‘Ashley, Sadie, wake up. There are some Gaeians on the beach attempting to approach stealthily. I count five: two armed with bows, two with swords, and the last one at the back has a firearm.’ Meadhbh’s urgent voice roused us instantly as we extricated ourselves. Munin emitted a low growl from where he lay at our feet.

  Ashley looked terrified, and I squeezed her hand to try to reassure her as I slowly slid the blanket down. ‘What do we do?’ She had quickly acquired the ability to project, not realising she had done so when we combined our mana, much faster than it had taken me.

  ‘We’re going to have to fight,’ I replied grimly. Staying low, I inclined my head towards the tent door and slipped my hand out, locating my shield. It was nearly pitch black; there was a hint of golden light from Munin, and I could see the aura emitted by Ashley, ensuring that I would always spot her in the dark. However, she appeared as a dark shape surrounded by an invisible light.

  As quietly as I could, I unzipped the tent door, thankful that we were somewhat shielded from the view of the beach by the cage door. I heard the sounds of heavy breathing and stones being scuffed by boots as the attacker attempted to climb up the outside of the cave. The one night they had to choose, when the Caretakers were absent, but also when we would be at our most vulnerable, laden with loot and exhausted after a week of hunting. Only Munin was with us in the tent; the rest of my Guardians were hiding further down in the cave, and I could feel their rage, ready to be unleashed, but I commanded them to wait.

  “Damn it, it’s locked,” one of them hissed quietly, and Munin let out another low growl before I clamped my hand over his snout. “What was that?”

  “Stop acting like a baby,” another growled, and I heard the sound of the lock being ripped off.

  If they had turned away upon seeing the door locked, I would have left them be, but now we were in real danger. Climbing to my knees, I raised my shield to provide us some cover, and two heavy thuds echoed as the archers fired upon spotting it. Ashley scrambled loudly to squeeze in behind me, amidst the whoops and whistles.

  “Let’s get them, boys! Let’s see what the pretty missus' have for us,” one of them shouted as the cage door was flung open with a loud bang.

  ‘Now,’ I projected to my Guardians as the wolves let out a bone-chilling howl, amplified by the rock walls. I couldn’t hear what the scavengers shouted as I pushed forward towards the men, feeling another two heavy impacts against my shield.

  The ground began to shake beneath our feet, forcing me to use the shield for support, as I peered over the top at the four men stationed at the cave's mouth. One of my wolves stumbled and fell due to the tremors, but the others leapt over it and pounced on one of the scavengers brandishing a bow, their fangs sinking into his flesh as he screamed. Raising my shield to deflect a sword strike, I batted him away with all my strength, watching him tumble away.

  The ground rumbled once more, and half of the doorway collapsed on the last archer, crushing him entirely as a hand reached out in vain. Remembering the other swordsman, he had backed away while the goblins cackled viciously, attempting to get at him. However, he swung low to keep them at bay, filled with terror. Ashley ripped a chunk of rock from the wall behind her and urged me to duck as he saw it coming, but his sword glowed with a blue aura and effortlessly shattered it.

  Running towards him, I executed a high kick, urging my goblins to rush his legs. However, paralysed by indecision, he couldn’t dodge me, and my knee struck him in the neck. Snapping sideways with a sickening crunch, his body flew at the wall, and I had to turn away from the sight and sound as he fell with a wet slap, goblins jumping out of the way. The first swordsman had regained his feet, but as he awkwardly swung, I drove my fist into his chest, denting his armour while he coughed up blood onto my shirt and sank to his knees.

  The sound of howls and gunfire pierced the air, and a feeling like a rubber band snapping at the back of my mind urged me to rush to the cave of the mouth where I saw that two of my wolves lay crumbled on the soft sand of the beach. Munin and Vonga, my second wolf who had taken a liking to Ashley, unleashed a long howl from beside me, blood dripping from their fangs. Ripping another chunk of rock from the cave, larger than my torso, Ashley hurled it at the man, but he dodged it effortlessly.

  “Get back, you coward!” she screamed at him as he fled up the beach, three wolves barking at his heels, but I called them back before they entered the forest.

  Turning towards the cave, I heard the final scavenger’s raspy breathing as he laboured to draw breath from where my blow had fractured several of his ribs. My knuckles were bleeding profusely from the strike, but at least none of the bones were broken. The goblins surrounded the man as he regarded them with fear, yet they did not attack; not without my command, and several were yearning for me to let them have a go at him.

