Herald: Netherside, #4

By Emery Cole

It's all my fault…

A reckless decision to trust someone too easily has put my friends in grave danger, and it's all my fault. As a child in the foster care system, I learned to rely only on myself, but meeting Astra and forming a friendship circle changed that. Despite being willing to sacrifice myself for my friends, my blind trust in my sister, Amber, led to our capture by the hunters. Now, trapped in the mountain fortress of the true leader of the hunters, I realize that it's our chosen families that we can truly depend on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: EmCo
• Release date: Nov 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223706564

Book preview

1

My friends were in grave danger, and it was all my fault.

There was no point in denying it. I was reckless. I trusted someone too easily, and that resulted in our downfall. It was almost funny. All my life, I did everything I could to avoid relying on others. As a child in the foster care system, I learned very quickly that the only constant in my life was me. I was the only one who would keep me safe. I was the only one I could depend on. Therefore, I resolved to spend my entire existence wandering this world alone.

All of that changed when I met Astra. The warmhearted arachnia quickly became my first true friend. Then, thanks to her, the friendship circle grew. Before I knew it, I was easing myself into the icy terror that was trusting other people. I didn’t want to do it at first. I was wary. I didn’t want to care about them because I was afraid of the pain that would come with inevitably losing them.

But I didn’t lose them. We became a team. We rescued a friend. We defeated a legion of those who sought to destroy our kind. I came to love my friends so much that I was more than willing to sacrifice myself to ensure their safety. I would do it over and over again. I would lay on the scorched earth and let the hunters drag me away into that cold, dark prison cell a thousand times if it meant that they would survive.

Unfortunately, sacrifice wasn’t always enough.

I’d gotten so used to trusting my fellow mythies that it made me blind. I let myself be guided by nothing but stupid, useless hope. It turned me into a fool. It made me believe that, just because Amber was my sister—and therefore a mythie just like us—she wouldn’t betray us.

The others had been timid to trust her, especially those who were inside the compound and witnessed her behavior firsthand. I’d ignored all of it, choosing to have faith in the blood that tied me to my twin. I never had a real family, but I wanted to believe that the bond of a shared bloodline would be enough.

In truth, it was only our chosen families that we could dare to depend on.

The events of the past hour clouded my head, making it difficult to think clearly. We’d been so close—so close to escaping the mountain fortress of the true leader of the hunters. We were in the sky, flying toward safety with each breath we took.

And then Amy was shot out of the sky. We fell, the tree branches and dense brush kissing us with cuts and bruises along the way. The hunters surrounded us in second, dropping from within the leaves overhead as if they’d been hiding there all along.

For a moment, we thought about fighting back. We’d done it before. In fact, we trained for it. Prepared for it. We expected that at one point during this trip, we would need to go on the defensive with the help of our ancient, mythical abilities.

If Amber hadn’t pressed a knife to my throat, the others might’ve stood a chance. If only they weren’t so loyal to me. I didn’t deserve it.

They should’ve let my sister kill me and fought their way out of the woods. Because now… I was pretty sure we were never getting out here.

There were tunnels—natural mountain caverns linked together with manmade passages. They sprawled out around the forest for miles and miles, providing the hunters with a stealthy method of getting in and out of the compound without being detected by anything above ground.

Amber knew that already, of course. Despite promising that it would take the hunters a while to realize she was gone, she had known that we were being tracked the second that Amy’s teleported us out of there. We were being watched the entire time by what I could only imagine was an absurd number of hidden security cameras. We were doomed from the start.

We were doomed, and Amber had lied. My sister, my only living relative, had doomed my friends just as much as I had. Both of us were rotten for that. If I hadn’t been so dumbly willing to see the best in her—this monster who was raised by the hunters and lived among them contentedly for nineteen years—we might have found a better way to get out of here. One that didn’t require us to depend on her not leading the hunters directly to us.

There was no point in dwelling on what-ifs, though. What happened had happened. All we could do now was deal with the present and prepare for whatever fate had in store for us next.

