Page 15 of Forgotten Monsters
A fat but terrifying white cyclone swirls over the dark Underworld sea in concentric circles. Clouds descend from it, forming a thick, opaque column that touches the surface of the water. Midnight-blue streaks wisp around it, glittering with magic, as though a thousand stars are playing hide and seek with my retinas. I check the mainsail, but the phenomenon doesn’t wrinkle my crafted wind at all.
It’s heading straight for us, and sweat gathers above my brows.
Jules clenches her fists. “I thought the portal was close by.”
Barron holds the mainsail rope, ready to reel it in. “Aye. It’s inside that cloud.”
“It’s a tempest. A big one,” Mallory says on a sauntered breath, her face paler than it was before.
Barron swallows another swig of alcohol. “Time in the underworld is tricky. When two wildly antagonistic time zones collide, it creates a ripple in the continuum. A temporal fold, if you will.”
“Is it dangerous?” I ask.
“It’ll make for an interesting voyage, that’s for sure.” Discarding his bottle, he grabs the rudder with both hands, ready to steer us into the grim anomaly. “Ye ready?”
Him and his damned tappedR’s. I give him a curt nod.
He motions to the railing. “Ye better hold on tight, lass. This storm isn’t the kind you can control.” Without breaking a sweat he steers us directly inside the clouds.
A wave of magic crashes through me, and I feel as though we’re not quite being roughed up by the tall waves, but rather beingsuckedinto a dark hole. The agitated sea forms tall walls of black, murky water around the boat, their length quickly stretching above the mainsail. All my wind vanishes in the anomaly, like it cannot coexist with even the slightest breeze.
I hold my breath. Deep vibrations resonate in my bones. Boom. Boom.Boom. I feel as though a monster just squeezed me in its claws before dipping me into a thick, spicy tub of jelly. Shaking out my hands to get rid of the painful tingles, I force a tiny breath down my lungs.
When we emerge on the other side, the oily shade of the Underworld sea vanishes, and the clouds above our heads melt from purple to gray. Fog licks the cliffs in the distance, and the salty sting of the ocean tickles my nose.
Ice bites into my cheeks and arms, and deep shivers tremble down my spine, but other than that, I’m okay.
Barron swipes a hand above his brow. “Phew.”
A heart-wrenching mewl scratches the air. Mallory is gone, replaced by the dark furred jaguar. I avert my gaze, my mortal instinct already screaming at me to run at the mere sight of the cursed demon.
We made it back to Earth, but the open ocean stretches as far as the eye can see.
I click my tongue. “We’re nowhere near Dark Falls.”
“Calm down, princess.”
I point to Jules. “She’s the princess, not me.” There’s no way he can’t tell us apart, so the sly, filthy sailor just wants to rub my nose in it.
“Then how come yer the one acting lek one?”
He doesn’t mean it as a compliment, and I whip my head around so I don’t flip him off. I won’t give in to his bad manners. I’ll rise above.
Jules fails to stifle a giggle with her palm, and a snort escapes her as she waltzes under the boom and joins Barron by the mainsail.
I head down the length of the boat, staring out at the sea.
Onyx prances over to me, her mouth half-open, and her eyes crinkled at the edges.
“You’re laughing at me, too, huh?”
The knee-jerk reaction to flee that first hit me at the sight of the feline recedes, and I realize its presence no longer affects me the way it did before I traveled to the Underworld. Is it because I know it’s Mallory, or because my trip to the most secret and damned realm has left its mark? I’m not sure.
The wind blows my hair forward as I watch the soft waves. We might have survived the Nagas’ attack and the tempest, but we’re far from safe. A tiny part of me wishes I could disappear inside the blue expanse of the ocean and never return to Dark Falls. So much pain awaits me there…
Jules joins me by the railing. “Barron says we’ll get to Dark Falls before sunrise.”
I tighten the jacket around my frame. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
