“Then where do you think it is?” I said, turning on her.

She looked clueless as she eyed the area. It was clear that she had no other suggestion either.

No. This was the spot. I remembered the area too well. Besides, there were the hunter tanks stationed nearby.

I kept walking forward, even though I didn’t know what the use was. I just didn’t know what else to do. Admit defeat and return to The Shade? I was partly in shock. This bizarre turn of events was still sinking in when someone yelled out a curse behind me.

It was Ashley. Sitting down on the ground, she was cradling her right foot. A slew of four-letter words continued to flow from her lips as I hurried over to her along with Landis and several others. Blood was seeping from her foot and staining the sand.

“What happened?” Landis asked, alarmed.

“Argh,” was all the reply he got from her as she removed her shoe and sock to reveal a deep slice through the sole of her foot. Although it was clearly causing her agony, at least, as a vampire, she would heal quickly. The corners of the gash had already started to close up before our eyes.

“How did you do that?” Rose asked, planting a hand on Ashley’s shoulder and squatting down next to her.

“I stepped on like a… freaking samurai sword,” Ashley panted, wincing and biting her lip.

I was already examining the ground nearby, following the trail of blood.

It definitely wasn’t a samurai sword. But what it was made my heart pound. A long wide dent in the ground.

Rushing over to it, River and I brushed away a thin layer of sand to reveal the metal door leading down into the atrium. Ashley’s foot had smacked into one of its sharp corners.

Relief and yet more confusion filled my mind.

“But if this is here,” she said, “then where is the camel—?”

The two of us had already spotted it before she finished her question. Standing perhaps a hundred feet from us was the camel stable. Just a few seconds before when I’d looked around along with everyone else, it had been nowhere in sight.

What is going on?

As if in answer to the question, my tattoo began to tingle again, and the whispery voice echoed through my head:

“Welcome back, Benjamin Novak.”

The blood drained from River’s face, her lips parting. She locked eyes with me. “Did you hear that?”

I nodded.

“We are inside now?” Micah said, looking around, dumbstruck.

My mind was already racing with the implications of what had just happened. Leaving Ashley, whom Landis was helping to stand up, I darted forward. I was in such a hurry, I didn’t even grab River’s hand to keep her close to me. I just raced forward, desperate to reach the boundary. This time, I did find it. My outstretched hands touched the invisible hard surface. I staggered back.

The boundary. Nowhere to be found on our way in. Up like a brick wall when trying to get out.

A wave of déjà vu washed over me as I recalled the first time I’d realized I was shut in here. Now, it was all of us.

Chapter 9: River

I could neither understand nor believe it. What just happened? It was as though all signs of the boundary had disappeared just to lure all of us inside, and then it had shot up again, like a Venus flytrap.

“So,” Derek said, his jaw tense. “We’re inside.”

Ben pointed to the trapdoor. “And that is the entrance to the atrium.”

The crowd gathered around, eyeing the metal door.

“This place is so different to how I remember it,” Derek said. “All of this above here, it used to be an actual oasis—a basin of water, trees, now it’s just… sand.”

“Well, when the hunters attacked all those years ago, they blew the entire roof off the place,” Sofia said. “They decimated the whole area. Perhaps it’s never been the same since.”

“Whatever the case,” Ibrahim said, “before we venture any further, I want to test the strength of the boundary.”

He and Mona gathered together their fellow witches and then they vanished, reappearing close to the barrier. We watched in silence as they huddled close to each other, and all at once raised their palms—releasing a spell, I assumed.

A blinding flash of light seared my eyes, forcing me to close them. And then came the deafening sound of an explosion.

A powerful force blasted toward me and I found myself thrown backward, landing on the ground. It was as though a bomb had just gone off. I tried to open my eyes when I sensed the light had softened, but particles of sand flew everywhere. I was forced to keep them closed until it settled. Then, when I looked around, it was to see that almost everyone else except for a few vampires, including Ben, had also taken shelter on the ground.

I’d never seen this spell being performed before, so I had no idea whether this kind of reaction was to be expected. But from the looks on everyone’s faces, it appeared not. When my eyes traveled toward the witches, they were nowhere in sight.

“Mona!” Kiev bellowed.

Our crowd raced toward where the group of witches had been standing, the ground now scorched… and empty. Vampires and werewolves looked around frantically, while I headed straight for the boundary with Ben.

My outstretched hands were forced into balls as they brushed up against the barrier—solid as ever.

Everyone was lost for words as they continued looking hopelessly for the witches. There weren’t even any bodies lying around.

Vampires and werewolves began taking turns in testing the boundary—only to be forced back just as Ben and I had been.