"This is useless!" I yelled loudly in frustration. "Utterly completely totally use–"

"SHHHHHHH!"

I scowled at the sour faced librarian who was making sure that I could see her evil side eye from behind the mountain of books I was taking up most of my view. I swear to whatever deity was listening at this current moment in time if she told me 'Shhh!' one more time I was going to set fire to her flowery bloomers. She looked at the two of us suspiciously, sparing a final glance at me that probably read my violent thought, before hobbling away on her old legs. I then mimed repeatedly banging my head on the scuffed table that had been my reading partner for the last six hours. I caught Shadow's eye roll. I couldn't care at this point.

My theory about the long day had been semi accurate as it had got a bit out of hand. It was now the day after, midday specifically and all three of us were no closer to finding out any information about the castle I had seen in my vision. We had been here all day yesterday and Sheira had rolled (Not a joke) me out of bed at five in the morning so we could be there bright and early. I may have muttered a few words that wouldn't have been suitable in this little town this bright and early but would have been perfectly acceptable after a Saturday night in London.

Yesterday's research hadn't started well because the librarian instantly identified us as trash. I could see her perspective on the whole situation though. She was a woman living in comfortable retirement, judging by her curled grey hair and gnarled little hands, who was clearly well off as seen by her fashionable clothes and the bulky Mulberry handbag. She was clearly enjoying her work, it was peaceful, relaxing as she dealt with old timers, families with kids and the regulars who came in for a gossip on a regular basis.

Enter us three. Two sixteen-year olds, one of whom is still looking a little worse for wear, and a surly twenty something who is set to scowl as a default was something this well-groomed old lady was wanting. Add to that the fact that Sheira and Shadow had started another argument and I was threatening to bash their heads together as we walked in the door meant we didn't give off the best first impression. At least Sheira and I attempted a friendly introduction, minding our manners and being as polite as possible asking for 'where can we find the books on castles and medieval history?'. Shadow was still sulking from earlier. Our friendliness didn't matter one jot however as she clearly wanted us out ASAP.

That sadly didn't happen though as she had to kick us out when they closed up, after a fair bit of disruption and destruction had taken place. Then we had to witness the horror on her face when we showed up first thing the next morning. It wasn't our fault it was taking so long though as we'd run into a slight problem. The castle, well how do you put this, DIDN'T EXIST!

We had checked everything, and I mean everything. Medieval history, British history, Scottish history, British architecture through the years, castle books (So many castle books...), Scottish historical sites, places of warfare (Because apparently Molly liked setting up shop in places with a violent history), Scottish monarchs, Edinburgh history, the Scottish landscape and all of it had amounted to nothing. Utterly nothing.

I was about to wonder how Sheira was getting on when the woman herself appeared and she was looking as defeated as the rest of us. She carried the same bored and tired expression that was mirrored by the two of us who at least had had access to natural sunshine. That was partly the reason when Sheira seemed to be turning grey. Her skin was coated with grey freckles, and her hair had a fine layer of the stuff sat on top of her head like a hat. Her clothes were filthy, and the tips of her fingers were smudged with a dark brown/grey. Its amazing how the human body can act as a dust magnet the moment you enter a dingy underground room.

She stretched once she'd entered the privacy of our little alcove, the joints in her back popping as she eased the tension from her shoulders (I need a massage after this. And a holiday. A Spa holiday). "How you guys doing? Any luck?" We both grunted in agreement. Sheira sighed, "is this seat taken?" She pointed at the seat between the two of us which was holding a pile of books that probably shouldn't be sat on such an unstable object.

"That's my failure pile, you can shove them onto the floor," Shadow muttered without tearing his eyes away from his reading.

Sheira sat down after shifting the massive weight of the books and then eyed the pile sadly. "All this and still nothing? Are you sure nothing has popped up?"

"Zero matches from me," Shadow muttered.

Sheira turned to me hopefully. "Nope. I got zip. Nada. Nought. Not a sausage." I eyed the dust layer that was covering every inch of her. "I'm presuming you're empty handed as well?"

She sighed, "I'm afraid so. Six hours in that dusty pit of hell, with only a torch and no respirator and nothing comes up. I must have gone thorough twenty years of newspapers down in that stupid archive."

Sheira, wanting to try a different tactic after the previous days mindless book reading, had decided to get access to the libraries archives of newspapers and folders. I had originally gone down with her but that hadn't ended well to say the least.

