Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 (21 page)

Another dragon appeared at Clara’s side.
Recognition was instant. Councilman Maynard was one of the eldest
members of the dragon council. No wonder the Khr'Vurr escaped every
trap the dragon guardians and council set up. They had a mole, a
very powerful mole.

Her sword clashed with his. His face twisted
in hatred. “Drop the sword or your mate will be killed.”

A flush of fury filled her, instantly
settling into a cold pit of rage in her chest. With a flicker of
thought, she concentrated on the crystal links around Clara’s
wrist, shaving an unnoticeable splinter off the chain. She shoved
the tiny shard into Clara’s wrist.

Her lips curved into a callous smile,
revealing the cold killer behind her ice princess mask. “Nick chose
another girl. Why should I care if he is alive or dead?” she asked,
frost coating each word. “I have the person I came for. He’s about
to fry your mate into ash.”

Trading blows, one after another, the dragon
sneered at her. “Then you have no problem with me giving a mental
order to kill him?”

She planned to deliver Maynard to the dragon
council in exchange for information, which meant she couldn’t kill
him, not yet. Distraction needed.

Without glancing at the female dragon, Sarah
forced the smooth links of crystal, surrounding the dragon’s wrist,
into sharp spikes. Without a shred of remorse, she mentally yanked
the crystal bracelet tight, sinking half-inch barbs through the
muscle and bone of Clara’s wrist.

The dragon shrieked in agony, dropping her
weapon as she frantically tried to remove the band that rapidly
tightened around her wrist.

Maynard roared. His bellow reverberated off
the cell’s walls. Slashing outward, he overextended as he attacked
her, exposing his belly.

Taking advantage of his distraction, Sarah
ducked and slashed upward, slicing a thin line from his crotch to
neck.

He disappeared and just as quickly reappeared
directly behind Clara.

Oh, no, Sarah had a tracker on Clara, but she
was not letting them pull their little disappearing stunt
again.

She had used her last silver throwing star on
Eve. Fortunately, there was plenty of silver chain scattered around
the room.

Scooping up a broken link, she coated the
silver with crystal. Rearing back, she aimed and cursed. Hell’s
bells, she didn’t have a clean shot. Clara’s body essentially
shielded Maynard. A smile creased her face. The councilor would
never forsake his mate.

“
Mac!”
she mentally shouted an instant
before she threw the silver link at Clara.

They had practiced a similar maneuver, but
had never had the opportunity to use it.

He grinned. Anticipation lighting his eyes,
he hit the silver link with a blast of white-fire, melting the
metal in mid-air.

With a flicker of thought, Sarah forced the
crystal into several sharp darts, blending them with the molten
silver. Another mental order and she sent the silver-crystal darts
flying toward Clara. The tiny projectiles hit the female dragon in
the shoulder and upper chest, penetrating deep into her body.

Going at Sídhí speed, the entire process took
less time than it took to take a deep breath.

“No!” Maynard bellowed. Understanding flashed
across his face as he realized the dozens of tiny darts sinking
into his mate was as effective as a silver collar. His mate could
not port to safety.

Picking Clara up like a child, Maynard turned
and ran from the room.

Mac surged forward.

“Stop!” Sarah snapped at him, knowing the two
dragons couldn’t go far.

“Sarah,” Mac said, growling her name between
clenched teeth.

“First, take me In Between.”

^____________

For hours, Nick followed the brawny creature
through a maze of tunnels that connected the jail to a widespread
network of caverns.

He glanced around the rectangle-shaped space.
There was no way the large cave was natural. The floor and ceiling
were smooth, not dotted with spikes of rock. Patterns swirled
across both surfaces. He followed the umbra, passing beside a wall
dotted with holes. Half-eaten trolls covered a small portion of the
floor.

He’d been unconscious so he didn’t recognize
the room, but from Jared’s description, Nick was in the honeycomb,
his cousin’s term for the mite’s food storage area.

Walking toward the far end of the chamber,
the umbra ignored the looming wall and dead trolls. The creature
turned into a large hallway. The stone entry was carved with blocky
script and fighting umbra. Piles of dust and debris marked the
passage of time; a thousand years of neglect had destroyed
everything within the umbra’s stronghold.

