“What the…” Richard’s voice trailed off as he noticed the riders on the dragons’ backs. “Are those…”
“That’s Regine and Brandon riding the dragons,” Thayen mumbled, struggling to see that far. We now knew what had happened after we’d left.
I couldn’t help but smile to see our dragons were okay. “They’re a sight for sore eyes.”
The dragons descended and landed on the ridge to our right, then shifted back and slipped their suits on, while Brandon and Regine came over with the palest faces I had ever seen. My first instinct was to grip the Berserker by the shoulders and make sure it was him. I sank my nails into his firm muscles while I was at it, my fingertips tingling with a foreign delight.
“What the heck happened?” I blurted, pulling my hands back as soon as I realized how much I was enjoying the contact. It didn’t do a thing to wipe the smirk off Brandon’s face, but with everything that had happened, I wasn’t sure I cared about the possible repercussions of our shifting dynamic. “I thought you were zapping out with us.”
“Missed me already?” Brandon replied, biting back a broad grin. I punched him in the shoulder. I didn’t have the strength to make it hurt, but it was enough to make him chuckle. “The dragons were retreating, but there was trouble. I made an executive decision. Since you all disappeared, and Myst didn’t come back crying that she’d killed you, I figured teleportation worked, so Regine and I fought our way out of there and got to the dragons.”
Jericho cleared his throat. “Thanks for that, by the way.”
“We survived thanks to you,” Dafne added, giving Regine a warm smile. “We were suddenly overwhelmed by dragon clones. It was nearly impossible to get rid of them.”
“Hrista planned it all very carefully,” Myst murmured, while Thayen kept stealing glances at her, likely still rattled by waking up in her lap earlier. He was already looking better, the additional healing potions working their way through his system. His reactions around Myst were kind of sweet, though. I might’ve made a joke about it in different circumstances. “She was definitely expecting us.”
“But what was the point of that whole encounter?” Richard asked. It was a good question. I’d wondered the same thing. “To brag that she outsmarted you or what?”
Regine shook her head. “This was never a competition. We never knew she was the enemy. It was a meeting meant to reveal her true intentions. To reset the power balance in her favor. She knew we were here, and she knew we’d eventually find her.”
“She trusted me to lead you to her,” Brandon sighed. “Fortunately, I found the charm she’d hidden on me and broke it. She can’t spy on us anymore. I’m sorry. I did warn you.”
“We still don’t know what she’s planning,” I said. “Only that it was complex. Also, I’m pretty sure it involves that… thing she had Isabelle’s clone steal from The Shade. Kedra’s artifact.” My skin crawled whenever it popped into my head, but I’d yet to figure out how she might use such an object. “What would that be for?”
Regine glanced up, frowning at the empty night sky. “Likely a source of power. Most of our magic requires energy. It doesn’t matter what realm it’s from, it’s energy. Like light energy or dark energy, though Hrista is clearly capable of manipulating both—gah, I have so many questions! How could she fly under the radar with this? How could we exist in such blatant ignorance of her plans? I feel so foolish.”
“Imagine how I felt when I was told I’d have to do her bidding,” Brandon muttered. “I’ve been trying to understand what Hrista wants to do, but I’ve come up short.”
Thayen finally found the strength to get up, letting out a deep breath as he regained his composure and glanced at Myst, who refused to take her eyes off him. “We need to figure out what her endgame is,” he said.
“Replacement,” said Haldor’s voice, startling us all.
In an instant, we were on guard and ready to fight again, though I doubted any of us would be able to stay strong before a Berserker like Haldor. But there was something different about him this time, and it became obvious to everyone quickly. He didn’t have his shadow hounds with him. Or if he did, they weren’t visible or itching to kill us. The air was clear and breathable. There wasn’t even a whiff of immediate danger.
Brandon was the first to point that out. “Let me guess. You escaped your captives and have come to us in peace?”
“It’s not my fault Hrista caught on faster than you did regarding my intentions,” Haldor grumbled, slowly raising his hands. “I’m not here to attack anyone. I actually do come in peace.”