Shadow clearly thought this as well. "It would have been faster if Nick didn't break the room."

"It wasn't my fault that those boxes were stacked so weirdly!" I protested. "And I didn't see you helping out."

"Someone needed to stay up here, and you're the short ones."

"I'm not short, you're the tall freak!"

"I'm warning you two..." growled Sheira. She had returned to the tired babysitter format making sure Shadow and I didn't return to a tirade of insults that would then get us thrown out.

It was funny how fast we'd all gone back to our previous roles. Shadow was back to the moody and grumpy pain in my as that we all knew and tolerated, I was now the primary target of annoyance and Sheira was shooting warnings at us from the archive door whenever her Spidey senses started tingling. It probably didn't help the fact that we were trapped in a stuffy library, where the windows didn't open, the carpet clearly hadn't been since the building opened and damp smell of old paper was slowly driving all three of us mad. I also swear that I had now started twitching whenever I heard the clickity clack of the librarians–

"Nick? Anyone home?"

I snapped back to reality with Sheira's hand flickering across my view. "Sorry, just spaced ouuuutttt," I didn't even try to stifle the yawn.

Truth was that I was completely exhausted. We'd been working all day yesterday in the low light which lead to my eyes feeling dry and strained. When I finally did collapse into bed sleep evaded me like a dog trying to catch its own tail as my dreams were haunted with the vision of Josh, bloodstained and dead eyed whenever I closed my eyes. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well.

I think the others had noticed. Sheira had spared a few worried glances in my direction and offered to take over from me every now and again, all of which I declined. Shadow responded in the only way he knew how and that was via making a point of kicking me in the leg whenever he noticed me drifting off which did keep me awake but left me with an ugly line of bruises running up and down my shins.

Sheira sat back in her chair, concern clearly etched on her face. "When was the last time you took a break Nick?"

"Huh?"

"Went for a walk, took some fresh air?"

"Oh, I haven't," I chuckled softly but Sheira only scowled in annoyance.

"Do you have any idea how unhealthy it is to be sat down for six hours straight?"

"If it's that bad then why do they keep us in school?" I muttered.

She elbowed me in the ribs and glared a look that could kill in my general direction. "You've been sat in here since daybreak, you haven't moved, and you look exhausted."

"Like a zombie," Shadow chipped in.

I rolled my eyes at him, "not helpful. Anyway, you're the one that dragged me out of bed at three in the morning and wouldn't let me stop for coffee. I need caffeine, or I may as well have a brain made out of mush!"

"Then go get a coffee!"

"We don't have many more books to look through, I'm fine!" I insisted, although an espresso was looking really good right about now. Or a cappuccino with chocolate sprinkles, and cream and a caramel shot...

Shadow's scoff broke me free of yet another stupor. "Maybe if he gets out of this place for five minutes he'll stop kicking me."

"Oh, for god's sake," I snapped, "I only kicked you twice."

"Three times."

"One of those was leg cramp!"

"And the other two?"

"You were pissing me off!"

"SHHHH!!!"

I mimed strangling the librarian the moment her back was turned. I moaned dramatically and sunk deeper into my chair. Sheira glared ferociously at me while Shadow, as per usual, couldn't seem to care less. But he was pulling his weight, so that was something.

"Well you two are clearly on the verge of killing each other, or the old lady come to think of it, so I'm going to call the shots here," Sheira announced. She turned to me, her blue eyes narrowed into thin slits, "you. Go get a coffee or I'll punch you in the neck, clear?"

Her voice was verging on threatening and I knew that she would follow up on her warning with great satisfaction. I looked over the pile of books. There were about ten in total, meaning that there was a couple of hours reading material here. "We need to get through these books, it'll be faster if I'm here," I argued.

Shadow didn't even look up from his book, "I can manage on my own and they'll still be here tomorrow, because let's be honest who's going to rent 'An Extended History of Norman Britain'?"

I frowned in protest, but I knew they had a point. I sighed in defeat while Sheira smiled triumphantly. "Excellent! Go take a break for fifteen minutes, we'll be here when you get back."

"And while he's gone you can check that computer from the dark ages. You're the only one with enough patience to operate the thing."

The computer had nearly been thrown out a window earlier so Sheira tackling it would probably be the best option. Seeing that they both had things to do I walked out of the library, past the librarian who had an overjoyed expression on her face (Don't get too excited love, I'm coming back), and stepped out onto the street and headed towards the coffee shop.

