I tugged the hood of the cloak farther over my head as I stuck to the shadows. The wound on my left arm stung. My feet hurt from running through underbrush, stepping on rocks and sticks. I’d fallen countless times in my hurry to get away. I’d managed to stay hidden for a full day, but it wouldn’t last. I left Warren and the other guards far behind, but I was far from relieved. They’d find me eventually.
I was so close to being free, but it wasn’t going to be as simple as walking through the portal and into the other realm.
Not when there were guards milling about. If they knew I was loose, they didn’t act like it. They stood around talking quietly, laughing, like this was just a normal night. I had no choice. I had to get out of here and find Mason. He could save those who were left, stop this madness before it was too late. He had to because I couldn’t. I was too weak, too beaten down and tired.
And crazy. I was that, too.
I giggled again or thought I did, but the spell from the priests hadn’t worn off yet, so no sound came out. I was sure I had a creepy grin on my face, though. A patrol of guards moved down the road close to where I stood, and I spun around, pressing my back into the hard trunk of a dead tree. I held my breath, waiting for their heavy steps to march past my hiding place. I craned my head as much as I could, trying to hear when they started to speak, but they were too far away. No bells of alarm had rung out just yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Part of me hoped Mason would appear by my side and guide me through this mess. The seconds ticked by and he wasn’t with me. My gut told me I could find him though. I had no idea how, but I would.
My left arm throbbed again, and I gritted my teeth. My blood. Warren had taken my blood, and fear of what he’d done with it almost left me paralyzed to the spot. I’d tried so hard to hide, but they’d found me anyway. Found me and brought me here to watch, as one by one, my people were used and thrown aside like livestock, feeding rituals, and their dark blood magic. I rested my head against the tree and sucked in a deep breath, let it out, then did it again.
It was now or never. Now or never.
I spun away from the tree and moved closer and closer, staying as quiet as I could.
Six guards stood by the portal.
I was close enough to see their faces. I couldn’t take them all on. I might’ve trained as a warrior, but I’d been held captive for a year or more, partially starved, and most of what I remembered had been overshadowed by long years of terror and pain. My hand shook, just thinking of picking up a blade. I’d weakened, and a fight right now would not end in my favor. They’d knock me down and drag me right back to that cage.
I couldn’t go back, not now. They were too close to achieving their goal.
Just as I was trying to figure out a way to get the guards away from the portal long enough to dart through, they walked away all on their own. I frowned, ducking back into the shadows. They weren’t yelling or running back toward the fortress. No soldiers came to relieve them either. My gut told me something was wrong, but this might be my only chance, and I had to take it. Keeping the hood over my head, I darted alongside the road, took a deep breath, and burst from the trees. I sprinted as fast as I could, eyes locked on the portal. I was nearly there, so close to escaping—
I gagged as someone grabbed hold of my cloak and yanked me backward, causing the clasp to press into my throat. I hit the ground, coughing and gasping as someone sighed heavily nearby. My hood had fallen back, and my black hair spilled over my face. As I lifted my head, it parted, letting me see who’d stopped me. A shiver raced down my spine, and I scrambled to get away from him. There was nowhere to go. More guards closed in behind me, and just beyond them were those damned priests. Tears of anger and fear burned in my eyes. I quickly swiped them away, turning back to face Warren who was clicking his tongue in disappointment.
“Now Emry, I thought we talked about this. You cannot leave.”
I swallowed hard. Thinking of Mason, I squared my shoulders and glared at the monster standing between me and the portal. Warren had two short swords, sheathed at his sides, and a leer on his face. I spit at his feet, but all he did was cackle.
I flipped him off.
He shrugged. “I don’t understand why you insist on fighting your destiny. This is what you were born for. Do you know how many of us would love to be in your position? You can help bring him back, make him even stronger than ever. Ensure he can escape the magic tethering him to this wretched world. Isn’t that what you want?”
Shaking with anger or fear, I couldn’t really tell which, stared him down. I desperately wanted to speak but stomped my foot furiously on the ground when no words spilled free. I shook my head then, holding my right hand to my bleeding gash. I wasn’t going to help him, not anymore. I lifted my chin and put on the bravest, angriest face I could muster.
“I understand your fear, I do, but he needs you now, needs you to be strong for him. Don’t you want that?”
