Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
BELLAMY
W e left early the next morning to make our trek toward the castle after getting directions from the boys of Neverland. None of them seemed remotely sad to see us go, so they were eager to send us on our way. I only hoped we could make it there before the pixies caught us. And then there would be the matter of Spirit Shadow.
I had no clue how I was going to cut away this nettle weed without him noticing us. My vision had been clear that I was to free my brothers before killing him, but maybe it could be the other way around? I’d worry about that when we got there.
We walked through the jungle, as dark and foreboding as it was the day before, shadows hovering under the canopies, their glowing red eyes always watching.
“They’re mostly harmless,” Driscoll said. “They don’t hurt you unless you try to leave. Or threaten their master.”
Spirit Shadow.
Leoni turned to me. “So how exactly are you going to do this? Nettle weed is thick, thorny, poisonous. I can’t even imagine trying to knit sweaters from its stalks.”
“I’m prepared.”
I didn’t owe her any explanations. I knew what needed to be done, and I would do it.
We ducked under a low-hanging vine that stretched between two towering trees.
“How can you be prepared?” Leoni asked. “Have you ever pricked your finger on nettle weed? Have you ever experienced its poison? How are you going to do this with swollen, aching hands?”
I bristled, hating the logic behind her words.
Driscoll bobbed his head back and forth. “Shorty’s got a point. How are you going to keep knitting while getting continuously poked by the thorns? It’s not like you can avoid it.”
I shot him a glare and he pressed his lips together.
“That’s the sacrifice,” I signed. “ That is what is required to break the curse. Someone has to pay the price for this magic. That someone will be me.”
Leoni’s blue eyes flashed with sympathy. “And how are you going to find the time and place to do this? We’re stuck on this island with pixies searching for us. Soon they’ll alert their master if we haven’t been found. So he’ll be looking for us too. How long does it take to knit seven sweaters?”
I bit my lip. So I hadn’t entirely thought this plan through. But I saw my future. I saw myself knitting these sweaters and setting my brothers free. I didn’t have to know exactly how I was going to do it. Just that I was. That knowledge alone would give me the strength to carry on.
“It’s not my job to lay out the plan for you. You two are the ones who decided to follow me.”
“Did she just tell you to fuck off?” Driscoll asked. “She does that sometimes.”
Leoni rolled her eyes and forged ahead through the thick jungle. I stepped over a bejeweled bracelet, wondering what powers it held, what might happen if I slipped it over my wrist. I forced myself to look ahead and stop wondering about the magical items spread around the shadow court. I wasn’t here for them, and none of these items would break the curse. I knew what I had to do, and now I just needed to do it.
Hours later we came upon the castle. Tall stone walls surrounded what looked like an abandoned village. Through the iron bars of the gate, houses dotted the terrain, all of them with broken windows and doors and caved-in roofs. The tree line of the jungle stretched right up to the walls. Shadows lurked under the tree’s canopies, but the sun shone down onto the village and castle, keeping the shadows away. Maybe Spirit Shadow only summoned them at night.
We approached the closed gates.
Driscoll scratched his head through his curly hair. “Lochlan told us he and Mal climbed those walls to try and investigate the castle, but whenever they got to the top, the shadows would swarm them and wouldn’t allow them through.”
I frowned, looking up at the shadows hanging under the palm tree fronds, staring at us. Goosebumps prickled along my arms.
“Well, can you use your earth magic to part the trees?” Leoni asked. “You know, save all of our asses again?”
Driscoll planted his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes. “Once a hero, always a hero.”
I had a feeling he enjoyed playing hero based on the small smirk quirking his lips—and based on what I knew of him.
He stretched out his hands, then paused and looked at us. “Maybe I should wait until we’re up there? It’s going to be hard to climb and use my magic. Then again, if I wait, we run the risk of the shadows swarming us before I can allow some sun through.” He rubbed his chin. “Decisions, decisions.”
If only it were nighttime. I could use my star magic. Then again, I wasn’t sure shadows slept. My star magic might not be effective against them in the way it was against other elementals.
“Wait until we get to the top, then act fast,” I signed.
Leoni nodded. “She said?—”
Driscoll held up a hand and started climbing. “I got the gist.”
He wedged a boot into the wall and pulled himself up, and Leoni and I followed. The stone was rough under my palms, gritty—sharp. I winced, and for just a moment, doubt crept in. If I couldn’t even climb this wall without feeling pain, how was I going to handle the nettle weed? Leoni’s words had been rolling through my mind nonstop all day. I’d been so focused on getting here and getting the nettle weed, I hadn’t thought about how difficult the actual day-in and day-out task of knitting these sweaters would be. I couldn’t doubt myself now. Not after all I’d been through so far.
