53. SOPHIE
An incessant tap, tap, tap stirred Sophie awake.
Her world was wobbly and waving all about. The sound of water, lapping up and around her crashed into her ears. The smell of sea spray hung in the air and mother of Faery was it cold.
Sophie sat up slowly, her head pulsed with a ferocious headache and the back of her throat was oddly sore. She blinked to clear her vision. Then blinked again.
You’ve got to be kidding me. . .
She was on some piss-poor wooden dinghy in the middle of some forgotten ocean. A fine mist of rain began to coat her skin, heavy with the threat of a more tumultuous downpour. The sky was dull, cloudy and grey and all around her was nothing but the open sea. She was all alone.
Shit.
Someone had kidnapped her and dumped her here. Sophie didn’t even know where here was. There were no notable landmarks there was just sea, stretching for miles and miles.
As Sophie stood to survey the small boat, a small piece of parchment slipped from underneath her crop top. Sophie picked it up, her fingers numb from the cold and wet from the rain.
She unfurled the small note.
Filthy half-breed. Traitor. There is no place for you amongst the gods.
Sophie scrunched the note and incinerated it with her fire mana. Rage coursed through her veins. The choice of words and ill wishes only pointed to one person.
Vestes.
When Sophie figured out how to get off this stupid boat and back to the Godlands, she was going to flay Vestes alive, and she would make sure every soul and being in the damn Godlands was there to watch and laugh at how pathetic he was.
Sophie let herself simmer in rage for a moment before taking three deep breaths, stilling her mind and her heart. Shredding Vestes into tiny little pieces would have to wait. She would figure this out. She had no choice.
In the distance, the sound of a horn blared through the air. The sound was loud, jarring and its source was unknown. The clouds that hung close to the dark, choppy water cleared to reveal a gargantuan, black mountain in the distance. Its peak glowed with red-hot lava and all around it were, from what Sophie could see, sand dunes. Sand dunes that then rolled and dipped to the outer edges of a forest. The forest was met with the sands of a beach. A golden beacon of light glowed on the outer rim of the island, calling to her.
Sophie gulped.
She had an inkling. She felt like she knew what sort of place she’d been dumped into. A chill ran down her spine and for once, Sophie feared for her life.
She had been unceremoniously dropped into the freaking Hrabrost Trials. It had to be.
The trials meant for angels of Zeus’s Aerial Legion. The courage trials meant to test their mettle, and quite frankly, Sophie was nowhere near qualified to even be here.
Ash hadn’t explained much about the trials. Sophie knew there would be a swim involved, but the rest was completely up to whoever was running the trial that year. The monsters released and the schedule of tests was randomised, lasting an entire week. No weapons. No wings. Just magic and willpower.
Sophie shook out the fear that crept up her arms and focused on the golden beacon of light in the distance.
“Game on, moles.”
She hoped to the gods that Vestes was watching her. Because she’d be burning a trail of fury throughout this entire trial. And by the end of it, she would be the dauntless reckoning he wished he never knew.
Sophie dived into the dark water of the angry sea before her. The water bit into her skin so cold and so fast, she almost lost her breath. She pushed her arms and legs to a steady pace. The rain above her pelted her skin as she swam through the choppy waters. Occasionally she would look up to make sure that she didn’t lose her path toward the golden beacon.
She swam hundreds of metres, using bits of her water mana to propel her, before resting in place. The island didn’t look any closer but when she’d turned around, the dinghy she’d jumped off was but a speck in the distance. What sort of hell was this?
“You can’t be serious,” she breathed heavily.
Her legs were aching, and she wasn’t any closer to getting out of the blasted water. The cold was biting into her and if she stayed any longer, she’d be going down with hypothermia. As Sophie treaded water to regain energy, a slithery tentacle brushed past her leg.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Sophie broke into a frantic swim.
She didn’t dare look underneath the water, focusing solely on the beacon of light ahead of her. She pushed as hard as she could, but it felt like she was going nowhere.
