AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I see …Sentinel.” Terys glanced at Harmiston and then back at her again. “And I see you brought Chronicler. Exactly what we need.”
Nadia shrugged. “If not for him, those two would not have been on the ground when you decided to show up.”
Terys lowered his brows in confusion. One of the other Wraiths stepped forward, removing her hood too. “Nadia?”
Nadia smiled with her lips pressed together. “Hi, Corrine. I’m glad to see you alive.”
“Likewise. You’re a … Ghost?” she said like that was more unbelievable than Nadia and Harmiston showing up in this place.
“We don’t have time for all this,” Nadia said. “We’re here to get you back. Queen’s orders.”
“Back?” Terys said. “We’ve been trying for weeks. The hybrids have the main tunnel holed up with guards and some magic contraption which prevents us from entering.”
Nadia nodded. It was as Harmiston had sensed, then. Kassemyr’d had Lerah shut the gate magically for anyone he didn’t let through. It was a stroke of luck that he hadn’t thought of the air wells. No one had down in the city either, except the clever Bolts.
The other Wraiths around Terys pulled back their hoods and Nadia recognized her former fellow Wraiths. It made her stomach twist. She was so relieved to see them alive, yet knew nothing could ever be the same between them again.
“We have the exit plan covered,” Nadia told Terys, focusing on the matter at hand instead. “We came in through an air well. It will be tight for those of you with the broadest shoulders, but it should work.”
“We’ve been searching those air wells and none are wide enough for that,” Terys said. “We’ve begun digging in one to get back down to the city, but the air up here is poor. It’s slow going. How did you even find one? Let alone us?”
“You can thank the Bolts for that.”
“The Bolts? They’re with us.”
“I am glad to hear that. Because this was only a small group of them. They were left behind coming back from a trip to the Elphyne Realm.”
“That’s true,” Corrine said. “I remember Price going with them that day.” She stopped herself when a thought occurred to her. “Which means … that Price is no longer with us, is he?”
Nadia shook her head. “Nor is this Wraith, I’m afraid.” She indicated the other dead body behind her, and the living Wraiths had to step sideways to see under the boulder’s outcrop.
“I can’t identify him,” Nadia added. “He’s been dead a while.”
“Must be Kearney,” another Wraith said. “He went missing not long after we woke up here.”
“Woke up?”
“None of us remember anything. We were all in the Cube and then nothing,” Terys explained, his eyes on the dead Wraith. “Then we woke up here. We have no idea what’s going on, but my guess is you two do. But first, let’s tend to Shield Kearney’s body. Then we’ll return to the others.”
Nadia sighed on the inside, feeling elation and relief at the news that there were others.
“Of course, Specter.” She stepped aside.
“It’s Blade now,” he said and pointed out two Wraiths before indicating the body. They stepped closer to the dead, taking out their phoenix dust, ready to cremate him.
Nadia nodded and said nothing. It seemed there were changes all around if Terys was now the leader of all the Wraiths.
* * *
“What is that?” Harmiston said, and stopped, his voice tinged with excitement despite the constant reminders of destruction around them. Dawn had broken, bringing light with it.
The Wraiths looked out across the valley below and saw the gush of silvery lights down there. It exploded from the ground and then floated in the air before vanishing. Other jets of the same color burst out nearby.
“Looks like a chain reaction,” Harmiston added.
“They occur all over the place. Many at once,” Corrine said, seeming bored. She’d likely seen it hundreds of times over the last weeks.
“And at the danger of repeating myself,” Harmiston said again when they walked around a tall outcrop of rock which hindered their view for a moment. “What is that?”