I shook my head again, stepping away from him, searching around the circle of guards for a way to escape, or for Mason to miraculously appear as he had last night. But it was just me against a whole lot of bad guys.
Warren stalked toward me, and I moved away, not that I made it far. The guards shoved me right back toward him, and he grabbed me hard by the arms. I struggled to get away, but was too weak to do much but jerk around until my head hurt.
“This fighting will get you nowhere. He is of your blood, and you are of his. Even if you run, he will find you. There is no escape. Give in and this will be much less painful for you.”
My eyes darted around wildly, and when I opened my mouth this time, a hoarse whisper escaped. “Screw you.”
His fingers dug into my arms harder. “You will be powerful. Don’t you see that? You will make the world tremble at your feet. You and your father. He knows what he did wrong last time. The same mistakes will not be repeated. We’ve waited far too long for our revenge, and you’ll not stop him from getting it.” He lifted a lock of my hair in his fingers.
I brought my hand up, smacking him hard across the face. His head flew to the side as he growled.
“That was not nice, Emry.”
“I don’t want this,” I uttered, my voice slowly coming back. “How can you? We lost so many of our own. And this? This will obliterate what’s left of us. You’re going to help him kill us all.”
His malicious smile left me speechless. “Those who are strong will survive to bring in a new era. And you can either be a willing participant or live out your days in a cage. That is your choice, but one way or another, you will finish the ritual.”
“Finish it? You already took my blood. What more do you need, huh?”
He leaned in closer and whispered against my ear, “A bit of your soul, of course.” Then he let me go and shouted at the priests to get a move on.
My hand curled against my chest as his words played on repeat in my head. My soul. They were going to tear out a part of my soul? How was that possible? It couldn’t be, and yet as I stood there, frozen in fear, the priests held out their hands toward the ground at my feet. As they spoke, symbols were carved into the ground all around me, ones matching the circle I’d left behind in the fortress.
The portal glowed brightly behind the circle of guards and priests. Warren was a few feet away. Could I make it? All I needed was to run and slip through them, that was it. But once I was through the portal, how could I close it? I didn’t have magic like that.
The priests were nearly finished with the circle. I was out of time. Praying somehow, I’d make it, I tucked my head low and without a sound, sprinted for the circle of guards and the portal beyond them.
“No,” Warren shouted and snatched my arm. He threw me to the ground.
The air escaped my lungs with a painful gasp.
He stood over me looking more than ready to draw one of those blades on me if I tried to move again.
“Please, don’t do this,” I begged, seeing my life coming to an end right before my eyes. “You don’t know what you’re unleashing.”
“Actually, I do. He’s going to be better and stronger. They won’t be able to kill him so easily this time. You and he will be connected for all time. This is an honor, and it disgusts me that you try to run from it,” he snarled.
“If it’s such an honor, then why don’t you give him your blood, your soul?”
He wrapped his hand around my throat, hauling me off the ground.
I scratched at his arm, eyes going wide as he squeezed, cutting off my air.
“Sadly, I am not his child. You are. This is your duty. Accept it, and the excruciating pain you’re about to go through might be worth it.” His hand didn’t loosen its hold. He turned to the priests, ordering them to get started already.
The priests closed ranks, clasped their hands, and the chant began. The second the first word slipped free, the symbols came to life, and a jolt shot through my body. Warren let go enough for me to get air in my lungs.
I screamed as second jolt had me falling forward. The light from the symbols shot toward my body, coursing over my skin like waves of electricity.
Warren was saying something, but I couldn’t make out the words over my own shrieking. He yelled again, and the edge of anger in his words had me lifting my head enough to see what was happening.
A figure fought his way through the circle of guards, launching himself over them, landing between me and Warren without it appearing to take any effort whatsoever.
Mason.
I tried to smile in relief, but another jolt made me hit the ground. I curled in on myself.
“Who the hell are you?” Warren growled.
He could see Mason? Since when? I tried to tell Mason to get out of here, but then he glanced over his shoulder and our eyes locked. The anger in their depths stole my breath away. He turned to face Warren again. Mason lunged forward, and just as Warren was shouting at the guards to get him, Mason drew one of the short swords from a sheath. He shoved into Warren’s chest with his right elbow at the same time, throwing him off balance.
