Fractured Kingdom

The grass wasn’t really blue in Kentucky. 

I mean, logically, I knew it wouldn’t be. But it was always referred to as The Bluegrass State, and I guess a small part of me thought the grass might be a slightly different shade. A blue-green maybe?

“What are you thinking about?” Tate asked, coming up to a stop. 

“Oh…uh… nothing. Nothing at all.”

He grinned. “You don’t have to be nervous. I promise, I’ll keep you safe.”

I began to tell him that I wasn’t nervous at all, but figured I’d keep my ego intact better if I didn’t reveal my ponderings on blue grass. Besides, we were about to leave the grass behind altogether.

Devon had brought us to an empty, wooded part of western Kentucky, just outside of Mammoth Cave National Park. He didn’t stay long because he had to get back to Millie, so it had just been Tate and I walking through the forest for the last ten minutes or so. He’d explained that the Mammoth cave system was over four hundred miles long, and apparently there was an entrance to Agartha at its depths.

“Seems kind of strange to put the entrance to an ancient hidden territory right in the middle of a tourist destination,” I said.

“It’s protected. But there are only a couple of humans brave enough to approach the entrance each year, anyway. It’s not exactly convenient.”

“And you have to do this every time you want to go back to Agartha?”

Tate laughed. “No way. Hardly anyone messes with the cave entrances anymore. We usually enter and exit through the poles.”

“As in the north pole? Like… where Santa lives?”

“You’re cute,” he said, brushing a thumb across my cheek. “But Santa stays far away from the poles. We’ve got a private air strip up there, and a facility that allows us entrance into the openings.”

“Hang on.” I stopped and put my hands on my hips. “Do you really mean to tell me that there are giant holes at the poles of the earth that lead down into the middle—complete with an airport—and humans haven’t discovered them yet?”

“No.” Tate shook his head. “The humans definitely know they’re there. We’ve got a working arrangement with the leaders of some of the largest governments on the surface. They’ve agreed to help us keep it a secret. Why do you think you’ve never seen maps or satellite images of the poles? And no airlines fly over? We let them give very expensive tours a couple of times per year to keep suspicions down, but only to a handful of people. And we always clear their memories of our presence before they leave.”

“That’s nuts. I never would have guessed.”

“That’s the point,” he said, pushing some small branches out of the way to reveal a large crevice in the stone wall we’d just reached. “After you.”

I hesitated for just a moment before stepping into the shadows. Tate was right behind me, and the golden glow of his aura seemed to intensify and light the way before us. It was a narrow passage that immediately wound away from the opening. It would have been pitch-black in short time if not for Tate’s warm illumination.

“This is one of the secret openings to the cave system. There are many, but the bigger ones have all been taken over by mortals giving tours.”

“They’re all connected though, right?”

“Right. So technically someone could find Agartha from any of the entrances if they hiked long enough. But our guardians would never let them in.”

The passage opened up around a second bend into a cavernous chamber. Tate’s aura was no match for the blackness that consumed the large space. We could see only a few feet in front of us now. His hand found mine, and any hint of fear I might have felt disappeared. 

“It’s not much farther,” he said. 

We walked across the hard earth, and I did my best to ignore the sounds of scuttering I heard across the floor and the flapping of wings overhead. All-powerful leaders of sinister groups like the Manticorians barely registered on my radar, but bats? Bats were a different story. I bit down on a soft squeal and ducked as one of the nasty critters flew a little too close for comfort.

Tate chuckled and pulled me along. The air changed as we walked farther into the cavern. It grew cool and damp, and it almost felt as though the cave was breathing. “I thought you said we were almost—”

“Shh.” Tate stopped abruptly and froze himself to the spot. I stilled as well, straining my eyes to locate whatever it was that had given him pause. “Listen.” His whispered words tickled my ear. 

I held my breath, listening past the sounds of the cave critters and the distant drips of water falling from somewhere within its depths. I could barely make out the sound of rushing water, like a river. And secondary to that was a murmur of voices.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But we should prepare for the worst just in case.”

