by Cara Wylde
“Never.”
“Wow. How did you… figure it out?”
She smiled mischievously. “Well, I am the most talented dream traveler that has ever lived, aren’t I?”
I laughed. “I thought that was me.”
“In this dimension? Maybe. In mine? Not a chance.”
“Aunt Katia, I don’t exist in your dimension!”
“Fair enough.”
I returned to the map. “Okay, I can do this. Jump to the point of neutrality, and then…” I followed the drawing with my finger, tapping on the circle my aunt had marked with an X. “Here.” She’d mapped all the parallel universes of the cosmic spawns, but only one seemed to be my target. “Is this the only place where I can find the flower?”
“No. It grows in all their dimensions. But it’s the only place that’s a little bit safer.”
“Got it.”
She nodded and stood up. “I should be getting back. Valentine will be home for lunch any minute now.”
“Thank you. I will not disappoint you, Aunt Katia.”
“I know you won’t, Yoli.”
She straightened her back and closed her eyes, preparing herself to jump back. The body she had briefly materialized was turning more and more transparent by the second.
“Hey! Before you go, I think I found a name for the plant. No one has named it yet, so why not?”
“What is it?”
“Akkadia Aeterna. Because Gilgamesh Akkad was the first one to discover it.”
“Hmm… not really. I mean, the legend says the wise man Utnapishtim told him about it.”
“That’s not verified.”
She laughed as she vanished little by little. “None of this is verified.”
She was gone.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Now I had the map, but I didn’t have the guts.
I studied it for hours the next day, but that point of neutrality eluded me. An island in the ocean. And what if I missed it? I had the network before my eyes, and from staring at it so hard, I’d memorized every coordinate. I also had Professor Lovecraft’s description of the place he’d found his dream, and I was afraid that I already had so much information about at least one of the dimensions of the cosmic beings, that if I couldn’t visualize this stupid point of neutrality hard enough, I’d dream fly right past it and land exactly where I wanted to land but wasn’t supposed to without going through what I started calling the “check-in point” first.
This is messed up.
I had everything I needed! I lacked the belief that I could do it without losing my mind. Without losing pieces of myself, as Aunt Katia had said. I wasn’t even sure what that meant. How would one even lose pieces of oneself?! Maybe this was something I could discuss with Headmaster Colin, since he taught Psychology, and this seemed to be a psychological matter. But I didn’t want to tell him why I needed his input. Maybe I could just pose the question randomly…
No. I’m already going crazy as it is.
I was overthinking this. I was an experienced dream jumper. I wasn’t afraid of a challenge. However, even now, my gut told me that I wasn’t ready, and I hated it! I wanted to be ready. I had to be ready. Aunt Katia had done it countless times, so what was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I do it? No, I could. I definitely could. I just seemed to lack trust right now. Maybe I’d feel better tomorrow? I could only hope.
While waiting on my proverbial balls to grow, there was something I could occupy my mind and my time with, and that would also add some value to my end goal. So, I put my winter coat on and made my way out in the forest, then down to the cave on the beach. There were other ways to get into the underground cavern – Mila had told me about them, – but I didn’t feel like crawling through dark, narrow tunnels. The strip of beach at the foot of the cliffs was the easiest way in, as the mouth of the cave opened right toward it. Sometimes, the students had parties here, and there was this thing where they never wanted to go into the caves because the energy spilling out from there simply repelled them. It was just as efficient as a cloaking spell. Except nothing was cloaked, and humans and supernaturals felt it deep in their bones that something horrible lived down there, and that if they treasured their life, they had to stay away. No one questioned it. Those who knew about the cavern and the well were few. Those who’d seen them with their own eyes – even fewer.
