“You need to ask her,” I said, turning to Mary. “She’s not bound to answer me.”
“Okay,” Mary replied. “Our agreement only allowed for one wish, but I’ll give you this exception.”
“Thank you.” I smiled, grateful to Mary for doing this—and also knowing that if there was ever a way for me to pay her back, I would.
“Who’s capable of bringing back the dead?” Mary said, turning to Geneva. “If you know, I command you to answer truthfully.”
“The fae,” Geneva said immediately.
The moment she said the words, Mary’s face paled.
“What’s that look for?” I asked, continuing before she could answer. “The fae are impossible to find, aren’t they? Or they’re all dead?”
In all my time on Earth, I’d never met a fae, nor met anyone who had.
But they could bring Peter back. Which meant if I needed to go to the end of the Earth to find a fae, I would.
“They’re not impossible to find, and they’re certainly not dead,” Mary said, her expression grave. “I know how to find them.”
“You’ll tell me?” I knew I was asking for another favor, but I was so close to getting Peter back that I could practically feel the warmth of his lips on mine. I couldn’t stop pushing now.
“I recommend against going to the fae,” she began. “You might think they’re helping you, but in reality, the fae are always helping themselves. However, I can tell from the look on your face that if I don’t tell you, you won’t rest until you find someone else who can. So yes, I’ll tell you how to find the fae. But whatever the outcome, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I simply nodded for her to continue, and from there, she told me everything.
Annika
The mages had cast a boundary spell around the boat—it would last until we got past the mist—to keep it a bearable temperature. Jacen had taken the role as captain, and after a few starting difficulties at the wheel, he’d gotten the hang of it.
“I think it’s time that I took a turn,” I said playfully, somehow managing to be lighthearted despite the challenges I knew we had ahead.
“No need,” he said, pressing a few buttons. “I’ve got it on autopilot. We should be good until we hit the mist.”
“Nice,” I said. “How’d you figure out how to—”
He grabbed me and kissed me, stopping me mid-sentence.
My heart leaped into my throat, and I kissed him back with all the longing I’d felt since we’d been taken down by the vampires in the woods when he’d been trying to help me escape the Vale. Yes, I’d kissed him since then as Princess Ana, but it wasn’t the same.
He pushed me back against the window, and I broke the kiss for a second, wanting to see his face. His eyes were closed, but then he opened them, the intensity of his silver gaze reaching deep into my soul. He was looking at me like I meant the world to him. I had a feeling that I was looking at him in the exact same way, too.
Despite the past few weeks being a total mess, they’d gotten me here, with Jacen. For that, I would always grateful.
Suddenly I saw a flicker in the corner of my eye.
I turned my head and saw a glowing green light, growing larger with each passing second. There was pink in it as well, swirling together to create a breathtaking show.
“The Northern Lights.” I gasped, taking hold of Jacen’s hand. “Come on. Let’s watch.”
He led me to the outside deck, and we snuggled on the bench, watching the incredible display. The lights were science, not magic, but they were more amazing than any magic I’d ever seen.
“Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?” I asked.
“Other than you?” he teased, and I rolled my eyes, nudging him in the side.
“Come on,” I said. “I’m serious.”
“Me too,” he said. “You’re more beautiful to me than even the Northern Lights.”
He lips found mine once more, and while I enjoyed the kiss, I pulled away again.
“Hey.” Mischief crossed his eyes, and he leaned toward me. “I was enjoying that.”
“Me too.” I smiled to make sure he didn’t take it personally and glanced back up at the dancing sky. “But how often do we get to see this?”
“Fair point.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and together, we took in the spectacle. The bright colors covered every inch of the sky—a dancing neon flame that went on for miles and miles.
We watched the light show in peaceful silence for a few minutes.
Then, my stomach growled.
My cheeks flushed, embarrassed by its loud rumble, and I silently commanded my stomach to be quiet. But it betrayed me, growling again.
Ever since my Nephilim blood had been activated, I’d been hungry a lot more than I’d been as a human.
“We have those sandwiches in the fridge,” Jacen said. “Stay here and watch the lights. I’ll go get you one.”
He returned a few minutes later with a blanket, drinks, and a sandwich. He laid the blanket on the ground and started setting up.
“How do you feel about picnics?” he asked.
“I’ve never had one,” I said. “But I couldn’t think of a better first time.” I helped him finish setting up, and then dug into the food. I was the only one who ate—he insisted on only having blood. While vampires could enjoy food, they didn’t need it to survive, so he refused to dig into our limited food supply.
“This is our first date as us,” I said once I finished my sandwich. “As Jacen as Annika.”
“What about the night we met?” he asked. “When we hung out in the attic of the Tavern.”
“That wasn’t an official date,” I said. “It was the night we met. It’s different.”
“All right.” He smiled. “If that’s how it is, then yeah, I suppose this is our first date.”
And what a perfect first date it was. We snuggled, kissed and talked—all while watching the Northern Lights—eventually falling asleep in each other’s arms under the dancing spectacle in the sky.
Annika
I awoke with a gasp, unable to breathe.
