Gaze of Fire: Sequel to Veins of Ice

by Melissa Kellogg

  Once she was at the window, Evelyn pushed it open, and helped Karena scramble through it. Karena made an awkward fall into the hospital room, head first. Her back seared in pain from hitting the hard floor. Despite this, she stood up to assist Evelyn in getting inside, but quickly found out that Evelyn didn’t need it. Evelyn flew towards the window, tucked her wings in at the last second, landed on the windowsill, ducked, and hopped inside. Clearly, she had practiced such a maneuver before.

  The room was empty, except for Asher’s body. The door was ajar. Footsteps paced outside, and voices murmured. The alarms had caught everyone’s attention, and only the guards remained outside of the room.

  Asher looked no different than when she had been pried from him inside that ring of willow trees. He was still unconscious. She went to him, and stroked his hair. She pressed her face against his neck, wishing he would move and say something to her, but he didn’t. He was in another realm. His eyes didn’t move under his eyelids from dreaming. He barely breathed. All of his muscles were slack. His body was merely a living shell of someone she had known. She choked on her grief. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She wanted him to wake up.

  Evelyn nudged her, and motioned to Asher. She held a hand to her mouth, reminding Karena that she couldn’t say anything to Asher and that time was precious. Anything could snap Asher’s attention away once she drew it to her.

  Karena ran her hand down his face and massaged his upper arm. Close to his ear, she said, “Asher, I need you to focus on my voice. It’s important you do so. It’s Karena. I’m here with you. I have something important to tell you.”

  She waited, and repeated what she had said.

  She continued, “It’s risky, but we’re going to find one of the sacred ruins and try to pull you out of the spiritual realm. It’s the only way, unless they find the book and somehow reverse the spell. There’s less than a day to save you. You need to find the sacred ruins to the east; they’re called the Cattail ruins. Concentrate on the name of it, and it will look like a beacon of light in the spiritual realm. Head to it as fast as you can and wait there. When I arrive there, I will call to you. You must reach out towards me when I stick an arm in, so that I can pull you out. We’ll be together again. We’ll find a way. I’m not giving up.”

  Someone marched into the room. A sweltering heat turned the room into an oven. Karena looked to the doorway, and saw none other than Canicus. Deep lines in his face appeared and turned to charcoal. His skin began to emit smoke and shimmery waves of desert heat.

  “I have to go,” Karena said, not to Canicus, but to Asher. Ice raced across the hospital floor.

  Evelyn pushed her towards the window and stood between her and Canicus. “Leap through the window,” Evelyn said.

  Karena looked from Canicus to Asher. Asher was defenseless. A confrontation with Canicus could cause collateral damage to him. Despite her intense fear, Karena took the leap out of the window. She hit her knees against the bottom of the window. As she fell through the air, vines reached out to catch her. Evelyn dived after her and grabbed one of her arms. Due to their combined assistance, Karena made a soft landing on ground level.

  They rushed to Blade’s jeep. Hospital personnel and cryptid authorities were outside and watched them leave. Due to the alarms, they were unsure of what to do or if they should try to stop them. They didn’t have time to reconsider because within seconds they exited the parking lot. Unfortunately, Blade and Jinx would have to fend for themselves if they were caught.

  Now that they were back on the streets, Evelyn headed to the Air district without regard to the speed limits or intersections.

  Evelyn said, “I have to pick up a map from my dad’s office. He’s an avid map collector, and will have one of the few maps of the Markhan Territory. Though I’m pretty sure all we need to do is follow the Ranarra River as it heads east and slightly south.”

  “Do you think he heard me?” Karena said, changing the subject back to Asher.

  “I think so. The mediums were there earlier, and he was flickering back and forth between this realm and the next. He was listening to Jinx, but as soon as I spoke, his consciousness went back to the spiritual realm. I don’t blame him for being fed up with everyone.”

  They arrived at her dad’s house in the Air district. Evelyn darted inside, and then ran out with the map tucked under her arm.

