Unhidden (The Gatekeeper Chronicles Book 1) (20 page)

“Oh, my God,” Lilly started in that perky way of hers. “That was crazy last night! I’ve never seen a chimera before, only heard about them from Gram’s stories. It was fierce. I can’t believe we made it out of there alive. Em, why were those government guys after you? Did you forget to pay your taxes or something?” She stopped to laugh at her own joke, and I took the opening to interrupt her.

“I don’t know what they wanted. What I do want to know is what you are doing working for Nathan Anshar and how you and Alex just happened to show up together in the same car.” I tried to sound casual, but I was sure the accusation was clear.

“Mr. Anshar is a friend of the family,” Lilly’s father interrupted. “I’m sorry we haven’t yet been introduced.” He threw a steely look at Lilly, and she dropped her head apologetically. “I am Therran, son of Tahltril, Lilly’s father and the leader of the Thalbrar clan. This is my eldest son and heir, Lockien.” Lilly’s dad spoke with the authority of a monarch; however, he looked more like the head of a motorcycle club than an elven clan. He had long hair, generously strung through with gray; rough stubble covered his jaw; and he wore faded jeans and a Grateful Dead T-shirt. His son, on the other hand, looked like he had crawled out of an Abercrombie ad, wearing dark wash jeans and a gray cable knit sweater, with perfectly tousled hair and the same bright green eyes as Lilly.

With a greeting like that, I didn’t know if I was expected to kneel, bow, kiss a ring, or some other such sign of deference. Instead, I simply said, “It’s very nice to meet you. I can’t thank you enough for coming to our rescue last night. If you hadn’t shown up, I don’t think we would have made it out of there alive.”

“No, likely you would not have. Chimeras are not easy creatures to kill. Luckily, I have had some experience with them in the past. As for Mr. Anshar, he has been a benefactor to this family since our arrival here. We owe him much, and occasionally that means he will call on us for assistance.”

Lilly jumped in with her usual enthusiasm. “Yeah, Alex had come into my store last night after you told him I knew something about the amulet. I think his original plan was going to be to threaten me with physical harm if I didn’t reveal all.” She winked at Alex, letting him know she didn’t take his threats of torture personally. “But, if you guys hadn’t noticed, I’m kind of a talker, so I had no problem telling him what I told you. Anyway, we were chatting when Nathan’s assistant called, asking me to play your driver for the night, and Alex insisted on coming along. I have to say, I was pretty surprised when I heard it was you I would be driving around. How do you know Nathan?”

“Lilly,” her father interrupted sternly, “you should refer to him as Mr. Anshar. It is a sign of respect.”

Lilly rolled her eyes, looking like a teenager whose parents simply didn’t get it. “Dad, I have told you a million times, that’s not how it’s done here. It’s okay to call people by their first names.” She turned to me and Alex, explaining conspiratorially, “I’m the only one in this family who was born and schooled on earth, so they just don’t get it. My family is still stuck in the old ways. It drives me crazy. That’s why I had to move to New York City, to be with normal people. I bet, if given a choice, they would go back to Urusilim in a heartbeat. Not me, though.”

“Speaking of which…” I began. “How did such a large group of elves make it to Earth? I thought it was difficult for even one person to get through the rift, let alone almost fifteen.”

Therran looked uncomfortable and exchanged a glance with his son, who had been sitting there silently until now. “We had some…special assistance. I will tell you the story one day, but right now, we should get back to the reason why we are sitting around this table. We have all been sharing information and trying to piece together recent events in order to determine what comes next.”

That got my attention, but I filed away the question of the elves’ arrival for future discussion. “What have you learned?”

Alex took the lead, which I initially thought he did to ensure I wasn’t told anything he didn’t want me to know, though maybe I was being unfair. Alex probably knew the most about what was happening.

“I think we can safely say Marduk is sending creatures through the rift in an effort to assist with your capture and return. I told you how difficult that is to do, which is why he hasn’t been able to send armies after you. However, we aren’t certain he is behind what happened to you in Mexico. The best I can tell, the purpose behind the blood ritual was to activate the amulet. I am guessing there must be something special about you that required the use of your blood and no one else’s.”

“What is it? What is so special about me?”

Alex merely shrugged, not answering. His non-response made me believe he knew more than he was letting on, as usual.

“I also think the ritual removed the shielding spell that we believe had been cast on you. The Mage Council and others have been searching for you for years. Then, suddenly, I was contacted a week ago by the Council with your location and a mandate to protect you. That message came only a day after the incident in Mexico.”

“I suppose that would explain why all of this is happening now.”

“Yes. I think it is safe to speculate that Marduk wants you alive for a reason connected to the amulet. I don’t know why your own government would want you though.”

“I’m just irresistible, I guess.” Speaking of irresistible, I thought about Zane and that kiss in the Navy Yard, feeling my cheeks flush at the memory.

“Tell me more about Zane.” Zane confused me more than anything else, if that was even possible. Although he was deadly dangerous and had tried to kill or capture me on a few occasions, I didn’t fear him. In fact, if I was going to be honest with myself, I almost wanted to see him again.

Alex hesitated, his eyes fluttering around the room, looking everywhere except at me. He blew out an uncertain breath. “Zane and I were best friends once. It was a long time ago. He wasn’t always like he is now. He was a good person, the best really. You knew that better than anyone. The two of you had … something. But Zane was always a private person, so I can’t really give you any details.”

I had no memory at all of Zane and our time together, but I knew immediately what Alex had said was true. I felt it in my soul. Zane had been mine once. “What happened to him?”

