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“That’s dark magic!” her mother snapped.
“Well, I’ve done it now!” Aria snapped back and snatched her shoulder away from the Fairy Guardian’s grip. She turned her arm to look at it, seeing that it was beginning to fade.
Her heart began to falter.
“No…” she whimpered and grabbed her arm. “No. NO!” She looked at Hector desperately. “Tell me where Travus is!”
His face grew helpless. “I’m sorry, Aria. He jumped into the lake. Either he’s truly going to die, or he’ll be stuck in there forever.”
“I need to get him out,” she said determinedly but was stopped by her mother once more. Aria turned to yell at her but froze when she saw her mother’s wide eyes staring to the right of the lake. Aria followed her mother’s gaze to find a familiar silhouette climbing out and beginning to stand.
When it stood and looked around, Aria almost fell to her knees. It was her father.
“How is this even possible…” muttered her mother as she slowly lowered herself to the ground. Her wings glowed brighter as a protective sheen of gold shimmered around her form, and she walked closer toward the ghost. “Joseph?”
Her father didn’t speak, only staring at them emptily as he stood motionless. He looked away to take in the scene around him. A Fae ran up to throw a hex at him, but Joseph put out his hand and absorbed the energy which sent the Fae running in shock.
“Whoever that is must’ve been a dark magic user,” Hector deduced as he continued his efforts to keep the ghosts at bay. “There may be some consciousness in him.”
“Are you sure?”
To everyone’s surprise, Joseph grabbed a nearby escaped soul and dragged it right back to the lake, tossing it in like it was a bag of flour.
“Definitely,” Hector said in awe. “You know what, now we need the Fairies. If there are more like him, there’s no way of knowing which of them will be on our side of the fight.”
Aria wanted to move, but she couldn’t because of the scene before her. It was impossible to digest that her father stood before her in this ghostly form, and she watched her mother draw closer to him and reach out with her hand. Aria was scared, a little untrusting of the image until she watched her father’s face tilt into her mother’s palm.
“I’m sorry…” muttered the Fairy Guardian. “I abandoned you in your grave, and yet…”
Joseph shook his head and opened his mouth. No sound came out, but her mother still heard something and nodded. Aria ran past the Faes keeping the other souls away and closed in on her parents with tears in her eyes.
“Father,” she croaked and halted before them, and he didn’t hesitate to reach out for her hand. She shivered under his cold and smoky touch, but his eyes were as warm as they were alive. He opened his mouth, and though he had no voice nor did his lips form words, she heard somethingin her mind that was exactly the voice of the man that had raised her.
“I never got to say goodbye,”he said.“I’m sorry.”
A knot rose in her throat as her vision blurred with tears.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she sniffled. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”
“You’re just a little girl,”he replied with love.“I’m glad you got away. I wish I could still be here and see you grow up.”
It occurred to Aria that the version of her that he was seeing of her, was what he remembered of her before he died, and her heart was in pain again.
She gasped when she felt a horrible sensation of cold clamp down on her shoulder, and her father pushed her away to grab the escaped soul behind her by the neck and drag it back to the lake. She looked at her mother who seemed grief-stricken and confused.
“Have I been wrong this whole time?” breathed the Fairy Guardian. “If this is the ability dark magic gives your father then–”
“Mother, this isn’t the time,” Aria cut in urgently, as she saw another soul with sentience that matched her father up ahead. Much to Hector’s panic, that soul wasn’t on their side and absorbed the dark magic he threw to chase himdown. “We need the Sentinels, and I have to find a way to close the portal.”
“I doubt that’s possible when a living being is in the Realm of the Dead,” said the Fairy Guardian as she aimed her hand at the soul Hector was fighting and sent pulses of gold flying. They successfully caught the soul in the shoulder and pushed it away. “Someone needs to get Travus out, and itcan’tbe you.”
Hector was beside them in the next second as he dodged several souls trying to pile onto him and sent more hexes flying. “Aria, you and I can do it,” he said. “We can get his majesty out. With my dark magic to allow us movement and your pure magic to shield us from the souls, we can get to the River of Mortality.”
“Absolutely not!” the Fairy Guardian snapped. “I’ve lost my husband. I won’t lose my daughter too.”
“We’re going to die anyway if we don’t stop this!”she yelled frustratedly and felt a surge of magic rush through her, exploding outward from her chest and encasing her in an ellipse of shimmering gold light. She prayed that the shield that she’d created would hold up, and that the child in her womb wouldn’t sap her powers at an inopportune time.
Grabbing Hector’s arm, Aria ran for the lake, and they plunged in with her mother screaming behind her in panic. As soon as they hit the water, all sounds ceased, and Arialost her breath from the shock of the cold that enveloped her.
