A Shade of Vampire 41: A Tide of War(25)

The fae king looked at me in horror.

“Then we are already too late!” he exclaimed in a whisper.

My father turned around and shook his head.

“Not necessarily. If Tejus’s visions are correct, then the entity is organizing a well-strategized attack. Ben’s right—it might be trying to unify its forces here before deploying them.”

“You’re saying they won’t wreak havoc on Earth and the In-Between as they make their way here?” Sherus replied skeptically.

“I’m saying that they might not,” my father emphasized.

The fae king sighed, his face dark with anger. Queen Nuriya placed a small hand on his arm, and to my surprise, he visibly calmed.

We moved closer, the only sound our footsteps on the dried leaves and bracken and the faint sounds of our breathing mingling with the increasingly chilled air.

Eventually we reached the small path that led down to the cove.

“Do you have a clear view?” my dad asked Tejus.

“Yes, I can see Jenus,” the sentry muttered. “He’s standing by the shore…It looks like he’s waiting for something. He’s pacing up and down.”

My father looked around. We were well sheltered by the trees here, but if we moved further ahead we would be at the edge of the cliff, sheltered by some large rocks that had been thrown up by a tear in the earth.

“We move ahead,” my dad announced, pointing at the cliff edge, “and we wait there for our moment.”

To get to the rock we would have to cross a clear path, one that was in direct view of the shadow that hovered over the portal entrance.

“Ibrahim, can you transport us to the rocks?” Derek asked the warlock.

He nodded, and a moment later, we were standing right by the rocks—Nuriya appearing at Sherus’s side a second later by her own magic. Now it was only Lethe left on the other side.

I held my breath as he scurried across the path. It wasn’t wide, but for those few moments he was completely exposed. I could hear Lethe’s heart pounding as he collapsed next to me.

We all waited to see if they’d spotted us. I dared to look over the rock, seeing if there was any movement from the shadow or Jenus, but all remained the same. I heaved a sigh of relief. Ibrahim’s cloaking spell was still over us.

“What now, do we just wait?” Aiden asked. “There must be another way—what if they don’t move?”

“We have to hope that they will,” my dad replied. “It’s too dangerous to venture down there now.”

We all sat and watched. The sun dipped lower on the horizon, the sky becoming almost beautiful with its pink and purple hues. Now we were close to the shadow, I could feel the foreboding sense of dread and discomfort that its presence had brought about before. My stomach churned at the unnaturalness of it—the evil that it suggested, as if the shadow only knew how to destroy, as if it existed as the exact opposite of everything that was good in the world.

“Keep your eyes on the stars, Benjamin,” Sherus murmured at me.

I did as he asked. I focused on the cold, bright pinpricks in the velvet of the night, and soon the presence of the shadow started to bother me less.

I was being lulled into a false sense of security.

A moment later, I heard a loud screeching—screams of triumph, echoing from the portal. I jumped, my heart rate accelerating. Storming through the portal were hordes of ghouls—their graying skin stretched over skulls with sparse patches of hair hanging off them, their clawed fingers outstretched, their mouths open, sharp teeth and black tongues lusting for flesh.

Ghouls?

What were they doing here? It was the last thing we’d expected to see. Where had they even come from? The ghouls swarmed around the cove, disordered and screeching, so many that their forms started blocking the land below, whizzing around the cliff face. Soon they were traveling so high up the cliff-face that they were only a few feet below us. If even one of them smelt us, or sensed our presence in any way, we would be done for.

I didn’t dare open my mouth, but knew that the others would be thinking the same thing.

The ground started to rumble—slight tremors that rattled the stones and dirt by my feet. I looked at the shadow, but it hadn’t moved from its position…what was causing the earth to shake?

My eyes were drawn to the portal. We heard a loud gurgling noise, like a plug being pulled, and then the blood drained from my face. A loud wailing noise emanated from the mouth of the portal—heavy, wet cries that came from some wretched creature…I knew that sound. It was one I had hoped to never hear again.

The ghoul queen.

Sherus gripped my forearm. The fae king recognized it too.