The ice water chilled Faith all the way through in seconds. She forced herself to move, to swim down toward the dark mass. The water was calmer the further she went. She caught sight of something moving all around her. Messengers. Their hands grabbed her from all sides, trying to pull her back toward the surface. Faith pulled against them as hard as she could, but they were strong. The dark mass moved, revealing someone at the center.

Altunei wasn’t how Ninivus had been. He wasn’t a massive being of darkness and tentacles. He looked human. Like a human who had been buried years ago, but had yet to entirely decompose. His eyes were closed. His black shoulder length hair drifted around him like a cloud of ink. His clothes were a ragged mess.

The messengers pulled harder and darkness obscured Altunei again. Red seeped out of the pendant. The red hardened and the hot, sharp ends dug into her chest. A few of the messengers pulled back, but the rest held on, dragging her back to the surface. Faith’s lungs burned. They reached the surface and she breathed in deeply. The messengers pulled her onto the docks. One became a liquid entirely. She knew what it was about to do.

The water of the messenger reached toward her. The pendant glowed, red liquid solidifying into red scales in front of her, like a shield. The messengers pulled back sharply, scattering back into the water. The scales became a liquid again, returning to the pendant. The sharp red things let go of Faith, going back into the glass as well. There were no marks on the glass, no sign anything had left it. The red liquid was still inside, but it was no longer glowing.

Hands reached up onto the docks again, more of them than before. At least twenty messengers climbed up onto the docks. Faith stumbled to her feet and took a step back, walking into Riley. They were entirely surrounded by messengers, and she didn’t see Hew anywhere.

“There’s too many of them,” Riley said.

His hand found hers, then the two of them ran. The messengers in front of them moved aside, others reaching toward them. Faith and Riley ran from the docks, the rain getting only harder, as though trying to wash them away into the sea. They didn’t stop running until they reached the bed and breakfast. At the door, Faith looked back. The messengers were gone, but the sea crashed against the harbor. Faith couldn’t see the docks anymore.

Faith and Riley went inside. There was no one at the desk and the light was off. The two of them went upstairs to their room quietly. Faith shivered hard. Riley was soaked as well. Faith glanced at the dark bathroom. She didn’t want to go in there, but maybe all of the messengers were at the harbor. She gathered dry clothes and turned on the bathroom light. There wasn’t anything there. She changed her clothes quickly, then sat at the table. Riley dried off next, then he joined her at the table.

“We need a plan,” Riley said. He closed the curtain. “Altunei is getting close to waking up.”

Faith tried to think of something. “There’s too many messengers.” She hesitated. “I saw Altunei before the messengers took me back to the surface. He looked human. He looked dead, but he didn’t look like Ninivus.”

Riley frowned hard at the table. “We need to talk to Vallen. I don’t know where he would have gone, or if he’s still at that house in the mountains.” He shook his head. “I don’t know if he would tell us anything.”

Vallen had wanted them to run before.

“It’s too late to run from this,” Faith said. “I think he would see that.”

“That doesn’t mean he would believe we can stop this,” Riley said.

Silence settled between them, but only for a moment. A faint cry cut the silence, followed by a thud, then more silence. It had come from downstairs. Without a word, Faith and Riley ran from the room and down the stairs. The window by the desk was open and rain blew in. Lynnet lay under the window, her empty eyes staring at nothing. Radella was on the floor by the desk, her chair having fallen over with her. There were messengers everywhere.

Five messengers stood by the window, two by the door. There were at least four others in the room. Water rushed out of Radella’s nose and mouth and became another messenger. Riley took a step back, onto the stairs. Faith followed. The messengers didn’t move, but Faith had a feeling they were watching.

“Back upstairs,” Riley whispered.

The two of them ran up the stairs and down the hall. Faith made the mistake of glancing back. All the messengers were after them, some running, others sliding across the ceiling, walls, and floor as water. Back in the room, Riley slammed the door shut. Faith ran to the bathroom and grabbed towels. She and Riley shoved the towels under the door. The messengers could probably seep through them, but maybe it would slow them down.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“How do we get out?” Faith asked. “There’s too many of them.”

