17. Florencia

17

Florencia

" I 'm a Haxia. Nothing can hurt me here," I projected into the trees to reassure myself and myself only.

But maybe the nightmares would listen too.

I hadn't agreed I was a Haxia rather than a witch until this very moment. My heart hammered inside my chest, my hands clammy with sweat as I took the first step.

The forest was alive, the leafless trees moving with the whistle of the wind in a terrorizing dance. My feet crushed the leaves as I stepped forward, each one turning to ash under me, flickers of embers floating in the air. The smell of wet dirt tickled my nose, yet nothing felt alive.

From the outside, the forest looked lush, green and thick, but here, walking through it, there was no mistaking that it was dead.

Above me, the purples and red lights casted a strange glow below. I felt like I couldn't tear my eyes from it until a high-pitched scream pierced the air.

It wasn't this scary here when I had Camazotz and Kame by my side. I shut my eyelids tight, the memory of his hand clutching mine still a pressure I ached to feel.

The intimacy of his legs tangled around mine, and seeing the calm on his resting face was something I wished to see my entire life. And yet, this time, I was the one leaving him. The choice weighed on my chest with every step I took deeper into the forest.

I couldn't leave Elio chained. It wasn't right. Something in him called me to free him, to help him. He had to be my soulmate; how else could I explain this feeling? Loving Camazotz was something as simple and true as the blood coursing through my veins, but belonging to Elio was never my choice.

I couldn't be the person who let her soulmate rot in a dungeon.

Howling screams in the distance turned into a symphony of macabre sounds. A shiver crept up my spine, filling me with dread as I looked up into the sky, watching a trail of nightmares cross it.

Terrifyingly beautiful.

How something so fearful could also be so breathtaking, so awe-inspiring, was beyond my comprehension. I stopped in my tracks, taking a silent moment to appreciate the colors and the beautiful swirls of magic.

My heart beat with the same pulsing rhythm as the soil beneath my feet. It thrummed like it was alive, smelled like it was rich with nutrients. With a frown between my eyebrows, I looked down. Why was everything dead here?

The background screams that filled the forest suddenly stopped, a deafening silence taking over. All that was left was the pulsing of the ground and my blood in perfect sync.

Thu-dum.

Thu-dum.

An overwhelming feeling draped me like a comforting blanket, tears swelling at the edge of my eyes, threatening to spill. Elio was my soulmate.

I couldn't explain it, but I couldn't deny it.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to ignore how painful that realization felt. My powers always came with consequences, even when I didn't try to gain from them.

It had cost me Camazotz too.

A red spark flickered in the distance, on a far edge of the forest before the cliffside. My brain screamed no– turn around , stupid witch, but my feet followed, knees shaky with each step as the red glow became a bright crimson.

I shaded my eyes with my forearm, squinting but failing to get closer.

A hopelessness filled me from the bottom up, sensing a monster that had been vanquished so long ago. I had no reprieve from him in the human world, in dreams, in nightmares, or even memories. It was silly to think I would be free from him here.

The light faded, a shadow of smoke in its place as a cloaked figure materialized.

"A witch without a mate is just wasted potential." My father's voice was a poisonous snake, the venom in his words enough for me to recognize him even as the hood covered his face.

"N-no." I shook my head. "You can't be here." I refused to accept he could still have power over me.

"Your powers have grown now that you've married, no?" His teeth shone in the darkness, the only thing I could make out.

I balled my fists at my side, rage pouring into my center, and like a bottomless well, I gorged on it, never filling, only surrendering to the feeling. "You aren't allowed here."

"Morales Manor belongs to me as much as it belongs to you girls." He spoke words I had practically memorized now, words I remembered from my older sister's dreams.

They were skewered from her memories, tossed into a part of her brain that decided our father would be the nightmare who haunted her until her very last days.

And in turn, mine too. I found myself stuck in Elisa's nightmares often, battling him side by side with her. At first, she insisted I never invade her dreams again, but as I got older, the OCD took over, and Elisa accepted that I had as little control or say in the matter as she did.

So nightly, she held my hand, and together, we conquered our father.

I laughed at the realization. "You're just a dream," I spat back at him, realizing he was nothing but a warped memory. "Something to be feared by little girls, the same ones who trusted and depended on you to raise them."

I lifted my chin into the air, feeling my power vibrating down my arms, my fingertips glowing a bright purple. "You have no power here," I declared, extending my arms out toward him. "And you do not belong."

Blue and purple shot from my hands, disintegrating the one demon I never truly conquered. A colorful array of lights remained in his stead, shooting off into the sky, creating a single star.

The nightmares howled in the distance, a gaggle of banshees screaming through the branches as they beat against each other in the wind.

My heart slowed.

I hope you're proud of me, Elisa.

