Draekora E-Book

Lynette Noni

• Herausgeber: Pantera Press
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: Medoran Chronicles
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 653

Beschreibung

"I swear by the stars that you and the others slain tonight will be the first of many. Of that you have my word."With Aven Dalmarta now hiding in the shadows of Meya, Alex is desperate to save Jordan and keep the Rebel Prince from taking more lives.Training day and night to master the enhanced immortal blood in her veins, Alex undertakes a dangerous Meyarin warrior trial that separates her from those she loves and leaves her stranded in a place where nothing is as it should be.As friends become enemies and enemies become friends, Alex must decide who to trust as powerful new allies—and adversaries—push her towards a future of either light… or darkness.One way or another, the world will change…

Leseprobe

DRAEKORA

DRAEKORA

THE MEDORAN CHRONICLES

BOOK THREE

LYNETTE NONI

First published in 2017 by Pantera Press Pty Limitedwww.PanteraPress.com

This book is copyright, and all rights are reserved.Text copyright © Lynette Noni, 2017Lynette Noni has asserted her moral rights to be identified as the author of this work.

Design and typography copyright © Pantera Press Pty Limited, 2017PanteraPress, the three-slashed colophon device, great storytelling, good books doing good things, a great new home for Australia’s next generation of best-loved authors, WHY vs WHY, and making sense of everything are trademarks of Pantera Press Pty Limited.

We welcome your support of the author’s rights, so please only buy authorised editions.

This is a work of fiction, though it may refer to some real events or people. Names, characters, organisations, dialogue and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, firms, events or locales is coincidental or used for fictional purposes.

Without the publisher’s prior written permission, and without limiting the rights reserved under copyright, none of this book may be scanned, reproduced, stored in, uploaded to or introduced into a retrieval or distribution system, including the internet, or transmitted, copied, scanned or made available in any form or by any means (including digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, sound or audio recording, or text-to-voice). This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent recipient.

Please send all permission queries to:Pantera Press, P.O. Box 1989 Neutral Bay, NSW 2089 Australiaor [email protected]

A Cataloguing-in-Publication entry for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

ISBN 978-1-921997-68-6 (Paperback)ISBN 978-1-921997-69-3 (eBook)

Cover and Internal Design: Xou Creative www.xou.com.auAuthor Photo: Erica Murray PhotographyTypesetting: Kirby JonesPrinted in Australia: McPherson’s Printing Group

Pantera Press policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

For those overwhelmed by fear of the future.Live in the moment.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Acknowledgements

About the Author

One

“This is officially the worst idea I’ve ever had.”

It was true. Alex may have made some questionable decisions in the past, but the dilemma she and her friends now faced was off the charts, comparatively.

“We can still pull this off,” Bear whispered from somewhere to her left.

It was too dark for Alex to see anything other than his silhouette blacking out what little light shone through the crack in the door. But she knew both he and D.C. were right there alongside her, as always. What she didn’t know was who else was nearby—namely, just how many guards were patrolling the high-security ChemTech facility they were trying to break into. And how dangerous their weapons were.

Alex was fully aware they were being reckless. But after losing their best friend, Jordan Sparker, to a fate of being a mindless pawn in Aven Dalmarta’s blood-bonded, brainwashed army, Alex and her friends were more than motivated. They were desperate.

“We need to move,” D.C. said. “It won’t take long for them to find us here.”

A light flashed in the darkness when Bear activated his ComTCD, casting a bluish glow over his face. His pupils were wide and beads of sweat dotted his forehead despite the cool temperature. “The codes Johnny gave us only work for another hour,” he said, flicking through the data stored in his Device. “We need to be in and out in that time, or we’ll be stuck here.”

“Right,” Alex said. “So, it’s a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ situation. We can work with this.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” D.C. said with a half-hearted grin. Had Jordan still been with them, her smile would have been more genuine, but Alex knew to take what she could get from her friend. “We trust you.”

Alex wondered, not for the first time, if their trust was sorely misguided. After all, it was her fault they were stuck in some dingy janitor’s closet to begin with. Sure, her motives were honourable, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t brought her closest friends on a fool’s errand.

It had all begun just over a week ago, when the three of them had left Raelia and returned to Bear’s home in Woodhaven for the Kaldoras holidays. The loss of Jordan had caused such a hollow ache in each of them that it had been impossible to enjoy their holiday break. So instead, they’d begun planning.

All they’d known was their endgame: freeing Jordan from Aven’s clutches. Their friend might have been ‘irreversibly’ Claimed, but they still had hope, knowing Alex had once freed herself from Aven’s grasp. But even if that didn’t turn out to be possible, their back-up plan was to isolate and protect Jordan from the immortal Meyarin, using any means necessary, even imprisonment.

Their task was made infinitely more complicated by the fact that Aven had promised Jordan something important to him—the deliverance of his previously-believed-deceased-but-now-apparently-alive-and-only-missing brother. Luka had supposedly killed himself six years ago, but Aven had shown the brainwashed Jordan surveillance footage of Luka breaking into a ChemTech lab just last month.

So that was where Alex and her friends had decided to start. Their plan was to verify whether or not the footage existed, and if they found evidence showing Luka to be alive, then they would just have to find him before Aven could use him as leverage against their friend.

Easy, right?

The good news was that Johnny, Bear’s eldest brother, was a Techno—basically a technology genius—and as a ChemTech employee he had insider knowledge of its facilities. It hadn’t taken much coercing from Alex, Bear and D.C. to convince him to join Team Saving Jordan, and he’d been forthcoming with as much intel as they’d needed. While he’d never been to the exact lab in Mardenia where Luka had been sighted, Johnny had managed to hack into the highly classified TCD server to download an entire data file containing the layout of the facility, complete with security codes and a detailed map of the building.

With access to so much information, Alex had originally thought her plan infallible. They would arrive just outside the building’s security ward via Bubbledoor, sneak through the entrance using Johnny’s codes, hike up the eleven floors to the surveillance room and search through the database until they found the footage of Luka.

Sure, there were a few holes in the plan, but it should have been a breeze.

What they hadn’t counted on were the unforeseen complications—complications like the decidedly human guards.