  “Please, please just kill me,” he whined between short breaths as a wolf growled in his ear, yet he looked up at me.

  ‘Sadie, do you remember when I mentioned the second way to create a Guardian? This is the perfect opportunity to do it,’ Meadhbh encouraged, as I glared at the man.

  ‘I can turn humans into Guardians?’ I asked, having never truly entertained the possibility, despite our earlier conversation alluding to it.

  ‘Why would you be unable to? There is nothing special that distinguishes Gaeians from other beings, aside from being native to this world.’

  ‘No, I’m sorry, I can’t do it; that’s too much for me,’ I said, shaking my head and turning away, listening as he let out his last breath.

  Crouching down, I wrapped my arms around my head, breathing heavily, trying to come to terms with the fact that I had just killed several humans. It had been purely self-defence, but it had been a distinctly unfair fight as they had underestimated us. I felt Ashley’s comforting arm around me as she attempted to console me, but I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. There was an overwhelming sense of sadness from my Guardians as they looked at me, and I reached out to stroke Munin’s head.

  ‘Killing those who wish to harm you is no different from fighting the beasts you encounter in the Rifts or the very same ones who you transformed into Guardians. Do not allow their deaths to gnaw at your conscience and cause you suffering; they chose this life, and you were safeguarding your own.’ Meadhbh tried to comfort me.

  “DON’T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT!” I roared at her, only to watch Ashley take several steps back after my outburst, which made me feel terrible. Wrapping my arms around her, I buried my face in her neck as she rubbed my back, trying to calm me down. I hadn’t meant to lash out like that, but I was upset, and feeling my connection severed with two of my new Guardians had hurt me more than I had expected.

  Sitting down together, I glanced around the chaos of our campsite. Half of the cave had collapsed from Ashley’s magic, while the rest of our belongings were scattered about in the struggle, the tent shredded by arrows and blood pooling from the scavenger corpses. Giving Ashley a long kiss to show her I was somewhat alright, I retrieved the emergency beacon from my bag and twisted it before tossing it out onto the beach outside. Who knew if there were more scavengers in the area, especially since that last one had fled?

  Remembering the two wolves I had lost on the beach, I stored the chunks away inside my core before the rescue squad arrived. Ashley searched the cave for anything that might raise suspicions, and we waited outside for their arrival. The sound of a helicopter, the heavy thrum of its blades, reached our ears, and I could feel it in my chest as it flew over the trees, floodlights scanning the beach while we sat on the rocks outside the cave, trying to shield our eyes from the blowing sand. Ropes were dropped from the sides, and a squad of guards from the citadel rappelled down, taking up defensive positions before rushing towards us.

  “Scavenger attack!” I shouted over the noise of the helicopter at the masked guard, pointing towards the cave. Half of the squad rushed to the cave, and I could see they were speaking on a radio, but their masks prevented me from hearing what they were saying. The helicopter had been circling the beach but suddenly flew away as if it were searching for more.

  “Are you two alright?” said the man, pulling off his helmet as the remaining four members of his squad did likewise.

  “Sort of,” I answered while showing the injury to my knuckles. We were wrapped in blankets, still wearing the t-shirts and underwear from bed, shivering from the cold of the night.

  “Johnson, attend to the girls,” the squad leader said, as a woman approached, slinging her gun beneath her arm and retrieving a medical bag from one of her pouches while he left to search the cave.

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  “Let’s get you checked out,” Johnson said as she began examining us for any further injuries. It wasn’t unusual for wounds to remain concealed after a fight, as shock could act as a powerful painkiller. I had witnessed it on the first night when the wolf had torn open Ashley’s leg. Allowing her to inspect us, I noticed several soldiers disappearing into the trees, and I could feel the squad leader's glare at the back of my neck. There were four corpses in the cave, and the two of us were barely injured; no doubt he would have received our information when I activated the emergency beacon.

  The longer we stayed there, the more strange looks we received, and we were eventually separated for interviews. Trying to account for the obvious wolf kill was difficult, but I think we managed to lie through our teeth sufficiently that it ran away after the survivor. I listened to their chatter, and they confirmed that each of the four we had killed had bounties on them, but the weakest had previously been assigned a C-Rank. Johnson provided us with a tablet containing information on other known members, but as I flicked through the photos they had on file, I couldn’t identify who the fifth was.

