Chapter 9

ChapterNine

I’m standing in a river of watered-down blood. The river flows around my legs and waist, and I lift my hand, watching drops of the blood-red water drip down through my fingers. I want to scream, to wake up from this dream, but I feel frozen to the spot. Red marks spread up the skirts of the white dress I’m wearing, like branches of a tree. I pull my gaze from the water to the night sky, seeing nothing but a black sky filled with glowing red stars stretching everywhere I can see. Strangely, it’s not dark here.

There’s a grey light that floats around me, showing me everything in the distance, including what looks like a city, one similar to Ethereal City. Towers make the backdrop, but I can spot smaller houses on the edge of the water. Thick forests surround the city, and some of the trees are taller than the towers in the city. I take a step towards it, a voice whispering in my mind that this city could have people in it that know my family. This is where I could have been born… but my feet pause and the thought fades away, replaced by fear. I sense something… someone behind me. Someone that makes me turn swiftly around, hoping to see a boy, but instead I find a familiar adult male. Louie is standing in the water with me, all in black, with two sharp blades strapped to his back. His eyes are completely black, empty of life and feeling. His hair is now blond and is such a contrast to everything around us, while the sparkling crown on his head shines brighter than anything else around us. “Louie. What happened to you?”

My voice comes out breathless, and fearful. I’m not afraid for myself, but I’m terrified for him. Terrified for him. He shouldn’t be an adult. Not yet. It’s not even possible as far as I know in our world, but this isn’t our world. He only replies with a twisted smirk on his face, so uncharacteristic of him.

“You wish you could go to our city, don’t you?” He begins to walk around me as he continues, “That city has millions of people living within it, but if you ask them what they hope for, they will say me. They waited for their rulers for a very long time. Do you want to know some of the history of the people of the Rift? Do you want to know the truth of where the goddess came from and what she did to this place?”

The goddess?

“Yes,” I answer truthfully. I’m not going to lie to him, not even not knowing what he is now, but the more I can get him talking, the more chance I have of seeing the real Louie under all this.

He smiles, taunting me. “I know you came from here, Calliophe Sprite. You never shared that with me before, but this place told me things. So many things about you. Little did I know that the small, lonely foster kid my parents took in would turn out to be so famous here in the place that I would rule in the future. You cost me my parents. Should I help you find answers to your own?”

“Your mother is still alive, Louie,” I remind him.

He laughs. “She is dead. Why would the Fae King keep her alive? She is dead.”

My heart hurts, like a knife is stabbed into it. “I’m so sorry, Louie. If I—”

“You can save no one,” he interrupts me, and I narrow my eyes at him. Whatever he is… he isn’t mortal anymore. “You can’t win a fight with me just yet. Not here, where I control everything and everyone.”

He looks away from me to the city. “The Rift has four cities. Four great cities. There used to be eight, but now there’s four. They went to war against each other, all trying to kill off a single family. One family that risked everything here. The female your people worship, the goddess, escaped to your world.”

My heart beats fast as he comes closer, standing right in front of me. He smells like death and rot. “Her family had such power over the Rift. They could control it and take power directly from it to do as they wished… but there was a price. When the goddess made your world, she stole from here. For each use of her power, she murdered thousands, so many thousands of innocent lives, until one male decided it was enough. He found a real god, from your world, and asked for help. He agreed, cutting off the goddess’s power and killing her in the process.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

He clicks his tongue. “I thought you should know about the Rift. It’s where you were born, after all, here in the darkness and suffering, but you were taken to the light where I was born. Isn’t it ironic how we are parallels to each other? You will rule in the light with the Wyerns, and I rule in the darkness with my monsters.”

“Monsters?”

He touches my cheek with his one finger, and I wince as he cuts my skin. The water feels like rock around my legs, and I can’t move. His returning smile is hauntingly evil. “My army of monsters is coming to claim the world of the light. Don’t stand in my way, sister.”