“How close are we?” Alex asked, looking over Bear’s shoulder as he used the touch-screen of his TCD to project a holographic map of the facility into the air between them.

“We’re here,” he said, pointing to their location. He then expanded the map and swivelled it around, indicating to another room three floors up on the other side of the building. “We need to get there.”

“Not impossible,” D.C. said. “We’ve managed to get this far; what’s a few more stairs?”

Alex bit back her retort and just hoped she wasn’t about to get the crown princess of Medora arrested—or shot. They’d already had one close call with a security guard who’d thankfully been looking the other way when they nearly walked into him—an encounter that clued them in to the fact that they weren’t alone in the building. And Alex had clearly seen the Stabiliser holstered to the man’s belt. She wasn’t sure if he’d carried other weapons, but that alone was cause for concern—one shot would lead to ten minutes of unconsciousness and a second shot instant death.

Not a pleasant thought.

“I don’t suppose you guys would be willing to stay here and keep watch?” Alex asked. “Lessen the chances of us all getting caught?”

Firm headshakes met her question, not that she’d expected anything less.

“We’ve talked about this,” Bear said, his tone unyielding. “We’re going to help save Jordan, no matter the consequences.”

“No way are we staying behind,” D.C. confirmed, her arms folded and an expression of distaste on her face. “Don’t even try to stop us.”

Alex raised her hands in a placating manner. “Fine, fine, but you can’t blame me for trying.” She attempted a conciliatory smile, but she knew it fell flat. Straightening her shoulders, she told them, “Stay close, then. And don’t make a sound.”

Bear shoved his ComTCD back into his pocket, extinguishing their light source. As soon as Alex’s eyes adjusted to the nearly black room again, she pushed the door open, silently leading the way out into the corridor beyond. She had to blink her vision clear when the hallway’s brighter, halogen-like lights seared through her retinas, all the while keeping a lookout for the slightest indication of guards nearby.

Frustratingly, the facility didn’t have one central staircase that led to different floors. Instead, the staircases were designed in an architectural nightmare of ups, downs and all arounds. As if it were a Snakes and Ladders game, each set of stairs ended in a different location, but never directly where Alex and her friends needed to go.

Their staircase dilemma could have been avoided if they’d simply used the elevator, but the access codes Johnny had hacked to activate the lift were for an emergency only, since any elevator usage was monitored closely and their presence would undoubtedly be detected. For obvious reasons, they wanted to avoid that.

After what felt like an unending journey of twisting staircases—including one that went straight up to the twelfth floor, one that sent them back down to the third and one leading back up to the ninth—Alex began to question their decision to avoid the elevator. Her thighs were burning from all the repeated climbing despite her Combat and PE-honed level of fitness, and the panting noises from Bear and D.C. put her on edge, reminding her it had been a while since they had heard any of the guards patrolling close by.

Turning questioning eyes to Bear, Alex gestured for his ComTCD. Reactivating the holographic map, she saw they only had one final staircase to go until they reached the eleventh floor, before traversing the entire length of the building to arrive at their destination. This would be made more challenging by the glass-walled skywalk in the centre, since the facility diverged into two separate towers from the eighth floor up.

Handing back the Device, Alex hurried forward again, ignoring her protesting muscles when she hit the next staircase. They had only forty minutes left to use Johnny’s codes and she was feeling the pressure.

Finally on the eleventh floor, Alex guided them through zigzagging corridors, pausing at every corner to peak around and make sure the next section was clear. It was time-consuming but proved necessary, since an automatic door clicked open nearby and Alex was forced to pull Bear and D.C. back behind the bend in the hallway.

Carefully peering around the corner, Alex confirmed there was another security guard, a woman this time. Like the first, she was dressed in a gunmetal-grey jumpsuit and had a Stabiliser holstered to her belt. She also sported a sword strapped across her back, the hilt of which poked menacingly above her shoulders. Worse still, her purposeful strides meant she was quickly eating up the distance between them.

Realising their side of the corridor was too long and narrow to avoid being spotted, Alex hurried her friends to the closest door, intending to hide in whatever room lay beyond until the coast was clear. But since the eleventh floor was dedicated to Research and Development—or so Johnny had said—the door wouldn’t open without clearance.

Noticing the touch-screen access panel mounted on the wall, Alex gestured to Bear and waited anxiously while he tapped on his TCD screen. A life-sized holographic hand quickly floated out of the Device and encased his skin like a shimmery glove, which he moved closer to the access panel. After the forged handprint was scanned and accepted, he hit a few more buttons until another image came to life—an eyeball, to Alex’s disgust.

As soon as the retinal scan cleared, the door clicked open, allowing Alex, Bear and D.C. to tumble into the room and escape the click-click-click of the guard’s boots nearing them.

The moment the door sealed them inside, there was a violent hiss of air depressurising, the only warning Alex had before she rose from the ground. She heard both Bear and D.C. curse as they too were lifted weightlessly upwards until the three of them were suspended in the air as if floating in water.

“It must be some kind of anti-gravity field,” Bear said, waving his hands around, his movements appearing as if in slow motion.

“Um,” Alex said, feeling like an uncoordinated turtle as she bobbed mid-air. “How are we supposed to—uh—” She trailed off with a distressed sound when her torso tipped forward too far and she was left to somersault her way back around until she was close to the right way up again.

“This is so unnatural!” D.C. exclaimed, looking like she was trying to use swimming strokes to move, but to little effect.

“Hold on a second, guys,” Bear said. “We won’t get anywhere with you fighting gravity like that. We need a plan.”

You don’t say? Alex thought. But she reined in her inner sarcasm and did her best to stay as still as her current state of floating would allow. While Bear was deciding their exit strategy, she took the chance to look around the room. With cream-coloured padded walls, floor and ceiling, it was empty of furniture or anything else. It was clearly a room intended for one purpose—messing with gravity.

Alex heard a beeping sound and she arched her neck until she could see Bear again, his ComTCD in hand. A holographic body came into view above it.

“Yo, little brother. I take it things aren’t going so well?” Johnny said, and Alex could hear the humour in his voice. She wondered how much of their current predicament was showing through his Device and figured it was enough to give him a good laugh at their expense.

