World of Aluvia 2 (17 page)

They rose back over the city for another panoramic view.

“I was sure it would be here,” Tristan murmured. “It’s really the only place with sufficient magic to feed such a powerful creature. Except the Abyss.”

Phoebe thought for a long moment, her eyes continuing to be drawn to the lone cliff ahead, followed by sheer blackness beyond. It was like the land simply stopped. “What’s that cliff? And why can’t we see anything past it?”

Tristan looked where Phoebe was pointing. “That’s the Last Stand. It’s the cliff where our people lost their last hold on the city and retreated. Beyond that line is the midnight realm, and within it lies the Abyss. Even along the divide, the waters are nearly impossible to see through, and the trenches hide deadly creatures.”

“Does this Last Stand have great amounts of magic, too?”

He sighed. “Yes.”

They looked at each other and then back to the cliff. Its edges were craggy and rough-hewn. Long scratches were visible along the side facing them, gouges that looked made by giant claws.

In silent agreement, they linked hands and swam lower, dodging between the buildings as they slowly wound their way to the city’s far edge. They gazed up at the cliff’s striking white-rocked face, reluctant to move out into the open so close to the pitch darkness.

“And what else lives in the midnight realm?” Phoebe’s voice was a mere whisper. This plan had sounded better before they faced the unlit waters.

“Sea dragons. Water horses. Sea snakes. Giant squids. Things of legends, really. I think it would be unwise to enter there, with just the two of us.”

Phoebe was relieved to hear it. Being eaten by a giant squid would help no one. “Maybe if we stay here, we’ll see the wraith leaving or returning.”

They waited in silence on the edge of the city for what felt like the change of several tides, though surely not even half a day had passed. Tristan doused his light, and the water was dark enough to make her tired. Phoebe’s eyelids grew heavy, and Tristan’s muscles relaxed as they leaned against the outer wall of a half-collapsed tavern. No one made her feel as safe like he did. His warmth where they touched kept half her awareness occupied, so she startled when he clamped his hand onto her arm.

“There,” he said, pointing ahead.

A wraith swam from the cave entrance, moving toward them. The waters were so dark even along this slice of twilight realm that the frightening creature appeared as a shadow at first and bloomed into full color slowly, like a painting in process: an arm appearing, followed by its head, and a tail not far behind. It was much larger than Phoebe remembered.

Then another wraith exited the cave and joined the first, just as large, just as hideous.

She sucked in a long breath. One had been bad enough, but
two
? Did the creatures see or sense them? Her pulse picked up. Should she be concerned that the wraith they were hunting had found its way to where she was, along with another? Who was hunting whom?

However much a legend these creatures were, there was no denying that something had provided enough magic to awaken them. They had been feeding off merfolk, but something else had to wake them in the first place. Phoebe gazed at the swimming beasts with horror. Perhaps with the rise of magic on land, because of Sierra’s efforts, there was a correlating rise under the sea, feeding sleeping beasts such as these. And others. Her stomach roiled.

“Don’t move,” Tristan said.

The wraiths floated near the city, practically lounging along the edge with lazy flicks of their tails, skirting the line of the buildings as if seeking something. Tristan and Phoebe followed them, slinking from one hiding place to another.

Either of the wraiths could have been the exact creature that grabbed Phoebe earlier; they were identical.

When the creatures reached what looked to be an open courtyard with a tall obelisk in the middle, they sped up and entered the city. No glowing light shot forth from the ground or through the water when the creatures crossed the city line, but the wraiths hissed and hunched their shoulders, as if remembering a time when they could have been rebuffed from entering. Faint glimpses of sunlight filtered through the shadowy kelp and seaweed, like ghosts sliding among a haunted forest.

“Shouldn’t those things burn up from being in the ancient city or something?” Phoebe whispered, feeling cold not from the water around her but from the glowing red eyes visible even at this distance.

“Whatever magical shields the ancients once created are long gone. The magic remains, spread throughout the water, but not useful to us. We’ve lost the skill of gathering it and guiding it.”