  As they drove out of Archelm City, Karena watched the city lights grow in sparsity. She wondered if they would get stuck in the Markhan Territory, or worse yet, die. However, venturing into the Markhan Territory and finding the Cattail ruins was one of the few ways they could rescue Asher. They had to try. She loved him, and would do anything for him. However, other people were getting involved. If she could’ve gone alone, she would’ve. But they were all in this together.

  Throughout the night, they took turns driving to Banesvale and uncertainty.

  Chapter 17

  Upon hearing Karena’s voice, Asher’s concentrated on it. It was like tuning into a radio channel. What had been a whisper became loud enough for him to hear without struggling. He heard the heartache and stress in her voice. Emotions welled up inside of him. Hearing her voice again brought peace and joy to him, but also worry for her. He resisted interrupting her.

  When she paused for a few seconds, he couldn’t stay silent any longer.

  He shouted, “Karena? Where are you? Karena?!”

  There was no reply. It was as though he was shouting into thin air. A strong gust of desert wind buffeted against him, whistling as it passed by and skipped across the harsh land.

  “Are you okay? Tell me that you’re alright,” Asher asked.

  He strained to catch glimpses of what was going on around his body. His vision flickered from where he was in the dark spiritual realm to the material world where his body lay.

  He saw a flash of white wings by the window, but no Karena. After seeing the ceiling, the walls, the floor, the bed railing, he cried out in frustration. He wanted to see Karena. He heard his father’s irate voice, followed by others. They schemed to exile Karena from Archelm City. Shock came over him, and he lost his concentration. The voices dimmed, but returned upon his focus. From their talk, he learned that all they needed were a few more signatures on their petition. Clearly, Karena wasn’t in the room anymore. Where had she gone? Their rants died when foreign voices made their presence known.

  Asher seethed over his family’s plan to further ruin Karena’s life, but his anger was interrupted by a spasm of pain. He gasped as it intensified. He doubled over onto the ground. Scorpions crawled over his hands. He panted. The pain in his core increased, but finally subsided. The wraith was gnawing on the link to his body. With pain like that, he wouldn’t be able to walk far. He had to make it to the Cattail ruins. Karena hadn’t said how far away it was, but she had said that she would be waiting for him there. He would get there, even if it meant that he had to crawl in order to do so.

  Grimacing, he stood up and looked around. He was surrounded by a barren landscape. Shadows flitted under the blood-red sun. When they paused to hover and survey the land below, he could see their menacing, distorted shapes. He wondered what they were. There were a lot of them, but they were the least of his worries. Dragons flew overhead, and giant insects with stingers the size of his little finger buzzed around.

  Glimpses of those surrounding his body came to him. There was a sea of faces that he knew, family and friends, but he didn’t see Jinx or Blade. Though he wanted to look upon what was familiar to him, he knew he couldn’t or else he would be wasting precious time. He had to get to the Cattail ruins. Karena had told him to focus on the name of it.

  He closed his eyes and repeated the name out loud, “Cattail ruins, Cattail ruins, Cattail ruins.”

  When he opened his eyes, a golden light rotated in the distance. It shot out a bright flash, dimmed, and then it beamed again as though it was a lighthouse. It was the Cattail ruins.

  Another cascade of pain rocked thr
ough him. It felt like something was tearing inside of him. Asher swayed on his feet. Through his watery eyes, he saw a man approaching. Had he come from the real world? But that would mean that he was a necromancer like Tristan. He hadn’t seen anything that might suggest that there was a trace of benevolence in his immediate surroundings, so Asher decided that the man must be a spirit or a necromancer.

  The man walked confidently, but stiffly. A long cloak whipped behind him. He was past his prime, in his early fifties. Despite his outdoorsy clothes of knee-high boots, dark pants, and a stained, canvas jacket, he looked more like a scholarly type of person. He appeared vaguely familiar, but Asher couldn’t place where he had seen him or who he resembled.

