Camille Prentice: The Complete Series

by S. A. Moss

  By the time I finally reached the seam where the mountain met the castle wall, the surface transforming from uneven crags to large stacked stones, I was shaking all over. Thank goodness I didn’t sweat anymore, or I would’ve slid right down the rock face like I was slathered in butter.

  Will perched on a tiny ledge next to my head, and I shifted slightly to look at him out of the corner of my eye. “For this next part, I need to be really sneaky, so you can’t come with me, okay?” I whispered.

  He tilted his head, dark beady eyes glinting in the light.

  “Stay.” I made my voice as firm as I could muster. “Staaaaay.”

  Slowly, I inched over until I was clinging to the castle wall. Fortunately, the construction of the castle had left deep grooves everywhere the large stone blocks met.

  “Stay!” I whispered, as Will took two tentative steps toward me.

  He froze, one paw hovering in the air.

  “Good boy! I’ll be back soon.”

  I turned toward the window cut into the wall. It was only a few feet away now. Light glowed dimly through the glass.

  As I stepped onto the window ledge, a small, furry body hit the back of my head. I yelped and stumbled forward, almost losing my balance as I banged into the window with a thunk. The glass didn’t break, but the goblin inside whirled to face me.

  He was short and squat, with gray skin, a long hooked nose, and wild black hair. His dark eyes widened at the sight of a Guardian with a squirrel for a hat standing on his window ledge.

  He opened his mouth to shout, but I flung my weight against the window, shattering the glass this time.

  Damn, I hope nobody heard that.

  Tumbling through the window frame, I landed on the floor in a crouch and threw a small concentrated blast right at the goblin’s face. His head snapped back with a cracking noise, and he crumpled to the floor. I winced.

  Gross.

  I hadn’t meant to break his neck, just knock him on the head. Although this would take him longer to recover from, so maybe it was for the best.

  Will was still clinging to the back of my head—he really liked this starfish move—and I turned in a circle once like a dog chasing its tail, trying to get a glimpse of him. Finally, he hopped down to the ground.

  Glaring down at him, I shook my finger. “Bad squirrel! Very bad. You—”

  I broke off suddenly, realizing I was talking to a supernatural squirrel-thing as if he were a trained house pet.

  “Oh, forget it. Just come with me and try to behave, okay?”

  I held out my hand. He hopped onto it, scampering up my arm to resume his perch on my shoulder. At least with him settled there, he wouldn’t come flying out of nowhere at me again.

  Leaving the goblin’s body where it’d fallen, I cracked open the door and peered out, nerves jangling. Alex was so close. I wanted to sprint through the hallways calling out for him, but I had to be smart.

  When I didn’t see anyone, I darted out into the hallway, staying alert for any sign of activity. When I found a set of stairs, I crept down them, running one hand along the cold stone wall next to me.

  I descended several more flights, the tug around my middle almost dragging me along now. The staircase finally ended in a large chamber that seemed to be underground—at least, there were no windows in it. Several doors led away from the chamber, and I was pulled toward the one across from me.

  But before I reached it, Will’s cold paws clamped onto my ear and he chittered softly, his claws digging into my skin.

  I paused.

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs I’d just come down.

  Changing course, I ducked through another door, this one leading to a hallway that stretched into the distance. Tucking myself inside the doorframe, I listened as the footsteps grew louder. Curiosity ate at me, and it took all my willpower not to peek around the side of the door. But it wasn’t worth the possibility of being seen.

  The steps echoed across the large chamber before a heavy door opened and shut.

  “Good job, buddy,” I whispered hoarsely to Will. “Thanks for the warning.”

  After a few beats, I slipped back into the room, darting toward the door that had drawn me earlier.

  A set of stairs led downward. Dim light glowed from the room below. I crept down the steps, praying with everything in me that Will would somehow pick up on the need for absolute silence right now. I really didn’t want to have my rescue mission blown by a squirrel.

  At the spot where the stairs met the ceiling of the room below, I stopped and crouched in the shadows, peering down at the scene below me.

