~A Wattpad featured and Wattys Longlisted story~
Lana can hardly remember what it's like to be free. After nine years as a captive on board a ship ruled by ruthless bounty hunters, sailing across Maris with no clear direction, she's desperate for so...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A GREAT FLASH of light fills the cavern as Lana and Ellerin clash. It's darkness against the light, and as they strike each other, the cavern is filled with unimaginable energy and light.
Skye shields his eyes but even as he does so, the light flashes through his eyes, blinding him and sending pain throughout his head. It's as if their magic is working its way into his mind, sending liquid fire through his veins, lighting his body on fire.
What's happening to him?
He feels dazed as if he's been punched, and vertigo takes hold of him. He drops to his knees, too unsteady to keep standing.
"Skye?"
He's dimly aware of Arlo kneeling beside him. Skye gives him a helpless look, and feels lost for words.
Then, before he can speak, white hot pain shoots through him and his head feels like it's going to explode. The pain escalates. Skye hears himself screaming in agony as if he's thousands of miles away. He crumples to the ground as all the strength is sapped from his body. He's dimly aware of Arlo trying to say things that he can't hear. He can't think. He can't breath. All he can feel is pain.
Then suddenly, it's as if a door is opened in his mind and the pain stops. In its place, memories flood into his mind and before he can even react, he's lost in the past.
The two children run down the endless passageway beneath the world, young Skye still crying from seeing the death of his mother. He doesn't even pay attention to where he's going, and dimly relies on Lana pulling him forward to even move a muscle.
"I think I see light!" Lana says in a hushed tone but Skye doesn't seem to hear her. Grief doesn't allow him to feel any excitement at the prospect of leaving the tunnel.
"Come on, Skye." Lana urges him, and pulls him forward, "I don't like it down here."
He reluctantly nods in agreement, and looks behind him almost longingly. His mother is still back there...
"Lana, is that you?"
Both Lana and Skye jump at the sudden voice but Lana perks up as she recognizes the sound of her father's voice. Without waiting for Skye, she runs towards the end of the tunnel as fast as she could. Snapped out his daze by her sudden missing presence, Skye follows her down the hallway quickly. He nearly runs into her as she stops in front of him, looking above her with staggering relief.
Standing above them in a trap door similar to the one in Skye's home is Darius. His features are covered with cuts and bruises, and he gasps for breath as if he had been running for miles, but looks happy to see the two children nonetheless.
"Here." Darius extends his hands and swiftly pulls Lana out from the passageway, then helps Skye up.
The two children study their surroundings reproachfully but quickly recognize it to be a study similar to Atol's. It's much tidier than the other, but has a recently strewn about look to it, with a few stray papers floating about the floor. Then the children notice the other figures in the room.
