Daydreams And Nightshade (DaN #1)

Chapter 60: Catching up

Luna paced around the courtyard, trying her best to make sense of the situation, figuring out what to do next and also keeping her sanity intact. It didn't go well. Thoughts swirling around her head on repeat made absolutely nothing easy, and she fiddled with her bracelet in an almost furious fashion.

"Do we go after them?" she asked, trying to get the thoughts out of her head through words. "We have to, right? We can't leave Shyen and Noah alone. Alexei should be fine and I'm sure Livia would be as well but what about Noah and Shyen? They're not cut out for this, and—"

"Luna, you know Shyen's not that defenseless," Derek objected as he lifted his arm in her direction, likely to offer comfort, and Lucius glared at him.

"Well it's been a while since he actually used weapons," Luna shot back. "He might be rusty."

"Luna's right," Lucius reasoned. "We're going after them. We weren't supposed to split up, and we're gonna keep it that way."

Derek nodded. His arguments were likely more for Luna's comfort's sake rather than voting for them to head in another direction.

"I suppose I'll go fi—" Derek halted, or at least it seemed like he did. Luna stopped to wait for him to continue, but he wouldn't move from the spot, and she soon looked down at his feet.

"Derek," she whispered, trying to keep her heart calm as she noticed Derek's feet sunken into the ground, or rather what had used to be ground. It currently seemed as though the area around him consisted of grass and watery mud, and Luna gritted her teeth as she remembered Derek's past.

Derek narrowed his eyes as he tried lifting one of his feet to no avail.

"Back away," he ordered the other two, and Lucius grabbed Luna's shoulder to pull her back.

"Is that—"

"A marsh," Derek interrupted Luna, mouth twisting into a bitter smile. "It is."

Luna looked around as more and more of the courtyard turned into a foggy wetland, and soon enough Lucius had pulled her through the window again to where the ground was safe, but Luna couldn't just leave.

"What do we do?" She looked around. "Should I—Should I get something to stand on so we can pull you up from there?"

"Doubt it's gonna be that easy," Derek replied, wriggling his leg in an attempt to get loose. "I... I don't think I'll be able to get out of here."

The change in his voice made Luna grow cold. Derek wasn't scared. Never. Of all people he never feared for his life, because he never had to.

"It's a marsh, Derek," Lucius said, clearly annoyed at the situation. "Countless horrible things in the world and you're scared of wetlands?"

"Well maybe if you'd actually seen countless people drowning in them you would be as well." Derek gritted his teeth, seemingly not able to look away from the treacherous ground. "Also... Completely devoured by a marsh isn't that great, especially for someone like me."

Even Lucius shut up at that. The idea of being swallowed by the ground was arguably worse for someone immortal.

"I... Hate to say it, but I think the best bet right now is finding the Arical and snapping whoever's causing the mara to be here out of it." Derek brought a rope out from his bag before grabbing his bow. "Don't think I have a choice but to stay here until then."

Luna suppressed a whimper. She hated to consider it as well, but if they stayed there for too long the chance of them keeping the mara around even without the help of the original source would increase, but she was also willing to bet things wouldn't be quite so easy to get through without Derek.