Gloom's Whisper

by Sela Croft

  “If you can hear them, it’s because they are very close. We need to leave—now. There isn’t time to waste fretting over falling off a horse. Believe me, if whatever is coming our way catches up with us, falling off a horse will be the least of your concerns.”

  I didn’t want to be so harsh with her, but it was the truth. I had sworn to myself that I would be honest with her. Besides, the danger we were in was not something to take lightly.

  I stretched out my hand and she nervously placed hers in mine. I lead her over to the horse, allowing her the time she needed to mount. All the while, the sounds of the horns grew closer and my pulse raced. Finally, when she was on the horse and the reigns were in her hands, I was able to breathe.

  I mounted my own horse, then led Noah and Callie away from the manor. Our speed was slowed, however, considering Callie was far from a skilled horseback rider. She whined, pulling frantically at the reigns, trying with all her might to keep up with us. “It won’t do what I tell it to.”

  “It should be easy to ride,” Noah said to me. “I chose the one that would present the least challenge for her.”

  The blare of the horns rippled through the air and bounced off the trees around us. Spinning my horse around, I scanned our surroundings.

  “We need to do something,” I said. “They’ll be here soon.”

  Callie awkwardly trotted her horse in my direction. “What’s going to happen?”

  Chapter 32

  Logan

  I felt the vibrations of the horns. The air seemed to scream the Wild Hunt’s arrival. Even the pounding of our horses’ hooves on the hard-packed ground wasn’t loud enough to blot out the sound.

  As hard as I tried to urge Callie to move faster, I could tell that my insistence was only upsetting her. She was doing her best.

  It was a rather unfortunate time to discover that she hadn’t ridden a horse before—fleeing for our lives with no alternative for an escape. Noah was unable to tap into his ability, meaning we couldn’t vanish in mist, so we had to find shelter.

  I scanned our surroundings and saw a cliff up ahead. The jagged rock wall stretched up to the sky then disappeared. With large boulders positioned around it, and a line of trees through which our enemies would need to traverse, it was our best option.

  I directed my companions in that direction. “At least there, we will sure that no one is coming at us from behind.”

  As we raced toward the cliff, the sounds of the hunt grew louder. Hounds bayed; stags trampled over the rough terrain; bears roared. The animals and their Fae commanders were getting closer.

  “There’s no time,” I said, pulling back on the reigns of my horse and looking for another alternative.

  The cliff was only a few hundred yards away. But our chances of getting there, before the enemy was upon us, weren’t good.

  I needed a place for Callie and Noah to hide, while providing me with projectiles that I could use to deter our enemy. I spotted a small clearing that seemed to meet those requirements.

  “Over here,” I said, directing them to follow me.

  We reached a small stretch of land with boulders doting the terrain, and with a line of rocks large enough for Callie and Noah to crouch behind. I leaped down from my horse, then ran to Callie’s side to help her down.

  Noah struggled to get off his horse, and I worried that his injuries were limiting him—not a good time for that. I might have to fight alone.

  “Hurry,” I said, dragging Callie toward the line of rocks.

  My words were nearly lost in the deafening sound of the hunt. The ground shook with the heavy beating of hooves. The peel of horns indicated that they were about a hundred yards away.

  Motivated to act quickly, I pushed Callie toward the rocks. Part of me wanted to keep her close, to ensure her safety. But I needed to fight; I had no choice.

  As soon as I she took off sprinting for cover, I turned to face the onslaught bearing down on us. Stretching my hands out at my sides, I pushed all my energy into my fingertips. When the first of the Fae beasts came into view, I channeled my energy forward, taking hold of a boulder between us and throwing it in the ferocious animal’s direction.

  I didn’t see if it hit. I didn’t have time. With each boulder I threw, it seemed as if two more of the bloodthirsty creatures appeared. I tried to aim my ammunition at their masters, but they took cover behind a line of trees.

