CHAPTER EIGHT
The god’s face contorted, dripping like chocolate meeting the sun, until only a waist-high creature crouched before us.
Pale as moonlight-skin flushed with reddened, uneven nodules covered the frail horror, stretching thin over bone.
Wisps of frazzled hair clung desperately to its scalp like forgotten threads.
It smiled up at me, flashing rows of sharp, jagged teeth.
Nope. I didn't like that.
Calvin vaulted before me, blocking the animalistic beast with a sword in hand. It sprang from the ground and latched onto his abdomen, its spindly limbs clinging with desperate strength as he thrashed and roared, trying to tear free.
“Run, Caelyn! Get out of here!” he screamed, but there was no way in hell I would leave him.
I lunged with my extended blade for the creature's head, but the ghastly thing recoiled off Calvin and crawled toward me on all fours.
Its bony arms and legs bent and skewed like broken limbs defying anatomy, attempting to close in on its prey.
I clumsily backed away toward the exit, but Calvin stood still, his mouth agape as he watched the monstrosity approach me.
Shit. Shit…
It moved in fast and landed before my feet, warping again.
Its joints cracked as they shifted, an eerie white glow growing around it.
The macabre grin plastered to its face only shifted upwards, and when the light dissipated, a cocky, grinning male floated before us.
His white hair flowed around his head like a mane, his green eyes piercing my soul.
He suspended unnaturally above the ground, a scaled merfolk tail in place of legs.
“Caelyn, dear daughter.” He glided forward on the breeze. “I held you the day you were born… so small, so loud. Do you remember? You screamed just like your soul did when I tasted it.”
I knew him, but couldn’t remember exactly who he was, only the terror that accompanied looking upon his face. The bare memory itched my brain—on the tip of my tongue—yet I couldn’t muster his name.
Father. The title ran across my lips and spread foul, rotten taste along my tongue. Tears welled along my lower lids, threatening to fall.
The male twisted to look at Calvin, each movement crackling like bone out of socket. “An abomination,” he spat. “He will never love you.”
Calvin’s face blanched, the rosy color draining entirely from his cheeks.
The ground met me quickly as I flipped along the forest’s foliage while the ghastly creature was distracted, flicking my dagger for its heart.
The thing whipped its hand out and caught the spiraling dagger, pinching it by the blade’s tip with astounding precision and grace.
It turned slowly, a confident grin splitting its formidable face.
It bent to the ground, walking on all four broken-like appendages toward me.
It stalked slowly, relishing in our fear.
I needed to throw it off guard, but I was weaponless and trapped.
“Calvin!” I screamed, and his frantic gaze met mine. “Give me your sword.”
He reared back, but obliged, unsheathing hidden daggers from his thighs for himself and chunking his sword. It spiraled through the air, landing at my feet, and I swooped down to grab it.
The creature crawled around us, small, gravely chuckles escaping its eerie mouth.
“You cannot kill me.” Its words slithered across my skin.
“Want to wager?” I snapped, lifting the sword above my head and hurling it into the air, grunting at the exertion of strength.
It barreled into the wall of tree trunks, sparks illuminating the foreboding forest. They flitted through the space, lighting the grass to flame.
The creature blinked, quickly casting a backward glance over its shoulder.
It was enough of a distraction that I needed. I shot forward and closed the distance, rolling along the ground to retrieve the dagger at the beast's feet, and tackled it. We hit the ground with a deafening thud.
Warmth flooded my hands, seeping into the cloth along my body. Stillness filled me with hope.
When I cracked my clenched eyes, they met the furious face of a lifeless monster, its features frozen in time forever. It dropped the facade of the silver-haired male, and all that remained beneath me was the pale bony creature with my blade pierced through its heart.
The bloody dagger shook as I yanked it from the flesh and took off, Calvin following closely behind. We rushed through the break in the trees and hit a blockade of woodsy, solid walls. The left or right offered an expanse to travel, so we flew to the left—the direction Noctis called my name.
We approached another impermeable wall forcing us to turn.
“Go right! It’s a maze! Don’t stop!" Calvin rushed and pushed ahead.
The walls shook violently, grinding against the ground as they shifted to close in on us. Echoes boomed at their motion, shaking the canopy of trees above.
Oh, gods. We have to move faster.
