by Kade Cook
Shane’s legs deny him any support, and he slinks down to the floor within the Veil. He places his head in his hands and feels his heart rip and tear at his soul as it tries to convince him to go back out there to her. He is torn between the love he feels for her and the hatred that simmers inside of him because of what she is. His heart screams at him to go to her, but he stands firm—confused and tormented with his own inner demons. Alone in the Darkness, he sits in his silent torment, watching her suffer as a tear escapes its confinement and slips down his cheek.
Gabrian pulls herself up off the floor and crawls into bed, not bothering to change her clothes. Quietly remaining on the cusp of the Veil, Shane continues his guard. Every time he has left her before, trouble always managed to find her so tonight he will wait until he is sure she is asleep before taking his leave.
She finally drifts off to sleep, exhausted from crying, and Shane steps out of the Darkness. He quietly crosses the room to where she is, looks down at her, and sighs. Reaching over and grabbing a quilt from the bench by the window, he spreads it out, pulling it up around her shoulders to protect her from the chill in the air.
Sitting down gently on the edge of the bed beside her, he watches her breathe, finally peaceful. He slips his nimble fingers in under the strand of hair that covers the side of her face and pushes it to the side to tuck it behind her ear. He gently runs his finger down the shadow of her jaw, feeling the warmth from her skin but is careful not to wake her. His eyes begin to water, distorting his sight—his emotions beginning to betray his control.
Convinced that she is asleep, he gets up and turns off the lamp. He walks over to the window and looks out into the night. With one last glance at Gabrian, he exhales, feeling the twists of pain in his chest rip through his innards. In that moment, Shane refuses to believe that this is how he is destined to live out the rest of their eternity together and steps into the Veil—on his way to seek council.
Chapter Fifty
Just the Two of Us
“GAB…RI…AN.” FROM SOMEWHERE deep inside her mind, she hears someone calling her name. “Gab...ri...an. Please help me.”
Gabrian sits up in bed and swings her legs over the side. She raises herself up off the mattress and walks slowly across the floor to her bedroom door. She carefully edges her way down the stairs, listening to her instructions.
“Quietly now, you do not want to wake them. They would not understand, and they will try to stop you.”
Gabrian just nods and continues on her course. She reaches the bottom of the stairs and enters into the kitchen, heading for the door.
“Quickly now, my dear. You must not dally,” the voice insists.
Unlatching the lock on the door, she steps out into the night—leaving it ajar behind her. Entangled deeply within sleep’s web, Gabrian helplessly follows the voice of the spider within her dream.
Chapter Fifty-One
To the Heart of the Matter
“I WAS WONDERING when I was going to see you,” Orroryn says, smiling at his unexpected late night guest, and takes a sip of his earl grey tea.
“I am sorry it is so late, but I needed to talk to you,” Shane declares, stepping out of the Veil and into Orroryn’s living room.
“Still having trouble being around Gabrian?” he asks with a raised brow, fighting the urge to grin knowing that it may do more harm than good. He is genuinely concerned for the both of them, especially having firsthand knowledge of how stubborn Shane can be when he chooses.
“You could say that. But it has gotten complicated,” Shane reports as he starts to pace back and forth between the wall and the couch in front of where Orroryn sits. “Much more complicated.”
“All right, I will bite, what did you do now?”
Shane stops pacing and takes a seat in the brown suede chair beside Orroryn’s. He looks at his adoptive father with tortured green eyes. Orroryn sees the distress and leans in to listen more intently.
With his elbows resting on his knees, Shane leans forward and rubs his hands through his hair in angst, then sits up to look upon Orroryn. “Do you remember the girl I had told you about a few months ago, the one I asked you advice about?”
“The human girl?” He tilts his head and peers into his son’s troubled eyes, feeling at a loss with the hope he will be able to help him.
“Yeah, the human girl,” Shane says in a breathy tone, looking away and biting his lip.
“Yes, I remember.” Orroyn sits back and nods his head, wading through the details of the conversation.
“Well, it turns out that she was not so human after all.” He puts his head in his hands and rubs them through his hair quickly then looks up at his adopted father.
“Oh? She is from the Realm then. Well, that is good, right?”
“Not really.”
“Okay, now you have lost me.” Orroryn furrows his brow and takes another drink from his cup of tea.
“It turns out that the girl is Boragen. A Borrower.” The lights turn on in Orroryn’s mind as he understands what Shane’s issue is. “The girl was Gabrian.”
Orroryn sits back into his chair and sips his tea again. “I see.”
“‘I see.’ That is it? That is all the wisdom you have to offer?” Shane gets up and begins his repetitive course again. “I was expecting a little more than, ‘I see.’”
“Well, if you would stop that irksome pacing and sit back down then maybe I might have something more to say.”
Shane stops immediately and takes his seat. His leg begins a subtle jitter until Orroryn shoots him an irritated look—a look much like the one he used to get as a child when he would fidget during a lesson.
“You know the war you have with that girl is none of her doing.”
“I know but...” Orroryn puts his finger up to signify that he is not done talking and Shane goes silent.