A storm was brewing in the distance. The sky and sea were turning a solid shade of steely grey and the clouds darkened with rain. The wind was picking up substantially with people holding onto hats and coats to keep the cold out while holiday makers made a swift U-turn back to their hotel rooms. The wind, if Sabrina could tell our location from a gentle breeze then god knows what a storm could do. Sheira was researching a way to hide us from her. Every spare second she got was spent studying sigils, staying up to the small hours of the morning to find a way to protect us. Nothing had shown up yet, but something had to give eventually.

The warmth of the coffee shop was a welcome sensation after the bitter chill of outside, the smell of coffee grounds didn't go amiss either. I breathed in deeply as I ordered a cappuccino with espresso. The worker told me that it would take a few minutes as they were pretty busy, and I said that was fine and made my way over to one of the leather sofas that littered the room. The chair was wonderfully comfortable after the hard backed, knobbly, gave you a numb bum things that I'd been forced to sit in for the last six hours. Maybe that's why the librarian was so moody. Uncomfortable chairs, I smiled to myself.

I looked around the coffee shop at all the other people on their phones or working on their laptops, how many of them were elementals? How many of them were like me? I sighed and decided that making use of the free Wi-Fi was probably a good idea and if I could get internet access I could help out Sheira with research while I was in here. I pulled out my phone and noticed something odd immediately. It wasn't the fact that it was broken, it was the opposite. There was barely a scratch on it, save for the small crack in the corner from where someone threw my bag across the room at school. All things considered it should have been nothing but a tangle of scrap metal and plastic from where I had been attacked, burnt, thrown through a wall etc.

I shrugged it off and switched it on (without any problems might I add) and then stopped at my home screen. Me, Mum, Maxie and Lilah were all smiling towards the camera, well they were smiling I knew that I was deeply uncomfortable from standing under the walk-through aquarium at the London Sea life Centre. The picture itself was taken in February as a birthday present for the twins. I remember the look on their little faces when they came running home saying that there was a school trip planned on their birthday to go to the aquarium, they were so excited...then we had to watch heartbreak in action when we told them we couldn't afford it.

They understood our situation, and they knew that money was tight, and we sometimes struggled with stuff (Always struggled...), but that didn't cushion the disappointment in their eyes. Mum cried a lot that night. She said she wasn't a good enough mother, said she couldn't do anything for her kids. I told her that wasn't true, that she was the best mother in the world and was doing all she could, but I knew that I part of her didn't believe me.

So, I came up with a plan. I worked every shift at my stupid job where I was barely paid minimum wage that I could. Saving from weeks just so I could afford what I knew what would make them happy. And it did. When I handed those two their cards on their birthday and they saw the tickets inside, I knew that it had all been worth it. The smiles on their faces followed by the crushing hug was all the proof I needed.

So, the following day I took the whole family out. I was terrified by the whole thing, but I was doing this for them, who watched the fish with wonder in their eyes and didn't stop smiling the entire day. The picture itself was taken with all three of us beaming ear to ear (Even if I did have fear in my eyes), a little moment of happiness that I kept on my phone, so I could see it whenever I felt my hope draining away.

I sighed to myself. I was going to get them back. I was going to see my brother and sister smile again...I had to.

I unlocked my phone and flicked around the apps for a bit. A couple of updates and social media notifications but other than that there wasn't much other than the fact that I had about twenty texts from Mum all from the day Molly kidnapped her.

"Nick?...Hello?...Nick where are you?...Has Slattery kept you back?...Nick?...Seriously answer me...This isn't funny anymore where are you?...I said five and not a minute later. Its quarter past where are you?...Are you stuck in traffic?...Are you on the Underground?... Nick?...Nick!...Nicholas Jonathan Hayden answer me!...Pick up your phone!...Answer me godammit!...Nick?...Please don't do this to me. Not today...Nick...That better be you!"

What the heck did that one mean? What did she mean...Oh. That was when Jack was at the door, she thought that it was me... The text messages continued in a more disturbing direction.

"Change of plan. Don't come home...Wherever you are don't come here...Go somewhere else...Go back to school or the police. Just don't come home...Never mind. Go here. Open it in your maps and then follow these directions until you reach it. They'll keep you safe...I'm sorry Nick...I should have told you...There's no time for that now...Go here and stay safe and don't try to fid us if something goes wrong...Hopefully they'll just leave us alone...Probably not..."

