Eli paused, then said, “I think that’s a good idea.”
“I’ll move my stuff out of your apartment tonight. And I think I’ll leave the island tomorrow morning. One of the other witches will have to step in as headmistress while I’m gone.”
“Okay… You go ahead and do what you have to do. The front door is open. I need some time alone.”
Adelle drew Eli in for another hug, and then—to my shock—she vanished from the spot.
Wow. Could she be… a witch?
Recovering from the surprise, I felt bad for listening in on such a personal conversation, but I needed to speak to someone, and didn’t want to interrupt.
Now that this Eli was on his own, I crept out of the trees and approached him.
“Um, excuse me,” I said tentatively.
He spun around, and his eyes widened as he looked me over.
He frowned. “Who are you?”
“My name is River. River Giovanni. I’m a friend of Benjamin Novak. He sent me here and I need to speak to his parents, Derek and Sofia. Can you please take me to them?”
His expression turned from surprise to shock. “Y-Yes, of course. But, how on earth did you get here?”
“Ben brought me,” I said.
“Ben? He’s in The Shade?”
“He’s waiting in a submarine just outside the island.”
“Follow me,” Eli said at once.
Clearly this person was a vampire. He began speeding away too fast for my half-blood legs to keep up.
He stopped when he saw that I was lagging behind, and hung back for me to catch up. “What are you exactly? Your skin is pale like a vampire’s, but you’re clearly not one.”
“I’m a half-blood.”
“Half-blood?” he said, peering down at me all the more curiously though his glasses.
“Please, I can explain everything, but I need to speak to Derek and Sofia urgently.”—I kept thinking about Ben with my container of blood. I was still having doubts how long that would last him before the human blood of The Shade began calling to him.
“Of course I’ll take you there,” Eli said. “You might want to climb onto my back though since it will be faster.”
I climbed onto the vampire’s lean frame and he began racing off into the darkness of the woods. He was so fast it was hard for me to see where we were going, but when he stopped, it was at the foot of a towering redwood tree. But I was confused. This part of the woods seemed just as bereft of vampires as the one that I had left.
“Where—?”
He pointed upward.
I gasped. “Oh, my.”
Benjamin had described something of The Shade to me, but he hadn’t described these. Stunning penthouses built atop the giant redwood trees.
Wow.
Eli took me to the thick trunk of the tree, and led me toward an elevator shaft that had been hidden round the back. He stepped inside with me, and we ascended the towering tree. It took my breath away to look down and I began to feel dizzy as we arrived at the top. Stepping out of the elevator, we emerged on a gorgeous veranda lined with pretty plant and flower plots. And the view from this height… it was unearthly. A sea of treetops spread out for miles. In the distance was the sparkling ocean and to my right was a sprawling mountain range.
Once I tore my eyes away from the heart-stopping view, we stopped outside a large wooden door.
Eli knocked.
“Sofia! Derek!” he called. “Open up!”
I heard the sound of a door opening inside, and then footsteps. The front door swung open a few seconds later.
Standing before me in the doorway, over six feet tall and wearing blue pajamas, was the spitting image of Benjamin Novak. Except for his eyes, the similarities were stunning.
Although there was something that struck me as odd about this man who could only be King Derek Novak… His skin had a light tan glow to it. He was clearly not the vampire Ben had described him as.
I felt shivers run down my spine as the king’s piercing blue gaze settled on me. He looked me over curiously, then back at Eli.
“What is all this? At this time of night?”
Eli looked at me, indicating that I do the talking.
I cleared my throat. “My name is River Giovanni and I’m a friend of your son. I need to speak with you and your wife urgently.”
“My son?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s, uh, waiting near the island.”
Derek spun around, looking over his shoulder and called back into the apartment. “Sofia!”
A pretty redhead in her early to mid-twenties raced to the doorway. This was Ben’s mom. She was clearly a vampire.
Her green eyes—so similar to Ben’s—widened as she stared at me.
“This is River, a friend of Ben,” Derek said. “He’s near The Shade.”
“Where?” she gasped.
“By the boundary near the Port,” I said. “I can—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Sofia reached for my hand and pulled me toward the elevator. Derek followed a few feet after, and so did Eli. We all descended in the elevator, and as we reached the bottom, we began running forward, Sofia still holding my hand. I slowed her down considerably compared to the two men who were speeding ahead, but finally we all arrived at the Port.
They stared out over the waves toward the boundary, squinting. I stood at the end of the jetty, looking in the direction I had last seen Ben. At first I thought that he might have left already, and my heart sank, but then I noticed the submarine’s shiny roof above the water and the small bump of the hatch.