I wake up gasping, cold salt water spraying softly against my face as I’m curled up on a smooth rock floor. I was in Emerson’s arms when I closed my eyes… Where am I now? Dazed, I lift myself up on one arm and look around. Fast flowing, clear water encases me like a tube from the floor to the ceiling of the cavern. The water is bright white, encasing the room in light. I have a feeling I will be unable to escape it, but I can see through the water to see that I’m not alone. Everyone is in their own water prison, in a circle. Lorenzo is on my right, and Emerson is on my other side. He’s looking right at me through the water, just standing up himself. “Are you okay?”

He nods, looking tense. “You?”

“I’m fine,” I say as I rise to my feet.

“This must be the next test,” Lorenzo suggests, rubbing his face as he stands. The others are just waking up. I touch the water, only to wince in pain as I realize it is boiling hot, and it burns my fingertips. “Don’t touch the water.”

“Thanks for the late advice, buddy,” I sarcastically reply, crossing my arms. “What are we meant to do?” I look around, seeing a room full of doors. Seven stone doors with that strange language on them surround us, and there is no other way out. Each door has a gold handle, and I have a bad feeling about whatever is hidden behind them.

“I count seven doors and there are six of us,” Emerson says.

“Seven of us,” I correct him. “Posy.”

“She doesn’t count,” Felix responds. “She didn’t enter this test.”

Zurine meets my eyes for a moment before I look at Nerelyth as she stands up, looking stressed and telling us, “I don’t have a good feeling.”

“Neither do I,” Zurine agrees with her. Goddess above, I don’t think any of us has a good feeling. The dream, or nightmare, with Louie has faded to the back of my mind in light of this test. I’m not sure which is worse: being with Louie in the Rift in my dream or being in this test in real life. The dreams can’t be real… can they? Louie can’t be an adult, a ruler, and that story he told me about the goddess cannot be true. She is good. Everything is good about our world…

“Calli!” Emerson shouts, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Are—”

Suddenly the water around me falls away and so does Zurine’s, leaving us free to walk to each other. I look back at Emerson, waiting for his water to drop, but it doesn’t. After a few moments, I realize it’s not going to. No one else is free but us.

“We clearly are teamed up,” Zurine suggests from my side. “But to do what?”

My gaze lingers on the doors, my unease intensifying. “I think we have to open the doors and face something behind them. Or we go through them. I’m not sure, but my gut tells me the doors are the test.”

Zurine looks from me to the doors. “Whatever’s behind them or within them, we face as a pair.”

“No,” Emerson growls, slamming his hands on the water and trying to push through the water even as it burns him. Shadows swirl around the base of the water, fighting to make a gap.

“Emerson! Stop!” I shout, running up to the water. He pauses, his eyes dark. “Stop. I’ll be okay.”

“No one, not even this fucking god, is going to take you from me,” he growls out. “I will never be the hero you deserve. You, the one who wouldn’t think twice about saving the world and making it better. I’m the monster who will force the world to change so that you’re safe, and never regret a damn fucking moment of it.”

He looks up at the ceiling. “I hope you fucking heard that. Calliophe belongs to me, and if she is hurt, I will find you and destroy you. I don’t give a shit if you’re a god or not.”

His eyes fall back to me, and my own soften when I see the fear hidden behind his anger. He can’t get to me, protect me, and it’s killing him. “I can do this.”

“I will protect her with my life, Emerson, you have my word.” Zurine comes to my side, her vow echoing. “She is one of our own now, after all.”

“She is my queen,” Emerson growls, looking right at me. “We die for her and only her. Understood?”

Every single one of our court echoes each other in agreement, and my cheeks burn. “None of you need to do that as I can fight and save myself, too.”

Zurine nods at Emerson. “I will protect her and I agree with our queen. She’s trained as a monster hunter for years, and she has had time to train as a fae and she has magic.”

Emerson looks at me one more time. “Be careful.”

“I will,” I promise him before turning to Zurine. “I can’t get my power to work here. Not like you have managed.”

Zurine walks with me to the doors. “You have to push against that barrier that’s in your chest for your power. The god can limit it here, but your true power comes from you, and no god can stop you. You’ve got this, my queen.”

“I’m not your queen yet,” I whisper.

