Vada snatched me out of Daedalus’s arms, glaring at him. “Mine.”
I shivered, laughing at her possessiveness. “The only daddy I need is right here, pumpkin.” I kissed her nose, and she scrunched her face.
“Enough, sweet girl. We have too much riding on this,” Vada said seriously as Valen kept watch by us.
We began walking through the woods, and every hair on my body stood at attention. Something or someone was watching us. I released my shadows, hoping they could find the cause of all of us being hyper-vigilant. My heart was racing inmy chest, and I willed myself to breathe deeply in case whatever was out there could detect just how terrified I was beginning to feel. It was likely an effect of a Cryptid’s magic, but I wasn’t about to take any chances.
My shadows came back toward us, whispering that they had found us surrounded by several different creatures. I slowly pulled out my sword, which caused a chain reaction from the others to draw their weapons as well. We turned our backs to one another, as if rehearsed, creating a circle so that we could see anything coming toward us. A twig snapped in one direction as a loud howl came from the other side closest to us. My head was on a swivel, hoping that we could nip this in the bud before any real harm came to any of us.
The first to show its face was an Indrik. They often appeared harmless, but they were terrifying creatures. They sort of resembled a unicorn, as they were cousin creatures, but slightly different. They had the body of a bull, legs of a stag, and the head a cross between a horse and a deer with a single, giant horn out of the middle of their head. They weren’t ethereal like a unicorn. Instead, they were terrifying in their power, and it often looked like their fur was sloughing off their bodies. The Indrik stomped one foot, causing the earth beneath our feet to tremble and the trees surrounding us to creak as if they’d come down upon our heads.
“Oh fuck,” I muttered as the rest of the group made similar sentiments. I raised my sword in anticipation of a fight, readying my shadows to help where possible. I also battened down my mental shields, since Indrik were known not only for their strength, but for their ability to manipulate thoughts. They could make someone think they were on a stroll until they fell into an arachnid’s web or off the side of a cliff. I made sure to let the others know, in case they weren’t aware.
The next three monsters came in succession. A chimera whocontinuously changed shapes between different types of monsters, trying to figure out which form would cause the most of us unease. It settled in the form of my father. I did everything I could to prevent myself from shuddering, though she stopped in front of Vada. I was a little surprised that my father was what Vada most feared, but I didn’t have time to process it now.
The next monster was a Huay Chivo, or the goat sorcerer. He had the body of a human with the head of a demonic goat. His horns branched off to have many smaller spikes and had bright red eyes. It was known that to stare into a Huay Chivo’s eyes meant death. His powers initially started as healing magic, then quickly spread to death powers similar to mine. Where we differed was that my powers of death didn’t grant me extra power, and I didn’t have limits to how people died, whereas his powers required illness to heal before he could enact them. I was reluctant to use my death magic, whereas he needed it to continue living. He was feared by the Yucatan people and was banished to the Cryptid realm to prevent plague and death from South America. I made sure that my shadows whispered this fact to the rest of the group, too.
The one we came in search of, and the most terrifying of them all, slithered out from behind a tree directly in front of Valen. Valen stood stoic and unafraid as Echidna arrived. Echidna was the goddess of all monsters. She was stunningly terrifying. She was half human, half snake. Her face was a mix between both, with her eyes, hair and forehead similar to a Human’s. She had a more snakelike appearance for her mouth and tongue. She was bare from the waist up, showcasing small breasts, but with both nipples pierced twice, one up top, and one through the side. Her lower half was all snake, and the scales started as an ombre effect from just below her chest to her hips, where she became a snake. She had a rattle at the end of her tail, and her snake half made her appear over seven feettall. She was known to have birthed many of the monsters here in this realm, including Medusa, though she wasn’t maternal and preferred her solitude in a cave somewhere near the cliffs.
All eight of us were geared up to fight for long minutes before anyone chose to speak. Of course, it was me who couldn’t keep my fucking mouth shut until I was spoken to. “Echidna, just the being we were looking for. How do you fare?” I asked.
She didn’t take her eyes away from Valen, cocking her head to the side and sticking her forked tongue out, likely trying to get a read on him since he still stood there impassive as ever. It took her a long moment to turn her head in my direction and reply, “What are you doing here, Adaela? You’re lucky I don’t kill you where you stand. Who are your friends?”
I quickly introduced Valen, Daedalus, and Vada to Echidna, then caught her up on everything we knew so far. I let her know that we were not there to fight, or to steal any of her children. I didn’t use my father as an excuse for my own actions, but I did let it be known why I did what I had done centuries ago, in hopes that she would further talk with us about what was going on.
Echidna glanced at the other three monsters, and I realized that they were part of the leadership of this world. I didn’t let my guard down, and neither did the others. The Indrik stepped forward in front of me. I tensed, waiting for a strike. They were playing with us, and I wasn’t in the mood for games.
Echidna nodded at the Indrik, and my shadows instantly formed a wall in front of me to protect me as the Indrik shot toward me, quick as lightning to strike. My shadows prevented me from being gored by its horn, and I moved quickly to parry while my shadows grabbed hold of their legs, preventing them from moving forward. They tried to stomp and shudder the earth below my feet again, but my shadows were like movingthrough sludge, and kept us steady. The other three struck my friends just as quickly, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off Indrik in front of me. My first motion was to slice off the horn that attempted to gore me, but even the revered sword I’d wielded wouldn’t get past that fucking horn. It felt as if the horn itself was made of steel as my sword clattered against it.