The dark water grew thicker and harder to push through. Sophie dared not use too much of her mana, saving it for the rest of the trial. But suddenly, she was moving backward. No, she was being sucked into a fucking whirlpool.
Sophie whipped about in the water, sputtering as she tried keep her head afloat. Water assaulted her eyes and ears. The force of the whirlpool pulled her under and what she saw underneath nearly dispelled all the air from her lungs.
Yellow, slitted eyes, bigger than her entire body, blinked at her.
Sophie pushed up, trying to break the surface of the water, but the giant squid’s blackened tentacle caught her before her fingers could scrape the surface. Sophie let out an unintentional yelp that cost her the minimal air in her lungs.
Sophie fumbled, trying to feel for the throwing knives she hoped to the gods were still strapped to her thighs.
The squid tightened around her leg in a death grip, spinning her as it dragged her down into the depths of the sea. Sophie let out a scream, but continued to fumble her way to the throwing knifes. The force of the creature”s pull continued to knock her about.
By the will of the Fates, her throwing knives were still there. Disorientated as she was, Sophie stabbed at the tentacle frantically. As her blades pierced the squid’s thick skin, it shrieked. The sound was deafening, but it gave Sophie an opportunity to break free.
She kicked and kicked, breaking through the surface with a desperate gulp of air. She didn’t stop. She didn’t have the time.
Sophie swam toward the beacon of light that thankfully seemed closer. But the murderous roar of the giant squid rumbled through the water, sending a string of fear so furious through her body. Sophie didn’t want to look back. She could see the water before her turn darker and darker. The barely there light provided by the grey sky turned into darkness and the waves around her turned more violent.
The water surged into a massive wave as the giant squid shrieked, aiming straight for Sophie.
She swam as fast as she could, riding the wave until giant squid tentacles came crashing down on her, pulling her down into the depths of the dark sea again. She was surrounded by tentacles. Everywhere she turned, its crater-like suckers swarmed around her.
There was no way out.
Fuck this shit.
Sophie dived deep into her frantic mana and pulled. She let her favourite fire wash through her veins and out through her fingertips. She blasted the squid, and its tentacles flinched from the barricade of fire she’d created under the water.
It roared again in pain.
But Sophie roared harder.
She swam up and up, encasing her entire body with her air mana. When she broke the surface, she pulled herself higher and higher into the air. Quickly, she pulled at her mana again, shooting a hot red beam of fire straight into the squid’s eye.
It flailed, diving deep into the water to get away from Sophie. As soon as it disappeared into the water, Sophie broke free of her air bubble and fell freely. She had to reserve as much mana as she could and what she’d just done had cost her a fair amount. The smell of fried fish grew stronger as she neared the surface of the water.
This time when she dived in, no tentacles or giant yellow eyes neared her. Not that she could see much anyway. She didn’t let complacency get the better of her. Sophie righted herself again, focusing on the golden beacon of light ahead, now only a few hundred metres away from her.
The adrenalin pumping through her veins warmed her enough, but her extremities were growing painfully useless. She pumped a small amount of mana to her fingertips as she pushed for the shore.
It was so fucking cold, and her body was numb, but Sophie pushed and pushed until the island neared. She spotted the edges of thick jungle and the dark black sands before it.
Closer and closer she swam.
Sophie was on the verge of tears as she finally felt the sandbank underneath her boots. The grit of the sand was a welcome sound and feeling. She fought against the waves with a whimper. The smell of frying fish hung in the air as she crashed onto the shore with a sob.
Land.Oh beautiful land, I will never take you for granted again. Sophie kissed the black sand beneath her, thanking the Fates that she was alive.
“Ahem,” a male voice sounded from above her.
Sophie looked up with her sand-covered lips to find Morpheus, the dark-skinned, white-winged god of sleep towering over her.
“What the fuck are you doing in Tartarus?” he snarled.