She grins at me. “You’ve always been my queen, Calli. It just took you a moment to realize it and for Emerson to listen to his heart. I know true love when I see it.”

I want to ask her how she knows, as I didn’t think she had met her mate or ever fallen in love, but we both come to the doors. “I hear a roar of something from inside.”

Nervously, I rest my hand on the handle, and Zurine does the same on the door next. Nerelyth raises her voice. “If there is a monster creature behind there, it’s going to be water based. I will tell you how to beat it. I have fought many over the years, and they all have a weakness.”

“The monsters didn’t attack us last night or at all the day before,” I say, my voice echoing. “I think it’s because they knew this test was coming up. They knew.”

I slide the dagger out of my clip, and Zurine readies her bow with an arrow in one hand. She looks at me, fierce as any warrior. “On the count of three.”

I make sure to stand as confidently as she is. “One, two, three…”

I open my door at the same time she does, and immediately something slams hard into me, sending me flying across the room with the force. Emerson roars my name as I land with a thud on the ground, all the air leaving my lungs, and roll a few times before I can stop myself. My ears are ringing as I open my eyes just in time to see large teeth snapping right at me. I roll out of the way, barely missing the dragon-like creature’s sharp teeth from clipping my ear. Its jaw snaps into the stone instead as I stand up to face it. It’s a water dragon all right, one I’ve seen before in monster-hunting books but never faced. It has a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, two long ones protruding from its gums, down its scaled neck. Its eyes are tiny in comparison to its head, and it’s got long wings that are filled with sharp pointed scales. Its tail is made of water like a whip, and it lashes towards me, so I jump back out of the way, drops of water coming off it and burning my skin. Whatever’s in that tail is going to hurt if it touches me. I finally hear Nerelyth shouting, “It’s a dragon of water, rare and deadly. Its tail and teeth are poison!”

“Good to know!” Zurine shouts, and I take a second to glance at her. Zurine’s arm is bleeding, but she keeps firing arrows at her dragon, only for them to bounce off its scales and not harm it. That’s not going to work. Still, I hold my dagger ready. I need my magic. I never take my eyes off the dragon as it starts to circle me. Nerelyth is still shouting things. “Fire hurts it, Calli! Zurine, its neck is weak or go for the heart. Its heart is in its stomach.”

Zurine looks right at me. “You’re a badass fae, Calli! Call your fire and demand it protect you!”

She throws the bow to the side, grabbing two of the arrows and jumping for her creature, her ice wrapping around the feet of the creature and holding it in place. I turn back to my own dragon as it jumps towards me, and I pull from my power in my chest. I beg for it to work, and I push everything I have into my power. It’s mine. No god can take my power from me. I was forced to be immortal, and this magic is payment. It’s my reward, my magic, and it will protect me now.

Bright pink fire spreads down my dagger in my hand, and I slash it out towards the dragon, cutting its neck and face, setting it on fire. It roars in pain, flinching away from me and collapsing backwards. I can only hear a dull roar in my mind as I connect with my power, pushing against the block in my chest, pulling every tiny bit of fire from it. I feel more than fire for a moment; something cold and strong snakes around me, but I don’t focus on that. I can’t right now.

My fire spreads up my arm, warming me, and it’s like a welcome friend as I breathe in relief. My power is working. This feels like pure untapped power, and I forgot for a moment how it feels to be fae, to be powerful. Yet, with every step I take, I feel weaker as the god of sea and water fights my own power. I don’t have much time to end this. I run at the dragon, wanting this to be over, and it cowers away from me, from the fire. Its brown eyes find mine, and I see its pain.

I pause, dagger in the air, fire flickering around me.

“You have to kill it,” Emerson shouts to me, seeing me hesitate. “You must kill it and put it out of its misery. It’s trapped here, like us, and injured now. It’s a mercy, Calli.”

I close my eyes, not wanting to do this, but I know he’s right. It’s more important we all survive this, and this creature would kill me in seconds if it could. It’s being trapped down here too, and it’s already injured, bleeding gold blood onto the stone at my feet from its neck. It would be cruel to leave it alive. I know this, but I still don’t want to do it. I lean over the dragon and slam my dagger into its neck, pushing my fire out of my arm and through its body to end it quickly. It roars for only a few moments before there is nothing but ash falling around my dagger. I collapse as I let go of my magic, panting for a few minutes as I look up at Zurine to see whether I have to help her, even if my legs feel weak like jelly under me.

