CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Astaroth
Halfway through retracing her steps for the third time and finding no evidence for where Calista could have gone, I felt the realm, for lack of a better term, twitch. It was an odd sensation, like it retracted. But I didn’t have time to investigate because right after, my connection with Calista reopened and inundated my entire being with an array of emotions. She wasn’t gone long, but long enough for the sky to completely darken. This was the darkest I’d ever seen the labyrinth.
I quickly portaled to her whereabouts so as not to lose her again. The shadows in the corridors never worried me. They did worry me for her though. This time, instead of calling attention to myself to draw creatures away from her, I used her as bait. Eventually, a beast would happen upon her, and I would discover where she was.
I barricaded my emotions and focused entirely on Calista, following her through the pathways. Her newly constructed wall was barely held in place and easy to skirt. The upheaval I found confused me. I wondered if I could enter her mind like I did with Serwin. Could I do it from a distance since we tied our life sources?
What started as a hum of commotion became a cacophony as I filtered through her emotions in search of her thoughts. Once I found them, I let myself inside and entered a blazing sea of sand where a giant blooming wyrm chased her.
“Calista!” I screamed and tried to manifest next to her, forgetting for a moment I was in her mind.
She turned around, disheveled and burnt, with the worm suspended in midair as her thought paused. Shaking her head, she mumbled, “He wasn’t there. Quit thinking about him.”
The scene changed to snow. Calista moved into the icy terrain with no coat or boots. She would freeze to death. I rushed to the area and began my search while her thoughts shifted in her mind. Along her journey, she never stopped humming the sacred song. Was the realm driving her mad through our union?
“Cali, you must stop,” I said to her in the hopes she could hear me.
“Great, now I’m hearing him.” Her muffled, sarcastic thought reverberated back.
Relieved, I smiled. “You sound so happy to hear me.”
Her confusion fed through to me. “Are you in my head?”
“Wherever you are, so am I, love.”
“This is the ultimate invasion of my privacy!” Calista tried to barricade herself, but it was fruitless. I was already there, and she wasn’t strong enough to push me out. All she accomplished was trapping us in together.
I found her recent energy signature and followed it into another corridor. The snow piled up along the walls and thebricks were slick. A cloak manifested around my shoulders. I tugged the hood up over my head. “You can’t run from me.”
“Sure looks like I am.”
“I will find you and—”
“And what, Astaroth?” Her panicked voice rose. “Screw with my head again?”
“Take you back to the castle where it is safe.”
“Where you will do with me as you see fit, aka, fuck me as you wish. No, thank you!”
Betrayal laced her anger. All I stole from her frothed to the surface, clouding her train of thought and confusing her.
“We can discuss this when we get back.” Footprints appeared in the snow. They were not Calista’s nor one of my brethren. My fear spiked. Danger walked the pathways with us now. “I will set things right.”
“Stay out of my head!”
The ground shook, and I stumbled. Or maybe it was my brain rattling inside my skull. I gripped the sides of my head and stood still as the reverberations of her anger leveled out. It sounded like the sky rumbled, but I couldn’t see anything above me in the darkness.
A scream ricocheted off the walls. I blipped through the corridors, sword in hand, ready to slaughter the beast that hunted her, when I heard them on the other side of a wall. I found a nearby opening and ran through. A grizwyn stood over her as she crawled backward, hands and feet sliding out from under her on the ice. A ferocious roar rumbled in my ears as it took its first ragged-clawed swipe. I leapt on its back and clung to the thick, coarse pelt. It turned and stumbled, leaving Calista shivering in a pile of snow. Her chapped, purpling lips quivered as she watched in horror.
Enraged, the beast slammed me against the bricks to shake me loose. When that didn’t work, it rushed the other wall andslammed me against those. My sword clattered to the ground and was enveloped by the snow. I’d have to do this the hard way.
The shadows wrapped around me. Imbued with my magic, they shot out of my limbs and wrapped around the grizwyn. When it released a frustrated roar, one plunged down its throat, straight to its life source. It struggled while I fed on its energy, leaching it of every drop until it swayed and crumbled to the ground as it withered. When I looked up, Calista was gone. Once again, I couldn’t sense her.
Calista
The desert was a dream vacation compared to the arctic, albeit a nightmare. I didn’t think I’d survive the subzero temperature, icy terrain, and miles of mountains and frigid seas. The glaciers gleamed like diamonds in the full moonlight. Every step was agony. My bones and joints ached. The tears crystallized on my cheeks, cracking with every wince and then immediately refreezing. Shivers wracked my body until my frozen, prickled skin felt like it was engulfed in a blazing fire. Through the brain fog, I vaguely remembered something about hypothermia. In my confusion, I didn’t question when the song led me to the dark waters lapping against the edge of the ice and was thankful to extinguish the flames licking my skin. I jumped in. Two things happened simultaneously: I gasped, and I became paralyzed from shock. Saltwater burned my nose and lungs while I sunk deeper, choking on the sea brine.
