A Race of Trials Read online

  “How’s it been going?” I asked them.

  They all looked as fed up as Corrine had.

  “Well, let’s just say we’re this close”—my father held up a hand and formed a tiny gap between his thumb and index finger—“to resorting to torture, unless this little liar confesses to her wrongdoings.”

  “I haven’t been telling lies!” the brownie erupted. “I haven’t!” She swung her legs in agitation. “In fact, I’ve been kidnapped—taken to this horrid place. You won’t even give me food!”

  “You have been given food,” my mother muttered, “you just want different food than we deem appropriate for a prisoner.”

  “Huh!” The brownie crossed her arms and exhaled another huff. “I’ll not be treated this way! I don’t know why you’re picking on us!”

  “Well, we found the missing humans tied up in your cave,” Ibrahim delineated for what I suspected was the umpteenth time, “along with all their valuable belongings, and, of course, the cast-iron hoof model that you used to cover your tracks. I think that sums it up.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about! I just stumbled on that cave with my friends!” she screeched.

  “Oh, really?” Ibrahim countered. “That’s not what your friends are saying.”

  She looked at him with narrowed eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that your friends are talking. And unless you want to spend the rest of your days cooped up in here, you should start doing the same.”

  “I don’t believe you!” she replied haughtily. “I think you’re the fibber.”

  “Well,” my father said, interrupting Ibrahim and rising to his feet. He gestured to us all to head for the door. “You let us know when you’re willing to get out of here... God knows I can be a very patient man…” There was a dark twinkle in my father’s eye that told me he meant business; he had something of a track record for playing warden and locking people up in dungeons… Jeramiah had certainly once experienced the brunt of the darker side of my father. My father had put a freaking ghoul in with him.

  The brownie gave a cry of despair as we exited the chamber.

  After we’d bolted the door behind us, the five of us broke out in chuckles.

  “Well the big scary Minotaur sure was a red herring.” My mother smirked. “I wouldn’t have guessed it would turn out to be a bunch of brownies.”

  “You mean a clever and organized theft ring,” I corrected.

  Those brownies had been smart. All the hysteria and hoopla surrounding the Minotaur had not only attracted more tourists to the area, but it had distracted attention from the theft of valuable items. It was almost the perfect crime.

  As we left the Black Heights and crossed the clearing to make our way back through the redwood forests, I took my husband’s hand and smiled.

  “You know,” I told him, “I almost hope those brownies stay tight-lipped—at least until Benedict, Hazel and their friends return. It’ll be a quirky surprise for them to return to after weeks of human normalcy… Yet another addition to our Shade ‘zoo’, as Corrine likes to call it.”

  Caleb chuckled.

  Ibrahim and my parents soon parted ways with us. They continued straight ahead, toward their respective treehouses, while Caleb and I took a right toward ours. We had almost reached the foot of our tree when a female voice boomed through the forest from behind us.

  “Hey, Rose. Caleb.”

  We turned to see Claudia hurrying toward us, Yuri at her side. She was clutching a phone in her hand. Both of their eyes were wide and anxious.

  “What’s going on?” I asked as they halted in front of us.

  “I couldn’t resist finally giving Ruby a call,” Claudia said, strangely breathless, “but it went through to voicemail. I also tried dialing your kids’ numbers as well as Julian’s. All on voicemail.”

  I exchanged a glance with Caleb, then looked back to Claudia and Yuri and shrugged. “I wouldn’t be too worried. They’re probably out doing some active—”

  “We also tried calling the center,” Yuri interrupted, his jaw tight, “no answer. The call got disconnected before we even got through. We tried every line they list in the brochure, at least one of which is supposed to be manned twenty-four hours a day.”

  “Have you spoken to Ashley and Landis yet, about Julian?” Caleb asked.

  “Not yet,” Claudia replied. “We were going to as soon as we’d found you.”

  I was already slipping my hand into Caleb’s back pocket and retrieving our charmed phone. I dialed Hazel’s number first and sure enough, hit voicemail. Then I tried Benedict’s. Then Ruby’s and Julian’s. My fingers admittedly quivering slightly now, I tried the center’s lines that I had programmed into the phone. I was disconnected.

  “We’ve already tried multiple times, from more than one phone,” Claudia explained.

  My heartbeat intensified.

  “I suggest you two go fetch Landis and Ashley,” Caleb said to Claudia and Yuri, a step ahead of me. “We’ll meet you outside the Sanctuary—we’ll ask Ibrahim or Corrine to give us a ride to Murkbeech to check out what, if anything, is going on.”

  The couple nodded, eyes still gleaming with worry, and took off.

