by Sarah Noffke
“Which was perfect for Trinity, the skeleton who really didn’t have a life outside of this place,” Plato explained. “There was a cyborg who was impersonating him to get information, but so far, I haven’t found anyone that desperate. Which means it falls on me, but I refuse to use my magical reserves to glamour the place.”
“Well, I’ll put a flyer up at the Crying Cat Bakery about the open position if you like,” Lee offered.
Plato batted his eyes at her. “While it’s a tempting offer for you to advertise the illustrious position of the librarian for the greatest library in the universe on the wall of your dusty shop, I’m going to pass, assassin.”
“Well, you’re the one who is desperate,” Lee fired back. “I was just trying to help.”
“I’m not desperate,” Plato argued. “I just have to come up with a creative solution. Anyway, tell me why you’re here.”
“Don’t you know already, you wicked and mysterious creature?” Rudolf asked.
He blinked at the fae. “It’s not fun if you know that I know.”
“How does the lynx know what we’re here for?” Lee asked him.
Rudolf giggled. “He knows everything. There’s no one more enigmatic than Plato, besides Father Time and Mother Nature. But I don’t know…” He wagged a finger at the lynx. “If there was a fight between the three of you, my money might be on you, Plato.”
“The moaning desmond,” Plato answered as if he hadn’t heard Rudolf. He jumped off the table and strode down the long main row. “It’s about a mile down here. Keep up or you will get lost, and you know what happens when patrons get lost in the Great Library.”
“They disappear for good?” Lee answered.
Plato gave her a wicked grin over his shoulder. “Oh, come on. I’ve got a much better imagination than that.”
Chapter Twenty
“You have the easiest job in the world,” Lee remarked when she and Sophia stepped through the portal onto a lush tropical island. Birds chirped in the bright green trees along the beach and at their backs, the clear waters of the Caribbean Sea washed up on the white sands.
Sophia’s boots sunk into the moist ground as she pursed her lips at the assassin baker. “Don’t be deceived. Just because this flower, the moaning desmond, is located on this seemingly beautiful island, it will be no picnic to get to it. I don’t know what obstacles we will face, but mark my words, there will be some sort of beast waiting to tear our heads off.”
Lee grinned as she rubbed her hands together. “Okay, maybe not the easiest job, but definitely the best one. I never get to meet beasts that want to tear off my head. Just a cantankerous woman who I try to strangle on a regular basis, but I’ve got tiny hands, and they don’t fit around her neck that easily.” She held up her hands, and Sophia couldn’t help but laugh at the little child's hands on the grown adult woman.
“You’ve got doll hands!” she exclaimed, nearly doubling over with laughter.
Lee grimaced. “They are still deadly weapons. They are just ineffective at strangulation.”
“But if I lose something in a tiny hole, you’ll be the one I call,” Sophia joked.
Lee shook her head, and stared out at the mysterious island the book in the Great Library had said was the only location of the moaning desmond. Sophia was unsurprised to learn the island was uncharted, unnamed and uninhabited. When Lee questioned this, Sophia waved her off and explained that was typical for these mission locations.
“It’s usually on another planet like Oriceran, or in a parallel universe or in a place like the fairy godmother college where no one can enter without invitation,” Sophia had elaborated.
The two had worried that because of these factors, it would be impossible to portal there. However, it appeared just by being aware of the place made it so they could.
“So, where is the cabana boy with my pina colada?” Lee asked, her eyes scanning for potential dangers. What Sophia had said had put her on alert. She suspected that a strange monster was preparing to jump out and attempt to maul them.
“I think the visitor center is over there,” Sophia joked, pointing down the beach to where there appeared to be something floating in the water. A few somethings actually.
“Okay, well, let’s go ask Miranda where this flower is and also have her sign us up for kayaking,” Lee remarked. “I’m overdue for a vacation.” She rolled up her sleeve to show her pale skin.
Sophia shielded her eyes. “Yeah, you need to work on your base tan for sure. You’re hurting my eyes.”
“I don’t tan,” Lee said bitterly. “I freckle.”
“Oh, I have like three of those,” Sophia teased.
The assassin rolled her eyes. “Do you want me to kill you?”
“Not especially,” Sophia stated. “I never thought I’d be saying this, but I’m glad that you do kill people for a living because otherwise, I don’t know who I’d have pick this flower.”
“Can I get that first part in writing?” Lee asked. “And it’s not really for a living. More of a side hustle.”
“Maybe that’s because your hits are so elaborate,” Sophia remarked. “You could try my strategy of just stabbing people instead of setting up anvils over doorways with marbles on the stairs.”
Lee gave her an incredulous expression. “Why not just go into accounting then? Because my life would be so deadly boring at that point, I might as well just make it the worst.”
Sophia thought she heard a strange sound coming from the middle of the island as they set off, but it dissipated almost at once when she tried to focus on it. Thankfully, it didn’t appear the island was very large, so although they had no idea where this magical flower was, hopefully it wouldn’t take them too long to find.
