Page 23 of Ethereal Shifters

He begins to walk up the stairs, and I chase after him. “Wait, how did you know my parents?”

“Once, a long time ago. Where do you think they got all the money from? Millions of pounds don’t just turn up out of nowhere.” He sighs and stops. “I’m on your side, Gwenieve. This should prove it.” He pulls out a wooden figure, and my world stops. It’s a little girl with a red cloak, holding a black tulip…and my father made this. He carved so many black tulips for me, made me silver tulip earrings, and I’d know his style anywhere. This is me, and he never carved me before. “He said this would be enough for you to trust me. I have letters they left you, but it’s risky for me to approach you. I’m watched everywhere, except for now. Find me, Gwenieve.” He waves ahead. “And good luck.”

“I’ll find a way to get to you.” I nod, slipping the figure into the pocket of my jeans and hoping it doesn’t get broken. I don’t have anywhere else to hide it. I wipe my tears away and begin the hike up the last part of the steep stairs.

My ears ring the second I step out, which looks like stepping straight into stars. Cameras flashing from their phones, almost as bright as the lights blaring down from above, and it’s distracting, blinding and the only way I know my mates are here is by feeling them through my Nexus. I move to the star with the Mortal God’s mark on it. The same mark on my arm. Apparently, that’s going to stay forever, which is great, just what I wanted, a random star tattoo. Although, I do like the rune from Onyx, and if I was going to have a tattoo of anything, it was likely going to be Harry Potter themed due to my addiction to those movies. I never quite liked stars. The feeling that they’re watching never goes away, and right now, I can feel them staring down at me like a million judging eyes.

The second I step on the star, it glows. The edges of it light up, vibrant bright green, the light spreading into the air as I watch. I spin around, admiring it as the light grows higher and higher, blocking out everything until it suddenly blasts across the sky. The air and everything are the darkest shade of blinding green light. When it goes and my eyes focus, I’m in a forest. The middle of the arena is now a massive forest with trees as tall as the sky, and moss covers the ground at my feet. It’s hot, and I regret my jeans as they stick to me. I glance around the forest floor for the star, but it’s gone.

What the hell am I meant to do? I’m almost scared to walk anywhere, but I look around for a path, finding none. So instead, I begin to walk and climb over the fallen logs, the piles of leaves, and everything else that has fallen off the trees above. There are coconuts, oddly enough, lying on the ground, and I hear the echo of bees buzzing.

Something cracks nearby and I spin around, looking through the tree line but seeing nothing. “Hello?” I don’t know why I’m shouting like the Mortal God might be lurking in the forest. He didn’t have a shift, he never shifted into anything. He was never an animal. I have no idea what I’m looking for, and the research only said they faced their fear in the first test. The other people, they had to fight the animal version of their Nexus, but no one said anything about a giant forest growing. I’m not scared of trees. Hell, my mates are all as tall as trees, and I want to regularly climb them.

The seconds tick on as I look around. Instantaneously, there are people in the forest, and they stand as still as statues. Not just one or two, dozens of them. They keep appearing before my eyes, and one by one they lift their hand, and in it, a sharp dagger glitters in the moonlight. My heart races as I look at all the people, and I don’t recognise them. I don’t know who these people are.

“Flip a coin, make a choice,” a voice echoes in my mind. “A happy face will make them cut their throats and flood this forest with blood. A sad face will save them that fate.”

A coin? I look down in my hand. There’s a single green coin. It’s metal, glittering in the moonlight. Two faces, one on each side, one smiling and one frowning. I can’t make that choice. I look around at all the people and shake my head. “I won’t do that.”

“Life or death is a power you’ve been granted. You cannot hide from it, Gwenieve.” The man’s voice echoes around. The voice is older, familiar, and I realise he sounds like my father. Almost. The Mortal God is using his voice, but he is lacking the thing that made it my father—the love he had for me. I could always hear it when he spoke to me, and this voice is nothing but a cruel trick. “Death. By my hand you will flip the coin or you will die a thousand deaths for their lives, and your soul bonded mates will join.”

