I locked myself in the main meeting room, not wanting anyone to listen to what I was about to do. I’d yet to see Serena after my brief conversation with Derek. The thought of needlessly worrying her before I figured out this whole Telluris issue irked me more than the Telluris issue itself.

Nevertheless, I had to get to the bottom of it. If the communication spell was compromised, if I wasn’t really talking to Jax or the other members of our Neraka team, I had to know before even presenting the issue to the rest of GASP. I wanted all of this to be a fluke, a bad feeling that led nowhere. I wanted it all to just be in my head, but my instincts had never failed me before.

I closed my eyes and opened my soul up to Telluris.

“Telluris Jaxxon,” I called out, listening carefully.

My heart skipped a beat when Jax’s voice came through on the first call. That had never happened before—at least not with Neraka.

“Draven! Hey. What’s going on? Everything okay over there?” Jax replied.

His tone was a little flat, like I’d interrupted something.

“Yes, everything is good here. The Tenebris mission is almost over,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “You’ll be pleased to know your incubus recruits did an excellent job of infiltrating the rebel ranks.”

“They did? Not that I’m surprised or anything, but I am a little proud,” he chuckled. “I don’t do half measures, you know that.”

“I most certainly do,” I replied, pinching the bridge of my nose.

A wave of nausea was threatening to hit me hard, right in the gut.

“We’re still investigating here, but nothing much to report back just yet,” Jax said. Then his voice dropped, making it difficult for me to breathe. “Was there something you wanted to talk about, in particular? Or do you want to talk to Harper? Is Serena worried about her or something?”

“No, no, all good. Serena’s busy with Aida, setting up the nursery. It’s surprisingly emotional. Every five minutes, they cry. I don’t get it. They’re supposed to be happy.”

Jax laughed again, regaining his voice. My instincts flared again, my eyes stinging. The more I spoke to him, the heavier my shoulders felt, somehow.

“Hey, ladies get emotional when babies are involved,” Jax said. “It’s in their nature, but it’s something beautiful, in my opinion.”

“It is, it is. Listen, I wanted to ask you something, on a personal level. You know, Druid to Mara,” I said. “Remember the month after we defeated Azazel?”

“Who can forget?” Jax scoffed. “I don’t ever want to experience that again. It took forever to recover from that insanity.”

“You went to stay in The Shade for a couple of weeks after that,” I replied. “And Hansa visited the Blackhalls around the same period of time. Did you two ever meet while you were there?”

A couple of seconds passed as I waited patiently.

“Why do you ask, Draven?”

There it was again, that change in tone that made my jaw muscle twitch.

“Because when Hansa came back, she was… different,” I said. “I never told anyone about this, but I found her crying in Anjani’s bedroom that day. She didn’t want to talk about it, and, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find out why she was so distraught. I know you two couldn’t take your eyes off one another before our fight with Azazel, and that things cooled rapidly afterward, but… I don’t know, I just… I remembered that moment and I thought I’d finally ask you. Like I said, this is strictly between us. Did you two fight while you were there?”

“No. I didn’t even see her there,” Jax replied.

Yes, you did.

“Oh, really?” I asked, putting in a lot of effort not to punch the table, as I clenched my fist.

“No, I was busy exploring the place. I mean, The Shade is pretty big. I didn’t know she was there. Maybe she saw me with someone. There were plenty of vampire ladies interested, but to be honest, I wasn’t in that kind of mindset.”

“I understand. Well, either way, since you’re there, you might want to square things out with her. I think she still has feelings for you, and it’s best to nip this in the bud. But please, Jax, be honest with yourself, first. If you love her, just go ahead and tell her.”

Jax laughed lightly. He used to cut me off whenever I mentioned his feelings for Hansa, but never with humor. He was an expert at deflecting, not at laughing it off, especially where the succubus was concerned.

“I will, Draven. I think it’s about time we address the issue, anyway,” Jax replied.

Jax would’ve told me to mind my own business and not get involved in a Mara Lord’s personal life. He would’ve frowned and quickly changed the subject, probably shifting the conversation to some new recruits he’d started training. Jax didn’t talk about Hansa. Most importantly, Jax had met with Hansa in The Shade.