Her dragon is dead, with several arrows buried in its neck and ice wrapped around its body. Zurine rises on shaky legs to get to me, looking just as tired as me. “Good job, Calli. I knew you could do it.”

I start to stand up just as I’m pulled into the air by invisible magic, wrapping around my entire body, pulling me backwards. I’m pulled straight back into where I woke up, and water spirals up into the air, blocking me in again.

I look towards Emerson as the water falls down away from him, freeing him next.

Nerelyth is freed as well. “Time to protect my new king.”

I flash her a nervous smile as Emerson walks to the doors, clearly eager to get this done. “Usually, new court members are tested within our castle.”

Nerelyth gives him a friendly smile. I’m impressed, considering it wasn’t so long ago she was warning me off him and fearful of how much he could hurt me. Now he is her king, and I swear I see respect in her eyes. “I intend to pass with flying colors. Mostly because I’m more scared of your girlfriend over there than anything behind this door.”

They both stand in front of the next two doors, and Emerson nods at her. It’s weird to see them working together. A siren princess and the only Wyern King, two very powerful supernatural beings… and they are working together for me. For their lives. When we survive this and whatever is lying waiting outside this test, I want us all to have some kind of future together in the Wyern court. I didn’t swear to Emerson’s court because I love him; I swore in my soul because I can see a wonderful future and a court the world knows will show up to save the innocent.

My heart feels like it’s stuck in my chest, and I’m unable to move as Emerson opens the door at the same time as Nerelyth opens hers. This time nothing slams out, even when both of them are braced and ready. Distantly, I hear a gurgling noise right before green tentacles spread outside the door, slithering up the walls in every direction. The doors seem to be one room, containing one giant monster together. It pushes itself out of the door, and it’s completely green from head to toe, stinking like rotten fruit. The main part of its body is almost square and looks rock hard, whereas its tentacles spreading out in every direction are soft. I’m not sure where they are meant to attack this thing. Green slime drips onto the floor, and Nerelyth scrunches up her nose. “I don’t know what this is, but it stinks.”

“Let’s just kill it and get this test done,” Emerson agrees, avoiding a pile of slime near his foot and looking at the creature like it’s personally insulted him. Once Emerson decides to attack, he doesn’t pause or wait. Neither does Nerelyth as she follows his lead. Nerelyth somehow manages to use her magic to make droplets of water rise into the air around the creature as Emerson jumps high, digging his long dagger into the side of the creature. It roars and suddenly shakes violently, sending waves of slime in every direction. Emerson is hit hard in the arm, and he roars in pain but he manages to wrap shadows around himself at the same time Nerelyth covers herself in a veil of water. Nerelyth narrowly misses the slime, which burns the surrounding ground.

“Emerson!” I shout in worry. His eyes find mine for a moment, and I see that he is okay. Using his good arm, he pulls himself up the creature, using the dagger, tugging it out last minute when he is standing right on top of it. Shadows wrap around the blade, kissing it with darkness, and he slams the dagger into the creature, looking for a weakness. The creature wails, using its tentacles to slam into Nerelyth and wrap around her.

“Now, Nerelyth!” Emerson commands, jumping off the creature. Wrapped tightly in a tentacle, where I can just about see her red hair, Nerelyth lets her power explode around the room. Shadows wrap around Emerson, protecting him as every drop of water turns to sharp ice shards, and hundreds of thousands of them shoot into the creature hard, ripping it apart, leaving nothing but slime on the ground and tentacles lying everywhere. I breathe out a sigh of relief as Nerelyth climbs out from under a tentacle, frowning at the room. Emerson meets her gaze. “Good work.”