I didn't even have to look at the link she'd sent me to know where it went.

"I'm sorry Nick...They'll tell you everything...I'm sorry..."

"...I love you."

She was saying goodbye to me. She was so certain that she wasn't going to make it out of here that she was saying goodbye, telling me that she loved me one more time. Well I'm going to find you, I thought determinedly, this isn't going to be goodbye. Not now. Not ever.

I backed up out of my text messages and clicked onto my gallery. I needed to see them all, even if it was just in picture form. I scrolled down my photos past the landscape shots and the smiling faces until something made me stop. I felt my forehead furrow in confusion as I clicked onto the image. What I was looking at was a black screen, like I'd accidently taken a photo of the inside of my pocket which wasn't weird, the camera was a bit dodgy and I knew that it malfunctioned occasionally, so I went to delete it. Then I saw something else.

I had locations enabled on my photographs, so I could remember where I'd taken everything. Most of the other images said London or York but this one didn't have a location attached to it was just a jumbled mess of letters and numbers.

4hNw0o6 2Vi3

What the hell? If it was broken then all the images afterwards would have the same glitch, but they didn't. They all showed the date and the location of where they were taken. Except for this one. It did show the date, the seventh of July, but other than a black screen and a pile of gobbledygook in the corner there was nothing. I clicked out and checked my albums. The seventh of July had other pictures in it, but they didn't reveal much.

"What did we do on the seventh of July?" I asked myself. I closed my eyes and thought back. Third Rose disappeared, fourth I met Flame and Sheira, fifth I woke up in camp, sixth I had my first training session and I decided to start this crazy journey and the seventh we went to Ashwood Dale– wait a second.

I wouldn't call it a lightbulb moment probably more like a flickering match moment but that not the point, I had an idea! Like a puzzle piece that you've been trying to fit in for ages that will show you what the final image looks like. My hands now shaking with excitement I clicked back onto the image, the time, the date everything lead to the fact that this was taken in Ashwood Dale. A town that didn't exist on any map, in any book or in any pictures. Because no one but an elemental was meant to find it.

The next moment I terrified all of my fellow coffee drinkers because of a sudden, spontaneous outburst of "EUREKA!" including the poor girl that had been trying to catch my attention for the past two minutes that my drink was ready. I thanked her, not caring about the weird looks I was getting from the other patrons and bolted out of the shop and into the alley next to it. For once I couldn't care less about the smell, I just had to check that I wasn't going mad.

"Flame!" I yelled excitedly the moment my combusting cat landed in the cramped alleyway from whatever aether universe he'd come from. "I've got it!"

"Got what?" he asked, understandably confused.

"I've found out why we can't find the castle, or at least I think I have, I need you to tell me whether or not I'm crazy."

He was giving me a 'You're definitely crazy' face but nodded cautiously, "okay, what have you got?"

I pulled out my phone and showed it to him. He sat there for a few seconds.

"Flame?"

"What am I supposed to be looking at?"

Facepalm moment for one coming right up. I cringed internally, "sorry bud, take a look at the date and those letters up in the left-hand corner."

His brown eyes narrowed as he studied the jumbled mass. "Why are they like that?"

"I have a theory. You see the date and the time, well that was about the time I had my fight with Shadow in Ashwood Dale. The photo must have been taken there but it didn't show up on the location because no map knows where it is. Ashwood Dale doesn't exist."

Flame's eyes narrowed in confusion and then widened in realisation. Then his face broke into a wide grin, "you know what? I think you're onto something."

"Good. Good to know that I'm not going crazy, Shadow never would have let me here the end of it if I was just spouting nonsense. Come on, let's not keep them waiting."

Flame nodded and had vanished into a puff of smoke before I had sprinted put of the alley. It took me a minute, maybe less to run back to the library, but it was still enough time to get my blood roaring in my ears and my thoughts racing. This is it. We aren't just clutching at straws anymore, we have a lead! I was panting for breath by the time I reached the library but didn't slow down even when the librarians voice hit banshee level, screeching "WALK!!!". The temptation to tell her to go boil her head was great but I was already back to our little alcove where things had taken a turn as Sheira was now throttling the PC and Shadow was seemingly fearing for his life in the corner.

Sheira noticed me standing there and when she turned I now realised why Shadow was quietly sliding below sight. There was a venom in her eyes, a pure fury that would lead to mob bosses braking down in tears. And that ferocious, animal like gaze was directing right at me. "You," she snarled, "are on a BREAK!" she screamed to the point I was certain the windows rattled.

