Chapter 43
Coralia Castle
Sofya
I woke up nice and cozy. I could feel the warmth of the fire but my nose was completely stuffed up and my throat was aching. Great stupid, you got yourself sick. I groaned and cracked open my eyes. There was indeed a fire and on the other side sitting on a stone sticking a fish over the fire, was Ash. Tears brimmed in my eyes. He came for me. I pulled the blanket tighter around me and slowly stood up. I tried to ignore the chills and hobbled over to Ash looking like a demented penguin.
"Thank you." I croaked, my voice was hoarse. He gave me a concerned expression and pulled me down beside him. I nestled into his warm body as he wrapped his arm around me pulling me tight to his chest. I wished I could stay like this forever but not even forever would be long enough. "I'm so sorry Ash," I whispered, trying my best to not sound like a dying frog.
He stayed silent and I know I deserved it, so I continued with my unworthy apology. "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 saw Ash smirk down on me at the last thing I said. "-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," Ash said softly. I glanced up at his pretty face.
"Yes, you are. You're just trying not to hurt my feelings." I mumbled. If roles were reversed I'd probably be furious. He stayed silent, so I continued. "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 I can't tell you enough how wrong it felt. I pulled away as soon as possible." I placed my hand on Ash's. "Read my thoughts, Ash, can you see it?" He nodded.
"Sof, after this is all over no matter what happens we need to be apart." He said so quietly I almost didn't hear him. I smiled weakly, my heart breaking for about the millionth time.
"I know."
For a few moments, we just stay quiet, enjoying the momentary peace. "We need to get going," I told Ash, standing up. He nodded in agreement.
"We do, but are you up for it? You are sick." I brushed it off.
"I'm fine, it's just a little cold." A chill swept through me and I pulled the blanket tighter. I peeked over my shoulder to look at the castle, it was the same one as the one in the precognition. I could see it now. Fear danced in my stomach "Come on." I said pulling an individual shield around myself. I started walking towards the castle and Ash soon caught up to me. I turned to him. "So, what's the plan?' I asked. He lifted an eyebrow.
"Why do you suppose I have a plan?"
"Because you always do, even if it's not the brightest," I said, smirking.
"When did I ever have a stupid plan?" He asked with disbelief.
"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?" I 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 hope that the castle doesn't get caught on fire." I muttered, this was going to be a mess.
"What do you mean? You hope it doesn't catch on fire? Wait. You don't mean this is the same castle do you?" He asked. I nodded. Indeed it was. "Well then, 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," I mumbled. I didn't feel like becoming a mass murder today or anytime again for that matter.
As we approached the castle I noticed the tons of guards surrounding it. Oh, how were we going to get past them? Ash and I ducked behind a rock near one of the side entrances.
"We're going to have to be very careful," I whispered. Ash nodded then grabbed my wrist and hauled me 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 Ash dragged me behind the wall as a maid rushed past. I stifled a gasp as I saw her pale pink shimmery tail.
I peered out from behind the wall to see the palace bustling with life, staff running everywhere. It was beautiful on the inside, with all-white marble with gold and silver detailing. In the center of the giant room were three white marble thrones with glittering gold accents weaving up the sides.
On the throne to the far left was Enzo, to the right an old man with greying blond hair and a beard, and in the middle of the largest throne was an older woman with blond hair. I assumed those were his parents. I grimaced at that traitorous bastard. What did he want with me anyway? I worried around to face Ash. "What are we going to do?"
"Follow me." He 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." He said making his way down. I warily placed a foot down, struggling with keeping my shield up. I hoped I didn't tumble the way down. I was already dizzy from being sick and twirling staircases weren't going to help at all.
When we reached the bottom there was another hallway with doors lining the walls. I walked over to one of the doors and tried to open it, it was locked. I grabbed my dagger from my boot and sliced the handle off. I swung the door open and peered inside. It was about the size of an average hotel room and it had a bed and dresser inside.
"Hello?" I called out. There was another door in the room which I assumed was a bathroom. The other door burst open and a familiar figure popped out wearing only swim shorts. I made a beeline across the room and leaped at them. "Maxon!" I squealed, delighted.
"Sofya?" Maxon questioned as if he didn't believe it. He squeezed me back and I pulled away to look at him. He looked fine, not damaged or in a prison cell like I had expected.