I was surrounded by white mist, so thick that it was impossible to see. It burned my lungs. They felt like they were on fire.
We needed to turn around—now. Get out of here before suffocating to death.
I jolted up to run toward the wheel, but Jacen’s hand found mine, stopping me. “Relax,” he murmured in my ear. “You’ll feel better when you do. The mist is trying to make us want to turn around, but it’s not going to hurt us. The more you panic, the worse it’ll get.”
I recalled the mages saying the same thing before sending us off on the boat. As I thought back their words, I was able to suck in a shallow breath—one after another until my breathing was almost back to normal again. It still hurt, but it was bearable. I was also able to see clearer, too. Not incredibly clear—it looked like a foggy day—but at least everything wasn’t whited out anymore.
“Thanks,” I told Jacen once I’d gotten ahold of myself.
I thought it would have taken longer before reaching the mist. I’d been planning on checking out the weapons, but then I’d gotten distracted by the Northern Lights—and by Jacen. I’d figured we’d have time to grab them in the morning. But the boat was only protected by the mages boundary until we passed through the mist. Which meant we didn’t have much longer until we were vulnerable to anything that might attack.
“We need to get weapons.” I stood up and headed toward the storage room.
Jacen was at my side, apparently in agreement with my assessment.
I grabbed the first weapon that called out to me—a long silver sword in a sheath that I could strap around my back. Jacen went for two gleaming knives and sheathed them to his sides.
“You know how to use that?” He motioned to the long-sword that strangely enough, felt more at home than ever on my back.
“No idea.” I shrugged. “My instinct pulled me toward it, so I’m hop
ing that means yes.”
“Sounds good enough to me,” he said, heading out of the room. “Come on. We should get out there so we’re ready once the mist ends.”
We headed back up to the steering room. The mist pricked my skin this time, like tiny little needles. It burned, but once I relaxed and reminded myself what the mages said about how the mist wouldn’t actually hurt us, the pain subsided.
After a few more minutes, the mist got lighter and lighter, and then it faded completely.
Ahead of us was an island, and in the center of the island was a giant, blooming tree. The tree was tall enough that it touched the clouds themselves, and the branches hung so far out that the tips of them reached the end of the island itself. It gleamed with light—not a reflection of the sun, but a light that seemed to glow from within.
“The Tree of Life,” I breathed, amazed to be in its presence. Even though I hadn’t known about the Tree until recently, the sight of it was holy and intense.
Despite wanting to go full speed ahead, the sun was up, which was going to be a problem. But luckily not for long, since we were so far north that there weren’t many hours of sunlight.
“Maybe we should stop,” I told Jacen. “Wait for the sun to set. It won’t be out for long.”
“I’m fine undercover,” he said. “And once we get to the island, the branches go far enough out that they’ll provide shade.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
His only response was to press harder on the gas pedal, urging the boat faster to shore.
Suddenly, something thumped on the side of the boat.
I looked back in panic, but nothing was there.
“What was that?” Jacen asked, still focused straight ahead.
“I don’t—” I was cut off by another thump, this one so forceful that it caught me off guard and sent me tumbling into the wall.
The engine cut off, and the boat stalled.
“Damn it.” Jacen pounded the steering wheel and pressed harder on the gas. When nothing happened, he swiveled around and marched out of the control room, apparently going to figure out what was going on.
I followed him, since there was no way I was letting him go out alone. He shouldn’t be going out there at all, given the sunlight—but I doubted anything I said would stop him, so I might as well join him.
It didn’t take long to see the engine—or rather, what was left of the engine. It hung crookedly off the end of the boat, looking like it had been beaten with a sledgehammer.
I didn’t know much about boat engines, but it looked past the point of repair.
Jacen glanced over the side of the boat—I assumed to try and figure out what had done that to the engine—and his face fell.
“What is it?” I asked, although I saw the answer a second later.
Beneath the water was the shadow of what could only be a giant, eel-like sea creature. It went so far out in both directions that it seemed like it wrapped around the entire island. It was moving, and while it was underwater right now, I had a feeling it wouldn’t stay that way for long. Especially after what it had already done to our engine.
“There were some paddles in the storage room,” I said. “I’ll go get them.”
I doubted that paddling would get us anywhere fast, but Jacen and I were stronger than the average human, so that had to count for something. I hurried to the storage room, grabbed two of the paddles that were hanging next to some life vests on the wall, and ran back up to the dock.
I got there just as something large and slimy emerged from the water like a serpent—the creature’s head.
It looked like an alligator head, with a long snout, scaly skin, and beady eyes—but blown up to the size of a golf cart. Bearing down on us, it rumbled and opened its mouth, revealing rows of teeth like jagged nails.
Jacen was on it in a second, avoiding its mouth while using his knives to slash at its skin. But the skin was hard—so hard that his knives didn’t seem to be doing anything at all.
I hurried to join him, dropping the paddles and reaching for my sword. I aimed for the creature’s skin, but like the knives, my sword bounced right off. It was like its skin was made of metal.
