Chapter Fourteen
Lightning claims the skies again like an ill foreboding.
Another storm. It shakes the ground and chills my spine the further we wade through the forest. River hasn’t said a word to me since he agreed to do the unthinkable, not that it was a hard decision for him to make.
He jumped at the chance to put down Ryder if it meant saving me.
But he knows if I had a minute alone with him, I would try to convince him to change his mind, which is why he is currently trailing behind with Nala whilst Ryder and I navigate our way to the Hollow.
The thoughts of Nyxos keep resurfacing in my mind.
If two original Gods couldn’t stop him, how the fuck are we supposed to?
It’s going to be a long journey, that much we know.
Ryder’s orders to pack as much food as we could scrounge from the one store in my village—shoving it into his bag—loom in the back of our minds.
But now, with each step we take, the storm chomping at our ankles and dark clouds pressing down, that thought is no longer in the back.
It’s front and centre, gnawing at us with every gust of wind and crack of distant thunder.
“Let me try something.” Ryder stops for a moment before holding onto my wrist. “You thought about your father and took us unwillingly back to his house.”
Nala and River are still a fragment behind us.
“I’ve been close to the Hollow before. If I think about the place and hold onto you, there’s a chance your portal may be able to channel through me.” His eyes meet mine briefly, and I can see a glint of sorrow weeping behind them, sorrow for the conversation he had with River, sorrow for me.
“We have nothing to lose, I suppose.” I shrug my shoulders, still feeling numb, and sink into the feeling of his skin on mine.
Lightning strikes again, highlighting the side of his face in a white glow.
I can’t imagine my life without him. The ache of losing him still twists deep inside my gut.
When he took himself from me, my heart broke for a moment.
His coming back may have sewn it back together again, but the seams remain, like a patchwork of pain.
And now the clock is ticking, the threads are undoing, and there is nothing I can do about it.
I force a small smile and conjure my portal, shifting it onto the bark of a nearby tree.
The void ripples as Ryder pokes his head through it.
“It worked.” Ryder glees as he pulls his head back through the portal. “This is the place I was thinking about.”
I smile and nod back in response.
“Go through, I’ll meet you on the other side.” I urge him to enter, and he smiles regrettably at me before the void swallows him up. Nala and River’s footsteps approach, and I tell them to do the same. Nala’s hair whooshes as she enters the mouth of the portal.
“Not you.” I declare, holding River back, and he audibly sighs.
“Asha, you can try and stop me all you want, but I’m not going to change my mind.” His hazel eyes find mine as he halts, and the breeze picks up around us.
“River, this is not your decision to make,” I explain, my hand still gripping the fabric of his shirt like a lifeline.
“It is.” River replies, his trainers disturbing a twig beneath his feet.
“I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you.
” His voice catches in his throat as he swallows.
“Especially if I knew there was something I could’ve done to stop it.
” He continues, but my grip stays firm on him.
“I have to do this; otherwise it will haunt me till the day I die.” His hand cradles mine briefly before he pulls it off of him. My mouth opens, but I have no words.
He walks through the portal, and I am left in silence.
***
The cold wind rushes through my hair, and stray curls thrash in my eyeline.
The smell of salt and seaweed overtakes my senses as I look at Ryder, who is staring out in the distance with Nala and River at his side.
It looks like some kind of beach. Waves crash in the distance, and the dark water keeps rolling in and rolling back out again.
“Where are we?” I walk over to him, my shoes crunching on the pebble shore beneath my feet.
“This is as close as I could get us,” Ryder walks the distance between us, “Eel Grave Waters,” he says this with no emotion.
“The Hollow is just across there.” He points out just past the treacherous sea, and my stomach drops.
I can see Nala and River shuffle uncomfortably in their stance as he says this.
I follow his eyeline and can just about make out a tall mountain across the sea, which must be where Mourn Peak is.
“We’ve got to get across… there?” Nala asks, as the waves crash ferociously and bite at the pebbles.
“I don’t know what you think this is, Ryder, but none of us have tails; we’re not fish. I don’t know how you think any of us are going to make it across there in one piece.” River digs at him, but Ryder doesn’t react.