“You could say that,” Bear answered. “We wouldn’t be stuck in here if you’d given us a warning about the guards.”

“Guards?” Johnny repeated. Alex managed to float close enough to see his quizzical expression. “There aren’t supposed to be any guards there. Not on site, at least.”

“We’ve seen two already,” Bear said. Johnny looked genuinely concerned. “We had to break into this room to avoid one of them, but now we’re caught in an anti-gravity field. Can you help us out?”

Johnny gave a quick nod. “Give me a sec.” He disappeared for a moment and soon reappeared with a larger, tablet-style Device. “I take it you’re on the eleventh floor? Anti-gravity is R&D for sure. But if I’m right, you’re still on the wrong side of the facility.”

“We haven’t crossed the skywalk yet,” D.C. said. Having given up on her breaststroke, she was now attempting to freestyle her way across the room, looking even more ridiculous than before and still getting nowhere.

“You guys better get a move on,” Johnny muttered, distracted by whatever he was doing with the tablet. “You’re pushing it for time.”

“Yeah, well, if we’d known about the—” Bear started, but his brother interrupted.

“Got it!”

With Johnny’s exclamation, the air-hissing sound came again and Alex dropped like a rock to the floor.

Grateful for the padding that saved her from a very bruised backside, she jumped to her feet and walked over to where Bear was rising. “Thanks, Johnny. We owe you one.”

“Listen, guys,” he said, squinting at the other Device he held. “I don’t know what’s with the guards, but heat sensors indicate there’s one patrolling every floor. That’s fifteen in total. You’re lucky you’ve only come across two, but if you trip any alarms, they’ll all come running.”

Alex closed her eyes, wondering again what she’d been thinking leading her friends here.

“One of those guards is wandering up and down the hallway outside your room. There’s no way for you to get out without being seen. But you’re only a few rooms away from the skywalk, and once you make it over, you’ll be in the clear. I think I can guide you there without you having to step foot in the corridor. But you’ll have to trust me.”

The trio looked at one another before turning back to Johnny. “We’re listening.”

There were three other doors leading from the padded room, and using Johnny’s remote access to open the furthest one, they followed his direction into the long, dark chamber before them.

It was only once the door sealed behind them that he absentmindedly said, “Heads up, you’re about to get wet.”

“Wha—”

Alex’s question was cut off when a billowing mass of cloud materialised above them just seconds before a torrential downpour of water fell straight onto their heads.

“Run!” Bear cried, his voice garbled by the lashing rain. He grabbed both Alex and D.C.’s arms and yanked them along. Not that they needed the motivation, since they were just as desperate to escape the unnatural weather phenomenon.

“No, Bear, stop! Alex! Dix! Stop! Stop!”

It took a few shouts before Alex was able to hear Johnny’s yelling over the sound of the deluge, but she came to a sudden halt as soon as his words processed. It was only then that she began to feel the rain vaporise around her and a glow of artificial sunlight kiss her skin. She looked up and marvelled at the sight high above them.

Glancing backward, Alex could still see the rain bucketing down from miserable-looking clouds by the entrance. But looking around her now…

“Is this some kind of weather room?” she asked.

The large chamber appeared to be sectioned into different climate categories. Where Alex and her friends currently stood was a clear blue sky, fluffy white cumulus clouds and, perhaps strangest of all, a synthetic sun. Looking further across the room, she could see all kinds of weather scenarios playing out within bordered segments of the room. Clearly the ChemTech R&D department was earning their keep.

“Yes, Alex, and don’t move another step!” Johnny ordered, his features pinched and his tone laced with anxiety. “I thought I could deactivate the room remotely but the coding is more complex than I anticipated. I can do it, but it will take a few minutes and you don’t have the time to spare. You’ll have to make a run for it.”

“Then why’d you tell us to stop?” Bear sounded belligerent as he squeezed water from his shirt.

D.C. gave a frowning nod of agreement as she too wrung out her sodden clothes and twisted her soaked hair, leaving a puddle of water on the marble tiles.

With a troubling feeling that they weren’t out of the worst of it yet, Alex didn’t bother attempting to dry off.

“Because I need to warn you,” Johnny said, “that some of the weather is… reactive.”

D.C. stopped wringing out her hair. “Reactive?”

Johnny chose not to explain. Instead he gave them an impishly apologetic look and said, “Keep moving and you should be fine. The last section will be the most dangerous, but I’ll have your exit door open by the time you get there, so just sprint straight through. Okay?”

“No, not okay!” D.C. cried. “Do you want to give us some more details?”

Johnny turned his attention to his second Device and muttered, “I have a door to unlock. You’d better start running.”

Before D.C. could open her mouth to protest, Alex grabbed her arm and pulled her along. “Come on, Dix. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we’ll be out of here.”

Two

Leading the way at a fast pace, Alex felt the air turn clammy as the sunshine dissolved behind them. Visibility was near to nothing as they entered the next weather zone and a fog-like mist arose from beneath their feet, swiftly obscuring everything in sight. It was disorienting, but Alex pressed on, running forward until she crossed into the next climate. Almost immediately her feet slipped out from underneath her and she fell onto the hard, ice-covered floor.

Dazed from the fall, she managed to yell, “Watch your step!”

But it was too late for D.C., who hit the slippery ground and slid along until she came to a jarring stop in a tangle of limbs at Alex’s feet.

Bringing up the rear, Bear at least heard the warning in time, and was able to get away with a slight skating of his feet without losing his footing.

“Eugh,” D.C. grunted, pushing up to stand. She made a whimpering sound, causing Alex to glance at her with alarm.

“Are you hurt?”

Holding her left hand tenderly, D.C. bit her lip. “I landed pretty hard on my wrist.”

“Here, let me look,” Bear said as Alex stood and slid her way over to them.

He gently rolled D.C.’s wrist back and forth, pressing carefully against the bones.

“Your movement is good,” Bear said. “I think it’s just sprained.”

D.C.’s face was tight with pain. “I’ll be fine. Let’s keep moving.”

“Dix—”

“Alex, I’m fine. Really. Let’s go.”

