Alive (The Veiled World Book 1) (25 page)

The queen stood and the others knelt, but I didn’t. She wasn’t my queen.

She turned her head to stare me down, but said nothing. If anything, I thought her lips twisted into a smile.

“Today’s game is Dance Until Your Death,” she said with a serene smile.

Wait, did I just hear that right?

The men and woman beside me whispered, “Yes,” like a classroom full of kids who had just got the answers to their test right.

“Does she mean we dance until our—”

“Our deaths. Yes,” said a good-looking boy around my age.

Why was he smiling so much? Didn’t he realise how terrible this was?

“The victor gets a choice. A life of luxury or their freedom beyond the castle gates.”

Several guards stepped forward and strapped something heavy to our arms and legs. When they stepped away I raised my limbs and dropped them immediately. We’d been strapped with iron to weigh us down.

Music began, the soft, uplifting sound of a flute. The others began twirling around and making circles with their feet and moving their arms up and down elaborately. I wasn’t sure how they were able to do that with about ten kilos strapped to each limb. They must have practiced or trained for it.

A cold chill swept down my back. I was going to die here, on the stage. Dancing was not my strong point. But then I recalled what that guard had said.

“Just remember that it’s not a game of skill, but a game of endurance.”

I started to move my legs from side to side, swaying my hips only just so that it could pass for dancing. I knew what the guard meant. I needed to conserve my energy if I was going to survive. He must have lost his daughter this way.

While I moved I scanned the crowd for a familiar face but found nobody. My heart sank, but I had to focus. I had to keep moving and get into a zone.

For the next hour or so I moved from side to side, turning only when the guards prodded me with the red tipped metal prong they were poking at anyone who wasn’t dancing hard enough. But mostly I kept motivated by imagining what it would be like to see Sam again. To reach out and touch him. To talk to him again and hear his voice.

A decent amount of time must have passed because I was dragged out of my thoughts by two loud thuds.

A beautiful redheaded woman and a handsome, fair-haired man lay sprawled on their backs.

I was happy despite feeling bad for them, thinking I actually had a chance at winning this thing, when I saw two guards poke them with the sizzling hot pokers until they got to their feet and began dancing again.

Next, the three other contenders fell to the floor, one after the other.

My stomach churned sickly as the smell of charred flesh greeted my nostrils. My legs felt so heavy, my muscles stiff from too much dancing.

The crowd blurred before my eyes. It seemed darker now. There was less light. All I could see were the hot pokers heading towards me.

I felt dizzy and light and fell flat on my back.

I closed my eyes and I was back home again, and our house was ablaze.

Sam was screaming my name and I was at his door, staring at that brass knob of his bedroom door.

“It’s too hot!” I screamed as I tried and tried to wrap my hand around it.

“Try again, Amber!” Sam cried, his voice desperate. I could tell he was crying. “You can do it!”

I closed my eyes and wrapped my hands around the door knob and I screamed as I twisted it open.

But when I opened my eyes I wasn’t inside my house anymore. I was flat on my back, on the stage of the amphitheatre, holding a red hot poker in the palm of my hand.

I leapt to my feet, a sudden rage infusing me with strength and I twisted that poker and yanked it out of the guard’s hand. I spun it around and caught the handle with my other hand and pointed the hot poker at the guard’s chest.

“Get away!” I shouted in the silence, and it was then I realised that I was the only one standing and the others were on the ground, weak with exhaustion.

The queen stood and nodded her head my way. “We have a new victor!”

The crowd erupted into deafening cheers.

My hand throbbed and I turned away from them and crouched down beside the girl nearest to me.

She murmured something about telling her mother that she loved her.

“You’ll tell her yourself,” I said.

The girl’s pretty eyes opened and her long lashes fluttered. She was so beautiful.

“This game is to the death.”

A guard came to drag the girl away.

“Where are you taking her?”

The others had already been taken.

“What’s happening?”

The guard who had helped me earlier came to my side.

