Chapter 38: Chapter 38

Everyone draws up to the chair-less table in the center, moving to stand around it.

Aries took them to his grandfather’s old hunting cabin. It was never used for hunting but it served other purposes.

Abandoned, unkept and forgotten, today it serves the purpose of secrecy. Every pair of eyes wanders to Irene in expectation, their eyes imploring an explanation.

“You gonna say something?” Mia asks, crossing her arms, adding venom to her voice. “~Mom~?”

Irene sighs, glancing at her on the opposite side. “I should start by saying I’m not really your mom.”

“~Damn~,” Akin blurts, evading Opal’s reproachful glower. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry.”

“The plot thickens,” Mia adds menacingly.

“I’m your guardian.” Irene’s brow quirks. “Self-imposed. I stole you, salvaged you from the hands that wished to use you as a weapon.

“I took you from the same people I belonged to. The Ecclesia. We are…invisible but we are everywhere.

“Just as ramparts have watchmen to guard and sentinels to watch, we are the guardians of the breach. We make sure beings of their world stay within their worlds.”

Mind blown, Akin lets out a semi-excited laugh. “So, you’re like, an alien?”

She arches a brow at him. “No. Not really. I’m mortal, but I’m not of this world. I’m an Ultra, all it means is that I am human, but my physiology is different.

“We’re stronger, faster, not like a superhero or anything. We are just far more evolved than the humans of this tier.”

“This…Ecclesia, I’m guessing they’re not the good guys?” Akin insinuates.

“They are…they were. Our duty is to protect the natural from the unnatural.

“I don’t come from another planet, I come from a different ~world~. There are other realms in existence that can only be only accessed through superluminal portals.

“Worlds like these, some have mortals, some don’t. The ones that do are places like where I am from. We are mortals, but we are unlike you humans, both in body and in mind.

“The humans of this tier are volatile. Our standing orders are to make sure that these humans remain ignorant and other species don’t leak into your world to prove otherwise.

“But…clearly a rift has been made. A part of our duties is to mend cracks made to the barriers by creatures seeking entry.”

Irene’s eyes roam the table, noticing how they’re not shocked by that part.

“What do you think earthquakes are?”

Opal’s eyes flicker up. “Tectonic plates shifting.”

A wicked gleam lights up Irene’s eyes. “It’s what we wanted you to believe. We convince the scientists and the scientists convince the world.

“Now you all believe the seismic waves are caused by the lithospheric friction that travels through the earth’s crust and causes the shaking that one feels.

“The truth is far simpler, just incomprehensible to the feeble-minded mortal.”

Aries chaffs. “Enlighten us, oh wise one.”

“The other worlds have troublesome creatures, some fearsome. But none compared to the fiends of the dozen hellscapes that threaten all worlds.

“Primordial and perilous powers are bound to the hellscapes. If even one escaped and breached your world, it could decimate the population.”

Mia and the others exchange fretful looks.

“The Ecclesia was made to make sure it never happens. But greed can corrupt the purest of hearts. I suppose no mortal can be good-natured, not when our human side still lives.

“The Vesturium is the highest echelon of the Ecclesia, a tribunal of the most powerful and the eldest council members that dictate the will of fate.

“But every power answers to a higher power. And the Highest decreed a providence that no being can overturn.”

Irene hesitates, her eyes carefully making eye contact with Mia.

“It’s why I took you from them. Your powers give you the ability to control the minds of animals, even hellhounds.

“None of us at this table are fully human, but unlike us, you’re a hybrid. I know one of your parents is an Ultra, hence your human-like appearance, but your other parent is a deific being. Hence the god-like power.”

Akin shakes a bumbling hand. “Back up, can we rewind to the part when you said none of us are ~fully~ human? What do you mean by not fully? You are either are or not.”

She adopts a formal tone.

“I was notified of the breach in the woods, so will other Ecclesia servants know of this. I had Mia’s necklace enchanted. That’s why I knew where exactly where she was.

“Not that I needed it. I could feel the power she exuded. All of you give off different power signatures. I don’t know what you and Opal are, to be exact.

“I only know that Aries is a Vulgara, a crossbreed between a hellhound and a Lycan. Creatures we are ordered to kill on sight. I don’t know how you’re here, boy. The Ecclesia should’ve killed you a long time ago.”

Aries frees an unstable breath. Opal loops her arm around him.

“What about my brother, Calum?”

“What of him?” she asks dismissively. “You alone are an abomination, not him.”

Opal’s eyes snap to her. “What did you just call him?”

Irene plants her half-gloved fingers on the verge of the table.

“Mia is still to undergo her Chrysalis. I understand why her powers are semi-undetectable.

“But you, Aries, yours have been dormant as it has been for all of you. But it seems your mortal vessels can longer contain them. Or they were forced out because of an emotional trigger, perhaps.”

Mia goes sick from the overload of revelations, too much and too sudden, all at once.

“The Ecclesia,” Akin begins, “are they looking for Mia?”

Irene shelves her confusions for the moment.

“No, I faked her death, and I fled to this world with Savio. I went rogue a long time ago because I saw what the Vesturium was becoming. The lengths they would go to wield more power than they could handle were not only gluttonous but dangerous.”

