Beyond Everlight: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Fearless Destiny Book 1) Page 19

  “So what happened?”

  “Life happened. Ibris, their king, fell and they were thrust into a world of discord and disorder with minimal resources to clean up a mess that Erebus had shouldered the blame for. Djinn are strange beings, similar to humans in the sense that they too have free will—the good the bad and the worst. Just like humans, they make mistakes. They hurt each other, steal, cheat and kill. Many of them, even though they may deny it, are fascinated with humanity—the driving force that makes humans different. They yearn to understand what makes humans the creator’s favourite.”

  Seen in this light, djinn weren’t that different from us, aside from the funky colours and strange abilities they possessed.

  “I asked Erebus why he hadn’t killed Samson, but he didn’t really give me a straight answer.”

  Sabriel’s brow furrowed. “Samson, Aiden, Vale, and Baron are no ordinary djinn. They are bound to Erebus in a unique way that even I don’t understand. Erebus was a lonely child. Growing up favourite to the king in a household of efreet, he was reminded every day how he didn’t belong. Tiny acts of unkindness, harsh words, and even the odd shunning. It took its toll on him, but he never complained. He was simply grateful to be loved by his adoptive father. Maybe there was a part of him that was afraid that if he spoke up then Ibris would send him away—to protect him of course—and Erebus could not bear that.”

  “So what did he do?” I sat forward, eager to know more of what made Erebus the djinn he was today.

  “Erebus is the last of his kind. The dark djinn died out over a half a millennia ago. Nomadic spiritual beings connected to the earth, they would travel the fifth dimension, healing, guiding, and bringing peace. But they were also formidable warriors if challenged. One day they were simply gone. Ibris, alerted to a cosmic storm in the outlands, had ridden to investigate only to find an empty dark djinn settlement. Empty except for the wail of a single babe.”

  “Erebus.”

  “Yes.” Sabriel nodded. “So you see, he was alone until the day he decided he no longer wished to be. One day he arrived at dinner with Samson, Aiden, Vale, and Baron—his brothers.”

  “But where did they come from?”

  Sabriel shrugged. “No one knows for sure. But if he is unable to kill them, then I suspect they are more a part of him then anyone would have guessed.”

  “And Baal? Who is that?”

  “Someone you need to be wary of.” He stood and walked to the door. “I’ll check in on you later.”

  I fell back on the bed and closed my eyes to an image of Erebus as a lonely child in desperate need of acceptance. A tiny voice whispered a warning not to get too involved, but I ignored it. Thank goodness he’d found his brothers—his clan. And what a formidable creature he’d become.

  ***

  The wind riffled through my hair as I ran. My feet barely touched the ground. The sky was a clear vibrant lavender, and euphoria was a bubble rising up my throat to explode from my lips in a whoop of joy. I was me again. Free again. But the sky was growing dark and the wind was growing chill. Someone was chasing me.

  I never leave a meal unfinished. Never . . .

  My knees gave way and I hit the ground, trapped beneath his shadow, his touch an invasive prickle as it infected and consumed. He wanted more than my leg. He wanted the rest of me.

  I awoke on a whimper. Sweat soaked and wreathed in the shadow of the nightmare. Fuck this. I hated this. Why wouldn’t he leave me alone?

  There would be no sleep tonight

  There was always one thing that was guaranteed to bring on the snores and I knew just the place to get it.

  ***

  The murmur of voices drawing nearer had me sliding behind one of the freestanding bookcases on instinct. Baal entered the room, followed by Erebus.

  “I know you don’t approve, but what choice do you have?” Baal asked.

  “There is still time,” Erebus replied.

  “No, Erebus there isn’t.” Baal sighed. “I know you take your duty very seriously, but it’s a self-imposed one. You don’t owe humanity anything.”

  His tone was a little too bitter for my liking.

  “Increasing the tithe is a last resort, ” Erebus replied.

  “They’re nothing but cattle, except you see them as fragile butterflies, beautiful in their fleeting existence. Let it end now. Come back to court where you belong. There are many that would be thrilled to have you back.”

