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My gaze snapped to the floor as tears burned my eyes. It was real. All of it was real.
“We need to go after Drake.” The voice belonged to a girl with ram horns protruding from her hairline, sitting on the ground, clothing herself.
I frowned as I kept staring at her horns.
“Drake can take care of himself. We need to get to the compound,” Dreadlocks said.
The girl pulled on a black sweater. She already wore black pants like the others. “He is all alone.”
“Drake can take care of himself,” he said in a louder tone. “We already veered too far from the plan.”
She braided the one side of her dark blonde hair with fast tucking while glaring at me with amber eyes. They were almost as gold as Dr. Bryanston’s.
“What is your name?” Dreadlocks asked.
“It’s Sophie. Sophie Emerson.” My hands trembled from the adrenaline and confusion. A headache pulsed softly behind my eyes.
“Sophie, this is Brooke, and you already met Maverick.” My eyes shifted back to Maverick, who kept his gaze on me. A second girl with white pixie hair and crystal blue mono-lidded eyes stood next to him as the girl with the horns grunted and mumbled incoherently, braiding the other side of her hair now.
Brooke waved as her lips quirked upward.
The girl with the horns walked past and shouldered me out of the way.
“Ow,” I said and rubbed my shoulder.
She swerved around and pointed her finger at me. “If anything happens to Drake, it’s all your fault.”
“Lindy!” Dreadlocks barked.
I stared at the girl, whose back was ramrod straight as she stomped away.
My gaze snapped to the net that trapped the beast far below in the army camp. There was nothing below it now. I looked at the girl again. That was Lindy? She was the beast.
That was what Dreadlocks had meant by changing back.
She was a shapeshifter. Shapeshifters didn’t exist. Humans with horns, cat-ears and tails jumped into my mind. They were all shapeshifters.
Maverick touched the bottom of my jaw and closed it. His lips curved, and air escaped his lips as his feet took him in Lindy’s direction.
Brooke followed Maverick as Dreadlocks stepped closer to me. “My name is Alex. Are you okay?”
I nodded, even though my mind raced through so many things. “Is Drake going to be okay?”
A gleam of sun spread over Alex’s face, lighting up bright blue eyes with the same hypnotic qualities as Drake’s eyes. “Don’t worry; Drake can take care of himself. Let’s go.”
4
SOPHIE
We walked until the sun faded beneath the horizon. I slammed into Alex’s back as they all rooted their feet in front of an old oak tree. Great! A break.
Nobody moved as we waited, all looking at Alex. Except for Lindy, who was glaring at me, arms folded. So vexed that a vein throbbed on the side of her head.
Under her scrutiny, my gaze flickered to the ground while questions about what I’d seen flooded my mind, but I was too scared and too dumbfounded to ask them.
I held my head and tried to massage the headache away with my thumbs. It was hard to accept that the girl in front of me had been the horrific beast. An entire army couldn’t capture her. What was she? How did I get myself into this mess, getting almost killed by mad scientists and chased by secret organization villains? My blood ran cold. Would I turn into a monster, too? Drake? Even though he could turn invisible, he seemed the most normal out of the bunch. I needed to talk to Drake. My stomach turned, thinking of seeing his handsome face in front of me, but I had to put my fears aside and start getting some answers before going insane.
The bright light shimmering from the tree pulled me out of my thoughts. A golden key protruded from the tree’s bark. Sparkles bounced from the top of the tree to the bottom. Swirls and curls slithered deep into the tree’s trunk, and the sparkles painted small intricate carvings. Where the trunk flared into roots, vertical lines appeared and suddenly a door magically appeared in the bark. The sound of wood coming alive caressed my ears and right in the middle of the door in the tree, a doorknob grew from the bark.
Pins and needles rushed through my body as my flesh became alive with goosebumps, the same tingles I felt every time Drake touched me. Magic felt so foreign, yet hypnotic. It was hard to describe everything that I was feeling at that moment. I was overcome with feelings of wonderment, nausea, joy, sadness. My eyebrows knitted together as I tried to make sense of it all.
The transformation ended in a click, and Alex moved forward, opening the door. He gestured for Lindy to go through first.
She grunted and stormed inside. Brooke was next, and then Alex touched my back and gave me a gentle nudge toward the entrance.
As soon as I stepped through the door, the stench of urine mixed with a sour odor of rotten apples and decaying meat hit my nostrils hard. I covered my mouth and nose with my sleeve to prevent myself from gagging. The dim light above showcased a dark alley closed in between two brick walls.
The soles of my shoes made contact with a sticky substance on the concrete. A light flickered in the distance. It was not what I had expected to find behind a magic door.
Someone pushed me from behind, and I took a sticky step out of Maverick’s way. The smug purse of his lips made me uncomfortable as his gaze took inventory of my body. Alex stepped through last. He pulled out the key, and the door vanished, turning into part of the wall. He held onto a golden chain with a key. My gaze landed on the enormous emerald on the bow before it slipped back underneath his Kevlar vest. “Walk fast. We are not out of danger yet.”
“How is Drake going to meet us? We are miles away from Iowa, and he doesn’t have a key, Alex,” Lindy said.