  As I looked up upon hearing the sound of the helicopter returning, I was taken aback to see that it was a second, different one. Plastered against the window, I was horrified to see Mum staring out, and an uneasy chill ran up my spine. The moment I had been dreading was approaching rapidly, and with all these witnesses, there was no way to avoid it. Silently calling to Ashley, I selfishly intended to use her as a shield to fend off Mum’s impending interrogation as I pulled her under my blanket.

  As the helicopter touched down on the exposed sand with the tide still out, the door slid open and she dashed out, racing towards us. I could see her crying as she ran, throwing her arms around us. “My poor babies,” she exclaimed as I embraced her.

  Stepping back, she cupped my face in her hands and looked at me, confused. From my face to Ashley’s and back again, her eyes conveyed the confusion she felt. “Mum, it’s me, trust me,” I whispered as I pulled her in close to hug her. “Things… happened. Good things, I hope, but this is not the time or place to discuss it, please.”

  As she wiped away her own tears while looking at my pleading face, she nodded. The first helicopter that had brought the soldiers returned and landed a little further down the beach, with another squad of soldiers disembarking, several of whom were handling dogs on leashes, as Mum hugged Ashley, noticing the change in her as well. It was slightly amusing to realise that I could now rest my chin on Mum’s head, showcasing the remarkable growth we had experienced.

  “Hang on, dears, I’ll get you back to the hotel so we can talk; I want to know everything.” I could do nothing but nod, sensing the barbs in her tone. Vanishing up to the cave where the squad leader of the response team was investigating, I could hear the stones being moved to extricate the unfortunate scavenger crushed by Ashley’s attack.

  I heard her arguing with someone, followed by a low rumble in the ground that made us, along with the few soldiers standing guard nearby, look up at the cave before Mum marched out. From her ferocious, self-satisfied smirk, I could tell she had gotten what she wanted, and I stood up from where we had been seated on the rock. Two of the dogs were being walked near us and suddenly shied away, yelping slightly as their handlers regarded us with strange expressions.

  As Terence stepped out of his car, he grumbled to himself upon seeing one of the monitoring officers waiting by the door. With his morning coffee barely touched, he looked down at it, contemplating whether he had brought enough, given the size of the file the officer held in his hand, as he gazed past others making their way towards the elevator in the underground garage. After taking a sip of his drink, he halted in front of the waiting man.

  “Alright, what now? Has Holly finally gone feral?” He held up a finger, passed his coffee mug to the man, and then turned to catch Holly’s flying fist.

  “Feral? I’ll show you feral!” Holly laughed as she allowed her arm to drop after attempting to strike him on the back of the head.

  “No, sir, it’s Sadie Whittaker. We received a notification earlier that she activated her emergency transponder several hours ago. The Dublin office is currently liaising to gather the details, but early reports say she was attacked by a scavenger group,” the aide said nervously, returning the coffee along with the files.

  Sighing, Terence hung his head, “Alright, prepare a notification to the family expressing our condolences, and we’ll close out her file from the incident a few months ago.”

  “Sir?” he asked, surprised. “They both survived. The rescue squad counted four scavengers deceased upon arrival, each confirmed with bounties, and they are searching for a fifth who is alleged to have escaped.”

  As Terence opened the file, he began to skim through the photographs, showing them to Holly, who stood on her tiptoes to get a better look. Closing the folder, he led them to the elevator and swiped his badge to head up to their office near the top. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he wondered what on earth was happening with the girl, as this was the third time she had crossed his desk.

  Abandoning the aide at the door of his office, Holly followed him inside and slammed the door shut behind them. “Go on then, what’s so special about this girl? Just the mention of her makes you look as though I’ve ruined your day—again,” Holly laughed as she sat opposite him.

  “Everything about her has been unusual, and I have not been able to definitively close her case. Objectively, she should have been the first to die, but she didn’t, and her story does not quite align with our findings.”

  Logging into his computer, he noticed an email from his Irish counterpart waiting for him. If he was calm and collected, Cormac was his complete opposite; however, they worked well together when their business occasionally intermingled. Reading the email, he was taken aback as it contained the full, unedited footage of the rescue squad’s arrival, rather than the few photos that had been curated and sent officially.