“Hush. The queen will poison their wine tonight and they will be dead in the morning.”

It was outrageous.

I was about to ask him why he and the others, all the people of the kingdom, let this happen to the ones they loved, but the queen rose to her feet.

The crowd hushed.

“What will it be, victor? A life of luxury, beauty, and eternal youth—no, eternal life—for you and your companions, or your mortal freedom?”

It was so easy I nearly laughed. I didn’t want to live forever.

I just wanted my brother back.

“Freedom. For myself and for my friends.”

The queen nodded and laughed, then raised her hands to the heavens and everything around us, the amphitheatre, the guards, the crowds and the castle, fell away.

A blinding light forced me to close my eyes and when I felt that light dim, I opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by a beautiful garden.

And at the centre of the garden, stood a fat mountain spurting ash.

Volcano.

Chapter 28

The queen had transformed into a pale skinned woman with long grey hair and dark black eyes.

“Where are we?” I asked as the volcano rumbled behind the woman.

The woman laughed. “Guess.”

“The Land of Resting Souls.”

She nodded. “That’s one name for it. But I prefer Death’s Garden.”

Birds called to each other, exotic ones I had never heard or seen before. Water babbled somewhere nearby.

“Where are my friends?”

The lady walked towards me.

“We are alone, you and I. And seeing as I am Leirza, I have the power to bring someone you love back to life. Do you want your friends back, or your long lost loved one who you cry for every night in your bed when you are alone?”

Tears filled my eyes.

“I want Sam back. But I want my friends too.”

She nodded.

“I understand, but did you know that for every life I bring back, I need eight lives to take its place? I can give you your brother, for their lives. Or I can give you your friends back.”

I shook my head. But it made sense now. So that was how the others in past groups of nine had died. They didn’t die during the journey. They died through sacrifice.

Tears trickled down my cheeks.

“I can’t give you my friends as a sacrifice,” I said. “I just can’t.”

“Are you sure? Are you certain you do not wish to have your brother back?”

I stared up at the starless night sky above us.

Sorry, Sam.

“I’m sure.”

She waved a hand and Axel, Bruce, Jacob, Reece, Claire, Reuben, Kyle, and Noah fell to the soft, mossy ground as though they’d dropped from the heavens.

They sat up and rubbed their heads as though they’d been knocked out.

“Amber?” Axel asked before scrambling to his feet. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Leirza.

“It’s her,” he whispered, his face turning pale.

Leirza waved a hand behind her and a wall of flames sprang up from the ground.

“Behind me is death’s gateway. In order for a soul to leave, another eight must replace it.”

Axel’s eyes widened.

“I didn’t know about this,” he said. He shook his head. I knew what he was thinking, that he was never going to bring his brother back. And I knew how much that realisation hurt.

I moved to stand beside him and he took my hand in his and squeezed it between his fingers.

“I hate to be the one to do this,” said Bruce as he came up behind me and Axel. “But I came to get my wife back. And I intend to do so.”

And with that he shoved us both forward, towards the flames. Axel managed to ground himself and elbowed Bruce in the face, but I tripped and went flying towards death’s gateway.

Just as my arms felt the heat of the flames, there was an almighty roar and a gust of wind that blew me sideways. And suddenly I felt something warm and wet nuzzle my neck and I found myself being lifted off the ground and away from the wall of flames.

“You came back!” I said as I dangled from the dragon’s jaws by my shirt collar.

It seemed to nod as it dove down and gently set me to my feet before landing herself, causing the earth to vibrate beneath our feet.

The dragon threw her head back and spewed flames into the sky before crouching by my side. “The emerald dragon,” said Leirza, her black eyes glowing red. “I want her.”

I slid my arms up around the dragon’s neck.

“You’re not getting this dragon. She’s not mine to bargain with. She is a free spirit.”

“But I will bring everybody’s loved one back to life, including that fool, King Cyril’s wife and your other friend, Bella’s lover, the handsome one. All I ask for return is your dragon. She is worth a thousand lives.”

