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CHAPTER 14
“Stay behind me,” Drez whispers as we reach the door that leads outside. After a very restless night, we all woke up ready to leave the enclosure as soon as possible. It was stuffy and cramped with all of us in there. I pull an arrow from the pouch on my back. The sun is just coming up, which means that there shouldn’t be any shadows outside, but with everything I have seen lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned up.
Trek opens the door. Looking around, he steps out. Shok follows, and then Drez. I follow, taking in a deep breath of the fresh air. It’s not the clean air of Eternity Fae Forest, but it’s better than the musty air of the enclosure where we spent our night.
Trek steps to his left, taking a few steps away from Shok, who is in the middle, and then Drez also moves a couple steps away from Shok to his right in a V formation. The three of us follow their actions, our weapons ready as we walk forward. I look around, seeing what must have been a beautiful garden, as it would be nothing else with my mother around. Now flowers are shrivelled, and dying trees are looking sick and withered.
“Look,” Hope says, pointing up at the turrets on the roof of the mansion. Looking up, I frown. There are four grotesques on the turrets looking out at the whole property. They don’t seem to be damaged, which means that there is no reason they wouldn’t be in the dungeons with the other Fae. Something isn’t right. As guards, they would have changed and been down here in their Gargoyle states by now.
“Something isn’t right,” Shok states as he also looks up. “One of the grotesques is Sham.” I frown as I try to place which one is Shok’s younger brother, but from this great distance, I can’t tell which one it is. I see Shok start making his way towards the mansion, but Trek stops him with a hand to his shoulder.
“Let’s find the sovereigns first before we venture into the mansion.” I see Shok’s resistance, and I understand that he wants to see why his brother isn’t making his way down here too, but as the head of the guard, his priority is to the king and queen. He nods and then shrugs Trek’s hand off his shoulder as he makes his way towards the side of the mansion.
We all continue, warily looking around as I am sure we can all feel that something is not right. The energy around the mansion feels heavy and oppressed. I can see the appeal that my parents have in living here. I am sure that at another time, it was beautiful and peaceful and nothing like the city we have travelled. The closer we get to the side, I start to hear a noise. “Oh no, do you hear what I am hearing?” The same sound that we heard before is here, but not as strong as in Eternity Fae Forest. I’m sure with time, it will increase in sound, but for now, it’s still bearable.
“Love, this time, instead of me using all the energy to combat the sound, why don’t you try using the sound of your words and drawing all our energy to combat it? Sound against sound.”
She nods. “I’m not sure I know how to draw all the energy to me so that I can expel it through my voice, but I will try.”
“There is something moving behind those trees,” Drez warns, looking towards a cropping of trees on the far side of the property. “Not enough darkness there to be the shadows.”
“Where is the pit?” Hope asks as she looks towards the cropping of trees.
“At the edge of those trees,” Trek mutters as he pulls his blades out of their holsters, the long blades shining in the sunrise. As we approach, the sound gets louder and louder, which makes Love start singing. I can feel the vibrations cascading through my body, making it feel heavier, denser. I draw closer to Love and feel my energy connecting with hers, which amazes me, as she’s not touching me but somehow is drawing it from me.
Hope follows my lead, and I see her raise her brows as she, too, feels the pull of her energy. “You go, Love. Suck us dry,” she quips.
“Talk for yourself,” I tease just as we hear a screeching sound, and then one of those hooded creatures that attacked us in Eternity Fae comes charging out of the forest towards us. “Oh no, not them again,” I mutter as I light up my arrow and aim it towards the creature. Love’s words are flowing through me, blocking out the vibrations that I was feeling before. I am feeling lighter and at peace.
“You all continue. I will fight him,” Trek states, and then he rushes towards the creature.
“We’re supposed to do this together. What doesn’t he understand about teamwork?” Hope mutters angrily.
“Let’s hurry up,” Shok says as he starts jogging closer towards the clump of trees. We take off after him, Drez just behind him, and then the three of us. As soon as we enter the cropping of trees even though not in shadows and quite a lot of light coming through, there is an eerie feeling, which is understandable, as we see what looks like a web above where the pit is, and in the centre of the web above the pit is a red sphere rotating, making the sound that we can hear.
Love sings louder. The sphere seems to lose some of its speed but doesn’t stop. The web shines a dazzling burgundy colour that speaks to evil forces. Whoever is doing this has powerful magic, and I’m not sure we are up to its power.
Raising my bow, I aim at the web. Filling the arrow with light, I imagine it sizzling through the arrow. “Love, I will shoot my arrow at the centre. You do your thing when I shoot it. Hope, do you want to draw light from me and shine it through the vegetation into the area in the sphere?”
Hope comes to stand near me. Kneeling, she places her hand on the ground and the other on my leg. I hear a commotion and know that Shok and Drez will hold back anything trying to stop us. “To save Mom and Dad,” Hope states as she closes her eyes.
“To save Mom and Dad,” I state, building the light in my mind to a point where it is blinding.
“To save Mom and Dad,” Love states.
“Now,” Hope orders. I shoot the arrow, seeing a flash of light as blinding as the sun following the arrow to penetrate the web and hit the sphere. Love is singing the word Love in a high, haunting voice that I have never heard before but that has my whole body tingling. I can feel every fibre in my body rushing through me. Feel the ground moving under me as I see the ground rising and falling as Hope sends energy through the ground to light up the area inside the web.
When the arrow penetrates the web, I see what looks like cracks appear throughout it. The burgundy starts to lighten. The light radiates out and up through every crack until the web starts to shatter. The sphere slows, the colour dulling the sound, diminishing until it finally stops. The brightness on the ground inside the sphere lights up, every blade of grass alight with a radiant green. Then the light that was shining starts glowing a light pink that begins rotating around the whole web in an anticlockwise motion, making it seem like the energy is undoing whatever magic was done before. The pink glow is from Love’s energy that has amalgamated with mine and Hope’s.
There is a loud screech from behind us as the creatures lose their source of energy, and then a loud shattering sound as the web disintegrates and the sphere disappears. We all stop casting our magic, and an eerie quiet fills the area around us. I feel drained, as if every part of me has been beaten, but to know that we managed to win this battle has me smiling.
I make my way towards where the sphere was and stop. The Pit has an iron cast covering that will need the strength of the men, because the way I feel, I won’t be able to pick up anything heavier than a flower. “Is anyone in there?” Hope calls as she leans over the covering.
I hear footsteps behind me. Turning, I see the three men approaching. All three look worse for wear. Their clothes are torn, and their hair has come loose from the man buns they had been wearing, but I don’t see any wounds. “No one is answering,” Hope says. “Maybe the covering is containing the sounds.”
Shok leans down next to Hope and tries to lift the lid, but it doesn’t move. “Some help here,” he mutters, which has Trek and Drez joining him. “Okay, on three,” he mutters as he places both his hands against the covering, the other two doing the same. “One, two, three.” On three, they put all their strength into moving the covering, but it doesn’t budge.
“What the hell?” Trek mutters.
