Chapter 42
Coralia Castle
Ash
I woke up in the middle of the night to hear a girl crying. Who the heck was that? For twenty minutes I searched the surrounding area but the noise had stopped. I was about to give up when I found Sofya in a curled-up ball on the ground in a bright yellow sundress.
I sighed, she was chattering even in her sleep. I picked her up, her skin was ice cold. I brought her back to where I had camped out and rolled her up in a blanket. Then sat down near the fire with her in my lap. What was she thinking? I gently placed her on the floor and went to go sit on a rock. I knew I couldn't go back to sleep so I'd just think of some plans.
In the morning Sofya woke up with a groan. I was cooking fish I caught over the fire, making it for breakfast. She rolled over and faced me, tears brimming her eyes. She stood up and hobbled over to me.
"Thank you." She croaked. I glanced at her looking her up and down. Red nose, puffy eyes, frog in the throat. The silly little aemon had gotten herself sick. I pulled her down beside me so she could warm up. I put my arms around her and she nestled closer. "I'm so sorry Ash." She whispered, her lip trembling. I was angry at the time but I'd forgive her. Although, she did need to explain why she had been at that guy's house. "I shouldn't have run off on you, and I was being dumb. I know that. I didn't want you to get hurt again so I thought it would be better if I went just myself. Clearly, I was wrong, you're always right." I smirked. She had made a dumb decision. "I should listen to you and not be so careless. Especially considering where I landed us now. With me sick and you mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you Sof," I said softly. I was maybe a little pissed but I could see why she thought she had to do this alone.
"Yes, you are. You're just trying not to hurt my feelings." She mumbled. I stayed silent waiting for her to explain. "I'm not exactly sure what you saw when you arrived but it's not what it looked like. Marco, the guy. He saved my life and I was gravely injured so I had to stay in bed and I couldn't get out. Anyway, I'll show you but I didn't kiss him. He kissed me and boy I can't tell you how wrong it felt. I pulled away as soon as possible." She placed her hand on mine. "Read my thoughts, Ash, can you feel it?" I read her thoughts and feelings as she explained everything in her mind.
It was all a big misunderstanding, but if the Marco guy was right she had loved him at some point and could again. It wasn't like it mattered to me though because I needed to let her go. I could feel that she cared for me, a lot but we just couldn't. It was too dangerous for her. I was grateful that Marco had saved her life. I nodded.
"Sof, after this is all over no matter what happens we need to be apart," I said softly. I wish it didn't have to be this way but it was. She smiled weakly.
"I know. I need to let you go." For a few moments, we just stay quiet, enjoying the momentary peace. "We need to get going." She told me, standing up. I nodded in agreement.
"We do, but are you up for it? You are sick."
"I'm fine, it's just a little cold." She pulled the blanket tighter around herself and I could see she wasn't fine, but she was a tough girl. "Come on." She said pulling an individual shield around herself. She started walking towards the castle and I soon caught up to her. She turned to me. "So, what's the plan?' She asked. I lifted an eyebrow.
"Why do you suppose I have a plan?"
"Because you always do, even if it's not the brightest." She said, smirking.
"When did I ever have a stupid plan?" I asked with disbelief, my plans were fantastic, usually.
"Hmmm, how about charging into Leviathan's army?"
"Okay, maybe that wasn't the best of plans but I had to do something."
"Aye, so what's the plan?" She asked again.
"Well, I was thinking we sneak in, find them, get them out, and hope for the best."
"Gee, what a brilliant plan. Let's just hope that the castle doesn't get caught on fire." She muttered.
"What do you mean? You hope it doesn't catch on fire? Wait. You don't mean this is the same castle do you?" I asked, referring to her precognition. She nodded. "That's just tremendous, so please don't catch it on fire. We don't want a repeat of the first precognition. That was a disaster. No magic-using unless it is an emergency, agreed?"
"Yeah." She mumbled.
