“Okay we need answers.” Devon broke the silence. “How did you find our sector, Nate? Why did you come? If you say to bring seasoning, I’ll knock you out.” He stared at the soil beneath Nate’s feet as he spoke.
“To bring seasoning, what else?” Nate said sarcastically. Hm, he had a sense of humor. He didn’t seem like the legends, the dark legends of other Enchanted. He seemed, well, normal. Devon stood up and clenched his fist. Nate grinned, showing off a set of straight white
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teeth. It’s a shame only I could see this, Devon would’ve been amazed.
“I’m not playing games with you.” Devon spat. “What the hell is this supposed to mean?” He pulled Nate’s note from his pocket, waving the piece of beige cloth in Nate’s direction without looking at him.
As amused as I was, I started to feel some discomfort inside of me. Heat rose through my body. No matter how I shifted, the pain intensified. My arm started to burn again, but there was no sound of the voice. Another shock of pain and I would have gone down again. My face hardened as I tried to control my breaths. Nate caught a glimpse of me and walked to my side. He crouched down next to me.
“What’s wrong?”
He scooted closer towards me. I thought he would reach out and touch me, but he just stood there, staring helplessly. “Nothing, I’m fine.” I replied. You’re just a liar aren’t you.
His eyes found my arm. He peeled away my fingers and moved my hand away from the tattoo. It happened so quickly: I felt my body bend forward over my knees. I wasn’t aware of what was happening. I only saw darkness and shadows.
Kaylin...
Now the voice returned. It always came back when I was in pain. I felt the weight of someone against me and another cradling my head.
“Don’t touch her,” I could make out Devon’s voice.
“I won’t hurt her,” Nate snapped. I felt two hands wrap tightly around my forearm, and then it felt as though
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someone were driving spikes of ice and fire through my skin.
“Stop, please,” I groaned.
And then, in that instant, the pain was gone.
I sat up against Devon, Nate’s fingers still wrapped around my tattoo as I caught a glimpse of his own. I stared at the black lettering engraved beneath the veins of his arm.
“Desirea,” he whispered under his breath.
I looked at him with wide eyes, “What did you do?” I asked in shock.
He lifted his fingers from my arm and leaned backwards, panting. Drops of water fell to my face as I too, was sweating.
“It’s a water spell,” he began. “It extinguishes a flame. But whatever that was, it used up half of my element’s power. What was that?”
Devon stared at my arm, then me. “We tried water before and it didn’t work.”
“I control water just like you control fire. We’re in control of pure water, not the fake sources that The Enchantress passes off as water.”
Whoa what? I didn’t know The Enchantress scattered fake sources? So that means that the pond in our sector isn’t real water? How was that even possible? If it wasn’t pure water, what was in our sector all this time? What were we drinking? My mind was absolutely scatterbrained, but what was new.
Nate turned to me, “What was that?” He asked again.
I shook my head, “I don’t know. It’s been happening for a few days now.”
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He was taken aback, “This happened more than once?”
He placed his hands on my arm again, pressing certain points of my skin with his thumb. I watched him examine the tattoo, still puzzled by the fact I could see him.
“It happens often.” I replied.
“How do you stop it?”
I thought about the voice in the wind and shook my head, “I don’t know. It just stops.” I moved away from him as he slipped his hands away, carefully picking my words to spare detail.
“What does this mean, really?” Devon asked, throwing the beige fabric at his feet.
Nate picked up the piece of cloth in confusion, “You haven’t figured it out yet? Is that why you came to find me?”
Devon and I looked at each other in bewilderment. “We came to find you so you can tell us what the hell it means.” Devon said, irritated.
Nate stood up and clenched his fists. I caught a glimpse of a pale blue light travelling underneath his tattoo. “I’m trying to be nice to you. Continue talking to me like that and I’ll drown you from the inside.”
Well that took an absolute turn.
Devon laughed. “I dare you.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that they weren’t looking at each other, yet still quarrelling. I guess it’s because I have never seen that before. But, I didn’t understand what triggered this. We were burning precious time that we could have to escape. Precious time to know.
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“Can you just tell us why you brought it to us?” I asked politely.
He looked down at the cloth and then back up at me. “I need your help.” He sighed, “There’s a way out of this place. It’s not impossible. My family has been tracking it for months now; we just need the other clans to help.”
I knew it! I knew this was the reason. I knew we could escape. I finally felt safe with my path, for once in my life, I knew I would get somewhere and find out the reason behind all of this.
“Are you insane?” Devon turned to me, “It’s like talking to another you.”
“It’s dangerous, but it’s possible. Don’t you guys want to get out of here?” Nate countered.
“What do you mean tracking it?” I asked.
“My family and I combined all of our power into one. We’re more powerful that way. We conjured a tracking spell that showed us a way out, in the middle of The Labyrinth. We know what route to take.”
Devon wasn’t wrong, Nate sounded like me. It
wasn’t a bad thing though. I knew it was possible, I knew there was a way out. We could find The Enchantress, we could find my father, and leave The Labyrinth for good.
