A Tide of War Read online

  Clambering down from the animal, I tied the reins to a withered tree nearby that was growing out of the rocks. Next, I gently pulled Ash down from the bull-horse. I wouldn’t be able to carry him, but I could lean him against me, half dragging him along, if he wasn’t able to walk.

  “Ash, this is going to hurt. I’m sorry.”

  I gritted my teeth, forcing my body to take his weight. His breathing quickened when I moved him, coming out in rasps. The blood from his wound increased, flowing freely as I shuffled us both along the passage. A line of dark crimson trailed along behind us.

  “Not long now,” I promised.

  I moved us both into the light of the Impartial Ministers’ strange domain. Where it had been dark outside, the sky in here was still bright blue. I wondered if it was ever night here, or if the sky even changed color at all.

  It was easier to move Ash on the polished marble floor, and for a while the only sounds I could hear were the pain-filled grunts of Ash, my own huffs of effort, and the sound of Ash’s boots staggering along the floor. I felt like I was going crazy. No matter how much effort I put into heaving us forward, the basin of water seemed to remain in the distance, just out of reach.

  “Oh, just give me a break,” I half-sobbed to the empty chamber. I was so desperate, so panicked. A hot flush was starting to run down my back, the kind of uncomfortable prickly heat that made me want to scream.

  We finally made it over to the edge of the basin. The waters remained, still and silent, the dancing white light shimmering beneath the surface. Even though we’d taken gallons with us when the warlocks and witches came to infuse the weapons, the water level seemed completely unchanged, as if we’d never been here at all.

  I left Ash lying at the edge of the pool, and I jumped in. The water was cool. Instantly the heat of my body died down, every aching muscle soothed, my racing heart slowing to a steady beat.

  This is going to work.

  I could feel it. I waded back over to Ash, pulling him in alongside me. I removed his robe, shoving it back over the side, and laid him on his back, submerging his entire body in the water except his mouth and eyes.

  Within moments, the water blushed red with Ash’s blood. My earlier certainty was suddenly replaced with doubt. If the water encouraged more blood to leave his body, would I have made matters worse?

  “Ash! Ash, please wake up,” I begged, shaking him as his body floated just below the surface. Not knowing what to do, I rested my head on his shoulder, the water now ice-cold and making my teeth rattle.

  “Please. I’m begging you, Ash,” I whispered hoarsely. “I don’t know if you can hear me or not. But can you please just wake up—can you please just be okay—because I can’t, I really can’t do this without you. I know I’m selfish. I want you to live for me. I need you to do that, so I don’t completely fall apart. I’m scared how I’ll feel if you don’t get through this…I’m scared of the pain, Ash. Please.”

  I could feel his heartbeat, barely there, but just about discernible. Looking down at the wound I saw no change, the blood still curling off into the waters. I was about to move out—taking Ash back to my parents was probably my only other option now—but as I waded us both to the side of the basin, the pool shuddered beneath me.

  For a moment, I thought it was another earthquake about to erupt, but the movement was only slight, and seemed to be coming from the depths of the pool. The waters started to ripple from the center outwards. I looked down at the light at the bottom. It was pulsing, as if it had its own heartbeat, growing brighter by the second.

  I held onto Ash with a shaking hand.

  The water started to change color. Ash’s blood started to draw together, removing the red stain from the water and concentrating it in a whirlpool in the center. It started to move toward Ash. Where the water was lapping over his wound, the whirlpool broke, sending his blood to be diluted again, until it was drawn back into the center of the pool.

  It’s trying to heal him, I realized.

  Taking a deep breath, I pushed Ash’s body down, drowning him in the immortal waters.

  Now the whirlpool could latch onto his wound. Staggering back, I watched in amazement as the stream of blood poured itself back into the wound, any taint of red leaving the water completely. His skin started to close itself, the violent gashes caused by the shadow becoming smaller and smaller.

