29. Ocean Blue #2
“Davy?” Flora crouched before him. “You’re here? You’re... real?”
His stupid grin and his ocean blue eyes were enough that she started to believe it. He shifted as though he meant to come to her, but Elizabeth halted him with a hand on his chest.
“Oh, sorry ma’am. I don’t know you like that,” he said as he peeled her bony hand away.
“No…” Elizabeth mumbled. She was stiff as Davy slowly splashed to his feet.
“You...” Flora began, her voice cracking as she straightened up to him. “You dumbass.”
She attacked him with a soaking-wet hug, and he chuckled. He began to wrap his arms around her, but suddenly, his grip stiffened.
“Davy?”
He didn’t reply. Flora stiffened in response and backed away. Davy was frozen, looking over her shoulder.
“Who... are they?” he said, suddenly gripping her as if he meant to pull her behind him.
Expressionless, Elizabeth’s servant stood at the edge of the pool, though Flora noticed his white eyes had dulled to a light gray.
Beyond him, Flora realized, there were more pairs of blank eyes glistening in the shadows.
“Mother, I’m taking them home. She has done her part, or at least she has done what she can.”
“Then where is my husband?” Elizabeth hissed.
“Father’s spirit was too far gone, rotted and decaying in the years you kept him here. I’m sorry, Mother, but perhaps his fate was sealed long ago. Perhaps this was never meant to be.”
“No... that can’t be. It can’t all be for nothing,” she muttered. Though her voice was broken, she shouted, “I order it, Siren. I order you to kill her.”
“You are not my keeper,” he replied, his hands clenched into fists. “Please, let this madness end here today. Let this anger go, and give me back what’s left of my mother.”
Elizabeth said nothing more, fingers trembling as she looked down into the depths below. She sat on her knees, her arms hanging limply at her side, her face scrunched and contorted. “Azura…” she whispered under her breath.
“Come on,” Flora said, grabbing her brother by the wrist. “We have to go. Now or never.”
Neither Siren nor the lurking white eyes of creatures, both human and feline, stood in their way as they stepped out of the well. Flora dragged her brother along hurriedly as the babble of its water grew quieter, the sound drowned by the wailing of Elizabeth.
“Who is she?” Davy asked. “She looks so... familiar. I don’t like leaving her so sad.”
“You wouldn’t feel bad if you knew everything she’s done,” Flora said quickly, glancing back.
There was Siren, following close behind. “Please,” he said earnestly. “Let me guide you to the edge of the Forest.”
“I’d rather take my chances getting lost,” Flora shot back.
Davy’s eyes darted between them. “Um... I wouldn’t.”
“Trust me,” she said. “He’d sooner lead us to death than to safety.”
“Florabelle, that’s not true,” Siren persisted. “My mother promised peace if I brought you here.”
“And why should you care about peace?” she spat.
“Because I’m not the monster you think I am,” he said. “I’m human as much as I am anything else. I hardly knew my father, and I’m weary of only seeing other humans when they are suffering. I didn’t ask for the life I was born into.”
“So, now you want my pity?” she said. “Now that you’ve had your fun torturing me.”
“I…” he stuttered. “I don’t expect you to forgive me. But you do need me to guide you out of here safely.”
“I can take her, if you prefer,” a delicate, feminine voice said.
Startled, Flora and her brother’s heads snapped back to the forest ahead.
From the deepest shadows, two blank eyes caught light in the darkness, emerging from the shade as a small, nimble scythe.
Its wings were tucked flat to its back, its narrow glare cold and empty. “I know the way to the village.”
“I’m grateful for the offer,” Siren replied. “But I want to be there for now, until we know what happens next with him.”
“Be careful,” the slender face of the panther warned. “There are Hunters in these woods, and they have claimed the village as their stronghold.”
“Thank you, Feya,” Siren replied with a slight bow. “All the more reason for me to come along. Out here, Hunters won’t waste time inspecting your eyes.”
Flora huffed, dragging Davy at a safe distance to the right of the creature.
“You won’t want to head that way,” Siren said. “If you’re hoping to make it home, that is.”