Mia’s gaze shoots back up. “What happened to the man I~ thought~ was my father?”

“The Ecclesia weren’t looking for me or you. But they were looking for him. He was a high rank that served just beneath the Vesturium, which is why the punishment of him defecting would be much more severe.

“But he didn’t care about that. He was worried that he would lead them straight to you. We could no longer run.”

Mia reins in her emotions. “What happened to him?”

“He’s not dead. He’s condemned to fate worse than death.

“There is a universe of unique dimensions, other realms that run parallel from each other. Portals transport you to them at the speed of light, safe conduits between worlds.

“If you traverse them, you can cause a cataclysmic ripple in the space-time continuum. If you get lost between them, you will toil in obscurity where time is boundless. A fate worse than death.”

Irene squares her shoulders, a somberness settling on her.

“One thing you need to know about a breach is that it is a door that needs to be opened on both sides. You are going to tell me what creature you freed.”

Opal untangles herself from Aries, exhaling deeply. Akin keeps his gaze out of range.

“Shadow creature,” Mia discloses. “Made of shadows with a white mask with red and black finishing like paint.”

“The Sporkah.” Irene jabs the table.

“I think we found the portal you were talking about because years ago, we fell through it in the river. It took us to another whole new world where we encountered Shadow—it’s what we called him. Erin called him Tzelem.”

“Erin?” she repeats with a raised voice.

Akin nods. “She found the place first. After that, we…we befriended Shadow. We played with him almost every day we could and became close.”

“Please don’t tell me you let it touch you.”

They all share guilty looks.

Irene mutters a foreign-tongued curse beneath her breath.

“You fools. You gave the creature everything it needed. No wonder it was able to lure you to the woods like rats.”

A thoughtful stare enters her eyes, darting from place to place. “Erin…you said she found the place first? When?”

Akin opens his mouth, then it seals closed. A frown floats over Opal’s face.

“We…we never asked,” Mia admits.

Irene shakes her head slowly. “I’m sure there is a reason why it didn’t kill Erin the moment she breached and when you crossed over with her. What happened that night Erin disappeared? The truth.”

“We wanted to help a friend,” Opal whispers, glassy eyes staring back at her. “That’s what Shadow was to us back then. He cared about us and he cared about Erin even more, we all know it.

“I suppose they bonded for longer before she introduced us to him.”

“It didn’t care for you,” Irene said with narrowed eyes. “That demon is unlike the others that populate the hellscapes. It is deceptive, it cannot feel emotions, only emulate them.

“So what happened that night with Erin?”

“We meant to help a friend,” Mia echoes dazedly. “Instead, I was the one that killed her.”

Akin grips her arm, a rare anger budding. “Don’t do that, don’t lie. You know what I did.”

“~Just stop~,” Opal spits out. “Stop with the lies—”

“Enough,” Aries snaps. “You guys don’t have to cover for me no more.”

Mia’s eyes flit to him with a frown. “I’m not?”

“I killed Erin,” they say in unison.

They trade bug-eyed looks, faces screwed up in puzzlement.

“No, ~I ~killed Erin,” they echo again.

The events that led to Erin’s death were not a consecutive occurrence, nor a linear recall. All they know was that when they emerged from their stupor, she was dead.

Only now they are realizing that even~ they~ do not know what happened to Erin.

“Do none of you truly remember?”

Mia turns her back on everyone to rest her rear against the edge of the table.

“We never spoke about that night…~ever,~” Aries says. “We didn’t exactly do a rundown of what happened. It was part of the two laws. Don’t ever go into the woods. And never talk about what happened to Erin.”

Akin looks up. “But I think…I think we saw different things.”

“Deceptive,” Irene points out. “I’m not surprised it tricked you. It knew who you were and what it needed to do to goad you into doing its bidding.

“It was all a ploy for you to free it. It knew that only all six of you could do it. But I need to understand what happened that night to gauge the extent of the cataclysm that has befallen us.

“Because even if you didn’t complete the ceremony, it still widened the gap big enough for its emergence.”

“And the Ecclesia,” Akin pronounces the unfamiliar word awkwardly. “Do they know?”

“With the shadow spectacle that happened in the woods, I would wager they already sent a unit. Braidwood is longer safe.”

Irene seizes Mia’s gaze. “I need to relocate you. All of you.”

“What?” Opal shrieks.

“No way, Mama Trinket,” Akin refuses fervently. “I have a life here, family here. None of us can just uproot our lives and run away with you.”

“This isn’t just about your survival!”

Mia recognizes that inflection in her voice. “What do you mean by that? What else are you not telling us?”

“Besides the fact that ~we’re not human!~” Akin shouts, shock subsiding to give way to delirium.

“And that some secret gauntlet of guardians is probably going to dissect us like lab rats to see what we know about the Black Glade and about Shadow.

“Not to mention that ~we’re not human~. So there’s no telling what they’ll do about that—especially with Aries.”

His hysteria contaminates everyone else. Even Aries grows uneasy, Mia utterly distraught.

“What am I?” Mia asks bluntly. “If Aries is what he is, what am I? How did the Ecclesia get a hold of me in the first place?”