I climbed down the stone stairs hidden in the side of the cliff, mostly on my butt. The ground was slippery, and I wasn’t exactly nimble in my winter attire. I reached the beach and took a minute to catch my breath. I looked at the ocean and the clouds in the distance. It wasn’t a sunny day, and I wondered whether it would rain or snow later. I removed my gloves and pulled out my phone. I needed it to light the way in there, anyway. I checked the weather and cursed under my breath when I saw it was likely to rain in two hours. But two hours should have been enough for me to go in and get out. I only wanted to take another look at the well, maybe check the cavern for marks, symbols, anything that might be helpful. The first time I got there by accident, while taking the entry test, I was too shocked and, frankly, terrified to look for clues. Now I realized how silly I’d been. As long as I kept a safe distance from the well, nothing bad should happen. After all, the monster was sleeping, and it only came out when summoned or provoked. That one time when it had almost eaten Mila… an exception. She’d gotten too close, and it had probably smelled her. Or felt her. I couldn’t possibly know if the creature had senses like us.
I dragged in a breath, gave myself a little mental speech of encouragement, turned on the flashlight on my phone, and ventured in. At first, the cave was large and decently ventilated. As I went deeper and deeper, the walls started closing in around me. It was okay. The way I’d gotten in here first had been worse than this. Soon, I was walking down a long, narrow tunnel shrouded in darkness. The flashlight helped, but not much. Thank God I wasn’t scared of critters! On the other hand, if I thought about it, there was little chance that any critters actually lived here. The monster had chased them all away. I advanced confidently, knowing that at some point, the space would open up, and I’d step into the main cavern. When my boots started splashing through warm, rusty water, I knew I was getting close.
I stopped in my tracks, my senses on high alert. I listened to the darkness, convinced I had heard something. Whispers. Voices. I couldn’t be sure. Maybe it was just my nerves. Water dripped from somewhere ahead, and I concluded that must have been it. It didn’t help that my boots made one hell of a noise as I tried to walk on my tiptoes. I advanced a few more steps, then halted again. This time, I was sure I’d heard voices. They were coming from the cavern, resonating against the walls, and tumbling down the tunnels as echoes. I stilled, barely breathing.
No. It can’t be. Not now. Not ever.
There were at least a dozen voices chanting in unison – whispering at first, then growing louder and louder, until the foreign language they spoke filled the space. I didn’t understand the words. They were not of this world. Not of this dimension.
“Ya stell’bsna y’bthnk orr’e syha’h! Ya kadishtu n’gha!”
They said that over and over, until the words creeped inside my bones and settled in my stomach, making me sick. I knew what was going on in there, and I knew I should have turned around and run for my life. I was frozen in place. The chant continued, rising toward the tall ceiling of the cavern, rushing down every tunnel. And as it intensified, so did the pull I felt to see the well. I needed to see it. It was imperative! While my mind was screaming at me to flee, my body moved of its own accord. One step, and then another. Before I could even attempt to get my bearings and come up with a way to convince my legs to stop taking me in the direction of certain death, I found myself at the opening to the cavern. I pressed my body against the warm, wet wall. I could feel it pulsing through the thick layers of my clothes, as if it was repeating the chant in its own language of stone and dirt. The air seemed to be infu
sed by the words, penetrated by them, until the words were the air, and the air was the words, and I was literally breathing in the cultists’ chant. It rattled me to my core. I felt laughter starting to bubble in my chest, and I covered my mouth with both hands. There was nothing to laugh about, yet the urge was overwhelming. I prayed it passed soon, and it did, but instead, it was replaced by tears. They spilled down my cheeks. I was crying soundlessly, my heart breaking in a million pieces, as if someone I loved had just died.
Someone was about to die, but I didn’t know her. Yet, I cried for her, and at the same time, I wanted to laugh, because what was happening before my eyes was insane!
A dozen people dressed in long, black robes, with their heads covered and hands raised to the sky, were chanting tirelessly as another hooded figure held a young girl down on her knees, facing the well. Candlelight bathed the scene in an eerie glow, causing long shadows to dance on the walls. The air was heavy and hot. The more I breathed it, the more I realized it was starting to smell foul. Like something had died in here a long time ago and it had been left forgotten in a corner. They chanted, and the smell of putrid flesh became unbearable. It was wet, disgusting, and it made me think of corpses decomposing.
