn’t hurt you.”
Fast and fierce as a storm, Kyle grabbed Ciaran and flung him across the room. He crashed into furniture and a lot of hard objects unfriendly to his human body. He swore he could hear his bones rattle.
Ciaran could see his guns, daggers, and wrist unit on the table. But before he could make a run for them, Kyle darted over, picked him up from the floor, and zoomed across the room with him.
He pressed Ciaran’s face hard against a decorative rock on the wall. On the black rock was a carving of a giant serpent wrapped around a boat.
“This is Black Rock—a land you shouldn’t set foot in,” Kyle snarled.
Ciaran said, “I understand you’re scared of me. But how much satisfaction will you get beating me up like this? Untie me. We can do it one on one. You’re the one with the supernatural power. Before my coronation, I am only a man. You see?”
Kyle laughed. “You want to stir up my ego? Unfortunately, I have let go of that since Bran exiled me from Eudaiz. Kyle threw him across the room. His body smashed into the wall. He didn’t hear any bones rattle this time. Maybe there were none left intact.
Kyle picked him up again and squeezed his neck. “Beg! If you beg, I will spare you the pain, Ciaran.”
Ciaran head-butted Kyle right onto his nose. Kyle roared.
Kyle threw him again—this time over a stone bench. He saw stars. Every cell in his body wanted to separate one from one another. Kyle flew over, grabbed him by his neck, and threw him to the opposite wall like a rag doll. He dropped in a heap at the bottom of the wall.
Kyle gave him a few more kicks before striding to an adjacent room to make a call.
Lying on the floor, Ciaran could hear Kyle’s voice echoing back to the room. The person Kyle was talking to must be the one who wanted him and Tadgh captured. Whoever it was, Kyle spoke to him or her in English.
Kyle spat out some profanity and left the room after finishing the conversation. Ciaran lay still for a while to gather some of his human strength and then slid out the small object Libby had left him. It felt like a piece of metal. He started cutting the ropes binding his wrists.
Quickly, he freed himself. He took back his weapons and paused, looking at his wrist unit. The small piece of technology contained a massive amount of information about him. It could reveal psychological and biological profiles he didn’t care for others to know about.
The person who had ordered Kyle to capture him wanted him alive and wanted this piece of technology, too. Someone wanted to know a lot about him—and maybe about Eudaiz as well.
Ciaran tracked Tadgh’s current location and estimated they were in very close proximity, possibly in the same venue.
He sneaked the door open and saw a long and dark corridor.
Suddenly, footsteps approached, and the door opened wide. He jerked back.