  I moved to raise him up from beneath the water, worried he couldn’t breathe. The second my fingers touched him, a bright, brilliant light flared up from his body, blinding me. I fell back, shielding my face. Losing my balance, I dropped into the water. My eyes opened for the briefest moment, and I saw an eternity of white light. It didn’t feel like I was in the pool anymore, but in a pure void of nothingness—almost the opposite of what the entity had created when it had ripped open the sky.

  I pushed up to the surface, gasping for breath. I looked around wildly, reassured to see I was back in the pool, but Ash was still fully submerged in the water. I waded over to him as quickly as I could. The light had vanished completely, and Ash was just floating beneath the surface, eyes still closed, no bubbles coming from his nose or mouth.

  “ASH!” I cried, dragging him up by his shoulders.

  I held him upright in the water, clutching his body to mine, praying that he would wake up. I thumped him, hard, on the back.

  He coughed, a stream of water falling from his mouth. A second later his eyes opened. His brown irises looked lighter than I’d ever seen them, but they were still the warm, almost gold, earthen hue that always made me think Ash was so solid and dependable.

  “Ruby?” he whispered, his voice tentative.

  His eyes came to rest on mine, the confusion vanishing. He hacked again, but this time he squeezed my shoulders as he did so.

  “Hey, you.” I smiled. I was fighting back tears, and the effort of doing so made my chest heave. I kept my hand resting on him, unable to not touch him, still barely able to believe that he was alive, that what I had seen was real.

  “I didn’t lose you,” I gulped.

  He moved his head toward me, his lips resting against my forehead. They were warm. We stood there, our arms wrapped around one another, unable to talk. His touch was more like a blessing than a kiss. I closed my eyes, focusing on his regular heartbeat matching mine, my fingertips pressed against his bare skin.

  Thank you, I whispered to whatever higher power was listening, thank you.

  Hazel

  I felt like my body was being washed across an ocean, weightless, my bones like jelly and my mind drifting off without an anchor. I was dimly aware of Tejus calling down to me, and the walls of white light flickering past. He was carrying me, which explained why I felt weightless, but I could barely feel his arms around me. Whatever we had done, the barrier that we’d managed to create felt like it had taken every last cell of energy in my body. While we were creating it, I’d felt power running through my veins with such force I’d been afraid that I couldn’t take it—but as soon as it stopped, it was like a bulb had exploded, the fuse dead. I had nothing left.

  “Hazel, syphon off me!” Tejus barked out his order.

  I wanted to tell him that I didn’t think I could, that I just didn’t feel like I had the energy to even attempt it, but the words just wouldn’t form. All I wanted to do was sleep—sleep forever.

  “Open the barrier!” Tejus called out to the waiting guards as we neared the palace.

  We must have been the last to leave the battle. I couldn’t remember who had been behind us as we created the white light—perhaps no one—but I could have sworn that I felt the flickers of an energy source that didn’t belong to Tejus or me. But perhaps it had been my imagination. The whole thing felt like a strange dream anyway, one that I didn’t have the energy to understand.

  The white walls that had flamed up on either side of the path faded from view. I recognized the lawns of Memenion’s palace, and saw the hordes of guards and sentries ambling around their tents. Crie
s from the wounded could be heard, and a hushed, respectful silence. We had lost many fighters in the hours before dawn.

  “Put me down, Tejus,” I whispered.

  I didn’t want my parents to see me cradled in his arms—they would think that I’d been hurt badly. He ignored me, but slowed his pace down from a run to a brisk walk.

  “Please, Tejus. My parents. They’ll worry.”

  He nodded curtly, gently helping me to my feet. His hands brushed along my sides as he checked for wounds, his eyes roving over my body. He was bleeding in a few places, but I was relieved to see the cuts were light—just flesh wounds and nothing more. Somehow, we had made it out of that battle alive.

  “Ash!” I exclaimed, suddenly recalling his injury and Ruby riding off with him on the bull-horse.