“Amber, you must consider this,” said Bruce, his eyes wide and his hair sticking out in all directions.

I should hate him for trying to push Axel and me into the wall of flames, but I only felt a heavy sadness in my heart. He missed his wife so badly that he was willing to do anything to get her back. He was willing to kill.

“The dragon isn’t real anyway, Amber,” said Reuben. “It’s just a figment of a dead soul’s imagination. Someone dreamed her up. So you wouldn’t really be killing her and we’d all get our loved ones back.”

I shook my head.

“No. I can’t do this to her.” Tears stung my eyes. “I want Sam back so much. I hate my life without him. My parents look at me every day with such disappointment in their eyes, like they wished that I’d burned in the fire and not Sam. Nobody likes me back home. Nobody believed me when I told them that I’d tried to save my brother.” I paused to suck in great gulps of breath and wipe at my eyes. “Life sucks without Sam.”

I slid my arms across the dragon’s back and caressed its emerald scales beneath my palm. A deep groan of contentment rumbled in its throat.

“But I can’t kill a beautiful living creature just to bring Sam back. I can’t do it.”

Bruce started lunging towards me, his eyes wild, but my dragon leapt between us and breathed a wall of fire, keeping Bruce away.

The dragon turned her head and met my gaze, her beautiful golden eyes staring at me, unblinking, before she flapped her wings and dove straight through death’s gateway.

“No!” I screamed, and ran after her, shocked at what had just happened.

Leirza stood in front of me, blocking my path.

“You witch! You horrible, horrible witch. You made her do this.” I grabbed the woman by her thin, bony arms and shook her hard. “How could you do that to her?”

The flames hissed and spat and I let go of Leirza to watch as ten shadows stepped out of the fire.

As they walked towards us, their bodies of flames transformed into the faces and bodies of our dead loved ones. Except, they were now alive.

Alive.

Sam, who was cradling a small baby to his chest, walked over to a wide-eyed Claire first, and handed her the wriggling bundle. She stared down at the baby in her arms and burst into tears.

My brother turned to me and smiled then broke into a run. He wrapped his arms around me and swung me around in a circle before setting me to my feet.

“I’m alive, Amber,” he said, his eyes wide with disbelief. He stepped back and ran his hands up and across his body, squeezing his biceps and thighs, caressing his face.

I couldn’t believe it.

Sam. Was here. Right in front of me.

“You’re not scarred,” I said, touching his cheek. All this time, since I’d come to this place, I’d held a secret fear that I’d be bringing him home to Mum and Dad all scarred, his skin forever changed by the fire.

“No, child,” said Leirza. “He is returned whole.” Her eyes darkened. “Physically whole.”

I wanted to ask what she meant by “physically,” but Claire’s baby sister started to cry, her screams causing brightly coloured birds to flee the nearby trees and launch into the sky.

Axel stood, frozen, as a small curly-haired boy approached him. The boy stared up at Axel with wide blue eyes.

“Did you die too, Axel?”

Axel’s face crumpled with emotion and he knelt down so that he was eye level with the small boy.

“No. But you’re alive again, Rin,” he said, his lips trembling before he scooped the boy up into his arms and hugged him tight, burying his face in the boys neck.

Little Rin patted his brother’s shoulders and said, “Don’t cry, Axel. Let’s find mother so she can hug you and make you feel better.”

Tears flooded my eyes and continued to stream down my cheeks as I watched, with Sam by my side, as everyone was reunited with their loved ones.

I watched Jacob being embraced by his big father, who was an older version of Jacob in every way. Reece hugged his mum tight before moving to hug a tall, good-looking boy with jet black hair and dark good looks.

I’d almost forgotten. Bella’s boyfriend, Carl. He’d been resurrected too.

Bruce sat embracing his beautiful wife, but beside them stood a lone woman with long, raven hair.

“Who’s that woman?” asked Sam, clearly admiring her beauty, and I stepped forward to her. She was exactly as she’d been painted in the portrait I’d seen in the ballroom.

