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And it’s worked. Solon found his god again, even if he doesn’t know it. He’s nothing like the bloodlines from which he came. He is his own being with his own agency and he loves me. That he can go through all of that and love at all is nothing short of a miracle.
But now he’s out there, to be tortured for eternity just like I will be. As this cage keeps sinking, I realize that if there’s no bottom, there’s no chance that Kaleid will have a change of heart and rescue me, and if there is a bottom, I’ll be stuck in this watery prison forever. So far, I’m still alive, though I haven’t taken a breath in what feels like hours.
Eventually it does stop sinking. I hit the bottom. It’s so dark down here that even my night vision doesn’t work. Seaweed keeps stroking my legs and the bottoms of my feet—least I hope it’s seaweed, and I’m starting to realize that this is it. This is it forever.
Solon, I think out loud into the depths. Solon, if you can hear me, I love you. I love you more than I’ve ever even told you because there are no words in this world or the next that can express what my heart feels for you. What my soul feels. But just know, that you are good and you are loved and I am so, so sorry for getting into this mess. I said I would be okay, and clearly I was wrong. I hope you can forgive me.
Then I close my eyes and I go inside myself and I try to make my thoughts swim further out. I see them in the well, black and still, but this time there is that crescent moon glinting on the surface, giving me a bit of hope.
I reach out and gently touch the surface of the well with my fingertips.
I sense Solon.
He’s underneath it, he’s alive, he’s…
He’s coming for me.
I open my eyes, staring into the watery dark beyond the gold bars and I know that Solon is coming. Somehow, he’s gotten out of his chains, that he’s on his way here, that he’s walking into a trap and a battle he can’t possibly win. He’s just one vampire. He is no match against Jeremias, no match against the Dark Order, and Kaleid poses a problem too.
I have to help him.
I start rattling the bars of the cage, feeling stronger now, but it’s not enough. I’m locked in here, and even at the height of my vampire strength, which I am nowhere near right now, I wouldn’t be able to bend metal.
Fuck! I think, panic coursing through me again, the feeling of being forever trapped down here while Solon is walking into his death. God, someone, help me!
Use your magic, dipshit, a voice inside my head tells me. It’s my voice. You’re a witch, aren’t you?
I am, but in the past I always had help, whether it was from Jeremias or Solon or…
And that’s when I see it. Out of the corner of my eye, a movement in the deep. I turn my head, and at first I think it’s a fish swimming toward me but as it gets closer, the movements don’t quite match up.
It’s not a fish.
It’s a moth.
My moth.
And it’s flying underwater.
My eyes widen and I stick my fingers out of the cage and the moth lands on it like it’s flying through air. It stares at me with big eyes, the antennae moving in the currents, and I feel a surge of energy leap inside me, the kind of energy that not only comes from below the well but is changing the well. The depths inside me are fading from dark to gold, like everything inside me is becoming light. The waters of the well brighten, beaming, and a rush of power starts to flow throughout my body, pulsing in my veins, making me feel gloriously alive.
I stare at the moth in awe but it just swims away, disappearing into the darkness of the cold ocean floor.
But now, I have all I need.
I close my eyes, gathering all the light that I can until it starts to shoot out of my palms and soles and fingertips, leaking from my eyes and ears and nose, and then I start to rise.
Fast.
I burst right through the top of the cage, the metal bending to my will, and then I’m shooting to the surface like a rocket, going up and up and up.
Until I’m bursting through the waves, rising above the water and I’m still going up into the sky.
Oh my god.
I’m fucking flying.
I let out a joyous laugh, staring at my hands as they glow with light, like I’m made of sunbeams, and I wave them around, throwing shapes at the sky, at the waves hundreds of feet below, marveling at how I can just float here suspended in air, that I’m the one that’s doing it.
