Two Worlds of Oblivion

by Angelina J. Steffort

  Both Corey’s and Heck’s heads turned as she spoke the name.

  “The crystal has Rhia’s blood,” she illustrated. “Can’t we find Rhia through the same crystal?”

  She waited as Corey and Heck both kept staring with comprehension and as a frown formed on both their faces.

  “What?” Maray didn’t take the time to say it more politely. She needed to know what it was that was creating the creases on their foreheads and the doubt in their eyes.

  “First of all, Jem has the damn crystal,” Heck clarified and glanced sideways at Corey.

  “Secondly,” Corey took over, “even with Rhia’s blood inside it, there is no guarantee it will work. She herself is a strong warlock, and she has Feris to help her. I am sure they’ll protect themselves against being tracked through their blood.

  Maray’s head became heavy with disappointment as she accepted that for now, they had no way of tracking down Rhia and ending all of this.

  “We need to find Jem to have a chance at trying,” Heck reminded and pointed to the left.

  A familiar sight chilled Maray’s bones. It was the Roman fountain with the lady pouring water and the magical staircase that hid a trapdoor into the secret quarters of the palace.

  “Down there?” Maray wondered aloud and got a nod from Corey.

  “Langley’s hideout.” She raised her eyebrow again. “I can’t believe he has the nerve to keep his headquarters there.”

  “At least I’ve been there,” Heck pointed out. “It will speed things up.”

  “We both have been in there,” Maray reminded him.

  Heck grinned. “I remember our first kiss.”

  “What?” Corey half-shouted, and Maray punched Heck in the arm half-heartedly.

  “When Langley attacked us down there, and Heck was crushed under the Yutu, he wasn’t breathing…” Maray explained and unexpectedly felt her cheeks heat up.

  Corey’s face relaxed. “Mouth to mouth resuscitation?”

  Maray nodded, and they both rolled their eyes at Heck who shrugged innocently.

  “Let’s find Jem before Heck gets any more ideas.” Corey ducked out of the bushes and jogged along the hedge, a graceful, dark shadow, not leaving any choice for Heck and Maray but to follow her to the fountain.

  The trapdoor was open when they reached the still water of the Roman ruins. The fountain had been turned off, the water probably freezing in the pipes. Maray watched her own breath come in white puffs as she stopped beside Heck.

  “This is not a good sign.” Corey was pointing at the dark hole. “What if Wil arrived before us?”

  “Wil probably hasn’t even heard about what happened,” Heck said with an expression that doubted Corey’s sanity. “There is no way he is down there.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Maray asked into the freezing air, her whisper dying the moment it escaped her mouth. There was no real plan. She wanted to save Jemin; that was the plan.

  “You stay behind us,” Heck instructed. “And no matter what we find down there, I will be with you the whole time.”

  His words sounded familiar.

  “Is that a guard of dimensions thing?” Maray asked curiously, referring to the lines. Maybe it was part of what they learned in training, something to say to someone they were supposed to protect…

  Heck frowned awkwardly in response, hiding his face behind strands of dark hair. “Let’s go.”

  He climbed down first, Corey right behind him. Maray glanced over her shoulder before she started the descent into the stinking hole. The palace was hidden behind rows of trees now. Even if someone looked out the window, there was no way they could see her. She wondered if her parents had figured out yet that she was gone. A wave of guilt washed over her. She could at least have left a note, telling them she was okay, that she would be back, but she had let her impulses guide her for once. Jemin was in trouble because of her, and she would do whatever it took to make it right. But this wasn’t just about making it right. It was about being unable to reconcile the thought of never being able to tell him that she felt the same way—that she was in love with him, too.

  The darkness didn’t feel half as bad with the determination of a fluttering heart. “Let’s go,” she repeated and climbed into the opening, ready to face whatever was awaiting her on the other side.

  Jemin

  Jemin woke up with a droning noise in his head. Langley had pushed him to the ground, and the rest was a hazy memory of twigs and branches cutting his face as he sped through the forest.