Shh, you’re okay, whispered Astra, stroking back Amy’s tangled hair from her face.

The air witch lay on her back on the dirty ground, her head in Astra’s lap as her breaths coming in short, panicked gasps. Her shirt was torn at the sleeve on one side, and horrifying smears of bright red blood covered the front of it. Loretta knelt over Amy, pouring a tiny vial of phoenix tears over the wound. The shot had been clean, the bullet piercing through the flesh of her upper arm and narrowly avoiding the critical bones of her shoulder and clavicle. Luckily, we’d all been armed with tears collected from baby Camille.

Amy’s shredded skin knit itself back together before our eyes. Slowly, her stuttered breathing settled into a gentle pace. Her eyes drifted shut, head lolling to the side in Astra’s lap as she fell unconscious.

She’ll be okay, Loretta murmured. The phoenix tears have an anesthetic in them, so she’ll be asleep for a little while.

Silence followed Loretta’s words. Everyone was gathered around Amy, crouched on their knees, and huddled close to the bloodied witch. Everyone except me. I stood a few feet away, arms wrapped around my middle, watching the entire scene numbly as if it was happening a world away.

We were underground. Shortly after the others surrendered and Amber removed the knife from my throat, we were herded into one of the tunnels. They shoved us into a cavern of sorts, a heavy iron grate closing us off from the only escape.

In the chaos of the moment, I’d lost sight of Amber. However, given that she was the one to betray us, I expected her to melt back into the ranks of the hunters as soon as possible.

There was another missing person, though. Gabe was nowhere to be seen. It took me several long minutes to realize it, forcing myself to calm down long enough to do a headcount. Had he been taken elsewhere by the hunters? Would he be kept in a separate kind of prison cell as punishment for working with us?

Or was he, too, planning on betraying us from the very start?

I didn’t know what to think anymore.

Piper glanced up at me. The chimera’s thick, golden waves were tangled up with leaves and twigs. She had a split lip and a black eye forming in the dim light of the cavern, evidence of her violent struggle against the hunters. Delicate bruising shadowed her throat, the only remnants of the choking she’d suffered when she attempted to breathe fire at the hunters who locked us inside this cell.

It’s strange, she mused. For trained killers, it doesn’t make sense that whoever shot Amy would miss a vital organ by that much.

I shook my head at her. They don’t want us dead.

Loretta hissed a string of curses. They must know more than those idiots at the compound back in England. They knew that breaking the chain would be enough to get us out of the sky.

They also know that Amy is an air witch, Zadie added. She’s powerful. More powerful than me and Loretta. They’d want to keep her alive.

A chill went down my spine.

With a quiet groan, Milou got to her feet. They succubus was like a wraith, too thin, too ghostly pale, and too graceful to appear human in the damp cavern. Her black eyes were wide with fear as she turned to face me. My glasses were still in place, thanks to the leather cord that kept them secured to my head during the scuffle, but that didn’t stop me from automatically flinching at the boldness with which she met my deadly gaze.

Of course, succubi couldn’t die. They couldn’t be killed, not even by gorgons. Their eyes were too dark, too depthless, to hold enough life to take in the first place. The only way to kill a succubus was to trap them somewhere and wait a century or so until they simply faded away into nothing but mist on the wind. Thus, even if there was no barrier between us when we locked eyes, Milou would not be turned to stone.

She approached me without hesitation and took my hand. Only then did I understand that the fear in her eyes wasn’t caused by me, but by the situation we’d found ourselves in.

Milou had been imprisoned by the hunters before. She was one of three former prisoners in that cavern. When she was taken by the hunters months ago, the elder mythies agreed that she was as good as dead and mourned her loss as if she would never be seen again. However, Zadie, her lover, had plotted for a way to rescue Milou the entire time. When Aya, one of the sirens who had also become my friend, had been taken by the hunters, did we band together to get them back.

In the end, we rescued Milou, but Aya remained trapped, and I took Milou’s place in the underground torture cells. That was where I met Amy.