Turning back to my path, I traversed the forest quickly, not so scared when there was nothing left for me to fear in it. Sooner than I expected, I had crossed the border. Somehow this time, it felt like a bucket of cold water being thrown on me.

I stood there, the dead woods behind me, my breath erratic as all that electric power cursing through my veins began to settle and dissipate.

My heartbeat quickened, the anxiety returning at once. I looked up at the castle, an unsettling feeling catching me by the throat. Gazing back at the forest, a place full of nightmares, and yet one I felt a hundred times more soothed in than the beautiful dream that waited.

My feet took off below me with an urgency I'd never felt before as I darted toward the castle, looking down at my boots, my thoughts on Elio and Elio alone.

The castle was just as silent as before, the beautiful walls and intricately patterned columns lost when no one was here to admire them. I followed the path to the dungeons, and just as I reached the end of the stairs, I called out to him.

"Elio?"

My voice echoed into the damp dungeon, the unsteady shake of the torches spreading the light in unnecessary directions. My fingers grazed along the wet, stone wall as I went further into the darkness. I felt a pull in the opposite direction, something inside me like a tug on my arm telling me to turn around.

Something didn't want me to keep going.

I lifted the torch, squinting through the darkness to see him there still, just as Camazotz had left him, chained to that wall by his wrists, his feet, and his throat. A final shackle padlocked to his midsection kept him pinned to the wall, his wings flattened out behind him painfully.

"Elio?" I whispered.

He wasn't awake, completely chained, his wings bloody and dirty, his arms hanging above him. He was so beautiful, perfect, like the crystal sculptures in his empty castle. He reminded me of a Renaissance painting, a fallen angel.

I dropped the torch to the ground, the glow barely enough to show me his face. I reached for him, placing my hand on his chest and wincing at the feel of his blood.

"Elio, please wake up." My voice was a pathetic plea.

The key burned against my skin, reminding me of what I did. It was too late for regrets. His head hung down; whether from pain or defeat, I wasn't sure.

"Flo?" The words scratched out of his throat.

"It's okay. I'm here," I whispered, taking the key and opening the restraint on his neck first, removing it from him.

"Wait, Flo." He seemed disoriented, like his fight with Camazotz had really done some damage to him.

I reached for his wrist next, my hand shaky as I held the key, dropping it just as I fit it into the keyhole. "No, Florencia," he groaned, peeling his chin from his chest, our eyes meeting as he gazed down at me.

He looked so fragile, so damaged. My heart shattered seeing him like this, the need to free him and hold him becoming almost unbearable. "I've got you," I reassured him with a nod, coming back to a stand and sliding the key into the left wrist shackle again.

He looked at me, his eyes focusing for the first time, like he could finally see me. I smiled, turning the key and hoping I could melt away some of the fear and distrust he was sensing. My eyes met his bright blues just as they turned red. A glow of light illuminated his face, shock paralyzing me in place as I watched his teeth grow two, maybe three, times their size, sharp, yellow, and vicious.

He snarled at me, reaching for me and biting at the air when the rest of his restraints held him in place. His free hand came down with a low growl from his chest, a tearing pain ripping over me as I fell backward on my ass.

I screamed in agony, but the sound stayed lodged in my chest, the right shackle coming free from the wall. "Elio?" My voice trembled, but only snarling left his lips as he reached for me like a rabid dog, still stuck to the wall by the waist.

It wouldn't hold much longer.

"Florencia," he growled, every hair on my arm coming to stand, "run."

My body moved on its own, as if it knew I was too stupid, too stunned, too scared to do myself. My feet scrambled beneath me, legs unsteadily striding up the dungeon stairs, his screams still behind me, raw and filled with pain.

My chest was on fire, my mate's pain had become my own, I brought my hand to my chest. Crimson stained my fingers, a burning sting indescribable, one that made it nearly impossible to breathe.

I ran through the castle, the sound of multiple heavy feet behind me. Had he broken the final restraints on his own? I could hear his breathing perfectly behind me, almost as if I'd feel his breath on me if I turned my head.

I exited the castle as another roar sounded, one so deep and filled with terror that I stumbled forward, my knees scraping on the ground. Snow waited for me, but I couldn't stop, ignoring everything, every searing pain in my body and every dull ache in my soul.

There was only brightness surrounding me, snow and ice everywhere, the luscious green, the wild flowers, gone. This was what I saw every time I met with Elio in my dreams.

A vast nothingness of cold.

"It was a lie." That realization slammed into me like a wall of bricks.

I should have known. Every fiber of my body warned me from the minute we first crossed into Elio's territory. I shook it off, convincing myself that my mind was often wrong, often overly anxious and far too prepared for things to crumble. I expected it at this point, but I lowered my guard with Elio, pushed away all the rationale that begged me to listen.

