55. SOPHIE
“Do not look at them in the eyes. Look straight ahead, less you want your soul eternally damned in Tartarus,” Morpheus warned.
This was Baba Yaga’s forest, and in her forest she let loose the wrath of her wailing witches. Vengeful women once scorned and burned at the stake, who reincarnated themselves through dark magic to haunt and feast on souls. If you looked at them in the eyes, they would paralyse you and steal your soul through the sharp tips of their spindly fingers.
No thank you. Sophie was at her wit’s end with creepy shit.
The forest air was thick with heat. The canopy so dense that barely any light seeped through. Sophie looked to Morpheus who seemed equally as fed up as herself. Chronos, who stood beside Morpheus, looked like she still had a stick firmly lodged up her ass.
“Scared, kid?” Morpheus asked Sophie.
“A little.” Sophie shrugged a shoulder. More like a lot.
Together, they advanced through the forest. Sophie wielded her blades in both her hands ready to attack if a wailing witch decided to tempt fate. They moved in pairs through the forest. While one moved, the other watched their backs.
The sound of a snapping twig tried to pull Sophie’s attention, but she shook it off, focusing on the eerie forest ahead of her.
Then the wailing started.
The sound of several women crying and howling in pain echoed and layered in the air through the trees, sending chills down Sophie’s back. The branches above them shook with ferocity as they moved through the forest. The wailing witches jumped from tree to tree, following them. Sophie hadn’t laid eyes on one yet, but she sure as hell didn’t want to.
Morpheus, currently leading the group, quickened his pace. Sophie followed but she was still fatigued from the swim they had yesterday.
Sofreya,a female voice whispered.
“Keep moving, kid,” Morpheus ordered from ahead. Did Morpheus hear that too? It sounded like the voice was just in Sophie’s head, but perhaps they could all hear it.
Morpheus had warned her about this. To ensnare their prey, the wailing witches would mimic certain sounds – calls for help, the cry of a baby. It would voice your deepest desires and your deepest fears, in hopes that its prey would stop, look and listen.
The movement in the trees above them grew more panicked, as the group quickened their pace. They were being chased.
Sophie pushed her legs harder, working doubly as hard to keep up with the two angels.
“Morpheus, help!” Nyx’s voice cried out. It sounded exactly like them.
Morpheus knew better. He charged forward without a glance in any direction but ahead, toward the slight glow of the beacon that marked their next checkpoint. Sophie was a few paces behind him while Chronos ran behind Sophie.
As they ran through the forest, branches snapped back and forth. Sophie’s face was numb with tiny little cuts over her cheeks.
“Chronos, stop!” a deep male voice shouted.
Sophie’s heart lurched in her chest, because she knew that voice like the back of her hand.
The sounds of Chronos’s steady run grinded to a halt. Defying all logic and rules of Baba’s Forest, Chronos had stopped.
Shit.
Sophie turned to find Chronos looking up into the canopy. Her head craned all the way back. Her arms limp beside her. The small knife she’d been carrying lay carelessly on the ground.
“Sophie, cover your fucking eyes!” Morpheus was running back toward her.
In Sophie’s periphery, a woman-like creature crawled down from the tree closest to Chronos.
A wailing witch.
Sophie didn’t have to even look at the creature in the eyes for her soul to leave her body. It was the stuff of nightmares.
The witch’s skin was a ghastly greyish blue. Her long black hair was wet and glued to her skin. It looked like she’d just crawled out from a river. Like in the damned Exorcist, the wailing witch scurried to Chronos with preternatural speed. The witch reached out a spindly black talon and began to pull at Chronos’s soul. Sophie could see a faint glow leaving Chronos’s chest.
“I’ve always wanted you, Chronos.” The wailing witch moved its lips, but it was Ash’s voice that came tumbling through.
What the fuck is happening?
Chronos, with her abyss eyes, was completely entranced. Her eyes filled with irrefutable desire. Her face almost touching the wailing witch’s as her soul was wrenched from her.
Sophie wasn’t even thinking.
Half struck with fear and the other half with adrenalin, she spear tackled Chronos at the waist, sending them both crashing down into dirt.
Chronos woke from her trance with a desperate gasp of air.
Sophie tried to get up but was quickly knocked onto her back by an invisible force. She could feel Morpheus’s warm hand trying to pull her up, but it was too late.
