Page 109 of The Sea of Zemira (The Zemiran Chronicles 1)

The calming silence lasted for a few long hours before the wind roared, disrupting Nola’s sleep. Her eyes shot open, not realizing how long she had slept, but she assumed most of the night, as the sun had already begun to rise.

How in the—?She rubbed her head. If Lincoln continued course, they would be arriving at the Eastland Forest by sunrise.

Time moved quickly in that strange place.

Nola rubbed her eyes, the perception of the world around her coming back to her.

Not a dream.

The field was bleak, and a sense of being watched again crawled up her skin. Though she was hungry, she did not feel the need to find water. Her body felt refreshed as if the seawater had absorbed into her skin, giving her the needed replenishment.

Cattails brushed against her ankles—tickling her skin as she moved through the marsh. She straightened her back as she spotted movement ahead.

The siren waited a moment in silence before calling out.

“Jastris?” She ran her hands down her arms nervously. “Jastris, is that you?”

A couple shadows through the trees made her step back. The entity whipped by erratically like some wild creature was bustling through the openings of the forest.

Then, it stopped.

A lump caught at her throat.

“Jastris?”

That time she whispered so softly; she barely heard her own voice. As Nola paid closer attention to the tree line, a chilling sensation trickled down her neck. It felt like a feather had brushed up against her skin. She squinted her eyes, trying to draw a sense of the image before her within the darkness. Still, it was not bright enough to see her surroundings, only the moonlight shining down on a small hill at the center of the clearing.

A beam flashed towards the middle of the hill. Nola’s mouth gaped open. It was not a hill; it was piles and piles of...bones.

The ghastly place reeked of death and decay.

I will not suffer the fate of dying in this place,she vowed.

The siren stepped back again, her hand covering her mouth. The sulfurous scent of the marsh was replaced by the rancid smell of decomposing bodies. She had to choke back the bile rising in her throat.

The same sensation tickled her skin again; that time, she quickly reached back and grabbed hold of the entity which taunted her. However, her fingers slipped as it sped towards the trees.

She was not alone.

Suddenly, Nola saw a tiny blue, translucent light zip past her out of the corner of her eye. The long animal-like tail stuck out from the light.

She sucked in a breath. What in the—

A shrill sound swayed by her. She swiftly reached up, muffling the noise as it pierced in her ears. The blue light moved briskly around the trees and over to the mass of corpses. It circled the pile until it stopped, staying hidden behind the bones.

“Hello?” Nola stammered, still smelling the acrid scent before her. “What are you? Come out!”

She heard the shuffling of feet before Jastris rounded the heap of bodies until he was standing next to them. Nausea rose to her throat.

“Did you prefer me in the form of a boy?” he asked. “Or—”

She gasped. “Wha...what are you?”

The boy gave her a sharp look. “Hm. Well, I’ve had a few names throughout the years. But I prefer a will-o’-the wisp.”

Despite being a magical creature herself, Nola had not seen such a mystical being, nor heard of one.

“Did you do this?” The siren’s voice trembled as she spoke, gesturing to the massacre before her.

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