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It took a few moments for her to open her eyes, but when she did, Hector was dragging them through the milky waters and toward the bright blue light up ahead. It was all very blurry, and Aria found it difficult to make sense of what she was looking at, but there was a dark spot up ahead before the blue light that floated about, suspiciously unmoving in its form.
She began to kick her legs which gave the two of them some speed, but it felt like she was swimming through honey instead of water. Not long after, her thighs and calves began to feel a burn, and her hips ached.
Concerningly enough, she could feel herself getting weaker alongside the difficulty of swimming. She knew that if she made the mistake of letting her shield disappear, Hector and Aria would be stuck in the lake for good.
They kicked and kicked, growing closer to the spot of darkness that, to Aria’s horrible realization, was Travus completely unconscious with eyes wide open and empty of light. There was a darkness around his body that the blue watery light was pulling off his form like yarn. Aria wanted to swim over and pull him away, but Hector grabbed her arm and shook his head. Instead, he pulled something out of his pocket and swam toward the pure blue water, andAria recognized it as the necromancy amulet that she’d asked him to work on many moons ago.
After acquiring some of the water from the River of Mortality, which was rather a ball of water than a lake, he looked at Travus and narrowed his eyes, and nodded. By then, there was no speck of darkness that surrounded the Elf King, so they hooked their elbows under his arms and began to swim again.
It was then, to her dismay, that a sharp pain coursed through her navel and up her spine. It made her gasp, and the shield around them fell.
Hector panicked as so did Aria, and suddenly the trio descended. The spiraling soulsimmediatelyturned toward them like sharks to blood. Aria had never felt more pain and cold in her life than she did then. Despite it, she tried her hardest to hold onto her magic, but she felt it slipping away very fast.
She knew that they’d failed, and the realm was doomed.
Chapter 25
Arthur got lost in the mist when he chased after the knight that had taken Aria, and he was then caught in the chaos of everyone trying to run away. Callie had found him and pulled him to safety at the borders of the Enchanted Forest, but he simply could not contain himself from running back in.
“Aria’s in there somewhere,” he pleaded as he tried to get past the Sentinels trying to barricade him. “We must go back!”
“The Fairy Guardian strictly forbade it!” Callie insisted. “Sir Guisgard, if we lose you, it will be aterribleloss. Please, you’re one of the few sources of security that Humans have. Aria would never forgive us.”
“I can’t forgive myself if we lose her,” Arthur announced firmly as he sidestepped her and wove in between the other Sentinels that were trying to contain him. “She’s my friend. I can’t sit back and do nothing.”
Before he could step into the mist, a horse ran into his shoulder and knocked him back. The startled horse threw its rider off and galloped away, leaving them both groaning as they tried to stand up. To Arthur’s horror, it was the knight that snatched Aria away, but she was nowhere to be seen.
Arthur scrambled and pounced on the knight, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him close with a threatening force. “Where is she?!” he demanded. “Where did you take her?!”
“She escaped from me and…and flew off,” he said in confusion. “She…she had wings, Sir Guisgard. I don’t know where they came from.”
Arthur dropped the knight and pushed past the Sentinels in frustration, heading right into the mist. With outstretched hands, he felt his way through the woods and yelled for her, feeling his throat becoming sore against the dry and chilly mist overtaking the woods.
He gasped when something cold grabbed his wrist, and he pulled away and ran, crashing into trees and tripping over roots. Whatever had touched him was after him, moaning softly with the most hauntingly terrifying sound.
“ARIA!”he cried out, scared that whatever was after him had caught her as well. He shielded himself with his magic but doubted that it would do much to protect him against the mysterious prey that had appeared.
He walked and searched, his heart jumping at every suspicious sound and silhouette until he heard something more familiar. Fluttering wings.
Before he knew it, he was pulled up into the air by his arms and soaring through the sky. Surrounded by Sentinels, they carried him out of the danger and toward the center of the Enchanted Forest where the mist swirled.
“We’ve been called back in,” said Callie looking rather determined.
“Aria’s over there,” the other Sentinel explained. “But be prepared, Sir Guisgard. She jumped into the lake. We need to pull her out.”
“How will we do that?” he asked.
“You’re coming with us,” Callie explained. “We need you to freeze the waters as we swim toward them. It should keep the souls at bay and allow us to reach them faster.”
He nodded, and they soon broke through the swirling mist into the eye of the chaos. The Enchanted Lake was right beneath them, and the sentinels grabbed onto his arms tightly.
“We’ll be falling at full speed,” she explained. “The air displacement should push the water away from us. That’s when you do your part, Sir Guisgard.”
“Got it,” he said and mustered up all the energy and magic he had.
He thought they would simply drop but no. They cut through the air much faster than he was expecting, feeling the skin of his face peeling away as his heart staggered in his chest. Yet, he stayed true to his responsibility as they broke through the surface of the water and released a surge of magic so cold, it froze the sides of the water immediately as they all pierced through.
He only had enough energy to take them halfway before they were swimming. Callie had called on the air to surround their faces so they could breathe before the water closed in around them, and Arthur trembled. It was so cold.