  I fought as hard as I could; I threw whatever I could wrap my energy around. I was able to hold them off. But that would change very soon.

  I was running out of ammunition.

  Chapter 33

  Callie

  The eternal state of darkness that hung over the borderlands between the vampire’s realm and the Fae lands made it tricky to move about. Plus, my legs had been shaking since I’d left the manor, making it difficult to get to cover before the Wild Hunt appeared.

  The baying of the beasts rippled through the shadows behind me. The buzz of energy filled the air. I watched Logan focus his ability on the boulders strewn on the ground around us. By the time the first massive stone flew through the air, I was nearly at the line of rocks.

  “Come on!” I urged Noah, taking hold of his hand. “We have to hurry!”

  I couldn’t believe his lethargy. If I had the speed of a vampire, I would have been behind the stones the second my feet hit the ground. But Noah seemed to have difficulty walking.

  Finally, we were tucked behind the rocks, so I tried to take a breath and relax. Through the dimly lit darkness, I made out Logan’s profile. Then boulders were propelled through the air. I heard the cries of the beasts whenever a projectile found its target.

  “Get down,” I said to Noah, taking hold of his hand and lowering myself down to the ground. I pressed my back into the rocks and took a deep breath.

  Still, Noah said nothing. I was beginning to worry about him, and whether he was ill again.

  I looked at him, trying to pick up any sign of what he was feeling. Although, he sagged with fatigue, there was a sparkle in his eyes.

  “Noah, are you okay? You seem distracted.”

  He looked over his shoulder at the ongoing battle, then back at me. That was when I realized that he had an expression of joy.

  “You’re happy,” I said, scrunching my brow. “Noah, how can you be happy right now?”

  His tone matched the joy in his eyes. “I’ve been in contact with Rosamon.”

  As soon as he said my sister’s name, the sounds of the battle seemed to melt away.

  “How can that be possible?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  Noah was a man in love. There was a twinkle in his eyes that warmed my heart. I knew he cared about Rosamon. I appreciated that. It made me feel better, especially considering everything the Fae princess had told me regarding my sister’s arrival to Shadowland.

  Even if Noah was responsible for us being in the realm, I knew that he wouldn’t allow harm to come to us, especially not my sister. The way he smiled in the heat of battle told me that much.

  Noah looked up at me. “All I know, is that the connection I have with her got stronger, after I drank your blood.”

  “That’s strange,” I said, shaking my head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “I can’t explain it, but I like it.”

  I had no doubt about Noah’s sincerity. “How is she doing?” I said, even though I was afraid to hear the answer.

  “She seems okay,” Noah said. “She’s afraid, though. She’s being held in the Fae lands, in a room filled with mirrors and strange objects. And she’s not alone.”

  I widened my eyes. “Who’s with her?”

  “She doesn’t know. But fears the person.

  “She doesn’t know who is in the mirror room with her?”

  Noah shook his head. “I don’t think that the other individual is in the room with her, but is being detained, nearby. That’s what she assumes.”

  I tried to comprehend, but I couldn’t. I was u
nable extract the meaning of all that. “A mirrored room, with someone there but not there…” I said, my mind spinning.

  Noah opened his mouth to reply, but the sound of a boulder crashing to the ground behind us pulled my attention away. In a rush, the sounds of the battle flooded my senses again. They were deafening in their force and terrifying in their intensity.

  Chapter 34

  Callie

  Pushing my back against the rocks, I lifted myself up off the ground, just enough to get a glimpse of what was going on around us. Logan was in the same spot, about twenty feet away from where Noah and I were hidden. He was fighting his hardest to keep the enemy at bay. The boulders that had once filled the ground were nearly gone.

  I began to worry about what would happen next. Noah was in no condition to fight, and I was certain that I couldn’t take on the beasts. They were massive animals—all larger than any I’d seen back home. While some of them did look like the animals in Oregon—bears and moose and dogs—they were massive in size. Fangs protruded from their gaping mouths, and their eyes glowed red.

