Page 47 of The Fifth Soul

“Absolute nightmare.” She might not have heard the humor in my voice, but it was there with the slight smirk on my lips.

“Brandon.”

The way she says my name is hesitant, making me look up instantly.

“Fifth.”

I follow her eyes glued to something moving on the water in front of the boat. Several things, actually. “Well, now we’ve learned a new limitation about your power.”

The water splashes as the movements underwater become more erratic.

“It doesn’t work on water?” She asks urgently.

I shake my head. “No, it does. Or else the guards would have seen us from the shoreline.” I gesture behind us.

“Then?” She finally turns back to me.

The urgency in her eyes demands me to take action—to do something.

“Your glamor doesn’t work on dead beings.” I grab one of the wooden paddles and hand it to her.

Yes, I should’ve mentioned these are not regular water imps. The mystical creatures aren’t easy to control. They’re as unpredictable and disorganized as any creature can be. That’s why the ones guarding the island are the immortal skeleton counterparts to regular water imps. I turn and bat away the first imp that tries to climb onto the boat. The smacking noise of the wood hitting the bony creature is loud.

“Ew!” Bianca screams just before she smacks another creature behind me.

We keep at it for a bit before I realize there’s no way we will make it to the island like this. We still have a mile left. It looks like it’s time for Plan B. I throw my wooden paddle at the creature and move to Bianca’s side. She asks what I am doing when I place both hands on her waist. I use the wind to lift both of us up.

“Don’t turn your gift off. If the guards see us, they will shut us down from the sky.”

Her grip around my neck tightens as she nods. Her legs go around my waist when a strong wind moves us sideways. I could tell her that, once this high up, we are not likely to drop. Instead, I just hold her up.

“Let’s get going.”

I look down at the imps. It’s not long until they realize the trespassers have moved to the sky. In a creepy yet impressive coordination, they begin to climb one on top of another, trying to reach for us.

“Brandon!” Bianca says in my ear when they grace her boot.

I chuckle at the pitch in her voice. I use air, gravity, and tension to move our bodies toward the sand. Thankfully, the imps don’t climb after us, but a few take guard from their spot on the water.

Movement from the shoreline gets my attention. There are what looks like hundreds of guards moving around with flashlights. The water is shaking enough that the imps must have gathered people’s attention. They point the flashlights at the water, where imps move around angrily. If anything, this irregular behavior must have triggered some type of alert.

“Dammit.” I throw my bag on the ground. “I hope you brought overnight items.”

“No.” Bianca eyes my bag, then the shoreline. Now completely visible from here by all the additional lights moving around. “What does this mean?”

“The imps have made enough of a fuss that now the guards are focusing patrol on the waters.”

There’s no way we can make it back without alerting everyone. It looks like we’re better off if we spend the night here. Perhaps tomorrow morning, the guards will go back to their regular posts.

“They know we’re here?”

“No one is going to come and check. They probably think someone tried to enter their shoreline.” I look back at the island. “There are far more dangerous things here for any unwanted visitor.”

Bianca doesn’t ask any more questions as we move further into the island’s heart. We walk through open pathways. The noises of wildlife are the only things we hear for several minutes. Once we reach a solid granite wall, we stop and look around.

“Are we climbing?” Bianca looks up at the height of the mountain.

“Yes. But down.” I gesture to an opening.

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