She shuddered as she stared at the wraiths, now rubbing their backs against the buildings as if marking their territory.

“Ugh,” she whispered.

“They are still part of our ocean, too, Phoebe, though they must feed on magic, unlike our people. In some ways, I pity them.”

Clearly, he was crazy, just your average peace-seeking, soft-hearted merfolk. No wonder this big impressive city eventually fell. Merfolk weren’t interested in conquest, even with magic on their side against an evil foe. If those wraiths weren’t evil, Phoebe didn’t know what was.

One water wraith reached out a clawed hand and snagged an electric eel swimming by. The eel sparked in the water as it tried to fight back, but it failed. The wraith gulped it down in one smooth swallow like a child of Aluvia might slurp up a noodle.

“Wow.” Phoebe had no words for her revulsion. “Guess not even lightning would kill these things, huh?”

“Not much slays them,” Tristan said, grimacing. “If the tales are to be trusted, they must be pierced through the heart. They can even live without their heads for a while.”

She shuddered again. The two water wraiths twined around and around each other like snakes―if snakes had claws and shark-like teeth. If the creatures spotted the two of them hiding in the seaweed, no doubt those claws and giant mouths would be the last thing she saw.

Then she felt something that made the two wraiths look as charming and nonthreatening as goldfish.

The water grew even darker, a deep shadow looming over the sea floor as something oozed around the mouth of the cave that hugged the side of the city. Whatever it was didn’t leave the cave, but somehow its presence sank through the water anyway, filling the chasm between the tower and Lyr’s edge, reaching bony fingers to where they hid. The wraiths did a sort of dance and zipped toward the shadow.

Dread sank into Phoebe like sand spilling into an hourglass, filling her stomach, choking her.

“I’ve seen that shadow before.” It was the one from her vision. That darkness was far too familiar to be anything else. She held tightly to Tristan’s hand as her head buzzed, fear making his voice in her ear sound furlongs away.

“Don’t. Move,” he whispered.

She couldn’t have if she needed to.

Red light shimmered around the dark shadow inside the cave’s entrance. The sullen hue of the creature shone even through the seaweed, casting a sickening shade of blood red on her skin. The shadow rippled, and a low rumble flowed from the cave.

The rumble was like an earthquake, every agony she ever felt. It lodged in her heart like a sword. And twisted. Her vision of the shadow hadn’t prepared her for this.

Piercing pain overwhelmed Phoebe as the noise reverberated down her spine, filling her with her worst memories and fears. It was being beaten by Donovan and believing her sister had died. It was being left behind time and time again through misguided good intentions. It was losing Tristan to the evil gaping maw of the creature before her. It was being trapped here forever to die without her sister ever knowing what had happened.

Phoebe wondered why she was here, in this dangerous place. She couldn’t quite remember. Clearly, nothing in this world was worth fighting for.

She began to sink to the sandy bottom, ready to die, but something stopped her. What was holding onto her? She glared up to see a young merman, still not quite an adult, bent over at the waist. His glorious green fin was curled up like a beaten dog’s. But he still gripped her hand. She stared at their clasped hands, at his stark white skin, at the way their fingers wove together. Something clicked.

Tristan.

Her best friend. Her secret sweetheart.

She forced herself to look up again at the menacing shadow stretching along the ground before them. She couldn’t quite see. Her vision flickered. She thought the two wraiths carried the huge and shadowy thing from the cave farther into the waters, leaving the cliff, fading into the distance of the deeper midnight realm as if they had slipped through a hole in a wall.

Tristan and Phoebe stayed frozen in place until the giant shadow with its escort eventually withdrew so far into the midnight realm that even its red light disappeared. The roar faded, leaving her mind able to function, though it still spun with terror.

The merfolk are up against
that
?
Phoebe thought.
They’ll die. We’ll all die.
The music that always hummed softly in the back of her mind had gone silent. There was no music in the world that could fight the darkness that creature brought with it.

She searched Tristan’s face, which was drawn with fear even she could read. His hand gripped hers so tightly that her fingertips were beginning to tingle. She wiggled her fingers slightly, and he startled, dropping her hand and murmuring, “Sorry.”

