Chapter 6
LAND OF THE CURSED ONES
The Queen of the Vampires was dead, and it was all my fault.
If only I’d been stronger or faster or had a better grip on my magic, she’d still be alive.
I’d failed her today, and now she was gone.
I would not fail her again. I would fulfill my promise.
I would stop the Order of Kings. I would make sure what had happened to Kylie and the others would never happen to anyone ever again.
But first I needed to get myself home. My blurry vision had cleared, but I still had a mild fever. Also, my nose started bleeding whenever I tried to use any magic whatsoever. So teleporting was out. That left only one option: walking.
The edge of the Fortress was hours away by foot.
Based on the position of the sun, I didn’t have that long before dark, so I set a fast pace.
Being stuck out in the Land of the Cursed Ones was bad enough.
Being stuck in the Land of the Cursed Ones after dark was something I did not want to think about.
An hour or so into my hike, my slow, tired brain remembered I was wearing the magical necklaces Kato and Conner had made for me. They’d told me I could use the necklaces to send out a kind of magical distress call, leading them to me.
I touched the necklaces, and they started glowing. I hoped that was a good sign. They’d been through Fenris’s Portal Disruptor too, and who knew what that had done to them. The Disruptor certainly hadn’t done my magic any good.
I continued walking, following the highway, or at least what was left of it. Cracks, cuts, and fissures were eating away at it. No one had been around to take care of it in a very long time. I spotted a few old, abandoned cars parked along the side of the road. And an old phone booth!
I stepped inside. “Please still be working. Please still be working,” I muttered.
I lifted the phone. There was a ringtone! I typed in the emergency code I’d memorized on my first day at the Castle. An automated system picked up, sending me in circles for a few minutes before it finally connected me.
“Miss Winters.”
“Senator Gaines?”
“Indeed.”
“How did you know it was me?” I asked him.
“You’re the only Apprentice or Knight currently unaccounted for.”
“Oh.”
“Miss Winters?”
“Yes?”
“Why are you unaccounted for? Where the blazes have you been for the last thirty-two hours?”
“A Templar abducted me.”
“A Templar?” he said in disbelief.
“He brought me before his employer, Prince Fenris, who is a member of the Order of Kings—”
“Prince Fenris is dead.”
“Not only is he not dead, he’s the one who kidnapped all the Apprentices. I freed them. They went through a portal. Are they at the Castle?”
“No.”
I frowned. “Weird. They should have made it back to the Castle by now. You need to send out a team of Knights to look for them.”
“Don’t tell me how to do my job, Miss Winters. Unlike General Lynch, I will not indulge you.”
The General had never indulged anyone a day in his life.
Senator Gaines was just saying that because he was yearning for a way to annoy both me and the General at the same time.
He must have forgotten that the General was currently stuck in a room somewhere, being interrogated by Government agents.
Or was he? I’d need to catch up on the news.
I’d been gone for over a day. A lot could happen in a day.
“Could I speak to Kato or one of the other Knights?” I asked.
“No, you most certainly may not. I am not finished with you, Miss Winters. Where have you been? You are an Apprentice in training to become a Knight. You have responsibilities. You cannot simply run off whenever the urge hits you.”
“I told you already. I didn’t ‘run off’. I was abducted by a Templar.”
“Yes, I heard your story.”
And he didn’t believe me. Great.
“Where are you now, Miss Winters?”
There was a threat baked into that question. I could feel it. Something along the lines of: ‘Tell me where you are, so I can send people to drag you back to the Castle, where we will finish this conversation’. Oh, goody.
“I’m in the Sydney ruins,” I said. “Near the Harbour Bridge.”
Silence fell over the phone line.
“Hello?” I asked.
“I got a fix on the line,” he said. “Stay where you are. Someone will come get you.”
Then he hung up, and I was almost, well, sad that he was gone.
As unpleasant as the Senator was, he was from the Castle.
I’d talked to someone from the Castle. Now the Knights knew where I was.
They’d come for me and bring me home. I wasn’t alone anymore.
Until that moment, I hadn’t realized just how important not being alone was to my mental state.
I left the phone booth, then plodded over to a small bus shelter. I needed a place to sit and something to shade me from the relentless sun. The air was getting hotter by the minute.
A slamming car door drew my attention back toward the road. Two Cursed Ones were rummaging through the vehicle. They took one look at me, then scurried off.
Not so long ago, the Cursed Ones had been the biggest threat I could possibly imagine. My, how things had changed.