At some point, the cultists quieted down, and the hooded figure holding down the girl spoke in the same language. It was a man, and his voice sounded young and confident. He’d done this many times before.
“Ya kadishtu n’gha! Zhro!”
That last word sounded like a command. Tentacles covered in suction cups of all sizes, oozing green and black slime, emerged from the well. They reached out for the prey – the shaking woman who was tied up like a turkey, waiting to be devoured. She was the sacrifice.
“Ancient One, hear me! Receive this offering of flesh and blood, make me whole again,” the man said in plain English.
The woman struggled. She escaped his hold and tried to flee, but her ankles were tied together, as were her wrists. She fell on her face and attempted to crawl. It was too late. One tentacle wrapped around her legs, and another around her chest. As the monster lifted her up, somehow the rag they’d stuffed into her mouth fell, and she released a horrifying scream. That snapped me out of my trance. Now, my instinct pushed me to run up there and save her. The cultists hadn’t noticed me yet, since they had their backs to me. Maybe I could take them by surprise… Maybe…
A strong arm wrapped around me, while a big, rough hand covered my mouth. I was lifted off the floor and dragged back into the tunnel. I kicked my legs like a madwoman and tried to scratch my attacker. He easily overpowered me. My kicking and struggling didn’t bother him in the least as he carried me outside, to the beach, like a useless puppet. He dropped me in the sand, and I spun around, on my hands and knees.
“You!”
Adrian Wyvern stood before me. From this perspective, he looked like a mountain of a man – all bulging muscles and coarse hair covering his arms. Even in the middle of winter, he wore a T-shirt and black jeans. Apparently, a true Unseelie warrior couldn’t feel the cold. Which made sense, in fact, since the Seelie Court was associated with summer, and the Unseelie Court with winter. From what I’d heard, they had pretty shitty weather in their pocket universe. But that shitty weather helped create impressive warriors who were not fazed by nature’s shenanigans.
“Do you have a death wish?” He yelled at me. “What were you doing in there? Playing superhero?”
“You killed that woman!” I pushed myself to my feet, brushing the sand off my clothes.
“I didn’t kill anyone. They killed her. They sacrificed her, so they can pretend they’re immortal for another couple of months. Damned revenants and their fake immortality!”
“Fake immortality?” That wasn’t a thing…
“What would you call it? If they don’t bring a sacrifice to that octopus monster every three months, they rot and die.”
“It’s not an octopus monster,” I mumbled. Then, it struck me. What was I doing here? What was he doing here? “How do you know about the cave, the… monster? And why aren’t you at the Unseelie Court?”
“I came back,” he grumbled.
I waited. When he didn’t answer my first question, I rolled my eyes.
“How do you know about it? Who told you?”
He huffed. “I know many things, Yolanda Aleksiev. This one is the least shocking.”
I cocked an eyebrow. And finally, for the first time since I’d met Adrian Wyvern, I asked the right question: “Who are you?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
We were at a restaurant down in Salem. Adrian had insisted we needed to get out of there, get some fresh air, be around normal people. I happened to agree with him, this time. Salem was populated by both humans and supernaturals. Supernaturals were hiding in plain sight, running businesses, a bank, and even a mall, cloaking everything with glamour spells. We chose a restaurant for humans, though, because what Adrian wanted to tell me was sensitive, and he didn’t want to run the risk of being overheard by some shifter or vampire with an acute sense of hearing.
Yes, we were on a first-name basis. He was Adrian, and I was Yolanda. An hour and a half had passed since he’d dragged me out to safety, and a lot of things had changed between us. For one, he talked to me like I was an adult and we were on the same level.
He ordered a bottle of wine, and we were slowly drinking our way to the bottom of it, while making our way to the bottom of why he was teaching at the Academy and what he wanted from me.
“I know who you are,” he said, looking at me over the rim of his glass. “I know what you can do.”
“Everyone does. It’s no secret that I’m a dream jumper and that I can cross to a few dozen parallel dimensions.”
