Edited on July 22, 2014. I'm currently working through this story and making slight adjustments to the story in order to fix certain inaccuracies that started popping up later in the story.

I own nothing of the Black Jewels Trilogy or any following novels. All rights go to Anne Bishop. Thanks for reading!

BJT:ANW

Chapter 2

Arina opened her eyes.

The dim light from her blank, practically empty room was both reassuring and a disappointment after the darkness of her dream. Closing her eyes again, she tried to draw the dream back. But, as always, it remained just out of reach, a sort of feeling of strength, love, and peace. She sat up abruptly. Those were not good feelings to linger on. Not here, not now. Not when her parents where on the brink of promotions, her sister was having particular problems with her drug needs, and school exams coming up.

She shivered, and then started to get dressed. She was making her way down to the kitchen in five minutes flat, moving silently. She paused in the doorway, and opened the fridge, though not in any real hope. Sure enough, the mere sight of food made her nauseous. She hurriedly closed the door and bolted from the room, locking the door behind her.

Arina leaned against the door, breathing hard. She had not been able to eat solid food without puking it back up for almost a week. She could manage small amounts of liquids, but that was it. She always felt sick, was always hungry, and was always hostile now.

A soft whine and a pressure on her leg caused Arina to look down. She smiled gently. No matter how angry she was, she would never take it out on her friends.

"Hey, Janos," she crooned, crouching and starting to stroke him. The big shepherd butted his head against her, and then licked her face. She kissed him, gave him a hug, and stood. Walking down the street, all of her happiness drained away once more, leaving her cold and empty.

Halfway down the street, she stopped. The thought of going to school to day was almost as bad as the thought of food. She turned back and went into the house. In the garage, there was a third car. She was only allowed to use it for an hour a week, but her hours had built up, and she had almost thirty hours with the car now.

Slipping into her room, she shut the door and started to lock it. It was only when all fifteen locks were in place that she turned and started to silently gather her things. No one would look for her for thirty hours, and only then because her father would notice that the extra car was still missing, and freak out. Arina folded her clothes and put them in bags, and then carefully put all of her books in her suitcases. All of her delicate things went into their padded cases and folded into the clothes, at least, those that she had taken out in the first place.

In the end, it only took her an hour to dismantle and pack everything in her room that she valued. By that time her parents had gone to work and her sister to…wherever she went when she needed her drugs. It only took her three trips to carry everything down to the car, when she knew that everyone else she had known would take about ten. She didn't mind. Finally, all that remained in her room was her little purse and the tiny wallet. In her wallet was a credit card with almost 30,000 dollars on it. The money for high school and college (she had dozens of scholarships), the money she had earned, and everything her parents had ever given her. That was everything she had now. She shrugged to herself, picked the purse up, and went downstairs, shutting the door behind her, but not bothering to lock it. It did not matter, after all. She wasn't coming back, not if she could help it. She could rent a hotel room, if she had too.

Arina got into the little car and backed out of the garage, the sight of Janos, curled up forlornly on the porch of his house, stopped her. Thinking back, she had never seen any of his owners doing anything for him. She groomed him, walked him, and loved him. His owners ignored him. Opening the back door, Arina whistled to Janos, and he bounded up joyfully. The girl coaxed him into the car, regardless of the damage, and then continued to go. She highly doubted his owners would even notice that he was missing.

The one good thing about her town, she thought, was the fact that, as long as you kept them on a short leash, dogs were—grudgingly—allowed in the main mall. She went through the mall, recklessly buying everything she wanted. The dream that had woken her up was hovering closer to her mind, giving her an odd sense of freedom.

Who cared what she bought? Not her. She still had plenty of money.