  “I can’t, the flame—”

  “Will die, I know. So let it. Let him go, and we can start anew. We can rebuild our kingdom together. Our forces combined would be more than adequate to claim the Ibris Throne. Of course, I know you’ve no desire to rule, and I’d be happy to take that burden. But you’d be back where you belong. Protecting your people and maintaining the harmony that we will surely bring.”

  It was a passionate speech and he almost had me agreeing with him, but Erebus was another matter.

  “You may be able to retract a vow and turn your back on those weaker than you, but not I. Humanity suffers due to our deficiencies and my inadequacy. I will not turn my back on them.”

  Baal exhaled sharply. “Dammit, Erebus, if you continue on this path you will die! End this now. Unbind yourself and be free.”

  “Your concern is heart-warming my friend, but my mind is made up.”

  “In that case, we should toast to your insufferable stubbornness,” Baal said.

  “Indeed, I believe I have just the thing . . .”

  Their voices grew distant as they left the room, and I sagged against the shelves. I didn’t get everything they’d said, but the gist was clear enough to make me admire Erebus even more.

  ***

  “So then Baal was like—let the humans die, and Erebus was like—no way, I made a vow.”

  “Then what happened?” Fargol asked from his position on the balcony rails.

  “Well, Baal tried to convince him and told him if he didn’t stop then he would die . . . shit!” I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t picked up on that immediately. I racked my brain for the rest of the conversation—something about unbinding himself to be free. What did that mean?

  “Kenna, what troubles you? Tell Fargol.”

  “Just something Baal said. He said that the flame would die and then he told Erebus he should unbind himself and be free?”

  Fargol’s brows came down low over his deep set eyes. “The flame is the last piece of Ibris’s essence. Fargol knows this. All djinn know this. Many wish it gone. But Erebus protect it. He bind to it and keep it alive.”

  Yes. He’d mentioned that he gained his strength from the flame and that the flame fed off human souls, but from what Baal said it sounded more like Erebus was keeping the flame alive and if that was the case, if he was somehow bound to the flame, then he was nothing more than a soul battery just like all the humans, except more powerful of course. Problem was, batteries eventually die.

  Shame coloured my cheeks and made my eyes sting. Here was a djinn with no real connection to humanity, save for a sense of misplaced responsibility, ready to give his life to protect us, while I, an actual human, was dithering over telling him about the flame’s reaction to me.

  If this was my purpose, then running from it wouldn’t get me very far.

  “Kenna, you have strange look on your face. Fargol find it unsettling.”

  I reached out and patted his forearm. “I have something really important I have to do Fargol, but I’ll be back later. I promise.”

  But Fargol wasn’t listening any longer; his attention was fixed on Evernight below.

  “Fargol, what is it?”

  “Trouble is brewing. A sentinel approaches.”

  I pulled myself up and moved to the railing, straining my eyes to see into the dark. A dot moved rapidly toward the fortress. No point fetching my spyglass. It had already moved out of view.

  “What’s a sentinel?”

  “Erebus’s eyes in the night.” Fargol unfurled and flappe
d his immense wings. “Fargol must patrol.” He launched himself into the night.

  I turned and retreated back into the fortress.

  It was time to speak to Erebus. It was time to find out the truth.

  CHAPTER35

  T he dining room was empty. The library was empty too. Despite my explorations, I’d yet to stumble upon Erebus’s personal quarters. Not that I wanted to hang out there or anything, it would just have come in handy right now. If I didn’t find him soon I might chicken out of telling him the truth.

  “Okay fortress, I know you can hear me or feel me or whatever magical fortresses do, and I desperately need to find Erebus. Please can you help me?”

  Yeah, I felt a little stupid talking to a building, but it was an enchanted building. Surely that was acceptable? Okay, time to see if my message had been received. I climbed up a flight of steps that should have taken me to the dining hall, but instead spat me out in a small entrance hall I’d never seen before. The floor was grey stone slabs, and instead of pretty tapestries, the walls were decorated in weapons. Maces and swords and spears, even a spiked silver ball on a chain!