It’s not your fault, Milou whispered to me.

Somehow, her succubus abilities allowed her to get a taste of what I was feeling. Perhaps she could feel the guilt and regret and horror flowing off me in torrential waves.

I should’ve listened, I replied, voice trembling. I shouldn’t have let myself believe it would be that easy. I was stupid.

You aren’t the only one who wanted to believe that Amber was on our side, Jayda, Astra said softly, Amy’s head still cradled in her lap. Mythies stick together. The idea that we might turn against each other is an affront to our nature.

Yet, if the hunters got what they wanted, that was exactly what would happen. We’d already seen that it was possible thanks to the three brainwashed sirens at Netherside who were currently being deprogrammed. Amber’s behavior was further proof that we didn’t stand a chance against each other if we were wielded as weapons by the hunters.

I shrugged, feeling too lousy to allow myself even an ounce of grace.

Gabe knew better, I muttered.

Gabe is a hunter, Piper grumbled, rising to her feet. He was probably itching for the opportunity to take your sister down the moment he saw her.

I wasn’t so sure that was true. Not after everything Gabe had risked for us. For me. But if he was loyal to us, why wasn’t he in this cavern, too?

Amy gave a soft groan, gradually waking up. Content with her nursing efforts, Loretta got up and walked to the nearest cavern wall. She pressed her palms flat against the uneven, hard-packed earth and closed her eyes.

They saw my eyes. They know I’m an earth witch, she murmured. They know that trapping me in a place like this is like giving me access to every weapon in my arsenal. It doesn’t make sense.

Astra helped Amy sit up, guiding her back against the wall so that she could rest against it.

Zadie was frowning at Loretta. She nodded at the singular sconce burning in the wall by the iron grate. "My red eyes are unmistakable, yet they locked me in here with access to flame and a chimera. And Amy… well, it’s not like they’ve cut off air flow in these tunnels. We can breathe just fine."

I chewed on my bottom lip. When I kidnapped the first time, they put a blindfold on me that I couldn’t remove myself. But even though it’s obvious that I’m a gorgon like Amber, they didn’t bother blinding me.

Astra furrowed her brows. They didn’t bind my hands.

As if to demonstrate her meaning, silver threads drifted from her hands, glowing gently. Her arachnia abilities were fully available for use.

For a long moment, the seven of us stared at each other in silence. Here we were, imprisoned underground without a single roadblock stopping us from using the full might of our powers to break ourselves out. Amy and Loretta alone could probably use magic to dig our way out of here in a handful of minutes.

But we knew better. A cold understanding settled in the space. These hunters weren’t fools. These were the devoted followers of the true leader, trained from birth to be deadly and ruthless. Mythies were not a strange concept to them. They had studied us their whole lives, getting to know our weaknesses and strengths—the best ways to subdue and torture and kill us.

It’s a trap, Piper declared, marching toward the metal latticework that blocked our only exit. I could melt this in a few minutes. They know that.

It’s like they’re trying to bait us, Astra muttered, nose crinkling with disgust. What if they’re waiting for us to try and escape?

Either that, or they understand that we’re smart enough to know we’re outmatched, I suggested. We don’t know our way through these tunnels. We don’t even know where we are in relation to the compound. For all we know, these tunnels could be an endless maze—we could get lost and die of thirst or hunger before we make it out.

The compound is like a military base, Zadie growled. I wouldn’t put it past those monsters to have triggered underground mines installed here. My fire magic sensed something strange while we were patrolling the perimeter. It was like a tickle. Like, if I dared to reach out to it, the whole forest would explode.

So, what? We do nothing? snapped Piper. Her anger wasn’t directed at Zadie, but the fire witch narrowed her eyes at the chimera in warning nonetheless.

Tensions were high. We were all afraid. Astra was too busy fussing over Amy in the back of the cavern to step in with her usually flawless leadership.

This was my fault. No matter what Milou said, and despite the lack of judgement in my friends’ eyes, I knew that was true. My recklessness landed us in this situation in the first place, and I was not going to let us