Then what Hrista had said earlier was true. Haldor had been stalling and doing things his way, much like Brandon. His threats to destroy Hammer had been empty all along. So much was happening at once, I was struggling to keep up. Everything about Haldor had screamed danger and death, yet now… crickets. Chirping crickets.
“Where is he?” Brandon asked.
Haldor frowned. “He’ll find his way back to you soon. I promise.”
“That doesn’t answer my question!”
“I couldn’t get to him myself! I sent one of the misfits to get him out. Hold your horses, he’ll find you!” Haldor snapped, then looked at us. “As I was saying—replacement. That’s her plan.”
We exchanged glances, but none of us were illuminated. Richard raised a hand. “Excuse me, major noob here, still wrapping my head around this fresh hell. Did you say the misfits went out to get… who?”
“Hammer, my Aesir,” Brandon replied, slightly amused as he gave me a lingering look. “Misfits are clones that didn’t adhere to HQ rules. There aren’t many, maybe one or two small tribes, tops. I think you crossed paths with one of them, if I remember correctly.”
This told me that the clones we’d run from—Ida, Laurel, and Missa among them—were, in fact, more friend than foe. They’d chased us a while back, but they had never followed through. Caleb’s double had belittled them plenty, but I still had a memory of their contempt toward him and the authority of this place. Haldor had clearly gotten further with them without anyone else knowing. I had to admit… Haldor was turning into an admirable surprise-partner-in-crime.
“Hold on, bigger question here,” Thayen interjected. “Replacement?”
Haldor shook his head. “You can’t stop it,” he said. “She’s been at it for months. A certain number of portals had to be opened. A certain temperature must be reached. A certain number of clones… It’s a complicated recipe.”
I’d heard something similar before. “What is this about?” I asked, the blood freezing in my veins. Putting the word “replacement” in the same pot as “clones” spoke easily of body-snatchers lore, of foreign invaders who stole the real us and sent in their mannequins to act like us in order to fool an entire world. Judging by the level of complexity of the doppelgangers’ appearances and abilities and mimicry, it was clear that Hrista had everything she needed to pull off such a feat.
What horrified me were the consequences.
“She means to replace you all,” Haldor finally said, and I heard myself breathe out. It sounded so different when it was said out loud, when it wasn’t just a theory in my head or a crazy thought. It sounded awful as the truth. “And you can’t stop her. It’s too late.”
Brandon scrunched his nose. “Then why are you here?”
“Huh?”
“Why are you here and not licking her boots?”
Haldor narrowed his glowing blue eyes at him. “That’s a dumb question. Why aren’t you with her, licking boots? I played my part from the moment she ordered me to take Hammer from you because it was the only way to keep Hammer safe. My tricks would only have worked for so long.”
“Thank you for that,” Brandon replied, suddenly more relaxed, even smiling.
“It would’ve been a shame. Hammer is a good boy,” Haldor grumbled.
“So, the entire hell you put us through, that was just for show?” Thayen blurted out, irritated and for good reason. Hald
or had become the source of many nightmares for us in a short span of time. “Just to make Hrista and your Berserker buddies think you were serious?”
Haldor nodded once. “It’s a complicated situation. If I ever get the chance to explain, I’ll—” he froze as a horn sounded in the distance. It rang across the entire island, making me shiver with its ear-piercing tonality. Three times we heard it, and three times I trembled with dread. “It’s starting.”
The replacement. He’d been right. We were too late. We wouldn’t be able to stop it. Lights burst below and around the Black Heights. Shimmering portals by the dozens. I would’ve bolted toward the nearest one, but Mom caught my wrist and Brandon agreed. “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he muttered. “This is happening for a reason.”
“We could just go through and get back home!” Richard replied, determined to climb down the ridge, but Thayen slipped an arm around his waist and pulled him away.
“No, we don’t know what this is! We don’t know where it’ll take us!” Thayen said. It took some convincing, but Richard ultimately gave up, cursing under his breath.