“Will you calm down? It’s Drake you are talking about. He always finds a way.”
Her lips thinned as she anchored her gaze to his. With a slight shake of her head, she folded her arms across her chest.
I agreed with Lindy and wondered the same thing. How was Drake going to meet us?
Lindy’s poison-tipped gaze met mine again before powering off toward the exit of the alley.
My eyes panned the landscape, trying to figure out which city I was in. The horrible guilt crawled into the pit of my stomach again. This was my fault. I followed Brooke and Maverick and made sure there was a distance between Lindy and me, keeping in mind the beast I saw under that net.
In total silence, we walked a few city blocks. Nothing seemed familiar to me at all. We walked until we came across a thirteenth-century gothic church towered over us. We followed Lindy around the main entrance, past a huge, stained window, where she opened a small gate situated in the corner of the building.
Her feet skittered over the stone passage that led toward a meager wooden door framed with dark iron. She knocked a few times, as her gaze did a visual sweep of the area. A latch shifted, and the door opened.
A priest stood on the other side of the door. Ram horns, in contrast with the clerical robes, were the umbrella in the weird cocktail. I entered the church, trying hard not to stare at the priest’s horns.
He closed the door, as his eyes and lips pulled downward. “Did somethin’ happen to Drake?” the priest asked with a slight Irish accent.
“We had a bit of a situation. Nothing to fret about.” Alex smiled, patting the priest’s shoulder. “Drake will be here soon, Father.”
“Musha, I take it you’ll wait for the pup?”
“If you don’t mind. We can’t leave for Earwyn without him.”
“Come in, you must be wrecked,” the priest said. He touched my shoulder as I passed him. “An’ who is this?”
He was friendly, but the horns on his head were a bit off putting. Drake’s warning popped into my mind again. The priest squinted as he looked at me, and I looked away.
“Her name is Sophie. Drake found her just in time,” Alex said.
The priest’s eyes glistened. “I’m Father Matthew. I’m happy to see that you are in one piece, Sophie. We’re all part of His creation.” The priest pointed to the ceiling.
I smiled and nodded.
“Sophie!” Brooke said a little loud, startling me. I followed Brooke past the benches in the church, crossed the aisle and went through another door on the opposite side.
We entered a dim hallway decorated with only a table holding a bunch of lit candles. The wax dripping into the metal tray underneath. She walked up to the table, took a match and lit one candle, then she bowed her head and closed her eyes. Brooke motioned for me to follow her. First, I thought she disappeared into the wall, but when I came closer, I saw an opening beside the table and a wooden staircase leading upward. We climbed the wooden staircase and ended up in a long hallway.
“He is far from here, Mav.” Lindy’s voice sounded from the room on the right.
“I’m with Alex, Lass. It’s Drake.”
“If anything happens—”
“Nothin’ will happen to the lad. Stop blamin’ Sophie. Tis not her fault. She only did what anyone else in ‘er situation and with ‘er skills would’ve done.”
“She was reckless, and if it’s going to cost him his life, I’ll wring her neck.”
Maverick grunted.
Brooke led me to another room and closed the door.
It was small, a wooden table separated into two beds draped with white quilts. A faint glow came from a lantern on top of the table. A lonesome wooden cross hung on the wall.
“Don’t worry too much about what comes out of Lindy’s mouth. Everyone knows she is still not over Drake. He’ll be fine.”
That explains the ‘can’t-eat-can’t-sleep-need-to-save-him-now’ affection. My mind reeled with loads of questions.
“You must be tired. You had a long day.”
I blinked back tears as our gaze met. The adrenaline slowed its trek, and I felt drained, but needed answers.
Brooke touched my shoulder. “Hey, you okay?”
I shook my head, plopped down on the bed, and covered my eyes with my palms. I was overwhelmed. What in the hell was going on? And how did things get so bad so quickly?
Brooke sat down next to me and rubbed my arm. “I know it’s a lot to take in. Especially when not knowing that you are different.”
I sighed and lifted my palms from my face. “I am worried about my parents.” My voice broke.
Brooke just rubbed my arm.
“A beast of a girl blames me for the disappearance of her ex. She could devour me.” Selfishly, I thought to myself, he held so many answers.
“You must have questions?” she asked.
“Too many.” My sentences weren’t even full ones.
“My mother had this saying: best to start is at the beginning.”
“Your mother?”
“I know how you feel, Sophie. Two years ago, it was me they rescued.”
“Wait, you didn’t know either?”
A quick no jerked her head. “It was scary as hell when my ability showed up, especially more so when I discovered what I was.”
“What?”
Brooke grabbed a water bottle off the nightstand, unscrewed the cap, and tipped the bottle over to let the water run free. My knees jerked up, but the water didn’t splash on the carpet or me. It hovered in the air and followed the movements of Brooke’s hands.
The thread of water twirled and bent in an elegant pattern. It formed tiny dolphin figures and dove back into the bottle. A chuckle escaped Brooke’s lips as she screwed the cap back on the bottle. “A bit of humor.”
“The water?” I pointed at the bottle.
“Yeah, it’s awesome now, but it scared the living crap out of me two years ago.”
