One of my feet fell into a deep end of the pool and the rest of my followed. My scream was interrupted by a mouthful of water as I sank into the black depths. The ghostly grasses I had earlier noticed wrapped around me, clinging to my limbs like the jealous dead. I thrashed in their hold but my struggles only seemed to tighten their grip.
By this time my lungs were burning and my head was spinning. I couldn’t tell up from down. All was shadowy darkness.
I barely felt it when an arm wrapped around my waist. There was a flash of claws and I was freed from my plant captors. My lungs were nearly empty by the time we reached the surface. Tegan tossed me onto land and I proceeded to puke up all the water I’d inhaled.
He threw himself onto the shore and crawled out before drawing me the rest of the way out of the water. I clung to him as my whole body shivered, more from fear than the cold that now permeated my flesh and bones.
Tegan knelt on his knees beside me and drew my wet hair out of my face. “I told you to stay with me.”
Tears sprang into my eyes and I managed to wheeze out a few words. “I-I’m sorry.”
Tegan sighed. “I should send you back with one of the men.”
I tightened my grip on his arm and shook my head. “Please don’t leave me.”
He pursed his lips. “You’ll stay close this time?”
I looked down at my dribbling clothes. “I-I think I’ve learned my lesson the hard way.” The dripping wetness of my attire made me realize that Tegan, too, was soaked to the bone. My heart skipped a beat and I whipped my head up. “Your fire!”
“Extinguished but not lost,” he told me as he looked about us. “We shouldn’t linger here long. Do you think you can stand?”
I nodded and he helped me to my shaky feet. In a moment I had regained my land legs but not my dignity. Shame colored my cheeks now and I couldn’t look him in the eyes as he studied my face.
“You’re sure you want to keep going?” he asked me.
I managed a shaky smile as I nodded down at myself. “I couldn’t go back now looking like this, not without finding the boy.”
He didn’t look pleased but he helped me down the path without argument. The shadows of the others I had seen earlier became few and far between until I felt an unpleasant loneliness surround us. All was quiet and calm, but the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
That’s when I saw it. A ball of light some fifty yards off. It moved in and out of sight behind the many moss curtains but stayed at roughly the same height and in the same direction. Tegan, too, had noticed the orb and he took my hand, as much for comfort, I imagined, as to ensure I kept my promise.
We crept along the path and I soon realized the orb itself was following the same trail. My heart pounded in my chest as a great wall of moss blocked our view. Tegan drew the curtain aside and revealed a small island of sorts with a single causeway.
In the center of the island lay a young boy.
The fair-haired lad lay so still that for a moment I thought we’d arrived too late. Much was my relief when I realized his chest moved up and down in shallow breaths. Tegan’s attention, however, lay more on our surroundings.
I noticed something awry. “Where’d the light go?”
Tegan shook his head. “I don’t know, but keep an eye open for it.”
We carefully moved toward the young lad with half our attention on the dark depths that surrounded the small island. Tegan bent down beside the boy and set his hand on the child’s shoulder. His touch stirred Finn to consciousness and the boy blinked up at us in confusion.
“Where’s my mother?” he asked us as panic crept into his innocent face. He sat up and leaned back on his arms. “Who are you?”
Tegan grasped his arms and offered him a smile. “We’re friends sent by your mother Nora to find you. You are Finn, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “Yes, but why did she send you? I was just following her in here.”
I caught Tegan’s eye and pursed my lips. “The wicked lights?”
Tegan had an equally bleak expression on his face. “Undoubtedly.”
“Can you take me to my mother?” Finn pleaded as the bleak darkness around us began to dawn on him. “Please?”
I knelt on his other side and smiled. “Of course. That’s why we’re here.” A question nagged at the back of my head and I looked up at Tegan. “But why didn’t they try to drown him like the one did with me?”
Tegan’s eyes widened and he shot to his feet. “We have to get out of here-”
Too late. A dozen more orbs shot out of the water and surrounded us. A cry of fright came from the lad. I clutched the boy against my chest as he clung to me.
“What’s going on?” Finn screamed.
I looked over to Tegan whose grim expression made my heart skip a beat. “What do they want?”
Tegan’s words made my blood run cold. “To drain us of our life. They used the boy as bait to lure us here.”
“I wanna go home!” Finn shouted.
The wicked lights formed themselves into a crescent shape and slowly floated closer to us. We stepped away from the encroaching lights and I looked at where we were headed.
Straight for one of the pools.
“Tegan!” I shouted.
“I know!” he replied as he stepped between Finn and me and our foes. He held out his hands with his palms turned upward, but there wasn’t so much as a sizzle. His fire was still extinguished.
“Can’t you transform and blow them away?” I asked him.
“My girth would send you both into the pool!” he pointed out but his wings sprouted from his back.
One of the lights came within striking distance of Tegan and darted forward. He drew his ragged wing on either side of him to protect the lad and me from the marching foes. One of the balls touched his leathery hide, creating a scorch mark. Tegan winced but knocked the light away. The ball merely retreated to its brethren.
The quivering boy clung harder to me as the crescent ring of light floated closer and closer. Tegan tried to deflect them with his scaled arms, but they only bounced back into the ever-encroaching line. I stepped back and my heel splashed into ice-cold water.
A cry of fear came from the lad as I stumbled forward with him still gripping me. My frantic mind tried to think of something, anything to stop the brilliant onslaught. I shut my eyes and prayed for a miracle.
A soft warmth exploded in front of me and I opened my eyes to a wall of mist. The fog wrapped completely around us, blotting out anything a foot in front of me. A gasp escaped Finn and me when a bright flame burst out of the mist and burned the white air away.
Tegan stood before us dry and practically on fire. The flames I’d so often seen in his hands now climbed up his arms to his elbows and completely encased the scales. The rest of him let off steam, the source of the thick mist that he now burned away.
The wicked lights stopped in their tracks and seemed to twist around in deliberation. One of them took the initiative and dashed forward. Tegan grabbed hold of the creature in mid flight in his clawed hand and squeezed. The light burned brightly before it exploded like a supernova, but with only a pitiful blast of air that spread the sparkling remains of its body.
That was enough for the other wicked lights. They turned bright tail and fled into the marshes. We were safe.