I took a step back just in case she decided to go full angry hyena on my ass and I had to make a lunge for the nearest exit. I held up my hands in peace offering (I was offering a lukewarm coffee that I hadn't actually drank yet in one) but she was still visibly seething. "I know, I know, but I may have just discovered something big."

"What?" she spat angrily.

"I think I know why we can't find the castle."

Sheira's rage almost instantly melted away, replaced by curiosity and intrigue. I could deal with this look, Hulk Sheira was reserved for my nightmares. She stepped away from the computer she'd been fighting with and leaned back on the table. "Really? Huh...Shadow!"

"Yes?" A tuft of black hair followed by a flicker of red peered over the table at us.

"Get your ass up here, this might be worth hearing."

Satisfied that a bomb wasn't about to go off, Shadow pulled his long form out from beneath the table with surprising grace and sat nonchalantly on the back on one of the chairs, cool as a cucumber. The early fear and panic completely gone.

Sheira leaned back and waved her hand to tell me to get on with it. I swallowed a quick breath, took a quick gulp of coffee before setting it down on a cabinet. "Okay, just hear me out and you rip this theory apart when I'm done. Clear?" They both nodded in agreement. "Good to know. So basically, this hit while I was looking through my phone in the coffee shop. I was going through my gallery, don't know why, probably boredom, and I found this image." I pulled out my phone and showed them the picture which they both studied intently. "At first I didn't think much of it, just an accidental photo, happens all the time I thought but look at the top. It should show that location of where the photo was taken and the date. It's the seventh and if you scroll backwards you can see other photos of that day and they all say The Yorkshire Dales, so I was really confused, until I looked at the time and it matches up to when Shadow decided to use me as a plough."

"For gods sake are you ever–"

"Shh! Let him speak."

"Thanks, Sheira. Right, where was I? Oh yes, the weird letters. Look up in the corner and you see a bunch of scrambled letters. Weird right? Well that's what I thought too until I realised why Ashwood Dale doesn't show up there. Google or whatever doesn't have Ashwood Dale on a map right? No one does, that's the whole point. Ashwood Dale doesn't exist."

I paused for dramatic effect as my words slowly sank into my companions and realisation dawned on both of their faces. Sheira went from intent curiosity to wide eyed wonder as a grin slowly spread across her lips. Shadow was actually showing what he was thinking as the boredom had melted away to consideration. They both believed me or were at least considering believing me.

Sheira pushed herself off the table, she was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet with excitement. "That's genius! Why didn't we think of that! I've got to find that book." And with that she darted off amongst the shelves with determination evident in her step.

Shadow nodded approvingly. "I have to admit kid, you're onto something. If you're right I'll give you a couple of training sessions."

"If I'm right you stop calling me kid'," I said firmly.

I glared at Shadow and was instantly annoyed by the fact that his lips had twisted up into a smirk. "We'll see about that," which did not fill me with confidence.

However, before I had time to lecture Shadow that his little nickname was getting on my nerves Sheira had returned back from the shelves carrying what some would call light reading and others would call fat ass book (I honestly had no idea how she was carrying the thing)

"Is that a bible?" Shadow asked in disbelief. I knew from experience that Sheira was a lot stronger than she looked from the various time she'd punched/slapped/blasted me.

Sheira dropped the book on the table and I could have sworn I heard something crack. "Close enough." She flicked through the pages at such a speed that they whistled in the stagnant air, "its an entire history of every, and mean every, ancient British settlement that has ever existed."

"I thought you went through that yesterday?" I should remember as well as she made me carry the damn thing and it nearly broke my back in the process.

Sheira nodded without looking up. "You're not wrong but I actually missed out an entire section. Ah, here we go." She turned the book towards us two.

The book had faded yellow pages from years of use and sitting on a dusty, probably mould ridden, shelves. The corners were folded from hundreds of hands and the lettering was grey and pale. At the top of the page, the writing slightly bolder, were the words Ruins of Great Britain.

"You see, when I went over this yesterday I missed out this chapter. Because the castle looked intact I didn't even think that it might be an illusion, but if what Nick is saying is true–"

"The we wasted an entire day yesterday because you missed a chapter," Shadow growled in annoyance.

Sheira cut her eyes at him to shut him up. "I didn't see you inputting any ideas either!" she snapped angrily.

