Joined (The Secret World Of Atlantis 4)

Chapter 6 - The End Of An Era

I somehow manage to jump on my feet, staring at the barricade in front of me in complete shock. I can hear the pained groans of my cousins, Elena and Eros on the floor behind me, but I’m not completely aware of them.

I send another spell into the wall, this time a more aggressive one. And another one. And another one. And three more. Each time I put more power into it, but my magic just keeps bouncing off the stone, making my hands tremble in panic.

“What in the three regions of the Underworld is this?” I hear Demitri breathe out as he notices the barricade that Zara left behind. But I don’t answer him. I just stare at the stone wall in front of me, my whole body shaking with fear, panic, and rage all at once.

“She … She blocked it. How did she do this?” Elena mutters next, completely stunned at the sight in front of her. I can sense Eros already calculating a way to bring this wall down, but I know he’s been with me this whole time. That he already realized it’s probably impossible.

“f**k!” I hear Flora scream, grabbing a fistful of dried leaves and smashing her hand into the ground. That’s when I lose control as well. Triggered by failure, I roar angrily, starting to hit the wall in a fit of rage. I can’t believe this! She slipped away! No, I let her slip away! I should have pulled out the power I found within me on the night of the Winter Solstice Ball … If I did, things could have gone differently. We could have brought her down!

I am so invested in trying to bring the wall down with my bare hands, that I don’t even feel that I’m hurting myself. By the time I feel a soft, but firm grip on my wrists, my knuckles are already cracked open, and I suddenly notice blood. It takes me a moment to realize it’s mine and I watch as it slowly oozes out of the wounds.

“Arya,” Eros calls me in a stern tone, only then making me look up at him. His eyes are giving away a sense of powerlessness, the same feeling that is currently occupying every inch of my body, barely giving me any space to breathe. “You know this won’t solve anything,” he continues, shaking his head with a heavy sigh leaving his lips.

“I know it won’t. But I feel better about it now,” I say, making him frown, before turning his gaze to my injured hands. They are now trembling uncontrollably, and the pain is slowly starting to roll in now. Since I was filled with fury, I couldn’t feel it before, but I sure can now.

“Please, try to keep them steady. I don’t want to injure them furthermore,” he instructs me in a gentle tone, and I try to obey. I truly do. But the frown on his face soon deepens as he realizes I’m not in control of my body at the moment.

“Here, let me help,” I suddenly hear Elena’s voice beside me. She gently takes my wrists from behind, holding them softly, but tightly enough that my hands stop trembling so wildly. The shaking is now barely noticeable, and Eros breathes out in relief.

“Thank you, sister,” he tells her gratefully, before conjuring a stream of warm water, that washes the blood off my hands. He quickly dries them, before finally a white glow appears in his hands, and I feel the familiar warmth on the skin that is covering my knuckles. “And you … What am I ever going to do with you?” he sighs, turning his gaze back to me.

Elena releases my hands, and I lower them down, not wanting them to keep trembling in plain sight of everyone. She joins me by my side, sending me a stern gaze. “I know that you’re angry but hurting yourself won’t do anyone any good,” she scolds me, shaking her head at me.

“How can you all be so sickeningly calm?!” Flora suddenly shouts behind me. I turn around, noticing the distressed look on her face. She is losing herself. I can tell it by the crazed look inside her eyes.

“Are you blind? Did that just look calm to you?” Emilia argues with her before I’m able to speak up, pointing in my direction. I’ve never seen my usually cheerful cousin look so angry before and frankly, it’s a view I’m not used to.

How oddly entertaining. The battle of cousins, Eros remarks inside my mind, and despite how grave the situation is, I can barely prevent myself from cracking a smile. Then, I also need to bite my lower lip to stop the tears from forming inside my eyes. My emotions are all over the place and the showdown in front of me isn’t helping it.

“Stop it, girls. We tried our best back there. Sadly, it just wasn’t enough,” I declare a bit more loudly than I intended to, making them both turn their heads towards me. Except Emilia’s eyes are full of pride, whilst Flora’s are shooting daggers at me.

“You call that your best? I would have had her, if it wasn’t for your heroic input!” she snaps at me, making me raise my eyebrows in surprise.

“I beg your pardon?” I say, trying to make sure that I’ve heard that correctly. Flora narrows her eyes at me, taking a menacing step closer.

“You heard me! Didn’t it occur to you, that I might have known she would bounce that fireball back to me? That I had an attack prepared, one that would leave her unconscious once I ducked and caught her by surprise?” she keeps attacking me, making my blood boil.

“Are you bloody insane? She wiped us all out with a simple wave of a hand! How can you be so foolish to think that you would be able to defeat her on your own? She is able to wield Dark magic that none of us even dreamed exists!” I fight right back, taking a step towards her.

“Don’t you think I know that?! The only way to beat her is by surprising her! That’s why I went after her so openly!” she continues, her hands clenched into fists by her sides. I narrow my eyes at her angrily, as I let silence take over the forest for a short moment.

“Yes … And look where that has gotten us,” I tell her in a much calmer tone, slightly raising my chin to show that her outburst wasn’t fair. But to be honest, mine wasn’t either. Throwing a fit of rage like that isn’t something a future Queen should be doing. What kind of picture am I painting with a behaviour like that? I could bet it isn’t a pretty one.