  Logan was a skilled fighter. But I didn’t doubt that the hoard of animals bearing down on us would be able to overpower him, if they had the chance to get close enough. And without boulders, he couldn’t keep them at bay, much longer.

  I tried to search for anything that might help, but before I could find a weapon, my gaze fell on a pair of glowing red eyes coming through the shadows and racing in my direction.

  The outline of the beast looked like a dog, but the size of it was closer to that of an elk. The pounding of its paws against the ground reverberated through the air, shaking me to my core. I was frozen with fear. I tried to reach back to draw Noah’s attention toward the approaching threat, but my hands refused to move.

  “Logan!” I shouted.

  “Whoa!” Noah said, finally turning his attention toward the beast barreling in our direction.

  It moved swiftly; its shaggy black fur whipping back in the wind, and its deep red lips pulled back over fluorescent white fangs. I blinked, trying to hold back panic, to find that when I opened them again the creature was only a few feet away.

  “Logan!” I screamed, pinching my eyes shut.

  This time, when I opened them, I saw the monstrous dog thrown back by Logan’s telekinesis. Looking back, I saw Logan beckoning me in his direction. “Come closer to me,” he called, motioning for Noah and I to run in his direction.

  We did as he said, then Logan lifted the rocks we’d been hiding behind and threw them at the fleet of creatures pouring out of the woods.

  “We need to get back,” Logan said, looking at me. “I won’t be able to hold them off much longer.”

  Logan looked as frightened as I was. He could do anything. He could fly, move objects with his mind, and he could escape the fight, if he wanted to. But he wouldn’t leave me. I knew he wouldn’t. He was risking his life to save mine—again.

  I wanted to thank him, to tell him that he could leave. I wanted to beg him to get to safety. But it would have been useless. When he looked at me, I saw love in his eyes. The emotion warmed me to my soul, yet filled me with guilt.

  Logan was in this predicament because of me.

  With each rock he threw, we took a series of steps back. The cliff was behind us and we would corner ourselves. At least, there were more boulders to be found around the base of the rock wall. Logan would be able to fight, a little while longer.

  But he could only postpone the inevitable. And he shouldn’t have been there, at all. I’d asked him to come with me. It would have been better if he’d stayed behind, where he would have been safe.

  “Get back as far as you can,” Logan said, then threw a medium-sized boulder at a bear, charging in our direction.

  “You won’t be able to fight them much longer,” I said.

  “I will fight, for as long as I can,” Logan said, then tossed another boulder in our enemy’s direction.

  “Logan, you can fly! You can get out of here.”

  “I won’t leave you.”

  Tears pushed at the backs of my eyes, then Logan directed me to step back toward the cliff’s wall. “Please, get back,” he said. “Stay safe as long as you can.”

  I ran back to where Noah was taking cover. As I stumbled in his direction, the tears began to flow, blurring my vision. I didn’t care, since I didn’t want to see what was happening. I could feel the end drawing near. There were only a handful of stones around us, and dozens of beasts hurtling forward.

  “It’s my fault,” I said and reached out to Noah.

  He stretched out his arms and wrapped them around me. “No,” he said softly. “Don’t say that; don’t think that way.”

  “But, if I hadn’t…”

  “If you hadn’t gone after your sister? Callie, you did the right thing. You always do what you know is right.”

  My head spun and my heart hurt. I thought of the decisions I’d made that had resulted in dragging two of the people I cared about into a deathtrap.

  I wasn’t certain what I could have done differently, except to refuse to form a connection with Logan. But there was no going back…

  My mind reeled and my hands trembled. And I felt hot. The heat that poured out of me, surely caused by the racing of my heart, seemed to cling to the air. My vision blurred, the tears making it almost impossible to see.

  All around was a muddled mass of constantly shifting colors. Greys, browns, greens. The temperature of the air increased, and the sounds of crackling echoed off the rock wall.

  “Callie!” Noah said and threw his arms around me. “We’re saved!”