Shadow didn't answer so Sheira just rolled her eyes and glared even further at him. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, if Nick's idea is correct then all we have to do is find a ruin that has matching surroundings of the castle we saw in the compass."

I nodded as Sheira began to flick through the pages. Ruin after ruin, some were broken towers and crumbling stone while other were just the outline of a foundation and nothing more. I really hoped that it wasn't going to be the latter because at this moment in time we were going to need all the help we could ge–

"Wait, wait, wait!" A flicker of an image cut of my thoughts mid flow. "Go back a couple of pages. Forward one. There! That's it!"

The other two crowded round the book so they could see the perfect image of tall castle walls, a shattered structure and a sheer cliff face that was the only thing preventing the stones from crashing to the valley floor. Shadow pulled out his phone to cross reference. It matched perfectly. We finally had it... I thought, its not hopeless anympre.

"Dunloch castle. Home of the infamous Scottish lord Fergus Dunloch who was renowned for being cruel and greedy to all those under his protection. The extent of cruelty was far more than increasing the taxes as Fergus enjoyed murdering and torturing his servants, using them to experiment brand new instruments of punishment that had arrived in the gaol. The family were also found of kidnapping the youth of the surrounding villages and using them as entertainment in either dog hunts or target practise. When the truth of what was happening at Dunloch trickled down to the masses an angry mob stormed the castle, tearing it apart, brick by brick, freeing the terrified servants and capturing all of the Dunloch family, the majority of whom were executed. Euna Dunloch, the lords wife, was burned alive for her involvement in luring the children away and watching her husband slaughter them. The two eldest sons, Artair and Bruce, were hung draw and quartered while their father watched. Lord Dunloch was then pushed out into an angry crowd and ripped apart by the masses for his crime. Only the three youngest children were spared. Ever since then Dunloch castle has stood in ruin, with few daring to walk around its walls for fear of the blood-stained history walking once again."

"Charming," I muttered after Sheira finished reading the extensive passage. She had turned a pale shade of green while describing the execution of the family but who could blame her.

"It makes sense though." Sheira and I both turned to look at Shadow, who simply shrugged in response. "It does. Molly favours places with a violent history. The more blood spilled the better."

"She's a pleasant individual isn't she?" I added.

Sheira had continued to glance through the rest of the passages while Shadow and I were talking. She nodded to herself and flicked the book shut with a dull thump and a sudden spray of dust that sent all of us into a choking fit. "It...fits too...the book says that it's...one...one hour from Edinburgh on foot."

"So, we've got a match?" Shadow wheezed.

Sheira smiled and nodded. My heart felt like a balloon in my chest. For the first time in this stupid journey we had a destination, a lead, we knew where we were going! My hope began to rise for the first time in months. We could get them back and it might only take a few days. I don't want to jinx us, but things seemed to be looking up.

"We've got a chance now!" I whispered excitedly. "We finally have a plan! A hope! We can save them! YES! WOOHOO!" I was now leaping round the room joyfully. It wasn't just a shot in the dark anymore. Sheira was smiling happily at my joy while Shadow was remaining perfectly neutral. I didn't care though, as in the words of Captain Jack Sparrow 'We have our head–'

Slap bang in the middle of my celebrations Shadow and Sheira's eyes widened in fear, leaving me confused for a moment. An incredibly brief moment as I felt a towering inferno of rage and lost patience standing right behind me. I could practically feel the blood draining from my face. Well, I accept my fate. I turned around to see an old lady that had become a vicious pillar of fury with venom dripping from her lips.

"THAT'S IT! IVE HAD ENOUGH WITH YOU OBNOXIOUS BRATS! GET OUT! OUT! OUT! OUT BEFORE I CALL THE POLICE!"

All three of us made the smart move of running for it, streaking out of the front door with the librarian screaming behind us, unable to keep up on her tired old legs. But I couldn't care less. I was up on cloud nine.

***

"Sheira?"

"What?" she snapped irritably.

"This might sound like a stupid question, but it might not be given the circumstances–"

"Spit it out or I throw you out of that window."

"Why the hell are we in the bathroom?"

After we'd returned back to our hotel room after a narrow escape from the librarian from hell we spent the next few hours planning our next move. With the aid of Shadow's compass, we'd found an elemental village called Greencoast not too far away that we were going to head to for a supply refill and to try and bribe our way onto a transport up north. I was hoping to get out of here as soon as humanly possible but Sheira clearly had other plans as no sooner than I had finished packing she forcibly dragged me into the bathroom and shoved me down to sit on the edge of the bath without explaining what her plan was.

