23. Alira
Alira
Kalel brings in another armful of wood and stacks it by the fireplace. Another week has passed, and yet our lives have never felt so peaceful and quaint. A perfectly small existence, even if we are dead. I’m more alive than I’ve ever been.
Mortem is where you’re at rest. Not suffering, not afraid for all eternity, as some believe. Pluto is a merciful god, even if he did make a mistake in his past by starting the curses with Jupiter.
“Let’s go before it gets dark,” I call back over my shoulder to him as I slip on my boots.
Kalel chuckles and comes up beside me to do the same. “We still have plenty of time,” he insists with a lazy grin. I roll my eyes but smile. It’s not as if walking in the dark is any different than walking in the daylight. There’s no danger here.
Another part of this place that I’ve become uncomfortably used to. There are no wisps or wolves, no warring kingdoms, nothing to tear us away from one another.
We head out for our daily walk, taking the same paths that we always do. The nice thing is we never have to worry about getting lost if we stray from one because this fog always brings us right back to the cottage.
Kalel holds my hand and lets his eyes trace the barrens. He’s completely different, being here. And so am I, I suppose. Without our kingdoms and the weight of them holding us down to the world above, we don’t have stresses or secrets from one another.
We walk for over ten minutes—something seems off. I glance at Kalel, and he must feel it too because he looks at me and firms his lips.
“Shouldn’t we have looped back by now?” I ask, flicking my eyes down to make sure we are still on the path.
He shrugs. “Let’s keep going another few minutes; maybe we’re walking slower today than normal.”
We both know that’s not true, but I don’t argue with him. We continue walking for a handful of minutes and still haven’t come across the cottage yet.
“This is different…” I whisper, worried that we may not be alone in the barrens anymore.
Kalel stops. “But why now?” He looks down at me and studies my features.
I shake my head and try to see through the fog. It’s futile. The mist is too thick. “Let’s keep following the path. It must be leading us somewhere.”
“You mean Pluto is leading us somewhere?” he corrects me.
Our steps become more urgent, and the mist starts to dissipate after a few more minutes. The path ends at a pond’s edge, tall reeds of cattails and plump lily pads crowd the shallow end.
Our feet stop where the small ripples in the water meet the sand.
The thick brush surrounding the pond is bright with lime-colored leaves that wave elegantly in the slight breeze.
The water is clear all the way to the bottom.
Small minnows and frogs swim carelessly, ignorant of our presence.
A thin tree grows in the center of the pond; the trunk is twisted like a vine and spreads out wide at the top.
It may be thin, but it is enormous, reaching far into the sky and creating an almost dome-like foliage around the pond.
Purple flowers hang from the branches, petals falling gently to the water and stirring the ripples.
It’s a wisteria. An ancient one at that.
It takes me a moment to take it all in before I realize Kalel is stepping into the water and pulling me along with him. I gasp as my boots plunge into the water, expecting it to be freezing, but I’m surprised to find that it’s warm.
My eyes meet Kalel’s, and he grins. “What is this place?” he asks, looking down at the minnows that are curious about him and circle around his feet.
I chuckle, letting go of his hand and wading beside him.
“I have no idea.” I keep my focus on the wisteria.
The water reaches up to my shoulders, but I can still reach the bottom.
I bounce off the soft pond floor toward the tree and stare up at the dazzling lights and colors that stream down from the leaves and flowers.
A glint catches my eye and brings my attention back down to the base of the tree, where I notice something metallic.
I trudge up the shallows at the base of the tree. Lotus sprouts up from the dense lily pads, and small green frogs give me curious looks as I stop before the tree, tilting my head as I stare at the dagger buried in the center of it. As if someone stabbed it into the trunk.
Wait. This is my dagger. I know I left it in the cottage, though.
I wrap my hand firmly around the handle, trying to wiggle it out. It stays embedded, refusing to relent to my tugs. I furrow my brows and give it one final sharp pull, and the blade flies free, sending me straight into the water from the force I was pulling with.
A voice coils around me as I stare up at the wisteria from below the water’s surface. It’s Venus’s voice. “You must return, Alira. It’s time. Take the dagger and cut your hand, let your gilded blood spill into this pond, and return to end the war.”
My chest aches, and a part of me mourns. Why did I have a silly hope that this quiet life here could last forever?
We can’t stop the war. We don’t want to fight.
Hands wrap around my back and guide me to the surface. Venus’s voice is against my ear as if she speaks through the water itself. “If you do not, then they will all perish. Only written in gilded blood can it be undone.” She leaves me with that familiar, ominous saying.
My chest tightens, and in the next moment I’m lifting my head from the water and gasping for breath.
Kalel wades over and holds me delicately. “Are you okay? What happened?” He lets his eyes trace over every part of me before he sees the dagger in my hands. “Why do you have that? I saw it on the table before we left.”
I swallow the lump in my throat and try to settle my breathing. “Venus just spoke to me… She said we need to leave. We have to fight…” I hesitantly look back at him, and his eyes are filled with horror.
We both knew this day would come. We knew our time was short.
“What will we do?” he murmurs, staring down at the dagger like it’s our undoing.