  “You look a tad lost,” the man said. He unveiled a magnetic smile.

  Asher studied him with suspicion. The man’s facial expression wasn’t matching his body language. Asher replied, “I’m not. I’m headed for that golden light over there.”

  “What light?” the man asked. He turned around to look, and after a second or two of studying the horizon, returned to facing him. “I don’t see one. You must be imagining things. Time spent in this wasteland will do that to you. What’s your name?”

  “Asher.”

  “I’m Connor.”

  Disembodied talking reached Asher’s ears. For a moment, his attention was held by it and the urgent tones in the people’s voices. He turned deaf to it in order to remain present with the man before him.

  “Condor?” Asher asked, having not fully heard the man.

  “No, it’s Connor, Con-nor.”

  “Oh, okay, got it. I apologize.”

  “You’re not right in the head, are you?”

  “I’m fine. It was nice meeting you, but I have somewhere to go.”

  “That’s nonsense. There’s nowhere to go, no destination worth traveling to in these lands,” Connor said, waving a hand at the hellish environment around them. “What’s the importance of this golden light anyways?”

  “The golden light is coming from the Cattail ruins. It’s a portal to the real world.”

  “And who’s going to pull you out?”

  “My girlfriend.”

  “The Cattail ruins are located in the Markhan Territory, young fella. It’s hundreds of miles away. She’ll never get there, if at all. She lied to you.”

  Asher walked past him.

  “You’ll never get there on your own. There’s monsters out there. You should come with me instead,” Connor said. His tone sent a chill through Asher.

  Asher ignored him. Something about Connor gave him an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He kept walking.

  After what felt like half an hour of walking, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The ground beneath him shifted. It mixed together like ingredients being whisked into cake batter. He stopped and watched as the ground revealed an enormous burrow as tall as he. White, moss-like strands surrounded its entrance. Faceted eyes glinted from its depths.

  Before Asher could run, a giant spider lunged at him. It was like a blur of speed charging at him. It snatched him up in its jaws and its fangs punctured his torso. He screamed from the pain. Its fangs were inside of his body. He couldn’t escape unless it withdrew its fangs and dropped him. The spider was so massive that the ground was three feet beneath him. He withered in agony, but it only made the pain worse. He gasped, and fought to remain conscious. His eyes fell upon boots parked in the sand. He glanced up. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised to see Connor there.

  Connor sneered. He said, “I warned you, didn’t I? I told you so. There’s worse monsters out here than this puny spider, which you stumbled across like an idiot. If you had come with me, this wouldn’t have happened. Have you reconsidered your journey?”

  Asher wasn’t going to fall for it. Despite the pain, and the fangs that dripped venom into his body, causing fever and a sickly feeling of neurotoxicity, he could discern that there was a connection between the giant spider materializing out of nowhere and Connor following him.

  “I know you summoned it,” Asher said, referring to the spider. He glared at Connor. “You’re some kind of dark soul.”

  Connor’s eyes widened for a brief second, but then narrowed. He said, “I am indeed. Everyone here is. This landscape changes all the time, and some, like myself, can even manipulate it. You should’ve gone with me and forgotten about your little adventure.”

  Asher called upon his powers, but they swirled inside of him, unable to collect.

  Connor tsked and shook his head as though he was a mother who disapproved. Connor said, “You can’t use your powers because your elemental powers are stored in your body.”

  The spider crunched down on him even more. It seemed to wait for instructions from Connor. Asher didn’t know much about the spiritual world and therefore, he was at a disadvantage. Fear ran laps inside of him. He couldn’t think straight. There was so much pain in his body.

  Suddenly, a realization dawned on him. Something Connor had said sparked a revelation. If he couldn’t use his elemental powers, then he wasn’t a physical being. What if the spider was only harming the body that he thought he had? He didn’t have to feel the pain. The only pain he couldn’t do anything about was from that wraith as it destroyed the link between his actual body and his nonphysical spirit body.