"I came to rescue you guys. Ash is here too." I said, gesturing at the sulker behind me. "What happened?" I asked. I wondered how they had gotten kidnapped in the first place.
"Well, when we all went to speak with Enzo in the morning he ambushed us and took us here. He told us that he had no choice. That his parents wanted the stone back. Whatever that meant. Anyway, he locked us in these rooms and gave us three meals a day. Enzo checks on us every day to make sure we are okay." Maxon explained. My brow furrowed. He was forced? Well, that explained why, but what did his parents want? The stone? Realization echoed in my head. They wanted the Tupismati stone.
"Wait, how are you breathing underwater and not dead?" I questioned. I had just realized that we were underwater and I knew for a fact Maxon, Nico, and Lucy couldn't breathe the water in like Ash and me.
"They gave us some food that allowed us to. Some sort of fish." I nodded and grabbed Maxon's hand, hauling him out the door.
"We need to get out of here," I said. I let his hand go and gripped my dagger breaking off the knobs of the doors. I kicked each one down till I saw another familiar face. Lucy screamed and jumped at me.
"Sofya!" I covered her mouth with my hand.
"Shhhh, the guards will come," I said, pulling her out of the room. Two broken doorknobs later we found Nico. Once we had everyone I sighed in relief. I glanced to the right and noticed a guard striding down the hall. He glanced over at us and his eyes widened in shock.
"You are not supposed to be down here." He said. The guard blew a whistle and swam forward.
"Run!" I yelled swimming away and grabbing Lucy and Nico. Ash grabbed Maxon and we swam up the stairs. I glanced back and now there were twenty guards behind us. Up the staircase, more guards filed in from the other hall and we darted the other way. We ended up in the center of the throne room. Enzo's eyes met mine and he gasped in shock. I glanced around, we were cornered. The queen, Enzo's mom, rose up out of her seat. She stared directly at me, her brown eyes looking about as kind as a grizzly bear.
"You-" She said pointing at me. "Child of light and dark, have something that belongs to me and I want it back." She said. I gulped. "The Tupsimati stone. Where is it?" She demanded. I couldn't give it to her. Just because she had it before doesn't mean I trusted her to have it again and technically it didn't belong to her. Technically it belonged to no one, no one alive anyway. Enzo stood up and bowed before his mother.
"Mother, can I speak to her in private." He asked. I blinked. What did he want to talk to me for? This was kind of his fault.
"Yes, my son. Try to talk some sense into your future bride." She said flicking her hand at him. My eyes flew wide open. Future bride? What the flipping heck was she talking about? I was not marrying Enzo, for all I knew he didn't even like me in that way, even when I kinda had. I glanced at Enzo, his face betrayed nothing as he gripped my arm and pulled me out of the room.
Once we were alone he turned to face me, a heartbroken expression on his face. He pulled me to him and buried his face in my neck.
"Sofya I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry. I never wanted to be a part of any of this." He whispered against my neck, pain lanced through each and every word.
"Enzo, tell me," I said softly. He pulled back and looked into my eyes. His stormy grey eyes filled with emotion.
"I'll start from the beginning. My parents were friends with your parents long before we were ever born. At some point for some reason I don't know, they made a promise to each other that their firstborns would be united in marriage, maybe because of the prophecy or something. After your parents died, my mother went insane. She had someone come in and erase your memories of your powers. Also, she erased our earlier friendship. I've known you since we were born, we were the best of friends. But my mother made you forget. After you were tossed around foster homes I finally had my mother agree to send me to human school. With lots of persuasion of course but she agreed, eventually. I found where you went so we could be together again. Last summer, the summer before senior year my mother told me about the prophecy and the marriage agreement. I tried to ignore it the best I could but once my mother learned you had the long-lost stone she wanted you and the stone back. She forced me to kidnap your friends so you would come to the place. She's gone beyond help and I don't know what to do. She's become a tyrant and power-hungry. She has enslaved our people and the kingdom is dying. Father's followed in her footsteps as well, he agrees to everything she decrees. I can't let this go on and I know they are my parents but this is necessary. You need to kill them." He explained.