Arina bought CD's that had the songs she liked, even if it only had one of them, and some of her favorite movies. She also bought a laptop, for the fun of it. She bought all the books that she had ever wanted, all the clothes that she had ever even imagined buying but that she had wanted, and little statuettes of fairies, animals, and castles. She went to Tiffany's and bought plenty of jewelry, for no purpose but that she liked it. The last thing that she started to shop for was candy. She bought all of her favorites, and then some. Chocolate, caramel, and gum were a few of the things she got.

Sometime around six at night, Arina got back into the car and took a deep breath. The smell of chocolate was heavy, with a slight fruity tang (gum). There was the clean, crisp smell of new clothes, and a slightly different smell of new paper. She smiled a little bit as she pulled away.

It took her an hour to reach the stables that she always went to. The huge barns and the noise of horses always relaxed her, and riding and caring for them even more so. The fact that she had to associate with people at the same time was what she called an 'unavoidable consequence'. She had to get access somehow, and working here did the job.

Still, it was a good place, even if she did have to get horses tacked for petty five-year-olds who whined and complained, were mean to the horses, and were generally unpleasant. She only had to do that for an hour. The owner who had tried to get her to teach gave up when she sent all of the children home in hysterics. And then, when the parents came to complain, she sent them away in hysterics after about ten minutes. Not one of them came back. Ever. At that, the owner decided to keep Arina with the horses, and away from the customers.

Now, Janos sprawled in the corner of the stable as Arina went down the rows of stalls, crooning to the horses, and getting some of them out and tacking them up. Leading the horses out, she held them—and herself—still while the children clumsily mounted. However, when one of the children kicked her horse hard in the rump, she could not help herself. Arina yanked the child out of the saddle, taught the girl how to mount properly, then watched sharply while the girl did so, wide eyed and trembling. The instructor just laughed as Arina stalked back to the barn, glowering.

Making a beeline towards the farthest barn, Arina soon reached the stalls of her favorite horses. The male, a huge, jet black thoroughbred, was named Deathwind, and had been an incredible racer in his time. The mare, on the other hand, was a pure white Arabian, and was called Pewter Star. Don't ask anyone why, though. The owner named her, and he died two years ago. Everyone just called her Star these days.

The two of them had a foal, a sweet little thing, silver grey with the cutest black eyes. Arina had named her Shooting Star, and because it was Arina who had been at the birthing, who had taken care of Star through her pregnancy, and had kept the terrifying stallion calm, everyone accepted that as fact, and Shooting Star had been registered. The fact that it was a good name helped.

She carefully groomed all three, murmured to them, and played with them. It might sound crazy to play with a horse, but it involved a lot of riding, and running around trying to catch them. Or, in the case of Shooting Star, pretend to try to catch them. Finally, they were happy, and she was happy, so she went on her way.

For hours, Arina worked her way through the barns. Most everyone else had already left, and by the time midnight rolled around, there were only three other people at the barns.

Conveniently enough, that was pretty much when the fire started.

The fire started in the biggest barn, though no one could tell what had started it. It quickly spread to the other three barns, and the other three headed for those, leaving the largest barn, the one that was the worst off, to Arina. She didn't mind: to her, it was easier to be alone than to have to work with a bunch of people who were probably idiots anyway.

She started to bring the horses out, blindfolded and two at a time. It was difficult, but they all trusted her to the death, and she did not have too much trouble. However, it was taking a lot longer than she had thought. She swore quietly, before darting into the barn a fifth time.

There were three guys standing in the middle of the aisle. They all looked very confused, and were staggering around a little. Arina looked around, confused. How the hell had they gotten in here? No matter. She turned her attention back to them, quickly looking them over. (She never stopped moving towards the nearest occupied stalls.) The first two were…hot, beautiful even. They looked like her, which surprised her, considering the fact that most everyone else in the town had light skin and blond hair—she was considered to be somewhat exotic in appearance with her gold skin and black hair. But the third—Holy shit, did he have WINGS? She froze, then blinked. No, there weren't any wings. She looked at them suspiciously for a split second as she reached the stalls. She shook herself.