  An elaborate arch led to a dimly lit chamber that looked like something out of a Dungeons and Dragons game. There were tables laden with weapons, a couple of chests, and a huge roaring fire. Erebus, Aiden, Vale, and Baron stood by one of the tables, suited up all in black; long sleeved fitted polo shirts and slacks with some kind of leather armour strapped on over their chests, arms, and thighs. They stopped talking when I entered and turned to look at me.

  I raised a hand in a tentative greeting. “Hey, what you doin’?”

  Baron snorted and turned away to fiddle with something on the table behind him, out of view.

  “How did you find this place?” Erebus asked.

  “I um . . . asked the fortress to help me find you?”

  His brows shot up. “You did, did you?”

  “Yeah, I needed to speak with you.” I glanced at the other djinn. “In private.” No point getting everyone’s hopes up if I was wrong about the flame.

  “We need to go,” Aidan said. He didn’t even bother to look at me.

  Wow that hurt.

  Vale offered me a weak smile though, which made me feel a little better. The other djinn had grown to become tolerant of me, and on the odd occasion even friendly. What had changed?

  Samson!

  They probably blamed me for his exile.

  Sod that, I refused to feel bad on that account. Samson was a shit, no two ways about it. He’d deserved what he’d got.

  “I have to go now. I’ll find you later,” Erebus said.

  No! Not later. I needed to do this now. “This is important!”

  Erebus’s eyes flashed. “And so are the lives of the djinn residing in Evernight.” He tightened his weapons belt. “We just received word that a nearby settlement is under attack by the Shadow People.”

  Shadow People . . . The words were an echo in my mind as my veins filled with ice and a sharp pain lanced through my chest. The urge to run and hide assaulted me, but I grit my teeth and stood my ground. This was the fear. The nightmare. I couldn’t let it consume me. The Hat Man had taken more than my leg. He’d stolen my confidence and my conviction. It was time to fight back.

  “Let me come with you,” I said.

  Vale coughed into his fist.

  “No,” Erebus said.

  But I wasn’t backing down. I needed this. I needed it to quell the desperate ache in my soul. “I hacked my leg off with a cleaver!”

  Erebus stilled, and I suddenly had Baron’s undivided attention.

  A lump formed in my throat—my body’s reflex to having to tell this story. I swallowed hard and continued. “I was called out on a case, the Hat Man. He and his Shadow People killed two members of my team, and then, he got me . . . my leg. So I cut it off.” Vale’s face had twisted into something akin to pity, and it elicited a spark inside me that I desperately needed right now.

  Anger.

  I fixed my eyes on Vale. “Don’t you dare look at me like that! I’m not telling you this to gain your sympathy. I’m telling you this because I need you to understand why this is important to me. I need to go out there. I need to face him again, because if I don’t . . .” my voice cracked. “ . . . if I don’t . . . I’ll never wake up from the nightmare.” And there it was—the fact I’d been fighting for almost a year—the reason I’d pulled away from my family. The reason I’d pushed Blane away without giving him a chance. I hadn’t just cut away my limb, I’d cut away a part of me. That part of me that felt powerful, agile, and useful. That part of me that made me who I was. I’d avoided the difficult cases, telling myself my leg couldn’t handle it, when in reality I’d been afraid.

  I was done being afraid.

  It was time for the nightmare to end. It was time for me to face my fear, and to do it on my own terms.

  I didn’t say any of this, but something in my face must have communicated it to Erebus because he nodded curtly, reached for something on the table behind him and then chucked it toward me.

  I caught it in mid-air and turned it over in my hands. “Is this . . .?”

  Frieda.

  “Yes, it belongs to you. I had it retrieved once you started training.”

  Vale coughed again, but Erebus ignored him and so did I. I was too busy staring into Erebus’s moonlight eyes, trying to understand what would make him do such a thoughtful thing and trying to stop myself from reading too much into it.