“It is okay to be angry, but what happened to your parents is in the past. Staying angry at the whole world will not bring them back.” Shane gives Orroryn a quick glance, his eyes narrow and his pouty lips pulled tight across his face, but Orroryn continues. “How long are you going to punish her for the pain that someone else is responsible for? If you do not let it go, you will one day regret it. It is only going to eat away at you, leaving you empty and alone. Trust me.”
Shane bores down at the floor, mulling over the words, and tries to find an ounce of retribution to stand on, but deep down he knows Orroryn is right. This is not her fight. This battle between them has been going on long enough, and it was he that drew the sword, not her.
Orroryn observes his son’s expression and watches as the creases around his eyes soften and the muscles in his jaw unclench as his Darkness passes.
“The thing about love is that it shares no prejudice. It does not see what the eye sees or heed what the mind harbors. It just knows what it wants and when the heart leaps, it holds little concern as to where it lands.” Orroryn slides forward in his chair and sets his tea cup down on the coffee table beside him. He reaches out and gently rests his hand upon Shane’s wrist, looking him straight in the eye. “From what I have witnessed about love, the heart has always been much braver than the mind.”
Shane’s eyes meet his father’s, and his face lightens in a smile, replacing the scowl that had been there.
“The universe has its own plans that do not always go along with what we have envisioned for ourselves. Sometimes, worlds collide in order to create something new, something better, something stronger. It is how we all came to be as we are today. It does not make it right or wrong, it just makes it real.”
For the first time in months, Shane’s heart feels light. Free from the grip of pain he had plagued upon it, a true sense of peace begins to peel away at the layers of hatred he has held onto for so long. He reaches for his father’s hand and squeezes it.
“Thank you,” he offers softly. The shadows of the dark cloud that had been hovering within his eyes is gone and a glimmer of hope emerges in its place as h
e gets up of the couch.
“Now, go and straighten out this mess you have made. Plead your case to her, and try not to bugger it up again if she forgives you,” Orroryn teases as Shane heads for the Shadows he had stepped out of. “If that is possible.” Orroryn throws in jest.
Shane shoots Orroryn a disapproving frown just as he enters the Veil.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Not Present and Unaccounted For
AFTER KNOCKING ON her door for a few moments without any reply, Shane turns the knob and opens it to look in.
“Gabrian,” he says, but there is still no answer. He enters into the dark room and inches toward her bed. Seeing it empty, he eyes the bathroom door to his right, but the light is not on. Not sensing her energy in the room, he quickly makes his way to the hallway and heads down the stairs as the feeling of dread consumes his thoughts and surrounds his body.
“What is all the racket about?” Rachael grumbles as she staggers out of her room beneath the stairs, snug in her flannel jammies.
“Where is Gabrian?”
“She is in bed.” She points up the stairs and wanders to the kitchen nook, half asleep. “I checked on her after you too had your spat. She was sound asleep. Oh and by the way, what did you do to...”
“She is gone,” he interjects, thinking this is getting to be a common theme in this house. He pinches the bridge of his nose and starts to pace.
“What?” Rachael awakens from her foggy state of mind and runs up the stairs to check.
“I just came from there,” he yells after her as she rushes up the stairs to Gabrian’s room. “She is not in there, and I really need to talk to her.”
Rachael hurries down the stairs, one hand pressing her weight against the wall as she steps while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with the other, still stuck in an awakening state of confusion. “That does not make any sense. She was there no more than an hour ago.”
The kitchen door bangs as it slips open and hits the side of the house as a small gust of wind catches it from outside. Rachael and Shane both look in the direction of the noise.
“Why is the door open?” He rushes over and looks around outside at the darkness covering the yard then pulls the door closed and then open again, examining the locking mechanism.
“I have no idea.” Rachael scratches her head and strains her squinting eyes as they dart around the kitchen in a slow spiraled circle, searching for anything out of the norm—a hint of some kind as to what happened. “I am sure I locked it when I went to bed.”
Shane’s heart starts to pound, and his mind begins to imagine the worst possible outcomes especially considering Gabrian’s track record for disappearing.
“Her shoes are still here and her coat. Where would she have gone this time of night?” Rachael wonders out loud and looks at Shane with wide eyes.
“I don’t know.” He grabs a coat from the hook by the door then turns to Rachael and tosses it to her. “Here, put this on. You are coming with me.”
“What?”
“I am not sure where she is, but I have a feeling that when I find her, I am going to need some backup, and right now, that would be you.” He reaches out and wraps his large fingers around her forearm gently but securely, and looks down at her in her flannels and slippers. “You ready?”
Rachael glances down at her attire and shrugs her shoulders. “Ready as I will ever be.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
Tangled Webs We Weave
DRIFTING INSIDE THE Veil, Shane finds Gabrian’s life source and immediately steps out of the Shadows with Rachael in tow. Sensing a dark energy as well, Shane and Rachael take cover behind the great amethyst stone, a few feet from where Gabrian stands in order to monitor the situation.
He quickly places his hand over Rachael’s mouth and puts his finger in front of his full lips to signal her to be silent. They slowly move toward the side of the stone to get a better view of Gabrian. Horrified by what they see, Rachael gasps and Shane gives her a stern look for her involuntary noise.
