To the Falls

by Heather Renee

  Slowly but surely, I had worked through about half of the filing cabinet when I finally found something that had to do with Anastasia. Nothing to do with Peta though, just some of the battles she went through.

  I kept pushing through the files and I felt like it was taking forever. I didn’t open my eyes in fear that I’d lose my concentration and have to start all over.

  Finally, I found another file about Anastasia. It was a really interesting one, because she helped locked up Damien the first time. I kept reading through and found that I recognized another name, Abram. He was also around when Damien first caused trouble. That was even more noteworthy information because we knew that at least one person from the Elders had crossed us.

  The next memory mentioned Peta. This would hopefully be what I’d been looking for.

  Today is the day I will try the blood bond with Peta. I have no idea if it will work, but my book tells me it’s the only chance we have at defeating Damien. I’m afraid to hurt Peta though. We haven’t been able to verbally communicate this whole time, but I know he will do whatever is necessary to help protect me. I had been thinking and if I cut him right above his foot and then cut my hand, I can wrap my hand around his wound and prevent unnecessary bleeding for him. This had better work, because I don’t know how much longer Arvata will survive with Damien causing havoc on our world.

  That was what we needed. I could do the same thing with Strix and he could be our eyes above, helping out. I could also learn about what else he was capable of doing and I was really excited about that. I opened my eyes finally and glanced around for him but didn’t see him.

  “Have you seen Strix?” I asked Lucas.

  Lucas jumped at the sound of voice and I noticed his shoulders sag, releasing tension. I wondered how long I had been out of it.

  “No, he took off a little bit ago,” Lucas said. “You were out for about two hours. I was starting to get worried, but you looked peaceful so I figured you were okay. Did you find what you needed?”

  “Yes and I need Strix here to do it,” I said excitedly. “We need to do a blood bond and then we can communicate mentally.”

  That sounded a lot creepier than I expected it too.

  “Makes sense that you would need to be linked in some way. How do you normally find him?” He asked.

  “I’ve never needed to,” I said. “He always finds me so hopefully he’s listening with his super hearing that owls have and he’ll be back soon.”

  I wondered how far apart we’d be able to communicate after the blood bond.

  A few minutes later, Strix arrived with more of the leaves he’d used to heal me earlier. He must think we’ll need them and that worried me most. How much more would we suffer through?

  Chapter Twelve

  Strix flew down through the trees and I held out my arm for him to land on.

  “I found a way for us to communicate mentally. Do you know what a blood bond is?” He nodded yes. “Are you okay with that?”

  He nodded again and I couldn’t wait to be able to have a real conversation with him.

  I leaned over and pulled a knife from my bag. I hoped this wouldn’t hurt too badly. I thought maybe Strix already knew what needed to be done and brought the leaves for that reason. They’d be helpful to stop the bleeding when the bond was complete.

  “You ready buddy?” I laughed. “Don’t poke my eyes out when it hurts.”

  My hands were shaking from the nerves. I didn’t like not knowing what would happen once the blood bond began. I looked at Lucas before starting.

  “Please stay close, and I’m apologizing now if I pass out again.” I smiled nervously. “I know you’ve had to deal with that a lot lately, but hopefully we’re almost done.”

  “Of course, I’ll stay right here,” Lucas leaned in and kissed me. “Don’t worry, as long as you’re fine, I’ll be okay.”

  I turned back to Strix with knife in hand. I decided to cut my hand first. I wasn’t sure how much blood he could lose since he wasn’t all that big and I didn’t want him bleeding longer than necessary just in case. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would, but my adrenaline was pumping so that helped take the edge off. I quickly added a cut to Strix’s leg right where his feathers started and grabbed on with my bleeding hand.

  Once our blood merged, things got a little weird.

  I felt my body jolt and my hand clamped down on Strix’s leg of its own accord. The magic I could feel inside me when the shield had been removed before was nothing compared to what I felt now. I felt a hundred times stronger.

  I could see images scrolling through my head that reminded me of looking through binoculars. They must have been places Strix had seen before. His eyesight was incredible. I felt my whole body shaking, and then I heard his voice in my head. He sounded so regal and wise, his voice was smooth and deep.

  “Hello Kaliah,” Strix said mentally. “I’m glad you finally figured out how to do the blood bond. It was rather frustrating not being able to communicate with you, but I knew you would figure it out eventually.”

  “I’m sorry it wasn’t sooner,” I smiled. “This would’ve been helpful to have access to.”

  I had a million questions running through my head. How old was he? What did he know about Damien? How was he going to be able to help us? So many questions that I didn’t know where to start.

  “It’s okay child,” Strix said. “I can hear what you’re thinking and we’ll get you answers to your questions shortly, but I’d suggest you calm your Meraki first. He needs assurance that you’re okay.”

  Just then, I realized I could hear Lucas frantically trying to get through to me along with Jordan and Kane.

  “Kali,” Jordan growled. “You better open those eyes up or I’ll follow through with my previous threat to soak you in cold water.”

  “I’m here, I’m okay and so is Strix.” I pulled a twig from my hair as I sat up. “It worked. Sorry, I was zoned out while we were talking and didn’t hear you guys.”