“Was that the beast? Baleros?”

He hesitated. “I want to say no. Baleros is just a children’s story, but so were water wraiths. Maybe that
was
the ancient beast. Whatever it was is far worse than the wraiths. The stories of Baleros sound similar, the way he manipulated emotions, the way he stole the will of the merfolk in the ancient city, before taking their magic.”

He gulped.

“Did it make you remember the worst things in your life?” she whispered.

He pursed his lips. “And see terrible things that haven’t happened yet. And won’t.”

“But it’s gone now. Let’s go tell what we saw. The sooner they question you in the temple, the sooner they can take action.”

“We need to look in that cave and see if we can find any proof to take back with us.”

“They won’t believe you? You told me the temple light would prove you told the truth.”

“Water wraiths are one thing. Baleros is beyond the pale. But I didn’t really see anything that was for sure Baleros, and the light will force me to say so. We only know we saw
something
monstrous. If I claim something as outrageous as Baleros, I’d better be certain, and it’d be best to have proof,” he replied with a dour expression.

Shock dropped her jaw. Even after experiencing the most fear either of them ever had, he was ready to keep going, for his people’s safety. Tristan was the bravest person she knew.

On impulse she leaned forward and pressed a light kiss against his cheek. Just a soft brush of lips, as she had kissed her friend Corbin a hundred times, a quick hello or goodbye, a mark of friendship to a boy who was like a brother to her.

This kiss wasn’t anything like that.

It was awkward.

Shocking.

Delicious.

Somehow all at once.

Heat flashed across her face as she pulled back. He looked stunned.

He covered his cheek with his hand. “What was that for?”

“For being you.” The words came out before she could stop them.

Tristan took her hands, wrapping them gently in both of his, a furrow between his brows. Was he upset? Or moved? She couldn’t tell.

He gazed at her for a long moment, an odd look on his face she couldn’t place.

“Phoebe, I hope you know by now how dear you are to me,” he began, with his voice soft and earnest.

Her hands trembled inside his grasp. Hope and dismay chased each other round and round.

She shouldn’t have kissed him; she kicked herself with an internal groan. She’d only muddied the waters (though truth be told, she would cherish that small moment always).

Yet she had to leave him soon. They both knew it. They had no future, three times over: she was human, her strange powers might be manufacturing their feelings, and his elders hated her. She didn’t think she could bear to hear him confess true feelings for her now, not when such a thing was forbidden.

Before she could pull back or change the topic, he paused.

He looked down and tightened his grip, steadying her shaking hands.

“Forgive me,” he murmured. “This must be a terrible time for you. This isn’t the time or place for such discussions. I know how the panic sometimes attacks you even now. We’ll do what we need to do and go. Together,” he said. He squeezed her hands.

She smothered a slightly hysterical laugh. She
had
been terrified by the evil darkness, though her hands weren’t shaking from that. Her own powerful emotions for Tristan had done so, but she’d let him draw the wrong conclusions.

Besides, maybe she was fooling herself. He’d never flat-out said he cared for her as a future bondmate, had he? Only her wistful mind had supplied that unspoken feeling. Maybe he had been preparing to say he could never love her that way, not with her humanity. Or with this alluring magic confusing their relationship. Or maybe he just thought of her as a sister. Better to move on, at least for now. She had her pride. And her heart could only take so much trauma.

“I’m fine,” she announced. And she would be. Eventually. “Let’s go.”

Tristan smiled, the tension around his eyes softening. Phoebe called up her favorite tune and let it run through her mind for a moment. Even if it was only inside her, music was a reminder that life was not only made up of danger and misery but was full of hope and joy, too. Facing the frightening cave seemed less impossible now.

“Can I tell you something?” Tristan whispered as they set off toward the cave.

“Of course.”

“I’m glad you insisted on coming. I feel much braver when I’m with you.”

Oh.

Warmth chased away a bit of the chill that had settled over her like a cloak.

She squeezed his hand. “Me, too.”