Warren shouted at the guards to stop him as Mason attacked with a fury, his sword moving faster than I could see. Warren was the best Black Diamond with a blade, but Mason had him on the defensive. As the other guards moved in, surrounding the still chanting priests, I sat upright, cringing against the agony flowing over my body.
I had no idea what I was doing, but pure instinct kicked in. With a yell, I threw myself at the two guards ready to stab Mason in the back. The second I made contact, the crackling power struck them. They grunted as they fell forward and didn’t move again, smoke rising off their skin.
I grinned madly as two more guards approached. I climbed back to my feet and beckoned them forward. My strength wasn’t going to last long, but I was not going to let them hurt Mason, who was obviously more real than I first imagined. I grabbed a guard by the arm as he tried to dodge around me. He faltered then fell flat on his face.
I took a second to check on Mason and Warren. He’d driven the bastard back, but he blocked every move Mason made. His smirk only seemed to make Mason angrier, and he bellowed, throwing himself forward as if possessed.
Make him bleed, that’s all that ran through my head as I watched Mason wield that sword like he’d been doing it for years. He slipped in the dirt, sank to one knee, gripping the short sword in two hands. Warren pressed his blade down harder, but Mason gritted his teeth and shoved him back, then they were at it again.
Two more guards charged into the circle and just as a third jolt of magic exploded through me, I latched onto them both at the neck, and they screamed right along with me. But this time was different. I fell to the ground with the guards, unsure if I could get back up again.
“Emry,” Mason yelled, catching Warren’s fist to the face.
I pushed up to my elbows as the priests at the edge of the circle parted. A figure moved beyond them, and as it came closer, the waves of power moved with more urgency. They shifted and changed direction until each jolt focused at my center. Just as the figure entered the circle, I gasped as it drove right through me, forcing me upright.
It was shrouded in a black smoke that churned and formed into a cloak. Two skeletal hands appeared as it threw back the dark hood to reveal a face that was only half there.
But the eyes, the glowing red eyes, bored a hole right through me.
They’d brought him back as a wraith.
I shook my head. “No, you’re not back. You can’t be.”
“Not fully, not yet, but you are going to help me.”
He took a step closer, then another.
I gasped as each step seemed to increase the agony I was already going through. The priests’ chanting grew louder, fiercer, and then one of those hands reached toward me.
“You will give me what I require. Then, my sweet daughter, you and I will see our destinies fulfilled.”
“I will never help you,” I uttered through the pain. “Never. Not even if it kills me.”
His laugh was harsh on my ears, and I turned away from him as he crouched in front of me. Those skeletal fingers ran through my hair as he sighed. “You will learn. One day soon, you will see the only way to endure this future is to accept who you were born to be.” His gaze remained on mine as that hand pressed against my center.
My head fell back as I looked at the sky. It was like he’d stabbed me through my gut with a hundred knives that were twisting and turning. Something inside me started to crack. I saw it in my mind’s eye. My soul. He was going to steal part of my soul. I had to stop him, but my limbs refused to move. All I could do was kneel there, paralyzed.
Warren shouted, then slammed into the wraith. I fell forward but was immediately pulled upright by two strong hands, one holding a sword dripping in blood.
“Move. You have to get out of here,” Mason urged in my ear. “Get to the portal. Get out.”
I stumbled alongside Mason as we reached the edge of the circle. The priests tried to stop us, but he swiped his sword wide, fighting them off. We stepped out, and I sucked in a breath of relief as the magic fell away from my body. We were only a few yards away when something slammed into my side. I jerked forward.
Mason yelled my name. He kept me from falling over.
“Fine. I’m fine,” I started to say when the pain hit me. I reached around to feel a dagger sticking out of my side. “Mason.”
His eyes narrowed in anger, but he kept guiding me toward the portal. “Almost there. Just a bit further.”
“But you’re not real,” I muttered, unable to stop the laughter that slipped from my lips.
“Just keep walking, you have to keep moving—”
“Mason!” He was yanked from my side as the wraith closed a hand around his throat. He lifted Mason off the ground but didn’t even look at him. Those red eyes found me and blocked out everything else around me.
“We are not finished. Not yet,” he growled to me as his hand snatched my left arm. “You are not leaving me.”