  Tejus shook his head.

  “I haven’t seen either of them. Ruby would have gotten him to safety though, don’t worry.”

  His voice was coaxing and soft. I got the impression that he was telling me what I wanted to hear, not what he actually thought. I nodded, numbed. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Ruby would be going through right now.

  “Hazel!”

  My mom cried out my name. In an instant, she and my dad were standing next to me, Mom’s eyes running over my body like Tejus’s had to check that I wasn’t harmed. When she was satisfied, she pulled me into a tight embrace.

  Then it happened—the leap of hunger jumping up inside my chest.

  “Mom,” I breathed, firmly untangling myself.

  “Are you hungry?” she asked, her eyes wide with concern.

  “Hazel?” Tejus questioned. Their eyes were all fixed on me.

  “It’s fine, Hazel.” My dad broke the pause. “Feed off me, I’m good to go.”

  I shook my head, trying to repel their energy from floating my way. They all felt so good.

  “I can’t. There must be someone else, like a sentry?” I asked Tejus hopefully.

  “Your parents would be better,” he insisted.

  “Hazel, please. If you need the energy, take it. You look like you can hardly walk,” my dad agreed.

  “Thank you,” I whispered quietly. I felt so bad taking what little he had. We had all been in the battle—the fact that I felt so weak irritated me. Tejus seemed okay; I could sense his energy. It wasn’t fully back to normal, but it seemed more robust than mine did.

  My dad rested his hands on my shoulders.

  “Feed,” he urged.

  I let my hunger satisfy itself, drawing his energy toward me, being as gentle as I could. I kept watching my dad’s face as I syphoned, making sure I wasn’t hurting him. He grinned at me, his brown eyes warm. Like the time I’d taken Mom’s energy when we were building the barriers, I felt a glow of love emanating from my dad. His emotions felt more restless than hers, like half his mind was still on the battle, but I couldn’t deny the fact that he was glad to be providing for me—happy to give me everything that he could.

  It didn’t take long for my body to return to normal. Clarity returned, and I felt like I’d woken, refreshed, from a deep sleep. I didn’t have the jittery sensation that I got when I took too much, and I took that as a signal to stop, releasing the bond between us.

  “Thanks, Dad,” I muttered.

  “Now can I yell at you for not doing what you were told?” he asked.

  “You can!” my mom exclaimed, but took over anyway. “Hazel, you were told to move to the back of the ranks when things got dangerous, but you completely ignored us! Then you ran back to Tejus when you were commanded to get out of there!”

  “I’m sorry,” I groaned. There was no way they were going to make me regret or feel guilty for what I’d done. Tejus was standing, safe and alive, next to me—all because I’d refused to leave him behind. Not only that, but somehow we’d created a barrier that was more powerful than anything I’d seen before.

  “Your parents are right,” Tejus snapped. “You can’t risk your life like that, Hazel. If something had happened…” His voice trailed off, his expression murderous.

  Great. Now I was getting lectures from my boyfriend too?

  “Mom, Dad.” I turned to my parents, hoping to pacify them. “You sent me to Murkbeech to learn survival skills, right? And I’ve learned them—not in the way you wanted, but you need to let me use them. You need to trust me. I know you’re worried constantly about Benedict and me, but we’re okay. So far, we’re okay.”

  My mom rubbed her temples. “I know,” she sighed. “But there’s no manual for this stuff, Hazel. You’re still my child. I’m going to worry about you for eternity and then some. I will never be okay with you deliberately putting yourself in danger.”

  “And I won’t do it again,” I vowed, crossing my fingers behind my back.

  She arched an eyebrow.

  “You will,” she replied, her lips pursing. “But I suppose I can’t stop you.”

