Chapter 9
The Spirit Realm
The sky was indigo deepening to a dark purple and, finally, a velvety black at the edge of the horizon.
The stars glittered like diamonds and the moon was a silvery white.
Caden had never seen a sky so beautiful.
It was a sky that would launch dreams. It was a sky that made promises of possibilities.
It was a sky that made the heart ache even as the lips smiled.
It was not a natural sky.
Where am I? Caden wondered.
His mind was muzzy and strangely blank. Not only did he not know where he was, but he had no idea how he had gotten there. Or even what he had been doing just before this. His forehead furrowed.
I must be really far from any cities to see so many stars, he thought.
He felt so very strange. Disconnected from his body. When he looked down, he was surprised to see he was clothed. Black turtleneck tucked into black jeans and black boots. He couldn’t imagine coming to this place on anything, but Dragon wings so why was he dressed?
Surely, he would recall a long plane-ride.
And he wouldn’t have come by himself in any case.
Valerius would have been with him. But did the Black Dragon King even fly on planes?
He had never heard of Valerius doing so.
But, then again, everyone came to him, not the other way around.
So Valerius did not travel much unless he flew.
And when he flew he went to distant, lonely places much like this, Caden believed.
He was leaning against a single tree on a rise at the edge of a forest. The tree’s bark was silvery.
It almost looked metallic. He brushed his fingers over it and wasn’t surprised when his fingers shimmered too.
Caden frowned deeply as he rubbed his fingers together and the shiny substance moved over his skin.
These trees were not like anything he had ever seen before.
But he’d not been everywhere on Earth so maybe. ..
Iolaire, where are we? Caden asked.
But the White Dragon Spirit didn’t answer.
Iolaire?
Nothing. There was almost a pregnant feeling to the silence, as if it were not empty, but filled up with… something.
Iolaire, are you sleeping? Caden’s mind voice sounded thin and reedy. I--I really need you to wake up here.
Caden did not “see” Iolaire curled up in his chest, snout tucked under its tail with Raziel spooned around it. His shoulders twitched. Something was very wrong here. But the beauty of the place plucked at him, trying to soothe him, trying to distract him from these disturbing things.
Surely, Iolaire was with him. Iolaire would always be with him. Now if he could just figure out where he was. He would figure it out. All would be well. Now what had he been thinking about?
The dark leaves above him rustled as a warm breeze rushed through them. Caden’s eyelids half closed as the sweetly scented breeze passed by him as well.
I wish Valerius was here to see this with me, Caden thought. I’ll just call him. He’ll come here.
And Caden did call him, but, like with Iolaire, there was no response. The “sound” in his head was muffled as if his skull was filled with cotton. Caden swallowed suddenly acrid bile. He opened his eyes fully.
Valerius? Iolaire? Raziel? He said each name with as much clarity and force as he could.
But it was as if he were “speaking” through layers upon layers of cotton. He didn’t think his call was getting out to any of them. He was alone in his head. Cut off from Iolaire and Valerius and Raziel.
His heart began to hammer his chest. Cold sweat broke out on his upper lip and forehead. That sick, metallic taste of adrenaline filled his mouth.
Fear.
Fear.
FEAR.
He was alone. How could he be alone? No Iolaire twittered.
No Valerius interrogating him as to what was wrong.
No sound other than the whisper of the breeze all around him.
This was impossible! He and Iolaire were bonded.
Iolaire and Raziel were mates! He and Valerius were…
Well, when they made love a goddamned helix appeared in the sky!
The world started to spin as the blood rushed from his head.
He clutched at the tree and rested his forehead against the shimmering bark.
He shut his eyes tightly and counted to ten.
He had to get a hold of himself. If he truly was alone he had to figure this out and panicking never helped anyone or anything.
The world stopped spinning. His breathing evened out. His heart stopped beating so loud that he couldn’t hear anything else. He slowly opened his eyes and drew back to look around him. He needed clues as to where he was and what had happened to get him here.
The scene had not changed. It was still a peaceful forest with the impossibly beautiful sky above it.
This isn’t a sky on Earth. Nowhere does this exist, Caden thought, which had another rush of adrenaline coursing through him as his body rebelled at the thought of being in such an unfamiliar place. If I’m not on Earth, that’s a real problem. But I got here somehow.
