Amortal Song

16.Get Out

Calypso

The gazebo came into view, a stark white against the fields that were now heavy with a feeling of darkness, almost like something more evil was lurking in the shadows. I shook away the thought, making it to the gazebo first, and began feeling it, looking for any clue that it could be a portal or-

Arden's voice cut through, "The crystal on the roof. It looks like it could be..."

His voice trailed off as he grabbed the post of the gazebo and began pulling himself up. I looked back up and searched for the crystal he was talking about. There. Glistening like a drop of dew, it looked almost like the crystal orb Solekki had given me, but smaller. It was smartly hidden, and you would only find it if you were looking for it. I began climbing up the gazebo, marveling at the hidden, intricate carvings dancing across...

I stopped when I noticed what the carvings were, holding my breath and feeling my insides twisting even more.

Monsters.

Beasts.

There were flowers, perfectly replicating the flowers in the fields surrounding us. But hidden between the flowers were different, monstrous creatures so vividly carved, that a shudder rolled through me. I didn't want to find out if those animals lurked behind us, just out of sight.

Gripping the post tighter, I tried not to look at the carvings, though I could feel them digging into the palm of my hand. Shifting my gaze to look at Arden, who had made it high enough to grasp the edge of the roof, I watched him swing onto it in a somewhat graceful motion, No doubt I would look like a fish out of water when it was my turn. I rolled my eyes and kept pulling myself up, finally making it to the edge.

I failed to get onto the roof 3 times, and by the fourth, my grip on the post was loosening, my palms slick with sweat. Instead, I did a desperate shimmy move, finally crawling up and gripping the marks on the roof to boost myself up.

Arden didn't offer to help.

The feeling was still mutual between us.

He had stopped in front of the crystal, his hand hovering right over the crystal. The color seemed to be more muted, yet it still gleamed dangerously in the sun. The spectrum also seemed different, more gray than colorful. It was still clear, though, a sharp 90-degree angle that was tilted upwards. I bent down to get a better look at it, trying to see if there was some kind of mechanism that would unhitch it from the roof. Adrenaline was coursing through me, my hands jittery and itching to hurry up. Vespera could recover any minute.

I didn't want to be here, trapped on a roof with the very person who seemed to hate me and had a mother who seemed like she would enjoy watching me fade away.

Running my hand over the dewdrop of a crystal, I felt a sharp curve, some kind of latch. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes, only the gods would have something excessive for simple use. I leaned closer to it, so close that my vision blurred. But it was there. It was even smaller than the crystal, the size of a needle if you were being generous.

"Did you find something?" Arden's voice broke my concentration and I raised my head to glare at him, wincing at the crick in my neck.

"Yes, but now I have to find it again, thanks to you," I muttered, moving back to finding the latch all over again. The seconds seemed to stretch out for decades, my neck aching more as I desperately tried to maneuver the latch to unlock it. Arden moved the bend down behind me, studying the latch as my finger slipped once again.

He grabbed my hand before I tried to do it again, "Wait, I think it needs something."

"What could it possibly be-" My voice was cut off as Arden moved me away from the lock and pressed his finger against the sharp part that stuck out. A prick of blood formed, the silence following, heavy, as the red spread over the latch like ink. It stretched onto the crystal, staining it crimson, and slowly, it came loose. I blinked several times, unsure of what to say as Arden pulled it free, holding it up proudly in his hand. "How?"

He looked at me then back at the crystal as he maneuvered it into the light, casting a faint beam of washed-out red. "My blood. It's tied to the gods. This crystal isn't of my mother's making, but instead of her sister's, Kirienne's. She can't do the same tricks with light as my mother can but she can do small things. Like this."

Something felt wrong about it and several seconds passed until I figured it out. "Your blood. Why isn't it golden ichor? Aren't you a full god because of your parents?"

Arden looked hard at me, "I'm a mortal now. Because of this mess. And in another time and place, I would be bleeding the blood of the gods." He had shifted the crystal when he was talking. He focused back on it and made the red beam appear again, a sharp crimson against the white roof. "We have to go now, you know. Vespera...is difficult and when she's set on something, she'll do anything to get it."

I sighed, "You're right. After all, we only have two days left. Probably less." I realized I hadn't told him that yet as he stumbled backward, a look of shock on his face.

"How do you know that?"

"You're mom," I said, grimacing. "Wasn't the most pleasant experience."

Arden began whispering a hushed prayer as he held the crystal back up. He looked at me and I grumbled, stepping closer to him and hooking my arm around his. If we didn't have physical contact, I guessed, one of us would end up being left behind because the crystal would go with the person who had it. I caught Solekki's name in the prayer as we both sank one leg into the beam.

Looking him straight in the eye, I muttered, "Your mom hates me." An amused look crossed Arden's face but it disappeared as the light washed over us.

*

*

*

The light felt different this time, darker, more jagged. I still didn't understand how I could feel the glow, how it could be the feeling of shards of glass when I didn't have a formed body. Nor could I see Arden but I could still feel his presence next to me, in a strange, unseen way. That time, the straying paths were black, which didn't seem any more pleasant than the sea of red light we were already in.

The glass shards scratched and scraped against my skin in horrible, unpleasant ways.

It reminded me of Vespera, and the way she had screamed as the glass had cut into her skin, the half ichor- half regular blood pouring out and covering her once beautiful dress in the bronze sheen. The memory seemed so vivid in my mind, so real it made me close my eyes shut just to stop the flashback from happening.

But the black was just as overwhelming, allowing my imagination to run wild with the carvings I had seen on the pavilion. What I had thought was a peaceful, beautiful realm when we had first landed, had turned into a blood-stained poison field. That place wasn't regular. I pictured the fields of flowers again, the bronze blood that both Arden and I had ignored when we had set foot near the gazebo, the shards of crystal that were surrounding Vespera, and the blooms that held much more of a story than what she had told us.

Those flowers were dangerous.

I knew that.

But...the appeal of being able to turn that pain in my favor, the way Vespera had, was a compelling idea.

I wouldn't want to try it. No, I wouldn't do that.

The idea of it though... was something else.

My eyes flew open again, just in time to see the end of the red light. I would have to dig deeper into those thoughts later.

Right now, my only goal was to get out.

And I wouldn't let anything, anyone, stop me.

_____________

A/N:

Thank you to everyone who has supported the story this far! I really don't know where I would be without you, and I want to say that I'm so glad if you've stayed around, no matter how messed up my posting schedule is. Don't say that it's not. We all know it is.

Sorry :)

I'm planning on wrapping up the story pretty soon so yeah. I'll explain more in a separate A/N's that I'll post either today or tomorrow.

Remember to vote, comment, and read! Know that I love all of you <3

-Rae