“The best part,” he continued, “We think that there’s more to the Grean World than we have ever imagined.”
I raised my eyebrows. Now this interested me, and was most definitely not part of the itinerary. “What do you mean?”
“The path didn’t just show us how to get out of here, but where The Enchantress lives. It’s like this whole village, a colony. Everything was mapped out for us. She
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not only rules all the labyrinths, but a whole town of Enchanted that live amongst each other.”
Devon put his hand in the air, “Then why did you bring the seasoning?” He asked, completely off topic.
“To convince you to come.” He replied.
Devon laughed, “You actually thought that would work?”
“Sometimes my charm is off.” I caught Nate glance at me quickly then turned away. I felt heat radiating from my face, what was that?
“Look, we’re not coming on this suicide mission.”
“I don’t see why you can’t.” Nate’s tone became more irritated. I could tell he wanted to get out just as much as I did. The Labyrinth wasn’t a horrible place, but I knew there was more to life than just this, and there was more I needed to know. More we could all know.
“Well for one, I hate looking at you.” Devon said.
Nate’s face turned white, “Pathetic.”
“What did you just call me?” Devon’s hand turned red. He came inches away from where Nate was standing and sprayed a pool of fire under Nate’s feet.
I didn’t understand why the pull of emotions was so easily tugged. I guess that because of how intense the urge was to kill another Enchanted, anything set them off. Nate jumped up and cursed. He backed away from the fire pool and knelt down, opening both his palms. Twirling balls of blue liquid formed from atop his hand. He shot one ball at Devon, causing him to stumble back.
Devon’s eyes widened as he
found his balance. “That all you got water boy?”
This was sort of mesmerizing, but completely childish. Both Devon and Nate put up shields. Devon’s
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shield was a wall of transparent fire that allowed him to see another Enchanted. I guess that went for all of us regardless. Shields were taught to all the Enchanted in case we ever encountered another, but in Devon’s case, he only had to use it now. The only problem with shields is that it takes up a lot of power, which is why we don’t particularly use it unless it’s necessary. In Nate’s case, it looked like a wall of transparent, cobalt water. I knew that the shield wouldn’t last very long, it drains energy the fastest. I had to stop whatever triggered their anger, but I didn’t know the source.
Devon flung a fireball at Nate, but he deflected it with one spray of water. Nate threw his hand in the air and moments later, heavy rain came down on Devon, causing him to fall to his feet. I couldn’t let them fight over something so stupid and unnecessary. I understood that tension was in the air, but this was useless.
I thought of the easiest possible thing I could do to derail both of them and did it. I ran to the center of where they were fighting and blew out a ball of fire. I swirled the ball in both of my hands and shot it down to the earth, creating a sizzling line of heat in front of Nate and Devon. They jumped back, both glaring at me.
“This isn’t helping anything!” I yelled.
The rain stopped pouring on Devon and he stood up. He walked towards the line of fire in front of him and shot me a look of irritation. He snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared atop his fingertips. He enclosed his hands and turned the little flame into ash, sprinkling it all over the line of fire as I watched it disappear.
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I watched as Nate place both of his hands above the line of fire. A small waterfall trickled down over the flame, extinguishing it.
“Impressive.” Devon said sarcastically, walking towards my direction.
“Pointless.” I scoffed.
He ignored my annoyance and created a shield to face Nate, “No hard feelings lad.” Nate nodded and Devon dropped the shield. “Why did you find us first? Isn’t your clan right beside Tamara?”
“Your clan is the only clan that contains members of the same age as me. If I were to convince Tamara, I would be dealing with two adults that could choke-hold me with dirt,” his eyes moved to me, “It felt like the right thing to do to find your clan first.”
Devon’s eyes flashed orange then faded to burgundy. “What is with you and my sister?” I closed my eyes and shook my head, saying nothing. “Look, we appreciate the offer, but it’s too dangerous.” Devon answered.
“We found a way to get out, and you refuse to take it?”
Devon dusted off his arm, “You bet your ass I refuse to take it. Who knows what’s out there. Plus working with another Enchanted just to die? Tempting, but I’ll pass.”
“We all want the same thing, don’t we? To destroy The Enchantress and to live freely outside of this cage she put us in.”
Devon didn’t say anything to Nate. He spat on the ground and began walking towards the path of our sector.
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“Let’s go.” I didn’t follow.
“Devon-,”
He cut me off. “You aren’t actually thinking of working with this guy?” I shrugged as my eyes lingered to Nate.
“Come on sparky, I don’t think you want to stay in here any longer,” Nate added.
“Shut up.” Devon moved to my side.
“Let’s at least take him back to our clan, Devon. It’s an opportunity. For dad,” I breathed out.
His face turned beet red and I knew I crossed some type of line. I had to do it, even though it was hard to say myself.
“Don’t. He’s gone, he’s not coming back.”
“Maybe he’s alive out there.”
“And maybe he’s not,” said Devon abruptly. We were silent for a short period of time before we noticed that the sky began to turn orange.
