Chapter 32 #2
“All kinds,” she said. “Don’t go near the water.” She fixed a stern look on Honey. “Do you understand?”
Honey smiled more broadly, but her eyes were as blank as ever.
“The trick to dealing with whatever emerges from the fog is to remember that it’s not real unless you believe it is. It’s like a hologram.”
Damion’s eyes narrowed. “A what?”
She sighed. “It’s an illusion. A trick.”
“Unless we think it’s real . . .” Kaelan said.
“Right. So if a dragon emerges from the mist and you think, ‘Oh, no, a dragon!’ Then it will be a real dragon and will be able to hurt you.”
Kaelan dug his fist into his palm. “I don’t like the sound of this.”
She squared off with him. “Of course not. That’s the point.
This is dangerous. But it will be even more dangerous for you if we don’t do this and find a way to disguise your true identity.
Still, magic of this caliber isn’t available to just anyone and not every creature capable of it is willing to deal the way Eris is. ”
He watched her again, in that intensely scrutinizing way. Had he always looked at her like that, or had it only started after he’d made her into his heart-place? She knew she needed to tell him, to explain, but she hardly understood it herself.
First, the witch.
The rest could wait.
“I’m not going to become an imp,” he growled at her.
“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes and turning away. “Damion, you’re with me.”
Honey skipped away.
Kaelan stalked after her, trailing a dark mood behind him like a cloak of shadows.
Damion strode over, twirling the crown around his hand.
“You certainly have a way with men, don’t you?” He plopped the crown onto her head and bowed. “Mistress.”
She snatched it off and tossed it away.
The fog thickened until she could barely see the end of her nose.
Anqa called from close behind them and Gur roared back, the two having learned how to communicate with each other at some point.
Magda’s clothes clung to her body, her hair to her scalp. The chill needled through the layers of her skin. Water dripped from her lashes, stinging her eyes, but she couldn’t blink. She couldn’t lose the faint point of ghostly blue light shimmering through the miasma.
“How much farther?” Damion asked from behind her. “The scent of wet semargl is giving me a headache.”
Gur growled. Prickly tingles flowed off of him. He, too, grew anxious.
“You can get off here if you’d like,” she said. “The waters below are guarded by sea-nymphs and not the friendly kind. Last I came, they nearly tipped my boat before one of my warriors placated them.”
“How?”
“She fell in. I believe they ate her.”
“You believe?”
“That’s what it sounded like,” she said. “I couldn’t see through the fog.”
“Lovely.” He scooted closer to her.
She smirked, fixed on the pale orb of light. Though it never seemed to grow brighter or larger, she knew better than to be put off by the illusion. Hero huddled against her neck, a warm wet lump.
Honey’s scream echoed through the mist.
Magda blinked.
The light was gone.
“Shit!” Frantically, she searched for the beacon again, but found nothing.
“What’s wrong?” Damion called over to them.
“There’s something in the mist!” Honey shrieked. “Hands! They grabbed me!”
Magda’s heart began to skip beats. Without the light, they would be lost forever.
Out of the mist, a skeletal apparition swept down on them, bony fingers passing through Magda’s head as she ignored the phantom, still hunting for the light. She had to find it.
Please.
Damion lurched and yelped. Gur faltered.
Honey screamed again.
Magda gave up looking for the light as another ghoul with its glowing white eyes and tattered rags of spectral clothes barreled at her.
Gur dropped to avoid the ghoul. From below the whispering songs of sea-nymphs called to them.
Damion drew his sword.
“Your sword won’t do you any good,” Magda told him. “Remember?”
Gur pulled up again, somehow unfazed by her mounting panic.
“But that thing grabbed me,” he said.
“It’s all in your head!” she shouted loud enough that she hoped Honey and Kaelan could hear. “They’re not real!”
“They felt real enough to me,” Damion barked, his sword still slicing against the empty air.
"Damn it, Damion. Didn’t you listen to anything I said? We have bigger problems now—”
"What?" Damion cried.
She squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to refocus, to clear her mind. But when she opened her eyes, still no light.
Her heart dropped into her stomach. It was no use. Their only hope now was to turn back and pray they’d find their way free before Gur and Anqa grew so tired they were forced to land on the water and resign themselves to their fates.
Honey continued to squeal and shriek. Faintly, Magda could hear Kaelan attempting to calm her. But her fearful screams were drawing more ghouls. Glowing wisps darted past Magda and Damion towards the sound.
“What do we do?” Damion asked.
Magda chewed her cheek, tongue flicking over the smooth gum, chest coiling and constricting, breath hitching.
“Magda?”
“I don’t know!” she said. “I’ve lost the—”
Suddenly, they broke from the mist. The sun appeared, the arch of cerulean sky, the sprawl of a lush green island hemmed in by tranquil turquoise waters below.
A moment later, Anqa soared through the churning gray wall behind them, gaining speed and surpassing them. Kaelan held Honey tight, blood flowing over both of them from various wounds.
Damion let out a heavy huff of air. “At least you got us through—”
“I didn’t get us through,” she said, frowning. “Gur?”
“I did,” Hero said from her shoulder. “Gur could not see the light, but I could. I used your connection to him to keep him on course. I would have said something, but I couldn’t risk breaking my concentration.”
She laughed, nuzzling her cheek against him. “You truly are a hero.”
Contented waves of pride flowed through him.
“Now I think I’m going to take a nap. Try not to die in the meantime, hm?”
She scratched his back. “I’ll do my best.”
In slow spirals they descended towards Eris’s island.