Following Celanea’s orders, I found a book containing information about the Druids in the Kingdom of Wind, hoping to find their location and perhaps any more information about the stone. I already knew that its properties controlled the balance of Arcadia’s aether, but I felt if I could learn where it came from, how it got here, or how to use it, then I could be on the same playing field as Celanea, ensuring that the stone would be mine.
“Dwelling within the high cliffs that overlook the wild Crystal Sea, the Kingdom of Wind resides,” the book read. Notonthe cliffs as Celanea had told me, but inside them. It was written in the Celestial language, the same one from theBook of the Arcanethat Orion and the others had worked desperately to translate. When I becameInfernal, the old language was restored to me, as if I’d always known it and suddenly remembered.
Pushing away from the table, I knew I had to see the Wind Kingdom for myself.
Envisioning the drawing located beside the book’s passage about the Wind Kingdom, I vanished, allowing my shadows to carry me through space.
After several minutes, my feet landed on uneven stones. Waves crashed below me, but from where I stood, I couldn’t see them right away. Salty humidity clung to me from the wind, which lashed my hair incessantly against my face. I righted my cloak’s hood until my eyes stopped watering from the gales. My ears popped.
The stones beneath my feet crunched with each step I took toward the edge. Never-ending gusts ravaged me, like being in a wind tunnel, but the sunrise on the horizon gave me a glimpse of the cliff I stood on. I peered down, temporary vertigo making me sway. This cliff stood thousands of feet over a violent ocean. The sea seemed so wrathful that when the relentless waves clashed against the cliff face, the wind carried the ocean spray up to me, misting my skin. White waves splashed high upon impact, as if angry that they were forced to stop their assault.
Aside from the waves and the howling wind in my ear, there were no sounds of life.
I stepped away from the edge, not trusting this unusual place. Nothing or no one seemed to exist here, so I wondered if I’d traveled to the wrong place. Spinning in a slow circle, I surveyed the area. A nearby forest surrounded the cliff, untouched by the Syphon Bond stood so full and thick, it seemed no light could filter through the canopies. Stones and boulders inhabited the cliff top, but nothing else.
My shadows writhed beneath the surface of my skin, signaling that I wasn’t alone. Even if they weren’t in sight, I could feel the presence of living beings nearby. I grinned.
Celanea had mentioned the cliffside, while the book I’d foundsaid Druids dwelled within them. I walked into the wind and pushed against it. The force of its intensity stole my breath. My eyes watered from the chilling bite, but once I reached the edge, I dropped to my knees, clutching my fingers into the grass blades as I lay flat on my stomach to prevent the gales from careening me into the deadly sea.
Looking down, I scanned the cliff face for any sort of opening that indicated someone lived inside. Between the white foamy waves lashing at the side and the wind drying out my eyes, I struggled to see anything of importance. To the right, nothing greeted me but trees growing from the cliff, forming a bizarre forest of sorts. Maybe I needed to move further down to the left.
Slowly, I climbed to my feet and backed away from the steep drop. The howling in my ears never ceased, and it grew tiresome walking against the wind after several minutes. Finally, I chose to look over the edge once again, searching for anything that stood out on the cliff face.
Nothing.
I growled to myself, shoving back to my feet to move further along to continue my search. Several paces down, I tried again, lying flat on my stomach and spying over the edge of the cliff for anything unusual.
Again, nothing stood out but jagged rocks and tree branches.
I squeezed my fists until my knuckles turned white, then directed my anger into the earth, pummeling it over and over again. I was so close, yet so far away. Someone lived here. More than just one someone. Multiple. I felt their souls pulsing with vibrant but ancient life, but I couldn't place them. Almost as if they’d constructed this region themselves. The only explanation I could come up with was that there was a glamour of some sort. A glamour, belonging to a form of magic that was foreign to me, created impenetrable wards like Celanea had said.
My Infernal magic did nothing for me in situations like these. If my Kinetic power hadn’t abandoned me, I’d have been able to locate the glamour masking whoever resided here by breaking down theenergy in its true form. I struck the ground again, yelling out my frustration into the aggressive wind as if it were responsible for my shortcomings. Small stones flew upward from the impact, leaving a shallow hole in the ground from my fist.
Losses didn’t come easily to me, especially not one with such high stakes. According to Celanea, Brecken resided here, and Brecken would know where the stone was.
I backed away from the cliff, accepting my defeat and ready to travel back to Goshen on another failed mission. Whips of steaming wind slapped the exposed skin on my face. I hissed, turning away from the gusts to avoid their sudden shift.
I’d seen fire Elementals wield magic in a multitude of unique ways before, but what stood before me jerked me to a standstill. As if the wind had caught fire, a curtain of flames flourished in the air around me, brandishing itself as Arcadia’s own weapon. But I had a suspicion that it wasn’t Arcadia’s doing.
I called my shadows to the surface, ready to deploy them against the unnatural flames.
“Leavenow,” the flaming winds spoke, its voice deep and guttural.
That was a first for me, and I believed I’d seen almost everything magical. “Can’t do that.”
“Then you’ll die today.” The voice, I realized, spoke through the fire, as if the owner was in a separate location. “You don’t belong on these lands.”
A chuckle slipped free, and I cracked my knuckles. “I’m the soon-to-be King of Arcadia. I can go where I please.”
“No true King of Arcadia would ever attack the earth with his fists. You disrespected the land, the Goddess Gaia, and therefore me. Leave before I kill you.”
I bit my bottom lip, looking down at my fingers beneath the billowing sleeve of my cloak, where my shadows peeked from the tips. “The days of me taking demands from others have passed. Iespecially don’t take demands from an enemy who hides behind a wall of fire and refuses to show his face.”
“You are an Infernal. A servant to the darkness. That is no king of mine. Now leave, child.” The flames lashed toward me once more. Its blistering heat blasted me, forcing me to turn away. The stench of burnt hair wafted to my nose, setting a separate fire alight inside me.
My shadow companions slithered further from my arms, then my torso, making themselves known to the fire entity—or, what I suspected to be magic controlled by Brecken.
“You say you’re the soon-to-be king, but I find that quite impossible when your Twin Soul Bond weakens by the day. I sense it. You think you’re stronger as an Infernal, but it will be your utter downfall. It’ll cost you your queen and all that you ever held dear. The gods have forsaken you now. This is your second strike.” The flames expanded outward, forming a tight tubular wall around me. “We won’t let the same mistakes further destroy this world again.”