Taking in the determined look on her friend’s face, Alex slowly nodded. But before she led the way onwards, she unwound the scarf from her neck and used it to tie her ComTCD to D.C.’s wrist as an improvised splint.

“Try to keep it as still as possible,” Alex said. “The more you move it, the worse you’ll make it.”

“You’ve spent way too much time in the Med Ward,” D.C. observed, studying Alex’s rudimentary attempt at first aid. “But thanks. It already feels a bit better.”

“Thank Fletcher,” Alex said. “He’s patched me up so many times, I was bound to learn a thing or two.”

On that wry note, Alex edged her way forward again, carefully this time. Her feet slid along the icy floor, and more than once she had to catch herself before taking another header onto the ground. Their slow progress was made more frustrating when greenish clouds rolled in and began to spit small hailstones at them. They weren’t large enough to cause worrying injuries, but Alex certainly obtained her fair share of stinging bruises. It was a relief, therefore, when they crossed into the next weather section, even if it sent them directly into a blustery snowstorm.

“This place is mental!” Alex cried over the howling wind as they trudged their way through the knee-deep snow. A mass of flurries blew straight into her mouth just from emitting those few words, so she refrained from yelling anything else to her friends until they reached the next section.

Soaked and shivering from the piercing chill of the blizzard, they were grateful to cross the boundary into a section that was both silent and still. But just when Alex thought they were in the clear, the back of her neck began to prickle with warning and a peculiar tingly feeling overcame her.

“Run!” came Johnny’s urgent voice from Bear’s ComTCD. “Run, run, run!”

Alex didn’t need to be told twice. She remembered what he’d said about the last section being the most dangerous, and when a ferocious rumble was followed closely by a blinding light and an ear-splitting CRACK, she understood exactly why he hadn’t given them more details.

They were right in the middle of an electrical storm. And judging by the amount of static charge Alex felt and the strong smell of ozone in the air, it was a nasty one, at that.

With Bear and D.C. right behind her, Alex took off at a sprint through the low-hanging dark clouds, heading for the open door that was still an alarming distance away. Another thunderous roar had Alex slapping her hands over her ears, and she couldn’t suppress a shriek when a spike of lightning struck the floor so close that she felt the power of the bolt surge along her skin.

Alex picked up her speed, but as they reached the halfway mark of the storm-section, the lightning and thunder increased to the point that the three of them had to zigzag their way in short, sharp lunges to avoid being struck. It was only then that Alex remembered Johnny saying that some of the weather was reactive—the storm was actively tracking them, targeting their movements as they hurried through the room.

With that insight, Alex struggled against her rising panic. Instead, she focused on getting out of there alive, blinking furiously to combat the blinding explosions of light. Just a few feet away from the door, she heard the loudest CRACK yet and knew they had but a few seconds before their luck would run out and they would be burnt to a crisp.

“Hurry!” she yelled, taking a running leap directly through the doorway, noting with relief that Bear and D.C. were right on her heels.

She came to a sudden, messy stop when she soared straight into a mud-filled pond. Bear and D.C. managed to avoid the pile of dirty sludge, but Alex was elbow deep in the muck and covered from head to toe from the splash of her landing.

“Eww, gross,” she said, pushing up and wiping a hand across her face, only smearing the mess further.

She heard a muffled snort and whipped her head around to see a wild-haired D.C. with her uninjured hand over her mouth, her eyes sparkling with humour. It was the liveliest Alex had seen her since Jordan’s Claiming—even if it was at the expense of Alex’s own dignity.

As for Bear, his hair was standing on end, and half his face was streaked with what looked like charcoal—the effect of a close call with the lightning—but he, too, appeared to be struggling to hold back laughter as he took in Alex’s muddy predicament.

“Not a word,” she said with a warning glare.

D.C. and Bear were shaking with silent hysterics, but they swallowed back their hilarity with pressed lips and quick nods.

“Johnny, please tell me we’re close?” Alex called, deliberately ignoring his muffled chuckle when he noted her appearance through the ComTCD.

“Just get through this last room and you’ll hit the skywalk,” he said, eyes dancing with mirth. “There’s a guard still patrolling your side of the tower, so you’ll have a straight path along the corridor from there.”

Finally, some good news, Alex thought.

“What are we dealing with in here?” Bear asked his brother.

Glancing around, Alex noted that it appeared to be some kind of plant-filled greenhouse.

“The schematics say it’s a terrarium,” Johnny answered. “You shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Just follow the path and take a right at the fork. You’ll hit the next door soon after. I’ll have it ready for you.”

Walking through the quiet of the plant-strewn terrarium would have been almost peaceful, but Alex was too preoccupied with swatting away the swarms of insects wanting to feast on her flesh. All too soon she was covered in itchy welts and desperate to escape the incessant creatures.

While slapping at the bugs, Alex, Bear and D.C. managed to avoid three more large mud ponds before arriving at one that was bordered by a forest so dense they had to squelch their way through the grunge to get to the other side. Alex was already covered in the filth so she didn’t care so much, but neither Bear nor D.C. were thrilled about suctioning their way through the knee-high mud.

They took a right at the fork as directed and continued on until the door came into view.

“That wasn’t so bad, comparatively,” D.C. said, scratching her bites as they approached the exit.

When Johnny gave the go-ahead, they stepped out of the room and into another identical hallway.

Alex could clearly see the boundary of their side of the building, since the walls came to an abrupt end, yet the hallway continued through a glass-enclosed tunnel joining the two towers of the facility.

“Hope you guys aren’t afraid of heights,” Alex said, approaching the skywalk.

D.C. swallowed. “I’m not a huge fan of them.”

“Nothing is as bad as the Meyarin’s Valispath, right?” Bear said, reminding them of the invisible rollercoaster that was the Eternal Path. “You managed okay with that.”

D.C. sent him a disbelieving look. “I didn’t have much choice at the time, if memory serves.”

“Unless you want to get friendly with the guard, you don’t have much of a choice now, either,” Alex interjected. She nudged D.C. and offered her a quick, teasing grin. “Suck it up, princess.”

Laughing inwardly at the face D.C. pulled, Alex stepped out onto the skywalk, closely followed by her friends.