"I mean, if you want privacy I've got to break your heart here, I like you but not in that way."

Sheira's eye roll caused earthquakes in China. "Will you shut up for five minutes? Shadow! Get your ass in here this concerns you too."

Shadow took his sweet time walking across the room and leaned against the doorframe with a bored expression. Sheira sighed loudly and began to open the metal box she was carrying while simultaneously flicking through pages in her sigil book.

This is going to be interesting, I thought as Sheira lifted the cover on her box and pulled a shiny object out of it.

"What the actual hell is that?" I asked in shock as I started at the silver pen out of the box.

It wasn't the fact that it looked like a pen that was surprising, it was the fact that it seemed to have a scalpel blade attached to one end of it. Sharp and evil looking like what you would see in a horror movie and I had a very nasty feeling that she was going to use it on me.

Without turning around Sheira explained what her plans were with the evil device of torture. "While you guys were asleep last night I was up for a few more hours reading up on sigils–"

"We weren't asleep, your light was keeping us up," Shadow muttered bitterly.

Sheira ignored him and carried on like he hadn't said anything. "I needed to find a couple of sigils that would make us untraceable so that Sabrina or anyone else from Molly's spy unit, and I think that may have found something that might be able to help us."

She held the book out to us, so we could see the two sigils that she had in mind. One was a series of black dots that eventually faded into nothing while the other was group of lines coming from a curved source being blocked by a barrier.

"The Grey Wanderer sigil and the Echorai sigil," she gestured to each sigil. "One to hide out footsteps and the other to silence our voices from anyone listening in. A perfect travellers pack."

I was still eying the scalpel. "That's good and all but the question remains of how are you going to put them on us?"

"With this," the tool flashed in her hands.

"I was really hoping you weren't going to say that."

"Its called a sigil pen or a stylus depending on who you ask. The scalpel is jut used to guide the ink into your skin. It doesn't actually carve into you, it just...burns you a little"

"It's still going to hurt like being roasted alive."

I was going to physically punch Shadow in a minute if he didn't shut up. I sighed, but honestly what could I do? "Where do they go?"

Sheira pointed to the area's she needed. "The Grey Wanderer goes on the sole of you foot while the Echorai goes on your throat. Don't worry they'll fade over time, well one of them will."

"Not helping!"

"The Grey Wanderer is permanent, but no one can see it. Nick we need these, we won't make it past the border without them."

"I know...Lets just get this over with," I resigned myself to my fate.

Sheira nodded and walked over to me with the stylus glinting wickedly in her right hand. "Which one do you want first?"

"Which one hurts the least?"

"The one on your foot."

"Do the one on my neck first. May as well get it done and over with. Like ripping off a plaster, right?"

She didn't say anything which was more worrying than if she'd said something, as she trailed her fingers over my neck trying to find a good spot. She found one and lifted the stylus to my skin, the tip of the scalpel just pressing down slightly. I winced in anticipation of what was about to come.

"Hey Nick?" I looked to face her, her eyes were apologetic. Oh god. "Sorry in advance, I'm not going to sugar coat it...This is really going to hurt."

Understatement of the god damn century! Not a fraction of a second later the stylus had begun the process of burning the sigil into my skin, my body screaming in pain and my brain was telling me to run for the hills as fast as I could humanly go. It was taking all of my willpower not to fight back and I was gritting my teeth, so I wouldn't scream with such a force I was surprised that they weren't shattering. But I was ninety nine percent sure that I had tears streaming down my face. Then there was the smell. Like barbecue and burnt hair. I was trying to stay still as I could, but I knew that my muscles were frantically twitching and spasming, trying to move away. Somehow I stayed put, my knuckles turning white with effort and the occasional whimper escaping my lips knowing that this would all be worth it in the end, so I just shut my eyes and waited for everything to be over.

"All right I'm done."

After what felt like a lifetime Sheira's words had similar effect to 'You haven't completely failed your last test.' I slid to the cold bathroom floor, slightly aware of the veil of sweat covering my face and wallowed in a pool of my own pain. Somehow I pushed myself up to my feet enough to peer into the stained bathroom mirror and examine the black mark above my collarbone.

Surprisingly there was no blood only the black burnt lines that made up the sigil. I ran my fingers over the mark which was slightly warm to the touch which then proceeded to burst into flames. I found myself back on the floor after that with Sheira actually looking relieved that I'd had a minor heart attack.