  She looked up at Tejus. It was a fleeting look, but I recognized the unspoken implication. Tejus was also to make sure I stayed safe—apparently, my staying alive was now his responsibility too, as far as she was concerned. I knew Tejus wouldn’t argue with that—it seemed to have been his primary goal ever since he kidnapped me. In mom terms, that was acceptance into the family. I rolled my eyes, simultaneously annoyed that clearly no one believed I was capable of looking after myself, and secretly pleased that Mom and Dad were warming to Tejus.

  “Tejus?” my grandpa Derek called, and I grinned.

  Perfect timing.

  “What was that?” he asked as he approached, looking from me to Tejus and back again, impatiently waiting for an answer.

  “I have no idea.” Tejus shook his head in bafflement. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. My only theory is that our weapons may somehow have helped us, being infused with the waters…but still. That much energy…”

  “Can you try to recreate it around the palace?” my grandpa asked.

  “We can,” Tejus replied, “but not right now. Hazel needs to rest—it took a lot out of us both. I’m wondering if the extra energy came from us somehow syphoning off the rest of the army by mistake…or because we were all sharing energy, it created a build-up of some sort. I can’t tell.”

  I was interested in Tejus’s theories. Perhaps the energy that I hadn’t recognized in our bond was an amalgamation of everyone else’s? I couldn’t imagine it coming from a singular source—Ash, Ruby and I had mind-melded together, and it hadn’t produced results close to that.

  “We should also go looking for Ruby and Ash,” I interrupted. I wanted my friends safe before we attempted to try the barrier again—before we did anything.

  Tejus turned to me in surprise. “Absolutely not.”

  What?

  “Hazel, we’re not going out to search for them. It’s too dangerous,” he replied firmly. “I’ll send out some guards shortly—but you’re not going with them.”

  “Ruby wouldn’t leave me behind!” I exclaimed. “We have to get them, Tejus. We can’t leave them out there alone.”

  “Don’t worry.” A hand was placed on my shoulder and I spun around to see Claudia and Yuri standing behind me. I hadn’t even heard them approach.

  “We’re going to go and look for them—they’ve gone to the Impartial Ministers’ monastery. We can get there quickly on our own.” Claudia’s face was grim with determination.

  “And Ash…” I hesitated, not sure if I should ask.

  “If he needs the vampire transformation to stay alive, then I will happily give it,” she confirmed.

  “Claudia, careful. We don’t know if the sentries can withstand the change,” my grandpa reminded her.

  “If it’s his only chance, then we have to try it,” Yuri replied.

  “And have him go through the transformation while we’re at war?” my mom asked quietly.

  Claudia nodded.

  “It’s for Ruby. We have to try everything we can.”

  I was glad to hear that Claudia a
nd Yuri were both willing to turn Ash if it came down to it. I knew that my best friend’s happiness depended on Ash staying alive—whatever form that happened to be in.

  I squeezed Claudia’s hand, an unspoken gesture of gratitude. The woman nodded, and a second later Mona had joined them, and they were gone.

  Ben

  I held River’s hand under the banquet table. She smiled at me, both of us glad the other was safe, along with Grace, Lawrence and, hopefully, Field. Our family had made it through the battle in one piece, and though there wasn’t much about this morning I was grateful for, that was the one thing that mattered to me more than anything.

  Reluctantly turning away from River, I looked around the room. GASP, Tejus, Queen Memenion and a few other ministers, including the aged Impartial Ministers, had assembled to discuss our next steps.

  “The first thing we need to understand is what those creatures are—or at least what the entity actually is.”

  My voice cut through the mumbles of conversation that had broken out across the table. Everyone turned to me with varying degrees of blankness.

  “The Elders are the closest comparison I can make,” my father replied. “Clearly the entity’s taken Tejus’s brother’s body and held him under possession in a similar way it did with Benedict.”

  “This is much stronger though,” Tejus said. “When Benedict was under the possession of the entity, he never attempted to harm us directly—he was consumed by his mission to collect the stones. Jenus seems to be fully instated with the entity’s physical strength.”

  “Benedict had moments of clarity, didn’t he?” my dad asked.