I quickly stepped back from the horn as the Indrik attempted once again to gore me. I had flashbacks to when my father stabbed me in the stomach, and the thought paralyzed me for a moment. I broke out in a cold sweat and my breathing picked up. It wasn’t the time to panic, but my body chose otherwise. Instead of working to incapacitate the Indrik, my body chose that moment to pull my knees out from under me. Someone shouted at me, and the weight of a hoof came down atop me, my shadows forming a ball around me to prevent injury. It shook me out of the panic enough to recognize my surroundings, and I forced myself to shake away the memories so I could focus on not dying here.
Leaning down, the Indrik made the fatal mistake when they tried to stomp on me, as their belly was directly above my prone form. I sliced at their underside, preventing them from falling on top of me by rolling out of the way. The Indrik bellowed out in pain and fell to the ground. I quickly focused my death magic on the creature, trying to prevent them from dying, but holding them in stasis much like I had to Galdrane all those weeks ago. Realizing that I had prevented my death again, I quickly got to my feet, watching the remainder of my crew battle each monster: Vada with the Chimera who mimicked my father, Daedalus against the Huay Chivo, and Valen against Echidna. All of them appeared equally matched, with every single one sporting some sort of injury. I took the three monsters in my mind as I had taken the Indrik, focusing my death magic on them, and I shouted, “We’re not here tofight! Enough.”
My companions came to my side as the three monsters were subdued. I grabbed Vada’s hand and squeezed, asking silently if she was alright. She squeezed back. With everyone subdued, dozens of other monsters of all shapes and sizes came into view, and I panicked. I saw eyes of all shapes and colors from the tops of the trees to the ground, occasionally getting glimpses of monstrous forms ranging from spiders to incredibly tall Cryptids with spade-shaped faces. I wasn’t sure we would be able to take all of them on—four to, on a quick count, over one hundred—without me using my death magic to kill all of them, which was against what we were here for in the first place.
“Echidna, I will let you out of this hold if you call off your pets. I’m not here to fight. I’m here to prevent another Great War. Will you please let us go somewhere to talk? I’d like to call for a ceasefire for now. If you find that our conversation isn’t helpful, I promise you, I will let this continue in whichever way you deem necessary,” I pleaded, letting my desperation leak out into my voice.
She stared at me with hatred in her eyes but eventually conceded. I released my hold on the four of them. I prayed like hell that this conversation would get us somewhere. We all desperately needed a resolution, and I didn’t want to be on the Cryptid Realm’s shit list anymore.
Echidna led us through the woods, and while we saw many more creatures, they left us alone. Vada’s scrapes and bruises were already healed, while Valen and Daedalus were a little worse for wear. They would heal, but likely not at the pace thatVada could. She had fed off the battle lust of the creatures surrounding us, but I didn’t mention it to anyone.
We were led to a rocky cliffside where the forest met the ocean. We took an uneven path that led into what I assumed was one of Echidna’s many caves as the rain pelted down outside, making the already intense waves of the ocean crash even higher.
We were all soaked and cold to the bone. I shivered as Echidna lit a fire, but I didn’t dare move or ask for something to dry myself off with. Neither did the others. They were waiting on my lead. I wouldn’t say anything this time until Echidna was damn good and ready. We were on her turf, and that meant her rules applied.
It was several more minutes of shivering and teeth chattering before Echidna invited us over by the fire. We gratefully stepped forward, letting the fire dry us off and warm our bones.
“Speak, child,” Echidna said impatiently. My knee-jerk reaction was to argue with her at the use of “child,” but considering the only person who likely was older than her here was Vada, I clenched my jaw and held back my retort.
“I’m here to ask you if you know anything about the portals opening all over theCatervae Pax,and if you know anything about who has the power to create them.” I explained everything that we had theorized and reluctantly told her about Pandora’s Box. The sharp inhale from both Valen and Daedalus didn’t go unnoticed, since it was the first they’d heard of this, too. I shook my head at them, telling them without a word that I would fill them in later. Both had identical expressions, as if they wanted to censure me, and I would let them once we left this place. It wasn’t the time or place for their questions yet.
Echidna straightened her posture, eyes wide and split tongue scenting the air in distress. She slithered throughout the cave for a long while. I would guess it was her form of pacing. Iwas growing anxious again that she wouldn’t tell us anything after I laid bare things that even the leaders of thePaxweren’t yet aware of. I might have made the biggest mistake of my life by telling her this, but I had to trust that what Poe said was true—that we would find out more information here.
“A very long time ago,” Echidna began, and I sat down on the cave floor near the fire, willing to hear her story, “there was a man. His name was Typhon. He was my mate.”
I sucked in a breath, knowing where this story was going. The dread pooled in the pit of my stomach, and my companions weren’t faring much better. I was certain that what we believed to be true was actually much, much fucking worse than we initially anticipated.
“Typhon and I, as you likely already know, were the progenitors of many of the Cryptids in today’s world. Typhon, however, wasn’t satisfied with this. He wanted a better world for his children. His version ofbetterdidn’t match the version many others imagined, since it was filled with genocide. This endless search brought us to this realm; however, it also brought us many more issues, such as finding sustenance and being kidnapped constantly for the power my children could provide to any governing body, as you well know.” I ducked my head in shame and nodded in acknowledgment of my own wrongdoing.