  “Look who’s awake,” a whisper greeted him as he opened his eyes. It took him a moment to focus, but when they did, he made out a pretty, Asian face hovering over him. “Seri,” the girl said. “Nice to see you again, Jemin.”

  “Seri?” He couldn’t believe his eyes. Seri was dead. She had died five years ago when Rhia had been sick and Laura had…

  “It’s really me,” the girl whispered.

  “What are you doing here?” Jemin tried to sit up but stopped every attempt the second he noticed two men in the far corner of the room.

  “Long story.” Seri nervously glanced over her shoulder before she focused on him again.

  Jemin noticed a scar under her chin, and knew it was really her. Seri had received it when she and Jemin had trained together for a while when her family had arrived at the palace. Her parents and his father had sometimes met in private. Today, Jemin knew it must have been about bringing down Rhia, the secret tyrant of Allinan, who wanted to push both worlds into darkness.

  “Come on, Seri,” he repeated. “What are you doing here?” He couldn’t believe a sweet girl like her would side with a traitor like Langley. But then, until recently, he had thought of his father as a traitor. Nothing was as it seemed—it seemed. “These people are dangerous.”

  “They are fighting for a free Allinan,” Seri objected, still in a whisper.

  “They are trying to kill an innocent,” Jemin said a little too loudly, and the men in the corner turned their heads.

  With a deep breath, Jemin suppressed the fading throbbing in his head and sat up, finding his hands chained together and his sword absent.

  “Great,” he muttered under his breath.

  Besides the fact that Seri was alive, everything was pretty much as he had expected it to be. He recognized the walls of Langley’s hideout, the bed beside him, and the straw he was laying on. The two men were coming toward him from Langley’s patchwork kitchen, each of them wearing an ambivalent expression.

  “I can’t tell what’s worse,” Jemin said to them before they made it across the room, “that you’re trying to kill the girl or that you believe anyone is going to come for me.” He forced a nonchalant laugh. It didn’t sound quite right, but it was convincing enough to make the men furious.

  Fury was good. It made people act irrationally; the same as love did. He bit his tongue and fought to keep up his indifferent features. All he could hope for was that Pen had kept Maray under control long enough to prevent her from running right into Langley’s arms—or paws, for that matter.

  With a quick glance, Jemin assessed the room. If he was quick, he could wrap his shackles around Seri’s throat and force the men to stay back. He didn’t have anything else to fight with. But in training, he had learned that whatever was within reach could be a weapon. Everything. Including Seri.

  “I am sorry,” he mouthed to the girl before he launched himself at her and pulled his arms apart wide enough to fit her head through them and tuck it behind the chain that was locking his hands together.

  The moment he was about to slide over her hair, Seri ducked out of his pending grasp and grabbed him by the neck, ripping him back to the floor. “Nice try, Boyd,” she said with a grin that could have stirred a weird attraction in his stomach the last time he had seen her. “Why don’t you stay right where you are while my friends here say what they have to say?”

  Jemin didn’t fight back. In months of training together, he had learned just how
difficult it was to get out of Seri’s grasp—and back then, she hadn’t even seriously tried to immobilize him. Seeing her with the revolutionaries—the twisted, cruel fraction of them—let him guess that she was capable of worse than simply holding him down. Her grin widened as she studied his face.

  “I know that look, Jemin.” She sighed. “You are thinking about ways to escape.”

  Her delicate frame appeared weightless when he looked at her, but her grasp was strong—even stronger than he remembered.

  “Seri,” he addressed her, ignoring the laughter of the two men who had planted themselves above his head, looking down on him with a strange amusement. “Don’t do this.” Jemin hoped that Seri hadn’t forgotten everything. Even if they hadn’t been close friends…

  “So easy for you to say.” Her coal hair tickled his cheek as she bent down low enough to whisper in his ear. “You didn’t die.”

  Jemin struggled to turn his head enough to face her, but she pushed his cheek against the floor. Straw was piercing into his skin, making her hold even more displeasing than it already was.

