31. Chapter 31
Inever had to wonder what a bug getting washed down a drainpipe felt like ever again.
The portal sucked us in with a horrifying slurping sound and spat us out again. My entire body plunged into cold water, bubbles tickling my face as they rocketed upward. My back arched as I contorted, my tail bursting free and exploding my shorts into nothing but tatters. Yet another pair of leg wear that had died an instant death at the hands of my mermaid.
Ben, Kira, Bronwyn, and Adrian floundered in the water, each of them holding their oxygen enchantments tightly in their hands. I shot toward Bronwyn, who writhed around in the water as if suffering a big allergic reaction, and grabbed her. With one free arm left, I whirled around to choose the only other person I could bring with me to the surface.
Ben pushed Adrian toward me and reached for Kira. He grabbed her free hand and held their conjoined hands up for me to see.
I understood the message he was trying to convey to me: take his brother and he would take care of Kira in the meantime. Well, I couldn’t exactly argue with him while we were all submerged.
I grabbed Adrian around the waist and swam toward the opening of the cave. Bronwyn clung to me so tightly that her hold hurt. I would bruise like a peach after this.
Sunbeams beat down through the water as we emerged from the cave, and I propelled us upward, taking the ascent as slowly as I could. The pressure change would still affect Adrian and Bronwyn, even if it didn’t really affect me that much anymore.
When we burst to the surface, Bronwyn gasped for air, despite having her oxygen enchantment, and wriggled so much that she almost slipped out of my grip.
“Go back and get Ben!” Adrian spluttered. “Why didn’t you take him?”
“The faster I get you guys to shore, the faster I can get them. Now hold on,” I said.
Spying the nearest beach several hundred yards away, I shot through the water, dragging the two of them behind me like rag dolls. But I couldn’t take too much care. Ben and Kira might have had oxygen enchantments, but that didn’t mean they weren’t in danger. Anything could happen to them down there, especially if they dropped their enchantments.
I deposited Adrian and Bronwyn on the beach and dove back into the water to go back for Ben and Kira. When I swam back into the cave, I stopped dead and looked around in a panic. Neither one of them was where I had left them next to the ship.
My heart picked up speed, and my tail twitched as panic set in. Where could they possibly have gone?
I looked around, hoping to find they had just drifted a short way away under the force of a current or something. But they were nowhere to be found. I swam around in a flurry of bubbles, but it wasn’t until I caught a glint of gold down below that I finally caught sight of them.
Ben and Kira both held onto the egg, locked together at the bottom of the cave. It must have been heavy enough to sink them both. How had Ben made it look so easy to carry?
I dove to the cave floor and wrapped my arms around their waists, hoisting them into the air with a few beats of my tail. With the egg in tow, they were significantly heavier than Adrian and Bronwyn had been. If I wasn’t already in the water, I might have broken a sweat.
As we made for the surface, Ben fumbled with something and his oxygen enchantment tumbled out of his hand and into the depths. Cursing every god that put us in this situation, I sped us toward the surface a little faster than I would have recommended in a more professional setting.
But Ben’s terrifying gasp confirmed I had made the right choice as we burst through the surface.
“You two scared the crap out of me,” I said as I carved a trail through the water toward shore.
“The egg started dragging him down, so I thought it’d be easier with the two of us,” Kira said, coughing over my shoulder.
“Well, you know what? I officially want nothing more to do with this egg,” I said. “We are going to give it back to the phoenix and if I never see it again, it’ll be too soon.”
“She didn’t seem too happy to see us last time,” Ben said between coughs. “Do you think we’ll even get the chance?”
I screwed up my face as we headed to the beach. “It will take its egg, whether it likes it or not.”
We had done the impossible, and we had gone to the ends of time itself to do it. There was no way the phoenix would turn us down.
***
Every second that passed felt like a second closer to an imminent doom.
I scrambled into the dress in my waterproof bag on the shore but still drenched in seawater, we hurried to the nearest road to get a taxi to the forest of the Tree of Life. The driver didn’t want money, but food as payment, and we handed over all our snacks to him before getting out of the car at the edge of the forest.
