Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
I tug on my shoes, take one last glance over my shoulder at Lo-Ren sleeping peacefully, and follow him out the door. Layden hovers behind him, tapping his foot. “We need to get going. Now.” Hopefully, if the meeting goes quickly enough, I can be back before Lo-Ren even knows I’m gone.
“Kharon’s staying behind to watch over the women,” Abaddon whispers, obviously sensing my anxiety about leaving Lo-Ren alone. I breathe a little easier as I shut the door behind me and follow my brothers down the darkened hallways.
Layden takes the lead, obviously knowing where he’s going. Abaddon and I exchange glances. Our little brother has some explaining to do, and soon. He’s spent time here, that’s clear, but also managed not to reveal the secret of who and what he is? Grandpa Vlad doesn’t seem like the most welcoming sort of fellow.
Finally, Layden pushes through two double doors to a large, vaulted room that has no windows and, like our bedrooms, a suffocating black décor broken up occasionally by gold accents. Several dark, lush couches are arranged in a circle. Grandpa Vlad sits in a golden wing-backed chair in the center of the room, on a small rise as if it were a throne. He’s obviously used to being the presiding power in any negotiation.
“Have a seat, gentleman,” he says cooly, a noticeable lack of welcome in his voice. To his right sits his granddaughter, Phoenix, whose eyes immediately warm when they meet Layden’s. I clock that and the position of all the other players in the room.
Several of Vlad’s apparent “sons” are positioned around the room, their hands held loosely by their sides and within easy reach of the bulges of what I can tell are firearms at their belts. Which tells me they are used to dealing with human rather than supernatural threats. Interesting, and likely good for us. I prefer to be underestimated in any potential conflict.
“Tell us the situation,” Vlad instructs his granddaughter, looking at her pointedly after we’ve all taken our seats. “Leave nothing out.”
“We’re still waiting for—”
“I said to begin,” Vlad snaps, but then the door opens, and another young woman scurries inside, looking around at both the room and the people inside with wide, alarmed eyes. She only calms down slightly once her gaze catches on Phoenix, who half-rises out of her seat as if to welcome the woman before her grandfather places a hand at her elbow to stop her.
“Sabra,” Phoenix breathes out, obviously relieved, and I wonder again at the dynamics between everyone involved here. It’s clear Phoenix’s grandfather has some kind of hold on her, and yet she, amongst all of his kin, is the only one seated. Clearly, she is a favorite or holds some sort of other sway.
“Sit,” Vlad’s voice cuts through the room like ice.
Sabra sits nervously at the end of the couch nearest Layden, the two of them briefly exchanging a glance. Ah, so she, too, knows our secretive little brother.
“Now, as I was saying,” Vlad sounds irritated, looking back to Phoenix, “begin.”
Phoenix takes a deep breath and sits up straighter in her chair, which, I notice, not-coincidentally inches her closer to Layden and Sabra, who are seated on the couch beside her. “Sabra’s mother was a powerful mage who worked with my grandfather,” she says, looking back toward Vlad. I do not show the surprise on my face, though Abaddon’s eyes register his.
Vlad’s mouth tightens. “She was a mad-woman.”
“Maybe,” Sabra speaks up, eyes suddenly hard as she looks at Vlad, her earlier nervousness apparently gone. “Or maybe you just didn’t like what she was telling you anymore.”
A noise like a hiss comes from Vlad, and Phoenix jumps in. “She sometimes saw visions from other planes when they intersected with this one. Visions of the future.”
“And what her mental state was like at the end of her life isn’t the point,” she hurries to say, leaning forward in her seat as if to block her grandfather’s view of Sabra and get his attention. “The point is that you know she saw true things at times. And one of the visions we suspect might have been true was when she foresaw that all life on Earth as we know it would be threatened by spirits from the other realm.”
Vlad makes a spitting noise. “Nonsense. Spirits cannot traverse realms.”
I force myself not to look at my brothers, but I feel Abaddon shift beside me, something Vlad immediately takes notice of.
“Do you know different?” Vlad questions us.
Layden speaks up, though I register he does so cautiously. “We have some experience with spirits who can cross realms. Usually, it’s only a one-way journey, though, to a very specific realm.”
It’s a half-truth. He’s talking about Kharon, who carries human souls to the death realm when they die. But we all witnessed what his newborn daughter did on the plane. Lo-Ren shook with real terror as she described the place they’d crossed over to, and I saw the damage to the plane myself from whatever they’d encountered there.