At least, Nick assumed that’s what the string
of interconnected rooms and passageways must’ve been, one of the
last safe havens for the nightmare race.

Turning down a side passage, they walked
deeper under the earth. Glow moss covered the uneven rock walls,
but the Sídhí version of a natural flashlight did not spark to
life. The wild moss never noticed their passage.

The dull gray of the In Between never
flickered, remaining a slice of two worlds frozen in time, neither
here nor there.

The tunnel widened into a small room, before
ending abruptly. Blocking the opposite end of the odd room was a
wall of synth crystal. The umbra turned right and entered a second
tunnel that had been carved from the bedrock surrounding the
massive chunk of crystal.

“Seems like a lot of work to create a path
around a chunk of synth crystal,” Nick said scornfully, hoping to
irritate the creature into talking to him. If he could figure out
where the creature was taking him, he might have a chance to escape
and contact the guardians.

The umbra patted the smooth, white wall.
“Perhaps to your small mind it seems a work of futility, but not to
my people. My great-grandfather was the first one to reach the
outer barrier.”

Nick didn’t comment. Silence might keep the
creature’s tongue waging faster than anything else would.

Black, beady eyes glanced at him. “You are
hearing history that no other non-umbra has ever heard. That should
concern you.”

Unable to stop, Nick asked the obvious,
“Why?”

“You are nothing but leverage against the
Earth-born Chi’Kehra. Once we kill her, you’ll be next.”

“In other words, you want to gloat and my
silence is assured?” Nick snorted. “You seem awful sure of
yourself.

“Of course, I am. We are brilliant
tacticians. Umbra were created to fight, to kill. The old Chi’Kehra
didn’t realize he was creating the perfect race to rule all
others,” he said, with a negligent shrug of wide shoulders. “Don’t
let the Khr'Vurr antics fool you. Whether the umbra’s empire is on
Sídhí or Earth is not a concern.”

“You don’t answer to the Khr'Vurr?”

Fur rippled, and Nick knew his question
struck a nerve. “We’ve had more than enough of pretending to be
docile, while the Sídhí-born Chi’Kehra keeps a watchful eye on
us.”

As the creature’s words sunk in, Nick
clenched his teeth and cursed to himself. A gateway to Sídhí and a
full blood elvish Chi’Kehra, that’s all they needed.

The creature didn’t notice Nick’s
jaw-clenching reaction as he turned into an opening along the
smooth wall. Embedded scrollwork glowed against the white
surface.

“Soon, we will be on Earth, and we will be
beyond his reach. Your little girlfriend will be no more than a
bump along the road to our glory,” the umbra stated, turning down a
wide tunnel within the ancient ruins.

Doorways began appearing. Through each door
lay a different scene, a mountain range, a schoolyard, an office
building… no two gateways were the same. Well, except one
overwhelming feature, gray painted each scene.

The tunnel split, and then split again. The
doorways disappeared and they walked down a long flight of stairs.
The bottom two steps lay submerged in liquid crystal. He stepped
down, but didn’t encounter the water. Walking through the In
Between, his feet remained dry.

Various sized holes appeared along the bottom
of the walls. Liquid crystal poured from a few of them, others
acted as drains. Through some of the larger holes, he could see
different tunnels.

Nick jerked to a stop, frozen in place. Two
holes, side-by-side, showed two vastly different tunnels.

The umbra’s dark chuckle made the hair on his
scalp rise in warning. “I see you noticed the secret of the ancient
ruins. Each hole is actually a gateway. Thankfully, the energy of
so much synth crystal in one place masks the energy the gateways
throw off. If it didn’t, your little girlfriend would’ve spoiled
all of our plans long before now, because every Sídhí Valley has a
set of ruins, some small, some large. Most of the ruins are
interconnected, creating a massive maze of power runners.” A black,
furred leg kicked at the water that lay just out of reach. “We
started filling the isolated ruins years ago. Once the connected
tunnels are filled, all of the valley ruins will be fully charged,
forcing the dimensional barrier around each valley to recognize the
energy source and complete its destination.”

“Destination?” Nick murmured uneasily.