Standing in the middle of a circle of people on their knees with their heads down is Gabrian. In front of her is a young man dressed in a grey suit. His lips move like he is saying something to her, but Rachael and Shane cannot hear his words.
Gabrian nods her head slowly in agreement to whatever this guy has just told her. She closes her eyes and begins to shimmer in grey light. Her arms raise from her sides as she concentrates on the auras of the circle of humans that surround her. She inhales and exhales slowly. The essences dance and sway with every breath she takes. The fragments of light twist and split apart from their host and hurry their way to Gabrian’s mouth, eager to meet with her demand.
The suited man begins to smile widely and grips his hands together in a monogamous handshake with himself, obviously pleased with her performance. He releases his hands and sways them around from side to side, speaking again in a tone far below hearing range.
They watch as the Earth around Gabrian starts to darken and shift. Its takes on a different form that is not solid at all then they realize it is not Earth they see—it is the Gargons emerging from the Darkness, surrounding her from beneath.
Shane slowly creeps back behind the rock again, dragging Rachael with him.
“I am not sure about what is going on here, but I do know that stuff out there surrounding Gabrian is the Darkness of Erebus—lethal to anyone and everyone under the right circumstances.”
“What do you need me to do?” Rachael asks him, looking up at the Shadow Walker through blurred damp eyes that volley back and forth between him and quick peeks of her best friend—understanding this is getting real, fast.
“From the looks of those Gargons, it might be a good idea to have a Black Mage nearby to contain them if things somehow get out of control.” His mouth pulls tight across his face, deflating his plump lips as he stares down at Rachael—his only line of defense right now—and reveals to her the magnitude of his fears that harbor within his eyes. “So what I need is for you to find one.”
“Okay,” she confirms, lowering her chin and closing her eyes to begin her search but whips her head back up, eyes flared as an unsettling thought hits her. “Wait…what are you going to do?”
“Get her back,” he reveals, not dropping his eyes from their focus and rubs his knuckles across the bottom of his jaw, feeling the soft resistance of the stubble against his fingers.
Rachael’s eyes narrow. She peers up at him and presses the vagueness of his answer. “And...how are you proposing to do that?
“Like I always do,” he says in a low soothing tone—lowering his eyes to meet her skeptical glare. “I’ll wing it!”
Rachael shakes her head and hides her eyes in her hand. “Ugh, that is what I was afraid of.”
“Stay out of sight!” he insists. Shane steps out from behind the rock and walks clearly into sight.
“Ah, as I expected,” Adrinn cheers, acknowledging Shane’s sudden presence, but he does not bother to look at him. He only smirks in his preconceived notion that sooner or later the Shadow Walker would arrive. “You are the Schaeduwe youngling that interfered the last time Gabrian and I were trying to have some quality time together at the bar, pity that was. Oh well, let me assure you that I will not allow you that liberty this time.”
“So you are the reason she began to turn. I knew it had to be something like that,” Shane accuses him.
His smile widens, and he turns his head to stare at Shane. “My dear boy, she has the dark gift for being a Vampire within her. All she needs is some nurturing, and I intend on making sure she gets it. Maybe not in the civilized way like I had hoped, but none the less, once I am through this last lesson, it will be done, and you can have whatever is left of her.”
Shane’s instincts flare into overdrive. He is certain Gabrian is in immediate danger, and that time is of the essence. “Gabrian! Gabrian!” he yells to her, but she does not respond. She only flinches a bit at the sound of his voice.
> “Go ahead, yell all you like,” Adrinn encourages, waving his hand around loosely atop his folded arm nestled snuggly against his vaporous form. “She cannot understand what you are saying anyway. She is dreaming,” Adrinn reveals to Shane in a pleasant upbeat tone, his lips painted in a sickeningly sweet smear.
“What do you mean she is dreaming?” Shane’s face contorts, twisting the corners of his face into painful ridges to show the depth of his stress. “You are telling me that she is asleep?”
“You can call it that if you like, but I prefer the word ‘inaccessible.’ She is in a trance—a delusion, if you would. And since I have such a soft heart I thought it would be kinder to allow her the belief that her demise was for a noble gesture.”
“What are you talking about?” Shane feels the pain come alive within his chest at the thought of her coming to any harm.
“Right now, as she dreams, she is harvesting energy from all around her, from any and all sources she can find. She believes this to be a necessary measure—that she is doing something honourable. She is creating as much energy as she is able in order to give it to me so that I have the strength to protect myself against the Elders of the Covenant of Shadows and the Shadow Walkers.”
Shane’s eyes wash over Gabrian’s idle body, keeping the mad man in his peripheral while he watches her drain the life essence from all around her. Remembering that Rachael is hiding nearby, he hopes that by some small miracle, Gabrian’s search for energy overlooks the iridescent light of her best friend.
“You see, her hatred for the Elder’s unspoken prejudices against her and that of her kind, fuels her desire to help me and to save me from their need to destroy all those who do not bend at the knee to their wishes and their rules.”