I couldn’t get myself to break free and the spot on my arm burned. I fought to get away, but his grip was like iron, and all I could do was stand there as the burn grew worse until I thought it would sear me to the bone.
“You will never be apart from me, never,” he warned, but nothing he said made sense any longer. I was losing what shred of sanity I had left. I was finished. Done.
Just when I was ready to give up and tell Mason I was sorry, the wraith shouted, and a shockwave broke the three of us apart. I landed on something muscled and heard Mason grunt in my ear. The chanting had finally stopped, and I lifted my head enough to see the priests and guards on the ground. The churning shadows that made up the wraith were slowly getting back up, but Mason was already dragging me away from them, toward the light.
“Emry, don’t,” the wraith yelled. “Emry!”
But then we were through and out the other side.
“Close it,” I muttered to Mason. “We have to close it.”
He seemed uncertain, but then he focused on the portal and with a loud pop, it snapped shut just as Warren and the other guards made it to their feet, ready to run through and stop us.
Mason helped me up, but he was fading from view.
“No, I can’t leave yet.” He clung to my hands, but then he was gone.
I fell back to the ground and looked up at the night sky. Stars twinkled above me happily, and the moon was full. My wounds hurt and I had to stop the bleeding so I didn’t die here, in the middle of nowhere. But there was no strength left in me to do it. Mason had been my strength, and now he was gone, like he’d never even been here. He was real. The others saw him. He fought Warren. He had to be real.
Nothing made sense and I shut my eyes, considered lying here and letting go. What was the point? I wasn’t strong enough to keep moving, not without Mason.
Don’t, a voice whispered in my ears, and I sat up, looking around frantically. Don’t give up. You can’t. Not yet. Find me, Emry. Find me before it’s too late.
“Mason?” I was alone as far as I could tell, but his words triggered something inside me. I had to get my ass up and head toward somewhere, but there was a dagger sticking out of me, and the thought of yanking it out made me grimace. When I started to lay back down again, unsure if I could do what was necessary to ensure I didn’t bleed out, a fierce growl resonated in my skull.
I sat right back up. “Alright, alright,” I muttered to the growl that could only have come from Mason. “Be nice if you hadn’t left me so soon, you know.” There was a softer growl in answer to my complaints that made me smile. Then I was laughing, and I couldn’t stop. I sat in the middle of nowhere cackling like an insane person, with a dagger in my body. None of this could be real. And yet it was.
I rubbed my left wrist, wondering if I’d be able to shift into my dragon form . First things first, I had to take care of my wound. I rubbed the spot on my arm the wraith had grabbed hold of, but there was no visible burn left behind. Nothing. It was weird, but I assumed when Mason stabbed him, it stopped whatever he’d been trying to do. I took a deep breath and glanced down at my right side. This was going to suck.
Gripping the hilt of the dagger in my fist, I shut my eyes and yanked it out. I grunted but kept myself together because what came next was going to be a lot worse. I shut my eyes and cleared my mind the best I could, fighting back another mad burst of laughter. When I opened my eyes, heat pooled in my torso. I aimed for my side and let the fire flow over the wounds. I celebrated silently for a half a second that I was even able to use my fire, but it didn’t last long. My scream interrupted the flow several times, but I managed to seal the stab wound well enough. The pain was so bad I passed out at some point. When I came to, the sky had lightened. I had to get moving before they reopened the portal and I was conveniently lying here for them to take me right back to that place. I didn’t know how Mason closed it or how long it’d stay that way.
Where I had to get moving to, that was the question. Using a tree, I hauled myself upright with much cursing and panting. I shut my eyes, hoping that finding Mason was going to be as easy as he made it sound.
I breathed deeply, sniffing the air, waiting for a sign, something to tell me where to go.
A tugging started in my gut. An urgency to move. Not opening my eyes, I walked forward, but the sensation wavered. I shifted my direction, and it grew. Once I was aiming northeast, I found a clearing and shook out my hands. I hadn’t shifted in, well I didn’t know how long actually, but it was long enough. I missed the skies. Flying would get me away far faster than walking. If I was able to do it at all.
Praying I wouldn’t pass out from the transformation, I threw my head back with a roar, and my dragon form broke free.
I spread my wings wide, slammed my spiked tail into the ground, then took to the sky. If I didn’t crash to the ground, I’d be good. Hopefully.