“Hey bean,” Davy implored. “I hate to say this, but maybe we follow the guy with the demon eyes? Not that I doubt your navigation skills, but you would probably get lost if I spun you around in a supply closet.”
Flora paused, and Siren restrained a chuckle. She shot a harsh glare at him, and his face quickly went flat.
“Come,” he beckoned, walking to the left. “I’d like to get as far from her as possible, until I’m sure that her power is gone.”
“It is,” Feya’s shell replied, glimmers of oily color glossing her fur and feathers. “I can feel that it is.”
Flora gritted her teeth. Just the presence of that creature made her sick—the walking corpse of a little girl whose soul was swallowed by the darkness in her blood.
Siren breathed deeply. “Good,” he said. “Then maybe it’s really over.”
As Siren led Flora and Davy through Night Sky Forest, Elizabeth’s cries and the disjointed voices beneath her muffled into a distant hum.
“Your mother’s power is gone, right? So why don’t the scythes turn on you?” Flora asked.
“My power remains,” Siren said. “The same power that stripped them of their suffering. I will never demand their allegiance, though some, like Feya, seem to offer it anyway.”
“Where is your sister?” Davy asked.
Siren stopped, turning around. “How do you know I have a sister?”
“You must have mentioned her,” Davy said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I’m certain I didn’t.” Siren looked concerned, tracing the shadow of Davy’s figure up and down.
Davy blinked. “I... I don’t know.”
Flora studied her brother as they continued walking. “Do you feel okay?” she asked as he peered back nervously.
“I feel like I got my ass kicked, and my fingers tingle like they’re going numb, but otherwise, same as usual.”
“And do you remember…” She swallowed. “... dying?”
He actually laughed. “Do I remember what now?” His smile sank as he realized Flora wasn’t joking.
“Uhh… well…” He paused, his hand on his chin as he thought.
“Last thing I remember, some creeps were following a kid out here like a pack of hyenas,” he said.
“And they didn’t handle it kindly when I got in their way. ”
Siren flinched.
“No.” Flora corrected, confused, “There was an attack in the city. You were... hurt, trying to protect me from one of the Night Sky Scythes.”
Davy’s eyes lit up, as if he suddenly remembered. “Oh. Right. I—I think I knew that.” He added, “I’m just kinda foggy, like I’m still waking up.”
Siren’s eyes narrowed, though he said nothing. They continued forward, over the hefty roots and through the thorny brush.
Siren froze, Flora and Davy halting in response. There was a sparkle of light as ashes fell from Siren’s hand.
“Heron, what is it?” a voice whispered.
Siren crouched slightly, listening. Just then, a whistle of an arrow flew by, the body quivering as it struck a tree where his head had been.
He grumbled, flicking his arm back as the rest of it erupted into fire and ash, the flame crackling through to the rest of his body.
The cloud of ashes swirled off to the left, and he was gone.
“Heron?” Flora called out. There was rustling in the trees.
“Where did it go?” a voice said, coarse and cold. “Where did the Shadowkeeper go?”
Flora caught sight of a squinting eye, peering around a tree ahead. As his gaze caught hers, the menacing glare in his emerald green eyes softened to a childish glow. He stumbled over a root and barely caught himself.
“Flora!” he said, breathless. He took a step toward her, a relieved smile on his face.
“Noec, get back!” another man called.
Just then, a dark shadow tore across the earth, pinning Noec to the tree. It was as if his ethereal figure were cloaked in shadow, his form constantly flickering, as though he existed just out of phase with reality.
“How dare you show your face here again,” he growled, with one hand clawed into Noec’s neck.
“Leave him alone!” Flora shouted as blood trickled down around his blackening fingers. Staring back at her were yellow eyes that glowed with an unnatural light, with a ring of fire in the center. But his face…
“Davy?” Flora froze, bewildered. Then, begging, she said, “Davy, please.”
“You’re... alive?” Noec strained to say.
“He... I... ” the flame in Davy’s eyes dimmed just slightly. Flora noticed Heron off in the shadows with his bow readied.