I understood why he was so desperate to leave but considering how insane our entire stay in the fake Shade had been, we had every reason to be skeptical of shimmering portals and anything else that came from Hrista’s magic. She’d revealed herself to us as the enemy. Why would we risk playing into her hands after we’d barely escaped with our lives?
“It’s coming,” Haldor breathed, the last of the black mist disappearing from his arms and legs. “It’s done.”
“Can’t we stop it?” Mom asked.
“We don’t even know what it is we’re trying to stop,” Myst sighed, lowering her head in defeat. It wasn’t enough, and I wasn’t pleased with this outcome. No, I wasn’t ready to quit, nor was I willing to submit to Hrista—ever.
I turned to Brandon. “How do we undo what’s about to come our way?”
The light from the portals shone brighter and brighter until the entire island was bathed in a sea of white that nearly blinded us. It dissolved every wisp of shadows on Brandon’s broad shoulders and handsome face, the warmth covering us like a summer’s day. I felt his hand catching mine and holding tightly.
“You’re a survivor, aren’t you, Pinkie?”
I wanted to reply with a resounding yes, but I ended up wrapped tightly in his arms as the light intensified and screams erupted around us. It was so strange and difficult to even describe. As if two worlds were spilling over and bleeding into one another.
In the belly of the white light that had swallowed us, I could see our Shade—the real one.
Sofia
We’d been caught off guard just outside the Great Dome.
A shimmering portal had opened while we mobilized and prepared for an incursion. And not just one portal, but hundreds at once. Kailani was ready to zap us to the nearest opening when another glowing gash burst mere feet away.
My heart stopped in that moment. Every fiber in my body told me to go through and damn every risk to hell. Derek squeezed my hand, and I was thrilled to be reminded that we were in this together and that we were both ready to get our son back. Rose and Ben were ready too, their pulverizer weapons locked and loaded. Kailani had an arsenal of white witchcraft and Word magic at her disposal, skin glowing with her patron’s power as she reacted to the portals.
Esme and Kalon were the first to step toward the newly opened shimmering portal when Kailani held them back. “Wait. There’s something fishy about this,” she said.
I was almost dizzy. We’d been waiting for this for so long. Thayen was somewhere beyond this portal. We had to go. We had to get our kids back. I wanted to move, but my mind had caught on to something that my other senses had completely missed. “Derek, what’s happening?” I asked as the light from the portal intensified.
On the other side of the portal, a horn blew three times. It was distant, but we all heard it.
“There are hundreds of portals opening,” Safira said, appearing beside us. She seemed alarmed and worried. Worse even, she looked utterly confused. I had never seen a Daughter of Eritopia at a loss for words like this before. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“They’re getting brighter, too!” Kailani observed as the light brightened sharply, spilled out into our world like a bucket of white paint splashed against The Shade’s green canvas. Her grandmother’s voice came through my earpiece, shaking with concern and shock.
“Sofia, are you seeing this?”
“I am… What’s going on?!” I managed.
Derek held me close as we tried to find shelter from the growing light. The portals seemed to be screeching, growing unbearably loud. The brightness was so dense and thick and difficult to move through.
And then we couldn’t move at all. It was as if the nearby portal had swallowed us. Through the confusion, I heard us give a collective scream, unable to help ourselves.
In the middle of this whiteness and beyond it, I could see it. The Shade… or something eerily similar. It didn’t make sense. Nothing did.
But then we faded. The Shade faded.
I woke up on the ground, every bone and muscle in my body aching. I remembered being blinded. A familiar smell invaded my lungs. The crisp dance of redwood leaves overheard, whispering and rustling. I opened my eyes. Derek was with me.
And Kailani. Ben and Rose, too. Kalon and Esme. Safira. We were outside the Great Dome, except it looked different. There was something about the metallic structure and the color of the glass panels that was off-kilter.
“Are you okay?” Derek asked. He scrambled back up and helped me stand, then wrapped his arms around me and held me tight for a precious, sweet minute.
“Yeah, I’m just out of it. What’s going on?” I replied.