Yellow and red eyes dived deep into Sophie’s soul. The wailing witch’s blackened teeth bared a spine-chilling smile.
Sophie’s body stilled, and her vision grew blurry.
“Why would I be with someone like you,” Ash’s voiced pierced her ears. Each word dripped with disgust. They stung for a bit, but Sophie knew that the words were not true. They were impossible. They were the words of a wailing witch.
Sophie pushed her mana through her veins, willing the earth and air around her. She rushed past the powerful restraints of the wailing witch’s power like a mad bull in a shop. She let out a war cry as dirt catapulted into the creature, knocking it back as Sophie’s air mana brought her to her feet.
The other wailing witches came scurrying down from the trees as their sister cried in pain. Six of them. Sophie dared not look one in the eye, but it was hard. Their stares were pinned on Sophie.
One by one, they started to drop. They looked . . . sleepy.
Strong hands took Sophie by the scruff of her neck and propelled her forward.
“MOVE!” Morpheus commanded. He’d put them to sleep. All six of the wailing witches.
Sophie obeyed, running as fast as she could through the dark forest. She could see a blur of alabaster to her left. Chronos.
The beacon ahead of them shined brighter.
They were almost at the edge of Baba’s Forest.
Metres away.
The sound of wailing started again.
Almost there.
Inches now.
Sophie came crashing through the edge of the forest into a wide clearing. The thick heat of Tartarus air stifled her breath as the bright light of the beacon almost blinded her.
“Shit!” Sophie shielded her eyes, it felt like her corneas were burning as she stumbled into the grass clearing.
“Don’t look at the fucking beacon, kid!” Morpheus spun her around.
Sophie blinked to clear her vision. Morpheus had tiny scratches on his face. He was a touch breathless but overall, he seemed fine.
Chronos was on all fours, trying to regain her breath.
“You alright?” Morpheus asked, his tone much softer now.
“Yeah.” Sophie nodded, her breath heavy. She was as alright as she could be. Which was good, considering they’d just run what felt like a ten kilometre sprint, being chased by undead witches.
“Good. That’s trial two over with. Just two more to go.” Morpheus winked.
“Thanks for the save back there.” Sophie smiled.
“Thanks for stopping”—he pointed discreetly to Chronos—“I’m sure she’d appreciate it.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Sophie mumbled.
Morpheus laughed deeply and sighed. “I’ll go start the fire. Good luck.” He patted her on the shoulder before walking away.
Sophie let out a deep breath.
Sophie knew what she had heard. The voice of Ash not only calling to herself when she was stuck under the witch’s spell, but she’d also heard his voice calling to Chronos.
The witch had called to Sophie’s biggest fear, not that it worked, and it called to Chronos’s biggest . . . desire.
This explains the animosity.
But it wasn’t an excuse for it.
Sophie walked over to Chronos, who now sat quietly, facing the forest they’d just left.
Sophie didn’t utter a word as she sat down next to Chronos. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Chronos bit out. Her tone was a touch softer than when they first met.
Sophie picked at the grass beside her. “I just wanted to clear the air.” She cleared her throat and faced the goddess. “I know what I heard in the forest.” Chronos tried to butt in, but Sophie held out a hand to stop her. “My relationship with Acheron may bother you, but that’s no excuse to treat me like shit. I’ve done nothing wrong to you nor do I wish anything untoward upon you. How about we start over?”
They’d be spending the entire week together and because Chronos was in the Tienthan, they’d be crossing paths for however long they both lived. It would be easier if they could start again. Preferably with a little less animosity.
Chronos spat on the ground. “I cannot begin to fathom what he sees in you.”
Sophie blinked in surprise. This is totally not going the way I saw it.
Sophie moved to crouch before Chronos. “Where I’m from, Chronos, there’s this saying. ‘Talk shit, get hit.’ If you insult me and my own, if you so even think about Ash, I will fucking bury you.” Sophie smiled the sweetest smile she could muster before standing up and sauntering off.
She honestly didn’t even know where that came from. Perhaps it was the territorial-Fae side of her coming out, or perhaps she was finally embracing her demigoddess-hood, but fuck did it feel good to draw a boundary and put Chronos in her place. The freaking goddess of time.
She felt like a straight up badass.