  My eyes had been closed to help me concentrate and I ended up blocking everything else out except Strix. I glanced down at my hand and someone had wrapped it, and Strix’s leg, in the leaves he brought for us. I pulled the leaf back and the wound was already healed like before.

  We need to grow some of this stuff at home.

  Lucas picked me up from the ground and held me tightly in his arms. He made that growly noise again and I was starting to grow fond of his overprotectiveness. I felt bad that I kept doing this to him, but each time I had, something good come out of it and I was fine so hopefully he would be too.

  “My heart cannot handle all these mental adventures you keep going on,” Lucas whispered. “Can that be the last one for a while?”

  “I’m sorry babe,” I leaned back and rubbed my thumb across his cheek. “I promise I’m okay, and things should be a little easier for us now. Strix will be a huge help in giving us the advantage over Damien. Unfortunately, Damien probably knows we have him already, but he won’t know we’ve completed the blood bond.”

  “Why would you think Damien already knows?” Jordan asked.

  “When I was sorting through all the memories, I stopped to read anything that mentioned Anastasia,” I said. “One of the memories I found was an entry that mentioned Abram had been present when they banished Damien the first time. I’d bet my life that he’s the one who helped Damien get out again. Our books said the Elders were compromised and I’m sure Abram is why.”

  “I don’t understand his motivation, but what you’re saying makes sense,” Lucas said. “Abram will be desperate to make sure this all goes as planned this time and who knows if he’s turned any of the other Elders, so we need to be careful.”

  “What happens to us if they win?” Kane asked

  “That depends on a couple things,” Lucas said. “Right now, we help keep the balance between the Otherworld and Earth. If we no longer have access to the gateways, we won’t be able to monitor the Parias.
Another race may step in to keep the balance and things could work themselves out. You could choose to live in the Otherworld or on Earth.”

  “And if nobody steps in?” I asked.

  “If none of the other races stepped in to help,” Lucas continued. “then the Parias would attack Earth first and continue to consume the goodness in humans until they’re strong enough to maintain physical forms and take over on Earth.”

  My skin crawled from the thought of those things taking over Earth. Earth would always be a part of me and I would always consider it home. I couldn’t imagine something so sinister being real and I definitely wasn’t going to let anything like that harm my friends. Unfortunately, I’d likely be facing off with the Parias sooner rather than later.

  “We cannot let the Parias destroy Earth,” I said. “We’ll stop Damien and get our friends back. I can’t picture any other outcome.”

  “You’re right, Kali.” Jordan came over and sat next to me. “We won’t let this bastard win. He’s going to die this time. We’ll figure this out and anyone who helped him will pay as well.”

  “What are you even doing awake?” I asked Jordan.

  “That would be your fault,” she teased. “Lucas was freaking out when you bonded with Strix. You both were shaking like you were having a seizure and his yelling woke us up.”

  Lucas just shrugged his shoulders and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “What did you learn from Strix?” Jordan asked.

  “Not much since you guys needed to know I was okay first,” I said. “I saw pictures of places he’d been and that was about it. He wanted me to let you guys know I was okay before we continued.”

  I peered down at Strix and scooped him up so he was on my lap.

  “Have you been able to see anything while flying around that would be useful to us?” I asked him out loud so the others knew I was talking with him.

  “I found Damien and Lucas was right to head to the Falls,” Strix said. “He’s there and Abram has been to see him several times. I knew Abram was the traitor during your last meeting. He has somehow taken over Mathias’s mind and that’s why you received no help. Mathias is not thinking for himself right now or he would’ve been able to help. I don’t know who else is being influenced, though.”

  I relayed the information to Lucas, Kane and Jordan. They weren’t very happy to hear that even if we already suspected it.

  “Abram must be using dark magic from Damien to influence Mathias. It shouldn’t have been possible otherwise,” Lucas said. “If Abram has been using dark magic for too long, he’ll be beyond saving. His soul could be gone and he’d have to be destroyed with Damien.”

  “Did you see Tiana, Lela and Ryan?” I asked Strix.

  “I did,” he said. “Damien has them concealed in some type of shield. I can see them, but there’s no sound getting through to them. They were okay. Damien hasn’t done anything to them.”

  I let a heavy sigh of relief. I didn’t like that they were with Damien, but at least nobody had been hurt yet.

  I asked Strix more questions and we continued our back forth mental conversation for almost an hour. We were approximately thirty minutes away from Damien if we didn’t run into any trouble and thankfully, Strix couldn’t see anything that might cause us trouble when he last checked everything out.

  Damien could conceal his magic though, so that didn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be anything out there waiting to pounce on us.

  Strix also let us know that besides Abram, Damien didn’t appear to have any help, which was good news. Lucas felt confident he could take on Abram as he’d known him longest, but it was hard to tell what Abram was capable of now that he’d been using dark magic.

  After that, it was time for our sleep shift and I was exhausted. We filled Oliver in on what he’d missed and he was relieved to know Tiana and the others were doing fine for now. Jordan and Kane decided to stay up a while even though they only had half the sleep they should have. I was glad because I didn’t want to leave Oliver alone even if we had received some good news about Tiana.