Bear was right; it was nothing compared to the sheer terror of riding the Valispath. But they were quite high, and Alex had to make a concentrated effort not to look down. She only just managed to bite back a smile when she heard D.C. whispering to herself something along the lines of, “I’m going to kill Jordan for this.”

That’s the D.C. I know, Alex thought, happy to see some of her zest and spirit returning, even if the cause of it wasn’t exactly ideal.

When they safely reached the other side, Bear informed them that they had less than fifteen minutes to get into the server room and out of the facility before their access codes would be invalid. Alex knew then that it was not only a foolish mission, but it was also an impossible one. But they’d come this far. And there was no turning back now.

Hurrying straight down the thankfully clear corridor, they headed directly towards the surveillance room. Bear opened the doorway by repeating the TCD handprint and retinal scans, and as soon as the three of them flew into the room, he called his brother back onto the screen to ask, “What now?”

“Turn your Device around and show me what you see.”

As Bear followed Johnny’s command, Alex looked around the bright, circular room. Standing in the centre of the otherwise empty space was a large golden globe that glistened against a pearlescent, nearly glowing floor.

“See the TechSphere?” Johnny said. “Press your hand against it to activate it.”

When Bear reached his arm forward to follow Johnny’s order, his brother cried out, “No! Not your hand—the hand I gave you!”

Alex let out a quiet huff of laughter at the absurdity of their situation—or perhaps more at the nearly identical frustrated expressions on both Bear and Johnny’s faces.

After accepting the scanned handprint clearance, the TechSphere lit up, and with it, so did the rest of the room. The previously blank walls were now buzzing with energy as if ready and waiting at attention.

“Now input the codes I gave you,” Johnny instructed, and Bear did so using quick finger swipes too complex for Alex and D.C. to follow.

Johnny’s complicated guidance began to fly over their heads and blur into gibberish, but thankfully Bear was able to keep up and he cried out a triumphant, “I’m in!” when the system unlocked.

“Awesome,” Alex said, moving up beside him to peer at the bunch of letters and numbers within the Sphere, all written in code. “Do you know how to find—”

“Just a sec, Alex,” Bear distractedly interrupted. “I think I’m… There! I think I’ve got it! Johnny, can you confirm?” He pulled the Device close and spun it around, showing the TechSphere’s code to his brother.

Johnny’s hologram squinted at the sequence of random symbols and he nodded enthusiastically. “That entry was definitely hacked in the not-too-distant past. A dodgy job too, since whoever it was didn’t clean the feed or wipe clear their tracks. I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re after, guys.”

Needing no further prompting, Bear input something into the Sphere’s server and one wall of the room instantly came to life, like a massive television screen. The footage that began playing was grainy and the poor quality degenerated further as the feed dropped in and out, but Alex could still recognise the same room they were standing in on the screen, with very few differences. The main one being the young man shown in the video.

“Is that…?” D.C. whispered, her eyes wide.

As if he heard her, the man abruptly turned to face the hidden surveillance camera. D.C. let out a strangled sounding noise and even Alex sucked in a breath, recognising his profile. His blond hair was about six years overdue for a cut and his scraggly beard made him look like a caveman, but his bright blue eyes combined with his bone structure and athletic body shape made his resemblance to Jordan unquestionable.

“I don’t believe it,” Bear said in a quiet, incredulous voice. “Aven… Jordan’s parents… They were all telling the truth. Luka’s alive.”

Alex was able to pull herself together first. If what Jordan had said really was him speaking freely—and outside of Aven’s influence—then the footage he’d seen had to have been believable enough to ask Aven to Claim him. Though, Alex wasn’t sure whether to believe that actually happened or if Aven really did take Jordan against his will.

To her unending frustration, Alex knew nothing was certain.

“Johnny,” she called, “are you able to confirm if this footage is legit?”

After some more incomprehensible gibberish, Alex ascertained that Johnny had managed to open a network through Bear’s Device to download the footage directly—which was something he hadn’t been able to do remotely without having someone on the inside to input the codes manually.

“I’m running it through my scanners as we speak,” he said, ending his Techno-babble spiel by answering her question. “I just need a minute.”

He took two, but when he came back to them it was with a shuttered, disappointed expression. “It’s fake, guys. I’m sorry.”

“What?” D.C. exhaled sharply. “But—But he looks just like Jordan!”

“It’s an enhanced digital likeness, likely rendered from an image of Jordan himself and aged a decade into the future.”

Jordan had been deceived all along, and Alex felt the crushing devastation of what that meant. If they ever found a way to free their friend from Aven, he’d have to come to terms with Luka’s death all over again.

“I’m sorry, guys,” Johnny filled the hanging silence. “I know that’s not the news you were after.”

At least we now know the truth, Alex thought, sad as it was.

“If you hurry, I can still get you out before—” Johnny broke off and his face paled when something on his other Device caught his attention. He leaned in closer to it and his eyes widened as he released a string of curse words. “Guys, it looks like you left muddy footprints in the corridor and that guard in the other tower has just flagged them and raised the alarm. She’s on her way to you, along with every other guard in the facility. You need to move. Now.”

Three

An indefinite amount of time later, Alex restlessly paced back and forth in a holding cell that was much cleaner than her current state of hygiene. The white walls surrounding her were immaculate, made more so by the slight glow of energy zinging along them: a seemingly innocuous halo of light that was augmented by a hair-raising electrical hum of warning. Despite the powerful barrier, Alex was tempted to reach out and smear dried mud across the pristine surface just to annoy some underling who clearly had OCD tendencies when it came to bleach—or whatever the Medoran cleaning equivalent was.

Suffice it to say, she and her friends hadn’t made it out of the ChemTech facility without being caught. They’d barely had time to cut the feed to the surveillance footage and disconnect their ComTCD link with Johnny before the door to the server room had flown open. Hoping that Bear’s brother was busy using his hacking skills to hide his digital footprint and the illegal download of the footage to his offsite Device, Alex and her friends had been left throwing their hands up in surrender when the guards stormed the room.

They’d quickly discovered that the ChemTech security team didn’t play around and were the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ variety of guards. Alex, Bear and D.C. had, therefore, experienced their first taste of what it felt like to be intimately acquainted with a blast from a Stabiliser.