I press my hand against his cheek. “I’m not sure… but we have to try to end it peacefully on both sides. Maybe that’s why they need us.”
Kalel lowers himself and lets his forehead touch mine.
“They won’t listen,” he murmurs.
I shake my head. “I know. But what else can we do?”
He opens his eyes slowly and takes me in. “If you die, I will follow you to the ends of Mortem. I will never let you go.”
I press my hand to his chest and smile. “Me too.” We lock in a tight embrace, the water like a warm blanket around us.
Kalel’s eyes soften. “Let’s go, then, shall we?”
We swim back across the pond and stand at the edge. I use the dagger and slice through my hand. Wincing at the pain that jolts through me briefly. My gilded blood spills into the water below and spreads like fire. Lighting up the pond to make it practically glow.
Kalel stands beside me, our hands intertwined as the gold moves up our legs. “I’ll see you on the other side, little godling.”
For some reason, I’m worried that he won’t remember any of this on the other side. That it was all in my head, and we didn’t go on this journey together.
He kisses me, and I whisper back, “Don’t forget me.”
“Forget you? Never. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I open my eyes, and I’m met with the cold sting of water piercing my lungs. I jolt, realizing that I’m underwater, and start swimming for the surface.
What about Kalel?
I stop and look down, finding his body next to where mine was on the ocean floor.
He’s painted blue with the hue seeping in from the moonlight above.
His eyes flicker open, and he sees me, jerking with the same unpleasant welcome from the water that I was dealt.
He kicks off the ground and swims beside me as we head to the surface.
Our heads burst from the waves, and the salt in the air and water on my lips tell me that we’re in the ocean or a sea outlet. The waves are sloshy, crashing against dark rocks.
“Did we fall from the bridge?” I shout, voice raspy and coughing a few times as the air stings my lungs.
How long has it been? Two weeks in Mortem time, so…six minutes here? My mind is sluggish, and my limbs can barely keep me afloat. I feel so weak and drained, as if I’ve just awoken from a long nap. How did we get into the ocean? I’m so disoriented that I can’t tell where in the ocean we are either.
“I’m not sure,” Kalel says back, swimming closer to me and regarding me carefully for a moment.
My fears reignite, and I stare at him. He looks roughed up from our fight, cuts and bruises that have yet to heal, and his eyes are darker than they were in Mortem.
Is it him? Does he remember our time together? The life we had in death?
His eyes soften, and he pulls me close. His armor is heavy, but he keeps us afloat as he lets me rest against his chest. “I’ll never let you go, Alira,” he whispers against my temple, and I let a few tears fall at his promise.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” I reply, kissing him before letting my eyes return to our surroundings. I’m not sure how we’re going to get out of this.
Kalel squints his eyes at the taller rocks ahead and then tightens his grip around me. “Please tell me you summoned them and they aren’t waiting to devour us.”
I follow his line of sight and my eyes land on four dragons perched on the rocks, staring at us curiously as the frogs did in Mortem. It makes me smile how afraid Kalel is of them.
“A devourer like you is afraid of being devoured ?” I tease, but he doesn’t pay any mind to it.
“You’d be too if you’ve seen what I have. They can swallow a demon whole in one gulp.”
I chuckle and knit my brows, trying to recall how I spoke with the dragons before. I wonder how they seem to know where I am when I’m in danger. Does it have to do with my father’s side? It seems silly to think of such things right now, but I wish I would’ve asked Venus while we were there.
“They probably came here because they sensed me. How did we even end up in here, though?” I ask as one of the dragons, a beautiful white one with pinkish spots around its eyes and ears, flies down to us.
Kalel flinches. “Either the demons thought we were dead and threw us off the bridge, or your friends here dropped us into the ocean to preserve our bodies while we were…asleep,” he says with a slight mischievous grin.
“Best fucking nap of my life,” I chide him as the dragon plops into the water before us. Her white wings are like a bat’s. I can see the veins through her delicate webbing. Eyes as blue as mine meet us in an analyzing stare.
I lift my hand, and she hesitantly presses her snout to it. A warmth emanates from our connection, seeming to tell me that I can trust her. Then she motions with her head for us to get on her back.
Kalel helps me out of the water, and once I’m on the dragon’s hip, I help him out too. We climb onto her back and hold on for dear life as she beats her wings and brings us out of the water.
Kalel curses, and I can’t help but laugh as the wind rushes through us. I’m colder than I’ve ever been, in a soaked dress, but I find it hard to focus on that right now when we’re flying above Faultore.
The air is salty, and the deep breaths feel more real than any I’ve taken before this.
Mortem may be a paradise, but it is dreamlike, unlike the sharp crispness of Faultore.
Of being alive. I breathe in again and spread my arms. Kalel chuckles, the vibration rumbling my chest as he wraps his arms around me and holds on to the dragon for both of us.
The other three dragons follow and keep in line with the white one.
“Look down there, we’re above Mortem.” Kalel points at where the enormous gates can be seen from even all the way up here.
My eyes widen. “They brought us back to this spot?” I swallow nervously, looking ahead in the direction of Devicit, seeing smoke and red hues on the clouds.
“Oh gods. It’s already begun,” I whisper.