  Caleb clutched my hand and squeezed tight as the two of us began racing toward the witches’ temple. I guessed my husband’s gesture was meant to be a reassurance that there was probably nothing to worry about. That Murkbeech was probably just having some technical difficulties with their signal and phone lines—it was a remote island, after all.

  But if it was something more… I swallowed hard, wishing that I had given in to the urge to call my children days ago, when my instincts had dictated me to. But it was too late for regrets.

  I squeezed Caleb’s hand back as the forest ground slipped away beneath our feet, as the wind ripped past our ears—my reassurance to him that if it was something more, we’d get to the bottom of it.

  In true Shade fashion, no member of GASP would stop to breathe until we had.

  Epilogue: Sherus

  It had been nearly two decades in human years since the battle between the fire fae and the ghouls of The Underworld; it had raged for a day and a night – but in my memory, where the screams of the fallen seemed ever-fresh, and the helpless bodies that fell were burnt into the back of my mind, the battle had seemed eternal.

  Looking out across my kingdom from the throne room, and the peaceful, sleeping gardens of my court, I should have been marveling at the opulence and wealth of my people – wealth that wasn’t just material, but spiritual too – the result of many years of peace; of children growing up with both their parents, of knowing harmony between all of the fae kingdoms.

  In a few moons, my son was set to continue this peace between the elemental kingdoms. He would be marrying Elirara, the enchanting daughter of the water fae king – thereby solidifying the two stars’ alliance. The earth and air fae had always been cautious allies, but I had no reason to suspect that the ongoing relationship there wouldn’t continue to be as beneficial to us both as it always had been.

  And yet.

  There was something…something I could feel in my bones, deep within my being, that told me to be alert – to be cautious. To not accept the serenity at face value.

  The door to my throne room opened.

  “Brother,” Lidera’s voice melodically floated over to me, “for days now you have stood at the window, watching the stars. What is it that you’re hoping to see?”

  “It is what I’m hoping not to see which concerns me,” I answered. My voice to my own ears sounded weary.

  “More imagined threats?” she replied, moving to my side to join me at my window vigil.

  “The stars are uneasy,” I said. “I am not imagining that.”

  Their configuration in the sky seemed too close, too bright – their normally, pure white light seemed waxy somehow – yellowed. It was a sign.

  “Oh, Brother!” Lidera laughed and nudged against me. “We ha
ve weakened the Underworld ghouls, our pact undone…what other threat would there be to us? Can you not just admire the fountains – look at them,”—she pointed— “they bare the sigil of this house in celebration of your son’s union with Elirara. This is a joyful time.”

  I looked down at the fountains. In our kingdom, they were created from white-hot fire, not water – their shapes licking upward toward the night’s sky. They ensured that our land was never in darkness, that nothing could ever hide.

  “Do you imagine, Sister, that because it is beautiful now, it must always remain that way?” I asked.

  She shook her head, but merely laughed again, refusing to take my words seriously.

  “You are too gloomy, Sherus.”

  “And you are burying your head in the sand,” I countered. “Not for the first time.”

  She sighed. “Will you ever forgive me for abandoning you? It has been years – and I have tried to make it up to you.”

  I already regretted my words. I’d given her too hard a time for abandoning me when we weren’t meeting the quota of ghosts that the ghouls required. It was cruel to keep hold of such a grudge, especially with my sister; she was sensitive and quick to hurt. And, I reminded myself, it had not been her pact – it had been mine. I was right to bear the brunt of the responsibility on my own.

  “I apologize. Forgive me, Sister.”

  “Forgiven,” she replied, patting my hand in reassurance. Her joy at the forthcoming nuptials had made her more easy-going than I’d ever known her, and she had been warmer toward me than she had in an age. I shouldn’t spoil it.

  “How is your friend – the one who walks around in the body of a fae?” she asked curiously. “Have you heard from him?”

  “Benjamin Novak? No. I have not. I assume all is well in the human dimension for him … I have not heard otherwise.”

  “You gave him a great gift, Brother.”

  “The gift was his,” I retorted swiftly. Benjamin’s help would never be forgotten, but I considered us even. The young man had been able to rejoin his loved ones – a chance at a second life. Few of us were that fortunate. I had not gained as he did from our exchange. I still mourned the loss of the oracles who had needed to die in order for our pact with the ghouls to be undone. Had the sisters still been alive, my unease would have been proven or quietened by their knowledge. Without those twins, I was second guessing threats, trying to understand the unfolding of the universe by myself – a foolish ambition.

  “You have gone again, Brother,” my sister smiled up at me again, teasing. “What are you thinking of now?”

