A Shade of Vampire 41: A Tide of War(57)

Aisha and Horatio lit a massive fire – which Ridan decided to help with—and as the twilight came, we were all sitting around it, using the old Viking remains as stools and chairs. The driftwood made the fire burn strange blue and purple colors, lighting up relaxed and content faces.

The Hawk boys all sat together, poking sticks into the fire and laughing loudly at their own jokes. Ash, Tejus, Ruby and Hazel mostly just looked exhausted, but in a gross, lovey-dovey way. Both pairs snuggled up together, talking in soft whispers. Lucifer, Tejus’s haughty lynx, had miraculously appeared from the undergrowth nearby – he’d obviously followed us when we left the castle. I was kind of in awe of the animal…I knew cats were meant to have nine lives, but this one seemed to be completely indestructible. The jinn and Corrine kept passing perfectly cooked corn-type vegetables over to us—they’d managed to do some exploring in the nearby villages and fields before the sun went down to find something edible. It was easily the best food I’d had in months—possibly ever.

The only people who looked less than happy were Yelena and the Oracle.

“Don’t you like corn?” I asked Yelena, nudging her. She had been looking at her smoked husk for ages and not taken a single bite.

“I do.” She sighed. “But do you want mine? I’m not hungry.”

“Yeah,” I replied happily, taking it.

“Benedict,” Aisha called to me, “Yelena is upset.”

“Because she’s not hungry,” I explained.

“No,” the jinni snapped, “she’s not hungry because she’s upset. Goodness, child—you are something else.” She flung her hands up in the air, turning back to Horatio.

“Are you?” I asked, looking at Yelena.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “It’s just that…I guess it’s all over now. I have to return home—and there’s going to be no more adventures, no more Nevertide, no more nothing. I’m going to miss the sentries.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised. “You’re going to miss the sentries?”

“Well—yeah. Jenney, Ash, Tejus. Won’t you?”

I hadn’t really thought about it. I was just glad it was all over, and I certainly wouldn’t be missing Nevertide.

“I don’t want to go home,” she added fiercely.

“Yelena,” Fly interrupted gently. “It’s good that you’ve got a home to go to. Won’t your parents be missing you?”

“I guess,” she muttered. “Maybe.”

“I think they probably will,” Sky added. “You’re easily missable—trust me, they’ll be wanting you home.”

Yelena smiled a small smile.

“Thanks,” she replied, blushing.

“You can come and visit The Shade whenever you like,” I replied, a bit annoyed that the Hawks were saying all the stuff I was supposed to be saying. She was my friend, not theirs.

“Really?” she asked, her face brightening.

“Yeah. My mom loves you. She’ll like it if you came to stay.”

She smiled.

“Can I have my corn back?” she asked. “I’m starving.”





Rose





We returned to Nevertide. The moment we stepped out of the portal I scoured the land for Benedict and Hazel. I saw them, black forms all sleeping around a long-dead fire. I had almost forgotten it was the middle of the night.

“Should we wake them?” Claudia asked.

Behind me, coming out of the portal were the sentries we’d collected from the locations around Earth. My family followed, along with the Vaughns, the Lazaroffs, Sherus and his sister, and Mona—the rest of the GASP team had gone back to The Shade.

“I don’t know. I don’t suppose they’ve had a good night’s rest since they arrived here.”

“They’d want to know how it went,” my mom said. “I think in this instance we should wake them. Plenty of time to sleep when they’re back where they belong.”

My heart seemed to expand at her last words—the idea of having my children back home was unbelievably wonderful. To know that they were safe and sound in The Shade, far from the entity, ghouls, shadows and any other unpleasant creatures Nevertide had to offer.

“I also want to know if Benedict had any luck with the jinn. We’ll need to find them before we leave,” my father added, making his way toward the sleeping group before I could offer up another reason why we should leave them be. I wasn’t sure I wanted to anyway—now this was all over, I was looking forward to getting back to normal family life as soon as possible. Well. Almost normal. I imagined there would be some sentries returning with us…