In other circumstances, Sophia would have employed Lunis to fly overhead and scout out the territory for them. He was off on his own mission, though, trying to find the dragonettes. She desperately hoped the dragons were successful at finding the others and convincing them to come back to the Gullington—at least until the world was more accepting of them.
“I wonder what that is up ahead,” Lee mused, staring at the waters crashing around something just off the coast.
“I don’t think it’s one of those water trampolines or oversized inflatables you see at resorts,” Sophia commented, narrowing her eyes.
The assassin didn’t have Sophia’s enhanced vision, and so she didn’t know why the dragonrider sucked in a breath when she spied what was up ahead.
“What is it?” Lee asked, straightening as she pulled out her machete.
“It’s a plane,” Sophia said, spying the fuselage of a 747 sticking out of the water. “There’s been a plane crash here.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Both the assassin and the dragonrider were on high alert as they approached the wreckage of the crashed plane. Sophia wasn’t sure if she was relieved or upset to find out the incident must have happened ages ago by how sea life had grown up over the top of the fuselage. It looked as though the sea was trying to claim the plane for itself.
Lee pointed to the tropical forest at their back. “Do you think there are survivors out there?”
“I want to say yes, or they got off the island,” Sophia replied.
“What do your Spidey senses tell you?” Lee asked, having noticed that Sophia had enhanced vision if she was able to see the wreckage from such a distance.
“I hear all sorts of strange things, but as soon as I try and focus on it, they disappear,” she explained.
“Do you think this place is like the Bermuda Triangle and planes go down and disappear around this place regularly?” Lee mused.
“Well, since it is in the Bermuda Triangle, my guess would be yes,” Sophia answered. She watched as the large palms behind them swayed dramatically like a gust of wind had passed through them. The air was still. The book where Lee had found the location for the moaning desmond had only given coordinates for the mysterious island. Sophia had looked it up and fig
ured out they would be smack dab in the middle of the infamous Bermuda Triangle.
“Should we report the plane crash to the authorities?” Lee asked thoughtfully. “Since no one can really get here, they may be looking for it.”
Sophia gave her a look of disbelief. “You know, for a heartless assassin, you’re strangely sensitive.
Lee gave her a menacing glare. “If you tell anyone that, I will murder you.”
Sophia nodded. “I believe you’ll try. You should meet my friend, Ramy. He thinks he can kill me too.”
“Well, what do you think?” Lee was still studying the plane crash.
“I think we need to figure out what’s making the trees do that.” Sophia indicated the palms that were bending almost in half as if hurricane winds were assaulting them, although there was only a gentle breeze in the air.
“What do you think it could be?”
“Probably something with multiple heads, a mental illness, and a lot of time on its hands that it will use to try and end us,” Sophia muttered, her focus on the strange movement of the trees. They weren’t all swaying in the same direction, so it definitely wasn’t wind. It was more like an invisible monster.
“That sounds like a lot of people I know,” Lee said with a laugh, obviously not unnerved by the strange display in the trees.
Although her track record couldn’t really back it up, Sophia didn’t really go looking for trouble. Like her sister, Liv, she firmly believed that it sought her out. She decided to ignore the strange forest being knocked around by something invisible and the crashed aircraft and continue down the beach.
“Did the book that gave you the location of the moaning desmond tell you anything else of use?” Sophia asked.
“It said that memory retention starts in the womb, which explains why I know all the words to Elton John songs since that’s all my mum listened to when I was pregnant,” Lee told her.
Sophia tilted her head to the side and gave her a look that said, “Dude, seriously?”
Lee understood right away. “Oh, you mean, did the book tell me anything of use regarding the moaning desmond? Yeah, no, it just said it could be found on this island and had to be picked by the hands of an assassin.”
The trees beside them jerked violently as they progressed down the sandy beach. It was as if something was following them. Sophia was sure that something was.
“Should we go and check out the monster that’s stalking us?” Lee asked, having noticed as well.
“I don’t know,” Sophia remarked. “I usually like to avoid walking into dense tropical forests where something unseen is creating tons of commotion.”
Lee laughed. “Where’s the fun in that? I thought you had a sense of adventure.”
Sophia was about to respond when she noticed something appear in the forest next to them. At first, she thought it was just the darkness of the dense woods peeking out from the swaying trees. The black shape took a larger form, billowing up around the trees and moving quickly in their direction.
“Is that smoke?” Lee asked.
“I think so,” Sophia said, her instincts telling her to back away. “But, I don’t smell fire.”
“There can’t be smoke without fire,” Lee reasoned.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Sophia countered as the smoke monster grew above the canopy of trees, its form visible against the sky. It was long and self-contained and not streaming from a source.
“Okay, you don’t see that sort of thing every day,” Lee said, stepping backward with Sophia, her machete raising up.
Reaching out, Sophia grabbed her arm. “I don’t think that we should fight it.”
“Because we don’t know what it is?” The smoke monster moved like a form-changing snake, billowing in their direction. For some reason, it gave Sophia a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. She’d never seen smoke as alive, but this thing, whatever it was, seemed to have a pulse the same as her. She could almost see the motion of breathing as it expanded and contracted.