We moved ahead, more quietly now. Every so often we would pause and listen again. The voices grew louder as we went on, and as the chamber curved off to the right, the walls began to narrow. Up ahead, the sound of the rushing water now filled the damp air, and the soft white glow of two large flashlights shone on a cave wall at the opposite end. 

Our Keeper hearing was much more sensitive than the humans’—and it was clear now that we were dealing with humans—but we didn’t want to get careless with our approach. We moved to the edge of the chamber, still careful with soft steps and slow breathing to remain unnoticed by the people ahead.

There were two of them. Both men. One looked to be just slightly older than us, and the other could have been his father. They stood at the edge of an underground river, talking quietly back and forth. Their words became clear as we neared them. 

“I can’t see anything on the other side, Dad. Just a wall. Please don’t do this.”

“It’s murky, but there’s an opening there. I know it. I’ve spent the last ten years preparing for this moment.”

I squeezed Tate’s hand, and he lowered his head so I could whisper in his ear. “Do you know what they’re trying to do?”

“They’re trying to get into Agartha.”

“Is that the way?”

Tate looked ahead toward the flashlight’s beam disappearing into the water of the river. “Yep.”

A thrill of excitement danced through my chest. Agartha was underwater? Maybe this whole breaking into other territories business would be easier than I’d thought.

A loud splash drew my attention back to the men—or man, rather—as the younger dropped his flashlight and yelled after his father who had disappeared beneath the dark river’s surface. A second later he leaped into the rushing water as well.

I didn’t have a chance to think before my feet were moving. I flew across the hard earth faster than I knew I was capable of running, and the sound of Tate calling my name barely registered as I dove headfirst into the river. 

I instantly saw more clearly below the water’s surface. My muscles came alive along with my senses, and it only took half a second to spot the younger man flailing in the murky water. He whipped his head back and forth searching for the older man, but it was too dark for him to see his father.

It wasn’t too dark for me, though. 

Above ground, there was only a wall on the opposite side of the river. But here I could see a flat opening about four feet below the surface. The older man’s kicking feet disappeared under the wall, while his son still waved his arms around blindly. I wrapped an arm around the younger man’s waist and propelled us forward after his dad. 

The water looked much the same on the other side of the wall, and miraculously, the older man was still kicking. I watched as he confidently swam back up to the surface. His son thrashed and fought against my grip, but the water gave me strength I didn’t have on land. Securing my grip around his torso, I swam up toward his father.

The older man was pulling himself back onto dry ground when our heads broke through the surface.

“Get off me!” The younger man squeezed a boot between us and shoved me hard in the stomach. It was enough to break my hold on him, but I wasn’t injured. It would take much more than that to hurt me in the water. “Who are you?!”

The father turned back with a grin. “It’s one of them. One of the Nephilim.”

The younger man looked like he’d been burned. He backed away from me, looking horrified, and quickly swam to the bank to rejoin his father. 

“I’m not a Nephilim,” I said. The older man simply nodded once in my direction, then helped his son onto the land. The cave on this side of the wall was still very dark, but there was light coming from somewhere—just enough to prevent us from feeling completely blind. I was about to climb out and ask the men what exactly they expected to find here when Tate came up from the water at my side.

“There’s another one,” the older man said. “It’s a wonder they haven’t killed us yet.”

“I told you, we’re not—”

Tate put a hand on my back, stopping me from finishing my sentence. “We won’t kill you,” he said simply. “In fact, we’ll even escort you to the entrance.”

“What are you doing?” I whispered as we waded through the water toward the underground river bank. 

“I don’t want to drain any more power today. I may need it when we get to Agartha. Besides, the guys at the entrance never get much action. I’ll let them handle the mortals.”

“They’re not going to kill them, are they?” I risked a glance up at the men. The younger watched me, pale-faced and walking backward like I might infect him with some invisible disease.

“Probably not.”

The older man was smiling wide as we joined them. “I knew it! I’ve been saying for years that your kind still existed. Tell me, is there really another sun at the center of the earth?”

“Something like that.” Tate tried to suppress a smile. We turned another corner and immediately saw the source of the light. Two guards stood against a flat stone wall about twenty yards away. They both glowed with the same golden hue as Tate. And as soon as we were all in their sights they shot what looked like bolts of lightning from their palms.