Page 23

Y ou don’t have to do this alone. I’ll always be here for you, little umbra.

Emon’s voice overlapped with echoes from the past, words I once said to my brother now paired with flashes of shifter's lethal claws dripping with blood.

I’m not the fucking enemy, he said.

I believed him. Deep down in my gut, in my soul, I knew he was not my enemy. So why did it feel like my heart was breaking from what I had seen?

I shook my head and dragged my fingers through my floating hair, raking out the tangles with irritation. “I can’t possibly trust him…can I?” The shadows twitched nearby. “Come. It is safe for now but be vigilant. We can’t let them know you still exist.”

Immediately they appeared along the ocean floor.

“Deirdre is a part of this. ” I murmured. “The power that is draining these water fae is the same she used during Morta.”

The shadows enveloped me in a cocoon of darkness and a red tear floated into the water. Water fae didn’t shed just tears, they shed tears of blood.

“It was a mistake to stop you from killing her.” I sighed, allowing my anger and sadness to disappear with the gentle tide.

I shouldn’t have left Emon there, especially with Kira. Her hatred of males was a known fact and with him tied to me, that hatred was likely very powerful.

“I need to go back.”

The shadows unfolded from me when I turned and then stilled.

“Sweet goddess.” I gasped out loud at the death of the ocean lands where murky gray waters mixed with a thick oozing sludge rising from the it's floor. A graveyard of bones and dead plant life stretched with no end in sight.

I reached out tentatively to the murky water and felt nothing but the frigid coldness of death.

Instinctively, I switched to my aura sight, immediately seeing the deep burgundy tendrils rising up through the gloomy depths, hungrily vying for anything with life to feed upon just like it did at the festival grounds.

Bay had practically gushed about Kira’s ability to keep them all safe but this death was not contained…it was growing.

“My mother says it’s because the goddess has abandoned us.”

A small child-like voice jolted me from my horrified stupor and I spun towards the sound, willing my shadows to hide below me.

There was a soft giggle, a small tinkling that made my heart skip a beat. “I’m over here.”

I spun one more time and then I stiffened with shock. Awe consumed me at the petite creature paddling her feet energetically, sitting perfectly perched upon a large bed of rock.

I gasped. “You are—are you.” My voice wavered. “You’re a child.”

A tiny giggle escaped her again…a child’s giggle. “You’re funny, but mother calls me a fry.”

I stared.

The last time I had seen any child was my brother and that was shortly after the blood wars and yet here she sat, no more than eight summers, with black scales, and muddy pink hair. Her eyes swirled with a contrast of color, never settling on one in particular .

When my aura sight kicked in, it was immediately repelled by a very powerful shielding around the girl. Someone did not want her true nature to be discovered.

“What—” My voice came out in a whisper, tears filling my eyes at the miracle before me. “What is your name?” I asked, swimming towards her enthralled by her presence.

The child stiffened and her muti-hued eyes darted towards the city where the festival could still be heard.

I stopped. “Please don’t go. You needn’t be afraid of me.” I held my webbed hands out apologetically. “My name is Remnant, Remnant Ezra Solaire Dark.”

The child's eyes widened. “You gave me your full name! I don’t even know mother’s full name.” She nodded to herself thoughtfully and then looked back towards me. “I will not abuse it and I will stay for a little while. I am called Mariella but I like Riella better.”

My heart thumped hard in my chest. Impossible! I knew that name…Mariella was Kira’s middle name, it came from a long family line dating back to the creation of Atlantis itself.

“I like Riella too.” I said softly and with sincerity. “It is beautiful and you have made your name your own. That is important.”

The faeling beamed at me and it was like having sunlight shoot into every dark crevice of my tainted soul. She pointed her webbed hand behind me curiously. “What are those?”

I glanced at my shadows who had peeked over my shoulder to investigate this astonishing creature. I smiled at their silliness and the faeling’s bold curiosity.

“I am shadow fae. These are my shadows.” I tilted my head with thought. “Would you like to meet them?”

Riella nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yes! May I?”

The shadows did not wait for my answer and morphed instantly into a playful pod of black dolphins. They jumped over and around the faeling in a spirited manner that drew giggles of laughter in their wake.

She clapped with encouragement and then beamed at me. “What else can they do?”

I swam a little bit closer, still keeping a safe trusting distance between us, and settled my body to the murky ocean floor. I rested my hands on my scaled knees, crossing my feet in front of me, and smiled back .

“They are their own beings. Ask them yourself, little chickadee.” The endearment escaped my lips without thought, echoing from a buried past.

Riella gazed up at the shadows excitedly while they flitted around her, still playing dolphins in the water. “Would you please show me what unicorns look like?”

I smirked despite myself. Every little girl loved unicorns, even I did in my younger years. I once had been very determined to ride one through the Balsam Plains, only to learn that they were stubborn beasts—with a tendency to bite.

The shadows shifted into a small unicorn in front of her and nuzzled her cherub face. Riella's arms wrapped around them instantly. “I love you.” She hummed and then looked at them. “What is a chickadee? Can you show me?”

I inhaled sharply and a deep ache tightened in my chest.

The shadows morphed into the little bird that had always been my guide in life, and Riella stretched out her hand towards it.

The shadowed chickadee flitted into her hand, settling into it lovingly.

Black hearts chirped out from its tiny beak and popped against Riella’s black scales like little bubble kisses.

Tears pooled in my eyes. I had almost forgotten that such a sweet innocence could exist amongst the fae. But here it was, gently stroking a shadow bird as if it was a living creature that deserved to be loved.

“How old are you, Riella?” Awe echoing my gentle words.

She looked up. “I’m seven.” Her eyes shifted to the city nervously. “I have to go. I’m not really supposed to be here. Mother will be angry.”

I nodded and floated upright in the water, the shadows snapped back to my side. “I’ll take you home.”

Riella pouted and her hands twisted nervously in her lap. “But I don’t want to go back there.” Her eyes swirled and then she looked up at me with mischief. “Want to know a secret?”

I nodded eagerly, adoring the impish look on her innocent face. “I love secrets.”

She leaned in and raised her scaled brow. “I know a dragon.”

I played along, while knowing that the chance of her meeting a real water dragon was highly unlikely. Water dragons were extremely rare. “A dragon, really?”

She nodded enthusiastically. “Uh huh. He says I don’t belong here, that I am meant to be above, with the land fae. He told me all about unicorns.” She peered up at me with wide eyes. “Maybe you could take me? I could see a real unicorn then…and a chickadee.”

Hiding both my surprise and alarm, I leaned down to her eye level. “I’d love to meet your dragon, Riella.”

She beamed at me. “Really?”

An ear splitting screech echoed violently through the water before I could answer her. Turning with alarm and shielding the child from the direction of the sound, I peered out into the murky depths of the ocean's deadlands.

Emon. I needed to find him!

“Riella, I—” My words died in my throat when I turned back to her. The little faeling was gone.