They’re both suddenly pulled back into where they were before, water quickly spreading up around them. We all look around each other, wondering who’s going to go next when only Lorenzo’s tube is lowered. We all wait for someone else, but nothing else happens, when it suddenly hits me. “Posy. The person who you need to fight with is her.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Lorenzo exclaims, rubbing his face before slowly looking down at his pocket with a glare. Posy flies out of his pocket, swooping around the room before landing on the ceiling, hanging upside down.

“I never made a blood sacrifice to come here,” Posy tuts. “At least we know that the god of this place has a sense of humor.”

I narrow my eyes at her. Unbelievable. Lorenzo lightly growls at her, storming over to the fifth door, and he doesn’t wait before pulling it open, his dagger in his hand waiting. We all watch, hoping nothing too big comes out and, surprisingly, nothing does. He stands at the door, even putting his head inside to look in. “There’s nothing here.”

Shrugging, he turns and walks back to us when he suddenly goes still. His eyes roll back, and his skin seems to drain of all its color. “Lorenzo?”

“Brother?” Emerson shouts, but he doesn’t move or answer us or react at all. His whole body completely seizes up before he collapses to the floor, shaking from head to toe. I see something sparkling pink attached to the back of his neck. It’s a starfish, a small starfish.

“Is that a starfish?” I whisper, remembering seeing this before at M.A.D. Nerelyth was terrified of it, and it spoke to me.

“A demoneater,” she whispers in horror.

A new voice echoes around the room, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s the demoneater speaking. “He tastes like the magic of the forest and darkness mixed. He will forever be mine.”

“Let him go!” I scream at it, feeling helpless as I stand as close to the water as I can. Emerson looks at me, as helpless as I am, shadows dancing around his feet.

“Someone needs to get it off him! Now!” Zurine desperately cries out. “Someone help! Lorenzo!”

There is no one to help. No one but… I look up. “He’s going to die, Posy. You need to get it off him. Please, please help him. He saved you, remember? He is a good male and he can’t die here like this. Please.”

“Please,” Zurine cries.

Nerelyth is pale and Emerson can’t move his eyes off his brother.

“How am I meant to do that?” Posy questions, a slight panic to her voice. She flies down off the ceiling, her big eyes meeting mine, and I can see she is scared. Really scared. “I’m a bat, unless it has escaped your notice.”

“Pull it. I don’t know, but you have to try!” I demand. “Get it off him. He’s going to die!”

Everyone starts shouting at her, as frantic as I am, and her eyes widen, turning from me to Lorenzo. “Okay.”

Lorenzo goes deadly still right before he starts screaming in pain, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget that sound. He screams and screams, and tears fall down my cheeks. Posy looks at me one more time before she flies straight towards him. She wraps her claws and wings around the demoneater, pulling it off, both of them falling to the stone next to Lorenzo’s head. The demoneater latches itself completely to her small bat body, blood pouring around her black fur. “Posy!”

She squeals in pain. “Help…”

But Lorenzo doesn’t move. He doesn’t wake up. “Lorenzo, wake up! Please!”

I scream in frustration, unable to help her, knowing the demoneater is killing her as she screams again and again. The demoneater’s voice sounds mad with pleasure. “Her blood is more powerful than his. The two of them will be my favorite meals.”

Lorenzo finally wakes up, sitting up straight and rubbing the back of his neck where he is still bleeding. “Lorenzo, save Posy!”

His eyes widen when he sees Posy on the ground next to him, the starfish nearly smothering her. “Use the dagger!” Nerelyth tells him. “Don’t let it touch your skin!”

Lorenzo nods in understanding, rushing to pick his fallen dagger off the ground and coming back. He carefully pushes it through one of the starfish’s legs before cutting it in half with one swift pull.

He reaches down and picks Posy up, her fur matted with so much blood that it drips off her, down his hands. She’s bleeding too heavily, and she isn’t moving. She isn’t talking. “Tell me she isn’t dead, Lorenzo.”

I gasp on a sob caught in my throat. Lorenzo’s own voice sounds broken. “She’s alive, but it’s bad. We need to heal her.”

He’s pulled back to his spot with Posy, his eyes meeting mine. “She saved me? Why?”

I wipe my tears away. “Because she isn’t as heartless as she makes herself out to be.”