  Sending the video footage to the large screen on the wall, he crossed the room to watch it, listening to the squad leader’s commands as the helicopter flew low over the beach. The two women were easy to spot, the large white blankets they were wrapped in forming a stark contrast to the grey stone surrounding them. Watching the squad’s descent, Terence’s eyes narrowed as the squad leader spoke with the women before climbing up to the cave. It was a gruesome scene, blood and bodies everywhere, including one of the scavengers still on his knees, held upright by his armour, a large dent in his chestplate.

  “Are they really saying that a below-average C-Rank and a scarcely noteworthy F-Rank caused that?” Holly asked incredulously, opening the files to verify their records for herself.

  “Holly, what height is Sadie listed as?” Terence asked, scrutinising the footage.

  “Uh… five foot three, why?” she asked, looking up.

  “And the other one?”

  “Ashley Burbit, let’s see, five foot two.”

  “Then who are they?” Terence asked, rewinding the footage to when the two were first approached. It was difficult to tell while they were sitting, but it provided a clear image of their faces, and although there were some similarities, they looked remarkably different. Opening a drawer in his desk, he found his own file on Sadie and sifted through the surveillance photos that had been taken until he located the one he wanted.

  As he scrubbed through the footage, he noted when her mother arrived and rushed over to them. Pausing while the three of them stood together, he held up a photo of Sadie and her mother walking side by side through the security zone. In the photo, Mrs Whittaker was clearly taller, even though both wore heels. However, in the recorded footage from this morning, with no shoes on, Sadie stood head and shoulders above her mother.

  As he continued through the footage, he discovered the moment when they were leaving in the helicopter, and the wind from the blades lifted the shirt on her back. The scars he had witnessed and the extensive skin grafts she had received were gone entirely, with not a hint of their presence remaining. Annoying Holly with his constant pauses and rewinds, he found another moment and moved his face closer to the screen.

  “There’s no scar on her wrist either. That’s definitely not Sadie, and I’m willing to bet that’s not Ashley either. Have there ever been reports of doppelg?nger monsters?” Terence asked, glancing back at Holly, who appeared just as confused as he was.

  “No, but look at these wounds; this scavenger was definitely attacked by something wild. Another thing is that this camp is peculiar. Sure, there’s a tent and campfire, but that’s a bloody full mattress and pillows. Were these girls on a glamping trip or something?” Holly asked, exasperated as she looked at all of the photos included in the file.

  A heavy thrumming noise filled the room, and both spun around as a rift formed in the middle, with a Caretaker stepping through, their gaze fixed on Terence. Holly attempted to react, but he extended his arm to block her charge while maintaining a steely glare at the intruder. Approaching him, the Caretaker held out an envelope, and Terence examined the familiar insignia on its front before flipping it over to break the wax-like seal on the back.

  We wish to cordially invite the following Awakened to the Spire forthwith

  Ascendant Heir Sadie Whittaker

  Ascendant Heir Ashley Burbit

  Honoured Guest Susan Whittaker

  “Do you mean them?” Terence asked, pointing at the screen. He stared at the Caretaker, noting that this one was different: a symbol carved into the mask between its eyes and a blue ribbon sewn into the lip of the white robe.

  “Yes, all three of them, alive and unharmed, and doppelgangers do not exist, Mr Waters. We trust that you can facilitate this request, or there will be consequences.” Stunning him by speaking in perfect English, the Caretaker turned and left, the rift disappearing with a pop as it closed.

  “You!” Holly hissed, spinning on the ball of her foot and jabbing her finger at his chest. “Mr Goody-Two-Shoes, you’re the one they’ve been approaching? I heard rumours that someone in the Ministry was leaking to them, but you?”

  “The Minister was my predecessor and nominated me to inherit the role when he was elected to Parliament. That’s the first time I have ever heard one speak, though, and they’ve never requested we bring someone before; it’s always been innocuous information requests, the last one being Sadie, when they demanded everything we had on file for her,” Terence said, reading the note again.

  “And you simply gave it to them? I expected more from you, Terry. Are you really just going to hand them over and be finished with it?” Holly shouted at him, starting to pace back and forth in the office.

  “We have a working relationship, but I don’t believe they want to harm them. Consider this: she simply walked in here and then left without any issue. Why would she ask us to escort them to the Spire when she could have easily taken them in Ireland?” Unable to counter his question, Holly merely clicked her tongue and turned away from him in disgust.