As we approached the castle there were tons of guards surrounding it. Sofya and I ducked behind a rock near one of the side entrances. "We're going to have to be very careful." She whispered. I nodded then grabbed her wrist and hauled her forward. We sprinted across the seafloor and into the dark corridor. Torches lined the walls creating a dimly lit path. As we neared the entrance I dragged Sofya behind the wall as a maid rushed past. Sofya peered out then wirrled around to face me. "What are we going to do?"
"Follow me," I said turning and going down one of the other halls. At the end of the hall was a small swirling staircase. "Maybe this is where they are being kept," I said making my way down. When we reached the bottom there was another hallway with doors lining the walls. Sofya walked over to one of the doors and tried to open it, it was locked.
Sofya picked her dagger out from her boot and sliced the door handle off and barged in. I walked in after her clutching my own dagger. But once inside, Sofya yelled and embraced the familiar person, Maxon. I smiled as they talked for a few seconds. I suppose Enzo wasn't as evil as I thought, lucky for him cause I had originally planed to kill him. I listened to their conversation and learned Enzo had been most likely forced to do all of this. We checked the other rooms and found Nico and Lucy. But soon a guard came down the hall and all went to crap.
Everyone ended up in the throne room with Enzo, his parents, and a ton of guards. Enzo's mom was demanding the Tupismati stone from Sofya and having a whole hissy fit about it. About halfway through Enzo dragged Sofya out to talk. Once they came back Sofya mouthed to me that we were to attack her and said that Enzo was helping out.
A few moments later the room exploded and midnight blue fire erupted everywhere. I ran over to Sofya and her eyes were completely white. I started fighting the guards trying to injure not kill. There had been enough killing lately and they were only doing their job. I, of all people, understood that. Sofya casually blasted the queen and king to smithereens and collapsed soon after. She was going to be upset she had killed them, she didn't want to turn into a monster. She didn't want to be like me.
Enzo clutched Sofya in his arms and carried her away. I rounded up the others and we met in a clearing surrounded by seaweed. The neria were there and Sofya looked just about dead once Enzo arrived with her in his arms. I tried to fight the jealousy that arose and failed miserably. I put up a massive shield that enclosed everyone and walked over to sit on a rock. I dried off Sofya who had gotten drenched, then scooted away as Lucy hung onto her like a leech. Everyone was exhausted, me included. I sighed, this wasn't even the worst that was to come. Stella hopped onto my lap nuzzling my face. "Hey, girl," I murmured.
The next morning Sofya had the great plan to go back to the Marco guy's house. She told us that he could help us get to the ley line. So we headed back. Sofya was up ahead with Lucy and Enzo, me in the middle with Nico, and Maxon brought up the end.
"So." Nico started. I glanced at him raising an eyebrow.
"What?"
"I see you and Sofya have come to an understanding, you're not glaring at each other anymore."
"Yes, and?" Nico rolled his eyes like it was obvious.
"And that understanding is?"
"That we can't be together, nor will we ever be and that is that," I answered. Nico squinted his eyes in disbelief.
"That's what you came to?"
"Yes," I said. Nico smacked himself in the face.
"Are you kidding me? Ash, what the hell? You're letting her go? I swear I've never met anyone dumber than you." Now it was my turn to roll my eyes, he just didn't understand. But this was final.
"When you love something you let it go," I said looking anywhere but at Nico.
"You finally admit you love her and what you do is let her go? Unbelievable." I shrugged, it didn't matter what Nico thought I had to do this.
"It's for the best."
"Okay, keep telling yourself that. But don't say I didn't warn you. When you realize this was a mistake. Ask yourself this Ash, are you prepared to see her end up with someone like Enzo?"
"Just drop it, Nico," I said before speeding up and walking by myself. This wasn't a mistake, it was the right thing to do.
A few hours or so later we finally arrived at Marco's house. He greeted us at the door and welcomed us in. He turned out to be quite helpful giving us a map and directions to the ley line. It would save us a lot of time. The ley line wasn't too far away, maybe a day's walk at most.
We all decided we would crash here for the night and head out tomorrow. As I lay down on the couch I couldn't shake Sofya's face from my mind. My heart felt like I was making a huge mistake but I wasn't, right?