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He was oblivious to the scampering feet and galloping horses, eyes fixated on the slow swirl in the middle of the lake. The air picked up around him, pulling in a fog that wasn’t there. The skies grew bleak and dreary, and the clouds overhead mirrored the spinning water.
He watched as the whirlpool became faster and its dark eye grew larger and foggier until a small bright blue bubble appeared within it. The harder he looked, the more he realized that he was looking into a tunnel. The water had become the curved walls that stretched endlessly, embedded with moaning souls of the dead that, upon seeing Travus, reached out helplessly.
He watched completely mesmerized by the scene, unable to believe that it had all been true, until a cold and wet grip on his ankle had him stepping back. To his horror, he saw the ghostly hand of a damned soul trying to grab onto something–anything–to pull itself out.
“You need to get away, your majesty!”Hector called out from somewhere in the mist.“The souls may try to take over your body!”
He wondered if it was possible given his curse of immortality, but something told him that the blue bubble he saw down in the depths was what he was looking for to reverse it. It was where the water was slowly spiraling to, and where some of the souls were desperately swimming towards. He knew what he had to do.
He had to jump in and swim toward it; the River of Mortality.
Chapter 24
The king's best knight had learned a lot of lessons from the time he’d fought Aria in Travus’s courtyard the day Arthur had snuck over the wall.
“Unhand me!”she screamed as she wriggled on his shoulder.
“Absolutely not,” he said while narrowly missing a deer jumping overhead. “I promised his majesty that I’d make sure you were safe.”
“Your majesty is going to get himself killed!”she shrieked and kicked at his armored abdomen.“Let me go!”
The knight only gripped her tighter and ran faster, grabbing the reins of a stray horse neighing wildly as it galloped in fear. He swung himself onto the horse with ease, but Aria almost slipped in the process. She took the opportunity to knee him right in his helmet to injure his nose.
His grip loosened as he gasped. It was more than enough for Aria to slither out with the push of her strongwings fluttering behind her, and she slid right out of the crook of his elbow. She took off with lightning speed and was gone with the wind.
The victory of her escape was short-lived as her wings suddenly disappeared mid-flight, sending her tumbling to the ground and rolling into pebbles and fallen leaves. Twigs and rocks cut into her skin as her body scraped against the earth, but she soon came to a halt. She hissed while pushing herself onto her elbows, then ducked to avoid a group of knights, guards, and Fairies running wildly.
“He opened the gate!”yelled frantic voices.
“The dead are crawling out!”
“Don’t go to the Enchanted Lake! Run as far away as you can!”
“They’re coming for us!”
Aria’s blood froze upon hearing it all. She couldn’t believe that it had happened, that the Lake had opened. Amidst the chaos she saw Fairies climbing out of their homes concealed within the trees, looking around frantically in confusion and fear. They started pulling out their families and children to fly them out of the forest, and Aria finally found a way to stand amidst the stampede and look where everyone was running from.
A strange mist appeared from between the tree barks, ominous tendrils creeping through slowly and heavily, making everything behind it practically invisible.
Her heart began to pound in her chest, and she wondered if she was too late to stop the madness that Travus was planning. She couldn’t understand for the life of her how Travus had managed to find a loophole in their agreement, but she knew there was no time to wonder. Looking behind her, she channeled all the energy left in her body to summon her wings again.
Trying to stabilize her magic, she zipped through the trees and into the mist. With a trained ear, she listened for the way the wind moved, using it to avoid crashing into trees. Her vision was obstructed by the white and gray mist, but she could hear the sounds of people yelling.
When she got to the source of the mist, the air had cleared to reveal the Enchanted Lake. It was the only area that wasn’t difficult to see in, but the mist was creating a barrier around the place as if to keep people away.
To her horror, she saw ghostly hands grabbing at the edge of the lake and trying to pull themselves up, and the only ones able to keep them at bay at all were the Faes. Some of the ghostly souls still managed to avoid their attacks and drag themselves onto land, walking around aimlessly as they looked for moving life forms to inhabit. It was a terrifying sight.
“Your majesty, all Fairiesmustleave!” Hector called out as he shot one glowing red hex after the other at the ghosts. “There’s nothing they can do! We’ll take care of it!”
Aria ran to Hector but was grabbed by her mother who fluttered in the air, tugging her back. “What are you doing here?!” she demanded.
“Where’s Travus?!”
Hector looked back as he sent a soul flying back into the lake. “Aria! Don’t come any closer!”
But she couldn’t help it. She knew something was amiss, and the mark under her arm began toburn.Gasping, she grabbed the spot hard, which earned her curious looks from her mother and Hector.
“I…I bound myself to him through a mark,” she revealed. “It was only to make sure I could detect him if he was nearby.”