“Marduk,” he said simply. “Zane was taken. Broken. I can’t imagine what Marduk did to him, but whatever it was, it destroyed Zane’s mind. A few years ago, the Mage Council managed to capture Zane. The most talented and powerful mages in all of Urusilim tried to restore him, but to no avail. If they couldn’t do it, no one can. Zane is Marduk’s lap dog, completely and irreversibly brainwashed. Zane escaped the Council and went running right back to his master.”

“But it sometimes seems like there is still a sane person in there somewhere,” I insisted.

Alex shook his head, giving me a look of pity. “I think you are only deluding yourself. None of us have seen even a glimmer of hope. If you think you saw glimpses of the old Zane, it’s either because he’s manipulating you or because you don’t remember what the old Zane was like.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I said, unconvinced. I knew what manipulation looked like, and I didn’t think that was what was happening. The kiss had felt genuine. Besides, just because Alex had told me I had a history with Zane didn’t mean I remembered it, and I certainly didn’t feel it—at least, not entirely. It was more like a ghost of a feeling, similar to déjà vu. It was enough to create some passing intrigue, though certainly not enough to drive me to take an action on it … yet.

“And what about the amulet? What does it do?” I asked.

Alex shrugged and looked like he was about to tell me he had no idea when Lilly’s grandmother interrupted. “That depends on you, child,” she said in a surprisingly strong voice for someone who looked so frail. She continued to bustle about the kitchen, not even looking in our direction. “It has your blood; it is your essence. If you know who you are, you know what the amulet is capable of.”

That sent chills down my spine. I didn’t know who I was, but I knew at least some of what I was capable of, and not much of it was good. Could the amulet channel the darkness within me? If so, I didn’t want to be responsible for the potential consequences. I wasn’t the right person to carry an object of such power. I should give it to someone who could be trusted to do good with it, but who was that? Even if I knew any good people, would I want to burden them with the amulet?

“So, you’re saying I can do anything at all with it, without limitations?”

“Its limitations are yours. What are your limits?” She must have seen the fear in my face because she continued, “No faith in yourself, eh? You will be tested, child. That is when you will find out who you really are.”

Dread passed through me. I made a vow to myself then to give the amulet to someone who proved themselves worthy of it. And, if I couldn’t find that person in time, I would hide it away somewhere deep and dark where no one would be able to find it.

“So, what is our next move?” Lockien asked.

When I gave him an eternally grateful glance for having shifted the attention away from me, he returned it with the hint of a smile. That was when I remembered the sheet of paper in my back pocket.

“Nathan gave this to me just before we had to flee the building. I agreed to take a job finding a stolen object for him.” I looked at the blue Post-It note for the first time. On it, scrawled in neat block lettering, was the location of my next mission:

None of us had ever heard of North Brother Island, so Lilly googled it on her iPhone.

“Wow. It’s right here in New York City. It’s an abandoned island in the Hudson River that used to house Riverside Hospital, a quarantine facility for smallpox victims. It looks like someplace out of a horror movie.” She turned her screen around so we could all see the imposing yet dilapidated brick structure of the hospital that was slowly but surely being reclaimed by the surrounding forest. She turned back to her phone. “This says the hospital closed in the 1930s after a boat filled with patients caught fire on the river and everyone onboard died, their bodies washing up on the shore of the island. It looks like the entire island was turned into a wildlife sanctuary after that.”

“Why would he want to send you there? What is supposed to be there?” Alex asked.

“He said it was a weapon of some sort, something about it being a body for the amulet. It didn’t make much sense to me.”

Lilly’s grandmother stopped mid-chop on her onions and dropped the knife onto the floor with a clatter. Everyone’s attention turned to her; however, she was staring holes through me with piercing, incredulous eyes. Then she exchanged a long look with her son.

Therran said to her, “Do you think Nathan knew where it was all along and didn’t say anything? He wouldn’t do that. He knows how long we have been searching for it.”

“If you had found it first, would you have told him?” she asked.

Lilly’s father didn’t respond. His silence was answer enough though.

“What the heck are you two talking about?” Lilly demanded.

Her father gave her another disapproving look. I had a feeling Lilly got that look a lot from her family, but he proceeded to explain anyway. “If it is the weapon we suspect it to be, it is called Sharur. It is beyond ancient. Sharur is, in its most basic form, a battle axe said to have been forged by the gods in the lava pits that flow through the core of Urusilim. It was created for a fae prince who was said to have helped the gods defeat the Old One, the first god who created our world in darkness. However, some creatures still loyal to the Old One—the Monere—escaped retribution and searched Urusilim for the prince to take their revenge. To protect their loyal servant, the gods forged for him a weapon that could kill magic and open rifts in reality to allow him to escape to safety on other worlds. Yet the enemy eventually found him and mortally wounded him. Although they couldn’t fix his body, the gods preserved him by placing his soul in the axe, granting him immortality,”

“And you want it why exactly?” Lilly asked her father.

The answer came to me before Therran could respond. “You think that, if you had this weapon, you could open a rift back to Urusilim.” Therran looked pleased that I had been able to figure it out on my own and nodded. “But why don’t you just ask the mages to help you open a rift? There are some that are strong enough to do it.”

“That’s true,” Therran said. “However, they are only capable of sending one individual through a rift at a time, and the recovery from even that effort is significant. We believe that Sharur is the only object in existence that can open a rift large enough for long enough to send many through.”

“An army,” I breathed. “Marduk wants to invade earth.”

“Yes, that is possible,” he said. “But that is not the elves’ purpose. Those of us here on Earth are refugees from the partial destruction of Urusilim a decade ago. We simply want to reunite with our families and clans and see if enough time has passed so we can successfully heal the land.”