“Yes,” sharp teeth flashed as the umbra
answered him, “the Khr'Vurr believe filling the tunnels will return
everyone to Sídhí. Fools follow orders better when they think
they’re getting what they want.”

“They’re wrong?” Nick asked. With each word
the creature spoke, Nick’s sense of trepidation grew. The umbra was
a vicious adversary, but their true weapon was an ability to create
unbeatable strategies. If the creature’s smug words were anything
to go by, the Sídhí valleys were in deep crap and didn’t even know
it.

“Four thousand years ago, the old Chi’Kehra
connected the ruins, filled them, and then commanded the synth
crystal to transport his people to earth. As you know, the power
didn’t stop with his people. It sucked people, plants, and whatever
else into the void. Stupid fool misjudged the amount of power
needed and the power cells ran dry before they could reach their
destination.”

Nick connected the dots. “Re-fill the ruins
and the valleys will have the energy to reach their original
destination.” Valleys would appear all over earth, creating mass
chaos among Sídhí and mundane humans. The death toll would be
horrendous.

The creature watched him with devilish
enjoyment. Without another word, the umbra walked away.

The world was about to collapse around
everyone’s ears and there was nothing he could do about it. With a
snarl of frustration, Nick followed. He hadn’t walked three feet
when his foot hit an invisible barrier. He lurched forward, a
tingle of power rushed around him as he unknowingly passed through
a floating gateway.

“What the…,” his words spluttered to a halt
as he fell forward, plunging face first into liquid crystal. The
liquid soaked him from head-to-toe.

The umbra threw back its head and laughed.
“One of a kind, the portal is a passage between the real world and
the In Between.”

Hope flared through Nick. No longer was he
stuck in a gray void without hope of escape. He snorted. Right, all
he had to do was kill an umbra without the help of his claws.
Between the silver and all the gateways, he knew his super strength
was also blocked.

They walked up a second flight of stairs.
Doorways appeared on either side, displaying colorful scenes that
equaled freedom.

Knowing there was no time like the present he
sucked in a fortifying breath and swung the dangling chain toward
the creature. The links snapped around the umbra’s neck. With his
entire strength, Nick jerked backward. The sound of cracking bones
clashed with the sound of the umbra’s body hitting the ground.

Nick surged forward and grabbed the smooth
head. He twisted it, jerking the umbra’s head from side-to-side.
Thick muscles and tendons refused to rip apart. No matter how hard
he tugged, the head wouldn’t come loose. Yeah, his strength was
gone the way of the dodo birds, non-existent.

After several minutes of wrangling with the
slick, wet fur, he grunted in disgust and let the umbra’s head
bounce against the crystal floor. Without removing the umbra’s head
from its body, the creature would not die. Depending upon its age,
healing from a broken neck could take a few hours to a few
days.

Cursing under his breath, he looked around
the empty tunnel for inspiration. Vivid blue water, the color of
Sarah’s eyes, appeared through one doorway. Glancing through, he
saw the gateway hovered a good twenty feet above a deserted
beach.

Grunting with effort, he shoved the umbra
through the doorway.

With the creature taken care of, he picked-up
his chains and hesitated. If he walked through one of the gateways,
he could get his bearings and port home. It would be the quickest
way to warn the world about the umbra. It also meant turning his
back on Sarah.

He knew, without a single doubt, she would be
searching for him, and the first place she’d start would be with
Mac’s location.

Turning, he ignored his chance at freedom and
quickly retraced his steps, returning to the gray In Between.

Mac
touched Sarah’s shoulder, and she tensed. She hated the In Between.
With that thought uppermost in her mind, Mac shifted them across
the dimensional barrier, and they appeared in the lead-colored
world of nothingness.

Instinct screamed she wasn’t alone. Turning,
she swiftly swung her crystal sword. Death sung through the
air.

Her eyes snapped around, following her blade.
She expected to see a black furred monster.

An arm length away, Nick jumped backward. He
wasn’t fast enough.

She jerked her blade to a stop. Sweat
popped-out, dampening her forehead. Blood beaded on the sharp edge
of her sword. A drip of gray blood slid down Nick’s neck. As if
frozen in time, air choked her. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t
think.