Irene evades eye contact, fingers tapping irritably on the surface of the table. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie to me!” The tumult inside her refuses to concede her indignation. “You have kept enough from me. You didn’t think I should’ve known about the danger I was in?”

“You were never the one in danger,” Irene says darkly. “The Ecclesia didn’t just want you because they wished to exploit your power. It also wanted to subdue you because the Vesturium fear you.”

Her eyes skip to the others. “They fear you all. They just don’t know it yet because they didn’t think you would be born for another thousand years.”

“What—”

A hard crash resonates from the floor beneath them—a sharp-pitched clangor.

“Our guest is awake.”

Aries moves from the table and strolls away, walking through the dimly lit space to reach the staircase. He descends into the darkness, swallowing him with every creaking step, bringing forth distant aches.

His face absorbs the shadows, casting his face under a cowl. His eyes appear to be sunk in pits, thick black cresting his cheeks.

He enters the door-less basement, where a single bulb is dangling from the ceiling. Detective Russo is strapped to the chair, lying collapsed on his side.

With one hand, Aries clutches onto the metal chair back and hoists him up into a straightened position.

Russo’s head is on swivel, looking from left to right frenziedly. Aries plucks off the black bag and tosses it aside.

“You lose the memo, Russo?” Aries asks, nothing but a silhouette, his frame enrobed with darkness. “Normally, it’s the kids that are meddlesome and prying into people’s business. Then there’s you.”

Russo’s chest rises and falls visibly.

“It’s kind of my job,” he says, looking around the intimidating, underground cellar. “What, are you going to kill me?”

“Why would I do that?”

A percussion of footsteps echoes from behind Aries, but his eyes remain fixed on Russo.

“~Because I know~, I saw—what did I see…” his eyes drop to the ground, his mind haywire.

“The girl.” His eyes flare, flying up. “Mia, I heard what she said by Table Bridge about Erin’s death. Who killed, or should I ask, ~what ~killed her?”

His questions come out in mind-numbing succession.

“What’s the connection to that and the prophecy?”

“What prophecy?”

“The one you and your friends drew when you were kids. I bet you don’t remember doing it.”

Aries’s face is chiseled in a stoic reserve that yields no doubt nor certitude.

“There’s something in those waters, isn’t there?”

Aries scoffs. “I think I hit your head too hard, detective.”

Russo nods zealously. “You’re right, you’re absolutely right.

“If what Mia said was right and Erin is dead, I wouldn’t be surprised if you dealt the final blow, since I think we both know the only one capable of killing is you. Something tells me you would enjoy it even.”

Aries hurls a fist at his jaw, knocking a tooth loose without even using half of his strength.

“~Aries~,” Akin says warningly, approaching from the rear. “Don’t.”

Russo picks up his head, swaying it like it’s too heavy. He discharges a glob of red on the floor, flashing his bloody smile, glistening with bubbling red.

“Akin, your friend here has quite the temperament.”

“I would’ve done the same thing if someone accused me of killing my childhood friend, who was like a sister to me.”

“I don’t think so,” Russo says dreamily, giving him a mock pout. “I have looked into the eyes of psychopaths and killers for the past two decades.

“You don’t think I know what I’m talking about? They all have that same look in their eyes.”

He makes a pointed gesture with his gaze to Aries.

“The same one in his. I don’t blame him though, he was raised by Haru Black.”

Aries goes for another swing—lights out. Russo’s head drops.

“Aries, c’mon, man,” Akin mutters.

“You two finished here?”

They swivel around to face Irene.

“We need to go.”

“Where?” Akin asks.

“We need to recover your memories. I need to know what happened to Erin.”

***

Aries, Akin, and Opal share a vehicle while Mia and Irene drive ahead of them.

“I think you guys kind of forgot something.” Akin scooches up to the verge of the backseat in the middle, grabbing the bolsters of either sport seat. “Detective Russo, emphasis on the ~detective~.”

“I left his phone on him for a reason,” Aries answers with a stormy frown, eyes fixed in front of him. “When they eventually realize he’s missing, they’ll track his phone and pinpoint his location.”

“That’s the part I’m worried about. Then he’ll send the entire BPD after us!”

“Based on what?” Aries meets his gaze in the rear-view mirror. “That he followed us into the woods and Mia and Opal got attacked by shadows?

“You gettin’ possessed and deckin’ my ass after the girls got saved by Mia’s mom lookin’ like she cosplayin’ a fantasy character from D&D.”

Ready to retort, Akin falters for a millisecond. “You know D&D but not Marvel?” He slides back to drop against the seat.

“I’m no longer surprised by what you do or do not know because how do you not know you’re a Vul—whatever the hell she said.”

Aries’s grasp tightens around the wheel, veins twitching his hand. “Same way you didn’t know you weren’t a human,” he throws back. “At least she knew what I was. She didn’t even know what kind of freak you are.”

Akin returns his steely-eyed look with a petty glare. “Right, no surprise, there, ~mix breed~. It makes sense why you are the way you are since you’re literally a hybrid from hell.”

“Akin, stop it,” Opal rebukes. “We can’t afford to be doing this. Not now.”

Akin flings her a flabbergasted look.

“How?” he exclaims. “Mia’s mo—guardian, thing. When she said none of us are human, you didn’t even blink. Even now, you’re too calm for someone who just learned that ~we’re not human~.”