Flora stares at me, frozen in spot, her eyes wide open. And for a moment, I think I can see tears glistening inside them, but she blinks them away furiously, shaking her head at me angrily. “We could have captured her, if we were better prepared,” Flora still doesn’t quit, but her voice quiets down drastically. “But we’re just petty little nobles, who aren’t ever taught anything useful at the Academy. We only know how to throw a few stuns, maybe a couple of fireballs. The rest is pure bullseye. Our potential is wasted away for making flowers bloom, lighting candles, shaping rocks, I mean … We are nothing. We should be taught how to use magic for fighting, and not just for petty nonsense like that,” she continues, laughing cynically as she finishes.

And I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I actually agree with her. Same here, Eros remarks inside my head. I clear my throat, making Flora turn her gaze back towards me.

“You know … You are right. We should be learning how to fight, not just in Combat, but in our Advanced Magic Studies as well. Especially now that …” I trail off, unsure whether to tell my least favourite cousin about the prophecy or not. She did come after Zara with us today, but that still doesn’t mean she’s on our side. It could still all be an act. “You know what? Let’s just get back to Dairelis … Our battle here is clearly lost,” I add after a long moment.

I glance at the stone wall inside the archway, feeling anger once again. But I swallow it, turning my gaze away from the object that might have just been used for the last time. I can’t believe Zara ruined it. But now that she’s on Earth, this is the last thing we need to worry about. Even if she won’t be able to remove the wall on this one, there are still many portals that they can choose to come back to Atlantis. But it might take them a bit more time to find them.

“On second thought, there is still something you guys can help me do,” I speak up as we’re already walking away from the archway. Everyone turns their gazes towards me in a curious way, while I say: “We are going to join our magic and build a wall of our own. Just in case she is able to break the one she built.”

I see a few shared gazes, before we all turn around in silent agreement, gathering around the archway in a circle. Have you ever done this before? Eros asks, making me turn my head towards him.

No, but Silver has told me about merging powers. I’ll explain everything and hopefully, it will work, I tell him, before outreaching my hands.

“We need to hold each other and close our eyes. Don’t open them, until I tell you to. Now, I want each of you to look deep inside you and find the essence of your magic. Once you do, imagine your powers flowing into your hands and from there spreading throughout everyone in the circle, until they come back to you,” I instruct everyone, already closing my eyes, so they would follow my lead quickly.

In the next moment, I already reach towards my powers, imagining them running through my veins, reaching my fingertips, and from there spreading to Eros and Flora, from them to Demitri and Emilia, then lastly reaching Elena, before returning to me. I let them circle around endlessly, hoping that everyone else is doing the same.

Very soon, I realize my hopes are not in vain. I can feel Eros’s powers, then Flora’s, and suddenly our magic starts to blend. I feel such a power inside my hands, that I am completely overwhelmed by it. I grit my teeth, forcing myself to regain focus. The portal. We need to create a seal that only our powers joined will be able to remove.

“Well done, everyone,” I speak up again, trying hard to stay concentrated as I talk. “Now, we are all going to imagine filling the archway. First, we are going to make the obstacle resistant to both Light and Dark magic. Then, we will make sure it’s firm and unbreakable. Lastly, we will make it burn anytime someone tries to touch it. Begin in three, two, one.” As I stop, I direct my magic into the archway, my eyes still closed.

I imagine a strong shield taking the form of Zara’s seal, making it resistant to magic. I continue by making it so strong, that it’s impossible anyone could destroy it physically. Next, I insert fire. Just the right amount that it would feel like putting your hand on the surface of molten lava.

I can sense everyone conjuring the seal at the same time, our joined powers allowing me to have an insight to what each and every one of them is doing with their magic. By the time I sense the last one finishing, I can barely keep my eyes closed anymore. “You’ve all done beautifully. You may release each other now, and open your eyes,” I instruct everyone. A moment later, the flow of magic disappears as rapidly as it appeared, and I find myself alone with my powers again.

I lift my eyelids and let go of Eros’s and Flora’s hand, looking at everyone proudly. They all seem a bit shaken from what they just experienced, and I can’t say I’m not feeling the same. It was quite a rush, but that’s not what’s important now.

I turn my gaze towards the archway, to see a thick layer of a glowing orange shield covering the stone that Zara sealed the portal with. That b***h. I knew it was odd she didn’t simply conjure a portal herself and flee through it, since she was able to make one for me. But this was her plan all along. Making us unable to come directly after her.

Sure, we could use another portal, but Gods know on which end of Earth we would wind up and how long it would take us to get to the portal Zara used. It’s not like we could just fly above all those humans, we would cause such a chaos in their world, that the damage would be unthinkable.

She truly thought this out, I must give her that much credit. I only hope she won’t be able to get through our seal, once her and daddy dearest decide to pay Atlantis a visit. We can only hope neither of them have any ideas where the rest of the portals are. But judging by what they both showed us until now … Well, I don’t think there’s anything good in store for us.

“Let’s go now. My family must be worried sick,” I say, removing my gaze from the archway. It’s bittersweet, seeing it sealed like this, when Eros carried me through it not so long ago. I can’t believe how quickly things can change. No matter how hard you try to hold onto them, sooner or later, they slip through your fingers like sand.