The Blood Legacy (The Lost Heir Book III)

The Forest of Violet

"Leave this place. You are not welcome," it growled.

"We apologize, but these girls' friends are stuck; we need to get through to find them," Nate said, stepping forward.

"Their friends chose to enter. Their fate is set," it said. "Do not make the same mistake, young ones. Leave now."

"Sorry." Cleo rolled her eyes, chin high. "We're getting our friends back, so go play in the trees, whatever you are." Isabella felt Cleo's bravery strong and steady beside her. She was a warrior.

A strong wind pushed each of them over—sending even Nate's enormous form tumbling to the ground. A furious Isabella sprang to her feet and held her arms wide. She concentrated, willing herself to summon the elemental abilities she'd been working on with Colin. Unlike when they were traveling through time realm, here she had the woods, spirits and the earth on her side. She'd also had enough of this pompous creature. "Get down!" she called out to the others. Twigs and leaves cut at her arms and bruised her body as they flew about her, but she kept summoning. Soon, she could feel her freakish opponent start to wane and then it was gone. "Let's keep moving," Isabella groaned.

Further on another creature blocked their path. This time a pale woman who seemed to be made of blue mist. She locked her nearly clear eyes on Nate, who'd stepped forward in front of the girls. As the woman floated, Nate smiled at her entranced, Isabella was concerned but then noticed Cleo's unamused face. "Spirit, we mean no harm," said Isabella. "Let us pass. Please."

"I'll take the young man and leave you and the Diadem child to the next guard," the ghostly female figure grinned.

"Like hell you will," Cleo stormed forward, clutching her necklace, her eyes turning a pale shade of blue. Isabella had seen this happen a couple of times during training, but she'd never felt Cleo's power vibrating off her like this. It rippled wave after wave.

Then, everything went dark. Isabella leapt back as the forest started to fold in on itself when felt an arm looping through her own and someone pulling her away. Seconds later, the mist woman spit out a long whine that morphed into a high-pitched screech and dissolved into nothing.  The ground appeared to be normal again, but they were now free of the creature.

"Sorry about that," Cleo croaked, her frosted pink fingernails lightly clutching her throat. "I don't usually go that big with my glamours. I actually had to channel some of Xander's illusionist power to pull that off."

"You can do that?" Isabella scrunched up her nose, surprised.

"We're twins."

"Right." Siblings seemed to have special blood bonds with their powers down here. It made perfect sense that twin powers would be even stronger.

Cleo leaned forward on her, hands planted on her knees, gulping in air. "I'm so beat." Isabella wondered if using her powers away from Xander in any capacity made her weaker – trying to connect to him or not.

Nate took that moment to snap out of his haze. He looked alarmed. "What happened? Hey kid, are you all right?"

Cleo straightened and nodded. "We better find those kids fast. This forest is no joke."

As they inched further down the path, Isabella followed the pull she felt toward Lana. "I can't hear her any more, but I know this is the right way."

"Didn't that mist woman say there was going to be a third guard?" Cleo asked in the way that mean she was really reminding them of what she remembered rather than asking the question out of curiosity.

An enormous black door bloomed in the sky above them. Without warning it began falling at full speed right above their heads. Isabella screamed and tried to push Cleo out of its way as Nate did the same to her. The door landed with a heavy thunk in the dirt, missing Nate by a hair. It opened to reveal a puzzle of sorts, blocks with letters on them moving sliding around into different formations on the face of an ornate looking easel in the middle of a patch of green grass. A clock hovered on top of it, ticking off a ten-minute countdown. But when Isabella looked to Cleo and Nate for assistance she saw them unconscious on the ground. "Cleo!" Her friend did not move. She turned to the puzzle, heart thudding. "What do want me to do?!"

The letters formed. "Stop the clock."

"But how?!"

"And your friends will live."

"Okay, a little help here." Cleo's head lulled to the side where it lay on the inner part of her bent elbow. Nate was face down in the damp dirt.

"And you can move through," the puzzle spelled.

A second passed then the letters shifted again. "A phone ---"

"Call?"

"A night --- on the town."

"Out!"

"The alphabet begins with the letter—"

"A!" These baby questions were getting her nowhere. Was the game taunting her? The clock continued to tick on and her friends still lay unconscious. Not to mention she had to make it past this to find Lana. Only four minutes remained. Gah! She continued to play along.

"At birth you are given a—"

"Surname...No first name. No just a name. A name!"

Her mind quickly put together the answers to each of the simple questions. "Call ... out ... a name!" A name. A name. They were in Joseph Gaut's forest. These puzzles had to be his doing, so she called out the first name she could think of connected to Gaut other than his own. "Renee!"

At that, a vision of a woman who looked to be in her late forties, the woman she'd seen in the ghost realm with Seth—her great-grandmother, Renee Foxworthy. But this time she looked at Isabella with recognition. "My child," she said, holding out a box.  Isabella glanced at the clock. Less than a minute and a half left. Shocked, Isabella took it and opened the lid. The letters in the puzzle moved about again, this time leaving seven empty spaces for her to fill in. The first three were separated from the last four. She looked back at her great-grandmother. "You want me to play Wheel of Fortune?" There was sand inside, sand from a Skyside beach. Isabella reached inside and found a small medallion – one side had the seal of the Empath Society and the other the fox with the laurel around it.  "Your blood binds you to this, but it is within your power to create your own." Isabella's eyes flicked up to the clock. Twenty seconds. Isabella pinched her eyes shut, willing the answer to fill her mind. Of course! "Legacy!" she cried out and the puzzle was solved just in time to wake her friends before time ran out.

Suddenly, they were transported to a bridge, and Isabella screamed as Cleo started to fall. Nate dropped to his knees and grabbed her in time.  Isabella helped pull Cleo up. The illusion faded until finally, they reached the edge of the woods, and the pull to Lana vibrated off her. But before she could move forward another spirit appeared. It was her father. She knew he wasn't really there. "Daddy?"

"Go to Colin," her father said. His eyes were tired but certain and sure.

"Daddy, I want to, but Lana and Evie need me more right now," Isabella said, pushing down the tears lifting into her throat. Her fingers scrambled for her empath necklace. She hadn't thought about it since she'd been down here. However, when she clutched it, she felt Colin's fears and started to doubt her decision. But what could she do? She couldn't help him.

When she looked up to ask her father what to do, his figure was replaced with her mother's. Isabella's heart twisted. She looked so much like she had the last time she'd seen her – pleasant, young, full of life. Her dark eyes glistened as she implored her in a hollow voice. her mother appeared. "Save the innocents."

Isabella gulped and nodded. "I will. I have to." Whatever this forest was trying to do to her mind, Lana and Evie were not going to die there. The image of her mother began to fade. "Don't go! Please."

A loud crack and a return to reality had Isabella rushing down new a path with Cleo and Nate close behind. "I can feel it. They're down here." They came to a clearing where it looked like a family might live. There was a cottage surrounded by green grass and a stream all behind some bizarre looking pane of glass. There sat both girls looking happy and content – Lana on a hammock reading and sipping lemonade and Evie a few paces away from her painting in a smock with a serene smile on her face. They looked as if they did not needing any saving at all.

"What the hell is this?" Cleo demanded.

"A lie," Isabella hissed and ran at the wall.