“Mom, what happened?” Rose asked, resting a hand on my shoulder as she came back to her senses. She’d gotten up before fully readjusting to her environment and was wobbling slightly. Ben was quick to join us and hold his sister up.
“The light. The shimmering portals. I’m confused,” he said.
Safira was the only one who wasn’t. No, she understood something we had not. She could see something we had missed, and the look on her face scared me beyond repair. “Safira,” I said. “What is it?”
“Look up,” she replied, staring at the redwood canopy overhead.
It didn’t take long to notice the greens were off. The shapes of the leaves were slightly different too. Everything about this place felt wrong. We weren’t home anymore. This wasn’t our island. And the realization made my stomach clump into a painful blob as I gripped my husband’s arm. “Derek, I think… I think we were taken,” I said.
“Not just us,” Safira murmured.
“What do you mean?!” Derek asked, increasingly agitated as his gaze darted all over the place. “Where the hell are we?”
Safira gave us a calm smile. “Wherever this is, it’s where Viola and Astra are. I can feel them again. They’re close.”
The minutes that followed were a complete haze as we began to piece together the elements of the great shining that had brought us into this strange realm. This was The Shade, but also it wasn’t. We weren’t the only ones who’d been brought here either. Derek sent out a wide call through the comms system and summoned all who could hear him back to the dome.
Soon the entire Novak clan was reunited—with the exception of Thayen, Isabelle, Astra, Viola, Richard, Voss, Chantal, Soph, Dafne, and Jericho. Our friends and allies were here. Everyone the Reapers had marked found us by the Great Dome, equally distraught and confused. It got even weirder when Nethissis, Seeley, Sidyan, the Soul Crusher, Kelara, and the Time Master emerged from the woods, accompanied by Lumi and their service ghouls. The Reapers were blank as sheets of paper, just as dazed and out of it as we were.
This entire incident had thrown us off completely, and we had no idea where to even begin. We went over what we remembered, we advised our crews and family members to stay calm
and take deep breaths, though it was rather difficult to organize in a place that looked so much like our Shade but wasn’t. This realm was disconcerting, and its mere existence troubled me deeply.
I did find comfort in knowing one thing. “Safira, you said you can feel Astra and Viola again,” I said, shifting my focus back to the Daughter. Chana and the others joined her, huddling close together as the hard truth settled in. This wasn’t their world, and it wasn’t ours, either. For the first time, they seemed vulnerable.
“We can feel them, yes,” Rubia replied. “They… they’ve been here. This whole time.”
“What is ‘here,’ exactly?” Seeley cut in, brow furrowed and lips pressed into a tiny thin line. Nethissis had Rudolph practically glued to her leg. The ghoul was confused, if not a little scared, much like the others.
Safira sighed. “I don’t know.”
“But you feel Astra,” I said. “It means Thayen and the others, they could be here too.”
As if summoned by my desperate heart and rambling thoughts, Viola appeared in the middle of the clearing with our missing Shadians, Astra and Thayen among them. In a split second, I squealed and forgot about everyone and everything else. It was Thayen alright, and not a clone. Astra couldn’t be copied, since we’d seen clones of almost everybody except her, so I knew she was real. By extension, it made Thayen real, too. I ran to my beloved boy and took him in my arms, my handsome young man, and I held on like there’d be no tomorrow.
We’d found Thayen. We’d finally found him.
Thayen
It was an emotional and deeply disturbing reunion. I welcomed my parents’ embrace, my mother’s kisses and tears of joy. Phoenix held Astra and Viola close and cried like a little boy for the better part of ten minutes. Lethe and Elodie took Dafne in a tight hug, as Caia and Blaze did the same with Jericho, who scoffed and huffed and puffed. But in the end, he was just as happy as the rest of us.
We cried a bit when Serena and Draven bumped through the crowd that had gathered around the Great Dome and saw their sleeping Isabelle. My eyes stung. I couldn’t help it. She’d been missing for two months. This was certainly the better of the possible outcomes. “Oh, honey,” Serena sobbed as she held her daughter tight, planting kisses on her forehead.
A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones Page 22