Opal jerks around to pierce him with a glower, eyes skewering into him like they are pinning him to the seat.

“I can’t make any sense of this. You think I’m not freaked out? I’m trying to understand how we are the way we are but not our family—are they even our blood relatives? How come it’s just us and not the rest of them?

“I mean, Aries and I have siblings, shouldn’t they also be part…whatever we are.~ This is crazy~. But I know crying, screaming, and being in denial isn’t going to help.

“I want to know what I am and the danger we’re in. The Ecclesia are clearly going to hunt after Mia when they discover she’s not dead. And Aries.”

Worry inundates her eyes, despair gathering her brows. “You heard what Irene said about Aries…that they kill aVulgara on sight.”

Aries keeps an impossibly impassive expression like he’s completely undaunted.

“She also said that no other creature or beings have crossed over to our world,” Akin debates.

“Then how did we get here?” she counters. “Either way, they will clearly just kill him, and probably the rest of us, too.”

“Wow,” Akin begins, sarcasm saturating his voice. “The O in your name certainly doesn’t stand for optimism.”

Mia and Irene are driving ahead. Silence has them both in a chokehold.

“Mia,” Irene says uncomfortably. “I can give you a thousand reasons why I didn’t tell you any of it. Other than that, it is a great burden no child should bear.”

“I’m not a child,” she mumbles, her gaze stuck out of the window.

Irene nods, also avoiding eye contact. “It’s not like I could hide it from you forever. I didn’t do it, so you could bear a semblance of a normal life because you are not normal.

“When it was time for your Chrysalis, all would’ve been revealed, but fate decided otherwise. But it seems you’ve been dabbling with fathomless forces since you were a child.”

“What is my Chrysalis?”

“Savio theorized that it was your full metamorphosis into your natural form.

“He deduced that your initial transformation will come with your abilities whenever they wake, but we couldn’t figure out what you would become when it was complete.”

Mia remains silent but attentive.

“Savio and I knew each other for a long time. He ascended in rank whereas I remained a combatant. If the barrier wasn’t mended fast enough and a creature slipped through, they would send people like me to kill it.

“I was much better at taking orders than giving them. When I went rogue, I was branded a traitor.

“I had Savio and a few other Ecclesia members on the inside that were growing incredulous as well, but had no gall to transgress the creed they vowed to as I had done.”

Mia’s gaze draws to her lap, her face avid.

“Savio completely turned on them when he found out about you. You were acquired by an elite force of the Ecclesia, much higher than Savio.

“How was the biggest mystery, but Savio deduced that you were likely handed over to the Ecclesia for safekeeping, that perhaps in your true home world you were under a greater threat.

“But when they discovered what you would become, their intentions toward you turned hostile, then devious. That was when Savio reached out to me and brought me to you.”

Mia sneaks a glance. Irene’s eyes abound with motherly love.

“You became mine the moment I laid eyes on you. Savio made a plan to escape the Ecclesia, flee to this world and keep you in hiding, at least until your Chrysalis. After that, you would have the power to protect yourself.

“So for the better part of a decade we lived as a family, under the radar and safe from perils seen and unseen.” Irene pricks her with a pointed look. “So I believed.”

Mia snatches her gaze away. “So…he’s lost, but not dead?”

“I wish he was dead.”

Mia’s head whips to the side.

“He will languish in darkness for all eternity, Mia. In a void where time knows no beginning or end. And he can never be found. The void itself is limitless.

“Why do you think he told you that he will always love you, even in a hundred lifetimes and a thousand different realities? It wasn’t about being cute. He knew how his story would end.”

Mia folds forward with a sigh, plowing her hands through her hair, gripping the knotted strands.

“I know this is a lot to process.”

Mia’s spine snaps straight and her hands drop to her lap.

“Quite the understatement. My mind is too clogged to even process it all, but I’m sure a mental breakdown is coming.” She pauses, trying to recover her breaths. “What does this mean for us?”

“You are all targets now,” Irene says grimly. “I already planned an exfiltration years ago in case a day like this came too soon. We need to leave, but your friends need to come with us.”

Mia frees a shaky breath, shaking her head loosely.

“No,” she squeaks. “We can’t do that to them.”

Her voice hardens, growing cold. “I have no family, but they do. Akin has parents and grandparents, Aries has a grandmother and a brother that depend on him. And Opal has an entire tribe.

“They have lives here and perhaps a future somewhere else. We can’t just take that away from them.”

Irene breaks the crick from her neck. “It’s not only their safety I’m thinking about,” she says ominously.

The dark enigma in her expression coerces concern from Mia. A thought blindsides her.

“What about Detective Russo?”

Irene’s face turns neutral, and she sighs heavily.

“I knew he was going to be a problem, but I certainly underestimated how much. But he has bigger problems. The Sporkah—it knew he was there. The question is, what is the masked demon going to do about it?”

Panic sparks within Mia. “Then we should do something before it does.”

“Do what?” Irene retorts. “I warned him to stay away. The fault is none to bear but him. My sole concern is you. And the others.”

Irene rounds a sharp junction and they enter the public road just a few yards from the library. The roads are still and silent, not a single other car in radius other than a scattered few parked on the margins.