  “Long story.” Seri lowered herself even closer to him, fingernail cutting into his neck. “I would let you go if I had a choice,” she said tonelessly.

  Jemin knew better than to show any reaction. If Seri was here against her own will, there was hope. He had to win her over, reassuring her that he could offer her protection if she turned against Langley… only he couldn’t. Langley was a Yutu-shifter; smart and ten times as difficult to kill as a normal Yutu, a friend of his father’s… and now plotting against the girl he loved.

  He understood. Killing Maray, burning the body, and ridding the world of her blood was like an insurance against Rhia’s rising. But how could anyone in their right mind crave the death of a creature as innocent and beautiful as Maray?

  “Focus, Boyd,” a harsh voice interrupted his thoughts. “Give him some space, girl.”

  Seri jumped off of his neck, releasing him. He glanced at her, hoping to find something in her face that would allow him to estimate his chances of finding an ally in her. A black sparkle answered his gaze. It was the same look Langley had when he turned into a Yutu. Seri averted her eyes when she saw the recognition in Jemin’s face.

  “But I thought there was only one…” Jemin thought aloud.

  “One what?” the shorter of the two men barked.

  Seri unnoticeably shook her head at Jemin. So the men didn’t know. Did Langley know?

  “Nothing,” Jemin said and faced the men to divert the attention from the topic. “Just one of you misled creatures. But it’s true, you’re stupid enough for two if you think anyone will come for me…”

  “Shut up, Boyd.” The taller of the men kicked his ribs harshly, making Jemin bend over in pain.

  “Do with me what you want. I am a soldier…” he coughed, “…I am disposable. The court has hundreds like me.”

  “But none of them have the heart of the Princess,” the shorter man noted correctly and tore his scarred face into a wide grin of victory.

  Jemin’s heart twisted. He didn’t know if Maray’s heart was his. They had been interrupted when he was declaring his feelings. God knew how she felt. He might just be a distraction, an amusement for her to make it easier to settle into her new situation. She hadn’t even met the real heroes of Allinan, the noble men who were in favor of the court, the ones fit to be involved with a royal.

  “Awe,” the scarred man recognized his facial expression, “broken-hearted, are we?”

  Jemin pulled himself together. Where was his hard shell, the one that no one could see through? He needed it now more than ever. No one could realize just how deep his feelings for Maray ran.

  “Broken-hearted?” he repeated. “Yes, but not about the girl, but about the fact that I will have to hurt you.” Jemin struggled to get to his feet. No one held him back. He was weak, his head throbbing, still. No real threat for them, especially not after how Seri had taken him down within a fraction of a second. The men felt safe. Safe was good, it made people reckless. He could use that to his advantage.

  Seri’s legs were right next to his shoulders as he slowly lifted his torso. He could tell from the direction her toes were pointing that it would be easy to push her off balance. It wasn’t a moment to think, but a moment to act. The worst that could happen was that they’d kill him and lose their leverage over Maray—if she ever came for him, which he hoped she wouldn’t.

  With a roar, he threw himself against Seri’s slender legs, simultaneously kicking outwards with his feet toward the two men. The impact on the men’s knees gave him enough momentum to bring his full force against Seri’s thighs, and she tumbled under his weight, a yelp of surprise escaping her lips as she hit the floor, Jemin on top of her. He didn’t look over his shoulder to check whether the men were still standing but used the second of confusion to wind the chain between his shackles over Seri’s head, cutting off her air supply.

  “Stop,” a new voice alerted him. “You’re going to kill her.”

  Seri’s hands were clawing on the chain, mouth opening and closing as she gasped for air.

  “Stop, or what?” Jemin prompted coldly. Under his unbothered surface, his heart was pounding, anxious to find a reason to detain himself. He didn’t want to kill Seri. What had she done to him to justify hurting her? But his situation didn’t allow for mercy. Langley wouldn’t show Maray mercy. Rhia hadn’t shown his father mercy.