  Asher willed himself to go numb. The pain from the spider’s fangs in his body vanished. It had worked! His thoughts had done that. He wasn’t able to do that in the real world, but in the spiritual realm, where the limitations of a physical body didn’t exist, the possibilities of what he could do were endless. His thoughts and beliefs were what determined the severity of his plight. The reality of it astonished him.

  Now he concentrated on the translucent quality of being a spiritual entity. He dropped to the ground. The spider hadn’t let him go; instead, he had phased right through its jaws. Connor shrieked at him. The giant spider lashed out at him, while making horrendous clicking sounds. Its fangs struck the ground and into him, but couldn’t grab him. Connor’s shouts, and the attacks being made at him, threatened to break his concentration, so he closed his eyes, got to his feet, and began to walk away as though they weren’t even there.

  Another spasm of pain rolled through him and brought him to his knees. He waited for it to pass, and stood up to keep walking. The wraith was gnawing away at the link to his body. He wouldn’t be able to make it far without help. What if the Cattail ruins were in the Markhan Territory as Connor had said? He would never be able to make it on his own, not with the pain, which wasn’t letting up. He had been able to escape that spider, so what else could he do? It was time to find out.

  To the open air, Asher said, “Grandfather, grandmother, I need your assistance. Help me get to the Cattail ruins.”

  Almost instantly, their voices came to him in unison, “We are here, grandson. You can’t see us, but you will be able to see what we sent to aid you in your travels. We have been waiting for your call for help.”

  “Why can’t I see you?”

  “You will see us when you get to the Cattail ruins. Sacred ruins such as that one are like juncture points, like a seam that holds all realms together, like the center of many paths that branch away. We can be seen there. We can’t enter or present ourselves in true form in the dark spiritual realm because of the frequency that we resonate at. We aren’t interdimensional beings that can lower our resonance at will, like the angels can, or other beings. However, we will still be with you in other ways. It is good to be with you again.”

  Asher felt their love spread into him. It eased the pain in him and restored his hope. They truly were who they said they were. Love like that could only come from good-hearted souls.

  Behind him, Connor and the spider were dogging his steps and closing in fast. Connor had tried to trick him into believing that he was a prisoner to them, but he was a prisoner only to his own mind. He had to get away from them, before Connor could try to fool him again.

  A wing
ed horse landed next to him. It twisted its head around, motioning to him to get on. Its white coat glowed in defiance of the desert and harsh sun above. Asher mounted, and it took off, leaving Connor and his monster spider behind. Pain rocked him again, and he held on as best as he could. The golden light of the Cattail ruins seemed so far away. He hoped Karena wasn’t going to be venturing into the Markhan Territory. It was as dangerous and evil as the Wildlands and the dark spiritual realm that he was in.

  Below him, the wind blew the sand into serpentine patterns, while dark figures fought each other like wolves over a scrap of meat. Asher was thankful to be flying. He wondered about the winged horse, and if it was an angel in disguise. Even in the darkest of realms, light could still shine and the forces of good were able to assist those who needed it most.

  Chapter 18

  Beneath Marigold Park in the Earth district, Mark waited by the water’s edge of a flooded cavern. The hidden crypt below the park had become submerged a century before. He had sent juvenile vampires to retrieve the coffins. Over thirty, waterlogged coffins sat in rows behind him. He had drained them of water, but it wouldn’t be enough. The corpses inside would have to be dried out before blood could be pumped into them, preferably fresh, human blood.

  He had been down there all night, whereas Corentine and Daray had been roaming the city, searching for more hidden crypts. They had been hunting for them off and on for centuries. When the humans had revolted, their brethren had had little time to go into dormancy. The ones who had successfully done so hadn’t had the ability to leave enough clues about where they were resting. Without any clues, they couldn’t be found and woken up now that the revolt was in the distant past. And too often, the only dormant vampires left were in obscure, hard to access spots. All the ones that had been lying in graveyards and predictable areas had been dug up by humans and burned.