Irene pulls up the curbside in front of the brick-faced library. Aries parks behind her. They all exit and regroup on the sidewalk in front of the weather-worn staircase.

“Why are we here at this time?”

Irene casts Mia a meaningful look.

“Remember when I said I still had a few people inside the Ecclesia along with Savio? The Gurusha is one of them. She belongs to the Ecclesia, but she’s a friend, and I don’t use that term lightly.

“She’s the reason I chose Braidwood, because she was able to cloak me and Mia from anyone who came looking. Savio was too prominent to hide.”

“What is a Ga—ru—sha,” Akin enunciates with exaggerated elongation.

“A skilled enchantress of sorts. Skilled enough to dig in your brains.”

Irene whirls around and goes up the steps. Akin gawks back at Mia, but she waves him off as they all follow after her silently.

Irene goes to the double door and knocks many times on the glass pane. An elderly lady pokes her head past the “closed” sign and peers out with an irritated glare.

Irene gives her a wry salute. The woman makes a displeased face and unlocks the door.

“What are you—” her eyes arrow at Aries, a verdant gleam flashing in her dark eyes. “What is a—”

Irene springs in front of her to hinder her path to him. “No. He’s under my protection.”

“Do you know what ~it~ is?” She flings another glare at him. “He might still be a fledgling, but you know what he will grow into. How did it even breach the tier without the others detecting it?”

Irene opens her mouth.

“All of them.” She inhales deeply, her frail chest inflating. “~The power~…they’re not human either.”

Her eyes snap to Mia. “Especially not that one. She’s from neither of the mortal worlds.”

“Celeste, please. You know if they were a threat, I would’ve dealt with them. There’s a bigger problem. A breach.”

“The Ecclesia will resolve it.”

“Not this one.” Irene glances back at the young people guiltily. “Only they can seal it. We don’t have time.

“I need you to recover a memory from seven years ago. Erin Lockwood. You remember the girl and the day I asked you to help track my ward?”

Celeste’s eyes deviate to Mia. “Like it was yesterday.”

She stands aside to grant them entry. “Come, I’m doing this as a favor for what you did for me. And for Savio, I remember he grew fond of the little hybrid.”

She gives Irene a sardonic smile. “Forgive me. I was not supposed to know that.”

Irene flags them over and they all trail behind her as they enter the library.

The interior is finished with timeworn walls combined with slatted timber, a natural material palette dominated by tactile, warm woods.

Celeste takes them to the front desk on the opposite side of the assortment of bookcases.

Celeste flips up a panel from the counter and holds it as they all pass through. She leads them inside her private office and closes the door after them, then goes up the wall of bookshelves taller than she is.

She pulls down a book like it’s a lever and releases it. A churning sound ensues like gears roiling before a slab of the book shelf pushes back and slides to the side to reveal a secret room.

Celeste flutters her fingers invitingly and goes inside. Irene follows, then so do the others.

The narrow passage widens into an enormous space, massive, larger than the library. The mythical roof is covered in wood shingles with an earthy-hued design to echo the shapes and scale of summer-lit leaves.

Porous versions of these shingles are placed over skylights to create dappled light effects inside that evoke walking below a tree canopy while emitting a soft mystic glow.

Celeste guides them to a white alabaster arena with a stand in the middle holding a flamboyant bowl with a glowing blue sphere inside of it. Cirrus cloud-like white wisps float over it, swirling.

On her way, she plucks a crimson cowl from nowhere. And with a flick of her wrist, it whips around her and she’s garbed in a ruby-red gown with a cowl draped over it, and the hood drawn.

Celeste instructs the four young people to stand around the glowing sphere, which begins pulsing with an eerie light.

“What is it?”

Celeste hushes Akin.

“Now…do me a favor. Even if you do not remember what happened to Erin. Focus on that night, all of you, do it~ together~. And I will take it from there. It will make it a lot faster and painless if you do.”

Celeste begins to circle them, murmuring an incantation. Suddenly, their eyes feel heavy and they droop closed, but they remain standing. Irene watches the sphere, magical wisps coalescing into images.

With a twirl of Celeste’s hands, incandescent blue tendrils rise from the sphere, whirling around and finding each of them.

A single tendril splits into two and it connects itself to Mia’s temples like an EKG. The other lurid blue tendrils attach themselves to the others.

And the memories come crashing back with frightening clarity.

^INTERLUDE: What Happened to Erin?^

^SEVEN YEARS AGO^

“I didn’t know”—Akin vacuumed in a mouthful of air—“the Black Glade was this big.”

Keila dragged herself with each step, and Opal moved as if weights were attached to her ankles. Aries took frequent pauses and Mia often hung onto him as he did.

Keila tripped on a bulging tree root, she looked up on all fours and saw a shadowy hand extend itself to her. Keila smiled thankfully and held onto one bony finger as it elevated her back to her feet.

Keila kept her hand around its huge but skeletal finger as the Sporkah ushered them out of the tree line, and onto the ledge of a soaring cliff.

“No…way.”

Fatigue forgotten, Akin rushed to the edge, wary of the hazardous brink. He peered over the gargantuan canyon that separated the Black Glade from the world beyond.

