Chapter 3 #3
The vampires screeched, dropping to all fours and galloping at us, full speed, not slowing down in the least.
Could they swim?
We all watched in frozen silence as they reached the shore .
. . and slid to a stop, spraying sand and pebbles into the water before breaking into a chorus of furious growls, snarls, and yes, a moo.
Deer-and cow-head had returned, this time accompanied by three more that looked canine, and one that had a distinctly feline body.
All moved with that same lurching gait of the first baobahn sith that we’d encountered.
But it was the eyes deeper in the forest that really freaked me out. And I had no idea what they even were.
“Shit!” Ross grinned back at me, eyes wild with a mix of fear and giddy relief. “You did it! How did you figure it out?”
“With Fable’s help,” I smiled.
She wasn’t smiling, but she gave a tight nod, her face pale. “Right. Teamwork.”
It felt like all the time I’d spent trying to figure out the bits and pieces of Neverthorn – the secrets, puzzles, the Solstice Games, everything – had left my head trained to pick up on any hint of a problem and turn it until I found the solution.
“Such a relief,” Fable shook as she lowered herself to one of the benches. “That was too close for me.”
For the next few minutes, we all caught our breath and calmed our nerves as the water propelled us along, lapping softly at the side of the boat.
I wasn’t about to remind them that we weren’t out of the woods yet.
We’d gotten our ride, and the cacophony of screeching vampires was growing fainter by the second.
For the moment we were safe, and I let myself sink into my own bench.
I put a hand on my backpack at my feet, feeling the edge of a large book tucked away inside that was not mine. No, it was Nocta’s journal. My father’s journal that Phyllis had given me before we left Neverthorn.
My chest tightened and I shook it off. I hadn’t been able to even open the book as it was rune-locked.
But for now, I had more pressing matters to deal with.
I knew I’d have to find a way to open it at some point, and I reminded myself it wasn’t at the top of my to-do list. Even so, it sat in the back of my mind buzzing like a trapped fly. A distraction from everything else.
I closed my eyes for just a moment, and instead of resting, the scene from breaking my bond with Typhon flooded back over me. The bridge. Flames of multiple colors. I understood the symbolism behind the bridge, the literal connection between Typhon and me being burned to ash.
But the flames . . . why so many colors? And the black flame being so destructive . . . I shivered and hunched deeper into my coat.
I could see Typhon’s face still, telling me that I would never be free of him.
That I belonged to him.
“There!”
My eyes popped open as Caterina pointed to lights in the distance as they flickered into view.
A landmass appeared in the middle of the loch, one that I knew from the maps we’d seen didn’t exist. And yet there it was – just like Neverthorn. But the similarities between the two schools stopped there.
If I’d thought Neverthorn’s campus was large, Heathermoor’s was enormous if the island was any indication. The strip of land stretched as far as the eye could see.
Powerful charms would keep it invisible from the shore, even to Dwimmer eyes, and Dims would be able to sail right through it like it didn’t even exist.
It was common knowledge that the Senate used powerful runes to conceal places like Heathermoor and Neverthorn.
In this case it let the school straddle two realms at once so adventurous boaters didn’t find their way onto the shores of a magic island they couldn’t see and didn’t even know existed. Pretty cool stuff, even for the Senate.
The beach we approached was small, barely big enough for a single boat, and the shore, such as it was, quickly turned into rocks that climbed upward ten or so feet to the base of a wall that spread in each direction.
Torches lined the top of the massive timber wall that easily stood another fifteen feet high.
I didn’t see a gate, but I had no doubt there was one, somewhere.
The base of the wall was covered in a thick mass of some sort of plant that had grown part way up the walls.
One section of it stretched almost all the way to one of the torches, and it was only then that I picked up the bright purple in the flicker of light.
Heather.
The tallest of the plants wrapped up over the shadowed indent of the wall and the arch above it. A gate. The gate.
I grinned, a moment of giddiness escaping my stupid mouth. “There! Once we’re through, we can find Liam’s house and wait for him. We’ve got this in the bag.”
“No, we can’t,” Fable said with a grim shake of her head. “His letter specifically said we couldn’t go through without him.”
I deflated instantly at the reminder. In my less than stellar state, it made sense that I’d look for the easy way in, rather than for the hidden door that could easily take us all damn night to find. “Son of, of –”
I broke off as the water around the boat began to boil, fish leaping, some even landing in the boat, as if they were fleeing . . . something . . . predatory.
And us? We just sat there, unable to do anything about it.
We most assuredly did not have it in the bag.
Nope, we didn’t even have it in the boat.
What we had was a monster bigger than anything we’d ever seen, one that could swallow us whole with a single bite.