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She hastily broke away, grabbed my hand, and we ran off. The rustling from the surrounding bushes grew louder and louder. The unicorn kept close to my side. Suddenly, I felt Hecate lift off the ground. She was floating again. But so quickly, I could no longer keep up. Stumbling, I tried with all my might to keep up with her pace and not let go of her hand. But it was no use. My legs barely carried me, and instead of getting faster like the Goddess of Magic, I was getting slower and slower.
"I'm just holding you up," I called out to her, panting. "You run ahead and create the portal. I'll follow." With a powerful movement, I freed myself from her hand and fell back several feet.
To my surprise, Hecate stopped immediately and came towards me.
"Under no circumstances! I won't leave you alone." She looked at me firmly with an unusual warmth in her eyes. "You didn't do that either."
"But I can't run fast enough," I gasped, barely able to stay on my feet. Out of breath, I stopped and propped myself up on my knees as I struggled for breath. I mentally put fitness training at the top of my imaginary to-do list.
Then, from the corner of my eye, I caught a movement right next to me. Startled, I saw that the unicorn had lain down on the grass. It was looking at me in invitation. I could see all the colors of the rainbow in its eyes, which were now at my level.
"I've never seen that before," Hecate stammered, astonishment clearly written on her face.
Was this wonderful magical creature asking me to sit on its back?
I looked questioningly at Hecate again, who nodded encouragingly. I slowly walked toward the unicorn. It didn't move when I gently placed my hand on its snout.
Almost as if it didn't want to scare me.
"Do you want me to ride you?" I whispered to the animal.
I received an affirmative, soft neigh in response. So, I stroked its nostrils one last time before approaching its back. Deciding the best way to mount him, I stood before it. It was only another rustle that broke my spell. Before I could react, Hecate stood behind me and pushed me onto the unicorn's back. I awkwardly swung one leg over the massive white body, and the Goddess of Magic pushed me further up by my bottom until I was finally sitting on top.
"Now hurry up!" she urged me, and the unicorn responded to her words immediately. Without throwing me off, it rose up, only to gallop through the bushes next to Hecate at an incredible speed.
Tensely, I held on to its mane. In the hope of gaining more support and avoiding being hit by the trees' branches, I leaned forward so far that my cheek came to rest on the creature's neck. Its surprisingly calm breaths guided the beat of my heart.
To our left and right, the undergrowth was moving. I was horrified to see the decaying figures emerge from their shelter. There was a cruel grin on their faces when they discovered us.
"Get them! And don't let the unicorn get away either! It will feed us all!" shouted the same woman who had been the ringleader of the previous attack.
"Faster!" Hecate ordered us. The unicorn beneath me tensed its muscles and obeyed immediately.
But these soulless creatures were also incredibly agile, and the first ones almost caught up. They were now crawling out of the thicket from everywhere.
"You can do it. But we need to pick up the pace," I said encouragingly to my animal rescuer, gently patting his neck with my hand. We couldn't let them get the better of us because that would kill us all.
A loud screech from Glauxa rang through my spine. I saw a fireball approaching us from the corner of my eye. The unicorn dodged it in a flash, and Hecate in front of us barely avoided a projectile.
"We're almost at the beach!" I heard her shout from a distance.
I cautiously raised my head and saw the glistening river in the fake sun far ahead of us. The beach was there to save us. Would we reach it in time? Once again, the unicorn dodged a fireball at the last moment. I could feel its hot trajectory close to my left ear.
It hissed in the air while blue and red bullets hit the void around us. I didn't want to imagine how painful it must have been to be hit by one. I was reluctant to think back to the wound that a grazing bullet had caused on my cheek. I wouldn't be able to forget the pain that soon.
"They must not reach the river!" shouted one of the Soulless. "Cut them off."
I held my breath. This could not happen under any circumstances.
"Hecate! Your mists! Blind them!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Immediately, black swirls spread out to the left and right of us. They spread like dark claws, enveloping everything except the path directly in front of us, which led to the beach.
Angry shrieks and screams could be heard from the resulting blackness. Fireballs were still approaching us from the mists, but far fewer than before.
I could already see the yellow sand lining the banks of the Styx ahead of us. I breathed a sigh of relief—we were saved!
Suddenly, I felt a firm grip around my right ankle.
"Did you really think you'd escape me, human?" hissed a vicious female voice beside me. The ringleader looked at me with lifeless eyes and bared her few remaining teeth. She reeked terribly of decay, like death.
