Prologue
There was silence around despite the morning rush in the manor. There were no birds chirping, no water rushing, and no children laughing. She could only hear the hushed footsteps of the human slaves inside her home.
With the lack of cheerful noise, she sure felt gloomy. Also, the climate in the Northern Continent did not help her case. Most of the time, it was raining both with the colorless tears or the white crystals that seemed to endlessly fall from the sky. But there were days that the sun graced the land with its warm presence.
Today was one of them.
So despite her solitude, she went out of the manor, avoiding the slaves that carried on with their tasks. It did not sit well with her how the humans looked pitiful. But what could she do? She was just a kid and those humans were just a means for her own survival.
She walked past the back gates where there were no slaves loitering around. She leisurely strolled towards the meadows where there were only green and brown. There were no flowers, only wild and tall grasses that could easily cut one’s skin if one was not careful. Or if one was human.
Thankfully, she was not. So she could run around without a single care whether she would be wounded or not. She would just heal in a few seconds.
She stopped atop the hill and breathed in the humid air. Her red hair flowed freely like the thin fabric of her dress. At the age of ten, she really felt young and untroubled. A portion of her time may be spent studying but most of it was for playing.
Her parents would even tell her that the world was their playground.
She then decided to play with Ghandi, her cousin who was also about her age. She was not sure whether Ghandi was a third or fourth cousin but despite the distance in the blood lineage, his physical features undoubtedly screamed Huxley.
Ghandi had a paler shade of red upon his head and a lighter glimmer of emerald green eyes.
She squinted and looked towards the vampire residential area where her cousin and his family lived. She was about to make another step towards her cousin’s house when she heard someone calling her.
“Irina! Playtime is over!” Her uncle Von’s voice echoed from the manor towards the field.
Because her parents were too busy with their work—whatever that might be—it was Uncle Von who looked after her. She ran back towards the manor and was greeted by her uncle with similar attributes as hers, red hair and green eyes.
She was not too privy as to why her uncle always wore a uniform, as if he was one of the servants. She just accepted that Uncle Von acted as her governor, who taught and trained her, even though he was family.
“Uncle Von! I was about to go to Ghandi,” she explained.
He shook his head, “he’ll be here later for dinner. You will have plenty of time to play by then. But now, you have to focus on your education.”
With Uncle Von’s stern expression, Irina’s shoulders fell. She followed him towards the library where most of their lessons were discussed.
“Did you do your assignment yesterday?” Uncle Von asked.
“Yes. I read about History and Geography,” she replied.
“Alright. Then, kindly summarize what you read.”
“Well… Uh, there are two known realms as of now. They are the Terrestrial Sphere and Ethereal Sphere. The non-shifters like vampires live in the Terrestrial Sphere. I mean not only us but also two other races, the sorcerers and humans.”
“What does it mean to be a non-shifter?” He asked.
She was annoyed that her uncle would make her summarize everything but then he would also interject during her speech. However, she had no choice but to answer his quiz. “The creatures who cannot alter their physical form to a different one.”
Uncle Von only nodded so she continued, “the shifters, meaning the creatures who can shift to human and beast forms, live in the Ethereal Sphere. That dimension provides them the appropriate environment to survive.”
“How many kingdoms are there in the Ethereal sphere?”
“There are four, I guess?”
“You guess? Are you not sure?”
“I mean, there are four. I am sure. The werewolf, the dragon, the merfolk, and the faerie kingdoms.”
Their lesson continued as Uncle Von taught her more about the races in the Terrestrial Sphere. He told her that the Ethereal Sphere should not be their main concern since it was a dimension far from them. What she needed to know was about vampires, her own race.
In the afternoon after their lessons, Uncle Von taught her swordsmanship. Time flew quickly and she realized she did not have the opportunity to play because she needed to hurry and tidy herself up for the family dinner.
The Huxleys had this at least once a week. All her relatives would visit their manor and talk about the adult and uninteresting stuff. It was a consolation for her that there was another child in the family. Ghandi was her savior during the boring dinner.