Tears slid down my cheeks as I absorbed the information. It explained the familiarity of when we first met and how we became best friends so quickly. It also explained why I never knew what I was, but I didn't want to kill more people. I didn't want to be a monster. Enzo reached his hands up and cupped my face, brushing the tears away.
"You don't know how sorry I am Sofya. I would do anything for you. I don't expect you to forgive me but please just help me this one last time. My mother will kill you if you don't give the stone to her and I-" I pressed a finger to his lips to shush him and looked right into his eyes.
"Enzo, I won't forgive you because there is nothing to forgive. You were forced I see that now and I understand. I can see she isn't a good person and if I have no other choice I will kill her but let's try to lock them up instead. Not everything needs to be solved with death. I learned even the heartless can still have a chance to redeem themselves." I told him, thinking of Alek. The heartless once had hearts too, and that meant they could get them back. Enzo pressed his forehead to mine and sighed in relief.
"Thank you, Sofi. You don't know what this means for me. I know this isn't the best time, but I need to tell you. I love you. I have loved you since I was ten and it's okay if you don't feel the same. I just needed to tell you." He said, one thousand emotions dancing in his beautiful stormy grey eyes.
"You love me?" I squeaked. Enzo, sweet, sweet Enzo loved me? He pulled away looking down in dejection. Oh no, he was thinking I was rejecting him.
"It's okay if you love that Ash guy. I just wanted to tell you just in case you felt the same but Sofi don't feel bad you'll always be my best friend, no matter what. I just want you to be happy." He murmured. I grabbed his hand and pulled him to me, but I pulled too hard and he slammed into me. Enzo's caught me and pulled me upright. I reached out and placed my hand on his cheek.
"Enzo I love you too. I care a lot for Ash but I can't be with him anyway. Ash and I can't ever be together there are just too many complications but besides that, I always felt something for you. I'm not sure the love is beyond friendship but I think it can be and I'm willing to try." I said. I cared deeply for Ash, but we just couldn't be. Ash was dangerous, Enzo was safe. Maybe there could be a future with Enzo. I deserved happiness, this much I could give myself.
With all respect for Ash's brother I wasn't marrying someone I didn't love. This was my life and I was going to take control. No prophecy was going to tell me what to do with my life. Enzo's eyes went wide and he smashed his lips to mine. It wasn't soft nor was it gentle. It was rough and demanding, fire shot down my veins. His hands moved down my arms and onto my hips gripping tightly. I ran my hand through his soft hair, pressing myself closer.
After a few moments, he finally pulled away and I was breathless. I grinned at him, and I felt the blush staining my cheeks. My head was slightly dizzy either from my cold or the kiss. I wasn't sure. Enzo beamed at me with his charming smile. "I'm sorry you may get sick now," I said, my voice small and quiet.
"It's fine. That was totally worth it. Now let's go kick some coralia butt. No offense to my kind, but a select few need to get their acts together." He said with a smirk, pulling me back to the throne room. His mother was tisking impatiently as we swam in.
"What took so long?" She bellowed. Enzo went up to his throne.
"Mother be reasonable." He said calmly. I spotted Ash glancing at me questioning.
"Enzo's good. We attack." I mouthed. He nodded and signaled the others to our plan. The queen motioned for me to come up. Probably to give her the stone. I unclasped the necklace and held the stone in my hand rubbing my thumb on the smooth surface. Please work. I carefully let my magic flow into the stone and slowly I raised my hands. My eyes slipped closed as the world turned a dark midnight blue.
When I opened them again the whole place was covered in blue flames. I felt someone pull me aside and then tightly gripped my arm, dragging me away. I spun around to see Enzo. He led us out of the castle at top speed. We arrived at a small clearing surrounded by seaweed. The others were there too and Lucy rushed over and hugged me as Ezmia jumped onto my head.
Ash had put up a huge shield for all of us. I shuddered as chills wracked my body. I was drenched and still suffering from my cold. Enzo got a blanket and wrapped it around me as Ash dried me off with his magic. I glanced up over the seaweed and saw the beautiful white place on fire collapsing in blue flames.
I guess the precognition came true, again. Thankfully there weren't any more to stress about, yet, since I hadn't had another one besides those two. Lucy hugged me tightly and Ezmia curled up in my lap. I sighed, the worst was yet to come.