Jacen reeled back his arm and threw one of his knives at the creature, landing right in the center of one of its eyes.
The creature screamed in pain, and I thrust my sword forward, aiming for the softer, more vulnerable flesh inside its mouth. I nicked its cheek, but quickly pulled my sword back, not wanting it to get caught in the creature’s mouth.
Then Jacen threw his second knife, and it hit the creature’s other eye, blinding it. The hilts of both knives stuck out where its eyes had been.
“Score,” I said at the same time as it opened its mouth to scream again. I used the opportunity to go at it again with my sword, digging deeper this time. If I could just get through the roof of its mouth, then I could go straight through its brain…
But the creature jerked its head up, its teeth clanging against my sword—and my wrist—sending the weapon to the other side of the boat.
I pulled my arm back and cried out in pain.
The tooth had gone straight through my wrist. It must have hit a vein, because blood was everywhere—my blood.
“Watch out!” Jacen yelled as the creature lunged forward, and he threw himself at me to push me out of the way.
I toppled to the ground, turning around just in time to see the creature’s jaw crunch down on Jacen’s legs.
“No!” I yelled, watching as the creature pulled back, as if to drag Jacen out to sea. But Jacen grabbed onto the side of the boat, holding on for dear life.
If the creature didn’t open its mouth, Jacen was going to die.
In a split-second decision, I ran for the paddles, grabbed them, and shoved the narrow ends straight into the creature’s nostrils. I shoved them in real deep—deep enough that they were wedged halfway inside there.
The ends of the paddles were drenched in the blood that was still pouring from my wrists, and spots danced in front of my eyes from the blood loss.
The wound was healing, but not fast enough. To make things even worse, at some point during the fight, the creature had bit a hole straight through the boat. We were taking on water—slowly—but it didn’t look good.
Hopelessness descended upon me, but then the creature opened its mouth, just like I’d wanted it to.
The ends of the paddles had blocked air from entering its nasal passages, giving it only one way to get in air—its mouth. As it took a breath, I snapped back into focus, grabbing Jacen’s arms and pulling him inside the boat.
His legs were bloodied, mangled messes—I couldn’t look at them without wincing in pain. There was no way he could stand, let alone fight.
But the creature was still there, and it was coming down again. I couldn’t get to my sword in time, and trying to get one of the knives embedded in the creature’s eyes would be near impossible.
If I didn’t try something, this monster was going to kill us both. So I used my uninjured arm to reach for my only remaining weapon—Laila’s stake that I’d been keeping strapped to my side—and threw it into the roof of the creature’s mouth, straight up into its brain.
The creature’s head snapped back, and it crashed back into the sea.
The water was still leaking into the boat, but other than that, all was silent for the first time since we’d come through the mist.
I hugged my wounded wrist to my chest, putting pressure on it to stop the bleeding. It seemed to be helping. The hole was knitting together, but I’d lost so much blood that I was sitting in a puddle of it.
I used my last bit of energy to glance over at Jacen and make sure his wounds were healing, and then everything went dark.
Karina
Mary had refused to allow a witch of the Haven to transport me to Ireland. My going to the fae had nothing to do with creating peace between kingdoms, so it wasn’t the Haven’s obligation to give me a ride there. And since M
ary had already gone beyond what I’d asked of her by telling me how to summon the fae, I wasn’t going to push it.
Unfortunately, that meant flying commercial—again. This airport wasn’t as crowded, since I guessed winter wasn’t a popular time to visit Ireland. The taxi line wasn’t terribly long, but each second wasted was one more second I could have with Peter. So I sauntered to the front of the line and used compulsion to get the next taxi, just like I’d done in India.
The car reeked of alcohol, which I supposed must be somewhat typical for a cab in Ireland. How many drunken partiers must the driver have taken home after the bars closed?
Luckily, this driver was nice enough to stop and wait for me while I walked into a store for supplies. For a charge, of course—although little did he know that I had no intention of paying that charge.
I hopped back into the waiting taxi, smiling and placing my bag of equipment by my side. It was a long drive to where we were heading, and I stayed quiet the entire time, unwilling to participate in any chitchat.
The less I knew about this man, the better.
We finally arrived, and just like before, I used the moment after he requested payment to take a drink from his throat.
This man’s blood tasted slightly sour, like he’d recently had beer.
Blood never tasted as good when the human had been drinking alcohol.
But that wasn’t what concerned me. No—I was more concerned with how many lives this man had endangered by drinking while working. I doubted this was the first time he’d done this. One thing I’d learned in all my years was that when someone was acting a certain way, it was usually because it was a habit.
Someday, this man was going to get someone killed.
At least the fact that he was drinking and driving would help curb the guilt of what I needed to do next.
Because there was still one last ingredient I needed to call upon the fae—the blood of a human I’d killed with my own hand.
Once I’d had my fill, I pulled away, licking the remaining blood from my lips and watching as the wound sealed closed. The man was still blinking away the haze of the venom when I reached for my newly acquired knife and slashed it across his pale, fleshy throat.
The Vampire Fate (Dark World: The Vampire Wish Book 4) Page 13