They all gathered around him, star-struck, marveling at the distant beauty.

The fields were glade-green. A pageant of smells floated in the air and a horde of vivacious blooms decorated the meadow.

Spears of slim light spilled from the sky and proud-breasted fowls swept through the air, flaunting pearlescent wings. The scene was spirit-refreshing and pastoral, adding to the stained-glass perfection.

Erin hung back and observed her friends. She looked back up at the Sporkah beside her.

She knew what she had to do.

“This is insane!” Opal grabbed Akin and shook him to make sure it was all real.

“There’s more out there?” Mia murmured.

“There is,” Erin confirmed. “The world you see is Gavaria, part of the realms of old.”

Aries rotated to look back at her from over his shoulder. “Then what are we still doing here? Let’s go check it out!”

“We can’t. Because Tzelem can’t.”

“Why not?” Keila asked.

“He’s trapped here,” Erin explained. “Imprisoned here by evil people because they’re afraid of him. They took one look at him and saw a monster. But now that you know him, do ~you~ think he’s a monster?”

They exploded into a dissonance of disagreement.

“What?” Mia shrieked. “No way, he’s sweeter than most humans.”

“Ye,” Aries agreed. “Why would they think Shadow is dangerous? If he was, he would’ve killed us, but he hasn’t. He’s totally harmless.”

“Yep,” Keila chirped. “No fair. How do we get him out of here?”

Erin smiled heartily. “Only we can. But we have to go back to the palace.”

***

Erin and the others entered a subterranean chamber of elaborate stonework.

It descended deep to a mystical pool of iridescent waters, its tourmaline color was so bright it cast a turquoise sheen on the ancient walls, reflecting a sea-green shimmer.

“What is this place?” Mia asked, looking around in awe.

“This is how we free Tzelem. A ceremony.”

“Ya,” Akin said, “but how?”

Erin smiled again, this one ominous. “You will know.”

She led them down the mountainous staircase and spread them out around the pool, so four of them occupied a corner each and two of them stood in the middle opposite each other.

Erin and Mia were the ones in the middle with the otherworldly body of water interspaced between them.

Opal turned her gaze skyward to the far-flung ceiling, a dome of glass with runic inscriptions etched within the ring.

Moonlight glimmered from above and illuminated the inscriptions, turning it into molten silver as it spilled into the waters.

Erin began to whisper words in a foreign and guttural dialect. The others gawked at her with wordless bewilderment.

Erin’s eyes hooked Mia’s gaze, and she began to whisper the same chant, then the rest of them joined.

Their voices melded into one and rose to a chorus of a thousand, their voice reverberating through the chamber that began to quake, sediments cascading from above, ending with one word to seal the invocation. A name.

***

Mia’s eyes snapped open. She was no longer in the chamber but in a dark cobblestoned room.

An ingress appeared in the wall, melting away at the corners. Erin stepped through and walked inside, and then it stitched back together like suturing a wound.

“You brought us here?”

Erin shook her head eerily. “You did.”

“Me?”

“You have to make a choice, Mia.” Her eyes gestured to the stand that materialized in front of them, occupied by a unique crystalline-crafted dagger with a glistening red blade like blood glass.

“You have to make a choice. That is how it is done.”

Mia went icy with panic and edged away. “What is?”

Erin lunged for the dagger but Mia was swifter. Mia retreated, but Erin kept advancing with a devilish look in her eyes that somehow robbed her of her humanity, looting her sentience.

Though she appeared to be the Erin she knew. Mia also knew that it was no longer her.

“Erin, what are you doing?” she screeched.

“You wanted to help free Tariaksuq. This is how it’s done.”

Erin went for the dagger. Mia dodged her but Erin caught onto the tail of her braid and yanked it back as if it were leather reins.

Mia yelped and crashed to the ground, the dagger flying from her grasp and clattering far out of her reach.

Erin possessed it and before Mia knew it, she was on top of her with the dagger raised above her head. Erin slashed down but Mia caught onto her and they tussled for the grip of the dagger.

“Erin! Stop!”

Mia took hold of the pommel and Erin’s wrist and used the momentum to swing it into her chest. The blade was buried in her chest. Erin froze and flopped off of her.

***

Aries’s eyes snapped open. He was no longer in the chamber but in a dark cobblestoned room.

An ingress appeared in the wall, melting away at the corners. Erin stepped through and walked inside, and then it stitched back together like suturing a wound.

“Erin, what is this?”

“You have to make a choice, Aries.” Her eyes gestured to the stand that materialized in front of them, occupied by a unique crystalline-crafted dagger with a glistening red blade like blood glass.

“You have to make a choice. That is how it is done.”

“What the hell you talkin’ about?”

Erin lunged for the dagger. Aries swiped it from the stand with a sleight of hand and held it high.

“What are you doing?”

Erin’s eyes glittered dangerously as she crept toward him, but he held his ground.

“Erin, what are you doing?”

She pounced on him like a wild animal, and the dagger went spiraling at the wall. Erin climbed off him and scrambled to it.

Aries latched onto her ankle and heaved her back to him, and captured her wrists. This time he climbed upon her and pinned her wrists to the stone floor to restrain her.