No. I lift my head and look right up at the single star I can see through the tree line. “Touch them and I will drag what is left of you from the stars and destroy you.”

“Death cannot threaten me.” The voice laughs. “Make your choice.”

“Flip it,” my Nexus speaks into my mind, “and run.”

I have to trust her and trust she doesn’t want all these people dead. It has to be a test, right? I flip the coin into the air. Time slows as it flips in the air and then lands straight in my palm. The frowning face is up. I grin and fist pump the air. “They are free now, right?”

The ground shakes for an answer, and I look back, my eyes widening as I see a tidal wave of water appear out of nowhere. Fear like I’ve never felt it locks into every bit of my body, into my very blood, until I can taste it like ash in my mouth. The tidal wave is filled with bugs and snakes, everything that I fear. It’sas tall as the trees. “RUN, GWEN!” I hear Aleksander’s scream for me, even as far away as he is. No, I heard it in my mind. I run, just like my Nexus somehow knew I’d have to. “Shift into the wolf, please,” I ask her, seeing the forest floor and knowing I’m going to trip on something. “Just don’t kill them. Don’t send the grey magic far.” We shift and the grey magic seeps into the ground, but it stays close. She can control it?

We run as fast as we can, straight through the forest, jumping over log after log, and soon I realise the people around us are washed up in the wave. They will be okay. He said they wouldn’t suffer the cut throat fate…I can’t look at them. I can’t listen to their screams of fear and them begging the Gods to save them.

I don’t know where I’m going until I see the end of the forest. The water just touches the back of my tail as I crash straight over the edge and shift back, looking up from a crouch as the water stops at the edge of the forest and disappears like it wasn’t here. The forest disappears too, but as I stand, I realise what’s wrong. An echo of bodies hitting the floor, dozens of them, hundreds of them—soaking wet, dead, drowned bodies—fills the silence.

My eyes widen and I feel a burn, knowing I’ve been marked for the next trial, but I can’t stop looking in horror at the bodies piling up.

“It’s my son!” a scream echoes out from the crowd.

Followed by another shout and another. “And my daughter, my dad.”

I stand up as I realise these people have been taken from the crowd, and they’re all dead. It’s my fault. The Mortal God tricked me…and I didn’t see it coming. Screams echo around as I take a step back as people start sliding down the barricades and run for their family. I look for my mates, who are already down the barricade, running my way. I need them. Aleksander gets to me first, picking me up and holding me to his chest. “Don’t look.”

It doesn’t matter if I look. The wailing of people finding their dead family is going to haunt me forever. “How could the Mortal God do this?”

“Because the Gods are cruel,” Aleksander whispers back. “Walk between Rhodes and me. We will get you out. Finnegan and Hollis are going to stay and help.” I can barely nod, unable to look at anything but the puddles on the floor as they lead me through the grieving people, the dead bodies, and to the staircase. The second that we’re down at the bottom, I turn around and throw up. I keep being sick until there is nothing left. Alek holds my hair back, and Rhodes has a glass of water waiting for me when I collapse back on the bottom step. “That wasn’t your fault.”

I drink the water as Rhodes kneels in front of me. “Aleksander is right. You survived and we are proud of you. We couldn’t see everything. What happened in the forest?”

As I calm down, I explain the coin, what the Mortal God said to me, and everything that happened. “I didn’t expect… I don’t know what I expected, but that really wasn’t it.”

“Breathe. You’re alive and with us.” Rhodes touches my cheek.

“Okay,” I whisper. “All of those people are dead.”

He doesn’t know what to say. I barely know what to think about it all, but he is right. I’m alive and it’s over. “We need to get outside and get some fresh air.” Rhodes offers me his hand. “I’ll drive you back. We’ll grab Nibbles and go for a walk on the beach.”

Aleksander touches my arm where the new mark is, frowning. “I’m sorry I’ve been distant. Can we talk soon?”

---