He couldn’t have just appeared in this spot. Maybe he had walked her from… from a house? Could such a place have something so normal as a house? No, maybe a castle made of spun glass or a palace of palest marble.
His eyes scanned the forest, but there were no towers that poked through the green canopy. There were just unending miles of trees and nothing else. Slowly, he turned in a circle. The forest’s edge was visible curving around him until… until he was looking directly behind him.
His mouth dropped open and immediately went dry as the desert.
There was a--a crater. That was the best way he could describe it.
A crater where all life had been blasted away.
It went down hundreds of feet. The earth itself looked scarred.
There were no trees, no flowers, no vegetation at all from the edge of the crater to the center.
This lonely tree was the only one that he could see separated from the forest.
I know this place, Caden realized as a memory burst fully into his head. This is where the Dragons fought the Behemoth the first time! But that can’t be possible! I can’t be here! For that place is in the Spirit Realm!
More cold sweat coursed down Caden’s temples from his hairline. He spun in a circle again, still looking for signs of civilization. Looking for…
Reach. The Mid. The tunnels. Being carried away.
The Behemoth! Iolaire and I were captured and…
what happened after that? Think! THINK! He commanded himself and his mind answered his command as best it could.
I passed out. The Behemoth was threatening right before that to… to enslave Iolaire again...
“Caden?!” Landry’s voice was uncertain.
His head snapped towards where her voice was coming from.
She was just down the rise at the treeline to the forest, peering out from behind one of the silvery trunks.
Her face was mostly in shadow. Her face looked like a white blob with raisins where the eyes, nose and mouth should be.
There was no nightshine in her eyes. It would have shown up in this half-light.
Anger boiled up in Caden. His affection for Landry had led him to take chances he shouldn’t have back at her house.
It had distracted him from thinking that maybe instead of him chasing her, she had been leading him to the other possessed humans.
He had been cocky to think he couldn’t be hurt by another Shifter. His hands balled into fists.
“Caden, is that--that you? Oh, God, it is!” Landry’s voice broke. “Guys, it’s Caden!”
She stepped out fully from behind the tree, but other hands reached to try and draw her back. They clamped on her shoulders and she was practically lifted off her feet.
“No! No! It’s got to be a trap!” Ross cried.
“It can’t be him, Landry!” Harvey added.
“He’s the damned White Dragon Shifter, what would he be doing here?” Jasper Hawes’ voice came from deeper into the woods. Unlike the Humans First leader’s normal warm, confident tones, he sounded deeply depressed as if he had finally lost all hope.
“No, it is! I know it is! Besides, what do we have to lose even if it isn’t?” Landry cried.
She shrugged off her brothers’ restraining hands and raced up the rise towards Caden.
She had on clothes one would expect for being in the mountains.
Jeans, fur-lined boots, a white parka, and mittens.
She stopped a few feet from him, a little breathless.
Her cheeks were red from the effort as well.
She pushed her too-long bangs out of her eyes.
“Caden?” she repeated his name again with both more and less certainty than before.
“I’m not falling for this, Behemoth,” Caden growled, eyes narrowing.
Landry blinked at him. “W-what? What are you--”
“You did this once before and I fell for it!” Caden advanced upon her. “What have you done to Iolaire? Where are we? What--”
“Caden, I didn’t do anything! We’re trapped here and--wait! Let me explain!” Landry cowered before him, raising her arms to block blows she thought were coming.
Caden froze. Something was different about this Landry. Something… there was none of that terrible smell. And her voice held real emotion, not falsified ones.
Why would the Behemoth take on Landry’s form in the Spirit Realm? Why not be itself? Caden wondered. But then he firmed his resolve again. I need to just act! Stop overthinking this! Don’t let it get the upper hand again!
He grabbed her shoulders. “Tell me what you’ve done or I swear I’ll turn you into an ice statue through and through!”
He wasn’t sure if he could do that. He felt very disengaged from the powers that normally filled him. The power was like a vortex inside of him usually, but he did not feel it. Or more like, he felt separated from it.
“Caden, please!” Landry begged, not fighting him at all, but trying to protect herself.