“Erin, what are you doing?” Too overwrought to think how or why this was happening. “Are you trying to kill me or something?”

Erin grinned and head-butted him off. She pushed him aside and shot up and rushed after the dagger. She swiveled around and brandished it in her hand as she advanced to a gaping Aries.

Erin launched into quick, knifing motions, unraveling a strip of red from his arm and another twin lesion on his other.

Aries stumbled back, evaluating the shallow grazes. This time, Aries looked up at her and something inhuman flashed in her eyes.

“Don’t do this, Erin. Whatever this it, it’s controlling you.”

Erin grinned.

Aries shook his head fearfully. But not in fear of her, but of what he was going to be forced to do.

Erin advanced, and Aries’s mind dwelled on his training. Erin released an onslaught, and he evaded narrowly, jerking into the opposite line of attacks, purposely drawing her toward the wall.

When he was close enough, he knocked away her attacking hand away and grabbed a fistful of her hair to slam her face into the wall, hoping to knock her out. But she remained standing and her eyes snapped to him with a grin.

“Erin…”

She stabbed at him, and his head darted aside just in time.

He gripped the dagger and tore it from her grasp, then hooked his arm around her throat and forced her around so her back hit his chest.

She thrashed with murderous rage and Aries silenced her with a slash across the throat. Gurgling and gagging sounds ensued before he released her and she dropped to the ground, face first, blood pooling around her.

***

Keila’s eyes snapped open. She was no longer in the chamber but in a dark cobblestoned room.

An ingress appeared in the wall, melting away at the corners. Erin stepped through and walked inside, and then it stitched back together like suturing a wound.

“Erin? What’s happening? Where’s everyone else?”

“You have to make a choice, Keila.” Her eyes gestured to the stand that materialized in front of them, occupied by a unique crystalline-crafted dagger with a glistening red blade like blood glass.

“You have to make a choice. That is how it is done.”

“I don’t get it…”

Erin lunged for the dagger. Keila watched in confused horror, paralyzed. Erin stalked over to her and raised it in a homicidal hold.

Instinct shoved Keila out of the way and she staggered to the side, backing away from a deranged Erin with a red-tinted haze in her eyes.

“I don’t like this game…”

Erin advanced menacingly.

“I thought this was meant to help Shadow? Why are you trying to hurt me?”

Erin dashed to her and cut her legs from beneath her. Keila’s back smacked the ground. The blade glinted and Keila’s face shot out of the way and it struck stone instead.

Erin attempted again, and Keila caught the dagger. Both of them grappling, Erin tried to force it down to her chest. Keila screamed and pleaded, but to no avail.

Since her will refused, primeval instincts took over and Keila stole the dagger and its blade disappeared into Erin’s gut. She coughed out blood and fell off Keila.

***

Akin’s eyes snapped open. He was no longer in the chamber but in a dark cobblestoned room.

An ingress appeared in the wall, melting away at the corners. Erin stepped through and walked inside, and then it stitched back together like suturing a wound.

“Yo, Erin, what’s going on?” He spun around. “How did we get here?”

“You have to make a choice, Akin.” Her eyes gestured to the stand that materialized in front of them, occupied by a unique crystalline-crafted dagger with a glistening red blade like blood glass.

“You have to make a choice. That is how it is done.”

Akin’s eyes widened in horror. “How about we don’t do it?”

Erin lunged for the dagger.

Akin ran away, looking for somewhere to escape, but it was a long, four-by-four room with no windows or holes. He couldn’t even comprehend where the light was coming from that gave him the ability to see.

Akin groped the walls with a desperate hope that something would happen. He hurled himself aside and the blade struck stone, a shrill scraping his hearing.

He ducked as an assault swooped over his head and he launched a kick at her stomach and she fell back, but the dagger remained in her hand.

“I’m so sorry, Erin!”

He went over to offer his hand. Erin nearly sliced it off.

He darted back, raising his hands in surrender. “You could’ve just said no.”

Erin rose with a vicious glower, nostrils flaring like a baby bull ready to charge.

“Erin, remember me.” He pulled out his necklace from under his top, holding out the pendant. “Best friend, remember that’s me, that’s you—that’s us. You’ve got to remember that, I beg of you. Stop!”

But Erin did not. She attacked again and again; she fell.

***

Opal’s eyes snapped open. She was no longer in the chamber but in a dark cobblestoned room.

An ingress appeared in the wall, melting away at the corners. Erin stepped through and walked inside, and then it stitched back together like suturing a wound.

“Whoa.” She looks around the dungeon-like room. “What is this place?”

“You have to make a choice, Opal.” Her eyes gestured to the stand that materialized in front of them, occupied by a unique crystalline-crafted dagger with a glistening red blade like blood glass.

“You have to make a choice. That is how it is done.”

Opal’s face knitted into a contemplative look. “How does a dagger help Shadow?”

Erin lunged for the dagger. Opal panicked and knocked it out of reach from them both.

“Erin, what the heck?”

Her eyes darted to the dagger. Opal turned around and Erin drop-kicked her to the ground. Opal landed flat on her chest and lifted her head from her arms, seeing the blade glinting in the corner.

She crawled to it, heaving her body. Erin watched with morbid amusement before she stomped on her ankle, echoing a sickening crunch.