“It’s morning. We should get back before Mom notices,” Devon pulled my arm and looked down at Nate’s feet, breathing heavily before shooting me a look, then back to Nate’s feet.
“You coming, waterfall?”
I knew Devon would cave in. He wanted to find an escape just as much as I did, he just never admitted it. Every step we took was a step closer to being free and getting answers, and for once, I knew this was the right path I was on.
Nate jogged to my side as we followed Devon through the forest.
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“Oh and Nate,” Devon said still looking straight ahead, “Make one move on my sister, and I won’t hesitate to kill you. Keep a five hundred meter radius.”
Nate chuckled and walked closer to me. “I didn’t properly get your name,” he asked softly, a small grin on his face.
I smiled back at him and breathed out, “Kaylin.”
***
As soon as we stepped into our sector, I saw my mother juggling different balls of fire containing various tracking spells inside of each. Both Annabelle and Mable were pacing around frantically. I cursed under my breath; I didn’t think they would be up. Devon cleared his throat and braced for impact.
“Devon!” My mother yelled. “What is this? Where is Kaylin?”
He didn’t say a word, only turned around to face me and then back at mom. I shot her a small smile and moved beside Devon. I waved my hand behind my back to signal that Nate could come into our sector. I didn’t want to waste any more time.
“Kaylin,” she shook her head, “What happened? Where did you two-,” her voice trailed off when she saw Nate. I don’t think I have ever seen my mom so flustered in my entire life. Her face inflamed with rage and her hands caught fire.
“Get behind me,” she told Annabelle and Mable, “You’re going to pay for coming here.” She raised her hands and shot fire in his direction. I screamed in panic but
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Devon stepped in front of Nate, shielding him with crossed arms.
Nate backed up behind me and shielded his eyes. “Mom,” I left Nate’s side and approached her, “He won’t hurt you.”
“He’s an Enchanted.” She hissed out. I wondered what she saw.
Devon too, walked to my mother’s side. “To be fair mom, we all are.”
“Don’t you dare, Devon,” she spat. “Both of my children trick me only to come back with an Enchanted!”
I completely understood why she was raging, but there was nothing I regretted from doing this. I finally had an out, we all did. It was for the better, keep telling yourself that. I put my hand on her shoulder, “Hear what he has to say, please,” I begged.
She stared at me and sighed, putting up a shield in front of her face. “What clan are you from, boy?”
Nate too, put up the transparent water shield and stepped further into our sector. “Coperton, Mrs. Desirea,” he calmly answered back.
She gestured for my sisters to come to her side and exhaled a long breath, “Lyle, please.”
Just the fact that my mother told him her actual name was a good sign. She was a tough woman to get through to, but things may have just started to fall in place. “Why have you come?” My mother asked.
“He has a way out of The Labyrinth.” Devon answered before Nate.
“An escape? That’s a myth,” my mother answered.
Nate shook his head. “If you will please just allow me to take you back to our clan, my family will help you
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understand. We’ve successfully tracked this path for months, but we need the help of the other clans.”
She shook her head. “No. Even if there is a way, it’s too dangerous. You and your family can, but I’m not about to put mine at risk.”
Nate looked at me with kind eyes, then back to his shield to face her. “Please Mrs. Desirea. I’m sure you don’t want to stay here any more than any of us do.”
My mother glanced at Devon, my sisters and me. “I�
�ve been living here for years and years, I’m comfortable with the way I live. Just go home, Nate.”
He turned to look at me again. From the corner of my eye, I could see that my mom had caught him looking. She turned her gaze suspiciously at Nate. “You see my daughter?” She asked, calmer than I expected.
“I do,” Nate responded without further explanation. I felt a part of me wishing to know what their conversation would have been like if he had said more than one word. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
I could see the pity in her eyes as Nate turned to the exit. “Devon,” she called, “Go with him.”
“No. I can’t look at him, mom.” He answered.
Her tone was irritated, “Then don’t look at him.”
If Nate and I weren’t a threat to each other, I didn’t understand why my mother didn’t ask me to take him back. Devon and Nate walked single file out of the sector, “After you,” I heard my brother say as they disappeared.
I couldn’t let this opportunity slip. I needed to follow them. We had just got a hold of Nate who had an escape. I wasn’t going to give up. I looked back at my family and started for the passageway.
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“Where do you think you’re going?” My mother asked.
“To get dressed,” I responded, still walking forward.
“We’re all going to have a chat once Devon comes back.” My mother said, sternly.
I picked up whatever clean clothes were in the basket and walked out of the passageway.
I trailed them as best as I could, but they were pretty far ahead of me. As soon as I got into the forest, a cold gust of wind hit my face. My goose bumps rose on my arm and the back of my neck. I rubbed my arms together as I walked deeper into the Grean Forest. I finally caught a glimpse of Nate and Devon and hid behind a tree. I could only hear faint whispers so I decided to step a bit closer.
“All right,” I heard Devon say, “Don’t trip waterboy.”
Enchanted: The Labyrinth Page 5