"I'm presuming it's supposed to do that?" I asked, slightly shell shocked.

"That shows it's taken to you, now take your shoe off."

The one on my foot still hurt like bloody murder but it wasn't as bad as the on my neck which was like, in essence, having the channel in my neck carved out by a spoon because it takes longer. The one on my foot only took a little bit of teeth gritting to get through and didn't take as long to carve which is a win-win any way you swing it..

After the burst of flame signified that the sigil was now working Sheira handed the stylus to Shadow who then started drawing the sigil onto Sheira (Giving that to him was probably the best idea she'd ever had). She barely flinched but that was hardly surprising as she'd probably gone through this form of torture before. With the final burst of white ice from the two marks she stood up and took the stylus from Shadow.

"Alright, your turn," she said advancing on Shadow's neck like an artistic vampire.

He immediately backed up, keeping his hands in front of him to make sure Sheira stayed at arm's length. "Uh uh uh, you're not going anywhere near me with that thing."

Seriously dude? We both put ourselves through pain and you decided that you don't want to. "What are you a wuss or something?" I asked, a mocking tone may have slightly entered my voice.

Shadow turned around and fixed me with a look of evil that could kill a dragon at point blank range. "That's not it," he snapped while I tried to make myself look a lot smaller. "Tell me this, when Amy and that lot attacked us what was there reaction to seeing me?"

The two of us glanced at each other in confusion. What was he getting at? "Well..." Sheira began, "they certainly weren't expecting to see you."

"Exactly! They didn't know I was there because Sabrina couldn't see me!"

He read the confusion on both of our faces as he was still talking gibberish as far as I was concerned. He sighed, his eyes rolling in annoyance and then he took off his jacket and then pulled his shirt up.

First things first. Abs. Lots of abs. Let me just put across the fact that I'm straight but if someone who walked by the with the body of a god anyone would stare. Shadow, if you pardon the phrase, was built like a brick outhouse made of muscles. His body had been carved into what you only see during an Olympic heavyweight boxing match, his biceps were easily as big as my head and was that an eight pack I saw? How the hell was hiding all that under his jacket!

Eventually I saw what we actually meant to be looking at and gently guided Sheira's gaze to the black mark on Shadow's shoulder. The sigils I knew of were small and discrete, that was the whole point, but the one that Shadow had was huge, spanning from his collar bone to the top of his shoulder blade, creating an unbroken ring of interwoven black lines. A ring of spiralling blackness made up the border, while inside the ring perhaps twenty separate sigils were incorporated into the design, seemingly tattooed on rather than burnt using the stylus, a work of art with an underlying purpose.

"Woah..." Sheira gasped in awe as she peered closer for a better look.

"What does it do?" I asked. I hated that I had to ask for everything, but I couldn't exactly hep that.

Sheira slowly turned to look at me, her eyes were wide in shock but they were shining with awe. "This sigil doesn't have a name, it hasn't existed for hundreds of years, but everyone has heard of it. It's a protection sigil, the ultimate protection."

"And what does that entail?"

"It means I'm impossible to track, spy on or be found. No one can hear me, trace my steps, identify my DNA, or if someone was given two photo's of me from different times they wouldn't recognize me. The best tool for someone who doesn't want to be found."

"That's overkill." Shadow shrugged before covering the sigil and moving to out his jacket back on.

"How did you even find it?" Sheira asked suspiciously.

Shadow waved a dismissive hand, "I have one of the two books that contains the sigil and how to create it, I drew it on myself after I came to my senses about the Army, so those idiots couldn't find me."

Sheira raised an eyebrow. Something told me she didn't believe him, I'd have to ask her about that later. The sigil is hundreds of years old and completely extinct and Shadow just happens to have the book that can create this thing. Coincidence? Maybe, we definitely had a lot more to learn about our mysterious travelling companion but that would have to wait. We had a long journey ahead of us, which meant a lot of walking (On a freshly healed wound no less) and so help me god if I had to do it in silence then this wasn't going to end well. I was already considering hurling Incaendium at the guy's head. But hey, so long as I was aiming for Shadow rather than a entire Army base, well, I couldn't complain.

***

Its finally out! And now its going to take a while for the next one to emerge as I have a summer school for a week. Until then leave a vote and a comment if you're enjoying the story and feel free to ask any questions you might have. See you next time ; )