  Everyone needed to be at their best. Tomorrow would be the most important day of our lives.

  I slept soundly and felt surprisingly refreshed for only having four hours of sleep. The sun was just cresting the horizon when we woke up and it was perfect timing. We needed to regroup and then be on our way. I had no desire to wait any longer to find Damien and get our friends back.

  “Is everyone ready to go?” I asked.

  “Bags are packed and we’re ready,” Jordan said with too much enthusiasm and energy.

  Someone must have fed her too much sugary food this morning. She was way too chipper for her own good.

  I finished getting ready and waited for Lucas to begin our little meeting before we headed for the Falls. We wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page before we got there.

  “So, we know Damien is about thirty minutes west of here,” Lucas began. “Abram may be with him. We’ll send Strix ahead to let Kali know if he sees Abram or anything new. Strix will be our eyes and ears in the sky. If we run into any trouble on the way, we need to immediately connect our powers. We can do this.”

  “Hell yes, we can do this,” Jordan cheered. “We’re going to turn those asshats into dust by the time we’re done with them.”

  “Have we figured out the best plan of attack for when we get there?” Oliver asked. “How are we going to get the others out of the shield? I need to know Tiana and the others will be our priority.”

  Oliver was still pissed and rightly so. He was handling this better than I expected him to, but I had a feeling if getting Tiana out wasn’t the first thing we did, he wouldn’t be as cordial as he was now.

  “Getting all three of them out of the shield they’re in will be the first thing we do, I promise. I found some information last night that might be helpful,” I said. “I’ll continue searching through what I’ve learned and talk it over with Strix while we make our way there. Strix will let me know when we’re close and we can stop to finalize the plan.”

  Oliver grunted his agreement and crossed his arms over his wide chest. His hazel eyes were drawn together like he was in pain and I hoped soon we could relieve him of that.

  Everyone looked fierce and ready. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but we could do this. I felt it deep down that we’d win this. Especially now that I could communicate with Strix, I knew we had the advantage.

  “Thank you all for being here,” Lucas said. “I know it was a lot for the Fates to ask of us, but hopefully it’ll be over soon.”

  “Anyone else have any questions?” I asked and they all shook their heads no. “Let’s get going then. Be extra observant and vigilant. Strix will try to warn us when he can, but threats are not always visible ahead of time as we learned yesterday.”

  I felt like I’d aged ten years in the last week. If someone had told me this would be how my summer was going to start out, I’d have laughed in their face. I looked over at Strix on my shoulder and rubbed his back.

  “You ready for this?” I asked him mentally.

  “I have been ready for this ever since I met you in your dreams,” Strix said. “I knew what was coming long ago. You’re on the right path with researching how to destroy Damien. Don’t get discouraged. All will be right again.”

  “You were even protecting me in my dreams, weren’t you?” I asked. “Those times that I would try to go to the forest and always wake up first. That was you?”

  “It was me up until the last couple of days.” Strix rubbed his head against me. “That’s when Damien entered the forest. He was aware of who you were and what you could do. He sent Abram to your home on Earth to place the shield on you so that you wouldn’t have an easy time with the transition or know what your elemental ability was.”

  “Elemental ability?” I squeaked. I’d had enough surprises this week to last me a lifetime.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Every Arelia has an el
emental ability,” Strix said. “That’s why you’re stronger than other Guardians. It’ll have something to do with Earth, Wind, Fire or Water. I’m surprised it hasn’t surfaced yet, but you must be immersed or surrounded by the element after your birthday for it to surface. I’d count on it being water, because that’s the only element you haven’t encountered since your shield was broken.”

  How weird am I going to get? I wasn’t sure I could handle much more of this before I had a breakdown and it wouldn’t be pretty.

  “So, you’re saying I could possibly manipulate water? How does that work?”

  I needed to know what to expect and sooner rather than later.

  “With water, it’s everywhere so you can call on it when needed and make it do what you want,” Strix said. “If we found a river or lake, you’d know right away if water was your affinity by stepping into it.”

  “Can you look to see if one is near?” I asked. “If we knew this before we faced Damien, it would be another thing we could use against him.”

  “I agree,” Strix said. “I’ll fly over and see how far away the nearest one is.”

  Swimming had been my whole life before coming here so I was leaning toward water for my affinity as well. Life liked to bite me in the ass so with my luck, I’d be the only Arelia in history to not have an elemental affinity.

  “Where’s Strix going?” Oliver snapped. “We need to get moving.”

  “I know we do and I really am sorry, but we need to wait for Strix. He’s looking for a river or lake near here,” I said. Oliver rolled his eyes and turned his back to me. “Have any of you ever heard of an Arelia having an elemental affinity?”

  I truly did feel bad for making Oliver wait to get back to Tiana, but finding this out could mean the difference between getting her out easily and unharmed or having the fight be a lot more difficult for us.

  “Wasn’t Anastasia’s Earth?” Jordan asked. “When I was younger, I read that she could make mountains appear or disappear. Pretty badass, can you do that?”