"Blindfold the horses and get them out. Take them two at a time if you can." She did not wait for a response, but grabbed two horses, blindfolded them, and quickly led them out. "Men," she muttered.

BJT:ANW

It had taken a week to get the spells together. One week, where Lucien prowled the Hall, everyone avoided him, Jaenelle and the coven snarled a lot as they tried to figure the Web out, and the Hall had a general, tense atmosphere, but within a few days, Jaenelle announced that they needed to move to the Keep, so they went.

Needless to say, when the spells were finally put together and ready, there was a great deal of relief, from everyone.

The coven had set up a huge Tangled Web in the keep, in the same place where Witch had unleashed the maelstrom. The Web took up the entire east wall of the chamber, the multicolored strands twining around in strange, unheard-of patterns. Lucien was staring impatiently at the web, as he had been for the past…oh, say…ten hours. The witches were used to it by now, and were well versed in getting around him. Of course, he wasn't stupid, either, and kept to the west wall, but still…

"Done!" Karla crowed, waltzing into the huge dining room that currently housed everyone who had been at the first breakfast and seen that Web. Everyone looked up, and Lucien focused on her. The entire coven came in, looking rather pleased, if tired.

"Not," Jaenelle said sharply, stopping Lucien with a freezing look as he started to get up, "until we have eaten. I have no idea what kind of journey the transition will be, and you are going to need your strength, just in case."

Lucien glowered, but reluctantly nodded and sat back down. There were a couple faint sighs of relief, which Lucien noted, his temper rising.

Several of the witches kept a close eye on him. Lucien wasn't bound to anyone, except perhaps his mother. That meant that when he rose to the killing edge, he was incredibly dangerous, because it was hard as hell to get a handle on him. He takes so much after his father that it is scary; he doesn't trust anyone (except sometimes his mother), so they can't get a handle on him. All of this contributed to why everyone was so desperate to get this girl, Arina, here. Even from a distance, and through visions, she had an amazing amount of control over him. They were mates, everyone knew it. Even Kaelas knew it, and was looking forward to meet 'the kitten'. Both he and his mate were absolutely certain that the girl was feline under the skin, just as much as the Lady's mate and sons. A fact that the human males were taking in with a mixed reaction.

Lucien suffered through his meal, eating as quickly as he could. However, he could do nothing about the speed that the others were eating. To his credit, he did realize that they were eating rather faster than normal, and appreciated the gesture. Unfortunately, it wasn't really good enough for him, and he silently raged the entire meal.

When everyone had—finally—finished dinner, they made their way down to the chamber. Most everyone stopped dead in the entrance, stunned. The Web was immense, far larger than anything they had ever seen. Even Saetan and Draca, were shocked. The Web reached up almost one hundred feet, and was a good two hundred lengthwise. The Web willed the entire chamber, and the chamber was a large one.

"Any tips?" Daemonar asked warily, eyeing it. None of them had ever gone through a gate, let alone something like this.

Lucien snapped to attention, staring narrow-eyed at his cousin.

"Don't lose your head," Lucivar said after a moment of thought. "Whatever happens, do not panic."

"That's obvious, Uncle," Yaslana drawled. Lucien looked at him.

"I am going alone. I have no idea what the two of you are thinking, but you are not coming with me. This is dangerous enough, I don't need the complication." Lucien practically hissed the words, irritated. And I certainly don't need you two to mess things up for me, was what went unsaid. Judging from the scathing looks they gave him in response, they knew exactly what he meant. He glared at them, and they just looked back at him, raising eyebrows.

"Enough," Jaenelle snapped, turning all three young males attention on her. "You are all going, and do not look at me like that Lucien. You might need help, and I am certainly not sending you out into some strange world without someone else going with you. And yes, Lucien, that is an order."