“I know that, Mr Smart Ass. Why don’t you say some more unhelpful comments?” Ryder rolls his eyes and walks towards the shore. He has a look in his eyes, like he is waiting for something.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Ryder cautions Nala, who is bending close to the rolling water with her arm extended.
“Do what?” She draws her arm back and questions, her fingers clutching a grey pebble.
“Touch the water,” Ryder adds. “A different kind of current runs through it.”
“What do you mean?” I add, intrigue plastering my features.
“Eels roam these waters, making it highly volatile. One touch will zap you, but get stuck in it and you’ll be cooked from the inside out.
” He smirks a little while delivering this life-altering information.
Nala’s face drains as she scrambles back from the water’s edge, and River and I share a concerning look. “I learned that the hard way.”
“How do you know?” I ask, his knowledge on these elusive areas intrigues me. He shrugs his shoulders.
“My dad used to drop me in places like this when I was younger—part of my training. The more secluded, the better. Every member of the Xoro Army had to do it. Basic survival skills.” He shrugs like it’s nothing, like being abandoned in the wilderness as a child is just another item on a to-do list. “Anyway… I got too close to the water, and you can imagine the rest.”
He says it so casually, like the memory doesn’t even graze him, but the image hits me hard. A kid alone in a place like this, surrounded by danger disguised as silence. I can’t imagine being left to survive something most grown warriors wouldn’t dare face. And the worst part?
He speaks like he never expected anything different.
“But you weren’t a member of the army,” I say, anger resides on my face, but I try to hide it, images of The General making a sickening appearance in my mind.
“I know,” He says through gritted teeth.
“Is anyone gonna tell us how we are supposed to get across this?” River rubs the back of his neck, clearly unsettled like the rest of us.
“Just wait…” Ryder says his eyes still locked on the horizon. My gaze follows his, squinting at where the ocean and the sky meet. Then the ocean begins to morph, thick mist blanketing the water and appearing out of mid-air.
The sea hisses, angry and alive.
Then the fog shifts.
A shape materialises on the water—no, above it. A long, narrow vessel glides silently toward the shore, floating inches above the charged surface. Enchantra pulses along its sides, faint and silver, like veins of starlight.
“What is it?” I gaze up at Ryder, whose brow is lifted slightly.
“I can’t believe it’s real,” Ryder whispers, caught in the breeze, a smile upturning the edges of his lips.
“What is it?” I ask, and blink hard at the phantom image appearing in front of us.
“The Nightboat… It’s in all the legends about the Hollow. It’s enchanted. It only appears for people who want to find it.” Ryder takes my hand, giving it a small squeeze, as the dull lights of the boat reflect in his eyes.
“The Nightboat?! Am I the only one not too psyched about getting on a boat that looks like it came straight from a Moon nightmare?” River says, glaring at me with an unsettled look from the corner of his eye.
“No, you’re right, just stay here and wait for the sludge man to get you,” Ryder responds sarcastically, which only agitates River more. He opens his mouth to retaliate, but I interrupt before he gets the chance.
“Can you two give it a rest!”
“You,” I look at River, “This is the only way we can get across, unless you have any better ideas?” I ask, and he scratches at the back of his neck and sighs.
“And you,” I turn to face Ryder, “Do you have to criticise everything he says?”
“He knows what he signed up for; he wanted to come,” Ryder shrugs his shoulders.
“He didn’t really have much of a choice,” I say, “None of us did.” My eyes catch Nala, who flashes me a small smile. “So, can you both just try to get along? If only so Nala and I don’t have to listen to you bickering the whole time.”
I position myself so I am facing them both, arms crossed tightly. Ryder raises an eyebrow, eyes locked onto mine. I guess we’re going to have a staring match. My eyes don’t break from his, and eventually, he drops his gaze and turns to River.
“Fine.” He mutters, and River nods in subtle acknowledgement. It’s like being with children.
A man stands at the helm, cloaked in layers of moon-dark fabric. His eyes gleam like polished onyx as the vessel nears and lowers a drawbridge at our feet. The boat is as black as night, a dark smudge on the orange and yellow horizon.
“The Nightboat answers only to the call of those who are meant to cross,” the man says, his voice echoing oddly—as if the Hollow itself repeats him, warped and delayed. “Step aboard, if you believe your fate lies on the other side.”