Ryder freezes, his gaze flicks back to the beach. Then, with a resigned inhale, he steps forward.
The air stills. Even the charged sea seems to quiet, listening.
“Fine,” he says quietly, a muscle twitching in his cheek. “Take something from me, but be quick.”
“No.” I grab his arm, fingers digging harder than I intend. “Ryder—wait—”
But he’s not listening. He’s locked in, staring the ferryman down like he can win a staring contest with death itself.
“Pick one. Just not—” His voice cracks. He swallows the rest.
Cold floods my veins.
Not what?
Not who?
The ferryman raises a cool, leathery hand to Ryder’s forehead. He flinches, eyes squeezing shut, and shadows coil around their heads—thin tendrils twisting, tasting, sifting. The air hums, commanding the hairs on our bodies to rise. There’s that warning again. The Enchantra symbols underfoot flicker violently, and something inside me screams to pull him away—
And then it’s over.
The ferryman steps back, satisfied and moves aside.
Nala and River sprint on the boat first. I hesitate only long enough to catch Ryder as he staggers, gripping the edge of the railing to stay upright. He inhales sharply, like the world suddenly weighs twice as much.
He still won’t look at me.
I grab his arm and pull him through the swinging doors. The instant our feet hit the deck, the drawbridge evaporates into thin air.
We stand there, panting.
Nala stares out at the shore.
The creature made of sludge and grime darts over the pebbles and crouches at the water’s edge, smoke as black as night orbiting it like a dying star. It watches us ominously, before sinking into the ground as though it were quicksand.
“It’s gone,” Nala says quietly, peering into the beaker she and River sealed the slug inside.
The black slime no longer writhes against the glass. It lies motionless, spread thin and wrong, like something pretending to be dead.
“My guess is whatever thatthingis… it can’t get across,” River mutters, wiping sweat from his brow.
“Electricity,” Nala notes, scribbling quickly in her notebook. “Something else it doesn’t like, that might be something we can work with.”
If that’s true, we might have the edge we need. Though I don’t know how we can handle enough electricity to fry the thing.
“How did it even find us?” I question, shrugging my shoulders.
“Because we have a part of it,” Nala says, gesturing to the beaker, and my body grows cold.
“She’s right, if it is a Siphon like we think, it will be able to detect all kinds of magic, including its own,” Ryder adds, screwing his eyebrows at it.
“Well, maybe we should get rid of it… throw it overboard?” River gestures to the ocean, and I nod my head. We are basically carrying a tracker.
“No, we don’t know how it works. The last thing we need is for it to possess some giant sea creature, or the eels, for that matter.” Ryder shakes his head, deep in thought.
“Well, if it can’t get across, we’re safe, right?” Nala adds, but her face doesn’t reflect her thoughts.
“Not necessarily, there is another way—