Opal screeched, tears bursting from her eyes as Erin walked over to the dagger. Opal flipped herself over, pain clamping down on her ankle.

Erin returned and stamped her hand on her chest to keep her still—Opal shot up and bit Erin’s wrist. Erin scowled and threw a jab and Opal’s face whipped in its direction.

Erin attacked again and again. She fell.

Opal backed away from the body with a pommel protruding from its gut. Opal kept shuffling back on her elbows until her back met with the wall and she forced herself up to a sitting position.

She freed a heart-rending scream, sobbing with a cry. Opal snatched her hand away, her chest pumping as she gawked at the stone floor, water emerging from the crevices, flooding the floor in an instant.

Despite the immobilizing pain, Opal didn’t even try to escape because there was nowhere to escape to. She didn’t care if she drowned. She deserved it.

When the water reached her neck, she turned her face to the ceiling. And even though she didn’t believe, she murmured a prayer until the waters swallowed her whole.

However, she didn’t float to the top. She remained on the floor like she was anchored to it. And just as quickly as the waters rose, it fell, the water level dropped instantaneously, draining away mysteriously.

Opal sucked in a sharp breath, and so did another. She looked beside her. In the other corner was Akin, clinging to the crook.

The two other corners were occupied by Keila and Aries who were staring at the center where Mia, drenched and shivering, knelt beside Erin’s body.

But the blade that was lodged inside of her had vanished, leaving behind a shriveled corpse like she had aged a thousand years in a day.

Akin forced himself up and went to go stand over her body, then Aries and Keila followed.

Aries dropped to one knee and hung his head. Keila’s hands covered her nose and mouth. Tears overwhelmed Akin’s eyes, and he grasped his head.

“We have to get out of here,” Mia murmured.

Keila shook her head dazedly. “We can’t…we can’t just leave her.”

“She’s dead,” Aries pointed out. “She’s dead. I don’t know what sick ritual this is, but she’s dead. And if we don’t get out of here, we will be too.”

Aries noticed a crippled Opal still stuck to her corner. He hurried over to her. Unable to explain her injury, Aries didn’t ask. He hoisted her up to her feet.

Aries called over Akin and he used Aries as a footstool to climb out of the empty pool so he could help Opal from above. Aries picked her up and Akin held onto her and hauled her up and over the edge.

They did this repeatedly until Aries was the only one left and he helped himself out. They glanced back at a motionless Erin, her hollow, translucent stare on the domed ceiling, bathing in silver-sieved moonlight.

“Let’s go,” Aries urged.

He aided Opal and the rest of them followed him out of the building, which belonged to one of the separate annexes of the palace.

But they had to cross a wide empty space of green to make it back to the edifice where their only exodus was.

Before they could even think of crossing, a spiral of shadows rose up, and Tariaksuq appeared before them.

Rage gripped Aries.

“You made me do it,” he screamed. “It’s your fault! Why did she have to die?”

“Are you going to kill us next?” Opal winced. The slightest pressure on her foot invoked scalding pain. “Was this your plan the whole time?”

The Sporkah didn’t want to kill any of them. There was still much work to be done.

“We’re not helping you do jack!” Aries shouted. “Now get out of our way, we’re leaving.”

“And you’re never going to see us again,” Keila contributed.

They stepped forward. Shadows seeped out of the ground like smoke but there was no fire.

The ground beneath their feet shook, jostling them as shadows stirred around them like a growing storm, the dark gale billowing their hair and forcing them to squint their eyes at the air-whipping wind.

They huddled together, imprisoned in a vortex of shadows.

“Stop,” Mia murmured, remembering the first time she was in the Black Glade. It feared her. “Stop!”

And the storm was stilled into silence. The Sporkah vanished. They didn’t waste time. Aries and Akin flanked Opal, and they ran with her as the group made the long journey back to the palace.

When they reached the fountain chamber, the boys helped Opal onto the ledge, but she paused.

“Opal, what are you waiting for? Go.”

She glanced at Aries. “Erin…”

“I don’t know what that thing did to her. But the Erin I know would want us safe. Now go.”

Opal threw herself over. Keila climbed inside, crying. Mia motioned for the boys to go before her, watching their rearguard before she too leaped into the water.

She swam down the perpetual passage and allowed the portal to do the rest as she continued swimming to a new surface.

Mia emerged out of the waters and Akin’s hand awaited her on the other side. She grabbed on to him and he helped her out of the river, back into their world.

They all trudged to the path and descended Skeleton Gorge.

No one said a word. The trauma was starting to settle in as the adrenaline wore off.

Mia hobbled forward. The damp undergrowth of the forest floors moshed between her toes, squelching beneath her bare feet with each step.

Keila trembled beside her. The red summer dress she wore, decorated with blue flowers, was caked in filth and grime.

Akin’s long, bony legs wobbled, and Opal’s arm was draped around Aries’s shoulders, his arm wrapped around her waist, which kept her bolstered at his side as she hopped on one leg.

They all emerged from out of the woods, scathed, broken, and irrevocably traumatized.

Soon all they could hear was blaring sounds of sirens that screamed into the midnight sky, tires screeching as four police vehicles descended upon the scene.