Chapter 41
41
T he moment I passed through the underwater palace’s door, I was met with gravity and oxygen—my two new best friends.
I gasped as I landed on the stone floor with a slick thud, my gills closing on my neck as my lungs switched gears. I heaved and coughed, getting used to my human lungs again. Apparently, the transition from breathing water to breathing air wasn’t so seamless.
After I had finished hacking up my guts, I stood. The hallway I was in was long and had the same green glow that I had seen on the outside of the palace. The glow here emanated from a green fire that emerged from open shells on the walls in the place of where torches should be.
I started to push myself up off the ground when the door behind me opened and a rush of water knocked me off my feet. I slipped, trying not to yell as I slid along the hallway.
Behind me was a small coughing form. Priscilla, I realized.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “You’ve entered the wrong door.”
She shook her head, coughing up more water as she struggled to get to her feet, and I helped her. “I came here to give you a gift.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
She smiled, and held out her hands and took mine. “Take my power. You’ll need it.”
“I can’t leave you powerless?—”
“I already completed my trial. I made a deal with the merman who chose me to drop me off in front of my door. Take my fire. I know it’s not that strong, but you’ll need it.”
“Why?”
She smiled. “Because you went out of your way to help me, and I know that you’re our best chance to end the war that killed off most of my kind even before I ended up in Ashguard. If I can’t win, I want you to carry the power of my people forward. Please, I know you are who the prophecy predicted.”
I felt my heart swell. There it was again, that prophecy. I didn’t know what to think of it—what everyone thought I was capable of—but I didn’t dare turn down Priscilla’s gift.
“Thank you,” I said, and she gave me a small smile. Then, I reached out and grasped her hands, and closed my eyes.
As I reached for Priscilla’s power, I felt the threads of them grow a warm hue. They didn’t hum with the kind of power that Tristen, Callum, or Rachelle’s power did, but it had a kind of lightness to it that felt welcoming. I gently looped my own power around it, and pulled it to me as I felt it hum under my skin.
I opened my eyes and stepped back. “It’s done.”
“I’ll see you on the other side. Good luck.”
“Thanks. For everything,” I said, and she gave me a small smile before she yanked open the door, a barrier keeping the water at bay. She threw herself across the barrier and into the water on the other side, the current tugging her away.
I turned back toward the hallway and started walking into the darkness. The only sound in the musty dampness was the dripping of water, as if the heaviness of the encroaching ocean was trying to reduce this palace to rubble. Starfish and other creatures made homes in the cracks of the hallways, living in this strange in-between of land and sea. It was almost as if air had been returned to these hallways as a special occasion for the trials.
There were no doors on either side of me, no path to choose. I was just walking forward, being propelled to the destiny this palace had chosen for me.
Then, the hallway began to grow larger and darker, as if it were opening into a larger room I had yet to see. Glowing algae creeped along the walls, seeming to breathe in time with the current outside of the castle.
I heard a scuttling noise—like claws being dragged across stone. I froze, trying to see in the near-dark, but nothing. I kept walking forward, but slowed my steps, unsheathing my dagger to hold it at my side.
Then, it lunged at me. A row of razor-sharp teeth came at me, and I screamed, slashing at the creature that lurched forward at me. It had the face of a piranha and the body of some sort of scaly humanoid and was covered in shell-lined armor as if it were some sort of guard.
My dagger caught the creature it in its shoulder and it stumbled back as blue blood sprayed out. It cocked its head to the right so it could see me out of its right eye. It opened its mouth and let out a horrible scream—and then ran at me again, its hands going for my neck, shiny claws retracting.
I called the power from my fingertips and Priscilla’s fire came from me in a second. The creature let out a terrible scream as it was incinerated to ash at my feet.
More scuttling made me scan the darkness, and then two more of those creatures ran at me. I felt the ebbing of Priscilla’s fire in my veins already, but I summoned it all at once and decimated the creature on the left in one blazing ball of fire. Then, I turned to the right, ducking low and dodging its claws before my dagger shot at and sliced its legs. It howled as it stumbled, and I wasted no time embedding my dagger in its back. I withdrew it and, as it fell to the ground, I sliced down into its heart. Its claws dropped to the ground, and I wrenched my knife up as blue blood spattered.
The past version of me might not have spent much time learning how to swim, but she at least knew how to fight.
I listened, my heart beating fast in my chest as I stared in the darkness. I still had one last bit of fire in my veins, so I raised a hand and let the last lick of fire slice through the dark—and land in front of a stone door.
I had reached the end of the hallway.
I sighed in relief, but kept my dagger out. Thank the gods for Priscilla and her magic—I shuddered as I considered what would have happened if I had been on my own and without her borrowed power.
I reached the stone door and hesitated. Whatever was behind this door, I would have to face as I was.
I took a deep breath. It would be enough. I would be enough.
I pushed open the door, and entered an eerily lit throne room. But my gaze shot immediately to the three figures in chairs at the center of the cavernous room. Tied, gagged, and bound with iron chains were Callum, Tristen, and Rachelle, their eyes watching me with fear.
King West turned to me from where he stood at the foot of a throne.
“Ah, there she is. My favored. Ready to win The Ash Trials?”