“You must be the queen,” I said, and she nodded. She was so young and beautiful and she would be returning to an old man, a slightly crazy old man and a seriously wimpy son. I felt sorry for her and for the first time since we resurrected the souls I felt a twinge of regret. Were we doing the right thing by bringing them back to the living world?

Leirza stepped forward and Sam and all of the raised dead stared at her, spellbound.

“Do you agree to return to the land of the living and give up your place at Death’s Garden?” she asked the queen, who was running her hands through her long, shiny, dark hair, touching her face, then running her hands over her breasts, her waist, hips, her own fingers.

“What?” She stared down at the face of Leirza, as though the woman had gone mad. “Of course I want to live! Who doesn’t?”

Leirza nodded and moved on to Bruce’s wife. It was then I noticed that Bruce’s prematurely aged skin had returned to normal.

Leirza asked the same question to each of our loved ones, working her way through them, heading towards Sam.

A sudden fear fluttered in my chest as she neared. What if all this was wrong? What if we were somehow upsetting the balance of life and death? But Sam nudged me with his elbow and shook his head. He was reading my thoughts again, just like he used to when he was alive.

Oh, my, gosh. The enormity of everything that had just occurred hit me.

Sam was here.

He was
alive
.

A loud sob choked my throat and tears streamed down my face as I pictured walking through the front door of our house with Sam by my side. The look on Mum’s and Dad’s faces.

“They’re going to be so happy when they see you again,” I said, and threw my arms around him.

Axel watched me from over his little brother’s shoulder, his eyes sad, and then it dawned on me.

I’d have to eventually leave him.

We belonged in two different worlds.

But at least it wasn’t goodbye just yet. We still had the journey back to the castle to spend together.

Sam pulled away just as I heard Leirza speak.

“Do you wish to enter the land of the living and give up your resting place at the Death’s Garden?”

Leirza stood waiting for Sam’s answer.

“Yes. I do.”

She spun around and addressed everyone.

“When you raise the dead, wake them from their forever sleep, they will not return to you as they were. They are changed. They have passed. They have witnessed their version of heaven.” Her dark eyes glowed silver before turning jet black again. “You will not be returning to your world with the same individuals you once knew before their deaths.”

I squeezed Sam’s hand in mine. Of course they’d be different. They had experienced the trauma of dying. They would be forever changed. But I didn’t care, my grip was vice-like on Sam’s. I wasn’t letting him go now.

She turned to face death’s gateway, as though waiting for something to happen, for somebody else to emerge from the flames, when suddenly my dragon burst out of the flames, its scales no longer green but grey and smoking. It soared up high into the sky before it dove between the trees behind us towards the river.

“She’s alive!”

There was a great splash and the hiss of steam before the dragon soared back into the air and flew until she disappeared from sight.

“Goodbye,” I whispered to the sky, wishing I could have thanked her properly, and so grateful she’d survived. “Thank you.”

“The dragon protects you. She will always protect you. That is good. You will need it on your journey home.”

I stared at Leirza.

“Did you know she was going to come back?” I was so mad that she’d let me think the dragon had died in the fire.

The woman laughed. “I told you that dragons have a thousand lives.”

“Come on,” said Sam, putting an arm around my shoulders. “Let’s go home.”

“Leave, all of you, before it gets dark,” Leirza said, shooing us with her hands. The volcano rumbled and spat tiny orange sparks that died before they hit the ground.

Bruce and his wife were sitting on the edge of the pool, clinging to each other and sobbing. I let go of Sam and gently coaxed them to their feet. Though I was furious with Bruce for pushing me towards death’s gate, we needed him to fly us home.

“Will the journey back be dangerous?” Noah asked nobody in particular.

The witch laughed in the distance.

I turned to see my brother looking at me and I thought I caught a flash of silver in his eyes. But perhaps it was a trick of the light, because after I blinked and look again, he smiled and his eyes were a perfect clear blue, like my own.