The Veil Read Online Free PDF Page B

the bathroom. A chimenea-style fireplace stood in the centre of everything, its golden flames crackling and casting an inviting glow over the room.
    I walked around the platform spokes until I reached the bed, admiring the ceiling as I moved, which was the equivalent of looking at the galaxy through the Hubble telescope – a mass of what appeared to be stars shimmered above me – but it was clearly just Fae magic at work. My bag was sitting next to the bed, waiting for me as promised. I unzipped it and pulled out my trusty sword, sliding it out of its black holster. The blade winked red in the light that poured through a nearby porthole window. I’d redubbed it Crimson because after its counterpart had been shattered and reforged into the Blood Brothers, it was no longer part of a twin set. I slotted Crimson back into the sheath and hung it by its holster from a metal weave on the bedframe, before taking off my jacket and sitting down on the edge of the bed – which was soft and comfortable. For a while I stared into the crackling fire and tried to get a handle on my erratic thoughts.
    I’m in another world.
    I had seen and done so many things since becoming a Chosen and joining the Alliance. I’d fought creatures that defied belief, conversed with a god and had to deal with my own brother becoming a Vampire. But all of those things had been the effect to Pandemonia’s cause – the results of a parallel world imposing its influence on my own. Nothing – not even the stories I’d been told – had prepared me for my arrival on the other side of the Veil. It was like having some distant dream materialize in front of you; it unfolded from something abstract into something you could literally reach out and touch.
    I didn’t like it.
    My soul feels unsettled...it really doesn’t want to be here. There was that thought again. I wondered if it was how Pandemonians had felt when they had first been forced to flee through the Veil to Earth. Do they still feel that way?
    It was as if we had crossed some invisible point of no return. Although they were meant to be lighthearted, Scarlett’s words lingered in my mind. Fenodara was the beautiful adornment to the dark underbelly of the beast that was Pandemonia – the alluring pattern lining poison-tipped wings. I knew that beyond the walls of the city, the world was a dying, hideous place full of chaos and misery, and that thought scratched at the back of my mind. All I wanted to do was grab Gabriella and the rest of my friends and go home.
    But I can’t leave. I’m here for a reason.
    I stared down at the golden mark wrapped around my right arm – the purified version of the Mark of Sorrow. The darkness that had attached itself to me after I had destroyed The Sorrow had almost claimed my soul, twisting me into some evil version of myself. Luckily, I had managed to imprison it and take control, and afterwards I had emerged as some kind of walking weapon capable of incredible feats that dwarfed even the incredible powers of a Chosen. With my sudden evolution, for the first time in a long time the HASEA was a real force to be reckoned with – stronger than it had been in millennia and now a legitimate threat to Hades, and I knew that my leaders were planning to use me to end the Ageless War. But the power I now wielded was something still unknown – not even by me – and the unknown needed to be treated with caution. There was no telling how long I would stay in control, and what the impact to me would be in the long run. After all, genuine power is the most dangerous thing in the world; it corrupts those who possess it and destroys those who desire it.
    I unpacked the rest of my bag. The contrast of contents was almost amusing. Piled on top of a host of backup weapons and apotropes was a selection of clothes, toiletries and a pair of trainers. I scooped out the clothes and trainers, and carried them over to a curved wardrobe that stood one floor section over. Hanging over