“I know how you’re staying alive and young, preserving your human body when you should have been six feet under centuries ago.”
I stiffened. “You do?” I tried to hide my discomfort by taking a huge gulp of wine. It went down the wrong pipe, and I coughed. My throat burned and my chest hurt. I wasn’t exactly the best at playing it cool…
“There’s a cure… A sort of plant that can prolong someone’s life.”
“And how do you know that?”
“How do I know that?” He laughed. “Tell me this, first: am I right or wrong?”
“You’re right…”
“Finally giving me the correct answer. You might just convince me I can trust you, Yolanda.”
“You can trust me. I don’t hate you, like you do. I don’t even particularly dislike you.”
“I don’t hate you.”
“No? You go on and on about how bad I am in PE, when you know I’m the only one in your class who knows what she’s doing. My worth score got a serious hit because of you. And that bullshit with Mr. Lovecraft? What was that?”
“I’m sorry, I just…” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t know how to approach you. I had to see what kind of person you were first.”
I spread my arms to my sides, inevitably showing my boobs off more than I should’ve. Underneath the heavy winter coat, that morning I’d actually put on a fluffy pullover that had a bit of a cleavage.
“Satisfied?”
He stared at me for a few long seconds, making it a point to avoid looking at my chest. He didn’t blink.
“Yes. I think you’re a decent person, Yolanda. I think… we can work together.”
“To do what?”
“Help each other out. You give me what I need, and I support you in… whatever you want to do with that horrible thing down in the well.”
I sighed. “What do you need?”
“The plant you used to prolong your life. The one Gilgamesh discovered in ancient times, when humanity was in its early stages.”
“How do you…”
“I’m a descendant of Gilgamesh. Direct descendant.”
“What?!” I’d heard rumors, but since my opinion of the word “rumor” in general was that it
denoted silly, meaningless gossip, I’d discarded them and then never paid attention anymore.
“My name is Adrian Akkad. Well, should’ve been. After Gilgamesh retired as a Grim Reaper and his life went downhill, the sons of his sons changed their name to Wyvern.”
“Is it true Wyvern comes from this whip-like weapon made of dragon skin, and that it’s called a Hydra’s Tail?”
He smirked. “Yes, it’s true.”
“Do you have it on you?” I leaned over the table, trying to see if he carried a whip on his belt and I’d missed it. Although, how would any woman miss that quirky detail on a man who was already sex-on-legs without a whip?
“No. I have it back in my room.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. Keep it in your pants, Yoli! He’s still your teacher.
“Are you going to ask me about my family’s weapon of choice, or are you going to ask about Gilgamesh?”
I shrugged. “I already know everything there is to know about your ancestor. I’ve read all the books, myths, studies, legends. What do you need the plant he discovered for? You’re not a hybrid, are you?”
“No. After Gilgamesh died, all his descendants focused on purifying the family blood. It took a few generations, but today, only pure-blooded Unseelie come from the Wyvern line. That was until… my daughter was born.”
My eyes went wide. “What? You have a daughter?”
“Yes. And I need the cure for her.”
I didn’t know how to feel about this. I finished my glass of wine and poured myself a new one. I shifted in my seat, rubbed at my arms, my chin and my neck, feeling like I’d just gotten hives all over. I was thinking of excusing myself to go to the restroom and splash some cold water on my face. Or scream at my reflection in the mirror: He has a daughter, idiot! He is a married man, and a father! Idiot, idiot, idiot. Once again, he saved me from myself.
“Look, it’s a complicated story, but I’ll try to keep it short. I don’t want to hide anything from you anymore. I need your help, and I know that I have to gain your trust first. My daughter is a hybrid. I met her mother ten years ago, when she accidentally stumbled onto a portal to the Unseelie Court and somehow, through means I’ve never understood, stepped through it. She landed in my backyard. You can imagine the horror! I had a clueless human woman in my backyard, and I was lucky enough that I found her, and no one was around. I took her in, calmed her down, – she was close to hysterical by that point, – and explained the situation to her.”
