“Varga,” I breathed, my heart swelling and crunching against my ribcage. My friends were up there, coming down, but it didn’t look like a healthy descent. Something was wrong.
“We need to get to them, now,” Lumi said, looking at me.
“I have to see where they land first,” I replied, though I hated having to say that.
But it was easier for me to teleport the crew to Varga’s exact location, once I knew what that was. For now, the light bubble just shot toward the forest. I was able to estimate a trajectory for a moment, but that quickly changed as the interplanetary spell shifted, moving toward the northeast.
“Oh, that’s going to be a rough landing,” Raphael muttered.
I wanted nothing more than to jump up and catch them. Alas, that wasn’t an option. All we could do was wait till they were close enough to the ground for me to properly estimate a landing spot. Then, I’d just zap us over there, and hopefully, our team would be reunited.
The only thing that bothered me about the spell bubble was the frantic speed with which it hurled itself toward the ground. It’s going to make quite a bang.
Amelia
Knowing that Varga’s crew was coming down at that hurling speed and that we weren’t able to do anything about it put me right on the thin, fine line between concern and despair. Even Riza was helpless inside the spell bubble—no one could teleport out of it until it dissipated, and we worried it might crash instead of landing as it normally would.
Its chaotic trajectory and increasing speed were both signs of something that had gone terribly wrong with the interplanetary spell. But we stayed on top of the cliff, watching the light bubble shift its direction again, our hands linked, ready to teleport.
“Oh, it’s not looking good,” I breathed.
“I can’t steer an interplanetary spell bubble from the outside, especially since I’m not the one who cast the spell. But I’m hoping Nethissis and Acantha can keep it under control,” Lumi said, eyes on the interplanetary spell. Viola had already notified us of Varga’s enhanced crew via Telluris. “Side note, those Reapers will find another way to come at us. Just saying it now, so we’re not surprised later.”
“You don’t think the Word was an efficient deterrent?” I asked.
“I cannot guarantee it because I don’t know how dedicated these creatures are,” she replied. “They were ready to attack us just now. Given where we turned out to be, I expect we’ll come across more than those three Reapers, anyway. I think Death really doesn’t want to talk to anyone; otherwise, we wouldn’t have had so much trouble getting to her.”
“Technically speaking, we didn’t have the actual trouble of reaching Mortis.” Raphael chuckled.
“That was just a wonderful fluke. Thankfully, the pink waters reacted to Amelia’s thoughts,” Lumi said. The color from her face drained as she watched the interplanetary spell. I followed her gaze and understood why. The light bubble was fading and flickering. “That can’t be good.”
“What’s happening?” Taeral asked.
“The spell… it’s failing prematurely,” Lumi said.
Taeral frowned as he watched the light bubble. From what I could tell, and provided it wouldn’t change its trajectory again, it was likely to land approximately five miles northeast of the waterfall building. Its speed increased, Mortis’s gravity playing its part. I feared the spell bubble would not withstand the force of impact, which was now imminent.
“They’re at two hundred feet altitude,” I announced. “One-eighty.”
“I think I have a location,” Taeral replied.
“One-sixty,” I said.
“Let’s go, then,” Lumi sighed.
A split second later, we were deep in the northeastern woods, five miles from the strange building. The waterfalls roared somewhere behind us, the streams rushing through the forest, originating from the ring-shaped pond as they made their way outward across the land.
Above, the bright light faltered as the spell bubble came down. We stilled, watching it dim and burst into white flashes as it continued its fall.
“One-forty,” I muttered.
Lumi stepped forward, motioning at a patch of tall trees. She glanced at Taeral for a moment. “Is this where they’re bound to crash?” she asked.
He nodded. “Like I said, unless the trajectory makes a sudden shift.”
“Okay. Let me see what I can do,” she said, putting her arms out as she began a whispering chant. Her skin lit up whitish-blue, her head dipping forward.
My breath got stuck in my throat, watching as the trees in that two-hundred-yard radius patch she’d pointed at began to moan and crack. The trunks seemed as though they’d been made of rubber, bending outward as a means to clear and soften the impact area. The trees were almost horizontal now, stretching in a circular pattern, their luscious crowns rustling and moving toward the center of that patch. It was as if they’d been turned to Play-Doh, serving Lumi’s purpose as they formed a natural cushion of branches and leaves, the hard wood left beneath in a swirl.
“One hundred feet,” I said.
The light bubble roared as it came down, its speed increasing significantly. I worried this tree trick wouldn’t be enough. Taeral seemed to catch my drift simply by looking at me. He joined Lumi and put his hands up. Though a naturally fire-inclined half-fae, he was still able to muster some of the wind power. I could feel the breeze changing its direction as Taeral managed to shift the air as a way of slowing the bubble down.
I felt helpless, unable to do much other than watch the spell bubble come down. The winds weren’t enough to reduce its speed much. The difference they were making was the bare minimum, and it was taking its toll on Taeral. He grunted from the effort, a thin sheet of sweat covering his face.
Eira breathed out and wiggled her fingers. “Dammit, we can do better,” she murmured.
I heard the rush of water getting closer. Streams shot out from the woods behind us, like crystalline blue snakes. They answered Eira’s Hermessi call and reached out toward the light bubble—five of them, thickening as they stretched upward. She hadn’t done such a large-scale manipulation before, and it was obvious that it was a lot of hard work.
“Sixty feet,” I said. “You can do it!”
The spell bubble grew bigger, ramming through the wind barrier that Taeral had managed to summon. The water trunks hit it, head on, but the light orb kept going, crackling and fading and flickering. Eira grunted as she pushed more water at it, until it looked as though the spell bubble was pushing upstream.
“Yes, attagirl!” Raphael exclaimed, grinning as the combined efforts of Taeral and Eira finally began to pay off. The interplanetary spell was finally slowing down, less than forty feet from the leafy cushion that Lumi was keeping in place with her swamp witch magic. It had to be a difficult trick to pull, holding so many trees down for this.
“Uh-oh,” I managed, as the least-expected thing happened.
The light bubble popped into a rain of white sparks, and Varga’s crew wound up falling from a dangerous altitude, screeching and yelling. I saw Riza reaching out to grab Herakles, who, in turn, caught Eva’s hand. They vanished and reappeared on the ground in front of us.