That was why she looked human. She wasn’t a shapeshifter. She had an ability.
“Just like it scared The Guild two years ago.”
“The Guild?” I asked.
“My neighbor saw me. Her name was Tammy, and we were the same age. She was my sworn enemy. I still don’t know what her problem was. It scared her shitless, when she saw it happen, and she told her mom. I didn’t know how to control it then.
“One day, she made me so angry. The water fountain in our school burst and all the water trapped her inside a giant bubble. She almost drowned. Plenty of phones recorded it, and the next day an agent stating he was from a special division in defense came to our house.
“They lied to my mom, told her of a special program, and I went with them. When I got there, it was everything but special. They did tests on me that hurt. I still get nightmares. Believe me when I say you are lucky that Drake tracked you down when he did, Sophie. They don’t want to study us anymore. They want to cut us up in pieces and find out through science why we are so different.”
“I only get headaches,” I said.
“Headaches that doctors can’t find the cause for. Believe me, your headaches could mean anything.”
Drake had told me the same thing.
“So your mother didn’t know you could manipulate water?” I asked.
“Nope. My parents adopted me when I was two. They had no information on my birth mother.”
“Same here.”
“Your parents also adopted you at two?” Brooke’s eyebrows furrowed.
“No, they found me in front of a church when I was a few days old.”
She bumped her shoulder into mine. “The pair we make, huh?”
“So, what am I?”
“If your ability hasn’t surfaced yet, then I’m afraid you need to wait until we get to Earwyn.”
“It’s a place, right?”
She nodded. “It is a city. It has an Academy too. Rescue teams—like the one Alex leads—stay on campus. They rescue people like us. Drake and Lindy are part of Alex’s team. I am still a student. It’s my last year. I help with rescue missions during summer break. Next year I will become a graduate. I will either become part of the team or study further to get better at using my ability.”
“A graduate?”
“Someone that is finished with high school. The start of many possibilities that happen under one big magical shield. Earwyn is like a rescue and learning compound, helping the citizens of Concordia. They keep us safe until it’s time to go home.”
“Home?”
“Concordia. It’s a realm somewhere out there. We reach it through the key barriers.”
“Those magical doors?”
“Yup, but you need a key bearer to go through one. Alex’s key can jump from place to place all over the world. His key doesn’t open a barrier to go to Concordia. Only a few bearers have those types of keys.”
“They won’t let me talk to my parents. Drake said it’s better if they think I’m dead.”
“Put that life behind you, Sophie. The Guild is relentless, and your parents won’t be safe until you’re out of their life.”
Out of my life? “Don’t you miss your mom?”
“Every day. Telling her I’m alive will only put her life in danger. My sister’s too. So it’s best that they think I’m dead.”
It was the same as Drake had said. What type of life would I have without my parents?
5
DRAKE
I hid inside the hollow of a tree and padded up the entrance by pulling vines and branches across the mouth. I couldn’t use my shield of invisibility against The Guild; I’ve witnessed firsthand what their equipment could do. If I had to use my glamor it would show up on their equipment and give away my exact location. So I had to hide like any mundane would. Like a coward.
Rolling my eyes at their ground patrol, I felt I could jump out and slap one of them because every single step they made crunched down on the forest floor.
I drew in a deep breath, and stilled my heart on remembering what their equipment could do. Once I tried to attack them with my fire, but they had some kind of artifact that used my own ability against me, and I awoke in the infirmary with third-degree burns. It took Hank weeks to heal it.
Using my advanced hearing, it almost sounded like they were upon me. I knew they weren’t, but they were close; so I steadily filled my lungs and held my breath as they scurried outside.
“You see anything?”
“Nothing, it’s quiet.”
“The General will not be happy about this.”
“Then best we do not tell the general we’d lost him.”
“Hold out your palms.”
“Why?”
“You will see.”
“What you going to do with that knife?”
“We have to make it look like we at least put up a fight.”
I heard the slice of a blade, followed by the one guy cussing.
“Holy shit, you didn’t have to cut me that deep.”
“Stop whining, now take the blade and let’s go for a nice big scar right over the left side of my face.”
Idiots.
I listened to the guys’ grunts and moans and wondered if their General would fall for it?
Slowly their footfalls faded into the distance, their voices becoming soft murmurs the farther away they got. But I kept myself hidden because I knew their equipment would still be able to locate me from this distance.
Bending my knees, I slid down the back of the bark until my ass hit the ground. I was growing tired; my gaze fell on my watch that read it was just over midnight and I gave a silent yawn. I stayed seated for a while as Sophie entered my mind. I had summed her up all wrong. In my visions she was always smiling and friendly, but my brief encounter with her was the total opposite. I guess who could blame her under the circumstances.
I couldn’t deny the pull I had toward her. A part of me knew what she was, but they were rare.
The severity of her headaches was another dead giveaway, as that was where her ability lay. In her head.
The fact that she could see things: another giveaway. Not something good and if Avery found out that she could see, he would kill her on the spot, whether or not she was a Spirit Fae. Just like me.
Lucky for me, I had my projection as well. It came in the form of invisibility. Or that was all I could get my projection to do. Show people I wasn’t there.
