Vallen took a step closer. He wasn’t wearing his coat. His hands were more like Aellis’s, and his wings were almost the same size the wyvern’s had been. He took another step closer, stumbling, grimacing. His eyes were dark brown for a moment.
“I can’t fight him,” Vallen said, his voice strained.
“Umbris escaped,” Faith said. “Aellis wants him stopped, doesn’t he?”
“Not more than he wants you,” Vallen said, breathing hard. “I saw how to stop Umbris, the way Aellis knows of. Try dehydrating Umbris. He is water.” His voice shook. His eyes turned amber again.
Vallen lunged at Faith. Hew pulled her back as Riley grabbed Vallen’s arms. Vallen cried out, but it was the piercing cry of a wyvern. Hew pulled Faith into the water at the edge of the shore, forcing her down under it. She fought against him on reflex, but he had a tight hold of her shoulders. He leaned down under the water with her. She felt something cold against the side of her neck.
The cold bored into her, into the warmth of the wyvern blood. The cold burned through the warmth, then settled into her. Water rushed into her mouth and nose. She hadn’t been holding her breath, but the air in her lungs from the wyvern blood had vanished. She pushed against Hew’s hands, but she couldn’t get free of him. The surface was so close. Air was so close, but she couldn’t get there.
“It’s almost over,” Hew said. “I’m sorry it had to be like this.”
Pain flashed through every inch of her skin, like an electric shock. Hew didn’t let go of Faith’s shoulders, keeping her under the water. Darkness closed in, then the pain subsided, fading away into nothing. She could breathe again, though it was water she was breathing in. Hew pulled her to the surface. Vallen shoved Riley away from him roughly, but Riley stayed on his feet.
Vallen looked at Faith with those amber eyes, then at Hew with deep rage. Vallen turned and took to the sky, flying away. Riley turned to face them as Hew helped Faith out of the water. She wasn’t sure what had happened until she saw the blueish scales all over her arms and hands. What hair had come loose from her tie was white. She felt the back of her neck. No feathers, only scales. Riley looked at Hew like he’d just betrayed him again.
“The wyvern blood is gone,” Hew said. “She’ll be alright.”
Riley looked at Faith.
“I’ll be fine,” Faith said. This would take getting used to, but at least she wouldn’t become a wyvern. Aellis couldn’t take her away from Riley now.
“We have to stop Umbris,” Hew said. “Vallen’s suggestion might work. It’s all we have right now.”
Riley looked no less uncertain and worried, but he nodded.
The high pitched cry of a wyvern cut through the air again. Faith looked up in time to see Aellis himself plunging toward her, his claws reaching for her. Was he going to kill her if he couldn’t have her? Vallen slammed into Aellis from the side, but Vallen didn’t look quite the same anymore. As the two fell from the sky, Vallen became even more like Aellis. By the time they crashed into the ground not far from the docks, Vallen had entirely become a wyvern, but his eyes remained dark brown. Aellis didn’t have control of him now.
“Go!” Vallen said. “Umbris is in the house!”
Could he feel Umbris there? Now that Faith thought about it, she could feel a presence from the house, something reaching for her. It felt cold and greasy as it slipped through her mind. She pushed it away as hard as she could. Umbris pulled back. Faith came back to the moment to Riley saying her name.
“He almost had her,” Hew said.
“How can we stop him if he can control us?” Riley asked.
“She fought him off,” Hew said. “So can you. Don’t doubt that you can, or it will only make it easier for him.” He headed for the path that led to the house.
Vallen and Aellis were still fighting. They had taken their fight back to the air for the moment. Faith and Riley followed Hew toward the house.
“He’s waiting for us in there,” Faith said. She knew it was true, had felt it the moment before.
Hew nodded. “Maybe escaping the abyss weakened him, but we shouldn’t count on having been so lucky.”
This time they went in through the front door. The foyer was dark and empty. Lightning flashed, revealing a shape in the sitting room doorway. Umbris was standing there, having taken the shape of Westby again. Another shape moved at the top of the stairs. Also Westby. Another Westby came to stand in the dining room doorway.
“Which one is he?” Hew muttered.
“He could be all of them,” Faith said.
All three Westbys laughed, then all three became water that rushed at Faith, Riley, and Hew. Faith ducked under the water that flew at her from the sitting room doorway. They needed fire, and for that they needed something to light a fire with. When she, Westby, Pierce, and Kindra had been in the sitting room after dinner that first night, Westby had lit a candle after the power went out. There had been a box of matches on the table.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The water tried to change direction, but it was too late. Faith ran into the sitting room. The box of matches was still there, sitting on the table beside the candle. Faith pulled out a match, struck it, and threw it at the wall by the door just as Umbris’s water came rushing back toward the sitting room. The fire took to the dry wall swiftly. Umbris pulled back with a shriek.
Faith ran back out into the foyer. The fire was spreading fast, much faster than she’d thought it would. Umbris’s water tried to escape out the front door behind Hew and Riley. Hew shut the door, standing between it and Umbris. Umbris fled up the stairs. The fire was already spreading along the wall to the stairs.
“Do you think he can escape?” Riley asked. His eyes were distant for a moment.
“Riley!” Faith said.