One of the human slaves was in charge of Irina’s clothes and entire look. She must be presentable from head to toe, as her mother always demanded.
“You are growing into a very beautiful young woman, Irina,” praised one of her aunts.
She smiled and thanked her quietly. What did she even mean by beautiful?
When Irina looked at herself in the mirror, all she saw was a copy of her relatives. She had similar characteristics as them. There was nothing unique about her.
“Of course, she is a lovely little thing! After all she took after me,” her mother agreed and bragged about her own looks. There was nothing surprising about that.
“Can Ghandi and I play in the meadows first?” She hopefully asked.
“But we will have dinner in a few minutes. Behave yourself, Irina,” her mother hissed.
“Oh, just give her permission, darling. She and Ghandi can eat later. They would just be bored to death with all the business talks around the table,” her father countered.
Once her father gave his word, nothing could change his mind. So, she and Ghandi were off to play in the meadows. They could not be trusted alone because of their mischiefs so Uncle Von followed them to supervise.
“We do not want to disturb your dinner Uncle Von. You do not need to look after us,” Ghandi said.
“I can just eat later. Besides, I know how rowdy the two of you can be. I am not letting my eyes off of you children,” he replied.
The two of them were lost in their own bubble while Uncle Von was also lost within the words in his book.
For about an hour or so, Uncle Von immediately snapped his book and stood up. Irina was startled by the suddenness. She was curious, too.
“Shh,” Uncle Von said before she could ask what was happening. “I smell petrol. And I do not hear the voices in the dining hall,” he whispered.
Both cousins’ eyes widened as they noticed what Uncle Von described. They all ran back to the manor.
She could feel it. There was something amiss especially when they saw a group of slaves crowding the back door, stumbling to get off the premises.
“What are you all doing?” Von asked, raising his voice, when he saw that the humans had removed the ball and chains from their ankles.
They all seemed to be shocked that there was a witness.
“I thought all of them were in the dining room!” One slave shouted.
Then a fight ensued when they started to attack her uncle. Ghandi did not miss a beat and he jumped in the fight as well. She knew that both could handle the weak humans so she ran upstairs towards the dining hall.
But before she could make a step towards the second floor, flames and burned wood blocked her path. Still, she made her way up.
The smoke was suffocating her. The bright orange blaze hurt her eyes. The immense heat started to roast her alive.
She finally reached its closed doors. Her palms laid flat on the wood and she felt its hotness. She knew that if she opened them, there would not be any barricade that could slow the fire down.
Nevertheless, she had to open it. And when she did, she was taken aback by the force and the sudden amount of heat. When she composed herself, she stood up and tried to enter.
But she could not. The flames were too high and there were burned items obstructing her way.
She coughed once more when she inhaled a lungful of fumes. Against the thick dark smoke she saw them all—her mother and father, Ghandi’s parents, Uncle Von’s siblings and all of the Huxley family.
“Mother! Father! We must get out,” she sobbed, blurring her vision.
Despite her obscured view, she saw that they had already been burning. They were slumped on their seats, with eyes closed, but none were moving.
Can they not feel the flames engulfing their bodies? Had they been asphyxiated by the smoke?
She took several steps towards the entrance but someone grabbed her.
She whirled and saw that it was Uncle Von. “We must go,” he coughed.
“No! They are still in there,” she struggled against his grip.
“Irina, listen to me! I cannot save them all but I can still save you. They are… they are gone,” he said.
She did not know if the tears in his eyes were because of the smoke or because of the grief.
He carried her and brought her to a safe distance away from the fire. Ghandi was also there, lying on his back.
That was when she had a good look at her uncle and cousin. Both were tremendously injured.
She gazed back at the burning manor then at the remaining Huxleys before her. Uncle Von collapsed. Ghandi whimpered in pain.
She could not help the dead but she could still save the living.
___
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
This is the second book of the Sphere series. You must read Her Broken Spell (Book 1) before diving into this book in order to fully grasp the story.
Like. Comment. Follow. And a review would be much appreciated because it will boost this story for a wider audience. Enjoy!