For the record, it hurt like hell.

The weapon had caused a searing burn to spread throughout Alex’s body, stinging along her nerve endings fast enough to force her into unconsciousness within a fraction of a second. When she awoke ten minutes later, Alex found herself lying on the unnaturally clean floor of her cell and suffering from a splitting headache; one which was still thumping through her skull after what felt like hours of incarceration.

“What’s taking them so long?” D.C. grumbled, sitting on the floor with her head in her hands. “We’ve been in here for ages without anyone coming by. Why can’t they hurry up and tell us how much trouble we’re in?”

The only upside to their predicament was that Alex, Bear and D.C. had all been locked up together in the same cell. But since they were each dealing with Stabiliser-induced headaches, none of them had the capacity to offer good company or stimulating conversation.

“Standard practice for interrogations. They’re letting us sweat,” Bear said, standing with one hand massaging his temple and the other arm cradled protectively against his stomach. He’d been the unfortunate test dummy who had reached out first to touch the glowing walls, discovering that they were, in fact, charged with something akin to live electricity. His hand was covered in blistering welts from contact with the walls, which only added to his discomfort from the earlier insect bites.

Alex was just about to open her mouth and suggest they try to come up with an escape plan when the glowing energy around them deactivated and one of the white walls slid open. D.C. scrambled to her feet and Bear dropped his hands and moved forward until the three of them stood in a line, presenting a united front.

Four people entered the cell. Three of them wore the gunmetal-grey uniforms of the security guards, but the person leading the group wore the familiar black attire of a Warden. His fiery red hair was cropped close to his skull, but it was still thick enough to stand out vividly against his dark clothing and pale skin.

Alex felt D.C. stiffen and relax again just as quickly, apparently not recognising the Warden. This was good, since the last thing any of them needed was for word to get back to D.C.’s parents about their little… expedition.

“I’m Warden Renko,” the man in black said as he came to a halt a few steps away. The three security guards stopped beside him, their Stabilisers trained on Alex, Bear and D.C as a silent warning. “You three were caught trespassing on a secure ChemTech facility without authorised clearance. You’ve since been detained and transported here for questioning. Hands behind your backs, please.”

Alex blinked in surprise, not sure what to process first—the fact that they had been transported to an unknown location while unconscious, or the brusque manner of the Warden’s efficient command.

When the guards moved forward threateningly, she hastily complied and they roughly bound her arms together. She winced in sympathy at the thought of the pain D.C.’s sprained wrist and Bear’s burnt hand must be causing them.

“Follow me,” the Warden directed once they were all secured.

“Just a second,” Bear said, and Alex raised her eyebrows in question—and alarm. She wasn’t keen on repeating her experience with the business end of a Stabiliser if Renko decided not to indulge Bear’s interruption.

Fortunately, the Warden seemed curious enough to halt his forward movement and he turned back to her friend.

“We’re really sorry to have bothered you,” Bear said, “but you need to let us go free now. We don’t want any more trouble; we just want to go home. When you let us out of here, you’ll never have to worry about us again.”

His words were audacious, and yet Alex had to suppress a grin when the guards and even D.C. all began nodding along while listening to his hypnotic tone. It was fascinating—the last time Bear had used his gift around Alex, her own willpower hadn’t been fully activated, and the mesmerising nature of his ability had sucked her right in. But no longer did it affect her, since she was now fully in control of her own gift.

For a moment, Alex thought Bear had come up with the perfect escape plan. But then she realised there was one person, other than herself, who wasn’t nodding along with the rest.

“Nice try, kid,” Renko said, a hint of a smile curling his lips. “But you’re not the only one with a gift around here.”

As if his words broke the spell, suddenly the other guards— and D.C.—shook off the glamour of Bear’s charm and came back to their senses, frowning slightly in bewilderment.

“Now, let’s try this again,” Renko said, gesturing pointedly for Alex and her friends to follow him from the cell.

Throwing an ‘it was worth a shot’ look at Bear, Alex stepped forward and trailed Renko down a series of blindingly white corridors until they passed a guarded checkpoint and walked in single file through some kind of body scanner. It reminded Alex of stepping through airport security, and she wondered what the point of it was, since not even their ComTCDs had been confiscated from them during their imprisonment—though, they had somehow been deactivated, meaning no incoming or outgoing calls, despite their desperate attempts to contact Johnny for escape options.

Whether the body scanner was searching for weapons or something else—or perhaps it acted like an EMP field and was now reactivating their Devices, or so Alex hoped—it let them through without issue, and from there, Alex and her friends were pushed into an elevator. After an ear-popping journey upwards, it opened into a large room bustling with people smartly dressed and wandering about with purpose.

Until that moment, Alex had presumed from Renko’s words that they’d been moved to some kind of high-tech, uncommonly clean prison, but now she had no idea where they were. Not until she saw the sign posted directly above the spiral glass staircase they were being led towards. HIGH COURT OF MEDORA was written in large, bold letters, with an engraving of the Wardens’ emblem beneath it: two swords crossed together behind a crown.

There was an addition to this picture Alex hadn’t seen before, with the emblem positioned in the middle of a shield above the words: Sosaar de ne lenorsa.

“We are many, yet we are one,” D.C. recited quietly, answering Alex’s unspoken question. “It’s meant to be a reminder that our actions affect the lives of those around us every day.” Her eyes travelled over the room and she continued in a whisper, “I can’t believe we’re at the High Court. This is so not good, guys.” The guard behind her prodded his Stabiliser into her back and she snapped her mouth closed.

The moment their entourage stepped onto the spiralling staircase, Renko tapped something into the railing and it came to life, moving them upwards like an escalator. When they reached what Alex judged to be about four floors up, she was nudged off by a guard to follow the Warden down another long hallway, this one with a glass-walled view that held Alex’s attention for the entire length of the walk.

“Mardenia. The city on a hill,” Renko said, tracking her gaze as he fell into step beside her.

Feeling as if he expected a response, she squinted out at the view and said, “It’s very… clean.”