“I don’t think we should try and fight it because I don’t know how,” Sophia said, moving faster, not daring to put her back to the smoke monster.
It was so black and dense, nothing could be seen behind the creature.
“Do you get the feeling that everything is wrong in the world and will never be right again?” Lee asked. Her voice vibrated with the same fear Sophia felt at her core.
She nodded. “Yes, which is another reason I don’t think we should engage.”
“Then what’s the plan, boss?” Lee nearly tripped on a log as they continued to stumble backward.
Sophia whipped around and grabbed the assassin by the arm as she made an impromptu decision. “Run!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sophia had to hold back her strength to stay even with Lee. The assassin couldn’t run as fast as her because of the chi of the dragon, which gave her enhanced abilities.
Even though Sophia felt she was literally running for her life, she wasn’t going to leave her friend behind to get eaten or consumed or whatever the smoke monster did. She dared to look over her shoulder, and to her horror, found the smoke monster pursuing them. It moved smoothly, quickly gaining on them.
Lee realized they were about to get overtaken and used a speed spell to run faster, momentarily overtaking Sophia. The dragonrider caught sight of how the assassin was running. If they weren’t running for their lives, she would have laughed at how Lee ran with T-Rex arms waving about as her feet kicked to the side. No wonder she was so slow before, Sophia thought. She ran like a crazed maniac on Adderall.
Sophia picked up her pace and moved ahead of Lee instantly. Running on the beach wasn’t easy, even with enhanced strength. Her boots sunk into the sand with each step, although she tried to be as light as she could with her paces.
Hearing a roaring sound, Sophia glanced behind her. To her horror, all she saw was blackness. The smoke monster was about to swallow them. With no idea how to fight the thing, Sophia decided that fleeing was still their best option, but not on the beach where they had so many disadvantages.
She grabbed Lee’s arm tightly and yanked her into the forest of trees.
The assassin didn’t resist but instead rejoiced. “Yes!” she exclaimed as they trampled into the woods, jumping over the tree roots and plants covering the ground.
The pair were instantly covered in shadows once under the canopy of the tropical forest. Sophia led the way, weaving around large trees whose thick roots created an obstacle course, forcing them to have to leap every few steps as they progressed deeper into the center of the island.
Sophia chanced a cautious glance when the roaring dissipated slightly.
Her instincts to enter the mysterious forest had been right, and it slowed the smoke monster down. At their backs, the trees were bending like they had before as the creature followed them. It wove around the trees in a thinner form, having to negotiate the thick branches and unable to just pass through them like real smoke. This gave them a chance to get a lead on the smoke monster, but they couldn’t run forever.
Up ahead, Sophia noticed a small clearing. At first, it filled her with dread. The open space would give the smoke monster a chance to move faster, no longer inhibited by the thick foliage around them.
Sophia was about to divert their path to the side and stay in the cover of the forest, but then she noticed something in the center of the clearing.
It didn’t make sense to her what she was seeing.
Ahead, built into the ground, was a metal door lying flat. There was a small viewing window on it, a series of numbers, and most importantly, a door handle. A hatch.
Sophia didn’t know why this strange door was built into the ground, and she didn’t know what they would find on the other side, but it was a door to something. She hoped that on the other side was a shelter that would keep them safe from the smoke monster at their back.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sophia was grateful for
the lead on the smoke monster, but it wasn’t going to last, especially now they were in the open.
She grabbed the door handle and yanked, the metal biting into her fingers. It didn’t budge. It was locked.
Sophia was about to use an unlocking spell on the door, but Lee beat her to it.
A click told her it had worked.
She jerked on the handle again, and the door swung up at once. Sophia briefly saw a ladder leading down into total darkness inside.
Swinging her head over her shoulder, she found the smoke monster speeding through the trees. It was almost to the clearing.
Without another moment of hesitation, Sophia dropped down into the hatch and began climbing the ladder, not knowing what she’d find at the bottom. Lee hopped in after her and pulled the lid closed, casting them in total darkness.
Sophia froze and held her breath while she listened.
She held out her hand and created an orb of light that illuminated the tunnel and ladder where they were perched.
The roaring was suddenly louder. She expected the smoke monster to slip through the hatch and swallow them. When it didn’t and the roaring dissipated, Sophia let out a breath of relief.
“It can’t move through solid objects,” Lee said, apparently thinking the same thing.
“Yeah, I noticed that when it had to move around the trees,” Sophia related, working to control her breathing.
“I don’t think we should chance going back out there just yet,” Lee suggested.
Sophia agreed and peered down at the bunker below them. She couldn’t make out much from the ladder.
“Hello,” she called below. “Anyone down there?”
When no reply came back, Sophia decided to chance descending.
“Stay here,” she ordered to Lee. “I’ll go and check things out.”
Because her friends never listened to her, Lee followed.
“If there’s a crazed murderer, I’d rather be beside you to help,” she argued when Sophia shot her a punishing glare.