Lucien nodded. He understood, and in any other circumstances would have approved, but not now. Now he wanted to go alone, get her, and bring her to safety. And that meant that his instincts were rising, and he was naturally being a pain in the ass. He simply could not stop his instincts—not that he wanted to—and his level of power tended to make things difficult. But he would still obey Witch, even now.

He nodded again, more to himself this time as he mentally steadied himself.

"Are you three ready?" Saetan asked, looking between the three young warlord princes.

They all nodded, looking at the huge Web.

Outside the Keep, the sun set. Inside the Keep, Witch activated the Web, which yanked the three males out of the three realms, and onto the Winds of Earth. It was a slow process, however, and so it was almost five hours by the time they landed in a burning stable. At midnight. With a huge amount of panicking animals around them, and no guarantees that they were in the right place.

They looked around again, feeling the latent power in the place. Daemonar choked, Yaslana groaned, and Lucivar just shook his head. Kindred. They were surrounded by strong, kindred horses who had no knowledge of their heritage, or why they were so strange.

There was a small explosion above their heads, and the three males looked up in time to see the hay loft burst into flames. The blistering wave of heat had them staggering a little to the side.

To Lucien's horror, that was the moment that Arina chose to bolt into the barn.

Into the barn? How many people do that? Normally, people run away from a burning building.

However, the moment she entered, several of the horses calmed down immediately. They were, not shockingly, male. The kindred trusted her, without knowing why, without really knowing who she is, and what they are.

It explains why she was insane enough to run into a burning building, with panicking horses, at the very least.

At that moment, she saw them. (Not the kindred, the Lucien, Yaslana, and Daemonar.) Her eyes widened, and she looked around quickly, suspiciously. Probably wondering how we got here, Lucien thought. She looked them over, and when she looked at Daemonar, her eyes went wide and she looked like she was going to faint. Daemonar hastily put a sight shield over his wings, and she marginally relaxed.

"Blindfold the horses and get them out. Take them two at a time if you can." She snapped at them, causing them to jump. Giving the males a scathing look, she followed her own instructions and bolted out.

Daemonar blinked. "That was unexpected," he muttered. Nevertheless, he moved over to a stall and called in some cloths, tossing them to the brothers.

"Yes," Yaslana agreed dryly. "the last thing we need is for her to come back in and find that we haven't done anything. She'd kill us."

"Death is not exactly on my list of priorities," Lucien muttered to himself.

BJT:ANW

Daemonar groaned. A group of men with a red truck had managed to contain the fire not long after the males had arrived, and were working on putting it out. However, the stables were still full of smoke and smoldering hay, so all the horses were to be moved into the training rings around the stable. Arina had continued getting horses out of the four burning barns for a good four hours. Lucien wasn't about to be parted from her, so he went. Which meant that, as protectors, Daemonar and Yaslana went as well. Four hours of panicked animals (who only behaved for Arina), burning barns, and running around. He was ready to die. Right after he told his father just how much he had needed all that training. Eventually everyone but Arina had collapsed, exhausted. After a glare from the sprawled Lucien, Daemonar doggedly kept pace with her crazy running. Sweet Darkness, just let me die…he thought, exhausted beyond belief. Just let me die…

Lucien and Yaslana, meanwhile, had forced themselves to their feet, and rounded up all the kindred horses from the stable. Spotting Arina getting something out of one of the conveyances, they had brought all the horses over there, Yaslana dragging the unresisting Daemonar after them.

"What is all this?" Lucien demanded incredulously, pulling out a huge back, labeled H&M, and opened it, peering inside. Arina leaned over and snatched the bag back, leaving Lucien with barely a glimpse of the clothes inside.

"Nothing," she snapped, rather waspishly. "And back off, bastard. I don't know you, so you don't get to go through my stuff or stand in my personal space."

Yaslana snuck the bag out of her grip and vanished it, along with everything else in the car. Daemonar checked the rest of the car—there was nothing left. Daemonar nodded to Yaslana, who in turn nodded to Lucien. Unfortunately, Arina caught that last one, even as she sputtered over her things suddenly disappearing.