As strange as her description was, it was the only thing Alex could come up with on the fly. Looking at the city sprawled across the side of what was most definitely a hill, Alex marvelled at just how white everything was. Much like the High Court, the buildings running alongside the vibrant blue ocean were bleached of colour. The scenery brought to mind a memory of the time she’d travelled around the Greek Islands with her parents when they’d been working on a dig outside of Athens. They’d taken a four-day vacation from their work and hired a boat, cruising around the Aegean Sea and setting foot on as many islands as time allowed.

Before Alex could properly indulge in her nostalgia, they came to the end of the windowed walkway and Renko ordered them to sit in a small waiting room.

“Your trial will begin in five minutes. Wait in here until you’re called.”

Alex anxiously flicked her eyes to Renko as he and the guards exited the room. “Our trial?”

He turned to her when he reached the door, his face blank. “You illegally infiltrated a top-secret facility. Did you expect to get off with just a warning?”

And with that, he locked them in the small room.

“So what are we looking at here?” Alex asked D.C.

“My guess?” D.C. chewed nervously on her lip. “Nothing good. We were caught red-handed, Alex. As much as it’ll suck, we may have to get someone to contact my parents.”

“I can see that conversation going well.” Alex pitched her voice to mimic D.C., “Excuse me, Warden Renko, do you mind contacting the king and queen to tell them you’ve got their daughter locked up in prison? No, really, I promise you, I’m the princess.” Alex finished her recitation by looking pointedly up and down her friend’s lightning-zinged, muddy appearance. “For some reason, I have a feeling he’ll have a hard time believing us.”

“Fortunately for you, little human, you won’t have to wait to find out if that is true.”

Alex whirled around only to gape at the sight of the huge Meyarin guard, Zain, leaning casually against the wall.

“I leave you alone for a few days and you end up incarcerated,” he said, taking in their messy appearances with a mixture of exasperation and amusement. “You once told me you didn’t need a babysitter, but all evidence points to the contrary.”

“What are you doing here, Zain?” Alex asked, amazed to see him standing there with them. “How did you even get in here? No, scratch that. How did you know where to find us?” She paused. “Wait, you are here for us, right?”

“Always so curious,” Zain said, pushing off from the wall and moving with Meyarin grace towards her. “Turn around, Alex.”

He didn’t give her the option of following his command since his heavy hands came to rest on her shoulders, swivelling her body until her back faced him. She heard a snick before her bonds fell to the ground. Massaging the pins and needles from her wrists, Alex watched him liberate D.C. and Bear with a lethal-looking blade. Zain didn’t miss their winces when their injured hands were released.

“Step closer, humans, and we’ll address your wounds back in Meya.”

When Alex opened her mouth to repeat her questions, he sent her a quelling look and said, “Unless of course you want to stay here and end up with criminal records and prison time?”

She snapped her mouth shut and the three of them moved closer to Zain. Almost immediately, the ground tore out from underneath them as the Valispath activated, shooting them straight through the walls of the High Court and out into the sunset horizon.

Zain, thankfully, had recently spent quite some time with Alex’s human self, so he knew to reach out and fiddle with the settings of the Eternal Path—settings that were invisible to human eyes. He pressed a patterned sequence into the transparent wall, causing the wind chill to disappear instantly. Even though they were soaring over the white buildings of Mardenia at a stomach-churning speed, their ride was smooth and silent. In fact, if Alex closed her eyes, she wouldn’t know she was moving at all.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” D.C. whispered, staring pale faced at the blurring scenery as the Valispath picked up more speed.

Alex had forgotten that only she had experienced the Path at full velocity before. Her friends had been on it with her twice, but only between Meya and Raelia, and at a much more sedate pace.

“Here,” Zain said, pulling a crumpled white flower from his cloak and handing it to D.C. “Chew this, it will make you feel better.”

Ill as she was, D.C. didn’t question him. She put the flower in her mouth, closing her eyes and taking deliberately controlled breaths. Within moments the colour returned to her face and she opened her eyes again, looking stunned. “Wow,” she said, still chewing. “This is good stuff.”

“Fraedonweed,” Zain said. “Cures most superficial stomach illnesses.” His eyes lit up with mischief and he added, “When ground into a paste, it’s a remarkably effective boot polish as well.”

D.C.’s rapidly improving face blanched again and she turned to Alex. “Am I eating boot polish?”

Alex hesitated. “Does it taste like boot polish?”

When D.C.’s colour continued draining away, Alex realised that she could have chosen her words more carefully.

“What I meant was, who cares if it’s boot polish if it tastes all right?” Alex tried again.

“I suggest we change the topic unless you want Dix to puke all over our feet,” Bear said pointedly.

Taking his advice, Alex turned back to Zain. “How did you know we needed rescuing? And where to find us?”

Zain answered with only one word, but it was explanation enough. “Hunter.”

Alex closed her eyes slowly. It figured that her Stealth and Subterfuge teacher would know what they’d been up to—and that they’d needed help. Somehow the mysterious man seemed to know everything, and not just because he had a supernatural gift of awareness and perception.

“Hunter was following us?” Bear asked, and Alex reopened her eyes to see his surprise.

“He thought it wise,” Zain responded. He didn’t get a chance to say anything else before the Valispath shot them straight into a snow-covered mountain, and for a few seconds, all light disappeared until they broke through to the other side and rejoined the open sky.

Bear let out a quiet groan. “Now I think I’m going to be sick.”

Zain shook his head and muttered, “Humans.”

Alex pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. He’d been with them for less than five minutes and already appeared eager to dump them in the forest below.

“You’re sure looking better than the last time I saw you,” Alex said, hoping to keep him from acting on his urge to abandon them. “Are you completely healed?”

It had been less than a fortnight, but when she’d last laid eyes on Zain he’d been suffering from a wound poisoned by Hyroa blood—the Meyarin equivalent of kryptonite—and he’d nearly died. Now, however, he appeared healthy and strong, much to Alex’s relief.

Noticing Alex’s clinical perusal, Zain sent her a warm smile. “As you can see, I’m fully recovered. And ready to assist in your training.”

