“Ancestors, Kallie, what did you do?” Ava gasped.
“She brought my painting of a door to life and opened it. It’s a portal!” Marcus cried.
Oberi barked, and his tail whacked me on the leg as he spun in a circle.We can get out of here!
I felt the whoosh of the portal’s air upon my face as we approached the door slowly.
“Is it safe?” Ivy asked.
“It feels stable to me,” Kallie said.
Ava wheeled forward. “This looks like it’s leading outside the prison. I don’t recognize this forest. Those trees don’t grow here on Darke Island.”
“How’d you get past the prison wards?” Ivy questioned.
Kallie replied, “I was messing around with Marcus’ art, combining our magic through simultension. Our magic must be strong enough to overpower the wards. I can’t make a portal on my own, but if Marcus’ magical paintings combine with my portal magic, it’s strong enough to get past the boundaries holding us here. I don’t think I could create a portal with anything— just a doorway. I brought the door to life, and it fused with my portal magic.”
“What are we waiting for?” Marcus asked. “Let’s go!”
“Not yet,” Ava protested. “We think we found the merfolk key.Under the water, yet on land.It’s got to be in the siren lake.”
“We already searched the lake. There was nothing in there,” Kallie argued.
“Because that’s what Amaliewantedeveryone to think,” I said quickly. “In our vision, Amalie promised Erasmus the authorities wouldn’t find the ship. She had a plan to hide it.”
“When the ship went down, Amalie must’ve portaled it to the closest inland body of water, to throw off the authorities,” Ava said. “She knew the people looking for the ship would search the ocean, just as the Warden’s been doing.”
“Then why didn’t we find it when we searched the lake the first time?” Marcus questioned.
“Amalie must’ve put an illusion on it, to hide it,” Ava explained. “But I think it’s more than that.”
“The giant squid,” I added, piecing it together. “It becomes aggressive, but only in certain parts of the lake. That must be where the ship is.”
“This sounds like a long shot,” Marcus protested.
“Maybe, but it’s possible. Kallie, do you think that’s something Amalie would do?” I asked her.
“I… I think so,” Kalie said slowly. “I know, because it’s whatIwould do. This explains why the Warden hasn’t found it yet— because he’s looking out at sea, in all the wrong places.”
Ava gasped. “Or he was looking in therightplace, and he missed it! The Warden was searching the lake for weeks. Heknewsomething was down there, but I bet he didn’t know what he was looking for, just like us. We assumed he stopped looking because he found something, but what if he gave up like we did? To find what he was looking for, the Warden would have to break the illusion to find the ship. That’s why the sirens can’t see it, either. Think about it. Our first clue was leading us to the siren lake, but Amalie was leading us to thekey.”
Marcus considered this for a few moments. “All right. Let’s say the shipisin the siren lake. How dowebreak the illusion and find it?”
“I can do it,” Kallie said. “A fae illusion can be broken by its caster, and I’m Amalie incarnate. No one on this planet is going to be strong enough to break my own magic besides myself. Even if the Warden knows there’s an illusion down there, he wouldn’t be able to get anyone besides me to end the spell.”
Kallie gasped, like all the pieces finally made sense. “If Amalie used all her magical energy to portal the ship inland, and create the illusions to hide and protect it, she wouldn’t have had any magic reserved for herself. It’s no wonder she and Dante got caught. She didn’t have the energy to fight back or portal them away once they were on land.”
“So we can sensibly assume thatThe Assassin’s Destinyis in the lake, and so is the merfolk key!” Ava proclaimed.
“And you want to go after it?” Marcus asked in disbelief. “Ava, we could leaveright now.”
“Without my brother? What about Opal, Chancey, and Alistair?” Ava challenged. “This is a quick, easy job. We need to gather our things, get the merfolk key, then we can make a run for it. The Warden doesn’t know Kallie can make a portal with your art. We can leave at any time.”
“So let’sgo, before he finds out!” Marcus insisted. “We don’t know for sure thatThe Assassin’s Destinyis in the siren lake.”
“We don’t know that it isn’t,” Ava shot back. “Marcus, we’re so close, and we need to actfast. We can get this done tonight. Then, once we have the key, we can use this portal to get the hell out of here.”
I stepped forward. “Ava’s right. We can’t afford to come back to Darke Island once we’re off of it. It’s too risky, and if we have a chance to obtain a key tonight, we need to take it. So here’s what we’re going to do. Ava and I will find Hemlock and Takahashi. They have to know about our change in plans, so they can alert the Demigod Guardians and arrange a place for us to meet up with them. We need a place to hide once we leave the island. We’ll run back to our room and gather some essentials, and get Sprigs. Marcus and Kallie will go get Alette and Kallie’s grimoire.”
