Chapter 20 #2
“When flame and shadow meet as one, and lighting marks what must be done, the blood of kings, betrayed and damned, shall rise where light and dark both stand.
She’ll wear the flame but know no past, a crown of ash that cannot last. A tender heart will crack to stone. The storm she binds is not her own.
Chained by love and sweet deceit, he’ll fall where war and ruin meet. His soul was bent by unseen strings, a puppet taught to kneel to kings.
Two souls divided by the night, one cloaked in wrong, one seeks the light. But she who stirs the storm’s dark tide, shall draw the stars where shadows hide.
When Celestial weeps and Mortis Regnum stands still, power bends to sovereign will. The crown shall fall from bloodied hands, to grace the queen who takes his land.”
She lets out an exasperated breath, but I don’t look away, even as my mind trips over itself trying to catch up. All the information is laid out in riddles! My hands grasp the lower part of my face as I try to remember everything she said. “Does it all make sense now?”
I whip my head in her direction. “Oh yeah, crystal clear,” I reply sarcastically.
“It’ll take some time to digest, but I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you.” Of course it is. Just a bunch of enigmas that apparently hold the key to this fucking hellscape. But there’s something that’s been bugging me that showed on the orb.
“Why did the orb focus on my necklace?” Aslan’s face slackens, and I begin to wonder if I said something wrong.
“Your necklace?”
“Yeah, my dad gave it to me on my eighth birthday.” Her eyebrows hike up to her hairline, and I clarify, “Harrison. From what I’m told, my mother trusted him, and that’s who I was with before I came here.”
“And you have it?”
“Well, no. I hadn’t thought about it until the image popped up. I can’t remember the last time I saw it, which is weird because it never leaves my neck. I’ve always felt some sort of attachment to it. I know it sounds weird, but it’s hard to explain.”
“No, it actually makes perfect sense,” she mumbles under her breath.
Her eyes bounce back and forth, like she’s seeing something play out, or she’s trying to piece it together.
“It was crafted by the gods and goddesses,” she explains.
“During the last war, they used it as a safeguard, trapping slivers of their magic inside. After such a weapon was created, they entrusted someone to hold onto it.” Aslan gives me a pointed look, confirming what I’d been thinking…
my mother. “She worked closely with them for centuries—because of her gift—but when she died, we thought it to be lost.”
“Her gift?”
“Your mother was also an oracle. The best the gods have seen in…well, forever.”
This is too much. Too fast. Every word slams into me like a crashing tide, dragging me under before I can even catch my breath.
My fingertips rub circles over my temples. “I’m getting a headache.”
“It’s a lot to take in, I understand. But we’re running out of time.
” She says we like this is also her issue.
It seems that there has been a lifetime of issues piling up, and now all of a sudden, it’s up to me to fix everything?
Someone who didn’t even know this place existed a few months ago?
None of this is my problem, and yet, it seems I’m the only one that can clean up the mess.
“Why me? Out of all the fae and powerful beings in this realm, why me?”
“There’s something inside of you, Kallie.
Something ancient and powerful. Harness that, hone into that power, and all the other pieces will fall into place.
” Great. More fucking ominous bullshit. “But this is the path, and you’ll know what to do when the time is right. ” Goddess, what does that even mean?!
“Then what’s the next step?” At the end of the day, I don’t have a choice. Not really. How selfish of a person would I have to be in order to tell the entire realm that they need to fend for themselves? Especially when I’ve seen bits and pieces of the severity of the situation.
“You need to retrieve the necklace,” she states.
“And what if the people who took me already have it? I’m sure I was wearing it when I was captured.”
“No. No, if they had it, we would know.” I’m not sure if she means that she would know or everyone would know because doomsday would be upon us.
“It could still be at Callum’s house. Honestly, with the chaos that morning, I might’ve forgotten to put it on.” That seems unlikely, though, considering I never took it off. “Who else knew of the necklace?” I ask.
“It was on a need-to-know basis. Even if someone was searching for it, there’s no way anyone could’ve known what the vessel was.
” She stands suddenly, pacing back and forth, looking deep in thought.
“Elizabeth was a genius, keeping the magic inside an amulet. It was right under their noses, and they were none the wiser.” A pang hits deep in my chest, hearing others talk of the mother I never knew and now won’t ever get the chance to.
From the sounds of it, she was a light in this sea of darkness that keeps cloaking the realm.
I wish I would’ve had the chance to be a part of that light. My breath gets lodged in my throat, and I struggle to choke down the sob threatening to break free.
“Of course,” she whispers, her face lighting up with a new revelation.
Aslan turns to me, eyes wide. “The Forest. The Forest of the Forgotten! It has to be there!” She’s practically vibrating with excitement, all bright eyes and eager energy.