Riley took their one bag from next to the table. “We just have to get to the car. Can the wyvern blood hold them off?”

The pendant was still on the outside of Faith’s shirt from earlier. It had held them off before. The towels at the base of the door looked wet. The water seeped across the floor, forming messengers. Others moved as puddles across the ceiling and walls. Water pushed the towels out from under the door. The door swung open, revealing even more messengers on the other side. The bulb in the lamp shattered.

Faith took a step closer to the messengers, her every muscle tense. The wyvern blood became brighter, red seeping out of the glass. The sharp ends dug into her, hot as before. The messengers paused, as though uncertain. They came closer. It wasn’t working? The sharp ends felt hotter, and the pendant seemed to get brighter. The messengers backed away, the water on the ceiling and walls pulling back.

Faith moved closer to them. The messengers continued to back away, moving faster now. They became water, gathering into one puddle before rushing from the room. The sharp ends became a liquid again, going back into the glass of the pendant. Faith and Riley approached the doorway. There was nothing there. The hall was completely dry.

They went downstairs slowly. Lynnet and Radella didn’t move. Faith’s heart clenched when she saw them again, lying there motionless. Had she and Riley led the messengers there? She tried not to think about that, not right then. Faith and Riley left the bed and breakfast and got into Riley’s car. The sea still tossed against the harbor, but the rain had stopped. Riley pulled away from the bed and breakfast and drove out of Holden, along an empty road across a grassy expanse.

Riley pulled to the side of the road and turned the car off. “We’ll sleep here tonight.”

Faith couldn’t stop herself from thinking about what had happened. “Did we lead the messengers to them?” She looked at Riley when he didn’t say anything.

Riley stared at the steering wheel, his expression unreadable. “The messengers had been causing disturbances before… We may have led them there.” His voice shook. He looked at Faith. “We can’t blame ourselves for this. There’s no knowing if that would have happened if we hadn’t been there, and there’s nothing we can do for them now. More will die if we don’t stop Altunei waking up.”

“Where will we go?” Faith asked.

Riley looked back at the wheel. “I know of a place. We won’t make the same mistake again. If we have to stay anywhere with people, we won’t stay long.”

Neither of them spoke for the rest of the night. Faith tried to sleep, but her thoughts wouldn’t stop going back to the bed and breakfast, to Lynnet and Radella lying there. Too many had died. Mr. Tetley, Mr. Trindle, and Daena. Riley was right, more would die if Altunei woke up. But Faith knew it was likely those messengers had come for the two of them and they’d just found Lynnet and Radella first.

Faith woke up to a warm morning sun, her neck stiff from sleeping in the car. Riley was waking up. The blue mark on his neck seemed to have spread. Had it always been that size? He started the car and turned it around, driving back toward Holden.

“Where are we going?” Faith asked, stifling a yawn.

“Roy had an old house in Holden,” Riley said. “He gave us all a key, in case anything happened and we needed to go somewhere safe. He used to live there with his wife, but she drowned at sea years ago.”

Faith wondered.

“I don’t think Altunei was involved,” Riley said. “It was further out at sea. There was a storm.” He didn’t say anything more.

Before long, they were back in the narrow streets of Holden. Faith didn’t see the harbor. They were further back from it. Riley stopped outside a small house with pale green shingles. The houses were close together on this street. The others looked much worse, as though they’d seen too many storms. The house didn’t have a garage, none of the houses on the street did. Riley parked at the curb. Faith took the bag from the backseat, then they headed for the front door.

The sparse grass out front was dead. A flower box hung under the window to the left of the door, but it was hanging by one nail. Dirt and dead plants had spilled out onto what was left of the grass. Riley unlocked the weathered door. The room on the other side had no furniture. The floor was gray wood, as weathered as the front door.

Riley locked the door behind them. The doorway into the kitchen was on the left wall, and there were two open doors on the right wall. The first room was an empty bedroom, the other a small bathroom. Riley opened the closet in the bedroom and took out a small plastic box. It was full of blankets. There was also a broom in the closet.

“We should get the dust off the floor,” Faith said.

She set the bag down in the closet and took the broom, starting in the other room. Gloomy light filtered through the dirty front window. It was raining again.