  “The oracle sisters. They are a great loss to our people.”

  “They were horrid if you ask me,” she murmured. “I am glad they are gone. I never liked them, nor their strange brand of magic.” She shivered, and turned away from the window.

  “I have to help with the wedding preparations,” she informed me. “I am journeying to the water kingdom, I won’t be gone for long. But eat, rest – be your best for the wedding, Sherus. That is your only kingly duty at present.”

  She left, her silken slippers padding across the gleaming topaz stones of the floor. I crossed the room, determined to stay away from the windows for a while. I had introduced a recent levy on the rarer stones in our kingdom, and there were a few disputes that needed my attention. I had a servant summon my chief treasurer to me and we sat around a table to discuss.

  We had only been sitting for an hour, however, when I was interrupted again – by the sound of the emissary’s soft whistle, a sign that he was waiting outside my door.

  “Enter!” I called out, placing my parchments down.

  My best emissary, Jida, stepped into the room.

  “What news?” I asked, negating any pleasantries – there would be time for all that later. Right now I wanted to know the latest news of the other elemental kingdoms.

  “I am pleased to report that there is none, your highness,” he replied without expression. “All of the kingdoms are truly pleased about the upcoming wedding, and all the kings are unwavering in their desire to see harmony remain across the four stars. You are highly regarded, your highness – the days of your father’s rule long forgotten. They see you as wise, as benevolent. I have been looking for five days and five nights, and I have not come across a soul who wishes you or your people harm.”

  “And within my own kingdom?” I asked sharply.

  “The same. The people are wealthy and over-fed. No one desires to see that end,” Jida replied.

  I nodded.

  Perhaps my lurking sense of unease had been my imagination all along. The over-active imagination of a world weary king who saw veiled threats everywhere he went…I sighed.

  “Thank you Jida. You may go. Return to your family, I may need you again before too long.”

  He nodded curtly and left the room. Then, wanting to be alone again, I dismissed my treasurer, too.

  Breathing out, I leaned back in my chair. The two people I trusted most in the world—Jida and my sister— had just told me that I was wrong. That my instincts had been incorrect.

  But even so, my unease wouldn’t vanish. Though the night was still, and all appeared to be well within our four stars, I could not escape the feeling deep within my gut that told me all was not as it seemed. That in some distant place, a danger was stirring… Awakening. A danger from which no dimension would be safe if an army was not prepared to fight it.

  Ready for the next part of the Novak clan’s story?

  Dear Shaddict,

  Thank you for continuing the Novaks’ journey with me :)

  The next book in the series, A Shade of Vampire 36: A King of Shadow, releases November 30th, 2016.

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  Bella xxx

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  Read more by Bella Forrest!

  THE GENDER GAME

  The Gender Game (Book 1)

  The Gender Secret (Book 2)

  A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES

  Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story

  A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)

  A Shade of Blood (Book 2)

  A Castle of Sand (Book 3)

  A Shadow of Light (Book 4)

  A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)

  A Gate of Night (Book 6)

  A Break of Day (Book 7)

  Series 2: Rose & Caleb’s story

  A Shade of Novak (Book 8)

  A Bond of Blood (Book 9)

  A Spell of Time (Book 10)

  A Chase of Prey (Book 11)

  A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)

  A Turn of Tides (Book 13)

  A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)

  A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)

  An End of Night (Book 16)

  Series 3: Ben & River’s story

  A Wind of Change (Book 17)

  A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)

  A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)

  A Hero of Realms (Book 20)

  A Vial of Life (Book 21)

  A Fork of Paths (Book 22)

  A Flight of Souls (Book 23)

  A Bridge of Stars (Book 24)

  Series 4: A Clan of Novaks

  A Clan of Novaks (Book 25)

 
; A World of New (Book 26)

  A Web of Lies (Book 27)

  A Touch of Truth (Book 28)

  An Hour of Need (Book 29)

  A Game of Risk (Book 30)

  A Twist of Fates (Book 31)

  A Day of Glory (Book 32)

  Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians

  A Dawn of Guardians (Book 33)

  A Sword of Chance (Book 34)

  A Race of Trials (Book 35)

  A King of Shadow (Book 36)

  A SHADE OF DRAGON TRILOGY

  A Shade of Dragon 1

  A Shade of Dragon 2

  A Shade of Dragon 3

  A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY

  A Shade of Kiev 1

  A Shade of Kiev 2

  A Shade of Kiev 3

  BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY

  Beautiful Monster 1

  Beautiful Monster 2

  For an updated list of Bella’s books, please visit her website: www.bellaforrest.net

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