  Alex sat in a cell that was little more than a large metal cage. His head lolled to one side, and his eyes looked glazed as he tried to focus on the man before him.

  My father.

  Sirius.

  5

  My hands pressed against the stone wall behind me, fingernails gouging into the rock. I wanted to fly down the stairs and attack Sirius, to challenge him to a fight even if I knew I wouldn’t win. But that wouldn’t help Alex, and he was all that mattered right now.

  Alex’s face was gaunt, and the dark circles under his eyes stood out in his pale face. Guilt lanced through me at the sight of him, twisting my stomach into knots. He was here because of me. I’d gotten him mixed up in this fight, and my father had taken him as retaliation for my betrayal.

  “Are you ready to try again?”

  Sirius’s voice was soft, almost kind. But I knew better than to believe it.

  Alex blinked slowly, his eyelids barely lifting. “No. I told you… I won’t… do it.”

  A movement at the side of the room caught my gaze, and I tensed. I hadn’t realized anyone else was down there with them.

  It was a Guardian, bound and unconscious by the looks of it. He was tall and fine-featured, with shoulder length blond hair. He looked like a Norse warrior, although he was dressed in modern clothes. The movement that had caught my eye was his prone body floating toward the cage Alex was trapped in. My father made a small gesture with his hand, and the body settled on the floor just outside the bars of the cage.

  “Give him life. Make him mortal,” Sirius commanded, as Alex’s unfocused gaze settled on the figure in front of him.

  “So you can give him death? I don’t think so,” Alex muttered.

  Before I could hear my father’s response to that, the door at the top of the stairs creaked open, and my gaze snapped up.

  I didn’t even think. I just clapped my hand over Will and faded across to the earthly plane.

  Noise assaulted me. We were on another set of stairs which led down to a commuter train stop. I had no idea where in the world we were, but when a man almost tripped over me and let out a muffled curse, I was pretty sure he spoke Japanese. People flowed by in a steady stream as Will dashed across my back from shoulder to shoulder, chittering wildly at the crowd.

  Hunching down, I tried to make myself as small as possible as the crush of people passing by jostled and elbowed me.

  Slowly, I counted to a hundred in my head.

  Then, even more slowly, I faded back over to the Shroud.

  As the dark staircase and the room below it came back into view, I let out a tiny sigh of relief. I hadn’t come back too soon. The new arrival had made it down the stairs and now stood in the room with Sirius, Alex, and the bound Guardian.

  But the sigh of relief died on my lips when I realized who it was.

  Akaron stood next to my father. The thick cloak he always wore brushed against the stone floor, and the heavy hood seemed to weigh down his head. One thin, wrinkled hand stretched forward, and Alex stiffened.

  At first, I thought Akaron was putting a bind on him. But then an invisible force dragged Alex to his feet. His limbs, instead of being pinned to his body, were pulled outward. His muscles tensed as a pain-filled cry fell from his lips.

  I stuffed my fist in my mouth and bit down hard to keep myself from echoing his shout. Mirrored pain lanced through my
body as the veins in Alex’s neck popped. Akaron was stretching him. He might as well have used a medieval torture rack. I gagged.

  “Be careful,” my father warned. I could barely hear him over Alex’s ragged shouts. “If you push him too far, he’ll die. The Shroud is already straining him beyond what most humans can handle. If you tax his system too far, he won’t survive it.”

  Akaron’s hand twitched and Alex’s tense limbs relaxed a little, although they didn’t return to his sides. When the Fallen man spoke, his deep voice made my skin crawl. “If he won’t do what we require, he’s useless to us alive. And he is the one responsible for ruining our carefully laid plans. I think he deserves a little pain.”

  At another gesture from Akaron, Alex’s limbs stretched taut again and he grunted in pain. Fury burned in my chest.

  “He’s not the only one responsible for ruining our plans,” Sirius muttered darkly. I took a grim satisfaction in knowing he was probably thinking of me. “But still, we need him if our next gambit is to work. His power will make it possible.”

  Akaron’s heavy hood swung toward Sirius. “True. If you can force him to cooperate. If you can’t, I will consider you personally responsible for the failure of this enterprise.”