He looks back down at her, carefully cradling her. We both know she doesn’t have long if we can’t heal her.

“Try wrapping the worst of the cuts,” Nerelyth softly suggests. “There is heavy magic wrapped around her soul, and it might help keep her from dying so easily.”

“Got it,” Lorenzo says, carefully putting her down and getting to work ripping the fabric he found when we got the daggers off the sirens. He wraps her chest and wings the best he can before putting her into his pocket to keep her warm.

This time, Nerelyth and Felix are let out. Felix pulls out a sword clipped to his back. “Time to get to work, princess.”

Nerelyth smirks at him, taking a second to run her eyes down the Wyern’s body. “Make sure to keep up.”

They both walk to the last two doors, and I turn to Emerson. “Can you heal Posy?”

He crosses his thick arms. “I’m not certain.”

“She can’t die. She just saved Lorenzo’s life, and I promised myself I’d care for her. She can’t die as a bat,” I whisper, knowing he can hear me. My face is completely wet with tears that I can’t stop from falling at the thought of her dying. “She might be horrible to me at times, but she’s my family, and I’ve already lost Louie. Whatever creature I keep seeing in my dreams is only an echo of Louie. I have to get him back. I have to save Posy. I-I can’t lose any more of my mortal life.”

“I know,” Emerson softly replies. “If I can save her, I will.”

I nod at him, wiping my cheeks. I look over just in time to see Nerelyth and Felix open the last two doors together. My eyes widen as dozens, hundreds maybe, of little creatures swarm out of the doors, completely engulfing them both and obscuring them from our view. All I can see is tiny little grey things with blue wings swarming.

“I’ve never seen so many Nymacs,” Zurine says, naming them. “Can anyone see them?”

“Nerry!” I shout, hearing Felix shouting her name through the swarm too. Felix falls out of the swarm, squishing a few of them under his feet, but most of them go back to the swarm, clearly more interested in Nerelyth. My heart beats like a drum as I hear Nerelyth scream in pain. “Use the water prisons to kill them!” Zurine suggests. “They will burn up. You need to grab Nerelyth and run to us.”

It’s a good idea.

Felix doesn’t waste a second, diving headfirst into the swarm. There is silence for too long, for too many seconds, before I see a flash of red hair in the swarm. Felix breaks out of the swarm in a run, holding Nerelyth in his arms, and she is unconscious, bleeding from hundreds of bites. He runs towards us, the swarm following after him to get to Nerelyth. Right before he would crash into Lorenzo’s prison, he dives to the side. The creatures slam into it, burning up into nothing with echoing cries. He has to do this several times before they’re all gone, leaving a few dying and trying to fly away. He collapses to his knees in a sweaty mess, carefully putting Nerelyth down.

“Let us out! It’s over!” I scream for the god to hear. Suddenly, the water drops away from us, and the open doors disappear before our eyes, revealing a long tunnel leading back to the main cavern. Emerson runs to Nerelyth first, putting his hands on her arms to heal her. The many, many cuts close up slowly, with shadows wrapped around her body. Emerson nearly falls back, and I kneel next to him, picking up his hands. “I can’t heal all of her. There is far too much poison in her system.”

“Thank you for trying,” I say, my voice like a ghost as I look at my friend, her skin as pale as Lorenzo’s as he stares at Posy. Lorenzo rushes over to Emerson, carefully offering Posy to him. He softly takes her into his hands, immediately frowning as his shadows wrap around her. The cuts don’t close on her chest, and she looks no different as his shadows drop away. He looks at me and I can see what he is going to say before he says a word. “I can’t heal her. The curse on her makes it impossible for me to heal her. I’m so sorry, Doe.”

“No,” I whisper through my tears, taking her out of his hands. I clutch her close to me, looking at my best friend in Felix’s arms nearby. Both of them are in a really bad state, and I swear I hear the god’s laugh echo around the room, taunting me. They shouldn’t have come here for me, because he is never going to let us all live and leave this place. We are trapped and fighting for our lives with every breath we take.

I realize for the first time that not all of us are going to get out of this place alive.