“If that’s all, can we cut this short? I’m about to go to dinner with the Lords,” Jax said.

“Sure. I’ll speak to you soon,” I replied bluntly, then cleared my throat, struggling to sound calm and friendly. “Take care, Jax.”

“You too, Draven.”

Then there was silence.

I remembered my conversation with Hansa as if it had happened yesterday. Though I hadn’t been exactly truthful with Jax. Hansa had told me, in fact, that she’d met with Jax in The Shade—by accident, not by plan. She’d tried to talk to him about their relationship, or lack thereof, but he’d brushed her off and told her to not waste her feelings on someone like him. She’d begged me not to tell anyone, so I hadn’t.

I had proof now, and it hurt me to the core.

That wasn’t Jax I’d been talking to. Chances were that I hadn’t spoken to Hansa or Harper either, via Telluris. This was all a hoax.

Bile rose to my throat, and I caved, ramming my fist through the table. The glass surface shattered, and beads of blood bloomed on my knuckles. I hissed, panting as I struggled to contain my rage.

That wasn’t Jax. Someone had actually managed to hijack Telluris.

Our people were out there on Neraka, and I had no way of reaching out to them, although Telluris was meant to work seamlessly across time and space.

I gathered myself and took deep breaths, trying to steer clear of dread and panic.

Viola and Phoenix had left notes about Neraka’s galaxy for me, which were now scattered on the floor. I stuffed them back in their folder, then stormed out of the meeting room, feeling my eyes flickering black. I couldn’t even control my thoughts anymore, overcome with anger and fear as a thousand scenarios ran through my head.

I rushed to the observatory, which had been set up on the top floor, beneath Luceria’s open-air platform. Derek and Corrine were there, fiddling with a complicated telescope. It was a gigantic machine, with dozens of lenses mounted on brass arms, perfectly aligned and angled in ascending order. The largest one was at the far end, while the smallest lens, through which one could see the farthest of stars, was mounted at the front.

Beneath it were two crystal tanks filled with a glowing purple liquid, connected to the telescope stem through a series of cables. Corrine flipped a switch, giddy with excitement as she motioned for Derek to look through the small lens.

“Go on, take a peek!” she said.

Derek, however, spotted me as I crossed the hall, papers in my bleeding hand. The look on my face probably told him everything he needed to know, because he instantly straightened his back and frowned.

“Draven,” he muttered, then sighed.

“Ah, perfect timing,” Corrine smiled. “We’re just about to—”

“Telluris is compromised. Whomever I’ve been speaking to since we deployed our team to Neraka, they’re frauds,” I cut her off, my voice trembling with rage and sheer agony.

Corrine held her breath, and her lips parted in shock.

“You tested Jax, then?” Derek replied, impressively calm, though I could see the vein pulsating in his temple already.

I nodded. “He failed. It’s not Jax. Chances are I haven’t been speaking to the real Jax, or the real Hansa, or the real—”

“Harper,” Derek breathed. “Have you told Serena yet?”

“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “I came straight to you. There is something terribly wrong here, Derek. We lost our team the moment they set off to Neraka, and someone has been pretending to be them, via Telluris.”

“Who could do that? Who would have the power to alter a Druid spell like that?” Corrine murmured, then angled the telescope and started turning several knobs, while looking through the small lens.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe another Druid? But I’ve never read about such a thing. I didn’t know Telluris could be altered like this. Didn’t even think it was possible.”

“We have to call a meeting with all of GASP, right now,” Derek concluded. “And summon the Daughters, too. They might have a clue.”

I handed over Viola and Phoenix’s notes regarding Neraka’s galaxy, which Derek took and summarily flipped through, then passed on to Corrine. Her brow furrowed once she reached the third page.

“Our team could be in danger,” I replied. “We have to prepare an intervention team right away. At least thirty, forty members, plus backup. We’ll use the interplanetary spell and have them land on Neraka by midnight, our time.”