  “What?” I asked, wiping my eyes dry with the palms of my hands. I looked up at an unbelievable spectacle.

  The darkened, never-ending night sky of Shadowland was illuminated with fire. The source of the flames was easy to identify—the hordes of dragons swooping through the air were hard to miss.

  Their scale-covered bodies shimmered in the light of the fires they expelled. Their beady black eyes glowed as they swarmed in on their targets, and their large, leathery wings beat at the air, sending flames swirling wildly about.

  I scanned the sky, and a streak of bright red fur caught my attention. Leaping from the cliff overhead, Raulia made an entrance in her typical fashion. The second her paws hit the ground, she leaped forward, taking down an elephant-sized elk. She sunk her teeth into its throat, then relished in her victory, before pulling back and turning to make her way toward us.

  Even on four paws, there was a swagger in Raulia’se step. That swagger became more pronounced, then a billow of smoke formed around her. A few seconds later, she emerged in her human form.

  Tossing her red hair over her shoulder, she waltzed up to Logan, who stood beside Noah.

  “Help has arrived, and not a second too late, from the looks of it.” Raulia’s eyes sparkled in the light of the flames that rained down around us. “Did you miss me?”

  “We don’t have time for your grandstanding,” Logan said. “The battle isn’t won yet.”

  “Oh, but I so rarely get the chance,” she said and smiled at us, before turning to join the fight again.

  Raulia ran forward, with the ball of smoke around her again.

  Logan wrapped his arms around my shoulders. “She’s cocky,” he said, “but there’s no one I’d rather have come to my rescue.”

  “I’m just glad she’s on our side,” I said, then watched her sink her teeth into another one of the monstrous Fae creatures.

  Chapter 35

  Callie

  With Logan’s arm around me, we looked up to the sky. It seemed as if Valter’s entire fleet of dragons had joined in the fight. The flutter of wings and billows of fire filled the sky. For the first time in a long time, it didn’t seem as if we were trapped in eternal night. The area around us was illuminated by the flames, so I could see clearly.

  Besides Raulia and the dragons, other vampires had joined the fight. They darted about, takin
g down the Faes’ trained beasts with a terrifying combination of cunning and grace.

  Logan mentioned joining the fight, but I held him close, not allowing him to leave my side.

  “You’ve done enough already,” I told him. “You need to rest.”

  “I’m a vampire,” he said, his emerald green eyes sparkling. “I don’t get tired.”

  I laced my fingers with his. “I get tired of worrying about you.”

  “That makes two of us,” he said with a playful wink.

  It didn’t take long for the fight to change course. The fearless creatures of the night that had tormented us so fiercely, displayed an amusing level of cowardice, when faced with Valter’s dragons and the fleets of vampires swarming down on them.

  “They’re retreating!” I yelled, watching the enemy pull back.

  Logan stared at the retreating Fae. “The Wild Hunt usually doesn’t retreat.”

  “It’s because we’re better than they are,” I said.

  “We?” Logan asked, his eyes still sparkling.

  “Well, you. The vampires. But I’m on your team, you know. Even if I don’t bring much to the fight."

  Logan laughed and leaned in to kiss me on the forehead. “You do more than you realize,” he said softly. “For me, at least.”

  The Fae beasts and their masters were retreating quickly, disappearing as suddenly as they had appeared. I let out a sigh of relief.

  “It is strange,” Logan said. “The Wild Hunt will fight to the death, if need be.”

  “Why did they retreat, then?”

  “I’m not sure. I can only assume it’s because they’re planning an even more gruesome retaliation.”

  His words made me shudder. I wanted to ask what he meant, what else they could be planning, but the time for asking questions had passed. In the blink of an eye, his brother Florian appeared before us.

  He looked at us, angrily, before moving forward and enveloping Logan in a warm, brotherly embrace. “Are you okay?” he said, looking Logan up and down.

  Logan nodded. “I’m fine. We all are.”