“Ouch.” I winced as a sharp twig dug into my bare foot.
My sandals, along with my shorts, had torn right off during my transformation.
“Again with the drama.” Ben whisked me into his arms, and I smiled as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
Kira held the egg as we made our way through the forest, the atmosphere growing darker with each step.
“Are we going to pull a stunt like we did last time?” Adrian asked.
“Not this time.” Kira sounded confident. “They’ll let us through.”
If the phoenix’s restored egg didn’t make them, nothing would. Regardless, my grip around Ben’s neck tightened as we approached the magical purple sheen that marked the border between the outer and inner forest.
Two guards stood in our path, and they both straightened up as we approached, the jovial smiles disappearing from their faces.
“Kira, you know better than to let outsiders near here,” one of them said. “Turn around now. None of you are welcome here.”
Kira held up the egg, and the guard flinched, his blue wings fluttering. The other leaned forward with wide eyes to get a better look.
“We’ve got the phoenix’s egg, alive and well,” Kira said. “Let us through and we may be able to restore the island.”
The guards scrambled aside, and we passed them at a quick pace, just in case they changed their minds. Despite all the rules that the forest covens had put in place after the phoenix had cursed the island, this had to be the exception to them all. But that didn’t mean red tape didn’t sometimes win over.
When Ben stepped through the magical barrier, the ominous purple bioluminescence that had infected every square inch of the inner forest enveloped us. I rested my head in the crook of Ben’s neck and planted a nervous kiss there.
“Are you all right?” Ben murmured.
“I just... if this doesn’t work...”
“It has to.” Ben swallowed hard. “Because we’ve got some things to do together. Like have sex by the Great Barrier Reef.”
I snorted. “You’re really holding me to that, aren’t you?”
“I promised.” He kissed my forehead, and he pulled me closer to his chest.
We barely exchanged a sentence as we made our way through the forest, but when we reached the clearing around the Tree of Life, I found myself speechless.
The phoenix lay curled up in its hollow, several of its ragged feathers torn and bloodied on the surrounding ground. It plucked at its wing with its beak, tugging at feathers. The poor thing was in such despair it had mutilated itself.
I unhooked one leg from Ben’s arms, and he set me down on a root.
“Kira,” I warned as she strode toward the phoenix.
“No, I brought her and her egg here,” Kira said, without looking back at me. “This is my responsibility.”
I held onto Ben’s arm as Kira made her way toward the phoenix. It hadn’t responded well to Ben and me last time, and I dreaded to think what the phoenix would do if she put even a step out of line.
As Kira approached, her pace slowed, and she bowed her head, offering the egg out to the phoenix. It squawked with such vigour that the leaves shook in the canopy.
“I’ve got to help her,” I whispered.
But Ben pulled me back as I tried to take my first step. “You’ve got to give her time.”
“When do we step in, then?” Adrian muttered at our backs. “When that thing’s taken her head off?”
“Don’t disrespect the phoenix,” Bronwyn hissed. “That is how we ended up in this situation.”
She wasn’t wrong.
The phoenix watched Kira descend to her knees before it and Kira shuffled closer until she placed the egg in the hollow and withdrew her hands.
The bird spread its wings and leaned down to inspect the egg. She cawed softly at it a few times, and the egg rolled into her stomach of its own accord. They were reunited once more.
But in a split second, the heartwarming moment turned sour. The phoenix screeched and launched itself at Kira, its razor talons glinting in the ominous bioluminescence.
I tore myself out of Ben’s grasp and sprinted across the clearing.
“Maeve!” Ben’s cry followed so close behind me I knew I had to speed up if I wanted to stay ahead of him.
Kira scrambled away from the phoenix, one arm raised over her head. I skidded in between Kira and the phoenix, throwing an arm out to keep it at bay. But not a second later, Ben’s chest slammed into my back, his hand grabbing my outstretched one.
With a cry that shook my very bones, the phoenix sliced its talons across mine and Ben’s flesh.