A Shade of Vampire 84 A Memory of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,1

not something we had the time or the energy to fix. Not with the enemy basically breathing down our necks. “Get everything we can carry out of the shuttles first, but everything else must be destroyed. The last thing we need is a Darkling with our technology.”

“I say set fire to the village, as well.” Kalla sighed, then continued. “Let them find nothing but flames and ashes in our wake.”

“We’ll do what we can to keep them off our tracks.” Lumi took my hand. “As soon as we are safely away from Orvis, Sidyan and I will get Derek. It’s killing me that we’re not able to go immediately.”

“The Darklings are a huge pain in our asses right now.” I heard my voice tremble ever so slightly. “Derek has Maya with him. All I can do is hope she’s able to keep him safe.”

The one other thing that gave me a semblance of comfort was the fact that we weren’t alone anymore. It wasn’t just our GASP team. We had Reapers and a few ghouls left. The Seniors and all the young fighters of Orvis were on our side. We had Valaine and Kalon, Ansel, Tudyk, and Moore. We even had Thayen, the brokenhearted crown prince I’d sworn to keep safe and as far away from his depraved mother as possible. We had Trev Blayne, too… and Word magic.

“One question remains,” Mira said, her gaze occasionally darting back to a remarkably calm Corbin. “In which direction should the tunnel lead?”

“West,” Kalon interjected. “We head west, toward the rocky shores.”

Mira’s eyes lit up. “I think I know the perfect place. We’ll end up eight hundred miles north of the imperial palace.”

“The Nightmare Forest stretches far west,” Kalla agreed. “We’ll have to be quiet as we leave Orvis, but also as we move through the tunnel. We cannot risk the Darklings tracking us by sound. Corbin will almost certainly realize what we’re doing.” She paused, glancing back at her people—all of them gathered around the dark tower, quivering and silently waiting for her reassurance. There wasn’t much of that left, but I trusted Kalla to be able to guide her people in the right direction. “I’ll get them organized.”

Lumi moved next to Kailani. “The two of us will head to the westernmost point of the village. We’ll open the tunnel there.”

“And we will join you,” Mira declared. “I did not come all the way out here after two million years on an isolated island to have to deal with Corbin and his Darkling ilk. Our strength is of better use by your side, helping to hold the tunnel up.”

“We have enough building experience from our time on the island,” Kemi added with a proud smile. “Count on us.”

I watched them leave, unaware of how fast I was breathing. Every time I heard Corbin calling out Valaine’s name, my anxiety peaked to new levels. I knew he wasn’t just standing there waiting for his daughter, the Unending, to come out. No, he had a plan, and his Darklings were probably already implementing it. They’d figured out the protective shield’s limits and dimensions. Whatever death magic they had, they could use it to bring the swamp witch spell down. Time was definitely not on our side.

My stomach churned as I thought of Derek, and I prayed to all the possible and impossible deities that he’d be okay. That Lumi and Sidyan would get to him in time, once we were all safely removed from this nebulous mess.

The villagers responded quickly to Kalla’s instructions. They scattered to their homes and gathered their most precious belongings—only things they could carry through the tunnel. Every single blood reserve was bottled in wooden flasks and handed over to the Seniors, who would hold on to them in order to ease the villagers’ passage to the west coast. We all needed supplies, and we wouldn’t be able to risk returning to the surface along the way.

“How long do you think we’ll be in the tunnels?” Thayen asked me.

“I’m not sure. A few hours at least.”

“Then why are we taking the food with us?” he replied.

Rose had an answer for that. “We don’t know what kind of conditions we’ll find once we reach our destination. The less we have to travel for sustenance, the better.” She looked at me, and I could see the concern drawing a deep frown between her delicate eyebrows. “We’re going to get through this,” she said, and I found her attempt to comfort me endearing.