  “If you two are done gazing into each other’s eyes, can we please go now?” Baron drawled.

  Aiden chuckled. “I for one am ready to rip some shadows.” He held up a mace which glowed with everlight.

  I flicked my wrist and activated Frieda. She burned bright. He’d topped her up. I exhaled around the ache in my chest and locked eyes with Erebus. “I’m ready.”

  ***

  The beast was huge—a cross between a horse and a lion. Jet black with a tail tipped with spikes and an armoured head plate.

  Yeah . . . didn’t fancy riding that. “Um . . . I’m much better on a motorbike.”

  Erebus circled my waist with his massive hands, lifted me easily into the saddle, and then swung up to take his place behind me. The heat of his chest seeped through the thick material of my loose-fitting jacket. The man was a walking furnace, but the warmth counteracted the bitter wind that scraped my cheeks.

  “Hold on.” Erebus shifted and we were off, moving so fast it was like flying over the dry lands.

  Twisted trees painted silver by the moonlight rushed by, and I held on to the beast’s mane, clamping my knees into his sides. There wasn’t much risk of falling off though. Erebus’s biceps were a sturdy cage holding me in place against him. His scent—zesty and fresh—filled my nostrils and made my head spin. His hands, perfect for squeezing the life out of something, perfect for squashing and crushing, but as soft as a feather when they had caressed my cheek, gripped the reins. I clenched my fists to stop myself from reaching out and running my finger across those powerful knuckles. Instead I focused on our landscape, blinking back the moisture in my eyes that the wind evoked. There was flat land as far as the eye could see, interrupted by the odd rise of rock and earth.

  Burrows?

  I didn’t even want to think about what kind of creature lived in those. Up ahead, out of the almost barren landscape, rose a barrier of wood and mesh. The fence was twice as tall as Erebus. The gates were closed but we didn’t slow down. We were going to crash! But then the gates began to trundle open and we galloped through the gap, coming to a halt in a courtyard filled with frightened djinn gathered in the centre of a huge ring of fire.

  Erebus dismounted and then reached up to help me down. I landed lightly on my feet, and was it my imagination or did his hands linger around my waist a little longer than necessary? But then he was turning to the gathered settler djinn—so many of them of all shapes and sizes huddled together in the glow of the flames.


  “Stay within the light,” he said.

  We moved past the haven of light into the darkness beyond.

  “Stay close,” Erebus said to me.

  I wasn’t about to argue with that, my palms were already sweating and I had to wipe them surreptitiously on my slacks. I’d made sure to re-buckle my prosthetic. It should hold. But if I had to run then there were no guarantees. Why the hell hadn’t I thought of all this before?

  We slipped between the low, squat buildings shaped from earth and stone. Aiden, Baron, and Vale fanned out, but I stuck to Erebus like his shadow. There was enough moonlight to make out our surroundings, to pick out the normal shadows from the dangerous ones if need be. It took almost an hour, but we scoured that settlement and came up empty.

  “They’re not here,” Aiden joined us as we made our way back to the gates and the waiting settlers.

  “Do you think they gave up and left?” Baron asked.

  “Hardly,” Vale said, “When have you ever known them to leave without consuming?”

  We moved closer to the circle of light, it looked brighter somehow. The hairs at the nape of my neck stood to attention. Something was off. And then I saw them, pressed up against the gate. Lying merged together just outside the circle of light.

  They were waiting. Waiting for us to leave and for the djinn to give up their vigil and step out of their haven. They were planning an ambush!

  I grabbed at Erebus’s forearm. “They’re here,” I hissed.

  Erebus didn’t break stride. “Where?”

  “The gate. The ground. They’ve got the settlers surrounded.”

  “I see them,” Vale said softly.

  Baron cursed and Aiden growled low in his throat.

  There was no time to formulate a plan, not without the Shadow People figuring out we were on to them. The only course of action was a sudden attack. A ripple skated over my skin and I was overcome with the conviction that Erebus had somehow communicated with his clan, and sure enough they split off just before we broke free from the shadows of the settler’s buildings.