  “I don’t answer to you, Akaron.” Sirius’s voice was sharp and cold as steel.

  The Fallen man didn’t answer. But he dropped his hand, letting Alex collapse in a heap on the floor. As Alex struggled to sit back up, breathing heavily, Akaron turned to leave.

  Oh shit!

  I faded back to Earth again, ready this time for the onslaught of noise and people. I hunched over on the stairs, wrapping my arms around my head as tears leaked from my eyes. Will tucked himself into the small space between my thighs and my stomach, glaring out at the world.

  After what felt like several hours but was probably just a few minutes, I faded cautiously back over to the Shroud.

  Akaron was gone.

  Sirius waved a hand, and the blond Guardian floated back into his own cell before drifting down to the ground, eyes still closed. Then my father looked back at Alex. The torture seemed to have exhausted Alex even more, and he was half sitting, half lying against the wall. His head lolled to one side, and a trickle of blood tracked down the side of his face. It must’ve banged his head when Akaron let him drop.

  “I don’t understand.” Sirius’s voice was soft, but the sound of it roused Alex slightly. His eyes blinked open and he tried to focus on my father. “Do you know that Guardian?”

  Alex shook his head, not taking the energy to verbalize his answer.

  “Then why does he matter to you? Why protect him? Is his existence worth more than yours?”

  Alex’s lip curled, and the look of utter disdain he shot my father made love swell in my chest. He still didn’t speak, but Sirius seemed to get the message anyway.

  “Well, if you insist on protecting him, I can’t protect you. Akaron will have his vengeance for what you and Camille have done, one way or another.” Sirius’s tone turned cold.

  “I thought you didn’t… answer to him,” Alex shot back, his voice little more than a rough whisper.

  Sirius’s spine stiffened. He opened his mouth before snapping it shut and turning on his heel.

  Used to the drill by now, I tucked my body into a ball around Will and faded back to Earth. I’d lost track of time on the Shroud, but it must be mid-morning wherever we were because the press of commuters hadn’t lessened. After giving my father plenty of time to leave, I finally faded back over.

  Alex hadn’t moved at all. His position didn’t look all that comfortable, but I wasn’t sure he had the strength to change it. He breathed shallowly, eyelids fluttering.

  Shit.

  My dad was right. This wasn’t just from Akaron’s torture—the Shroud was doing something to Alex, weakening him somehow. I needed to get him out of here before it killed him.

  With a quick glance behind me at the closed door to be sure Sirius was truly gone, I stood and dashed down the stairs. Will crawled up my body, resuming his perch on my shoulder.

  Grabbing the bars of the cage, I whispered urgently. “Alex!”

  He blinked. “Cam?”

  My heart swelled with a confusing tangle of love, worry, and relief as his emerald green gaze met mine.

  “It’s me. I’m here. Hold on, I’m going to get you out of there.”

  The cage was a large metal thing, about five feet wide. The door was held closed by a simple padlock. Reaching up, I grabbed the padlock in my fist and released a blast of aether directly into it. The metal shook and heated, but didn’t break.

  Dammit. Come on!

  I peered into the keyhole in the bottom, then lined up a filter directly in front of it. I sent a small concentrated blast through the filter, and the lock shuddered in my hand. Two more blasts, and it finally popped open. Tearing it off, I wrenched the door open and threw myself to my knees beside Alex.

  His hands reached up and caught my face as I crouched beside him. I was almost afraid to touch him, not knowing where or how badly he was hurt.

  But Alex had no such qualms. He hauled my face to his and kissed me desperately. His warm lips pressed against mine urgently, and our breath mingled in short gasps. My heart sputtered to a start in my chest as goosebumps raced up and down my arms.

  I kissed him back with everything in me—love, fear, guilt, relief. I poured it all into our kiss, and by the time our lips broke apart, tears streamed down my cheeks. Alex rested his forehead against mine, still cradling my face.

  “I knew you’d find me,” he whispered softly.

  6

  Another tear slipped down my cheek at the raw honesty in his voice.