Left, right, right, right, dead end, right, left… I attempted to memorize the turns we made in case it was necessary to turn back around but lost track quickly.
Noctis cried out again, blood curling, desperate, and we pushed to run faster.
The walls nearly touched our shoulders as we launched ourselves around the corners. They kept closing in, leaving us no choice but to turn sideways and squeeze through.
A knot settled deep within my stomach, aching and amplifying the sweat against my burning skin.
“There!” Calvin yelled ahead, pointing before us to the opening at the end of the sentient maze.
He flew through the exit first and then I, the sudden pressure releasing a prayer answered, but my left ankle sharply caught in the sentient wall. The plunge forward blasted me backward, bone crunching as it continued to seal my foot in, slowly adding agonizing force.
A scream ripped from my mouth. I knew pain too well, but the idea of being trapped set my body into panic, arms flailing uselessly against the snare.
“I’m going to pull you. It’s going to hurt like hell,” Calvin said, panic lacing his words. His hands wrapped around my calf, and he yanked, but the wall gripped firmer, refusing to release. A sharp yelp escaped me, but I swallowed the roar that threatened to break free.
I’m not going to make it out with my foot.
Hastily and without second thought, I reached for his blade, but he swatted my hand away. We needed to find Noctis before more danger found him. Time ran low, and he was hurt… or worse… dead.
But why did I care so much?
“I’ll be damned if I watch you saw your foot off,” Calvin bit.
Breathing increased, filling the space as I panted through the agony. The edges of my vision darkened.
He reached for the sealing trunks and pulled against each, working to pry them apart. I ripped my body backwards, a wail breaking from my soul, smacking my head into the ground.
But my foot shot free.
Calvin lifted me upright, his arm hoisting up my left side. The dreary forest pathway called for us, whispers floating along the light wind, haunting undertones urging us forward, deeper into the danger.
Muffled, deep yells of the god interrupted the enchanted murmurings.
We worked in tandem to jog, Calvin filling in to become my second leg.
Pain shot through my body, every light touch of the shattered remains of my ankle combatting my will to move forward.
Our feet crashed into the ground, grunting at each step as he pushed into my side to keep us both moving.
“We aren't going to make it out of here,” I breathed, dizziness and nausea wracking my body from the ankle up. But Calvin didn’t slow, his body working harder with each scream that flitted through the canopy of leaves above our heads.
His persistence was admirable.
“We will, because we haven’t had a chance to live yet.”
We broke through the tree line, an open expanse of land littered in forest foliage before us. And Noctis.
Translucent threads engulfed him, hanging him upside down from a tree branch. His eyes trailed my face, warily halting at my demolished ankle and Calvin holding me upright.
He writhed against the binds, but they did not waver.
I hopped forward, tugging at the binds, but they budged none. My blade desperately sawed at the threads, but nothing marred the webs.
Shit.
“Ah, the ocean’s sacrifice has come to save the rogue God of the Forsaken?” a soft female voice rang through the silence of the night.
We spun, weapons extended. Noctis panicked in the binds, his body shaking desperately.
I froze. From the darkness of the dense trees, eight spindly legs like broken hands crashed into the shrubbery, leaving depressions in their wake.
Hair peppered the appendages, each bending in the wrong places.
The spider’s size easily surpassed that of two horses sewn together, its eyes each the vastness of a dinner plate, not just watching but absorbing.
Four followed closely behind.
“You are the Threnai,” I choked out, the words nearly lost in my throat.
“That we are, child. Now, could you leave our dinner?” Her soft, high-pitched voice danced lightly, a stark contrast to the fear lacing me. The forest seemed to dim as if the Threnai took the light from the sun just by looking at it.
The center spider’s leg raised to point at the god. Horror spread across Noctis’s face.
“You cannot eat him. He is needed,” I replied with feigned confidence.
The oracle arachnid hummed, its multitude of eyes burrowing into me as if searching for somewhere to crawl in. “Tell me, child, can you feel it yet with the god? The memories that the Ocean Mother purged from your brain with poison?”
“I’ve never been on land before.” A hint of doubt traced my lips.
Noctis’s gaze found mine, and it clicked. He knew me all along, and I forgot it all. If embarrassment were an emotion I had room to occupy, it would have overwhelmed me in that moment.
What memories did Noctis and I have?