  “Stop, or I’ll tear you apart, boy, hero’s son or not.”

  Jemin lifted his head and glanced at the source of the voice, surprised no one had attacked him yet, while Seri’s struggles became weaker.

  Langley was staring back at him, eyes blue and furious, body shaking as if he was about to shift.

  Jemin relaxed the grip on the chains, giving Seri a moment to breathe. Her hand slid off of the iron between his wrists and moved onto his instead, claiming his attention. “Be careful,” she mouthed a warning.

  It wasn’t clear what she was warning him about, Langley or herself.

  The two men had taken a stance behind the Yutu-shifter whose shaking had stopped the second Jemin had let go of Seri.

  Her breathing remained the loudest sound in the small room until Langley stepped forward with heavy thuds. His old hands darted down to grab Jemin’s shackles and pulled him to his feet.

  “You are making a mistake, Langley,” Jemin claimed with a voice that expressed more emotion than he cared to show as he ripped his arms out of the Yutu-shifter’s grasp.

  “Believe me.” Langley glanced over Jemin’s shoulder at Seri, who had gotten to her feet as well and now took a stance beside Jemin, at a safe distance, a dagger in her hand. “Hurting Maray is the last thing I want to do. I simply don’t see another way. Not if Rhia is still alive.” Langley eyed him closely. “None of us has seen a corpse, and as long as I don’t know for sure she is gone, I won’t allow a chance in either world for her to reach her goal.”

  Jemin swallowed. He knew that Langley had a point, but sacrificing Maray? “There is always another way if someone is willing to find it.” Jemin held Langley’s blue gaze, ignoring the men who were fidgeting behind the leader of the revolutionaries.

  “And what would that other way be?” Seri prompted from the side, sounding bitter, not at all like the girl he remembered. “Should we wait until Queen Rhia finds her and takes her blood? Until the rift opens again and creatures can cross the borders between the worlds freely again?”

  For some reason, her voice pierced right into Jemin’s consciousness.

  “Your father did everything he could to prevent the first breach of dimensions, Jemin,” Langley said, sounding reasonable for once, not mad like he had before. “Are you really going to betray his memory by letting Rhia have the blood of her granddaughter and letting her take the power over the demons?”

  Jemin swallowed, his facade slipping as Langley reasoned.

  “The second she has that power, she’ll let the
darkness rise. She will use demons to enforce her rule over both worlds. You know what that means, don’t you, Jemin?”

  Jemin shook his head. He knew what demons were; every child in Allinan knew. Creatures who fed off of negativity. They hid in the shadows, biding their time until they were strong enough to exist out of them. Allinan had fought for centuries to rid the realm of them, and after decades of peace, the first breach of dimensions had almost destroyed the effort of generations before.

  “You don’t want that to happen, do you?” Seri asked from the side. “The borders are sealed with magic, permeable only to those with keys…”

  “And Yutu.” Jemin threw her a long look which made her pale face blush crimson.

  “And Yutu,” Langley agreed, diverting Jemin’s attention. “That’s why Maray needs to die.”

  “Because of the Yutu?”

  “No,” Langley shook his head. “Because we cannot allow Rhia to break down the borders. It would destroy everything.”

  “How did she do it in the first place?” Jemin dropped his hands in front of him, no longer feeling the urge to fight those people but to understand them. If he wasn’t strong enough physically to break free, maybe he could find a weakness in their argument that would allow him to undermine their logic. Anything to save Maray—

  Corey

  The sound of dripping water greeted them in the tunnel. Corey wasn’t used to being part of the action. Her professional life until now had been with Feris at the warlock quarters, not crawling through grimy corridors to someone’s rescue. It was an entirely new feeling, being included. Heck and Jemin had been doing this for a while now, and she had always wondered if they’d return safely, unable to actually do anything about it—except for the healing spells in their bracelets. Hers, potentially, were stronger than anyone else’s, and she was glad that Jemin had had a proper refill this morning. He would need it if he was going to fight his way out of Langley’s grasp.