  “I’m so sorry, Alex. This is all my fault.” I peppered kisses all over his face, wishing they could heal him somehow.

  He shook his head, his hands finally slipping away from my face. That kiss had probably been too much exertion, and now his strength seemed to be waning again. “No it’s not. It’s your father’s. And that asshole Akaron’s. You didn’t make them take me.”

  “But if I hadn’t—”

  Alex roused himself enough to stare into my eyes, grabbing my hand in one of his. “You should’ve told me what you were planning. You should’ve trusted me. But you didn’t make them take me.”

  Guilt burned a hole in my stomach. “I know. I shouldn’t have left you behind. My dad… he got in my head. Made me doubt so much. But I promise, I’ll tell you everything from now on. No more sneaking around or secret plans, okay?”

  He nodded, his bright green eyes burning with emotion even as his eyelids drooped. “You scared me. I thought I lost you.”

  “Never.” I couldn’t stand to see the pain in his expression, so I pressed a kiss to his forehead. As I drew back, Alex’s gaze fell on Will. The squirrel-thing had hopped off my shoulder when Alex grabbed me and kissed me—obviously not a fan of PDA, that one—but now he crept up my back and peered through the veil of my brown hair.

  “Um, who’s your friend?” Alex’s brows scrunched.

  “Oh, long story. His name’s Will. Well, that’s the name I gave him. I found him following me through the Wild. I think maybe he was trying to stick close to me for safety.”

  A smile ghosted across Alex’s lips. “Little did he know danger seems to find you wherever you go.”

  “Hey, I gave him fair warning!”

  Alex chuckled, then hissed in pain.

  We need to get out of here now.

  “Will you be okay for a second?” I asked gently. “I’m going to see if I can unbind the Guardian they’re keeping down here.”

  He nodded, eyes squeezed shut. I hurried over to the almost identical cage where the blond Guardian lay. Once I blasted open the padlock, I stepped inside and knelt beside him, placing my hands on his chest. I reached out, feeling for his essence Then I started the slow process of unraveling his energy from the aether woven into it.

  As I worked, I kept glancing aro
und the room, my eyes darting toward the stairs. I hoped Sirius and Akaron were far away from this dungeon for the moment. When my gaze landed on Alex, a lump rose in my throat. He was struggling to his feet, sucking in long measured breaths through his nose.

  Tears stung my eyes as I watched him stand. He was so good. Akaron had tortured him, trying to force him to turn the Guardian under my fingertips mortal. But Alex had refused. He might be just a human, but he was more powerful in his own way than my father or Akaron could ever hope to be.

  Because he believed in something bigger than himself.

  I clenched my jaw, my teeth grinding together. The Fallen would never give up. As long as Sirius and Akaron existed, they would keep pursuing their goal single-mindedly, destroying whatever got in their way.

  This has to stop.

  I have to stop it.

  When the Guardian below me stirred, I jerked in surprise. I’d been so lost in my thoughts, I’d barely registered the bind beginning to unravel. His eyes blinked open, and light grey irises stared up at me.

  “Who are you?”

  I pulled him gently up to a sitting position. “I’m Camille Prentice. I’m a Guardian. You were captured by the Fallen?”

  He stood slowly, never taking his eyes off me. “Yes. I was bound for… I don’t know how long. Then I was freed suddenly, but before I could escape, a demon attacked me. I must’ve been knocked unconscious and bound again. I’m Maron, by the way.”

  “I’m Cam. We need to get out of here. Can you help?”

  He straightened, looking more like a warrior with every passing moment. “Of course.”

  I returned to Alex, ducking under his arm and holding onto his waist. He leaned heavily on me, making me thankful for the extra bit of strength my immortality gave me.

  Maron led the way up the stairs with me and Alex close behind. The staircase was narrow, so it was a bit of a tight fit, but I wasn’t leaving Alex’s side. Will scampered ahead of us, chittering impatiently at the door until Maron pushed it open slowly.

  “Will, wait—!” I whispered harshly, but it was too late. As soon as the door opened wide enough, his furry little body slipped through the gap. Maron quickly pushed the door wider, bracing for an attack.