Alex unconsciously scrunched up her face and resolutely decided to ignore his words, choosing instead to visit a happy place in her mind; a place where she never had to consider the worrisome idea of training with the hulk of a Meyarin. Or any others of his kind.

“It won’t be so bad,” Zain said, nudging her with his elbow. “I’ll go easy on you.”

Alex very much doubted he would. The reason she had to learn how to fight with the Meyarins was so she could hold her own against Aven. Therefore, she needed to know what she was up against. Being babied, as much as she liked the idea, wouldn’t help her—or anyone else.

“You said you’re taking us to Meya,” D.C. said to Zain. “Is there a reason we’re not going straight back to Woodhaven?”

“Prince Roka planned on collecting Alex tomorrow for us to begin working with her,” Zain answered, causing Alex’s eyebrows to shoot up, “but then Hunter contacted us and said you could use… some assistance…”—his lips twitched at that, but he continued—“so I was sent to retrieve you all today instead. Now Alex will simply be able to begin her training earlier than anticipated.”

Oh, goodie, Alex thought. And I thought this day couldn’t get any better.

Four

Before Alex could ask Zain exactly what her training would entail, the Valispath began to slow. She hadn’t even noticed them gliding through the Silverwood. The snow-dusted forest was now darkening into hues of bright gold as they moved towards their destination. And sure enough, within seconds, they breached the tree line and soared over the Golden Cliffs, with the Eternal Path spiralling them down through the spray of waterfalls and into the valley below.

The silvery spires of the palace at the centre of the city lit up like a beacon, shining with the light of the setting sun that bounced off the snowy surrounds with an iridescent radiance. Alex could hear Bear and D.C.’s outspoken awe, and she knew that whether seventeen or seventy, there was nothing any of them would see in the rest of their lives that would rival the beauty of the Lost City.

It took hardly any time at all before the Path led them directly into the palace, stopping only when they reached a long corridor intricately decorated with swirls of Myrox and gold. Ordinarily it would have seemed gaudy and ostentatious, but given the rest of the opulence surrounding them, the décor was almost bland in comparison to the city.

“Prince Roka is expecting us,” Zain said, moving off the invisible transportation and towards the nearest door. Bear and D.C. followed directly behind him, both somewhat wobbly from their experience on the Valispath.

Trailing after them, Alex wondered why Zain kept referring to Roka as ‘Prince’ when she knew the Meyarin royal preferred to be casual with his title, but then she realised it must be because of D.C. and Bear. The Meyarins trusted Alex, but she knew they didn’t have the same confidence in her friends. In fact, not so long ago Roka had pleaded with Alex to remain quiet about the Meyarin qualities she’d inherited from Aven’s attempted Claiming, making her promise to keep it a secret from her friends—and anyone else—to lessen the risk of Aven finding out. But after her recent experience with the banished prince, Aven had to now realise something was different about Alex, and since her friends had been caught up in that mess with her, she’d decided they deserved to know the truth. True to form, they’d been nothing but encouraging, with D.C. offering compassion and Bear thinking it was the coolest thing ever. They were also firmly in favour of Alex training with the Meyarins, despite knowing her reluctance. But the fact was, they all knew she would likely come face to face with Aven again, and when that time came, Alex would need to embrace her Meyarin abilities should she have any hope to survive the confrontation.

“Any day now, little human.”

Alex glanced up to see Zain waiting for her to follow Bear and D.C. through the very same doorway she had once used on her midnight visit to Meya after crossing paths—and swords— with Aven at Sir Oswald’s dinner party. That felt like years ago to Alex, given everything that had happened since.

“Sorry,” she said. “I spaced out for a moment. This headache is killing me.”

Sliding past him to enter the room beyond, Alex was surprised to see him continue on down the corridor rather than join them. Shrugging mentally, she turned back to the room and found Roka and his betrothed, Kyia, waiting for her. Alex easily returned their smiles, but the expression slid from her face when their eyes widened at her appearance and they burst into laughter.

“And I thought your friends looked bad,” Roka said, walking over and placing a welcoming hand on her shoulder. “It’s good to see you, Alex, even if it looks like you found a swamp and missed the ‘watch your step’ sign.”

“Ha, ha, you’re hilarious,” Alex grumbled, crossing her arms. Unfortunately she was too happy to see the Meyarins to feel any real annoyance at their reactions. That, and she was fully aware of how ridiculous she and her friends looked. Bear’s hair was still standing on end from their earlier encounter with the lightning, his face streaked with charcoal. D.C. also looked particularly wild, with her red hair frizzing exponentially by the second as it aired out naturally. Dried mud covered both their legs, but even that couldn’t compete with Alex’s state of crustiness, her body coated from head to toe.

She couldn’t blame Roka and Kyia for their laughter—in fact, she was surprised Zain had held back from commenting earlier. Furrowing her brow, Alex looked around, but their bulky escort was still nowhere to be seen. Then, as if on cue, Zain strode back into the room.

“Here,” he said, handing a golden chalice to Alex and passing two others to her friends. “Drink.”

Alex watched the steam rising out of the goblet and looked down at the silvery liquid with suspicion. “Is it supposed to be glowing like that?”

Zain huffed with impatience. “Just drink it, Alex.”

She felt the need to quote from a responsible-drinking advertisement, but she figured it would go straight over their otherworldly heads, so instead of making a fuss, she did as commanded, taking a small sip of the pleasantly sweet liquid.

“Mmm.” She smacked her lips together and took another sip, larger this time. “Tastes like vanilla.”

And indeed it did taste like vanilla, or perhaps caramel. She couldn’t quite decide, almost like it was a mixture of the two rich flavours. Either way, it was delicious, and she made a note to never doubt Zain’s drink offerings again, regardless of how psychedelic they looked.

“What’s in it?” Alex asked, entranced by the glowing liquid.

“You said you had a headache,” Zain answered just as she took another large mouthful. “Meyarin blood is known for its healing properties. Enjoy, little human.”

Alex violently spat out her mouthful. The silver liquid sprayed everywhere as she bent at the waist and tried to repress her urge to vomit all over the floor. She was only able to gain control of her gag reflex when she heard the uproarious laughter and realised she’d been played.

Alex stood straight again and scowled at Zain who was laughing the hardest.