"What is going on here?" she asked suspiciously, looking between them.

"Look," Yaslana said soothingly, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her, while Daemonar and Lucien sent psychic webs over the kindred horses. "Just don't panic and everything will be fine."

She stiffened, but before she could do anything else, all three young males reached for the deteriorating Web that was the only link between Kaeleer and Earth. The strands were breaking, and it was most likely just in time that they grabbed on. Arina went limp, her breathing was shallow, and she looked like she was going to faint. Yaslana tightened his grip on her: Lucien would kill him if she fell in the Webs and was broken or something.

Time passed. They were trying hard to reach the end before the Web fell apart, so the males were pulling all of the power from their jewels, and themselves. With all the extra passengers though, they were only going at the speed that they had come to Earth.

They were still about two hours from the end of the Web when Yaslana started to falter. Daemonar and Lucien put more of their own power into the Web, but it didn't take long for the Eyrien to falter.

Lucien quietly panicked. His thoughts running in circles, he wondered just how upset Arina would be if he dropped the horses.

*Don't even think about it.*

He froze. Was that really Arina?

*Hello?* he sent, nervous.

*You need power? Fine. Take mine, I know I have it. But don't you dare let go of the horses.* It seemed that she couldn't hear him. She probably doesn't even know that she is doing it, he thought.And what power?

A flood of raw, terrifying, uncontrolled power slammed into him, before flooding out onto the Web. The speed which they were speeding along the Web was thrilling, if terrifying, and the hold on the kindred was suddenly rock hard. For the first time, Lucien sensed the presence of a kindred dog. Looking over at Arina, he saw the huge animal trembling beside her, her hand absently stroking his back soothingly, her silver eyes unfocused, and empty, staring into the distance. Lucien shivered.

There were advantages. It was only just over a half hour later that they reached Kaeleer, and as soon as they exited the Web the whole thing collapsed. Apparently the only thing holding it together was Arina's power.

BJT:ANW

Jaenelle frowned, and looked around, then back at the Web. It was crumbling quickly, the threads turning black all too soon. The entire thing was right on the verge of collapse. The entire coven had gathered around Jaenelle and Mirian, Karla looked at Jaenelle inquiringly, tilting her head to the side.

"I thought I heard something," she murmured to the Glacian Queen. "I must have been imagining it." Sadness lurked in her voice. It was understandable reaction; her two boys were about to be trapped in another world, with no way to get back.

The sudden wash of dark, dark power rolling up from the abyss, however, was not something any of them imagined. Lucivar, Daemon and Saetan all rushed in, along with the first circle males, who fanned out and got in front of the coven. There was another wash of power, and the transport Web exploded outwards, completely black.

Dropping off the Web, an exhausted Daemonar appeared, promptly collapsing onto the ground breathing hard. Both his Red Jewel and his Ebon-gray were completely drained, and strained to the point of shattering. Lucien appeared a few seconds after his cousin, his Jewels equally empty.

It was, however, the last appearance that sent everyone into various states of shock.

What looked like a whole herd of horses, all kindred, a huge kindred dog, and Yaslana, who was carrying the young woman that they had seen in the Tangled Web. She slowly stood up, moving away from Yaslana as quickly as possible, looking around with defiance in her eyes. The dog whuffed softly, loping back to her side. She gently stroked his head, glaring around.

"Who the hell are you people?" she demanded, her voice cold as ice. "Where am I, and how in the name of all that is holy and the seven hells did I get here?"

BJT:ANW

Ok people, I am very sorry that this took so long to update. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to start to write four stories at the same time. Trying to work on all four at the same time is hell, but hey, I'm trying. So, school started a couple of weeks ago, so it will almost always be a long time between updates. Now, please, please, please, PLEASE, review. You know you want to! I am totally open to suggestions!