The future didn’t lie. I would find a way.
Rustling above caught my attention, and I glanced up as I climbed to see the shadows stirring. The palm trees shook, the shadows vibrating, their wispy forms wavering and flickering.
“Now, Driscoll,” Leoni whispered, but Driscoll was still climbing, his hands occupied.
His head whipped upward as the shadows descended upon us like a swarm of gnats. Leoni drew the sword hanging at her side, slashing at the shadows with one hand while holding to the rock with the other.
“Just throw your hand out and move the trees,” she shouted at Driscoll.
“I don’t have that kind of upper body strength,” he shouted back.
Spirits below. I tightened my hold on a jagged edge of stone with one hand while slipping the other inside my black boot and drawing out a dagger. The shadows darted at me, hands shooting out and attempting to grab me, take me from the wall. I swiped at them, and when my dagger went through their forms, they burst apart like shattered glass but quickly reformed. My arms shook, an ache forming in them as I jabbed at the shadows over and over again to keep them from taking me. If I let them have me, they’d deliver me straight to him, and then it would be all over. Leoni must’ve realized the same thing because she fought off the shadows with the same vigor while Driscoll climbed up the wall. A shadow grabbed him and yanked him backward.
Leoni cried out, and I stifled my own cry. We’d never get over this wall without Driscoll’s help, without the sun to scatter these shadows away. The shadow’s arms wrapped around Driscoll’s waist, flying him back into the jungle, into the safety of the shadows. Maybe they’d wait ’til night to deliver Driscoll or maybe they had a way of calling their master to them. Either way, this mission was already looking like it might be over.
“Your hands are free,” Leoni shouted as the shadows knocked away her sword and overtook her.
Driscoll looked down at his hands in shock, then back up at Leoni. “My hands are free,” he murmured. “My hands are free!”
“Yes, now use them!” The shadows clawed at Leoni, trying to pull her from the wall as well.
Their inky hands wrapped around my arms, cold searing me, shooting straight down to my bones.
Driscoll shoved out his hands and sunlight split through the dark. The shadows around us shrieked and hissed as the trees bent backward, allowing more sunlight through. The shadow gripping my arm let go. The sun sucked the cold from me, washing me with its warmth. All the shadows fled further under the canopy and into the depths of the jungle behind us. Leoni reached up and pulled herself to the top of the wall, and I climbed toward her. Driscoll let out a shriek, and I realized he hadn’t gotten so lucky. His captor was taking him with it.
“No,” Leoni yelled. “I don’t think so!” She stretched out a hand. “He might be annoying and conceited and talks way too much, but he’s also my best friend.”
Water formed in her palm. She launched it straight at the shadow. The water hit the shadow, and it let go of Driscoll, who fell to the ground, all while maintaining his magic and keeping the trees bent.
He scrambled out of the shadowy jungle and into the little slice of sunlight that shone over us, then looked up at Leoni with wide eyes.
“That was really sweet.”
She wrinkled her nose. “When I called you conceited and annoying?”
“What?” He shook his head. “No, when you said I was your best friend.”
She rolled her eyes. “Just get up here.”
He wiggled his fingers. “In case you didn’t remember, I’m kind of the only thing standing between you and those shadows back there in the jungle.”
I looked over his shoulder and saw the red eyes peeking out from the dark.
“Right.” Leoni laced her fingers together and stretched them out in front of her, then she flicked her wrist downward.
Water unfurled from her fingers, twining together to form a rope that dropped down and looped around Driscoll’s waist.
“Ugh, you got my shirt all wet,” he said as the water rope pulled him upward.
“I think what you meant to say is thank you,” Leoni said.
Leoni’s magic continued to pull Driscoll up the wall until he was at the top. It deposited him and then the rope dissolved, water splashing down—straight onto Driscoll’s brown pants and boots.
He shot a glare Leoni’s way while she smirked at him.
“You’re welcome,” she chirped as she turned and looked to the other side of the wall. We just needed to get down and then we’d be in the sun, safe from the shadows that lurked in the jungle. I glanced at the village that spread out beyond the wall, a single road snaking through it and leading up toward the black castle perched on the edge of a mountaintop. Dark clouds ringed the castle, an eerie feeling settling over me. Driscoll clenched his hands, the trees springing back into place, their shadows stretching over us. We all quickly dropped down and climbed the other side of the wall as the shadows lurched from the jungle and back toward the top of the wall, right to the edge of where the tree’s shadows stretched.
They stopped, hanging and staring at us, unable to come into the sun, where we were now safe. We’d have to trek through this village, reach the castle, get the nettle weed, and escape to safety before nightfall.
Just another reminder that our journey was far from over yet.