“We might have a bigger problem,” Corrine muttered, looking through the telescope.

Both Derek and I stilled, then stared at her.

“Bigger problem than impostors hijacking our communications with Neraka?” I replied, raising an eyebrow. “What could possibly be—”

“I can’t find Neraka,” Corrine replied bluntly.

“Wait, what?” Derek snapped, then rushed to her side.

She stepped back, allowing him to look through the telescope. Derek turned the knobs around, pausing to check coordinates on one of the notes I’d brought back from Viola. He was already pale by nature, yet Derek managed to turn as white as a sheet of paper, gasping as he stared through the telescope lens, obsessively checking the notes in between gawking sessions.

“This cannot be,” he breathed.

“What?” I managed, feeling my knees turn to dust.

“Come look!” Derek replied.

I took his place in front of the telescope and looked through the lens. Corrine’s telescope was an incredible feat of science and magic. It was powered by a special mixture she’d concocted herself, after days of studying the Druid archives and the swamp witches’ book, on top of her already-impressive knowledge.

My breath was cut short, first, in awe of the beauty of the distant solar system unraveling before my very eyes, thousands of lightyears away. Second, because there was a planet missing in that solar system. I checked the notes, cursing under my breath, then looked through the lens again.

“This can’t be right. One, two… three… Where the hell is Neraka?”

There was a gap between two planets, but there was no sign of Neraka. The planet fitting Neraka’s description and coordinates, to be precise. No moons. No asteroid belt. No freaking planet.

“I… I don’t know,” Corrine replied, out of breath.

The realization hit me hard in the chest, knocking the air out of my lungs.

“How can this be? These are the right coordinates, and we are looking in the right place, right?” I asked, my gaze darting between Derek and Corrine, who were both equally befuddled. “Right?”

“Of course. The telescope is perfectly calibrated, and Viola’s notes are accurate,” Corrine said. “But there’s no Neraka.”

“That can’t be.” I shook my head and looked through the lens again, rejecting the premise. Accepting the premise would’ve meant accepting a most horrifying reality. We had a team of Shadians and Eritopians who had gone missing into the farthest depths of the In-Between. “What if the asteroid belt is obscuring the view, somehow?”

“I honestly don’t know, Draven. We clearly can’t see anything, no asteroid belt, nothing. What if the planet is gone? Or hidden, maybe? Something… Someone is shielding it?” Corrine suggested.

“How does an entire planet just disappear?” I asked.

“We’ll have to send another interplanetary team over there. We still have the Nerakian beads from Rewa,” Derek said, a frown drawing a deep shadow between his eyebrows. “We need to get a closer look. It could simply be shielded, somehow.”

“Good grief, Serena will want to go, for sure,” Corrine murmured. “I think we’ll all want to go. This is so strange, so wrong!”

“One thing is for sure,” Derek replied, raking a hand through his hair.

Both Corrine and I looked at him. Her befuddlement and my dismay didn’t seem to faze Derek much. The vampire had an unbelievable amount of self-control to work with. Sure, he was angry, judging by the twitches of his facial muscles, but he fought hard to keep his breathing even and his tone calm.

“Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to hide an entire planet and put this Telluris charade on for us,” he continued.

I found myself nodding, while navigating the plethora of possibilities bouncing around in my head. Whoever they were, they were powerful, well beyond the known means of a Druid. Were the Exiled Maras involved? The Druids from the lost delegation, maybe?

It felt like a slow death. Too many questions and no answers whatsoever.

All we had was this sensation that we’d been played like exquisite dunces, and that someone out there posed great danger to our people. I was definitely going to be on that interplanetary spell, along with Serena and our strongest GASP members.

No matter what, I was determined to find our Neraka team and bring them back home, even if it meant unleashing the fury of all The Shade’s dragons, jinn, and witches, and the Daughters of Eritopia. Provided, of course, we could find Neraka first.

* * *

Dear Shaddict,

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The next book, , is the penultimate book of Season 7 (as we move toward the epic GRAND FINALE of Season 7 in Book 59)!

releases April 2nd, 2018!

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