Odeyssa’s eyes tell me she was thinking the same thing, but we can’t go back. Not yet.
“Like, right now. We have to gonow.”
“But Aslan was just telling me—”
“Go,” she interrupts. “You will know what to do when the time comes.” I stare at her, wishing we had more time. “There’s a secret exit behind the blue wall. Tell Voraxis to meet you on the other side,” she insists, pointing to the cobalt water. Nodding my head, I send a quick message to my little burnt marshmallow. Odeyssa rushes forward, grabbing my wrist and hauling me away. Without hesitation, she steps through, and at the last second, I turn to look over my shoulder, wondering if I’ll ever see her or this place again.
“May we meet again, Kallie. If you get lost, you can always find your answer amongst the stars.” Before I can respond, Odeyssa tugs me through the waterfall, and when I’m on the other side, I’m surprised I don’t find myself sopping wet.
“Magic,” she says, fingers dancing in front of my face. Despite everything, I let out a lighthearted chuckle.
We make our way up a set of stairs and through the maze of tunnels, the engravings continuing down these walls as well. All too quickly, we spot the door, and immediately my vision goesblurry from the assault from the sun. Like clockwork, Voraxis lands nearby, and neither of us wastes time. Sprinting toward him, I’m the first one up, and Odeyssa is still a bit short, so I reach my hand out, hauling her up the rest of the way.
Without any direction, Voraxis takes off into the sky, and against my better judgment, I steal a glance back, curious if I’ll be able to see him from here. A strange sense of disappointment washes over me when I can’t, and that thought shakes me to my core.
Where to?Voraxis asks.
“The Forest of the Forgotten.”
Odeyssa stiffens behind me, and I begin briefing her on everything Aslan told me.
At some point, between the raging thoughts of what happened and what’s to come, I fell asleep. I’m not sure for how long, but I jolt awake when Voraxis touches back down.
“Rise and shine, sleepy head,” Odeyssa chirps as she slides down Voraxis’s leg.
Will it ever get to a point when everything doesn’t remind me of him? ‘Rise and shine,’ ‘Princess,’ the smell of eucalyptus thathasto be infused into the soil around the realm, because no matter how far, or where I go, I still get reminders of his scent.
I can’t escape. I’m forever destined to be trapped in a place where I can never fully get away. Locked and caged in a realm, surrounded by torment and tarnished memories.
The fog is dense, blanketing the area in an eerie sense of sinister mist, as though it’s reaching its claws out, latching on and dragging me into a bottomless sea of agony that knows no end.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Odeyssa comments, breaking the silence.
“Do we just…walk through?” I stare at the wall of fog. It looks like the barrier when going to and from Nefarium, but instead of it being beautiful and welcoming, it screams at me to run while simultaneously containing a magnetic pull to come toward it.
I told you, you weren’t going to like it.Because I’ll be trapped. In theory. We would be going in, hoping we can get out.
I don’t. But we don’t really have a choice.Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and try to picture what is on the other side, preparing myself for anything that could be waiting. Stepping forward, I feel the tendrils of smoke freeze my flesh, taking purchase like icicles wedging themselves into the grooves and divots of my soul.
When I pass through to the other side, it’s like I’m drowning in a sea of my own misery. Every drop of pain and suffering I’ve ever endured comes at me with a force so strong it coaxes unsolicited tears to stream down my face. The air I once held is ripped away in a matter of seconds, and I’m grappling at the seams to gain it back.
I fall to my knees as the phantom image of Voraxis and Odeyssa appear in my peripheral. Their forms are coated in haze, hardly recognizable silhouettes, but they seem oddly okay. Nothing out of the ordinary as I see them getting closer. Then, the realm tilts as one final gut-wrenching, soul-crushing memory plays out in slow motion.
And just like my heart…my soul…everything goes black.
TWENTY-ONE
The Awakened
Separate, we are out of reach, grasping for nothing as the realm is ripped at the seams. Together, we are lethal, bound to be woven into the depths of each other until our enemies are nothing but ash beneath our feet.
We are light.
We are darkness.
We are eternal.
TWNETY-TWO