But the moment Odeyssa mentioned it before, dread started pooling in my gut—and it hasn’t left since.
“You must go. It won’t be easy, but that’s where it has to be!
Oh Iza, clever to the end. You always had one more move we didn’t see coming. ”
I’ve come to the conclusion I’m never actually certain whether she’s talking to me or not.
“That can’t be—”
“It is! She had it spelled of course. If it was lost, it would go to the one place no fae would ever go willingly.” Oh, well, that’s reassuring. “You must—” Both our heads whip to the entry and find Odeyssa running toward us.
“Uh, Kallie. We gotta go.”
“What’s wrong?”
“We have company.”
Ice slices through me, brutally freezing me from the inside out until I’m nothing but a brittle statue carved from fear. How did he find me? How did he know? How did—
Atticus.
Odeyssa’s eyes tell me she was thinking the same thing, but we can’t go back. Not yet.
“Like, right now. We have to go now.”
“But Aslan was just telling me—”
“Go,” she interrupts. “You will know what to do when the time comes.” I stare at her, wishing we had more time.
“There’s a secret exit behind the blue wall.
Tell Voraxis to meet you on the other side,” she insists, pointing to the cobalt water.
Nodding my head, I send a quick message to my little burnt marshmallow.
Odeyssa rushes forward, grabbing my wrist and hauling me away.
Without hesitation, she steps through, and at the last second, I turn to look over my shoulder, wondering if I’ll ever see her or this place again.
“May we meet again, Kallie. If you get lost, you can always find your answer amongst the stars.” Before I can respond, Odeyssa tugs me through the waterfall, and when I’m on the other side, I’m surprised I don’t find myself sopping wet.
“Magic,” she says, fingers dancing in front of my face. Despite everything, I let out a lighthearted chuckle.
We make our way up a set of stairs and through the maze of tunnels, the engravings continuing down these walls as well.
All too quickly, we spot the door, and immediately my vision goes blurry from the assault from the sun.
Like clockwork, Voraxis lands nearby, and neither of us wastes time.
Sprinting toward him, I’m the first one up, and Odeyssa is still a bit short, so I reach my hand out, hauling her up the rest of the way.
Without any direction, Voraxis takes off into the sky, and against my better judgment, I steal a glance back, curious if I’ll be able to see him from here. A strange sense of disappointment washes over me when I can’t, and that thought shakes me to my core.
Where to? Voraxis asks.
“The Forest of the Forgotten.”
Odeyssa stiffens behind me, and I begin briefing her on everything Aslan told me.
At some point, between the raging thoughts of what happened and what’s to come, I fell asleep. I’m not sure for how long, but I jolt awake when Voraxis touches back down.
“Rise and shine, sleepy head,” Odeyssa chirps as she slides down Voraxis’s leg.
Will it ever get to a point when everything doesn’t remind me of him? ‘Rise and shine,’ ‘Princess,’ the smell of eucalyptus that has to be infused into the soil around the realm, because no matter how far, or where I go, I still get reminders of his scent.
I can’t escape. I’m forever destined to be trapped in a place where I can never fully get away. Locked and caged in a realm, surrounded by torment and tarnished memories.
The fog is dense, blanketing the area in an eerie sense of sinister mist, as though it’s reaching its claws out, latching on and dragging me into a bottomless sea of agony that knows no end.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Odeyssa comments, breaking the silence.
“Do we just…walk through?” I stare at the wall of fog. It looks like the barrier when going to and from Nefarium, but instead of it being beautiful and welcoming, it screams at me to run while simultaneously containing a magnetic pull to come toward it.
I told you, you weren’t going to like it. Because I’ll be trapped. In theory. We would be going in, hoping we can get out.
I don’t. But we don’t really have a choice.
Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and try to picture what is on the other side, preparing myself for anything that could be waiting.
Stepping forward, I feel the tendrils of smoke freeze my flesh, taking purchase like icicles wedging themselves into the grooves and divots of my soul.
When I pass through to the other side, it’s like I’m drowning in a sea of my own misery.
Every drop of pain and suffering I’ve ever endured comes at me with a force so strong it coaxes unsolicited tears to stream down my face.
The air I once held is ripped away in a matter of seconds, and I’m grappling at the seams to gain it back.
I fall to my knees as the phantom image of Voraxis and Odeyssa appear in my peripheral.
Their forms are coated in haze, hardly recognizable silhouettes, but they seem oddly okay.
Nothing out of the ordinary as I see them getting closer.
Then, the realm tilts as one final gut-wrenching, soul-crushing memory plays out in slow motion.
And just like my heart…my soul…everything goes black.