“Something tells me we’re going to regret this,” Soph sighed as she moved closer to the exit. “I don’t mean to suggest we shouldn’t do it, but I wanted to point out the obvious now, just in case.”
Jericho chuckled. “Hey, I’m good. I find myself in the company of some extraordinary people. I’m glad to have you all with me in these trying times. I wouldn’t want to face this with anyone else.”
“Our parents must be terrified,” Dafne said.
“They know what kind of daredevils they raised,” Jericho replied, giving her a slight shoulder nudge. It prompted Dafne to smile faintly. “Lethe is one hell of an ice dragon, and Elodie is one of the fiercest humans I’ve ever come across. Plus, you’ve proven yourself more than once in the battlefield. I have confidence in our ability to see this through.”
I walked over and put my hand out, and Jericho was quick to place his over mine. “Caia is the fieriest of them all, and Blaze…well, let’s just say the Black Heights haven’t been the same since he came into this world. The two of them combined made you, my friend, and I can’t imagine anyone better to torch the asses of our enemies.”
“How about you?” Dafne asked. “Visio prince, vampire extraordinaire with glamoring powers?” She chuckled. “Skill. Determination. A strong moral compass. You haven’t declared yourself the leader of this group, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that I’m grateful to have someone like you to follow as we navigate this nightmare.”
She put her hand over Jericho’s and mine, then Soph and Astra joined in, both wearing expressions of hope and kindness. “Add a lethal daemon princess to the mix, and we’re already stronger than our enemy,” Astra said.
“Plus, a Daughter-sentry who’s not afraid to push herself beyond all known limits,” Soph added with a warm smile. “I think Jericho’s right. We got lucky to be thrown together like this. We might not be GASP’s finest, and we might not even be the strongest around, but I’ll be damned if we don’t have the drive to kick these freaks to hell and back.”
I took a deep breath and declared, “It’s time to reclaim our world and our freedom. The clones have wreaked enough havoc. They’ve taken our people and who knows what else. This is it. Our point of no return. We go forward, and we won’t stop until we accomplish every one of our objectives. We will find the necessary supplies. We will discover what the clones stole from The Shade. We will save Isabelle, Viola, and whoever else they might’ve brought over here. And we will get to the truth. Deal?”
“Deal,” they replied in unison.
I shared Jericho’s feelings about our crew. We were few but we had plenty of motivation. This wasn’t just about Astra’s mother or Isabelle or the attacks on our island. This was about the integrity of our world and GASP’s ability to fight its new and strange enemy. I had no idea what horrors awaited us outside, but we couldn’t spend the rest of our days hiding in this cave.
Something strange and curious was out there. Something we had to understand, despite its frightful facets. I refused to let the clones get away with this, and even though we weren’t sure how we’d fare in the end, we were a solid team. That thought alone was enough to get my blood pumping as we made our way through the narrow corridor to the exit.
Thayen
By the time we left the cave, we were all feeling emboldened. It didn’t really matter if it was because of the hours we’d spent recuperating or because there wasn’t a single soul present within a one-mile radius. I just wanted us to hold on to this sensation and use it to move forward.
Carefully, we took the less traveled paths through the redwood forest, allowing ourselves a little time along the way to explore this strange world. Yes, it had been modeled after our Shade, but the closer I looked, the clearer the differences became. There were slight aberrations, but they were there—in addition to the augmented darkness, the foliage was unlike the true redwoods of home, the leaves peculiarly shaped, and the ground itself felt harder beneath my boots.
“Look at that,” Astra whispered, pointing at a cluster of tall bushes. The plants had long, slender branches with oval-shaped waxed leaves that moved under the nocturnal winds. The colors weren’t just faded, they were wrong; the greens were dirty, almost brown and rust colored, and the blossoms at the stem tips were violet and blue. “I haven’t seen anything like this in The Shade.”
“The bark is all wrong, too,” Dafne added, touching one of the redwoods. “It’s hard to put into words, but it’s like someone put a lot of work into the details without the necessary knowledge of our home.”
I nodded slowly. “The same was said of the fire fae and dragon clones that were susceptible to fire. They look and sound incredibly similar to the originals, but someone missed a few crucial aspects in their design. Or maybe nature simply works differently here than back home…”
As we walked through the woods, we noticed other minor irregularities, such as dark green vines climbing up the oldest redwoods—the ancient ones that were at least four or five hundred years old and clearly dying. The crowns had dried up, but something told me the vines had played a part, as well. There were more paths, too, crisscrossing the forest and leading in different directions.
“Do you really think we’ll find my Mom here?” Astra asked me after a while. We kept heading north, taking a longer route through the obscure wilderness to keep our distance from the settled areas. Somewhere far away, yet loud enough for us to hear, the automated voice droned on about the pink-haired half-Daughter. We hadn’t seen a clone since before we reached the cave, and I wondered where they’d all gone. “Be honest, Thayen. Your opinion really matters, you know?”
I stopped and gripped her by the shoulders. “I am being honest. I’m convinced we’ll find her and Isabelle here, probably alive. I can’t guarantee anything, and I can only imagine how it’s making you feel, but I’m hopeful.”
“At the risk of repeating myself, I think we would’ve found their bodies in The Shade if they were dead,” Soph cut in, giving Astra a faint but warm smile. “We just need to keep looking.”
“See, I’m totally okay with that. But it really bothers me that we don’t yet know what the endgame is here,” Astra sighed. “I mean, what was the point of that whole business back home? Isabelle’s clone spent two months with us for what, exactly? What the hell was that thing she had inside her that Claudia’s double killed her to obtain? Why bother to send so many of these freaks into The Shade to feign an invasion? Why are they so determined to kill me? Sorry, I know we’ve asked these questions before…”
“Yeah, and how did they get our DNA to begin with? How are some of their clones coming out faulty, while others show up with tactical improvements?” Jericho added, rolling his eyes. “It’s annoying and frustrating. I feel you. But the only way we’re going to get our answers is if we stick to the mission we’ve agreed upon.”
Astra sighed. “That’s true. It just bugs me.”
“It bugs me, too,” Dafne replied. “The parameters of our mission keep shifting because we don’t have enough information. More than once, the clones were trying to get to Isabelle’s doppelganger, and this whole time, I thought it was because they needed her back in one piece. It turns out she had something they desperately wanted. Her survival wasn’t mandatory. And she knew that.”