A form began taking shape ahead, and something swam toward me. A fish, maybe? It was so dark and murky underneath the depths, I couldn’t be too sure.
Then the creature became illuminated by the light. It was anarwhal. The whale’s skin was dark blue, with flecks of white on its sides and belly. The narwhal was thirteen feet long, and had a horn emerging from her head between her black eyes. The creature was so beautiful and majestic that I wanted to cry just looking at her.
The narwhal let out a musical croon, and bobbed her ivory tusk in the water in a way that I knew. The narwhal’s black eyes glimmered, and she did a twisting circle before me as she swam to my side.
Oberi. I knew it was my Familiar the moment we locked eyes. I put my arms weakly around the narwhal’s form, and she wiggled her tail, giving a powerful burst of energy as we swam toward the ledge. With Oberi’s powerful tail, we crossed the fifty-foot gap in less than twenty seconds. She launched herself out of the water, and we landed on the ledge beside the others.
I slid against Charlie’s knees and began coughing up water. I curled onto my side as I heaved for air.
Charlie grasped my shoulders and stuttered above me, “Damn you, pidge. I thought I’d lostbothof you.”
I had nothing to say about that. The thought of leaving Charlie alone in the world was too unfathomable to bear.
“Oberi’s Water form,” I gasped. “We found it. She’s a narwhal. She saved me.”
Charlie froze. He reached out to touch Oberi, to see if she was truly real. Charlie’s hand caressed Oberi’s smooth, slick skin, which became fur as she changed back into a husky. Oberi licked Charlie’s hand and let out a happy bark.
Oberi was amutabeecha, a shifting Familiar with multiple forms. She could have a form for each of the five elemental Houses— and with her Air and Spirit forms still left to find, what else could she possibly surprise us with?
A pounding sound came from behind us, and Rishi whined.
“This cavern is still filling up!” Marcus cried. He pushed at the door on the stone ledge, struggling to get it to move.
Kallie groaned. She was on her hands and knees, and she shook her head. With a whimper of pain, she changed into a wolf and charged at the door. Her shifter strength broke it open, and Charlie was able to drag me through. The others followed. Kallie slammed the door shut behind us with her paws just as water started to seep over the stone ledge, though she slunk to the ground with a shake as she changed back.
I was still on the ground, and now, my body was starting to convulse. I rolled over. Black bile streamed out of my mouth. I coughed a few times before I flipped onto my back. Oberi whined, and Charlie scrambled to pull me into his arms.
“We gotta get out of here,” he insisted. I was hardly coherent as I felt Charlie stand. “Ava needs help.”
“There might be a way out ahead,” Marcus suggested, though he sounded hopeless. He helped Kallie shuffle along. The world began fading in and out as we moved forward.
Charlie jostled me. “Stay with me, pidge.” His voice was strained and desperate. He really thought I was going to die.
Maybe I was. Maybe I’d pushed too far one too many times, and I was finally meeting my fate.
We abruptly stopped. My head lolled against Charlie’s chest, and I heard Kallie say, “What the hell is this?”
My eyes creaked open. I noticed before us was a massive wooden door, very similar to the stone gate we’d encountered a few weeks ago. The carvings and symbols in the door were the same, except this door didn’t have any keyholes, only ornate handles that were shaped like the cave snake we’d encountered earlier. The door took up the entirety of the cave— you couldn’t go forward without opening it.
The keyhadto be behind this door. But it was locked. Marcus yanked on the handles, but they refused to open.
Kallie panted, leaning against the wall as she observed the massive door. “We can’t go back. If we don’t want to starve to death, we need to open it.”
“How?” Marcus was starting to lose his temper— which was weird to see, because usually, he never got angry. He paced back and forth in front of the door before giving a growl of frustration. “We can’t have come this far only to be blocked by a fucking door!”
Marcus kicked at it, clearly at his limit. Rishi gave a cry.
Charlie put me down against the floor. “Stay here, pidge.”
Like I was going anywhere. Charlie put his hand on the door, to study it. Kallie sat on the ground to take a break, while Marcus fumed. Oberi lay next to me, placing his head on my lap.
“This was part of the clues we found, wasn’t it, Ava?” Kallie asked. “And a door that will only open with the blood of one that is mine?”
“Yes,” I breathed. It took all my effort to force out the word.
“How does that help us?” Marcus spat. “We don’t know how to get past this—”
“Marcus,” Kallie sighed.
