This is not treachery.
This is freedom.
In the middle of Heaven and Hell, the days of rain and mist are long gone. Now, the Gap World is a kingdom of light and darkness, goodness and evilness, sunshine and clouds. When clandestine forces weave toget...
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DENFER RECEIVED almost every blow and punch of magic and shielded me with his body against the electrifying waves as the portal led us back to the Gap World.
We were left sprawled on the beach right next to the Castle of Sunlight in a tangled mess of blood and adrenaline. Pushing up to my elbows, I looked around, not able to collect myself from smiling. Because we had made it. We had emptied one of the greatest prisons in Lantra. We had freed my parents. We had slipped away from two soldiers' swords, and we were back to the Gap World. The golden rush of happiness dimmed as quickly as it had flared up.
While the nights here had always been a series of silence and darkness, this time Normant and Jersen were waiting next to us, two white Neferns behind them. There wasn't a voice in my head not screaming at me that something was wrong. Maybe it was Jersen's desire to run to the Healing Tower as fast as we could, which was quite unusual since there was always a serene aura surrounding him. Maybe it had something to do with Normant being silent, exchanging worrisome looks with Denfer. Nothing seemed right, and everything turned out to be wrong.
In what seemed like mere heartbeats, Normant and Denfer were on the Neferns, flying to the mountains; the king still with blood caked on his face. As for me and Jersen, we got lost in the streets of the capital, guided by some mystical force of urgency.
"Won't you tell me what's wrong?" I asked, adjusting the hood of my cloak. Even though it wasn't raining, my hair was still wet and the summer breeze sent shivers all over my body.
The brown-haired healer was focused on the road ahead of us—it was empty—and was walking so fast that my breaths had started coming out heavier, whatever hint of energy was in me slowly perishing, as well. Long had been the night in Lantra, so I'd just hoped that we would get a few hours of rest here. We wouldn't.
When Jersen started walking even faster, gripping my wrist for me to follow him, I found that his hand was trembling.
"Hey," I said, wrapping my free arm around his own to prevent him from running. I succeeded. "Tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help."
He lowered his gaze to the road, considering for a moment. "We were right about Amanda."
His eyes searched my face, but my mind couldn't digest what he'd just said. His words had hit a wall, a wall that had been created by tonight's events.
I still tried to process them. "Oh."
I'd known we were right. But it was still terrifying, the confirmation that Amanda was a product of Hell, or associated with it. I couldn't even stomach the thought of someone belonging to Hell walking amongst us.