I always listened, and it had destroyed me many times over, cracking at the foundation of my psyche. I let myself believe Elio would be different, so I ignored those instincts, pushing them down and telling my spirit to quiet. Kame knew, Kame could see through the farce.

It was a dream, an illusion to hide the true reality. The castle was a tragedy of an abandoned jail, where its king ruled over nothing and no one.

His growling followed, far too close to me, the sound of paws crushing the ground below them as he drew nearer. I couldn't stop to see just how close he was, couldn't waste a minute turning my head to look back. Then, the forest lights appeared on the horizon, like a beacon of hope. The dark shadows swallowed the land behind it as the dead trees grew larger with each step.

Relief filled me. I knew I'd be safe there; something deep inside me promised that. I just needed to make it before he got to me. Suddenly, magic propelled me forward, pulling me like a magnet, my feet no longer moving beneath me.

If my fated husband were to kill me, would that be my destined fate?

The voice of my grandmother echoed in my head, reminding me that no marriage was happy when you were a Morales woman. A laugh escaped my throat; this was the most Morales thing in the world.

Breaking the momentary relief, his roar cut through the air, a mix of human and animal, so raw, it brought all the hairs on the back of my neck to stand.

Just moments ago, facing down my father, my monster, I felt invincible.

Now, I was prey.

Only yards from the forest, the magnetic pull came to a slow halt, my feet touching the ground as I steadied myself and moved them beneath me. The muscles of my legs burned, but I ran faster than ever before. There was no doubt in my mind now that if he caught up with me, I'd be dead.

One more step.

One more step.

Just one more.

I crossed the border in haste, jumped across it, as if there was a physical wall separating his realm from the woods. I groaned, but when I felt the dirt under my palms, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I rolled to my back, squeezing my eyes shut as the tears fell past my ears in wide streams. Guttural sobs broke from my lungs, forcing the burning in my chest to blister.

Turning my head to the outside, I expected to see the monster just inches away, but inside the protection of the woods, there was only darkness. It was as if a wall, a veil of some sort, surrounded it, keeping him out. A howl shredded through the night air.

I swallowed a hard lump.

With a wince, I came to a seated position, looking down at my chest, the shredded fabric in the shape of claw marks, the blood staining it a deep burgundy. I bit my cheeks, too afraid to peel the fabric from the wound, too afraid to look too closely and see the full extent of the damage.

My head dizzied, nausea rushing to the surface as I gripped the ground to brace myself. I vomited, once then twice, before another snarl forced me to freeze. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and with my stomach threatening to leap once more, I whimpered. With a stuttered breath, I turned my head to the side, squinting hard enough to see the aura of the veil dividing us, even if I couldn't see him.

There was a crashing noise, something like a bubble of energy threatening to pierce or crack the energetic divide. The veil trembled from another hit, the ground rumbling beneath me. The monster was trying to break in, to get to me.

A yelp of pain reverberated through the forest, the heavy thud of boots shaking the very ground when they landed just inches from me. I tipped my head, trying to get up by pressing my palms on the ground when he crouched and took my chin.

The cold expression on his face would have split my chest in half if his brother hadn't already done the work. "Little Haxia, you are in a world of trouble." Camazotz looked so angry, a fury I hadn't seen on him before, his jaw ticking and eyes hard.

"I-I…" Words failed me, my hands coming to my chest as the burning became worse, my head getting lighter from the pain.

Another crash in the barrier, Camazotz's gaze drifting to where the veil shook, the magic weakening and purple sparks flying with every hit. I dropped my eyes to my hands, the blood dripping freely from my fingers and falling to the rich soil.

"It won't hold long," he said, looking beyond me, the hardness in his expression unchanging.

I pushed up, coming to stand, wincing from another shock of pain and stumbling. He pulled me into him, his smell so comforting, leather and iron invading all of my senses.

My mouth opened, something like an apology desperate to come out, but his wings extended in grandeur. My feet lifted from the ground, my eyes lowering to where my blood stained the land, purple flowers and green moss growing as it absorbed into the soil.

I blinked rapidly, confused and unsure if this was just another illusion, but once I opened them again, there was nothing but blurred ground beneath us. His wings beat fiercely, sending a gust of wind beneath us, dirt floating and spreading all around us, making it impossible to see.

I wrapped my hands around his neck, no longer so terrified of flying and suddenly feeling grateful for it. The tears never stopped, so I didn't bother to dry them, simply burying my nose in his neck and taking slow breaths to center myself.

He came for me. Without him, I wouldn't have made it.

Suddenly, nothing mattered anymore but us. I refused to end up another cursed Morales in a wasted marriage. I would break the cycle. I would walk away from it right now.

Fate be damned.

It didn't matter what anyone said. Fuck the gods. I belonged to Camazotz; this right here, being held in his arms, was the most right I had ever felt.