Riley blinked. “We need to get out of here.”
“We need to make sure he doesn’t escape,” Hew said.
Faith tried to think of all the ways Umbris could escape. She coughed. The air was already thick with smoke.
“The bathtub in the attic, where the stone was,” Faith said. “It’s still full of water. And he could escape through the pipes, couldn’t he?”
“Let’s hope he’s going for the attic and not another bathroom,” Hew said, running for the stairs.
“The fire is spreading too fast!” Riley said, running after Hew.
“We can’t let Umbris escape,” Hew said.
Faith and Riley ran after Hew. The upstairs hall was filled with smoke, but the flames hadn’t reached the hall yet. Faith could barely see Westby running up the attic stairs at the other end of the hall.
“To the attic!” Hew said.
Faith looked back as the smoke got thicker. The fire had reached the stairs. They would have to find another way out. The three of them ran up the attic steps. The bathroom door was shut and locked, and the key wasn’t over the door. Riley’s eyes were distant again, then he came back to the moment, frowning hard. He glared at the door, took a step back, and kicked it hard. The door broke free of the lock, swinging open to an empty bathroom.
The water in the tub sloshed. Faith hurried over to it, reaching in and pressing the stopper down as Umbris tried to pull it loose. Umbris rushed up at her suddenly, his water going in through her mouth and nose. She gagged, stumbling back, but she could still breathe. He was water. Umbris hadn’t expected that. He left her again, leaving back through her mouth and nose roughly and flying at Hew and Riley. The two moved out of the way. Umbris landed on the attic floor as a puddle of water.
Faith glanced at the window behind her. That was going to have to be their way out. She struck another match and threw it. It landed on the floor at the edge of Umbris’s puddle, catching the dry boards on fire. Umbris screamed, pulling away from the flames and toward the stairs, but there were flames there too. The air was getting too thick with smoke to see properly.
Umbris screamed again, his water beginning to evaporate. Soon there wasn’t a drop of him left. Hew shut the bathroom door. Riley tried to open the window, but it was stuck. He broke the glass, his scales protecting his hands and arms. The three of them climbed out onto the roof of the burning house. The rain continued to pour down, but not fast enough to put out the wild flames.
Hew found a drain pipe, this one less rusted than the one Faith had tried to climb down before. He insisted Faith go first, and Riley joined that insistence. Faith climbed down as quickly as she could, the two of them following. Faith, Riley, and Hew ran through the forest, back to the dock. By the time they got there, the entire house was on fire, burning bright through the rain and darkness. The flames were getting dimmer already, the rain coming down hard enough now to put them out.
“Hopefully the rain will stop the fire from spreading to the forest,” Faith said.
A wyvern landed in front of the dock. For a moment Faith tensed, getting ready to dive into the water, but the wyvern’s eyes were dark brown, not amber.
“Vallen?” Faith asked, wanting to be sure.
Vallen nodded. He had a few bleeding wounds on his legs and sides. “Aellis is dead. He gave me no choice.”
“Are you alright?” Faith asked.
Vallen looked uncertain for a moment, but then the uncertainty was gone. “I will be.” He lowered a wing. “Climb on. I’ll get you back to Billen.”
Vallen flew them back to Billen, landing in the forest. The rain was pouring down there too. Faith, Riley, and Hew went back to Hew’s house. Vallen would stay in the forest around Billen for now. Back at Hew’s house, the three of them dried off. As soon as Faith was dry, the scales were gone and her hair was no longer white. Faith and Riley shared the bed in the guest room that night. Faith slept better than she had in a long time with him back beside her.
-- --
Faith and Riley decided a few days later to move away from the sea with Suzie. Suzie was so happy with this that Faith regretted not having done it sooner. Bradley and Hannah were going to move away from the sea with them. They’d had enough of the sea and all the weirdness that kept coming out of it. Riley and Hew stayed in touch this time. Hew taught Faith and Riley what he knew about being what they were.
Faith, Riley, and Suzie sometimes visited Vallen in the forest, when he wasn’t away traveling. He had taken well to becoming a wyvern all the way. Being able to go invisible, he could travel all over the world. Faith and Riley found new jobs in Eads. It was a small town, but it was away from anything larger than a small lake out in the woods. Faith and Riley often went swimming out there. They had found a small house near the forest that needed some work, but it already felt more like home than Billen ever had.
The disappearance of Pierce and Kindra hadn’t officially been solved, and Faith didn’t think it ever would be. There were no bodies to find, and Pierce had left no trail that they were going to Westby’s island. The fire on the island was passed off as the result of a lightning strike. The house had supposedly been abandoned for many years. Westby was never mentioned as having vanished, and Faith still wasn’t sure if Westby Haith had been real, or just an identity Umbris created.
Suzie was talking more again after Faith and Riley talked to her about what had happened with Quivis. They no longer tried to pretend it hadn’t happened, and they didn’t pretend Umbris hadn’t happened either. Umbris had come after Suzie, and there could be others like him. The abyss hadn’t been empty. Faith hoped those things would stay trapped there forever, or asleep if there were others like Umbris who weren’t in the abyss. But if they escaped, if they woke up, Faith, Riley, and Suzie would be ready for them.